General Electric Opening New Digital Centers, But Not in Connecticut

Fairfield, CT — Still stinging from losing Fairfield-based General Electric to Boston, Connecticut received a little salt in the wound on Thursday when GE announced it would open new digital centers in Rhode Island and Atlanta and bring hundreds of jobs to those areas.

Both Rhode Island and Atlanta were in the running to lure GE out of its Fairfield headquarters and were regarded to be among the list of finalists, according to reports.

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Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced on Thursday that a new GE Digital information technology center in Providence would not only employ 100 people in the near term, but she expects a few hundred will work there eventually, according to the Boston Globe.

The Connecticut Post reports that a member of Raimondo’s administration who played a key role in recruiting GE’s new digital venture to Providence was Stefan Pryor, a former member of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s cabinet currently working as Rhode Island’s commerce secretary.

Also see:

• Boston Bound: GE Makes Its Decision

• Malloy Fails to Impress GE in Last-Ditch Effort: Report

• Malloy: GE’s Move to Boston ‘Hurts’

Pryor served as Connecticut’s education commissioner from 2011 until resigning in 2014 and had a difficult relationship with teacher unions and some education advocates over standardized testing and charter school expansion, according to the Post.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that GE plans a 250-person digital operations center in Atlanta and will make a $3 million investment in the new center, which will employ a range of engineers, techies, operations and service desk staff.