LEGO Group’s head of Americas Expansion and Discovery and other
stakeholders talk to Ron Starner about the company’s billion-dollar
decision. And tech jobs continue to grow in Lynchburg.
Employers based in and around the nation’s capital dominate the list of HIRE
Vets Medallion recipients, but the top city by number of recipients is
Huntsville, Alabama.
Map courtesy of U.S. DOL
Tomorrow is Veterans Day in the United States. Yesterday, the U.S.
Department of Labor held a virtual ceremony to present the 2022 HIRE
Vets Medallion Awards, established by law in 2017 to recognize a
company or organization’s commitment to veteran hiring, retention, and
professional development. A total of 835 organizations were recognized.
Sorting the spreadsheet provided by the DOL produces these lists of the
Top 10 states and cities by number of 2022 HIRE Vets Medallion
recipients:
Top States
Virginia
178
Florida
66
Texas
53
Maryland
52
California
43
Pennsylvania
41
Alabama
33
North Carolina
27
Colorado
22
Ohio
22
Top Cities
Huntsville, Alabama
23
Alexandria, Virginia
15
Reston, Virginia
15
Arlington, Virginia
14
Fairfax, Virginia
14
Tampa, Florida
13
Falls Church, Virginia
13
Chesapeake, Virginia
10
Fredericksburg, Virginia
10
Herndon, Virginia
10
Most of the medallion recipients were small and medium-sized employers.
Among the 90 large employers recognized were familiar military and
defense companies such as General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and
Lockheed Martin. Among large non-defense companies receiving the
platinum medallion were utilities such as California’s PG&E and
Florida’s NextEra Energy as well as restructured Arkansas telecom
company Windstream; the City of Toledo, Ohio; Memphis-Shelby County
Schools in Tennessee; and Virginia-based Booz Allen Hamilton.
Searching for a veteran-friendly state, city or employer? The DOL offers
a fully
searchable database of all medallion award winners over the five
years since the program’s inception. The BLS offers further insights
into the employment situation of veterans. In 2021,
18.5 million men and women were veterans, accounting for about 7% of the
civilian noninstitutional population age 18 and over. — Adam
Bruns
Pitchbook on October 31 released a report ranking universities by the
number of startup founders they produce. Stanford
University, University of California, Berkeley and Harvard
University topped the undergraduate list and were the only
three schools with more than 1,000 companies to their
graduates’ credit. At the graduate school level, Stanford,
Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology led the
way. “MIT ranks in the top four for undergraduate and
graduate school rankings, despite having a total enrollment
of just 11,934 in 2021,” Pitchbook stated. Israel’s Tel Aviv
University and Technion are among the highest-ranking
undergraduate programs, while the UK’s Cambridge and Oxford
make the top 10 in the graduate school list. The rankings
also break out leaders by female founders and offer a
complete spreadsheet of all ranked universities.
PROJECT WATCH
California
As reported by GlobeSt.com and The Real Deal, among others, Target has
pre-leased 1.2 million sq. ft. in the Inland Empire’s Jurupa Valley in a
15-year deal. The property is part of a 3.6-million-sq.-ft.,
five-building industrial campus being developed by CT Realty in
partnership with Prudential Global Investment Management. GlobeSt.com
and JLL report that developers have broken ground on 16 warehouses of 1
million sq. ft. or more since the beginning of 2022. Analysis by
consulting firm MWPVL pegs Target’s entire distribution network as of
this year at 52 total facilities, with 57.7 million active sq. ft. and
6.8 million sq. ft. under development.
In response to customer demand, crop protection contract manufacturer
AECI Schirm USA is investing in one herbicide Suspension Concentrate
(SC) herbicide plant and one Emulsifier Concentrate (EC) herbicide plant
at this site procured last year for $2.3 million from Bio Fuels by
American Farmers & Veterans. The company is also increasing production
at its existing site in Ennis, Texas. “The USA is a major player in the
global agriculture industry with over 913 million acres of cultivable
land and natural farmland,” said Mark Dytor, AECI’s chief executive.
“These two strategic projects will strengthen AECI’s infrastructure base
in the USA, particularly in terms of manufacturing and warehousing as
well as managerial capacity, and support diversification of the
geographical footprint for other Group businesses,” including plant
health and specialty chemicals products.
Site Selection Executive Ron Starner made this photo this week while day
hiking along the Boise River in the Boise suburb of Eagle, Idaho, whose
slogan is “Life, Done Right.” According to BuildIdaho.com, the town’s
roots come from a piece of farmland purchased in 1863 by Illinois native
Truman Catlin, who dubbed Eagle Island because of the large number of
bald eagles along the river. The town of Eagle got its start in earnest,
however, when a bridge was built across the river in the 1890s.
