A message to potential investors around the world to give a “vote of confidence” in Greece following his own example, he sent from New York, Pfizer CEO Albert Burladuring his speech at 23rd Conference of “Capital Link Invest in Greece”, which was attended by the Minister of Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, the Minister of Finance, Christos Staikouras and the Deputy Minister of Development and Investment, Nikos Papathanasis.
In particular, Mr. Bourla stressed:
“I would like to talk to you a little about the investments in Greece and our experience.
Initially, Pfizer decided to make a medium-sized investment in Greece and the truth is that I decided to do it. I did not decide just because I wanted to give something back to my homeland – yes, it would make me very happy, it would fill my heart, but I could go to Thessaloniki to do something and show it to my friends. But that was not what I did.
The reality is that I moved strictly professionally when I realized that there is a huge opportunity to do something. And I understood that because I knew how much we struggled in other parts of the world, starting here in the US, to attract the right talent for our various fields.
We are a very specialized company for this and we try to find scientists, biologists, doctors, but also computer scientists, data scientists.
And I realized how valuable the ability to have the best in number but also in cost is something that is competitive.
At that time Greece had the “brain drain”, people left the country, but in universities, e.g. at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki there were 100,000 students. It is not a small number, it is huge. And so I knew we would find staff.
And I knew that they would be committed, I knew that they were looking for an opportunity to prove not only who they are but they were also looking for an opportunity to prove to everyone that Greece can do it.
I’m talking to you seriously, they see it as a mission of their lives, not just to do their job at Pfizer – I’m talking about the specifics who work for us and have been hired as part of the project-, they see it as an opportunity to prove to everyone that we are welcome in this city. And even more will come.
I remember, when I first went to the Minister, Mr. Georgiadis, he had already worked the details with the group of people he referred to, who had come to visit Greece.
Greece, therefore, competed with many other countries. And this team had come to Greece to see what it can win. They were very impressed with how welcome they felt from the Greek Government. That made a big difference.
And of course they talked and then they saw what covered their needs and what it took to get the permits because, you know, everything can get complicated, from getting the offices up and running in two years and not being stopped by regulations, because it can to sign and then not be able to use the building because the original permit was intended for something else.
The problem is that everyone faces these. And it was very clear, from the image we had of the personal involvement of Mr. Georgiadis, who was telling us: do you consider that it has already been done. And he did do what he promised.
With all this, we decided to start a digital center for 200 people. And we decided to operate it as a digital duo, which means we copy functions done abroad.
So, for people, what happens is the same and so they are part of this thing whether it is somewhere else in the world, whether it is in Europe, Asia or America.
This is what helped make this hub more flexible, for example you can move people to different groups because there is always something going on in the world.
The first applications for the 200 positions were thousands. And we had the choice. But those who recruited, who were from the UK, we were using them at the time, or from the US, could not believe the quality of the people in front of them.
The Aristotle University opened its doors to everything we needed in terms of cooperation, a very different environment from what they were used to in their investments in other countries.
And guess what, we’re so happy we decided to bring another center there. When we reorganized our human resources worldwide we thought that this was a place where we could operate other services, e.g. business services.
This is a hub that serves the needs of a company in accounting, in specialized accounting. So, they are closing books on Europe, Istanbul, dealing with specialized taxation, understanding global tax issues and business support centers in Asia.
The time zone is ideal because it is located between Asia and America. It is virtually possible, for example, for the US and Asia to work together. They will start working in Greece, Asia will talk to Greece and then Greece will transfer it to the US as a hub.
So we’re going to act like a spinning clock and be able to move from one continent to another, yes, we can do that.
We currently have 700 people in both centers and are actively involved in what we do. Last week I was there wandering around the junction talking to the staff. And I asked everyone the same questions: “Who are you, what are you doing?” Or “tell me a project”, because everyone tells me, “which of the things you do is the most exciting?”.
I was impressed with what they do. I came today and told the Pfizer executive team that I was in Greece and saw what was happening there. I told them it’s amazing how many projects are under each organization in construction, research, sales.
It was something I really wanted to do, I would be very happy to have something in the city where I was born, but I did not expect it to be so successful not only because the environment was so welcoming but because everyone was thirsty for success, everyone was thirsty to show that yes, we can and we are present.
Yes, they want to show that and I’m very proud of that. I saw it and I did it right. That is what the Greeks do. “
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