Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and GreeK PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis launch Pfizer digital innovation centre in Thessaloniki. "I am excited to be in Thessaloniki today for this special moment for Pfizer, the city, but also for Albert [Bourla, Pfizer chairman and chief executive officer] who has excelled outside Greece. The discovery of the vaccine against the coronavirus bears his stamp," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday in his greeting at the inauguration of the new facilities of Pfizer's Global Centre for Digital Innovation and its Global Centre for Business Operations and Services in Thessaloniki. "Today Albert is returning home and putting his own special stamp on an investment which is a milestone for Thessaloniki and the country in general," the prime minister underlined, explaining that "next year more than 700 highly-qualified employees will be employed in many different areas of expertise. I believe that one of the main reasons you chose to come here to Thessaloniki are the city's very capable human resources. These are the young Greeks who have gone abroad and are now returning to their city."
“This is a very special moment for the city, for Pfizer and also for Albert Bourla, a true Thessalonian,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a speech at inauguration ceremony, welcoming the investment. The two centers will employ 700 highly skilled workers, while “more than 50 young people, 15% of the staff, are Greeks returning to Greece for work after several years,” Mitsotakis said. He added that Pfizer’s expansion will help turn Thessaloniki into a “hub of major investments, which translates into increased public wealth.”

Pfizer’s investment in Thessaloniki will contribute 650 million euros to the northern port city’s economy and generate much-needed job, the American pharmaceutical giant’s chief executive, Albert Bourla, said on Tuesday at the inauguration of the company’s new centers for Digital Innovation and Business Operations and Services. “We have expanded our footprint by bringing our operations center here,” he said, commenting that Pfizer initially decided to invest in Thessaloniki two years ago. Pfizer’s priorities, he said, are aligned with Greece’s reformist policy, which foresees resources from the EU Recovery Fund being channeled into innovation, exports and sustainable growth. “Our country has human capital and a knowledge-based economy,” said Bourla, a native of Thessaloniki who has been with Pfizer, developer of one of the world’s top Covid vaccines, since 1993.