Cindy Harrington, one of New Hampshire’s two business recruiters, remembers the day Frank Cummings called her. It was back in 2007 and there was traffic noise in the background.
Fast forward to the other day, one of those warm August days. Except for the sound of fingers flying over computer keyboards, there was little other noise in the Franklin Business Center, where AML Partners opened for business in May.
AML is short for Anti-Money Laundering and Frank is the company’s CEO. Previously located in New Jersey, it is a software development center that was founded after the 9/11 attacks and is dedicated to detecting and preventing terrorist financing and money laundering. AML is at the forefront of creating and developing tools that help banks look for patterns and behaviors that would indicate possible crime.
And it calls Franklin home.
AML — sounds like it might be more at home in a place like New York or some other place heavy on financial interests. But Frank is a fellow who likes the outdoors, doesn’t like the rat race and saw real potential to fight fiscal crime from New Hampshire.
Which is why he called Cindy all those years ago.
Cynthia Harrington, business recruiter for the New Hampshire Division of Economic Development, congratulates Frank Cummings, right, on moving AML Partners from New Jersey to Franklin, NH. AML Partners has created 21st century tools to fight global financial crime. The company opened its New Hampshire office in May and "raided," says Cummings, the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord for its 11 employees.
Frank might have arrived sooner with the business, but “everyone knows what happened in 2008 – the economy took a bad turn and we had to delay” the move.
AML Partners opened on May 7 with a capable complement of employees “raided from the New Hampshire Technical Institute,” as Frank says.
Being able to find these educated employees was key to opening. One of the great parts of this story is how Frank reached out the NHTI, first seeking recommendations from professors of their promising students and now, as the business grows, from those students he hired.
“The average age of my workforce is 24-years-old,” he said. “I don’t have any jobs open because as soon as one becomes available, one of my people knows someone who can do the work.”
Those workers commute from as far away as Exeter and Manchester. Several we talked to feared they would be spending the summer – or longer – out of their chosen field. They are ecstatic to put their skills to work on the serious matter of fighting global financial crime.
We are glad that these young people did not have to leave New Hampshire to find their dream jobs.
Right now, AML Partners serves 32 international banking institutions in the U.S. and four other countries and about a dozen employees. Frank expects that to climb to 20 by the end of the year. On the day we visited, he’d secured a contract that would require him to immediately hire two more people.
In addition to just being an all-around great business story, it is illustrative of the process of recruitment. It doesn’t happen within days or weeks or months. It takes years and, as Cindy will tell you, lots of patience and persistence.
This is an all-around win for Frank,Franklin, NHTI and New Hampshire.
And Cindy has some more businesses coming our way.
So stay tuned.
Lorna Colquhoun
Communications Director
NH Division of Economic Development