Currently based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the company will gradually move its offices to Tulsa during the coming months, said William Lobeck, president and CEO. The move is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Vanguard looked at the cost of doing business, cost of facilities, quality of the work force, educational system, work ethic and a number of other criteria before deciding on Tulsa.
“We gave serious consideration to locating in various states, and Oklahoma clearly demonstrated it has what is necessary to be competitive,” Lobeck said.
To secure the project, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, the city of Tulsa and the Tulsa Metro Chamber put together a package that proposes to eliminate all capital gains taxes on Oklahoma-based property.
Call centers is another growing industry in Tulsa. Just months after expanding its Tulsa work force, call center DecisionOne said it plans to hire an additional 450 full-time employees within the next three months.
DecisionOne last year added more than 360 employees to handle increased customer calls for Sprint, one of its major clients.
The company, which has been in Tulsa since 1996, currently employs more than 1,300 workers. The new positions will be in technical support, customer service and management.
The hirings come as DecisionOne faces additional customer demand and increased call volume, said Paige Lewis, marketing communications manager for the company.
Lewis said she could not disclose the name of the client that prompted the most recent round of hiring.
“It’s that increased business that has caused us to need additional seats,” she said.
Aerospace Continues to Soar
Tulsa is home to some of the world’s most envious labor force clusters, including aerospace. Maximizing that cluster, Boeing recently announced plans to expand operations at its Tulsa facility.
Boeing will add 500 high-quality jobs beginning this year with workers assembling wing parts for Boeing’s next generation airliner, the 7E7 Dreamliner.
Tulsa was selected because of its workers’ productivity skills, and excellence within the Boeing organization.
“There are Boeing facilities in 70 countries and 38 states, and Tulsa was among only five chosen for the work,” said Steve Hendrickson, director of strategic planning for Boeing Tulsa.
Boeing employees will do about 35 percent of the work on the Dreamliner project, with the rest being done by a consortium of other companies.
Bizjet International Sales & Support Inc., a subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik AG and one of the leading turbine engine overhaul centers in the world, is also adding to its business and corporate aircraft capabilities in Tulsa.
The new facility could double employment within five years at Bizjet, which currently employs 185 people, company executives said.
“The new test cell will give Bizjet the capability of servicing bigger engines in the business jet arena,” said August Wilhelm Henningsen, chairman of the board for Lufthansa Technik.
Bizjet also operates a thrust test cell for smaller business and corporate jets at Tulsa International Airport.
“The biggest market for business jet aircraft is the United States,” Henningsen said. “That’s why we decided to acquire Bizjet in Tulsa.”
— Deborah Lehman
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