News Releases for December 2000
December 29, 2000
Contact: Patrick Richards
(701) 220-1097
Disaster Declaration to Aid Rural Electric CO-OPS
BISMARCK, ND -- Pick any community in North Dakota. Now add 150 new jobs to that area, and you have real, measurable growth. That's just what will happen in Minot over the next two years.
Officials from ING ReliaStar (formerly ReliaStar Financial Corp.), which was acquired by the Dutch financial giant ING Group NV in September 2000, announced Dec. 20 that it will add another 150 jobs to the 550 employees currently working at the 90,000 square-foot facility. Currently, the company's base annual payroll in Minot exceeds $10 million.
"Our ability to bring both public and private leaders to the table and 'get the job done' must continue to grow and be recognized for the strength it is," Governor John Hoeven said. "Not only do we have talented, well educated, hard-working people to succeed in new or expanding businesses; the same brand of people bring these and similar skills to the table when we need to make the project reality."
The "brand" of people Governor Hoeven refers to includes Lee Peterson, his recent appointee to the post of director for the state's department of Economic Development and Finance (ED&F). While serving as president of the Minot Area Development Corporation, Peterson, other Minot community leaders and officials from ED&F were instrumental in the selection of Minot for the ReliaStar Service Center now there.
The ING Service Center in Minot provides ongoing support to more than one million customers across the nation who have purchased a life insurance policy or an annuity.
"We just completed the two-year consolidation of ReliaStar's customer service operations under one roof in Minot this month," said Roger Weber, senior vice president and chief operating officer for ING Life Group - US. Weber was one of the three people from ReliaStar responsible for site selection and implementation when Minot got the green light in 1998.
"ING recognized the soundness of the ReliaStar strategy to consolidate activities, gain efficiencies and be easier to do business with through our Minot service center. Now we are continuing with similar customer service functions from two ING locations; one in Denver, Colo., and another in Atlanta, Ga."
The ING consolidation will take up to two years, according to Weber, who says North Dakota "has absolutely been the right choice" for his company. "Anything we have ever needed from the community or the state was provided without missing a heartbeat. North Dakota people have delivered and given us an incredibly smooth transition through, what could be, a difficult time."
It was less than six months from the time ReliaStar first contacted ED&F with an interest in locating in North Dakota to the announcement the company would build a 90,000 square-foot service center for life insurance post services. Eight months later, the company held its grand opening and moved more than 200 employees into the new facility.
Companies like ING also boost awareness about North Dakota. "Any time you have a company the caliber of ING ReliaStar in your community, it develops a level of awareness in the business world that draws more attention to the state," said Paul Lucy, interim president of the Minot Area Development Corporation. "We continue to get calls about our community and what we have to offer out-of-state companies because of ING's location here."
E-mail comments to the Governor
