Stories

Pritzker Group Senior Vice President Steven Collens was named chief executive of the nascent MATTER health care entrepreneurship hub on Tuesday.

According to the Mayor’s Office, Collens previously “spearheaded development and launch” of the 1871 technology incubator. Prior to joining the Pritzker Group, Collens spent 10 years with North Chicago-based pharmaceutical and medical device giant Abb…

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Adam Piotrowski got stuck when he tried to start a medical device company here three years ago.

“I knew Chicago was a great place to start a business, but it was hard to find a place to be based where I could develop and set up prototypes, work with a variety of resources nearby and get in touch with all of the people I needed to,” the Oak Park native said. “I had to find my own office space, …

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A day after traveling to New York to talk about a minimum wage increase, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is back in Chicago to announce the next step in an initiative to promote the growth of local healthcare companies and tout an increase in the number of kids attending Chicago Park District summer camp.

Emanuel joined New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and other big-city mayors Monday at a summit on income in…

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Applications to claim space in a soon-to-open health tech hub in downtown Chicago opened on Tuesday. The 25,000-square-foot co-working space for medical device, biopharma and information technology startups called Matter is expected to open in early 2015 next to Chicago’s 2-year-old digital tech incubator 1871 on the 12th floor of the Merchandise Mart. It’s funded by the state with a $2.5 milli…

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A startup hub dedicated to early stage healthcare and life science companies is moving into the Merchandise Mart in the coming months, and today it announced it is accepting applications and has named a CEO.

At a press conference Tuesday at the hub’s future location just down the hall from 1871, MATTER appointed current Pritzker Group Vice President Steven Collens as its CEO. Collens said Chic…

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