#18 | Tom Leppert: How Dallas Turned $5M into AT&T's Headquarters

<p>Weeks into his term as Mayor of Dallas, Tom Leppert cold-called the CEO of AT&T. Eleven months later the headquarters moved to Dallas.</p><p>More on Tom Leppert and this episode: <a href="https://www.thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/tom-leppert">thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/tom-leppert</a></p><p>He walks through the relocation in detail: the $5 million Dallas put on the table, why he never believed the 800-jobs figure everyone quoted, and the $55 million in AT&T community giving he counted sixteen months after the move. It is the clearest account of incentive math a city has offered on this show.</p><p>Leppert is the former Mayor of Dallas and the former chief executive of Turner Construction and Kaplan. A White House Fellow who served in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury, he took the Turner job on one condition: that he could move the company's headquarters out of New York.</p><p>The rest is what a mayor sees that a resident does not. Why companies keep leaving the coasts, where Dallas growth is now straining, the policy mistakes other states keep making, and what he thinks is broken in K-12 and in the cost structure of higher education.</p><p>Tom Leppert is the former Mayor of Dallas and the former chief executive of Turner Construction and Kaplan. He was a White House Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury, became a chief executive at 34, and now hosts the Intersections podcast.</p><p>KEY MOMENTS</p><p>00:00 The cold call to AT&T</p><p>08:23 McKinsey, and a CEO job at 34</p><p>10:20 Lessons from the White House</p><p>18:59 Why he ran for mayor</p><p>32:00 Moving Turner's HQ to Dallas</p><p>37:32 The AT&T relocation, in full</p><p>41:22 What the move was actually worth</p><p>44:05 Growth, and where it strains</p><p>47:29 Policy mistakes other states make</p><p>01:20:04 High-speed rail to Houston</p><p>Newsletter: <a href="https://www.thedealtablepodcast.com/connect">thedealtablepodcast.com/connect</a></p><p>Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: <a href="https://amzn.to/48nLElW">amzn.to/48nLElW</a></p><p>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/">instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/</a></p><p>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/">linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/</a></p><p>The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.</p>