In June we let you know that Starbucks received $475,000 permit for the interior construction of the upcoming Starbucks at White Oak Town Center (12345 Columbia Pike). The store is now officially open.
MCPS High School Sports Scores for Oct 05, 2024:
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?”
The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) and Department of General Services (DGS) received the 2024 Innovation Award from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) for the Brookville Smart Energy Solar Charging Depot, a solar-powered facility supporting the County’s transition to a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035.
Ride On Bus Route 97 will have detours on October 5 from 6am-10pm due to the Germantown Oktoberfest, with different detour routes in the morning and afternoon affecting several bus stops.
When I moved back to Northern Virginia after several years in New York, most of my old friends had moved away. I found myself rebuilding a social circle from scratch.
I had plenty of people I could connect with online, but that wasn’t translating into anyone to grab a beer with after work, play trivia with, or text when I wanted to get out of the house. Making new friends as an adult required far more deliberate effort than I remembered.
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Bring your family and friends to our free , all-day outdoor Oktoberfest celebration. These will be an outdoor craft fair featuring local artisans and professional woodworkers, a chainsaw carving, woodworking and tool demonstrations by Festool, Montgomery Wood Turners and Carvers. There will also be lots of delicious food provided by El Parente Tacos, El Jeffe Wood-fired pizzas, Bruster's Ice cream and seasonal craft brews from Saints Row Brwsing Company.
Carmen’s Italian Ice in Kensington, MD is almost ready to open. According to the company, the shop’s build-out is nearly complete, with plans for soft opening “pop-up” events this weekend and next week, followed by a grand opening later this month. (more…)
Haotian Sun (34, Baltimore, MD) and Pengfei Xue (34, Germantown, MD) were sentenced today for participating in a “sophisticated scheme to defraud Apple Inc. out of millions of dollars’ worth of iPhones.” U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly sentenced Sun to 57 months in prison, and sentenced Xue to 54 months in prison.
Travilah Elementary School, located at 13801 Dufief Mill Rd., opened in 1960 in what is now known as North Potomac. It is named for Travilah Clagett, who was the first postmaster for the area, leading to the United States Post Office using the name “Travilah’ to identify the previously unnamed location. The school has the following history on its website:
On Friday, Governor Wes Moore announced the cancellation of over $13 million in supervision and drug testing fees for 6,715 individuals currently under parole and probation supervision. (more…)
Marion Pearson, 67, of Durham, NC, pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and second-degree sexual assault for attacks on two victims in 1981 and faces up to 17 years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for December 19. Pearson was linked to the crimes through DNA testing by the Montgomery County Police Cold Case Unit. (more…)
Big Lots at 20926 Frederick Rd at the Milestone Shopping Center in Germantown has announced it will be permanently closing. A representative from the location tells us that they are expected to close by the end of the year, with storewide sales beginning soon.
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