Projo Biz Blog

JOHNSTON – With construction of FM Global’s new, four-story headquarters already underway in the background, local, state and company officials this afternoon celebrated the $60 million investment of a 175-year-old Rhode Island company.

FM Global, one of the world’s largest commercial-property insurers, is building a 340,000 headquarters on 93 acres of land off Central Avenue, adjacent to its existing headquarters. The project is expected to be completed by mid-2009.

Shivan S. Subramaniam, FM Global’s chairman and chief executive officer, traced the history of the company for the estimated 150 guests at the groundbreaking ceremony. He said the company began in a single office in downtown Providence in the early 1800s and while changing its name several times also moved to various locations in the city. The company relocated and built its headquarters in Johnston in the 1970s.

The $4.5 billion company has now expanded to 52 offices in 130 countries with 4,800 workers. FM Global employs about 770 people at the corporate offices and another 100 at a research campus in Glocester.

Still, “Rhode Island has remained our home,” he said.

---