Business North Carolina September 2023

BNC 125: 25 BILLION-DOLLAR FIRMS TOP N.C. PRIVATE COMPANIES LIST TRUIST’S TRAVAILS | WHY JET IT CRASHED | HOW KELLI BROWN LEADS THE CATAMOUNTS

SEPTEMBER 2023

WIN OR ELSE Passion and pluck made Biff Poggi a star in finance and coaching. Now, he promises gridiron glory in Charlotte.

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SEPTEMBER 2023

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UP FRONT

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POINT TAKEN

An explainer on how stuff called “nonwovens” fills many store shelves.

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POWER LIST INTERVIEW

Chancellor Kelli Brown discusses how Western Carolina University delivers the N.C. Promise.

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ENERGIZERS

COVER STORY

Alex Lassister’s GreenPlaces helps businesses measure sustainability.

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NC TREND

The unexpected rough landing of high-flyer Jet It; Aspida Financial brings ‘cool’ culture to annuities; A Greenville used-car dealership runs into trouble; Atrium Health’s $3 billion building binge; Replacements’ pattern of success.

TOUGH GUY

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Ex-hedge fund manager Biff Poggi brings his own brand to ignite Charlotte football.

BY TUCKER MITCHELL

80 GREEN SHOOTS Bison once roamed western North Carolina. In some parts, they still do.

BNC 125 26 ROUND TABLE: CLEAN & GREEN

COVE R PH OT O CO U R T E SY O F C H A R LOT T E 4 9 E R S AT H L E T I C S

Experts discuss how going green can also pay off for business..

62 MEDICAL: HEART & CANCER CARE

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Our annual list of the state’s largest closely held companies , including 25 $1 billion-plus firms.

BY KEVIN ELLIS, AUDREY KNAACK, DAVID MILDENBERG AND EBONY MORMAN

Cardio-oncology is an innovative approach to treating the patient, not just the disease.

68 HIGHER ED: CONTINUING EDUCATION N.C. colleges and universities pave the way for veterans to succeed in civilian life.

74 COMMUNITY CLOSE UP: BUNCOMBE COUNTY Homegrown talent and visitors keep Buncombe County thriving.

STAYIN’ ALIVE

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Four years after a merger of two mighty banks, Truist is still working to gain its edge.

BY DAVID MILDENBERG AND EDWARD MARTIN

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September 2023, Vol. 43, No. 9 (ISSN 0279-4276). Business North Carolina is published monthly by Business North Carolina at 1230 West Morehead Street, Suite 308, Charlotte, NC 28208. Phone: 704-523-6987.

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UPFRONT

David Mildenberg VO L U M E 4 3 , N O. 9

ZAKI'S INTRICATE WEAVE

PUBLISHER

Ben Kinney

bkinney@businessnc.com EDITOR

David Mildenberg

dmildenberg@businessnc.com MANAGING EDITOR

Kevin Ellis

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EXECUTIVE EDITOR, DIGITAL

Chris Roush

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Ray Gronberg

His goal is to share 80% of his net worth with philanthropies, mainly serving needy Pakistanis. He and Rashida, who he married at age 55, founded the Al-Aqsa Community Clinic, a Burlington-based free health clinic, and Friends of Aabroo, which has provided education funds for thousands of Pakistani children.

While the sale has closed, Zaki will sell his remaining 4,000 rugs for several weeks at what he calls “the lowest prices in the 46 years we’ve been in business.” It isn’t a typical going-outof -business sale, for which the rug industry is deservedly notorious, he says. Liquidators mark up prices by 35-fold, then offer discounts.

Everyone overpays, he adds.

Zaki cites a complaint-free record from the Better Business Bureau, where he has been a board member. (One exception was a shopper who complained after Zaki wouldn’t let him bring his dog into the warehouse.)

An early, frequent customer was a local Christian pastor who insisted on praying for Zaki’s salvation during each visit. One day, an Episcopal priest was at the store and expressed shock at the cleric’s aggressive style.

Zaki responded that he respected the pastor’s conviction, so he always sat for a prayer. He remains a Muslim.

