Google lures Oracle vet for Lenoir center

(News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jul. 7--Google has hired a veteran of Oracle to manage the $600 million data center the company is building in Lenoir and start hiring for the first round of positions.

The facility is one of five the California company has announced in the past year, including one in South Carolina.

Tom Jacobik, 41, will oversee functions ranging from construction and hiring to hardware installation and day-to-day support once operations get under way in December.

"Tom has created a name for himself as an IT problem solver and leader," Andy Johnson, Google's East Coast regional manager, said in a statement. "This appointment is crucial to the success of the data center."

Google, which operates the world's largest Internet search engine, needs the server farm to store copious amounts of data such as pictures, video and other media moving on the Internet. For Internet users, the extra capacity will ensure all searches run smoothly and dependably, according to the company.

Jacobik, who started this week, was reached by phone in Atlanta, where he is training for the new job.

"The opportunity to build out a data center for a company like Google was way too much to turn down," Jacobik said. He plans to move his wife and seven children to Lenoir this year from Austin, Texas, where he was technical operations director for Oracle.

Jacobik has also worked for Cisco Systems and was chief information officer on special missions for the U.S. Air Force, where he managed the maintenance of communication systems and oversaw more than 300 people.

The new Google executive will begin posting positions for the Lenoir center in August and start hiring in December for 75 to 125 workers. Google promised to create 210 jobs in Lenoir within four years in exchange for up to $260 million in state and local tax breaks over 30 years.

Positions will include systems administrators, hardware managers, electricians and ventilation and air-conditioning experts -- these are needed to keep the facility cool amid hundreds, possibly thousands of hot-running servers. The new jobs will pay an average of $48,300 annually, nearly twice the Caldwell County average, according to state employment data.

"If growth continues, we will have capacity at our sites for further expansion," said Google spokesman Matt Dunne. That would be beyond the 210 workers.

While the first of two construction phases isn't scheduled to finish until mid-2008, the company will be able to erect work stations starting in December. "We're taking a good look at local talent because it's cost-effective in terms of not having to move people around and because it's the right thing to do," Jacobik said.

He could not say how many of the new workers will come from Lenoir or surrounding Caldwell County, which is about 200 miles west of Raleigh.

Sue Land, who manages the Employment Security Commission office in Lenoir, said Google is on schedule for building and hiring. She said she met Jacobik at a chamber event in Lenoir and discussed plans to employ as many local workers as possible.

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