Intersect Illinois’ Post

Transcript

Illinois is an economic powerhouse. We're in the center of it all. Illinois has one of the most talented employee bases in the world. BIMO opened our first office right here in Illinois in 1861. Since then we have over 6000 colleagues working in over 180 offices across Illinois. In 2022, we made the decision to move to this tower right here on Canal St. affirming our commitment to the City of Chicago in the State of Illinois. The Lion Electric is a North American manufacturer of all electric medium and heavy duty vehicles, our 900,000 square foot facility in Joliet. Illinois produces all electric school buses from the ground up that are being sold across the United States. Ultimately, we chose Illinois because they've checked all the boxes for us and it's been an absolute pleasure to discover City of Joliet and its surroundings and essentially so rapidly for Lion to become part of that community. The Chance Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago is a new Research Institute building new technologies and platforms that allow us to study the function of the immune system and better understand why it causes inflammation. The Chance Ackerberg Initiative opened a competition to look for the right team and the right location to set up the next biohub. Northwestern University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign joined forces put an application in. And we succeeded. I think we won because of the talent pool we have in Chicago and more broadly in Illinois, the world class universities and it's an incredible place to do science. Ferrero North America includes some really beloved treats and sweets like Kinder, Nutella, Ferrero Rocher and Tic Tac. Bloomington was an excellent location for us to be able to grow and expand our presence in North America. From its central location to is really manufacturing expertise and beloved of chocolate making and chocolate treat making you all solutions is the global safety science leader. We test and inspect and certify products to ensure the safety and sustainability of our customers products. Our business was founded in Illinois in the World's Fair in 1894 right here in Chicago and we have stayed here because we are. In an ecosystem that is innovative, with connections to research and science and technology, an incredible access to talent. The business environment in Illinois is a very welcoming environment. We've made an incredible amount of progress making this an even more viable place for all of us to grow our business. We're in the center of it, all of technology and innovation of a diverse set of industries which our customers all participate in. So it really is through relationships formed in Illinois that we were able to accelerate our plant. And it's essentially, you know, quick timeline to go from securing the location to building our first vehicles. Chicago and Illinois more broadly is an incredible place to put a new company, a new institute because we have so much talent. Illinois has such a great source of research and education because of the quality and the number of the universities that are here on Northwestern to University of Illinois to a number of local universities. Throughout the state it produces such amazing talent. It's an incredible global hub giving us access throughout North America which allows us to ship our product seamlessly across the United States. From coast to coast, everything is 1 flight away. When you've got Chicago and the culture and the lakefront and the ease of access out at O'Hare, it makes it a vibrant community. It really was a no brainer for us to choose Illinois to grow and expand our business. We were simply blown away. By how passionate workers in Illinois are about building a local product, we're really reaching for the stars, and I think that kind of spirit really drives creativity and productivity. We're just so proud to be part of that. Illinois is an incredible economic powerhouse, we understand and we see the opportunity that lives right here.