Cascadia MedTech Association was created to help bring jobs to Federal Way and the surrounding companies. On Nov. 1, CEO Garry Welch told the Federal Way City Council that things are going well, but Cascadia is learning as it goes.
Cascadia is engaged with the companies MA2SI, SteathOShield, PhoneGuard, Vacupractor and PostureWings. The first three are focused on eliminating the transmission of pathogens in hospitals and clinics, while Vacupractor and PostureWings are aimed at alleviating back pain.
Cascadia is currently involved in bringing another company into the fold. GAPPS is associated with Children’s Hospital and sells human specimens to researchers around the planet. That company’s goal is to help eliminate premature and still births by giving researchers access to these human specimens, Welch said.
“They were unable to launch their business, but they found us, and asked us if we would help them. We just started with them this month,” Welch said.
Welch reviewed the support network Cascadia has created to help bring jobs to Federal Way, including a phalanx of sales people, legal experts and others. He said Cascadia has also been in a close working relationship with Orion Industries, one of the first companies it hopes will help bring more jobs into Federal Way. The interest in the community has grown considerably as well, Welch noted.
“So we have a lot of people in Federal Way that are looking for a way for Cascadia MedTech to be successful,” Welch said.
Welch did a quick rundown of the numbers of jobs the companies listed above could potentially bring to Federal Way.
“We’re trying to recruit five new businesses to set up shop in Federal Way, so 63 new jobs. We retained one big company in Federal Way, that’s 120 (jobs), and we’re trying to expand operations of other companies, which is 35 jobs,” he said.
Welch admitted those aren’t amazing numbers, but feels Cascadia can become a force in job creation here in Federal Way.
“We haven’t really created many jobs yet. This is what could happen, if we could simply execute what’s in front of us right now. And our goal is to double, triple, quadruple the companies with us right now,” he said.
