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WHY INDIANA
LER TechForce is a spinoff of LHP Inc., a company founded in Columbus, Indiana, in 2001. Over the years, LHP grew into a company with multiple business units. LER TechForce, which employs engineers with expertise in the development of software embedded in products that need software to control mechanical systems, was the company’s largest business unit in 2020 when it became an independent company.
LER TechForce is owned by a trio of women who know the importance of diversity, especially in the engineering field. Many engineers are foreign nationals who are reluctant to relocate unless they are comfortable with their destination. That makes Columbus a good home for LER TechForce, said Shen Macheel, an executive vice president for the company and one of its owners.
“The low cost of living and overall friendliness here have helped attract engineers to Columbus,” Macheel said. The city combines the affordability of a smaller city with the diversity of larger cities, she said. Population diversity in Columbus is due in large part to the presence of LER TechForce’s largest customer: Cummins Inc., the giant engine maker.
LER TechForce employs engineers that work on long-term projects for the company’s customers, which, besides Cummins, include automotive industry suppliers and a growing group of companies outside the automotive industry. The vast majority of the company’s customers make products that need embedded software to control their mechanical systems. These ubiquitous devices handle almost everything in vehicles from wiper blades to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. They’re also the driving force behind complex medical devices. Whether those customers are in the automotive, aerospace, or medical fields, the technology they employ changes rapidly and requires the constant training and retraining of engineers.
The training grants the state of Indiana has made available to the company are another reason LER TechForce is happy with its Indiana home and one of the reasons the company decided in late 2022 to add 100 engineers to its Indiana workforce between 2023 and 2025.
“The training support offered by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation has been key to our success,” Macheel said.
AN ASSET FOR COLUMBUS
As LER TechForce successfully recruits engineers from the U.S. and abroad, the new employees add to a diverse workforce that Columbus has been cultivating for decades.
The Greater Columbus Economic Development Corporation, which is charged with growing the economy of the city and surrounding areas, began pursuing direct foreign investment way back in 1978, just a few years after the organization was founded, making it one of the first such economic development organizations in the state.
“We have a symbiotic relationship with LER TechForce,” said Jason Hester, who leads the Greater Columbus EDC. The company’s employees add to what is already a more diverse population than many cities of Columbus’ size enjoy. And that helps Columbus attract more foreign investment, Hester said.
About 10 percent of the city’s population is foreign born, he said, and students enrolled in Columbus schools speak more than 60 unique languages.
“Our foreign and domestic companies recruit the best and brightest from all over the world,” Hester said.
Besides adding to the diversity that Columbus uses in its recruiting efforts, LER TechForce and its former parent, LHP, supply volunteers who are active in the community and support initiatives such as the Advanced Machine and Vehicle Innovation Center, or AMVIC, a public-private partnership that advocates for the adoption of clean power technologies.
AMVIC was created in part with grant money available through the state’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, or READI, grant program. AMVIC is but one result of LER TechForce and LHP leaders helping Hester’s group work through how to best use READI funds in ways that will benefit the community in the long run.
“We’re very happy to have LER TechForce in our community,” Hester said.
FAST FACTS
WHO: LER TechForce, a Woman-Owned Enterprise
WHERE: Based in Columbus, Indiana
FOUNDED: 2020
WHAT: Provides engineering services to companies in the automotive and aerospace industries
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: Approximately 200 of 350 are employed in Indiana
CUSTOMERS OF NOTE: Cummins Inc., automotive suppliers
CURRENT PROJECT: Adding approximately 100 engineers to Indiana workforce