Good news is coming out of the American Express Travel Related Services office in Linton—up to 11 full-time employees are being added, the building is being remodeled and both American Express and H&R Block have renewed leases on the building.

American Express and H&R Block are unrelated companies but share the building.

Teams of the Group Air Department and the Centralized Solutions Department of the American Express Business Travel Group are based in Linton.

Group Air is advertising six new positions in this week’s Emmons County Record, and all of the openings for the two departments are listed on the American Express web site: www.americanexpress.com/jobs

Teams in the Group Air Department make travel arrangements for corporate clients that contract with American Express to do group bookings. They negotiate air fares, manage client meetings and make hotel and rental car reservations for corporations throughout the globe.

The six new team members will train to become Specialized Travel Counselors, which includes training on international travel as they develop experience in their role.

American Express Group Travel has three Business Travel Centers—Linton, Tampa, Fla., and Phoenix, Ariz.

Cara Schumacher of Haz-elton is a Team Leader and Hiring Leader for Linton’s Group Air Department.

The Centralized Solutions Department is a support facility for American Express’ U.S. reservations offices as part of the Phoenix, Ariz., Customer Service operation.

Three to five new employees will be added in the department’s offices in Linton or Phoenix, depending upon the availability of qualified candidates.

Susan Horner is the Centralized Solutions Service Delivery Manager/FacilitManager at the Linton office, with a Linton team and teams in Phoenix.

Part of the remodeling of the building that houses the two companies is to separate the two entities, whose predecessor operations were once part of one company—Rosenbluth International. Now, all of H&R Block will be in a separate part of the building, and American Express will occupy the other part.

Updates include new carpeting and fresh interior paint.

Linton contractor Brad Praus is handling the project.

For those concerned about the future of the Linton offices of the two companies, the construction and renewed leases are positive news.

Decision to stay

When Hal Rosenbluth sold his company to American Express (which later sold its tax business to H&R Block), the agreement was that the company had to stay in Linton for four years. That deadline passed in October of 2007.

For both companies, the performance of the Linton employees was the deciding factor in maintaining the offices. Technology also eliminates the need for operations to be geographically centralized.

The strong performance of the employees in the Linton office has caught the attention of the companies executives.

The good news is also that the American Express departments in Linton are part of a rapidly growing part of American Express, which makes the future look even brighter.