Sallie Mae, the nation’s leading student loan provider, plans to add 700 jobs in Indiana by opening a new operation in Muncie. Sallie Mae CEO Tim Fitzpatrick, Muncie Mayor Dan Canan, President of the Delaware County of Commissioners Tom Bennington, Vision 2006 Economic Development Program, and other local officials joined Governor Mitch Daniels for the announcement at the future Sallie Mae facility, which is currently a shell structure that will be built out by state and local contractors and fully operational later this year.

Mayor Canan and Sallie Mae CEO Tim Fitzpatrick today signed the letter of intent allowing the company to lease the Airpark facility in Muncie from the Delaware Advancement Corporation. After an initial 10-year lease, Sallie Mae will purchase the 54,000 square foot building that was originally built in 1999.

The new jobs in Muncie will bring Sallie Mae’s total employment in Indiana to more than 3,000. New positions at the facility will support several subsidiaries in Sallie Mae’s debt management division. The company anticipates filling up to 300 jobs in the first year of operation and an additional 200 jobs in each of the next two years, bringing the total at the facility to 700 by year end 2008. General hiring will begin as early as August of this year.

“The outreach and effort from both the state of Indiana and this community were tremendous,” said Fitzpatrick. “Their hard work made Sallie Mae’s decision to grow in Indiana an easy one.”

The Muncie facility is likely to focus on student loan default prevention performed primarily by subsidiaries in Sallie Mae’s debt management division.