On Wednesday, EWI was honored to host an impressive delegation of business, higher education, economic development and government leaders from Colorado Springs, CO. Identifying Columbus as a city that thrived during the recession, the group visited several high-performance businesses and organization in the Columbus area over a three-day period.
The delegation toured EWI’s advanced manufacturing facility, and met with Vice President of Operations Mark Schimming to learn how EWI helps manufacturing businesses succeed through applied research and advanced manufacturing solutions. The discussion was especially timely because of the recently announced opening of EWI Colorado, the organizations newest applied research center in Loveland, about 100 miles north of Colorado Springs.
Traveling with the Colorado delegation was a very special guest – former Ohio Governor Richard Celeste. Governor Celeste, a past president of Colorado College, is now respected thought leader in Colorado.
He is also a key figure in the history of EWI.
EWI was incorporated in 1984 at the height of the economic downturn that devastated the industrial Midwest. A response to that crisis in Ohio was the Edison Technology Centers program implemented by then-Governor Celeste. The program was designed to capitalize on the collective strengths of industry, government and academia through a network of business incubators and knowledge centers. EWI was one of the first centers funded by the Ohio Edison program.
In the early days, EWI (as “Edison Welding Institute”) focused on helping Ohio manufacturers enhance productivity and economic growth through applied R&D and the transfer of advanced welding and allied technologies. Today, our mission has expanded to developing, testing, and implementing for a wide array of advanced manufacturing technologies for the global manufacturing industry, but our focus on helping to drive economic growth through innovation remains the same.
I
t was great to have Governor Celeste back to see our progress over the past 30 years.