On October 27, Acuity Insurance hosted four international guests from the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Mr. Sameera Kumar Anthapur Gopalakrishna, Dr. Hem Himanshu Dholakia, Dr. Suresh Jain, and Mr. Sumit Sharma, all from India, along with their U.S. State Department liaison, toured Acuity’s headquarters facilities to learn about how the company addressed air quality regulations and other sustainability issues in its recently completed expansion project.

“We are delighted and honored to share our design and construction successes with guests from the IVLP program.” said Sheri Murphy, Vice President - Services and Administration, Acuity. “Acuity’s expansion project focused on building a world-class facility for our current staff. We worked to create a business environment that was both state-of-the-art and employee-focused.”

In 2017, Acuity completed the expansion of its corporate headquarters in Sheboygan. The project created two additional wings of office space and doubled the amount of total building space, which now stands at over 1.2 million square feet. Acuity added new galleria space and two 640-car parking structures, expanded training facilities, and upgraded infrastructure, utilities, and security. The company gained energy efficiency through HVAC upgrades and through an “outside-in” approach to design that spreads natural lighting throughout the interior space.

 “These professional exchanges simply wouldn't be possible without the support of individuals and organizations such as Acuity,” said Debra Lampe-Revolinski, International Program Coordinator with the International Institute of Wisconsin, which oversees the local programming details for the IVLP groups awarded to the State of Wisconsin. “The exchanges provide opportunities for current and emerging foreign leaders to experience our country and culture firsthand, as opposed to perceptions formed through films and media. In addition, the meetings reflect the group's professional interests, support our U.S. foreign policy goals, and help guests forge lasting relationships with their American counterparts.”

The International Visitor Leadership Program is the U.S. Department of State's premier professional exchange program. Annually through this program, approximately 5,000 scholars, business professionals, and government leaders (emerging and established) learn more about U.S. Foreign Policy initiatives through face-to-face meetings and tours with our national and local resources. This group visited Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Cincinnati before Sheboygan and headed to Los Angeles afterward.