Boehringer Ingelheim brings 500 employees, a global mission and a commitment to community to its new U.S. Animal Health headquarters in Johns Creek
There are grand openings that celebrate a new building. Then there are grand openings that signal something bigger — new jobs, new neighbors, new partnerships and another piece falling into place in a community’s vision for its future.
When Boehringer Ingelheim officially opened its new U.S. Animal Health headquarters in Johns Creek, company executives were joined by state and local officials, employees, community leaders and even a four-legged member of the Johns Creek Police Department.
It seemed appropriate. After all, the animals — from household pets to livestock — were largely the reason everyone was there.
“The animals we care for and the customers we serve are at the center of everything we do,” said Peter Ploeger, U.S. Animal Health country managing director for Boehringer Ingelheim.
The new, approximately 73,000-square-foot headquarters at Medley Boulevard spans two floors and brings about 500 employees to Johns Creek, relocating the company’s U.S. Animal Health headquarters from Duluth. But Ploeger said the company wasn’t simply looking for another office.
It was looking for a home.
Finding the right place
When Boehringer Ingelheim began considering the future of its U.S. Animal Health business, access to talent, quality of life and the ability to collaborate were among the priorities. It didn’t take long for Johns Creek to make an impression.
“When we visited, it took us really five minutes to say, ‘that’s the place,’ because we felt it in our heart that that’s the place to be,” Ploeger told the crowd.
The city’s highly skilled workforce and growing life sciences ecosystem were important considerations. So was geography. Boehringer Ingelheim already has a significant presence in Georgia, including research, development and manufacturing operations in Athens and manufacturing operations in Gainesville.
The Johns Creek headquarters creates another point in that network, keeping the company’s business leadership relatively close to the scientists and manufacturing teams developing and producing animal health products elsewhere in the state.
The company has been building that Georgia presence for years. Its expanded Athens research and development facility, which opened in 2024, added 63,000 square feet of administrative space and more than 28,000 square feet of laboratory space. The Athens operation is the company’s largest animal health research and development site in the United States and its third largest globally.
The new Johns Creek headquarters is a different kind of facility, but its purpose is equally intentional. Ploeger said the space was designed to bring employees together, encourage ideas and make collaboration easier.
“This headquarters — it’s more than a building,” he said. “It reflects who we are, what we value and the future we are building here together.”
A company with a long view
For a company celebrating a brand-new headquarters, Boehringer Ingelheim has a very long history. The family-owned business was founded by Albert Boehringer in Ingelheim, Germany, in 1885, according to its website. Its animal health division was formally established in 1955, and the company’s U.S. animal health presence grew through acquisitions that eventually included Merial in 2017.
Today, Boehringer Ingelheim operates in both human and animal health. Its animal health business develops vaccines, medicines and parasite-control products for pets, horses and livestock, serving veterinarians, animal owners, farmers and governments.
More than 3,000 employees work in the company’s U.S. animal health business, according to company information.
Dr. Armin Wiesler, a member of Boehringer Ingelheim’s board of managing directors with responsibility for the Animal Health business unit, traveled to Johns Creek for the opening and offered a reminder that a ribbon cutting isn’t necessarily the culmination of something.
“Grand openings are often viewed as the end of a project,” Wiesler said. “For us, we see this as the beginning of a new chapter.”
He borrowed from German poet Hermann Hesse to make the point that every beginning holds new possibilities.
“Today is not the finish line,” Wiesler said. “It is the starting point for everything that will be achieved here.”
That future, he said, is rooted in the connection between human and animal health. Healthy livestock supports farmers and the food supply. Animal health research can play a role in public health preparedness and emerging diseases. And companion animals have become deeply intertwined with the lives and well-being of the humans who love them.
“The health of animals and humans is deeply, deeply interconnected,” Wiesler said.
That’s especially relevant in Georgia, he added, with its major poultry industry and growing life sciences sector. The company says it plans to invest approximately $20 billion in its U.S. human and animal health businesses between 2025 and 2030, with roughly two-thirds earmarked for research and development and the remainder planned for manufacturing capabilities.
The Georgia connection
For Gov. Brian Kemp, the new headquarters represents another piece of a much larger economic development puzzle.
Kemp and first lady Marty Kemp joined the celebration, along with state and local elected officials. The governor pointed to Boehringer Ingelheim’s facilities in Johns Creek, Athens and Gainesville as examples of the company’s growing commitment to Georgia.
He said the company now employs more than 1,500 people statewide. But he also credited the partnership among state, county and municipal governments that helps bring such projects to fruition.
“We always talk about the Georgia way of economic development,” Kemp said. “It’s not just from the top down. It is really a bottom-up approach. It’s a team sport.”
That team, he said, includes local governments, state economic development officials, legislators and communities willing to work with companies after the ribbon has been cut. The goal isn’t simply attracting a company, Kemp said, but creating an environment where it can continue growing.
“We want to stay with you throughout the next decade or further and make sure you’re successful and keep giving great opportunity to hardworking Georgians,” he said.
