Stamford's WBDC Meet With Gov. Malloy [Video]

The many influential women of Stamford's Women's Business Development Council welcomed Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who talked about creation, tourism, and retraining.

"We're going to see a much more focused job creation," Malloy said during the roundtable discussion. Over 50 members of the WBDC, including WBDC President Fran Pastore, attended the event, which began at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.

"We have 124,000 women-owned businesses in our state, that means out of the businesses that are registered, 51% are women-owned," Pastore said to Malloy during the discussion.  "They generate $26 million in sales, and employ over 150,000 people. Those are some pretty big numbers. We are one of the few states in the country that do not track women-owned businesses specifically."

"A lot of states are starting to look at the impact of women-owned businesses," Pastore continued. "Is that something you think about?"

"If I don't think about it, I know that you're going to remind me," Malloy joked before providing a serious answer.

"17% of all small businesses are actually women-owned or minority owned, so we're very aware. We're also very aware, and people sometimes forget this, of the supply chain. Big businesses, deeper stakes. So, we do spend a lot of time worrying about big businesses, in part because we realize what the disappearance of that big business would mean to small business," Malloy said.

Stamford state representative Gerald Fox, as well as Sen. Carlo Leone and state representative Dan Fox were present for the discussion.

Malloy and Department of Economic & Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith were scheduled to continue their jobs tour by visiting Norwalk's FactSet Research Systems, Inc. later in the day.