OTTAWA — Thomson Reuters, the news and digital information company, said on Friday that it planned to add 400 jobs in downtown Toronto over the next two years as part of a northern expansion that could create up to 1,500 jobs.
As part of the change, Thomson Reuters’s chief executive and chief financial officers will move to Toronto from the United States.
The power shift within the company, which Thomson Reuters said would include additional executives over time, came with a decision to make Toronto a technology hub for its operations.
Although the company has had its legal headquarters in Toronto since the Thomson family’s company acquired Reuters in 2008, its top executives are now based in New York and Stamford, Conn.
Reuters, the company’s news agency, reported that Jim Smith, the chief executive, told employees in a memo that the move would allow Thomson Reuters to “take a technology leadership position in the region.”
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The company said it would continue to maintain a strong presence in its news hubs in London, Hong Kong and New York.
The announcement comes after a decision by General Motors in June to create as many as 1,000 technology positions in Canada, mostly in the Toronto area. Those new employees will focus on several technologies, including self driving vehicles.
Both companies said they were partly attracted to Canada’s largest city because of the software skills of graduates from Ontario universities, notably the University of Waterloo. Immigration laws also make it easier for companies to import skilled workers to Canada compared with the United States.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference that no financial government assistance was provided.
“This was about smoothing red tape,” Mr. Trudeau said.
Thomson Reuters, a publicly traded company, is already based in Toronto. The members of Thomson family mainly live in the city, and their private holding company is based there.
Cameron Ahmad, Mr. Trudeau’s press secretary, said the prime minister and Chrystia Freeland, the international trade minister, had held several meetings with Mr. Smith in New York and Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the move.
Ms. Freeland previously held senior editorial positions at Reuters and was also deputy editor of The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper owned by the Thomsons’ private holding company.
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Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/business/media/thomson-reuters-to-add-up-to-1500-jobs-in-toronto.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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