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California Firm, Born In Michigan, Expands To WMU Tech Park In Kalamazoo

KALAMAZOO -- Mophie, the California-based developer of portable power systems for smartphones, said Wednesday it is expanding into a location at Western Michigan Univesity's Business Technology and Research Park.

The company said it's buying land at the tech park on which it will construct a 30,000-square-foot building to house its rapidly expanding North American distribution functions.

Founded in 2005 in Oshtemo, Mophie is now headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., and continues to maintain a presence in West Michigan with a location in Paw Paw.  The company already has a number of WMU graduates on staff and officials say they're enthused about the prospect of employing student interns, as well as engaging the university's faculty on workflow design for the new building.

"Mophie's foundational roots are in Michigan, so the opportunity to have a presence on the campus of the well-respected research university, WMU, is a real honor," said Shawn Dougherty, Mophie COO. "Not only will we be able to collaborate with WMU's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and its Haworth College of Business, but this facility will also hasten the expansion of our capacity, bring jobs to the area, and allow us to give back to the community."

Construction of the facility is scheduled to begin this fall, with occupancy anticipated for the first quarter of 2013. In addition to accommodating the company's North American distribution center, the location will be the hub for quality control, customer and technical support, and a variety of expanding functions for the quickly growing, international firm.

"This is one of the world's most innovative technology companies," says Bob Miller, WMU associate vice president for community outreach and point person for the development of the BTR Park. "Having Mophie on our campus will not only create opportunities for our faculty and students, it also demonstrates once again that Western Michigan University is being increasingly recognized for the quality of its faculty, students and research. We could not be more proud of being able to say Mophie is our latest BTR Park partner. We look forward to being a resource for them in a variety of ways."

More at www.mophie.com.

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