DUNCAN – Nicole Punneo with the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation, is the operations manager for the organization’s incubator, and a lifelong resident of Duncan.
“I’ve worked at DAEDF for 11 years,” Punneo told Southwest Ledger on a recent spring afternoon, noting she is a 2001 graduate of Duncan High School, as well as active in community organizations from the United Way to One True Light mentoring program.
Punneo works under Lyle Roggow, who has served as the organization’s president since 2006. Both have helped promote Duncan as a city that has a rich heritage from being on the Chisholm Trail to manufacturing oil field equipment.
And DAEDF wants to build on that heritage by having Duncan viewed as leader in creative economic development programs. Working toward this goal, the team wants to one day announce “winning a highly competitive project that has a huge capital investment and sizable job impact.”
In the meantime, Punneo is busy behind the scenes and watching new and existing businesses in Duncan grow and thrive.
Talking about today, Punneo said things in Duncan and DAEDF “has been going well.”
“While there was a downturn in the oil and gas industry, things are improving. We have tons of jobs and are looking for people to fill them,” Punneo said.
She noted that a major employer in Duncan and Stephens County – Halliburton – “has 100 openings,” Punneo said, in areas ranging from manufacturing to filed camps and human resources.
Regarding her role as incubator manager, Punneo said she is directly involved in helping businesses flourish here.
“I help them with their business plan,” she said, noting that a number of businesses in the old Wilco Fabrication building, which hosts DAEDF’s offices,
CLOSE TO HOME
Duncan, she said, has great schools,
“Duncan is a great place to raise children,” she said.
Punneo and her husband Justin, are doing just that, raising their daughter Madison in Duncan. A proud mom, Punneo loves going to her daughter’s dance competitions, soccer tournaments and basketball games.
As Punneo noted on DAEDF’s website, ok-duncan.com – she has a “dream project” in mind for the Southwest Oklahoma city of nearly 23,000.
A dream project, Punneo said, would be “building a new business incubator to assist more start-up companies in our area.”
“A larger facility built specifically for an incubator would benefit the Duncan area by growing jobs, creating wealth, and giving entrepreneurs the much-needed support they require when they are first starting out.”
Punneo is excited about what the future holds as she continues to promote her hometown and all it has to offer.
“I love Duncan,” she said. “It’s a great place to live. I will always promote Duncan.”