MetroWest495 Biz

"Not many people have," Paciello said. "But if you work for the federal government in the intelligence agencies, our brand and our product and services (are) comparable to IBM." SEM sells products that most of us don't have a use for: devices to crush, shred or break hard drives and paper and anything else that might have a scrap of recoverable data on it. When the National Security Agency announced new guide - lines for destroying solid-state hard drives — they have to be ground into particles of no more than 2 millimeters — SEM came up with a tool that could do it. "Our main focus is selling to the government or those companies that are essentially extensions of the government," Paciello said. When we think about the defense sector's impact on the region's economy, we often picture the big guys like Raytheon. But smaller companies such as SEM, which has about 45 employees, are scattered all around MetroWest and the I-495 corridor, selling niche products to the Raytheons of the world, and directly to government defense agencies. "There's all kinds of different parts to the puzzle," said Bon - nie Biocchi, the outgoing president and CEO of the MetroW- est Chamber of Commerce. "Those larger entities are great promoters of new technology, which encourages more innova- 18 MetroWest495 Biz | August 2015 I f you're a typical MetroWest resident or business owner, you may not have heard of Security Engineered Machinery Co. in Westborough. Vice President Michael Paciello says that doesn't bother him at all. The defense industry's small side Casey White works in the laboratory at Reactive Innovations, a Westford firm specializing in research and development of chemical-based systems for the military. BY LIVIA GERSHON Special to MetroWest495Biz Nimble MetroWest firms help power military innovation P H O T O S / E D D C O T E

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