Manufacturing Roundtable: Innovation as a driver of onshoring in the region
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The Panel discussion will by moderated by special guest Brooke Thomson, President and CEO of Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM). As the head of one of the Commonwealth’s largest Member organizations, Brooke and her team strive to bring together the people, insights, and resources In the areas of exceptional Workers' Compensation insurance, advocacy, training & HR consulting to ensure Massachusetts businesses and the economy thrive.
Representing 3,400 companies, 25% of which are in are in the manufacturing sector, AIM has its finger on the pulse of the public policy issues that matter to their businesses.
Prior to assuming the presidency, Brooke led the Government Affairs team where she was responsible for designing and advancing AIM’s policy agenda and strengthening relationships with elected officials and business leaders on Beacon Hill and throughout the commonwealth – all the while ensuring that employer needs were represented at every level of the public policy-making process.
She has successfully expanded the progress AIM has made in diversifying its membership and advancing policies that support both economic competitiveness and economic opportunity for the people of Massachusetts.
Prior to joining AIM’s leadership team in 2019, Brooke was a member of the AIM Board of Directors. She also previously served as vice president of Government Affairs for AT&T and is a former senior official with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.
Ben Armstrong, Executive Director, Industrial Process Center at MIT and Co-Lead, Work of the Future Initiative.
Ben’s research and teaching examine how workers, firms, and regions adapt to technological change. His current projects include a working group on generative AI and its impact on jobs, as well as a book on American manufacturing competitiveness. His research has been published or featured in academic and popular outlets including the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Sloan Management Review, Times Higher Education, Boston Review, Daedalus, and Economic Development Quarterly.
Ben completed his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University and his PhD at MIT, where he received the Lucian Pye Award for Outstanding Political Science PhD Dissertation. Before graduate school, he helped lead an open-source hardware non-profit and worked at Google Inc.
Paul Lavoie: Vice President of Innovation and Applied Technology, University of New Haven
Announced as the University of New Haven’s first vice president of innovation and applied technology on June 20, 2025. He will begin his tenure at the University in July. Lavoie will oversee the formation of the University’s pioneering Research and Development (R&D) Park’, a reimagined 130,000-square-foot commercial building focused extensively on the areas of advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, robotics, automation, machine learning, and biotech, as well as industry 4.0 and 5.0.
The University envisions a broad collaborative supporting the R&D Park, with partners including private companies, government entities, K-12 schools, the cities of West Haven and New Haven, and a variety of organizations such as AdvanceCT and CT Center for Advanced Technology.
A Connecticut native, Lavoie was appointed by Governor Ned Lamont as the first Chief Manufacturing Officer for Connecticut in February 2022, a position that was created to coordinate efforts from the state and private sector to expand manufacturing in Connecticut.
Lavoie has extensive industry experience, including as general manager at Carey Manufacturing in Cromwell, Connecticut. Prior to Carey, Lavoie owned two businesses and served in senior-level positions at publicly traded and privately owned businesses.
He serves as the board chair of the Connecticut Wind Collaborative; co-chair of the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls Subcommittee on Education and STEAM; an advisory board member of the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System; and an advisory board member of the UConn College of Engineering.
Dr. Yan Wang: Co-founder: Ascend Elements Inc., Co-founder: AM Batteries Inc., William Smith Foundations Dean’s Professor of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Professor Wang's research is in the field of fundamental electrochemistry and electrochemistry-based technologies, including battery materials, manufacturing, safety, design and recycling, solid state batteries, and electrolysis.
He co-founded Ascend Elements (previously known as Battery Resources Inc.) in 2015 and AM Batteries LLC in 2016 to commercialize the technologies developed in his lab. In 2023 Prof. Wang was named one of the Faces of American Innovation by the Bayh-Dole Coalition.
Wang earned his Bachelors and master's degrees in Electrochemical Engineering from Tianjin University and a PhD in Engineering from University of Windsor, Canada followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Jeffrey Smith, General Partner, SIP Capital Partners
As an Investor, CEO and Serial Entrepreneur, Jeffrey has delivered three decades of exceptional returns in the environmental engineering, AI, imaging / AR / XR, energy and defense / aviation sectors. He is presently driving investments in semiconductors, AI, autonomy and energy.
As a US-Japan Venture Capital Firm, SIP Captial Partners Invests in US Start-Up that align with Four key themes:
- Reshoring and Reindustrialization
- A.I Infrastructure and Computing Power Expansion
- Human Factors and Efficiency
- Energy and Advanced Materials
The Panel discussion will be followed by a walking tour of Greentech Park, a 51-acre, pad-read industrial development site that abuts the Saint Gobain campus.
Date and Time
Wednesday Sep 10, 2025
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM EDT
Location
Norton Hall
Saint Gobain Abrasives
1 New Bond Street
Worcester, MA 01606
Fees/Admission
Free for Members
Contact Information
Darnell Dunn, Director of Business Recruitment
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