The MCPS Foundations Office and the Montgomery County Students Automotive Trades (ATF) and Information Technology Foundations (ITF) hosted its annual Careed and Awards Day on Thursday, May 23 in Gaithersburg. (more…)
The Office of the Maryland Attorney General issued the following news release on Friday, May 24:
Talent is one of the most important factors influencing where companies choose to invest, expand, and grow. As competition for skilled workers intensifies, employers are embracing a broader talent strategy: one that leverages partnerships. Last week, almost 120 business leaders, elected officials, and members of Montgomery County’s business community attended the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation’s (MCEDC) panel, “The Talent Advantage: A Growth Strategy for Companies in Montgomery County, Maryland,” to hear how local businesses are capitalizing on the County’s world-class academic institutions, innovation ecosystem, quality of life, and economic development resources to attract and retain top talent.
Moderated by Dr. Anne Khademian, Executive Director at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG), the panel included executives from businesses and institutions across industries, including Lockheed Martin, TrilliumBIO, Thales Defense & Security, Johns Hopkins, Montgomery College, and AstraZeneca, who discussed their companies’ strategies for developing their workforce.
Talent as a Business Strategy
For companies competing in highly specialized industries like the defense industry, access to talent directly influences where they choose to locate and grow. For Lockheed Martin, which employs nearly 1,000 people in Montgomery County, talent is one of the primary reasons the company chose to be headquartered here.
“Talent is in the top one or two reasons why we are in the County,” said Todd Cohen, Senior Lead of Strategic Workforce Development, Lockheed Martin.
According to Cohen, Lockheed Martin begins working with partners to develop their talent pipeline well before students enter the workforce, including partnering with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) on programs such as coding challenges. Lockheed Martin also maintains close relationships with local higher education institutions, including the Universities at Shady Grove (USG).
That local talent pipeline is also an important factor for AstraZeneca, which employs more than 5,000 employees and contractors in Montgomery County. According to Tiffany Lukis, Director of STEM and Community Engagement at AstraZeneca, the company often taps into its alumni base from Montgomery College (ranked #26 nationally among community colleges) and USG (which offers nine different public universities onto one campus), and other local institutions to fill highly technical roles.
Local Companies Are Developing Talent and Not Just Finding It
According to the panelists, investing in existing employees is just as important as recruiting new ones.
At Suburban Hospital, workforce development is closely tied to talent retention. The hospital partners with local educational institutions to provide employees with opportunities to gain new skills and advance their careers. Programs include a Certified Nursing Assistant program through Montgomery College and English as a Second Language classes.
“A huge part of our talent strategy is to prioritize holding on to our top tier talent,” said Corey Lewson, MSW, Program Manager, Workforce Development, John Hopkins Medicine.
For smaller companies, developing talent internally can be especially valuable. Lane Edwards, Vice President of Operations, TrilliumBIO, a biomarker discovery company with fewer than 20 employees based in Rockville, described the challenge of balancing the need for highly specialized expertise with the realities of building a team at an early-stage company.
“When it comes to hiring, we have to be very strategic,” Lane said. “Do we have someone who has the expertise or someone that we can build on?”
Lisa Loeb was born in Bethesda and lived here for a couple years before moving to Dallas, TX where she was raised. 30 years ago, her career began with her number one single “Stay (I Missed You)” from the film Reality Bites. It’s also the first Billboard number one single for an artist without a recording contract. Later in her career, Loeb achieved two additional top 20 singles with “Do You Sleep?” in 1996 and “I Do” in 1998. Her studio albums include two back-to-back albums that were certified gold: Tails and Firecracker.
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October 10 & 11, 2026
The MoCo Epic is a festival celebrating mountain biking, natural surface trails, and the community that makes this region a great place to ride! 2026 marks the 16th anniversary of the MoCo Epic.
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) are asking for the public’s assistance in locating Jordan Young, a missing 13-year-old from Silver Spring.
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The MD Department of Environment has issued a CODE ORANGE Air Quality Alert Saturday, May 25 for parts of the area- particularly from the eastern DC suburbs through Baltimore and points north, according to the Maryland Department of Environment.
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With the Department of Justice suing Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, for “monopolizing markets across the live concert industry,” I wanted to take a look back at where I used to buy my tickets here in Montgomery County.