Booker celebrates Conduent HQ ribbon cutting

For U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, celebrating the move of new business service firm Conduent to its headquarters in Florham Park on Friday held a special significance, as both a senator and a Garden State resident.For U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, celebrating the move of new business service firm Conduent to its headquarters in Florham Park on Friday held a special significance, as both a senator and a Garden State resident.

Currently, the firm employs over 90,000 people across the world, including about 2,500 in the state, and has set aggressive growth goals for the coming years.

“My parents tell a story very simply: they both went to Washington, D.C., after getting their educations and it was another tech company — I dare say, a competitor of Xerox, old IBM that gave my parents their first opportunities,” He said. “My dad was the first African-American hired in the entire Washington, D.C., area. And here is an American family, that because of a business, got expanding opportunities, got their opportunity to experience the American dream.”

The firm selected its 33,000-square-foot headquarters in Florham Park after its separation from Xerox at the beginning of 2017 and after a brief stay in Basking Ridge. As of the ceremony, Conduent is a $6.5 billion business.

The senator (D-N.J.) said that, as the former mayor of Newark, attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony always fills him with joy, especially for firms that are forward-thinking.

“To me, this is one of those exciting 21st century companies,” Booker said. “A company whose actual horizon is limitless in how it can impact American culture. Today, this is a day of extreme pride for me and I am just humbled to be a witness to what you all are doing, and to work with you more and more to make sure that we are a country that support the kind of innovation, entrepreneurship and success of American companies like this. And that means focusing on things that are directly related to the success of this company, from infrastructure to immigration policy, to education policy, to make sure that we are a country that is not walking to the future but soaring to it. Not keeping pace of our competition, but exceeding it.”

Conduent specializes in business process services. The firm holds a diversified portfolio of services for health care, government and private clients including American Express and the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Since its separation from Xerox, the firm has also expanded to 18 industry sectors across 40 countries. 

Ashok Vemuri, Conduent’s CEO, thanked the senator for attending the ribbon-cutting, and said he hopes to be a positive addition to the Florham Park business community. The firm said its new HQ will give proximity to its current clients and advance its exposure to new ones.

“We are honored and proud to be a part of the greater Morristown community and the Florham Park business community,” he said. “After a thorough search, we were fortunate enough to locate this beautiful location. In New Jersey today, we employ over 2,500 people across over 20 locations in the state. We have many clients in the state, at the state and local government, such as N.J. EZ Pass, etc., as well as many U.S. and international businesses that operate out of the state. Our services that we deliver from New Jersey include: transaction processing centers, workers compensation, etc., and we have plans to grow.

“We’re appreciative of the welcome we have received from both the city and the state of New Jersey, and look forward to the contributions we can make to the local economy and as a citizen of New Jersey.”