By KEN de la BASTIDE
ken.delabastide@heraldbulletin.com
Sam Pellegrino, a vice president with Old National Bank, will be traveling with Mayor Kevin Smith to Israel to help lure companies to Anderson.
Pellegrino will join Mayor Kevin Smith and economic development consultant Greg Winkler on their trip Sunday to Israel to meet with several companies. They will return to Anderson Nov. 12.
“The mayor invited me,” Pellegrino said. “It was because I serve on the Corporation for Economic Development board and as chairman of the city’s Blue Ribbon Study committee.”
Old National Bank is paying for Pellegrino’s trip while Smith and Winkler’s expenses are being paid from the city’s share of the 1 percent food and beverage tax revenues.
The trip is expected to cost taxpayers less than $5,000 for Winkler and Smith for airfare and hotel. The pair still has money left from the August trip to Japan, which was funded through business donations.
“Our goal is to bring jobs to Anderson,” Pellegrino said. “I bring the business side to the presentations.”
Pellegrino said he was honored to be carrying the banner for Anderson and Old National Bank.
“This community has been very welcoming to me,” said Pellegrino, a Tennessee transplant. “I never felt like an outsider and I want to take that message to others.”
“It is important to include a member of the business community,” Smith said. “This is a business development trip.”
The three-member delegation is taking information about the city and Anderson banks that have international capabilities.
The Anderson delegation will be meeting with the Israeli owners of two companies, HDP (Home Design Products) and Taditel Co., with Anderson operations and another that does business with an Anderson company.
HDP has 120 employees in Anderson, 80 in Alexandria and a marketing group in Carmel. The company purchased the former Magnequench building in 2003.
Taditel is an automotive electronics aftermarket engineering firm that recently moved its distribution facility to Anderson from New York. The components, designed locally, are manufactured overseas.
In Israel, the Anderson delegation will join representatives from Columbus, Ind., as well as the Indiana Economic Development Corp. The city will have an opportunity to present its selling points to 60 companies during the week.
“These will be companies that are all interested in having a presence in the Midwest,” said Smith. “We believe we can put forward a compelling case for them to locate in Anderson.”
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