The Montgomery County Council approved Executive Regulation 17-23AM, establishing Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) to reduce emissions from certain buildings as part of the County’s climate goals. (more…)
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The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) has placed Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School on lockdown on Tuesday, February 25. (more…)
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?”
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division are asking for the public’s assistance in locating Nevaeh Washington, a missing 17-year-old. (more…)
Nearly 20 years after the last CHI-CHI’S restaurant closed, the beloved Mexican chain is set to make a comeback. In December, it was announced that Michael McDermott, son of CHI-CHI’S founder, had secured the rights to use the CHI-CHI’S name on physical restaurant locations through an agreement with Hormel Foods, which owns the brand’s trademarks.
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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.
With March 7 being Employee Appreciation Day and Americans working an average of 1,799 hours per year, much more than people in many other industrialized countries, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2025’s Hardest-Working Cities in America, with Washington DC coming in ranked 2nd in the country.
A federal grand jury indicted David Alain Schmidt, 43, of Silver Spring, Maryland, charging him with producing and possessing child sexual abuse material.
A Gaithersburg man recently won $140,903 playing the Racetrax lottery game with a $1 quick-pick ticket purchased at Shady Grove Beer & Wine. Full story below courtesy MD Lottery: (more…)
The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) is investigating a fatal collision that occurred on February 21, 2025, in which 51-year-old Marcos Anton Solorzano Ramirez of Gaithersburg was pronounced dead at the scene after his Acura Integra collided with a Ford Transit van on Whites Ferry Road near Partnership Road in Poolesville. (more…)
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Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced that Rhonda Keisha Powell of Upper Marlboro was sentenced to 45 days in jail, five years of supervised probation, and ordered to pay $58,373 in restitution after pleading guilty to felony insurance fraud for filing false claims with USAA in 2020 and 2022. (more…)
The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) is investigating a series of armed robberies at gas stations in Gaithersburg and Germantown, where a suspect used a large kitchen knife to threaten cashiers before fleeing with money. (more…)
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services (MCFRS) responded to a large brush fire on Beallsville Road in Dickerson, which involved several acres of woods, logs, and stumps. (more…)