A local official with the company now called L3 Harris Technologies is bullish about the company’s future in Rochester. Harris and L3 Technologies completed their merger this week.
Dana Mehnert, who has been based in Rochester for a number of years, will lead one of the company’s four segments, Communications Systems, which is headquartered locally. He looks at the merger as an overall positive for the Rochester area.
"This L3-Harris merger is going to be great for Rochester," Mehnert told WXXI News. "One of our four segments will be headquartered there. We’ll bring together the businesses, we’ll be a much larger, more competitive enterprise, and I think it will create a lot of opportunity for people in Rochester."
The newly merged L3 Harris Technologies employs about 3,500 people in the immediate Rochester area, including those employed by the Space and Airborne Systems business.
There are about 120 other employees in Victor, at what was previously an L3 Technologies operation. Those employees will now all be part of the local L3 Harris operations.
Often when similar companies merge, there's concern about duplication and downsizing, but overall, Mehnert looks at the two companies as being very complementary to each other.
“This is a growth oriented business, we’re excited about where we’re going to go, net-net, it’ll be a positive for Rochester over time," Mehnert said. "It’s very significant that the headquarters for one of the four segments of this new $17 billion company is based in Rochester."
