WASHINGTON COUNTY, Va. (WJHL)- Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced Monday morning that 150 new jobs will soon be coming to Southwest Virginia.
1901 Group is a company that provides IT services for the public and private sectors and is investing more than $1 million dollars in Washington County.
A news release issued Monday by Governor Northam’s office said in part, “The new 1901 Group Operations Center at the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator in Abingdon will expand the company’s operational footprint and enhance its cloud-based internet technology services.”
Communications with the 1901 group have been in the works for almost two years and with Monday’s announcement, the dream of bringing jobs to Southwest Virginia has become a reality.
The 1901 group has been around for a decade with main operations out of Blacksburg, Virginia. With the addition of this new facility in Abingdon, this will mark the company’s third facility.
Washington County, Virginia leaders said this kind of news is exactly what the region needs. “They’ll have a niche here to recruit local college graduates and citizens who are interested in these fields,” said board Chairman, Dwayne Ball.
Governor Northam stressed that while he has always been an advocate for new jobs, he believes providing jobs in rural areas of the state is of the utmost importance. “We want to hear people say I live in rural Virginia, that’s where I work, that’s where I raise my family, so this is just an exciting day for Washington County and an exciting day for Virginia,” said Northam.
The 1901 group’s CEO, Sonu Singh, said the company is already under contract and has begun the recruitment process. While they have announced the addition of 150 jobs, he says he has no plans to stop there. Singh told News Channel 11 he wants to utilize the talent in the region and provide as many jobs as possible.
“Our entire goal when we started the business was that there was embedded talent in rural areas that could do IT work. The notion that IT work could only be done on the coast… the east coast and the west coast, I always thought was completely false. Since I grew up down here, I knew that there were a lot of folks that were very smart and very hardworking,” said Singh.
Singh said he believes operations will get underway in the Virginia Highlands small business incubator sometime in early April.
That release also detailed that the Virginia tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved $140,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds for the project.
