Connecticut’s new business recruitment arm has added to its board the chief executive of Wallingford fiber-optics components manufacturer Amphenol and the chair of a Westport-based philanthropic organization.
Gov. Ned Lamont and Rocky Hill-based nonprofit Connecticut Economic Resource Center Inc. (CERC), which earlier this year formed a public-private partnership with the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), on Monday afternoon named Amphenol CEO R. Adam Norwitt and Donald Kendall Jr., co-founder and chair of Social Venture Partners (SVP) Connecticut, to its board of directors.
The announcement comes a month after Stanley Black & Decker CEO Jim Loree and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, an associate dean at the Yale School of Management, were named to the board, which is co-chaired by former PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi of Greenwich and former Webster Bank CEO Jim Smith.
Under the public-private alliance, CERC is focused on researching ways to retain and recruit business to the state while DECD is continuing to promote the area’s business sector and to help companies relocate to the state. The collaboration, known as the Partnership to Advance the Connecticut of Tomorrow (PACT), is overseen by DECD Commissioner David Lehman.
Norwitt, a Ridgefield native, has been based in both Asia and Connecticut since joining Amphenol in 1998. He previously served as an attorney for global law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Kendall, of Weston, is an entrepreneur and philanthropist focused on bridging the educational and employment gap among low-income populations in Connecticut, state officials said. His organization, SVP Connecticut, comprises a global network of entrepreneurs, corporate executives and other philanthropic, academic and nonprofit leaders that support organizations, and education and workforce development initiatives.
Additional members will be named to CERC’s board in the coming weeks, officials said.
