Capital One Auto Finance To Open Operation In Tulsa

Thursday, June 29th 2006, 9:55 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa is getting some new jobs with Capitol One. The financial giant is opening a loan servicing facility in the Cherokee Industrial Park as part of its growing auto-lending division and looking to hire hundreds of people.

News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg has more.

"This is a momentous occasion for us and for me personally, I grew up here." Even though it's a business decision for Dave Lawson, the CEO of Capital One's Auto Financing has some emotion invested in Tulsa too. "I was born and raised here and educated here, so it does have an impact on you and if you've lived in Tulsa, and you get a chance to come back and do something, it's a big deal."

And 600 is a big number. That's the number of people they say they will hire to staff a loan servicing facility. They say the jobs will pay more than the typical call center with salaries averaging $32,000 a year, more for managers.

Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor: "For the 600 new positions that Capitol One will create in Tulsa, it means our economy will support over 300 indirect jobs. These jobs will benefit our economy by over $30-million annually in household income."

Even though Lawson may be from Tulsa, he says he had to convince a board of directors who knew next to nothing about the city. "We looked in the west, the southwest, Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Little Rock and Tulsa won, and it actually wasn't close, so you should feel very good about what you're marketing."

Capital One will be in the former WorldCom building and if there's a silver lining to that company's clouded legacy, it is that they left a Class-A, high-tech building. Dave Lawson: â€œthe physical facility here is just outstanding. This is actually one of the best physical facilities today we'll have in all of Capitol One. It's going to grow. You're going to continually see this operation grow."