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Showing posts with label MAYOR DALEY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MAYOR DALEY. Show all posts
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Saturday, September 04, 2010
TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY FILMS MAYOR DALEY TECH INFRASTRUCTURE PRESS CONFERENCE
MAYOR DALEY PRESS CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE from HOWARD TULLMAN on Vimeo.
MAYOR DALEY LAUDS CHICAGO’S TECH INNOVATORS AND INVESTORS
ALONGSIDE HOMEGROWN LEADERS GROUPON, LIGHTBANK
Appoints Committee to Advise on Continued Infrastructure demands of
Explosive Technology Sector Growth
CHICAGO, August 31, 2010 - Mayor Richard M. Daley came together with
Chicago’s technology leaders, pledging their continued commitment to making
Chicago the top destination for technology business. At a press conference at the home to many of Chicago’s recent technology successes, the Mayor announced the creation of the Mayor’s Committee on Technology Infrastructure. The committee will focus on how the City can continue to meet the space needs of the next generation of technology-based companies and entrepreneurs.
The press conference was held at 600 West Chicago (“600 West”), the former
Montgomery Ward’s catalog warehouse – one of the country’s most successful
mixed-use redevelopment projects and current headquarters to Groupon, one of the world’s fastest growing companies. Daley called 600 West “a thriving
example of how government can support the technology industry in a way that
improves the quality of life for every resident of Chicago.”
In 2003, the City invested $28 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF)funding to help redevelop the building, which is almost full to capacity.
“Our investment has created a home for thousands of new jobs and has helped shine a national spotlight on Chicago as a technology leader,” Daley said. “We have accomplished a lot here, but there’s much more to do.”
“As we carry out our long-term strategy to create new jobs throughout Chicago
and build an even more modern and diverse economy, we must continue to target emerging business sectors that will be the foundation of economic opportunity in the 21st century,” Daley said.
“The fast-growing technology field is an essential part of our plan to make
Chicago the most competitive destination in the world for new businesses and new jobs,” the Mayor said.
The Mayor’s Committee on Technology Infrastructure is composed of leaders of the tech community. Its job is to offer specific short- and long-term suggestions on how to meet the explosive and unique space needs of this industry.
The Committee will look at locations and spaces all around Chicago and suggest how the City can help create another success story like 600 West, Daley said. The Mayor was joined at the news conference by officials of highly successful companies housed at “600 West”: Brad Keywell, and Eric Lefkofsky, co-founders, Groupon and Lightbank; Andrew Mason, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Groupon; Chuck Whitman, Chief Executive Officer, Infinium Capital Management; Tom Sossnoff, Founder, Think or Swim.
Groupon is the successful group buying website started in Chicago in November of 2008. Forbes Magazine recently named Groupon the “fastest growing company ever.” Groupon has attracted more than 13 million subscribers, expanded its presence to 85 North American markets, in addition to 29 countries, and has hired more than 1200 people in just 18 months.
Lightbank, a $100M early-stage tech investment fund, and its Founders have started seven companies that employ more than 3,000 people in over 40 offices and generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Infinium is one of the world’s leading financial tech services firms. Think or Swim is a leader in developing technology based investment education services.
“We take great pride in our ongoing efforts to make Chicago a prominent, growing technology sector and we are honored by Mayor Daley’s mutual enthusiasm in this evolution,” said Eric Lefkofsky. “600 West is a triumphant example of the entrepreneurial spirit of our City that we believe can be expanded with continued support such as the creation of the Mayor’s Committee on Technology Infrastructure.”
The backbone of the tech community is already in the city:
• Chicago is home to 50+ publicly traded tech companies and 199 of Inc.
Magazine’s 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies in 2010.
• Chicago is home to more than 275,000 high-tech employees of more than
24,000 employers.
• Last year, high tech sectors contributed $56 billion to Chicago’s economy
and it is projected that high-tech employment will add 40,000 jobs in Chicago over the next five years.
“A secure future won't happen by accident. We have to plan for it – which we’re doing,” Daley said. “We made the investment in 600 West because we know we must support visionaries – such as Groupon and Lightbank – who can identify opportunities and take risks to develop new processes, design new products and open new markets.”
The Mayor pointed out the City has supported technology growth in other projects, as well.
At the Lakeside Technology Center, 350 E. Cermak Rd., the City provided $4.5 million in support of a million-square foot data hub that’s the nerve center for Chicago’s commodity markets. The building is near maximum capacity. At Illinois Institute of Technology, the City contributed $13.4 million in TIF funding to help create a tech park on campus designed to attract broad spectrum of tech firms, including bio, medical research, software, and manufacturing.
“I believe the startling success of Groupon is the result of a new generation of
mentorship, collaboration and early-stage investment capital emerging in Chicago. This momentum is allowing the city’s tech startups to thrive and it’s bringing a new wave of talent and energy to the City,” Daley said.
“Now our job is to take our encouragement and support for innovation and
entrepreneurship to the next level. By creating the Mayor’s Committee on
Technology Infrastructure, we are doing just that,” he said.
