Why Fiserv picked New Jersey — and the big things it could mean for the state
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano will hold a ceremony Thursday morning in Berkeley Heights, welcoming the company — and approximately 2,000 new high-paying, high-tech jobs — to the state.
The announcement is a few weeks in the making, as news of a tech hub that will consolidate 3,000 jobs (including the just over 1,000 that already are in the state) came out earlier in the month.
Truth be told, however, this is a deal that was years in the making — and one that figures to benefit the state for years to come.
The initial meetings started in 2018, when Murphy and a team of other top players, including Tim Sullivan at the Economic Development Authority and Jose Lozano at Choose New Jersey, began pitching the state’s benefits and the new innovation economy that Murphy had just started to champion.
Sullivan remembers how it went.
“The governor always has called himself ‘the head of sales’ — this is an example of just how good he is at it,” he said. “This type of deal doesn’t happen overnight. This was something the governor has made central to him personally. This was a long time coming. This was years in the making.”
Some might say a lifetime.