“That is her.” The tellers at First State Bank in Clinton Township recall Jacqueline Bertolini from past holiday seasons as the woman who each year donates three or four new bicycles with locks to Toys for Tots to help make the holidays happier for some local teens.
Bertolini is Operations Lead Support at the Genesis10 Troy, Mich., Delivery Center. For the six years she has worked for the professional technology services firm, Bertolini has organized her office’s charitable activities and events, which include collecting $20 from delivery center consultants who wear jeans to work during a week earmarked for the tradition. She puts the money towards the bicycle purchase. Throughout the year, she also collects recyclable pop cans—and hosts another jeans week--and uses those funds to buy personal care items for the Troop Care Package Collection Drive at the White Chapel Cemetery in Troy each September.
“With so much sadness in the world, it feels good to do something good for someone,” Bertolini said.
The Troy Delivery Center is one of six Genesis10 operates in the U.S. focused on providing onshore technology services.
The delivery center model creates meaningful jobs for technology consultants with long corporate tenures while supporting clients who don’t have a presence in the local market. Essentially, delivery centers import jobs from other regional markets in the U.S., where labor is tight or the right skillsets at the price point the client is willing to pay is not available. For consultants, delivery centers establish clear career paths and offer professional growth opportunities.
Genesis10 introduced the delivery center model to its clients in 2009 in the midst of the Great Recession, establishing facilities in depressed technology talent hubs such as Detroit and Kansas City, before expanding the strategy to create access to talent in such markets as Atlanta, Orlando, and Dallas, and Charlotte.
“As soon as we started recruiting and filling jobs, the response was overwhelming,” said Nick Pranis, Detroit-based Operations Executive recalling consultants who were out of work and perilously close to becoming homeless at the time. Others, he said, had been searching for work for months when Genesis10 approached them about positions. Initially the consultants joined the delivery centers with apprehension but have come to appreciate the employment, stable income and career opportunities of their roles. They've also embraced the company's culture.
Continuing a tradition of giving back to the community, Genesis10 this year tapped the Troy Delivery Center Consultants to select one of several charities it will support with a financial contribution. One consultant at the location, Steve Cimino, selected the charity, Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit, which provides support and education for cancer patients and their families to help them learn to live with cancer. Gilda’s Club offers its members support groups, lectures and workshops, bereavement, social activities, and children and teen programs, among other services, with 100% of the donations funding these services.
Cimino, who works as a Technical Project Manager for a Genesis10 client in the financial services industry, has a relative who is Gilda’s Club member. He said he is grateful for the “tremendous” support the organization shows his family. It’s why he recommended the charity for the company donation. Cimino also said he appreciates all the “fantastic” support he receives from his colleagues at Genesis10 as well as the flexibility the delivery center role affords him, to help care for his relative.
Genesis10’s leadership agrees that Gilda’s Club is an excellent suggestion as many people have friends, families and colleagues touched by cancer. Each year, Genesis10 donates to several national charities, but to echo the sentiment of CEO Harley Lippman, who in founding Genesis10 set out to start a company that cares deeply about people, communities and prosperity in America, “This is a small way of giving back.”
