China-based IT firm to move headquarters bring 200 jobs to Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A China-based IT firm chose Charlotte for its U.S. headquarters Monday afternoon.

It is the largest Charlotte investment ever by a Chinese-owned company.

City leaders told Channel 9 anchor Scott Wickersham they are fighting to convince these companies to move to Charlotte.

The company is called Pactera and employs 23,000 people worldwide.  The jobs will pay, on average, $100,000 per year.

Pactera has an office on Fairview Road in Southpark with 60 employees, but said Monday it will hire 200 more, making Charlotte its American headquarters.

"Were especially excited because this is a company from Asia," said Charlotte Chamber President Bob Morgan, who expects more companies from that part of the world to relocate to Charlotte.

That is why they hired Eileen Cai. She travels to China twice per year.   Channel 9 asked her about Pactera executives' impression of Charlotte.

"It's very clean, very green … great quality of life," she said.

"It's a great city to be in. Our leadership saw that and wanted to expand it," said Pactera's Douglas Vinson.

But they also chose to expand in Charlotte because of skilled workers.

"I think they are confident to find the labor force here," Cai said.

Some of that labor force may be trained at Central Piedmont Community College.

Computer Technology Director Karla Shields said enrollment has doubled, and in some cases students are hired before they even graduate, or the unemployed get back to work by adding IT skills to their resume.

"After seven weeks, they went out a got a job just by adding that one missing component," said Shields.

Perhaps some of those graduates will end up at Pactera's Southpark offices, which currently have 60 employees.

With the training in place to increase the skilled workforce, the city is hoping Pactera is the first of many IT companies to call Charlotte home.

For more information on Pactera jobs, click here.

WSOC