Global industrial electronics and electrical engineering giant Siemens AG is considering plans to expand and consolidate one of its subsidiaries in a downtown office, a move that may establish 500 employees in a yet to be disclosed location in Pittsburgh.
Siemens Energy subdivision, Environmental Systems and Services, currently employs 1,100 employees in five locations in the Pittsburgh region and is experiencing rapid growth. The company is considering its options for an expansion in the region although no formal decisions have been made, says Monika Wood, Siemens Energy spokesperson.
“These are growing businesses and we need room,” explains Jack Bergen, senior vice president of corporate affairs. “Pittsburgh’s basic heritage as an industrial powerhouse is something that offers us a great experienced workforce and universities that turn out great engineering students. Pennsylvania is a state that grew up appreciating and respecting industrial business so we feel very welcome in Pittsburgh.”
With global headquarters in Germany, Siemens employed 400,000 people worldwide in fiscal 2007 including 72,000 people in the U.S. Of those, about 1,075 work in the Pittsburgh region.
The corporation received $2.95 million in funds and tax credits from the state last month to assist with a $5 million expansion and Siemens agreed to hire at least 550 employees over three years as part of the deal, Wood confirmed.
Siemens equipment supplies more than one-third of the nation's electricity. In addition to the Environmental Systems and Services group, which has approximately 500 employees at two locations in the area, the corporation has three other energy facilities here: a 400-employee turbine and generator group in Penn Hall that hired 80 last year and plans to hire another 70 engineers, project managers or field service technicians; a major service center in New Kensington that employs 45 and a fuel cell R&D center in Churchill that has 130 employees.
“All these businesses are dealing with environmental sustainability, whether its trying to develop fuel cells, make the environment cleaner or the turbines that create power more efficient or make the water cleaner,” adds Bergen. “All our businesses in the Pittsburgh area are working in that sustainability sector.”
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Jack Bergen and Monika Wood, Siemens AG
Image courtesy Siemens AG