[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 160 (Thursday, November 13, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S12644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HENRI TERMEER WINS MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR'S NEW AMERICAN APPRECIATION 
                                 AWARD

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege for me to take this 
opportunity to commend Henri Termeer of Massachusetts on receiving the 
Governor's New American Appreciation Award from Governor Weld earlier 
this year.
  Henri Termeer is well known to many of us in Congress. He is the 
chief executive officer and president of Genzyme Corp., the largest 
biotechnology company in Massachusetts and the fourth largest in the 
world. When Henri joined Genzyme in 1983, the company had only 35 
employees. Under his leadership, Genzyme has grown to over 3,500 
employees, including 2,100 in Massachusetts.
  Henri was born in the Netherlands and grew up expecting that he would 
eventually join his father's shoe business. As a young man, he worked 
in the shoe industry in England, intending to gain training and 
experience there before returning to work for his father. When he left 
England, however, he decided to come to America instead of returning to 
the Netherlands.
  After earning a masters degree in business administration at the 
University of Virginia, Henri joined a pharmaceutical company and spent 
the next 10 years working in Germany and the United States in various 
management positions. He left that company in 1983 to become president 
of Genzyme Corp. and later became the company's chief executive officer 
as well.
  In working with Henri Termeer over the years, I have come to know him 
as an impressive businessman and as an outstanding leader for the 
biotechnology industry. He is highly respected in the industry for his 
knowledge, vision, and commitment, and he has won numerous awards from 
his peers. As a member of Governor Weld's Council on Economic Growth 
and Technology and chairman of the Subcommittee on Biotechnology and 
Pharmaceutical Development, Henri's leadership was responsible for the 
adoption of a number of broad initiatives that have made Massachusetts 
an excellent business environment for the biotechnology industry. At 
the present time, biotechnology is a $1.7 billion industry in 
Massachusetts that employs over 17,000 people.
  Henri was selected to receive the Governor's New American 
Appreciation Award for his charitable and community activities as well 
as his business leadership. Among his most important civic 
accomplishments are his efforts to expand learning opportunities for 
mentally challenged children, to improve science education for minority 
students, and to train workers displaced from other industries for new 
careers in biotechnology.
  I congratulate Henri Termeer on this well-deserved award. His success 
in this country is a brilliant new chapter in America's distinguished 
immigrant heritage and history. He is a modern symbol that the American 
Dream is alive and well in our own day and generation. The United 
States needs more New Americans like Henri Termeer.

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