Pictured above: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, center, recognized the 16 tech companies, including Sphera, that will bring 2,000 jobs to the city by the end of 2019 at a ChicagoNEXT event held in November. Sphera President and CEO Paul Marushka is fourth from the right.
Sphera is next—ChicagoNEXT to be precise.
On Nov. 28, 2018, Paul Marushka, Sphera’s president and CEO, joined Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and representatives from 15 other tech companies, including Lyft and G2 Crowd, at World Business Chicago’s annual Tech Day, which is part of the ChicagoNEXT initiative designed to drive business growth in technology and innovation. Sphera was invited to attend because the company was recognized as being one of the fastest-growing tech organizations in the city for bringing in 130 jobs between 2018 and 2019.
In all, the 16 companies that were recognized as part of ChicagoNEXT will add a combined 2,000 jobs to the Windy City tech scene by the end of next year.
“Sphera is proud to call Chicago home,” Marushka said. “When Sphera was formed in 2016, we set out to find the best tech hub for our headquarters—and since innovation has been and will always be a major part of Chicago’s DNA, it was an easy choice to make. We are excited to be included on this list and to be a part of this growing Chicago tech community.”
And keep growing we will.
Paul Marushka
In 2019, as Crain’s Chicago Business first reported, Sphera will be moving to a much larger headquarters in One Prudential Plaza. The new office will be 25,000 square feet compared with our current 14,000-square-feet digs, which is a 78 percent increase in office space.
Without question, Chicago has become one of the country’s premier tech hubs, and the city is just getting started. This past summer, Chicago launched P33, a project designed to build on the Windy City’s tech push. The “P” has multiple meanings—”people,” “purpose,” “plan” and “progress” while the “33” has a few meanings of its own: It plays off the innovation that came from the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago and recognizes 2033, which is the 200th anniversary of the city’s founding. As the P33 website states: In just 15 years, “we will recognize our vision for Chicago as a technology leader.”
It’s a big goal, but there’s a reason Carl Sandburg called Chicago the City of the Big Shoulders because of its importance to the country then—and that holds true now as well.
“Chicago’s tech scene is diverse, young and thriving,” Emanuel said in a written statement. “With each passing year, new offices are being opened, new jobs are being created, and new ideas are coming to life, driving innovation and growth, and furthering Chicago’s place as a leading hub of the 21st century.”
And Sphera will continue to be along for that exciting journey in Chicago, that toddlin’ town of technology.