Ipreo, a company that provides market intelligence, data and technology solutions for investment corporations, recently added Raleigh to its lineup of offices stretching from New York to Hong Kong.
With about 800 employees globally, O’Hara Macken, executive vice president and managing director at Ipreo, said the company realized it was scattered in pockets around the world and it was time for a change.
“We went through this journey of trying to identify where the right place for us to open an office was,” Macken said. “We ended up in North Carolina because of the educational system down here.”
The Triangle’s wealth of educated citizens, coupled with its up-and-coming reputation, sold the location to Ipreo, according to Macken.
“Whether you talk about the university system, the community college system or even what feeds into that there’s a very strong education system here,” Macken said. “You have this great mix of excellent talent while educating people and they want to be here.”
Ipreo executives said they chose downtown Raleigh instead of Research Triangle Park, or any other business park in the Triangle, because of its atmosphere.
“[Ipreo came] out of other urban environments and we know we like it,” Macken said. “Downtown Raleigh felt good and we just liked it.”
Macken said the Triangle’s three major research schools—N.C. State, UNC Chapel Hill and Duke—were an important part of Ipreo’s move and talent selection.
“We’ve been all across the board,” Macken said. “We’ve hired folks on the technology side, folks with business experience who want to be on the business side, people on the analytical side.”
According to Macken, Ipreo has had great success with hiring graduates from N.C. State.
“State is a primary focus for us,” Macken said. “Dean Weiss from the business school and Dean Martin-Vega from the engineering school have both been very helpful in, not only us understanding the market down here and getting down here, but then working closely with the university.”
Ipreo committed to bringing 250 jobs to Raleigh by the end of 2016, Macken said.
“Roughly, right now, we’re at about 115 [jobs],” Macken said. “Our goal internally is to be up to 150 by the end of the first quarter next year and working towards that 250 by the end of 2016.”
Ipreo is stimulating downtown Raleigh with more than just jobs though. The company sponsored Hopscotch, the CED Tech Venture Conference and will take AT&T’s sponsor spot at Raleigh’s Winterfest, changing the title to “Ipreo Raleigh Winterfest.”
“We committed to the first six months or so doing things that get the Ipreo name out there while we’re also doing all the groundwork with the universities,” Macken said. “We’re also, going into 2014, really looking at our employees and saying, ‘Okay, where do you want to get involved in the community and how can we support you in doing that?’”
According to Macken, in the end, the culture that brought Ipreo to Raleigh goes farther than the Triangle.
“There really is a great culture here, not just within our company, but within Raleigh – it goes broader,” Macken said. “The entrepreneurial environment that exists and the support for entrepreneurs up through big companies like Ipreo or Red Hat, whatever the case may be, is phenomenal. We selected this because it hit our hypothesis really well and it’s really playing out.”
