Regional Chamber Honored by Development Association
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber today received the 2013 Excellence in Economic Development Innovation Award from the Ohio Economic Development Association.
The award recognizes the chamber’s work with Siemens Corp., which led to the awarding of $440 million in Siemens PLM engineering software to Youngstown State University’s STEM College.
The award was announced at the OEDA’s Excellence Awards Summit. Sarah Boyarko, the chamber’s vice president for economic development, and Mike Hripko, YSU’s director of research and technology-based economic development, attended the awards presentation.
Eric Planey, the chamber’s former vice president for international business attraction, worked closely with the CEO of Siemens, Eric Spiegel, a Youngstown native, to secure Siemens’ in-kind grant of product lifecycle management software.
Boyarko called the award a great honor for the chamber, YSU and the Mahoning Valley. “It is also a tribute to Eric Spiegel and his leadership and vision in bringing the advanced software to YSU, which will pave the way for re-modernizing student engineering skill sets and make the university and the Valley an attraction for the study of advanced manufacturing technology,” she said in a prepared statement.
When Siemens announced the in-kind grant in June, the company said the software would become a core component in the efforts of the new National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in downtown Youngstown. The software is used by more than 70,000 companies globally, including 800 in Ohio.
SOURCE: Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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