# # #
Mayor’s Committee on Technology Infrastructure
James Tyree
President, Abbott Biotech Ventures
Chris Gladwin
CEO, Cleversafe
Kevin Willer
Head of Industry - Central Region, Google
Larry Kaplan
CEO, NAVTEQ
Brad Keywell
Co-Founder, Lightbank / Groupon
Eric Lefkofsky
Co-Founder, Lightbank / Groupon
Matt McCall
Partner, New World Ventures
Sam Yagan
Executive Director, Excelerate Labs
Cathie Kozik
Corporate Vice President, IT, Motorola
Chuck Templeton
Founder, Open Table
Chuck Whitman
CEO, Infinium Capital Management
Neil Kane
President, Advanced Diamond Technologies
Howard Tullman
CEO, Flashpoint Academy
Kirk Allen
CEO, Sloan Valve
Darren Guccione
President & CEO, Callpod
Jeff Aronin
Chairman & CEO, Paragon Pharmaceuticals
Bob Rosenberg
Associate Vice President, University of
Chicago
David Baker
Executive Director, University Technology Park
at IIT
David Gulley
Assistant Vice Chancellor, UIC
Eric Isaacs
Director, Argonne National Laboratory
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
CHICAGO MAYOR RICHARD M. DALEY ANNOUNCES CHICAGO CAREER TECH PROGRAM - EVENT FILMED AND PARTICIPANT TRAINING BY TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY
TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY IS PROUD TO BE ONE OF THE PRIMARY COLLEGES PROVIDING TRAINING FOR A NUMBER OF THE FIRST PARTICIPANTS IN CAREER TECH UNDER OUR NEWLY-DEVELOPED DIGIEVANGELIST PROGRAM FOR DIGITAL MEDIA SKILLS.
WE ALSO CREATED A PROMOTIONAL FILM OF THE LAUNCH EVENT WHICH YOU CAN WATCH BELOW:
Mayor Richard M. Daley today welcomed 175 Chicago residents as members of the first class of Chicago Career Tech, a new public-private partnership whose goal is to re-train unemployed middle class workers and put them back to work in areas such as health care, information technology, telecommunications, digital media and other fast-growing industries with increasing career opportunities.
“Chicago Career Tech reflects one of our fundamental objectives, which is to transform our economy and make Chicago a leader in the technology based economy of the 21st century,” Daley said in a news conference, held at the office of the law firm of Mayer Brown, 71 S. Wacker Dr. that followed the Mayor’s remarks to the new class.
“To do that means we must both recruit the businesses of tomorrow as well as train our workforce for the jobs they will provide,” he said.
The Mayor said that because of the recession, there has never been a more important time than right now to establish a program like Chicago Career Tech.
He said that in times such as these, government can’t add thousands of permanent, new government jobs at the state or local level, so getting people back to work requires recruiting new businesses and supporting the efforts of every business in Chicago to grow and better compete in the new economy.
“From today on, Chicago Career Tech will play a big role in ensuring the future economic security of Chicago,” he said.
The program is aimed over the long term at helping about 30,000 unemployed Chicago middle class workers get retrained in technology. The goal is that after the retraining, they will obtain new jobs.
Over the long term, the City will invest $25 million from its Parking Meter Human Infrastructure Fund to support Career Tech.
The first class had 754 applicants for 175 positions. The program plans to double the size of the class that begins in October.
To take part in the program, an applicant must be a City resident, be receiving State of Illinois Unemployment benefits or have exhausted those benefits, have made between $25,000 and $75,000 annually in a previous job, have a minimum of a high school diploma or GED Degree and complete two interviews and demonstrate a commitment to 6 day a week, 6 month program.
In fact, almost half the members of the first class have a bachelor’s degree or higher. The average age of the class is 46.
“This is a group of workers that’s increasingly at risk of becoming permanently unemployed because of changing workforce needs, and we can’t let that happen,” Daley said.
Chicago Career Tech requires two days of classroom training, two days of job shadowing in the private sector and two days of service learning at a not-for-profit.
Already, 28 Chicago area businesses have committed to provide mentoring and hand-on learning experience to the class and 51 Chicago area non-profits have committed to providing two days a week of service-based learning assignments.
The program has received significant early support from CNA, Microsoft and the Joyce Foundation, and I’m pleased to announce that Northern Trust Bank has recently come aboard and that the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has given a $300,000 Innovation grant in support of Career Tech.
Other organizations that have provided support are United Way (service learning coordination), Lee Hecht Harrison (career services coordination), Mayer Brown (pro-bono legal assistance), National Able (federal grant coordination) and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago (child care availability for participants.)
“Government alone can’t operate a program like this one, and I want to thank all the businesses and other organizations that have helped us get Career Tech off the ground quickly,” Daley said.
He said Chicago Career Tech builds on many steps the City has taken over the past two years to help reshape its economy with a clear concentration on creating the jobs and expanding the businesses of tomorrow.
“Instead of looking separately at our city's job training programs, our public schools and our City Colleges, we're trying to coordinate all of these resources to have the greatest impact on our efforts to train and retrain our workers for the jobs of the future,” the Mayor said.He said the City has:
• Re-focused its ongoing workforce and education programs on the sectors that are critical to the future of our local economy: health care, hospitality, transportation and technology.
