Malloy's Job Research Draws Him to Norwalk

NORWALK, Conn. – Phil Hadley and other employees of a Norwalk-based business gave their input Wednesday afternoon to Gov. Dannel Malloy on topics of universal concern: jobs, infrastructure and education.

Malloy said he and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith visited FactSet Research Systems Inc. to prepare for the executive session in the fall because he wants to "really move our legislature to a pro-growth, pro-job creation platform."

"One of the things that the commissioner and I are doing is going around the state and having meetings and hearing, in some cases, what the complaints are," Malloy said.

The pair visited Stamford first, where members of the Women's Business Development Council talked about the problems of getting through the state's bureaucracy. In Norwalk, Malloy was looking to discuss development strategy and overall business outlook with executives and staff at FactSet. It is a provider of global financial and economic information, with 641 employees in Norwalk and 5,000 worldwide.

"He was asking about what Connecticut can do to be a better partner for FactSet," said Hadley, the CEO. "It's really important for the state of Connecticut to stay competitive for us to continue to hire in this location. We talked about education and what the state can do to provide employees for us or easier access to employees, talked about transportation infrastructure, train, as well as interstate to get to the office. Those are factors that come into play when employees are trying to decide where they can live and where affordable housing exists and help them to make the decisions about where to start their careers."

Hadley says Malloy is committed to improving Interstate 95. Malloy chose FactSet, he said, because the company moved to Connecticut as a small business and has grown significantly, and because he wants to make sure it stays here. "We've gradually become a pretty large employer in Fairfield County," Hadley said.

"We're serious," Malloy said. "Connecticut is open for business again. We're going to change our practices, we're going to streamline our government, we're going to give answers more quickly, we're going to make infrastructure investments to allow people to move through our state, move goods through our state, we're serious about this stuff."

Do you think the governor is serious?

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