Having given more than 100 speeches about his life, Zaki says he emphasizes that ignorance, prejudice and arrogance are dangerous. Put together, they make a particularly deadly combination. He urges people to “come out of your comfort zone. Don’t just stick with a select group of friends.”

Zaki followed his own advice, to North Carolina’s benefit.

Contact David Mildenberg at dmildenberg@businessnc.com.

rgronberg@businessnc.com

Cathy Martin

cmartin@businessnc.com SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Edward Martin

emartin@businessnc.com SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

Katherine Snow Smith CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Dan Barkin, Connie Gentry, Audrey Knaack, Tucker Mitchell, Ebony Morman CREATIVE DIRECTOR

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PHOTO CREDIT: AMY FREEMAN

hope everyone had a great summer. A highlight of mine was spending an hour in early August with High Point’s Zaki Uddin Khalifa, owner of a prominent Oriental rug distributorship closing soon.

Zaki is proof that North Carolina meets CNBC’s criteria as the nation’s best state for business. He arrived in the United States on July 4, 1976, a historic day. While he hails from a prominent Pakistani family, his homeland permitted emigrants to take out no more than $500.

He hoped to set up shop in New York but concluded that everything cost too much there.

He changed his focus to North Carolina, lured

by High Point University Professor Carl Wheeless, who as a missionary taught at Zaki’s Methodistsponsored school in Lahore, Pakistan.

Moving from a city of 12 million people to High Point was a culture shock for the 31-yearold Muslim. But the furniture industry hotbed was the right place, thanks to the Wheeless family and High Point Bank President Fred Alexander, who lent to Zaki. His first property loan was paid back in fewer than three years.

Zaki started with 40 rugs in 1977. When he moved into his current warehouse in 1999, he had 16,000. He has sold rugs ranging in price from less than $500 to half a million bucks.

Elite designers, Hollywood stars and New York finance tycoons know Zaki.

We visited to discuss the sale of his 100,000-square-foot warehouse to Homelegance, a Fremont, Calif.-based furniture distributor with 10 sites in the U.S. and Canada. In 1977, High Point had 2 million square feet of furniture showrooms. It now has 12 million.

News of his departure isn’t new; in 2018, he told Business North Carolina that he would sell the building in five years, then donate proceeds to Akhuwat, a Pakistani nonprofit that provides interest-free microloans and free grade-school education. Beyond his age, he says the sale is motivated by the declining quality of his product. Few people in developing nations have the economic need or patience to spend a year or more weaving an intricate rug.

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PHOTO CREDIT: AMY FREEMAN

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POINTTAKEN

Dan Barkin A lab at The Nonwovens Institute can process a wide range of polymers.

FROM TESTING LABS TO STORE SHELVES The Nonwovens Institute at N.C. State supports many popular consumer products.

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n May, there was a textiles conference at N.C. State’s McKimmon Center that included a tour of N.C. State University’s textile education complex at Centennial Campus nearby. We went through the Wilson College of Textiles and The Nonwovens Institute next door.

As we were taken through the Institute, we saw a lot of testing labs and machinery. All manner of polymers were being melted and spun into fibers and turned into engineered fabrics. Needle-punching machines and water jets were entangling them into webs.

The U.S. nonwovens industry has been growing; North Carolina has the largest concentration of nonwovens companies in the country, according to the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. A big factor in the industry’s success has been The Nonwovens Institute, its research, development and testing hub and training partner. You will hear talk about the need for academia and industry to work together to drive economic growth. The Nonwovens Institute is the model for that.

Executive Director Behnam Pourdeyhimi, its leader for more than two decades, is a major reason.

WHAT ARE NONWOVENS? You may not know the term, but you know nonwovens. Baby wipes, face masks, hygiene products, diapers, Swiffers, Tyvek and more.

Mark Snider, who works for INDA, the industry’s trade association in Cary, recalls being at a conference that sent out a team on a break to buy products at local groceries made with nonwovens.

“And when they came back — and they had one 6-foot table set up in the front of the room during the conference — they ended up having to get two more tables, because there were over 300 products.

And that was 20 years ago,” says Snider. “It was shocking.”

Another industry conference will be coming to N.C. State at the

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end of September, co-hosted by INDA and the Institute, bringing in 250 industry representatives and academic researchers.

