FOR IMMEDIATE USE: Tuesday, November 24, 2020
10 MASSACHUSETTS COMPANIES HONORED FOR RESPONSES TO COVID-19 AT MASSECON AWARDS EVENT
17thAnnual Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Awards
WATERTOWN, MA – MassEcon, the state’s private sector partner in promoting business growth in Massachusetts, today, honored 10 companies as 2020 Corporate Heroes for their outstanding response to the tremendous challenges caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic at its17th Annual Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Awards. This year’s Impact Award’s celebrates2020’s Corporate Heroesfrom all regions of the Commonwealth.
The event this year was held virtually, and included remarks from Governor Charlie Baker, regional conversations, and videos illustrating how companies across the Commonwealth worked to combat COVID-19. More than 160 people attended the virtual event that was emceed by Lisa Hughes, a news anchor at WBZ-TV.Citizens has been the Presenting Sponsor of this event for the last 8 years.Donations made throughout the event raised more than $1,500 for the Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund, and finalists Carol’s Café in Wakefield and Western MA 3D Printing Collaborative in Longmeadow. Donations can continue to be made through the end of November by texting IMPACTAWARDS2020 to 44-321.
For 16 years, MassEcon, the state’s private sector partner in promoting business growth in Massachusetts, has been honoring employers that have grown in Massachusetts with facility expansions, financial investments, increased employment, and community engagement, through its Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Awards. This year’s awardees (including four past award winners – Insulet, AIS, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Quest Diagnostics) reflect the spirit of Massachusetts businesses to solve problems, serve their communities, and provide for the livelihoods of their workers in the midst of the global public health and economic crisis.
Narrowed down from more than 30 nominations, the 10 winning companies (listed below) were selected after virtual site visits with judges from finance, architecture, economic development, utilities, construction, engineering, and legal backgrounds.All awardees are either headquartered in Massachusetts, or have primary operations here. When challenged by the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the companies responded by meeting a need in battling the COVID-19 virus with a product or service, through extraordinary charitable actions, sustaining their employees under adverse business circumstances, and supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
“The actions of these corporate heroes buoy us in these difficult times,” said Pete Abair, MassEcon Executive Director. “They inspire us with their commitment to the greater good.”
“This year’s awardees represent the strength and ingenuity of our Commonwealth’s business community,” said Jerry Sargent, President of Citizens Massachusetts. “When faced with great uncertainty, these companies stepped up for their employees and their communities at a time when it was needed the most.”
“This is a collection of great companies that done so great things for the people of Massachusetts,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “They have really stood up to help us in a very difficult year.”
“In light of these challenging times, we join MassEcon in applauding the business community for their tremendous contributions to the battle against COVID-19 with these 2020 Corporate Hero awardees,” said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy. “Thanks to these outstanding companies, the Baker-Polito Administration continues its efforts to combat the pandemic by striking a balance that allows us to stabilize and grow the Massachusetts economy, protect public health, and limit the spread of the virus.”
17THANNUAL TEAM MASSACHUSETTS ECONOMIC IMPACT AWARD WINNERS: CELEBRATING 2020’S MASSACHUSETTS CORPORATE HEROES
Regional Corporate Heroes
Central: Quest Diagnostics of Marlborough – Diagnostic information services company that pivoted operations and became the commonwealth’s largest coronavirus testing and clinical diagnostic testing lab, having done more than 2.3 million COVID tests. Quest Diagnostics has performed more than 35% of COVID testing in Massachusetts, serving patients in hospitals, physician offices, retail testing sites, and community health centers.
Greater Boston: The Kraft Group – The Kraft Group is the holding company of the Kraft family’s varied business interests, which includes privately held companies. Since the pandemic began, the Kraft family has committed more than $7 million in resources to support those in need, providing one of the first COVID-19 testing sites for frontline workers, hosting blood drives and distributing millions of meals. In April, they transported more than 1.8 million respirator masks from China to New England, 300,000 of which were sent to New York City when their outbreak was at its peak.
