Community Corner
QED Founder to Be First Lady's Guest at State of the Union Address
Hiroyuki Fujita will sit in box with Michelle Obama.
Quality Electrodynamics founder Hiroyuki Fujita will be a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama at tonight's State of the Union address, according to a Plain Dealer article.
The Mayfield Village business has been lauded as a shining star in tough economic times. Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris on a tour drumming up support for President Obama's American Jobs Act.
Ted Esborn, village development director, recalled that he met with Fujita and an associate in 2007 and they made up two-thirds of QED's workforce.
"Now they have about 100 employees," he said.
Esborn said the village partnered with Panzica Investments in 2005 to attract high-tech businesses to Beta Drive. The village's investment of $50,000 helped attract Pre-Emptive Solutions and QED, which makes medical devices that include MRI radio frequency coil technology for human body imaging.
That investment has resulted in a payback rate of 549 percent, Esborn said. Village income taxes generated by QED were $146,293 through 2010. The two companies combined to create 109 jobs and $274,295 in income taxes since 2005.
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