JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A Denmark-based technology company is set to open a robotics assembly facility in Johnstown in September. UXV Technologies is planning to hire 15 local people.
Johnstown Area Regional Industries President and CEO Linda Thomson said she sees further potential for Danish companies to grow in Johnstown.
And that’s largely thanks to an immigrant from Denmark to Johnstown, Jesper Nielsen, who has a passion for economic development.
Nielsen had no direct connections to Danish tech companies, but he made a phone call eight years ago to a refrigerator salesman back home in Denmark, who put him in touch with a guy he played cards with. That person, the salesman said, just may be able to help Nielsen get the word out about Johnstown.
That call led Nielsen to a 45-minute scheduled meeting with the CEO of the Center for Defence, Space & Security – or CenSec, for short.
CenSec is a coalition of companies in Denmark involved in the defense, homeland security, aerospace and transportation industries.
After setting a meeting with CenSec, Nielsen contacted Thomson at JARI, a nonprofit economic development organization for businesses and communities in Somerset and Cambria counties.
Over the years, CenSec President Klaus Bolving has participated in the defense industry expo Showcase for Commerce in Johnstown and has formed a partnership with JARI and Thomson.
CenSec has become a regular group in attendance for the Showcase.
The contingent from Denmark has grown each year.
In 2022, the Danish deputy ambassador and the deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development signed an agreement to collaborate on energy and defense initiatives at the Showcase for Commerce press conference.
That same year, CenSec and JARI signed an international cooperation agreement to advance shared interests in pursuit of international opportunities for companies and emerging businesses.
“Jesper made the introduction to CenSec through a family friend and was on the initial call between Klaus and me,” Thomson said.
“He also attended the first Danish Defence Conference with me in Aalborg, Denmark.
“Since then, Jesper and his wife, Amy, have co-hosted and assisted with Danes’ travel to Johnstown over the years. They are part of our team.”
Nielsen, 41, initially visited Johnstown more than 20 years ago as an exchange student for a year.
Although he returned to Denmark after that year, he subsequently returned to marry his wife, Amy Croyle, of Somerset County. The couple worked to put each other through college at Pitt-Johnstown, and together they opened Croyle-Nielsen Therapeutic Associates in 2013 – a provider of mental and behavioral health services, wellness services and a variety of services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Their company has grown to employ more than 100 people, and it provides services not only in Cambria and Somerset counties, but also throughout western Pennsylvania.
Nielsen became motivated to further bolster Johnstown’s economy after attending a 2015 economic development meeting hosted at Pitt-Johnstown.
Nielsen was frustrated by a depressing discussion of economic development projects that had fallen through for the town, which was still reeling from the 1977 Johnstown Flood and subsequent loss of its steel industry.
Nielsen said he remembers telling himself, “This can’t be the story we are telling ourselves. It just can’t be.”
He said, “I started thinking, ‘Do I know anyone?’ Just going through a mental list of people that I knew here and back home, I started thinking, ‘You know, there is one gentleman who lived in our neighborhood where I grew up and he was in sales for a larger Danish refrigeration company that did some international stuff.’ He was really the only person I could think of back home that was in business. So I thought, ‘Well I’m just going to tell him about Johnstown, tell him about what I want to do here and see if he knows anybody.’ And that’s exactly what I did.”
Prior to Nielsen’s first arrival in Johnstown as an 18-year-old student, he had gotten a taste of the United States from a movie called “All the Right Moves.”
Seeing how glum and economically depressed the setting was in the movie, he said, “I hope I don’t go to a place like that.”
He subsequently was assigned to a family in Windber and rushed to his parents’ atlas to see if he could find it.
When he arrived in Windber, the matriarch of his host family, who owned a video store, said, “You have to watch this movie. It was filmed here.”
“My…
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