Dedication of Lockheed Martin's NexGen Gyber Innovation & Technology Center
Gaithersburg, Maryland
November 12, 2009
As Prepared
Thanks for joining us and thanks especially to everyone with Lockheed Martin. We’re very fortunate in Maryland to be home to some of the leading innovators anywhere in the world – whether it’s our Fortune 500 companies (or in the case of Lockheed Martin, Fortune 100 companies) our federal facilities, our small and family owned businesses, or our institutions of science, discovery, and higher learning – Maryland has a unique combination of assets.
Lockheed Martin – with it’s 8,700 jobs in our State -- is one of these great assets, and it’s an honor to be able to join you today to help dedicate the NexGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Center.
Today’s dedication represents important progress toward both our goals for Cyber Security and our broader goals for creating jobs and strengthening and growing the ranks of an increasingly diverse and upwardly mobile middle class.
These goals, of course are connected. And so too are the big challenges we face as a State, a country, and perhaps a planet in this rapidly changing 21st century world: the connected challenges of leadership in security, leadership in sustainability, and leadership in skills and innovation.
It’s all connected. And the big task we face together as One Maryland is to make the connections which advance the cause of progress; to find new ways to transform our economy so that we can create new jobs and expand opportunity to more people rather than fewer.
The good news is that the strengths, the potential, and the assets of innovation are right here in Maryland, and that starts with our workforce, and what is the #1 best public school system in America, so says Education Week magazine.
It starts with the 250,000 Marylanders who work in our technology sector and the more than 60,000 who work in computer systems design and related services.
And it starts with companies like Lockheed Martin and the more than 5,550 small businesses which work on computer systems design in our State.
Creating Cyber Security Jobs in Maryland
As the global economy becomes more and more knowledge based, Information Technology continues to be one of the areas which holds the greatest potential for our State as we work to create jobs and transition from recession to recovery to prosperity.
Cyber Security in particular carries some unique opportunities – and we’ve set the big goal of establishing Maryland as the national epicenter of this emerging field (and in many ways we already are the epicenter).
Why Maryland? Because not only do we have the best public schools in America, not only do we have one of America’s most highly skilled workforces, not only does the Milken Institute rank us #1 in the investments we make in the talents and skills of our people,… but we are already leading America in computer systems design.
In the past year, even in tough economic times, we actually grew our computer systems design sector by 6.6%. That’s the best growth in this sector anywhere in America.
What’s more, we are home to many of the most important federal facilities for Cyber Security. Places like the National Security Agency and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. Places like the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and starting next year, the Defense Information Systems Agency. (And we’re a possible home of the future Joint Cyber Command Center)
These facilities represent a lot of untapped potential which we’re working very hard to start leveraging, with our new Federal Facilities Task Force helping to lead the way.
It’s part of our Ten Point Strategy for strengthening Small and Family owned Business which we announced last week. When federal facilities spend money they have a choice in where they spend it – and we all would agree that there is a great untapped potential for our State flowing from these facilities, many of which are actually adding jobs and growing.
Conclusion
Once again, thank you to everyone with Lockheed Martin for the many important contributions you make to our State, and for your national leadership in cyber security and innovation.
At this time, we have a proclamation to read,…
