Governor O’Malley Endorses RMI’s Vision to Make Maryland #1 in Manufacturing

Governor O’Malley met with the Regional Manufacturing Institute’s (RMI) leadership at the Governor’s Mansion last week to hear RMI’s ideas to help expand manufacturing and increase job creation in Maryland. “We met with the Governor to discuss ways to create job growth by expanding and attracting manufacturing business.” said Dr. Michael Galiazzo, President of RMI.

Senator Kathy Klausmeier and Senator Norman Stone joined, Dr. Galiazzo, Dr. Galiazzo, Drew Greenblatt, Chairman of RMI and President of Marlin Steel Wire and Susan Ganz, Vice Chairman of RMI and President of Lion Brothers at the meeting with the Governor.

RMI recently entered into a cooperative agreement with the University of Maryland’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute ( Mtech ) and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) in creating the Maryland Manufacturing Partnership, a new public-private initiative aimed at helping to streamline resources and develop hands-on tools to aid Maryland-based manufacturers. Governor O’Malley endorsed the Maryland Manufacturing Partnership and was highly supportive of helping Maryland benefit from this NIST initiative, aimed at Maryland becoming a national showcase for the future of American manufacturing. “ I’m on board with this,” said O”Malley, who indicated he would call the director of NIST to request increased funding for Maryland manufacturers who want to modernized their operations and business strategies

The Governor was also very supportive of RMI’s green movement. For the past three years, RMI has galvanized the manufacturing community on the value of adopting sustainability practices to not only save on costs, but to produce earth- friendly products in an earth-friendly way. “We were very happy with the Governor’s response,” said Dr. Galiazzo. “The Governor said that he “gets it” and I believe we can depend on his support to help us champion this effort,” he said. Governor O’Malley was highly supportive of helping Maryland benefit from this NIST initiative, aimed at Maryland becoming a national showcase for the future of American manufacturing.

It is often not well appreciated that manufacturing provides the impetus for innovation and provides a vital role in American’s global competitive position. “Maryland has a unique opportunity to seize the moment and marshal our resources in such a way that we can create a renaissance in Maryland-based manufacturing, “said Maryland Senator Kathy Klausmeier, a strong advocate of Maryland manufacturing. Today’s manufacturing is very high tech and the U.S. needs to constantly stay at the cutting edge of the value chain to ensure America’s competitive edge. “This new initiative gives us the tools and platform to engage manufacturers as never before,” said Drew Greenblatt.

Maryland has the top educated workforce in the country and a tremendous federal laboratory resource base. “This initiative will help us connect the dots from the research labs to commercialize emerging technologies and help Maryland manufacturers benefit. We will take Mtech’s services as well as those resources from local, state and national government directly to the manufacturing community and provide hands-on help to get them over the hump,” said Galiazzo.

Senator Katherine Klausmeier
8th Legislative District