Specialty chemical maker
Albemarle Corp. is moving its headquarters from Richmond, Va., to Baton Rouge, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Wednesday.
Albemarle already employs several hundred people in the state. Jindal said the move would help secure those jobs and bring in 30 new jobs with a minimum $7 million payroll.
"This is one of many positive steps that will help us grow and diversify our economy, said Jindal, who noted that his wife Supriya, an engineer, once worked for the company.
The company's products are used for consumer electronics, petroleum and chemical processing, transportation and industrial products, pharmaceuticals, agricultural products and construction and packaging materials. Albemarle has customers in about 100 countries.
Albemarle president and CEO Mark Rohr and chief operating officer John Steitz praised Jindal, state Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret, Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden and credited a well-coordinated state and local effort to get the corporation to consolidate its executive and administrative offices in Baton Rouge.
Steitz said Moret, who joined Jindal's cabinet this year after heading the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce, began working on the effort to bring the corporate headquarters to Baton Rouge about 18 months ago.
"He was the genesis of the idea. He incubated it. He developed it," Steitz said.
Rohr said special legislative sessions that Jindal called for ethics and tax relief also encouraged the corporation to make the move. "As the governor came in, it became an easy decision," Rohr said of Jindal, who took office in January.
link:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/...ap4955698.html
link:Richmond Times Dispatch:
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.a...4-30-0215.html