Kemp also noted the increasingly important role of life sciences, research and manufacturing in the state’s economy and the importance of connecting education and workforce development to those industries.
For Boehringer Ingelheim, Georgia’s academic institutions, skilled workforce and existing life sciences infrastructure were among the attributes company officials cited in discussing continued investment in the state.
Right company, right community
If state leaders see the headquarters as a win for Georgia, Fulton County economic development officials see it as exactly the kind of investment North Fulton has been cultivating.
Samir Abdullahi, director of Select Fulton, Fulton County’s economic development arm, said the region’s combination of executive talent, technology professionals, entrepreneurs, schools and quality of life makes it particularly attractive. He also believes the companies that choose a community become part of its identity.
“Great communities are not just built on the great people that make up that community, the great spaces that make up that community,” Abdullahi said. “What are the companies that want to be associated with that community?”
Boehringer Ingelheim, he said, fits with North Fulton’s efforts to attract life sciences businesses. But Abdullahi had another request for the headquarters’ nearly 500 new Johns Creek workers. Don’t just work there. Become part of the place.
“Really embed yourself in the community,” he told them. “Don’t just come here to work, but really again, look to see what all [of] North Fulton and Fulton County has to offer.”
And, perhaps most importantly for the local economy, shop locally. Abdullahi jokingly offered to lead by example, telling the audience he planned to pick up a couple of bags of orange chicken at the nearby Trader Joe’s for his wife after the event.
Part of a bigger vision
For Johns Creek Mayor John Bradberry, the arrival of Boehringer Ingelheim is particularly significant because of where the company has landed. The headquarters is part of the rapidly developing Johns Creek Town Center area, a long-term effort to create a recognizable civic and commercial heart for a city that for much of its relatively young history has been known primarily for its residential neighborhoods.
Medley, the mixed-use development taking shape nearby, is a major component of that plan. The 43-acre project is designed to include retail, restaurants, entertainment, offices, residences, a hotel and a large public plaza, according to the city of Johns Creek.
Bradberry said city leaders envisioned a vibrant town center, and companies such as Boehringer Ingelheim help validate that vision.
“They perfectly epitomize the exact kind of company that we have been seeking to attract,” Bradberry said.
Johns Creek has focused its economic development strategy on health, wellness and innovation, he said. “And that extends to our four-legged and furry friends.”
The mayor praised the company not only for bringing its headquarters to the city, but also for demonstrating an early willingness to become part of the community.
“It is already very clear that they are a company that is very focused on community and giving back to community and partnering with community,” Bradberry said.
Then he made another pitch. “You are more than welcome to bring your human headquarters to Johns Creek as well.”
No harm in asking.
Caring for the dogs who care for us
Perhaps the event’s most fitting demonstration of that community partnership came with four paws. As part of the grand opening, Boehringer Ingelheim donated NexGard Plus parasite protection to the Johns Creek Police Department’s K-9 Unit.
Alexandra McMenamy, head of pet for Boehringer’s U.S. Animal Health business, was joined by Johns Creek police officials and K-9 Officer Finn for the presentation. For a company devoted to animal health, McMenamy said supporting police dogs was a natural way to mark its arrival in the city.
“The canine officers of the Johns Creek Police Department are more than just working dogs,” McMenamy said. “They are highly trained partners, dedicated public servants and valued members of the department.”
Working alongside their handlers, police dogs perform a job that directly contributes to public safety.
“As an animal health company, we can’t think of a better way to celebrate a new beginning here in Johns Creek than by caring for the dogs that care for us,” McMenamy said.
The timing was particularly appropriate. The grand opening followed International Dog Day on August 26.
It also wasn’t an entirely new direction for the company. Boehringer Ingelheim and its charitable foundation have supported animal shelters, adoption efforts and other animal welfare organizations in metro Atlanta and elsewhere.
More than an office
There is a temptation to measure a new corporate headquarters by the obvious numbers:
- About 73,000 square feet
- Two floors
- Nearly 500 employees
But the message repeated throughout Boehringer Ingelheim’s grand opening was that the company wants its Johns Creek presence measured by something more.
The headquarters was designed to help employees collaborate. Its location strengthens connections with other Georgia operations. Its presence adds another major employer to the developing Town Center. And its first public celebration included a tangible gesture toward the community’s police department.
Ploeger said what ultimately makes the building special isn’t the building at all. It’s the people who will occupy it.
“Today we have celebrated more than the opening of a new headquarters,” he said. “We have celebrated shared commitment to innovation, partnership and to progress.”
For Johns Creek, the opening adds another prominent corporate citizen to a community intentionally building its next chapter. For Boehringer Ingelheim, it provides a new home for a company whose work touches animals ranging from family pets to the livestock that help feed families around the world.
And if Wiesler is right, the ribbon cutting wasn’t a finish line.
It was a starting line.
For more about Boehringer Ingelheim, visit animalhealth.boehringer-ingelheim.com.
Photo Gallery
Photos from the Boehringer Ingelheim opening in Johns Creek. Credit: Aaliyah Man.
