Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has appointed a former CEO of a local manufacturing company to be the state’s first chief manufacturing officer.
Lamont says Connecticut has an international reputation as a manufacturing hub and he’d like to maintain that.
“Look we didn’t create Facebook, we didn’t create Google here in Connecticut, but we’ve always had the Silicon Valley of manufacturing.”
He says that’s why he’s chosen Colin Cooper, the former CEO of Whitcraft Group, a producer of parts for jet engines to coordinate the state’s efforts to promote the manufacturing sector.
“Making sure in particular when it comes to workforce that we continue to leverage our greatest strength as a state, which is the best trained most productive workforce in the world.”
Cooper says he intends to do that by working with the state’s community college system.
Connecticut’s current manufacturing workforce is 162,000. Officials project an additional 30,000 workers would be needed in that sector in the next couple of years.
