south metro
Apple Valley snares corporate HQ, 25 jobs
- Article by: JIM ADAMS , Star Tribune
- Updated: March 21, 2012 - 9:32 PM
Former Ceridian CEO Kathy Marinello is moving her latest company's base to the suburb.
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A technical support company with more than 30,000 employees worldwide is moving its headquarters to Apple Valley, the city's mayor announced Wednesday.
Stream Global Services, based in the Boston suburb of Wellesley, Mass., will move most of its corporate staff this year to the southern Twin Cities suburb, where its CEO already lives, said Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland.
The headquarters will initially have about 25 employees, with more expected later, company spokesman Joe Thornton said.
Stream's CEO, Kathy Marinello, lives in Apple Valley with her husband and three sons, one of whom sat by her at the announcement luncheon at Hayes Community and Senior Center. She is the former chairman and CEO of Ceridian Corp.
Marinello said afterward that Stream Global's corporate office was moving here because "Apple Valley is a great place and has great resources." She said it will also greatly shorten her commute.
Stream is negotiating to lease downtown office space in the city, Thornton said, and expects to move in this year. He said the other reasons for the move include good relationships developed with city officials and Apple Valley's proximity to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Thornton said the company has a lean corporate staff but has service call centers, each with hundreds of employees, in 50 locations in 22 countries. They assist clients' customers by answering questions about technical, computer, financial, billing or other matters over the phone or Internet.
"I believe our community will have a tremendous positive impact from Stream Global Services," Hamann-Roland said after making the announcement in her State of the City speech. "I look for a good partnership for a very long time."
About 150 people attended the Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce-sponsored luncheon, including officials from the Greater MSP regional development partnership and the state Department of Employment and Economic Development. Among them was Mark Lofthus, the department's director of business and community development.
He said state officials have been in discussions with Stream Global for nine months and have offered customized staff training and low interest-loans for equipment or to renovate the company's new space.
"Any state in the country would be happy to have a corporate headquarters located there. We will support that however we can because it doesn't happen every day," Lofthus said. About 80 percent of business projects he works with are expansions by existing companies, he added.
Last month Stream announced 2011 financial results. Revenue increased by 6 percent to $847 million from $800 million in 2010. The company had a net loss of $24 million for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with a net loss of $53 million in 2010.
According to its website, Stream is "a global provider of sales, customer service and technical support services for the Fortune 1000" that "currently manages millions of voice, e-mail and chat contacts each year from customers around the globe."
The company has 14 call service centers in North America, including centers in Vermillion, S.D., and Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.
Jim Adams • 952-746-3283
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