Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett recognized companies and entrepreneurs from around the state that are creating jobs and making positive contributions to the state’s economy during the inaugural Governor’s ImPAct Awards ceremony held in May. The Governor’s ImPAct Awards recognized 50 companies from throughout the state in five categories: Jobs First, Community Impact, Small Business Impact, Entrepreneurial Impact and Export Impact.

Bosch Rexroth Corporation, which has a manufacturing campus in Bethlehem, PA, was honored with the Jobs First Award for the Lehigh Valley region for its job growth, commitment to sustainable business operations and for its collaboration efforts within its community. Citing local partnerships with Lehigh University, Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School, Career Institute of Technology, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Manufacturer’s Resource Center and others, Rexroth noted that its outstanding partnerships in the community helped significantly in creating win-win opportunities to grow and retain jobs in the locale, but also to support the continuous improvement of Rexroth business processes. Bosch Rexroth has added 103 full-time positions in Bethlehem over the last two years.

Vice President and Commercial Plant Manager, Andreas Torell, accepted the award on behalf of Rexroth’s Bethlehem campus. “The excellent resources in our community have been extremely valuable in helping us grow, develop and retain our workforce. The partnerships we’ve established will be an ongoing part of our success and will no doubt make key new contributions to our sustainable business operations,” Torell said.

At the awards ceremony, Governor Corbett thanked the audience of nearly 700 for helping to move Pennsylvania forward. “Each of you, in some way, is why we have added more than 125,000 private sector jobs to Pennsylvania’s economy since I took office,” Corbett said. “Thank you for investing in Pennsylvania and for joining with my administration in proving that Pennsylvania is open for business.”

The Corbett administration created the awards initiative to honor businesses in Pennsylvania that are creating job opportunities and contributing to the state’s economy. Nominations for each award were provided by the state’s regional economic development partners – the Partnerships for Regional Economic Performance (PREP) network. Each of the 10 PREP regions was eligible to submit up to five nominations per category. A total of 250 nominations were received.