Governor Charlie Baker recently welcomed 13 new companies to Massachusetts at the 11th annual MassEcon Corporate Welcome Reception held at Sanofi Genzyme in Cambridge.
These companies represent 500+ new jobs and the expansion of more than 130,000 square feet of space, located in multiple regions of the state and involving life sciences, manufacturing, technology, beverage, printing, and health care.
MassEcon Executive Director Peter Abair welcomed Governor Baker, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Michael Kennealy and other state officials, along with 100+ business leaders and representatives of the companies being honored.
Governor Baker said, “As I listened to the companies that were being welcomed, I could tell many of them are here because of the incredibly rich and diverse community of intellectual thinkers that we have. A big part of our success as a Commonwealth has been this ability to retain the strength and the vitality and the vibrancy of local communities at the same time we continue to grow all these terrific intellectual assets that make us unique in many cases around the world.”
Abair said that MassEcon is “part of this incredible team of state partners,” including the Massachusetts Office of Business Development, MassDevelopment, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and others.
MassEcon Chairman Stephen Flavin, Vice President for Academic and Corporate Engagement at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, noted that the Baker-Polito administration “has worked hard to improve the economic prospects of families across Massachusetts.”
Sanofi Genzyme Executive Vice President William Sibold recalled that the company was a startup in Massachusetts in 1981 and said it is now the largest life sciences employer in the state. “Part of being in a community is getting engaged in the community,” Sibold said. “We support over 90 nonprofit organizations in the Greater Boston area.”
The 13 companies honored yesterday were Aetna, of Connecticut, located in Wellesley; ePac Flexible Packaging in Boston; Festo, of Germany, in Billerica; Gelato, of Norway, in Waltham; Ground Effect Brewing Co. in Hudson; Humana, of Kentucky, in Boston; Kano, of the United Kingdom, in Framingham; Kephera Diagnostics in Framingham; ONTOFORCE, of Belgium, in Cambridge; Quarizmi, of Spain, in Cambridge; Quantexa, of the United Kingdom, in Boston; Salary Finance, of the United Kingdom, in Boston; and Servier Pharmaceuticals in Boston.
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