Hartford Business Journal Special Editions

2019 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 19 the lines between blue-collar and white-collar jobs, and community colleges will play a very big role." He said 50% of students in the United States attend community colleges – a talent pool that has traditionally been underutilized by American corporations. "Technology can be a huge opportunity to bridge the gap rather than creating a divide." Making Connecticut home The path that led Infosys to the Nutmeg State was paved with personal introductions, Kumar said. At the time that he was evaluating potential hub locations, he was already acquainted with now-Governor Ned Lamont. "Ned was a strong evangelist for me to come to Connecticut. He actually introduced me to the local government [officials, who] kindly showcased the state. Then, in partnership with the government, we also looked at the academic institutions and we spoke to the businesses in Hartford and Connecticut, and decided to set up our third hub here." Overall, Kumar feels that Hartford is an ideal location. In addition to Connecticut's "world-class" education ecosystem, he said, the capital region and the state benefit from a close-knit and forward-thinking business community. "It's one of the few states where the businesses came together and actually put forward a strong case for us to be locally represented, and that was very appealing for us. Businesses can help support the effort to recruit new companies to the state, and Infosys was a great example of this. If we can service them as we have promised to service them, I think we can achieve our objectives pretty well," he said. "The academic partnerships, the business partnerships, and the appetite for the businesses to consume this digital technology and the talent we've built, it's almost like making [solutions] locally for the businesses here, and making our hub a magnet for other states around it to be serviced. That's what I, at least, am personally excited about." Meanwhile, Infosys is continuing to innovate as it moves forward. "We are pivoting the entire story of making Hartford the tech hub of the east coast. We are working with Trinity College, which is our national partner for liberal arts. Our first batch of data scientists are going to come out of Trinity College, so we have a training program where we hire liberal arts graduates across the United States, and we get them to Hartford." The students are then trained in collaboration with the college's faculty, "so they are hired not just from Trinity College but from all liberal arts schools in the U.S." Through its charitable foundation, Infosys Foundation USA, the company is also bringing K-12 schools into the mix. The foundation has provided grants for classroom technology and computer science training, reaching more than 3,700 students, 40-plus teachers and 30 schools in Connecticut to date. It recently provided a grant to the Hispanic Heritage Foundation to create a comprehensive K-8 Spanish language computer science education pathway for Spanish English Language Learner students across the U.S., with pilot programs being launched in Hartford. Kumar characterized his company's innovation hub initiative to date as "a fascinating skills experiment. It's a story of liberal arts, of community colleges, of going to K-12 schools, of repurposing talent from legacy talent pools and partnering with universities to create talent for the future." And new twists and turns seem to lie around every corner. "Our customers started asking us, 'What about training our own employees?' So we are now establishing a U.S. education center – it is going to be the largest corporate training university in the United States." The 70-acre training facility will be located in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, he said, the Hartford operation is having no trouble finding, attracting and retaining employees, and he sees it continuing to grow. "You find graduates who have their homes in New Jersey, in Massachusetts, in New York, in Rhode Island, who are kind of liking to be in Connecticut, liking to be in Hartford, because it gives them the opportunity to work with Infosys," he said. "The draw is two-fold. First, every industry is going through a digital disruption, and they're going to be in the midst of it, helping these large enterprises navigate that process. The second draw is the extraordinary opportunity of getting trained and re-skilled on a constant basis." In the new age, he said, society will move away from a mental framework of transitioning once from education to a career, and toward a continuum of lifelong learning. "The ones who will actually do well in the new digital age are those who can actually adapt to lifelong learning. 'Learning to learn' will become a virtue, and firms like Infosys, which are deeply rooted into training, will keep you equipped with new skills on a constant basis. These are two things that [students and employees] are fascinated about. These individuals are joining us because they love the training we give them, and they love the kind of work that they do." Students from across the nation are learning about innovation in Hartford. [Photo | courtesy of Infosys ] INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY: INFOSYS

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