EXTON, Pa. – Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for the infrastructure that sustains our world, today announced that CEO Greg Bentley has been inducted into the Chester County, Pa., Business Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place last Thursday night during the Chester County Economic Development Council’s Business Achievement Awards Dinner at the historic Foundry in Phoenixville, Pa. The award is given to an individual in recognition of outstanding endeavors and achievements within the Chester County business community.
“Greg joined his four brothers at Bentley Systems in 1991. Together, they were able to grow a small software company with 35 colleagues and 5,000 square feet of leased space in Lionville, Pa., into the world’s leading company dedicated to providing software solutions for the lifecycle of infrastructure,” said Gary Smith, president and CEO of the Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC).
Smith continued, “For more than two decades, Bentley Systems’ tremendous success sustaining infrastructure and the infrastructure professions around the globe has also helped sustain the economic growth and prosperity of Chester County. It’s done this by not only providing good employment opportunities, but also by cultivating our region’s image as fertile ground for innovative companies.”
Greg Bentley said, “To the CCEDC and its directors and staff, for myself, and on behalf of my family and colleagues at Bentley Systems, may I personally convey great appreciation for your work, and for this recognition of what that work has enabled at Bentley Systems.
“Through CCEDC, we at Bentley secured in 1996 and 1998 two low-interest Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority loans as we first expanded our original building by 50 percent, and then added the 40,000-square-foot ‘front-office’ headquarters building on our campus. We’ve left that real estate financing in place ever since so that we could deploy our operating cash flow instead towards R&D and acquisitions, in which we’ve thus been able to invest over a billion dollars since then.
“Our CCEDC-arranged loans were intended to enable employee development, and thus included ambitious targets for headcount growth. When we applied for the first loan, we employed 95 full-time colleagues in Exton, and our goal was to create 40 additional jobs. By the time we applied for the second loan two years later, we had 257 colleagues in Exton.”
Today, Bentley Systems has close to 450 full-time colleagues in Exton occupying about 110,000 square feet of office space. The number of colleagues employed around the globe totals more than 2,700.
Mr. Bentley continued, “Given today’s economic challenges, the work of the CCEDC has never been more essential, both in attracting and fostering new enterprises in Chester County – as our company once was – and in helping all of us to work smarter and to support each other.”
About Bentley Systems, Incorporated
Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Architects, engineers, constructors, and owner-operators are indispensable in improving our world and our quality of life; the company’s mission is to improve the performance of their projects and of the assets they design, build, and operate. Bentley sustains the infrastructure professions by helping to leverage information technology, learning, best practices, and global collaboration – and by promoting careers devoted to this crucial work.
Founded in 1984, Bentley has more than 2,700 colleagues, offices in more than 50 countries, annual revenues surpassing $500 million, and, since 1993, has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions. Nearly 90 percent of the Engineering News-Record Top Design Firms are Bentley subscribers, and a 2008 Daratech study ranked Bentley as the world’s #2 provider of geospatial software solutions.
For additional information about Bentley, visit www.bentley.com. To view a searchable collection of the year’s top infrastructure projects from the annual “Be Awards of Excellence,” visit www.bentley.com/yearininfrastructure. For information about Be Communities, a social networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit http://communities.bentley.com/.
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Bentley, the “B” Bentley logo, and Be are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.