By Mallory Schlabach, Editor in Chief

Genesis Network Solutions, a telecommunications engineering company that opened in Abilene at the end of August, will double the number of its employees by the end of this month. Four ACU alumni work at Genesis, and more could be hired.

Abilene is the company’s first North American location that provides telecommunication related services to big name companies like AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile. The company also has a significant connection to the university.

Phil Schubert, vice president of finance, said the university has joint ownership of Genesis Networks. This allowed the university to rally support from the city of Abilene, Develop Corporation of Abilene and the community so the company could move to North America.

The university also helped locate a building for the company to move into early in the summer, renovate the building and help with recruiting.

Schubert said because of the partnership, the university offers Genesis Networks stability from an educational perspective to help the company grow. Because of the company’s nature of dealing with such large corporations, he said the university will always have students interested in working and interning there for the long- term plan.

Schubert said Genesis Networks is responsible for hiring employees, managing the business and training staff.

Nadav Selah, vice president of professional services at Genesis Networks, said the company, which has grown from 19 employees to 26 employees, will grow to 75 employees by the end of the year.

“We’re looking for highly motivated and smart people,” Selah said. “We want people with a technical background with some experience with programming. The ideal employee would be a recent graduate with an information technology or computer science degree.”

The annual entry-level pay for one of these jobs is $35,000 a year with benefits, Schubert said.

Genesis Network Solutions arrived in Abilene after CEO James Goodman needed an American location with a low cost of living. His mentor and friend, Royce Caldwell, former Board of Trustees member and former chairman at Southwestern Bell Corporation, knew the place, Schubert said.

“Royce was a former trustee and he loves ACU,” Schubert said. “He told James Goodman he had the perfect place. With the other locations for his business in foreign locations because of a low cost of living, Abilene was perfect.

The company benefits Abilene and the university, said Tim Coburn, director of the new School of Information Technology and Computing and assistant dean of the College of Business Administration.

He said Genesis Networks helps the university recruit students for the new school, which will be fully operational next fall.

“I think we may be the only school in Texas or this region to have a direct connection with a major technology employer,” he said. “This gives us immediate access to jobs and internships down the road, give students real life work experience and is a significant recruiting advantage.”

Coburn said computer science is a hot field right now and graduates with this degree usually have a job waiting for them before they even graduate.

“This is the way for us to get students to Abilene,” he said. “We can dangle the bigger carrot in front of them and offer them something most schools can’t.”

He said the relationship between the university and Genesis Networks allows the recruiters to guarantee incoming students freshman and sophomores that they’ll be able to get hands on experience and internships and not have to wait until their senior year or after they graduate.

“This is a big deal for ACU and for Abilene,” Coburn said. “It allows Abilene to diversify its economic base and gives us great resources to help students learn. There is no end to the growth potential of this company and this field, and we’re dreaming big about it.”