By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- IEM helps communities and institutions prepare for disasters and works to "manage risk in a complex world."

The company will also help Durham County's economy "at a time when hope is needed," said County Commissioner Chair Michael Page.

The Baton Rouge, La.-based consulting firm announced Monday that it will move its headquarters to Durham's Research Triangle Park, bringing up to 350 workers with it and creating 430 more local jobs over the next six years.

The firm employs about 350 people at its headquarters office in Baton Rouge and seven other offices across the nation, including one that opened in Morrisville in 2005.

Those 350 employees will be given an opportunity to move to the new location in RTP. In addition to those jobs, IEM will hire an additional 430 workers over the next six years, and they will be well-paid positions.

The new jobs will pay an overall average wage of $62,778 a year, according to the company, not including benefits. That is higher than the Durham County annual average of $57,772.

The decision to relocate here, said the company's CEO, Madhu Beriwal, came down to three qualities: "education, innovation and collaboration."

Speaking at a news conference at the Research Triangle Park Foundation attended by many of the local and state officials who helped facilitate the move, Beriwal said the area's "highly educated work force, its history of innovation and its culture of public and private collaboration" were the decisive factors in the decision.

The company also was promised around $9 million in state tax breaks -- mostly in rebates from withholding taxes paid for employees -- if it meets hiring targets. And an additional $150,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund is contingent on Durham County approving matching local incentives.

The county commissioners still must hold a public hearing on the local incentives, Page said, "but the board feels very comfortable with this company coming here" and didn't think there would be any roadblocks.

IEM -- originally known as Innovative Emergency Management Inc. -- helps government agencies assess and manage threats to people, infrastructure and information. Founded in 1985, it focuses primarily on natural disaster preparedness -- it made a splash with its pre-Hurricane Katrina scenario for a "perfect storm" striking New Orleans -- but also consults on homeland security and pandemic disease among other issues, including port security.

A privately owned company, IEM has worked with agencies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The firm hopes to complete the move to the area within the next 10 months, but it doesn't yet have a site into which it will move, Beriwal said. For the moment, it will operate out of the Morrisville office.

"Right now, we are in the midst of negotiations with several potential landlords," she said. The firm is looking for around 10,000 square feet of space.

"We don't know right at this moment where we will be," Beriwal said, "but we will definitely be in Research Triangle Park, and we are very excited about that."