• Created Chicago LEADS, a partnership between the business community, the academic community and government to better train the entire workforce -- skilled and unskilled workers alike -- to ensure they are well-prepared for the jobs of the future.
• Created the Chicago Workforce Investment Council -- made up of leading members of the business community -- to strengthen that effort by holding public agencies accountable for spending their budgets in the most efficient and effective way possible.
“Getting people back to work and creating new jobs in these industries will be critical to Chicago's future economic success and not just replacing those that have already been lost, is a big challenge,” Daley said.
“But with new ideas such as Chicago Career Tech -- and with the support and involvement of our business, civic, faith-based, non-profit and foundation communities – we’ll meet that challenge and secure Chicago’s economic future,” he said.
WE ALSO CREATED A PROMOTIONAL FILM OF THE LAUNCH EVENT WHICH YOU CAN WATCH BELOW:
Untitled from Shaun Hildner on Vimeo.
Mayor Richard M. Daley today welcomed 175 Chicago residents as members of the first class of Chicago Career Tech, a new public-private partnership whose goal is to re-train unemployed middle class workers and put them back to work in areas such as health care, information technology, telecommunications, digital media and other fast-growing industries with increasing career opportunities.
“Chicago Career Tech reflects one of our fundamental objectives, which is to transform our economy and make Chicago a leader in the technology based economy of the 21st century,” Daley said in a news conference, held at the office of the law firm of Mayer Brown, 71 S. Wacker Dr. that followed the Mayor’s remarks to the new class.
“To do that means we must both recruit the businesses of tomorrow as well as train our workforce for the jobs they will provide,” he said.
The Mayor said that because of the recession, there has never been a more important time than right now to establish a program like Chicago Career Tech.
He said that in times such as these, government can’t add thousands of permanent, new government jobs at the state or local level, so getting people back to work requires recruiting new businesses and supporting the efforts of every business in Chicago to grow and better compete in the new economy.
“From today on, Chicago Career Tech will play a big role in ensuring the future economic security of Chicago,” he said.
The program is aimed over the long term at helping about 30,000 unemployed Chicago middle class workers get retrained in technology. The goal is that after the retraining, they will obtain new jobs.
Over the long term, the City will invest $25 million from its Parking Meter Human Infrastructure Fund to support Career Tech.
The first class had 754 applicants for 175 positions. The program plans to double the size of the class that begins in October.
To take part in the program, an applicant must be a City resident, be receiving State of Illinois Unemployment benefits or have exhausted those benefits, have made between $25,000 and $75,000 annually in a previous job, have a minimum of a high school diploma or GED Degree and complete two interviews and demonstrate a commitment to 6 day a week, 6 month program.
In fact, almost half the members of the first class have a bachelor’s degree or higher. The average age of the class is 46.
“This is a group of workers that’s increasingly at risk of becoming permanently unemployed because of changing workforce needs, and we can’t let that happen,” Daley said.
Chicago Career Tech requires two days of classroom training, two days of job shadowing in the private sector and two days of service learning at a not-for-profit.
Already, 28 Chicago area businesses have committed to provide mentoring and hand-on learning experience to the class and 51 Chicago area non-profits have committed to providing two days a week of service-based learning assignments.
The program has received significant early support from CNA, Microsoft and the Joyce Foundation, and I’m pleased to announce that Northern Trust Bank has recently come aboard and that the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has given a $300,000 Innovation grant in support of Career Tech.
Other organizations that have provided support are United Way (service learning coordination), Lee Hecht Harrison (career services coordination), Mayer Brown (pro-bono legal assistance), National Able (federal grant coordination) and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago (child care availability for participants.)
“Government alone can’t operate a program like this one, and I want to thank all the businesses and other organizations that have helped us get Career Tech off the ground quickly,” Daley said.
He said Chicago Career Tech builds on many steps the City has taken over the past two years to help reshape its economy with a clear concentration on creating the jobs and expanding the businesses of tomorrow.
“Instead of looking separately at our city's job training programs, our public schools and our City Colleges, we're trying to coordinate all of these resources to have the greatest impact on our efforts to train and retrain our workers for the jobs of the future,” the Mayor said.He said the City has:
• Re-focused its ongoing workforce and education programs on the sectors that are critical to the future of our local economy: health care, hospitality, transportation and technology.
• Created Chicago LEADS, a partnership between the business community, the academic community and government to better train the entire workforce -- skilled and unskilled workers alike -- to ensure they are well-prepared for the jobs of the future.
• Created the Chicago Workforce Investment Council -- made up of leading members of the business community -- to strengthen that effort by holding public agencies accountable for spending their budgets in the most efficient and effective way possible.
“Getting people back to work and creating new jobs in these industries will be critical to Chicago's future economic success and not just replacing those that have already been lost, is a big challenge,” Daley said.
“But with new ideas such as Chicago Career Tech -- and with the support and involvement of our business, civic, faith-based, non-profit and foundation communities – we’ll meet that challenge and secure Chicago’s economic future,” he said.
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