Bothell lawmaker checks in
with Philips Healthcare execs, gets
a first-hand look at manufacturing facilities
BOTHELL — This Great Recession — by anyone’s measure, the nastiest economic haymaker to wallop America in well over 70 years — “makes it more important than ever for Washington to work in concert with key businesses and industries,” emphasized state Rep. Derek Stanford.
Stanford visited the Philips Healthcare Bothell campus a few weeks ago. He met with Philips executives and toured their ultrasound factory, which is one of the company’s best examples of a business system called lean manufacturing.
While reasserting the demand for efficiency and accountability in state government, Stanford is also calling for a renewed push toward economic development.
Philips personnel told Stanford that Washington must continue to strengthen the education levels of the state’s work force and the quality of its transportation infrastructure.
“The company has about 1,600 employees in Bothell, and they also have their global ultrasound business headquartered in our community,” Stanford said.
The Philips Healthcare Bothell presence includes engineering, design and production of a great many different products. The company’s global sales and service organization, shared services and oral health-care businesses are also based on the Bothell campus.
Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs 120,000 people in 100 countries. The company is a leader in very diverse areas, including cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, new and energy-efficient lighting applications, portable entertainment, and shaving, grooming and oral-healthcare products.
Stanford’s 1st Legislative District includes the communities and neighborhoods of Bothell, Brier, Maltby, and Mountlake Terrace.
The Bothell legislator is the vice chair of the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee, and he serves on the House Business & Financial Services Committee, and the House Education Appropriations & Oversight Committee.
Stanford lives in Bothell with his wife and their daughter.