Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) has promoted a 15-year company veteran to serve as co-chief of the company's Nashville office and its 1,800 employees.
Dell announced that Shoshana Samuels is the new co-site director of the company's Nashville office. In that new role, Samuels will jointly run the office alongside Henry Pile, who has held the same title since March 2020.
Dell ranks among the 40 largest employers in Nashville, according to Business Journal research. It was a watershed moment in Nashville's economic growth when Dell chose Music City for an expansion in 1999, becoming among the very first brand-name tech businesses to open a hub in Nashville. Dell has been one foundational piece of what's now a tech sector attracting names such as Oracle Corp. and ranking among the fastest-growing in the nation.
Dell initially intended to make computers in Nashville, though today its presence is mostly sales roles. Its airport-area office building also has a data center.
In 1999, Dell pledged a minimum of 3,000 jobs, and the company passed that target within a few years. Headcount has since receded, as low as roughly 1,100, and now rebounding to 1,800.
That's enough to sustain the company's four decades of tax breaks from Metro, which are contingent on headcount being above 1,500 workers.
Those property tax discounts and jobs grants have tallied at least $32 million to-date, and they're set to continue through 2039.
Samuels succeeds Nikki Gibson, who stepped into that co-site director role in late 2017 and still remains a senior consultant in human resources for Dell.
"Shoshana understands and embodies Dell’s core values of inclusion and community service," Gibson said in a statement.
