NorthWestern Energy hosts 75 tech leaders at Butte Member Reception 2016
NorthWestern Energy President and CEO Bob Rowe and team hosted 75 leaders in high-tech and manufacturing from across the state in their beautiful new building in Uptown Butte for the Montana High Tech Business Alliance’s reception and CEO Roundtable on June 20, 2016. This was the Alliance’s tenth event but our first in Butte.
The city’s central location and great amenities attracted our highest percentage of out-of-town guests to date, with members from Billings, Bozeman, Dillon, Missoula, Helena, and Kalispell in attendance. Paul Babb, NorthWestern Energy’s Manager of Community Relations Butte, arranged for beer, wine, and a fantastic menu of hors d’ oeuvres (including Butte’s famous mini pasties) from Metal’s. Photos by Thomas Kurdy, Ndigena.
CONNECT: Members Tour Montana Precision Products' Expanding Facility in Butte
Plant tours of Montana Precision Products prior to the Butte reception featured the impressive air melt hot metal pour pictured here. Montana Precision Products is a joint venture between GE Aviation and SeaCast, Inc. that produces jet engine parts as well as castings for a variety of industries. Montana Precision Products has around 135 employees in Butte and plans to add new technology and grow its workforce by 50 percent in the next three years. Photo by Christina Henderson. John Adams, AVP, Information Services for KOA in Billings, (center) and his wife, Mary, visit with Chris Eurich, General Manager, Montana Precision Products, (right) at the reception after going on a tour led by Eurich and his team.
PROMOTE: Lightning Talks Feature Montana Precision Products and Treasure State Internet & Telegraph
Chris Eurich, General Manager at Montana Precision Products, and Eric Fulton (pictured), CEO of Treasure State Internet & Telegraph (TSI&T), gave five-minute lightning talks about their companies at the reception. TSI&T is an ultra high-speed internet service provider based in Helena that recently launched a campaign to crowdfund next-generation Internet in Montana through WeFunder. Treasure State Internet added telegraph services in 2015, allowing customers to send messages in morse code – a necessary step to qualify as a utility under ordinances in the city of Helena by providing "...telegraph, telephone, or electric light..."
ACCELERATE: High-tech Employers Look to Engage Montana's Veterans
NorthWestern Energy also hosted an afternoon CEO Roundtable discussing ways to engage veterans in Montana’s high-tech workforce. Les Craig, entrepreneur, veteran U.S. Army Ranger and West Point grad and director of the MSU Blackstone LaunchPad shared recommendations based on his consulting work helping major tech companies in Silicon Valley become veteran-ready employers. 10 percent of Montanans are veterans – making us the #3 state for veterans per capita. Watch for a recap of takeaways from the veteran discussion in future newsletters. Pictured left to right are Christina Henderson, Executive Director, Montana High Tech Business Alliance, Greg Gianforte, Alliance Board Chair and Founder of RightNow Technologies, and Les Craig, Director of the MSU Blackstone LaunchPad.
