Empereon representative to speak at Chamber meeting

A representative from Coudersport's newest employer, Empereon Marketing, will be featured speaker at the next membership meeting of the Coudersport Area Chamber of Commerce.

It will be held at 8:30 Tuesday morning at the Hotel Crittenden, beginning with a buffet breakfast.

Jamie Evens, general manager of Empereon's new customer contact center, will discuss the company's progress since opening last month and plans for rapid expansion of the workforce.

Empereon, operating in the former "tennis center" in west Coudersport, hopes to have upwards of 600 employees working by year's end. Based in Phoenix, Ariz., the company is an outsourcer handling customer contacts for large cable companies and major newspaper/media chains. The Coudersport agents handle telephone and Internet contacts for customer service, technical support and marketing.

Empereon was attracted by a large base of skilled workers formerly employed by Adelphia or Time Warner. Hundreds of them lost their jobs when Time Warner abruptly shut down its Coudersport operations last February.

A $1 million state funding package helped lure Empereon to Coudersport. It consisted of a $450,000 grant, a lowinterest loan of $350,000 for machinery and equipment, and a $200,000 job training loan.