Thomson Reuters to expand in Canada with new Technology Hub

Thomson Reuters Corp. is undertaking a major expansion to its Canadian operation with a plan to build a technology hub that will add 400 high-tech jobs in downtown Toronto over the next two years.

The blueprints for the news and information giant’s new Toronto Technology Centre, to be unveiled Friday, will increase its Canadian head count by a third in the short term. The company expects to add 1,500 jobs in the longer term, mostly by hiring from the local market.

Executives at Thomson Reuters, which has deep roots in Toronto dating back to 1934, were drawn to the city as a key access point to talent in the technology sector, at one end of a corridor that stretches to Waterloo, Ont. The company has developers in 43 countries, but only five large hubs, stretching from Bangalore to Dallas. Toronto will be its sixth, and the city’s young, diverse work force was a major selling point, pitched by politicians who are keen to sell Canada as a place where global companies can set up shop.

“We can’t create enough innovation inside our company alone in order to survive. So we need those labs, we need a network and ecosystem of outside developers,” Jim Smith, chief executive officer of Thomson Reuters, said in an interview. “Frankly, the multicultural aspect of Toronto is attractive to us. It’s an environment that looks like our client base around the world.”

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