Just 20 months after Ferguson erupted and residents expressed their frustration at the lack of jobs, Centene Corporation celebrated the grand opening of its new $25-million Ferguson Service Center on Friday, April 15. The center, located at 2900 Pershall Road, will bring more than 250 jobs to the north St. Louis County area.
“The business sector must be a role model in creating stronger and healthier communities across the nation,” said Michael F. Neidorff, chairman, president and CEO of Centene.
Centene, a Fortune 500 company, provides services to government-sponsored healthcare programs and operates local health plans. It reported 22.8 billion in revenues in 2015. Employees mainly process insurance claims at this new 45,000-square-foot facility.
Sonya Woods, a team leader and a Ferguson resident, said it was disheartening to see small businesses choose to leave or fail to recover after the Ferguson unrest of August 2014. Before joining Centene, she said upward mobility was difficult at her previous jobs.
“I was putting in the work, but no one was really noticing me,” she said.
The new service center has on-site early childhood development center, where Woods leaves her daughter in the morning. And throughout the day, she can pass by and see her daughter playing in the sandbox. She said the company offers many things that make staff feel appreciated, including a state-of-the-art bistro, fitness center and a community center available to the Ferguson community.
The celebration included food from local Ferguson restaurants and entertainment from the Riverview Gardens Student Jazz Ensemble.
Watching the protests following Michael Brown Jr.’s shooting death, Neidorff thought about ways he could help move the community forward, said Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
“While many other companies met to decide how to consolidate operations, lock down and to add more security,” McMillan said, “Michael Neidorff added more jobs and increased economic stability and security.”
Neidorff is national board chair for the National Urban League.
On the streets of Ferguson, many protesters held up signs saying that the community needed more jobs. In early September 2014, Centene announced plans to build the service center, and now “it’s a reality,” McMillan said.
Neidorff also said that the company will soon add 1,500 to 2,000 jobs in the next three years at its Clayton location.
Gov. Jay Nixon attended the opening, along with U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt, and said that these kinds of job investments are “what Missouri is all about.”
Neidorff said he hopes that the center will bring some sense of security to other businesses in the area.
He said, “This is progress we want and need in our region.”
For job opportunities at Centene, visit http://www.centene.com/.
