North Dakota's Hoeven:
We 'Get the Job Done'

The recent expansion of ING Relia Star in Minot, N.D., may be a microcosm of what is happening in North Dakota. When the financial services company announced on Dec. 20, 2000, that it would add 150 jobs to the 550 employees already working at the 90,000-sq.-ft. (8,361-sq.-m.) facility in Minot, Gov. John Hoeven saw the move as confirmation that his state is headed in the right direction.
        "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," remarked Gov. Hoeven at the December event. "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 a reality."
        One of the people the governor saluted is Lee Peterson, the state's newly appointed director of the Dept. of Economic Development and Finance. Peterson had been the president of the Minot Area Development Corp., where he achieved numerous successes in attracting and developing new businesses throughout northwestern North Dakota.
        Peterson's track record includes large-scale job-creation projects at companies like Z-TEL, MLT World Vacations, ING ReliaStar, Sykes, Minot Milling Co., Terhorst Manufacturing and Choice Hotels. Peterson says he will seek to build on that record by spending as much time as possible out of the office on business recruitment trips and community support efforts.
        "It's important to find out from the folks in the trenches what we need to do, and then we need to do it very well," Peterson adds.
        One of those folks in the trenches is Don Berg, vice president of the Fargo Economic Development Corp., and he knows a thing or two about business development himself. Under his leadership, the city of Fargo last year was ranked by Cognetics as the second-best small metro area in the country for starting and growing a business.
        "There are several reasons for our national ranking," Berg says. "These include our highly educated and aggressive work force, our tax structure, and Fargo's low crime rates and low cost of living." In fact, the average price of a three-bedroom home in Fargo is just $82,100, nearly $23,000 below the national average.