It's not every day that the chief executive of 360,000-employee Siemens AG visits Charlotte (it has been four years) or that an employee is highlighted in the president's State of the Union address.

The twain met late Monday when Munich-based CEO Peter Löscher met Charlotte worker Jackie Bray, who represented Siemens as President Barack Obama touted manufacturing and job retraining in last month's speech.

Löscher also toured Siemens Energy Inc.'s $350 million gas turbine expansion in Charlotte, which Siemens has renamed its Charlotte Energy Hub. Siemens will build and refurbish gas turbines for U.S. and worldwide customers in the 450,000-square-foot addition. Siemens is now the second-largest employer in the Charlotte region's growing energy cluster, after Duke Energy.

Löscher and Randy Zwirn, president and CEO of Siemens Energy, spoke with Observer reporter Bruce Henderson. Their comments were edited for clarity and brevity:

Q. What does it mean for Siemens to call this site an energy hub?

Löscher: We have a network of hubs around the world, so this is the hub for the U.S. and also for the 60-hertz (electrical supply) markets, for Latin America, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea. It's really a base where you have all integrated engineering capacity, all the key components including service, where you have a huge competency center. That's really a special status that we have for very few sites around the world.

Zwirn: Forty percent of this plant is going to be dedicated to the export market. On Friday we have coming to visit the chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, which approved one of their largest loans (to help finance a $1 billion sale of Siemens gas turbines and generators to Saudi Arabia last month).

Q. What does it mean for further expansion in Charlotte?

Löscher: What it suggests is that we have made a major commitment with $350 million, and now we have to prove that we really are successful and that this group is really now delivering. We have the capacity that we need, but what it really means is that we intend to further grow the employment base here. They have already increased by 700 and we will increase that by another couple of hundred.

Q. What are the advantages or disadvantages of expanding in Charlotte?

Zwirn: We're attracted by the people here. There's a great assembled workforce now. We're bringing over the apprentice program from Germany, and I think we can show that we can be competitive here with anywhere in the world. The obstacles: We need a robust market.

Q. Where's the growth going to be for Siemens Energy?

Zwirn: Ultimately, here in the U.S. We expect this to be one of the largest markets for gas turbines. But for today a lot of the robust markets are in the Middle East, Mexico, Brazil, Korea - there are a number of 60-hertz growth markets that fit in the charter of this plant.

Q. How have expanded shale gas reserves changed your industry?

Zwirn: What shale gas does is effectively assure that the U.S. will have a very cost-effective supply of gas for many years to come. That obviously portends very well for what we're going to be building here, which is gas turbines, and the fuel of course is an important cost component of that.

Q. How much of a challenge is it to find young people to work in manufacturing, and how much is the aging workforce a challenge?

Löscher: What Siemens is most famous for is that we are not just one of the most global companies but one of the most innovative industrial companies. Every day around the world we patent 20 patents and 40 inventions, so a skilled labor force is hugely important. What we have developed and are exporting to key markets is the German apprentice system. We work closely with community colleges to bring them in to work, they are trained, get a degree. Here we have successfully implemented this with the mechatronics (associates) degree they would get at the end of the education. That's how we build our own labor force, engaging young people early on in their professional life and then training them on the equipment that we are using right here in the manufacturing environment.

Zwirn: Then we have to manage those demographics in the factory, so with 700 new employees coming in here we do have the issue that over time people will be retiring. But that's the business we're in. We're a living organism. And with the investment we've made here and with Central Piedmont Community College, I think we're putting to work some of the global best practices in building a competitive workforce.

Q: What could a new president bring to the table that would help U.S. manufacturing?

Löscher: In one sentence, we need more real engineers and not financial engineers.