Post by Moon Seeker on Jun 4, 2008 13:50:50 GMT -5
Native American entrepreneur buys staffing company franchise
New Mexico Business Weekly - by Megan Kamerick NMBW Staff
An Albuquerque entrepreneur has purchased the local franchise of the national Spherion Corp. recruiting and staffing company.
Derrick J. Lente, who has roots in Sandia and Isleta pueblos, acquired Spherion's corporate-owned branch in Albuquerque, which has been operating here since 1998. The deal gives Lente ownership of the Albuquerque market and marketing rights for Bernalillo, Sandoval and Valencia counties.
Spherion is based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and has 700 offices in North America. It has 300,000 employees and more than 8,000 clients -- 90 percent of them on the Fortune 100 list. Its annual revenues are $2 billion.
Cheryl Hilpert, spokeswoman with Spherion, said the company likes to have local owners in its smaller, niche markets.
"They want a local focus and they want someone who knows the local community and is more engaged and has a sense of what is going on in that specific community," she said.
Spherion (NYSE: SFN) serves a number of industries, including aerospace and defense, auto manufacturing, banking, biotechnology, education and financial services. Hilpert said Spherion does not reveal the names of clients.
Lente, 28, said the staffing industry seemed like a good business to enter right now.
"Economic conditions will be favorable to markets like this because employers are in flux," he said. "As a boy growing up on the reservation, obtaining higher education or owning your own business didn't seem like an option. I know now that you create your own options."
mkamerick@bizjournals.com | (505) 348-8323
www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2008/06/02/daily16.html?b=1212379200^1644996
New Mexico Business Weekly - by Megan Kamerick NMBW Staff
An Albuquerque entrepreneur has purchased the local franchise of the national Spherion Corp. recruiting and staffing company.
Derrick J. Lente, who has roots in Sandia and Isleta pueblos, acquired Spherion's corporate-owned branch in Albuquerque, which has been operating here since 1998. The deal gives Lente ownership of the Albuquerque market and marketing rights for Bernalillo, Sandoval and Valencia counties.
Spherion is based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and has 700 offices in North America. It has 300,000 employees and more than 8,000 clients -- 90 percent of them on the Fortune 100 list. Its annual revenues are $2 billion.
Cheryl Hilpert, spokeswoman with Spherion, said the company likes to have local owners in its smaller, niche markets.
"They want a local focus and they want someone who knows the local community and is more engaged and has a sense of what is going on in that specific community," she said.
Spherion (NYSE: SFN) serves a number of industries, including aerospace and defense, auto manufacturing, banking, biotechnology, education and financial services. Hilpert said Spherion does not reveal the names of clients.
Lente, 28, said the staffing industry seemed like a good business to enter right now.
"Economic conditions will be favorable to markets like this because employers are in flux," he said. "As a boy growing up on the reservation, obtaining higher education or owning your own business didn't seem like an option. I know now that you create your own options."
mkamerick@bizjournals.com | (505) 348-8323
www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2008/06/02/daily16.html?b=1212379200^1644996