Northeast: Batten Brothers of Wakefield – Designer, fabricator, installer and provider of custom designed signage, awnings, and flag poles since 1946. The company pivoted to the manufacturing and installation of acrylic walls and shields to allow businesses to operate safely and help protect employees and customers from the coronavirus.
Southeast: Contollo Mass Manufacturing LLC of Franklin – Manufacturer of disposable and reusable gowns and a supplier of latex/nitrile gloves, and hand sanitizer that started up in an old factory in Franklin, MA with dated die cutters to produce PPE at the height of the pandemic; and after state officials visited the facility, Contollo received a $1.8 million grant for expedited ramp up, machinery pivoting, material, training, and a quality management system (CogentQI) to produce PPE products for Massachusetts during the pandemic.
West: Boyd Technologies of Lee – Advanced manufacturer of regulated single use devices and components, gels, liquid media and other cosmetics or drug solutions. As a product design and materials sourcing provider BT sourced 200,000 PPE masks and N95 respirators for frontline workers in the region in April. They worked closely the Commonwealth’s Command Center and M-ERT to navigate international supply-chain disruptions and emergency use authorizations for domestically sourced PPE alternates during the initial COVID-9 surge in MA.
Local Impact Corporate Heroes
AIS, Inc. of Leominster–Manufacturing company that pivoted its philanthropy efforts by turning their seating line into a facemask production area to help save lives by producing and donating thousands of facemasks for its employees and to first responders and frontline workers in their community who were at higher risk of infection.
FLEXcon of Spencer – Global leader in coated and laminated films and adhesives used in graphics applications, manufactured goods and innovative products. For decades, FLEXcon has been a trusted partner to printers, fabricators, engineers and designers in developing products for existing and emerging markets. FLEXcon has expanded their scope to produces face shields for employees of essential businesses requiring PPE. Employees came up with product design, prototyping, user testing, assembly instructions, name, logo, packaging, website, and production process.
MA Life Sciences Emergency SupplyHub of Cambridge – A collaboration between the life sciences and hospital industries to bring additional PPE, critical supplies, and voluntary personnel to support and protect healthcare workers on the front lines during the early days of the pandemic.
Global Impact Corporate Heroes
Insulet of Acton – Insulet Corporation is an innovative medical device company dedicated to making the lives of people with diabetes easier through the use of its Omnipod® Insulin Management System. At the height of the pandemic, Insulet implemented virtual training for new Omnipod users and expanded its financial assistance program for current U.S. or Canadian customers negatively impacted by COVID-19. Upon meeting certain financial criteria, current customers may receive a six-monthly supply of 60 Pods free of charge.
Thermo Fisher Scientific of Waltham – Life science product research and development instrumentation company that provided PPE to labs and healthcare professionals, developed one of the first COVID-19 diagnostic tests to be granted emergency use authorization in the U.S., continued its work to improve and expand diagnostic testing to more than 50 countries globally, and supports more than 100 different projects to develop vaccines and therapies.
ABOUT MASSECON
MassEcon’s mission is to promote and champion Massachusetts as the best place to start, grow and locate a business. Built upon a robust network of corporate and civic members, MassEcon convenes public and private sector leaders of industry to create an inclusive business ecosystem that enhances job growth across a diverse talent pool; promotes investment in all communities; expands equitable opportunities throughout the Commonwealth.www.massecon.com.
ABOUT TEAM MASSACHUSETTS
Team Massachusetts is the informal name given to a consortium of state and quasi-public economic development agencies, such as MassDevelopment, Mass Office of Business Development, MOITI, Massachusetts Growth Capital, and the Mass Life Sciences Center, as well as private sector organizations focused on economic development in Massachusetts, such as MassEcon and MassBio.
ABOUT Citizens Financial Group, Inc.
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $179.2 billion in assets as of September 30, 2020. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a 24/7 customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 2,700 ATMs and approximately 1,000 branches in 11 states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers a broad complement of financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. More information is available at www.citizensbank.com or visit us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
-###-