When you look at who comes to this conference — Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Dow, Cummins, ExxonMobil, names that show up on the list of Nonwoven Institute members — you get some idea of what this is about.

This would have seemed improbable 30 years ago, when Pourdeyhimi and some academic colleagues were trying to get a little research center off the ground.

POURDEYHIMI’S STORY Pourdeyhimi became interested in nonwovens as an undergraduate in England.

After finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Leeds, he came to N.C. State as a research associate in textiles, then went to Cornell University, and then joined the textiles faculty at the University of Maryland College Park.

It was in the mid-80s, while Behnam Pourdeyhimi at Maryland, that Pourdeyhimi went to a nonwovens trade show in Baltimore. “And I get there, and I see this thriving industry,” he recalls. He also saw Subhash Batra, an N.C. State professor who shared his interest in nonwovens.

In 1991, Pourdeyhimi got a call from Batra. The National Science Foundation was funding something new, called industry-university cooperative research centers, and was soliciting proposals. Batra wanted to set up a nonwovens center at N.C. State, and having

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another institution like Maryland participate would help with the feds. It got funded by the NSF, with an assist from the state legislature, a $250,000 appropriation, and industry support.

That was the start of the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center. “They had one small lab in the College of Textiles, where Subhash was,” says Pourdeyhimi.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE NONWOVENS INSTITUTE

POURDEYHIMI ARRIVES By the late 1990s, the center had grown under Batra’s leadership, developing relationships with industry, and was preparing to graduate from NSF funding. Pourdeyhimi, who was at Georgia Tech by that time, was recruited to N.C. State to help the center become self-sustaining. It would need financial support from industry and, particularly, expensive equipment if it was going to continue evolving into a leading R&D, training and testing facility.

Pourdeyhimi focused on talking to companies. He wanted to know what kind of research they wanted. He wanted to learn what they thought his students should be learning, and what kind of training the Institute could be providing the employees of nonwoven companies. He said to the companies: “Ok, now what do we do?

What do you need?”

“We sort of mapped out the needs, and what they look for from us,” he says. “We started building those, one piece by one piece.

“And we had no funding. We had no money. The business model was, ‘Well, we are going to put ourselves to work and really just offer services, and do that, and raise money.’ Machinery companies were willing to offer good discounts, and finance the equipment over multiple years.”

What followed was impressive. INDA’s Snider says the Institute now has “the largest collection of nonwoven equipment in the industry for trial and research purposes.” Pourdeyhimi, he says, is “really remarkable at getting things done.”

In 2002, the Partners SpunMelt Lab was opened with an $8-plus million investment. Analytical facilities were opened at a cost of more than $4 million. In 2003, educational programs, including a graduate certificate in nonwovens, were added.

In 2008, the Staple Lab opened at a cost of more than $5 million.

The Meltblown Lab came in 2010 with a price tag over $7 million.

In 2012, LINC, a nonwovens commercialization incubator, was launched. And in 2016, the Institute moved a new, massive spunbond machine into the new, privately developed Center for Technology & Innovation building next to the textiles complex, a $15 million investment to replace the old Partners lab.

“You really have to be compatible with the best that the industry is using today,” says Pourdeyhimi, “because you want to make sure they can test their ideas on something that’s scalable on their machine.”

Analytical testing instruments in NWI’s Analytical and Physical Testing Lab.

The Institute’s new slitter rewinder can slit nonwoven fabrics to custom widths as needed for end-use products.

TIGHTLY FOCUSED The work of the Institute is tightly focused around five pillars.

Research is funded by member dues — up to $60,000 a year for the largest companies — and topics are selected by members each year.

Workforce training is funded by course fees, and more than 300 industry professionals come in each year. Testing and fabrication is funded by companies, and 200 companies are served annually.

Companies also pay for the Institute to help them with new product development, which has resulted in more than 80 patents.

And the incubator helps bring new technologies to market with short production runs before large-scale investments are required.

The testing and product development work done for companies is performed by Institute research staff, not by students or faculty. It is kept confidential.

THE STUDENTS The students who take classes and train at the Institute come from a variety of N.C. State schools. “Our students come from everywhere,” says Pourdeyhimi. “If they’re coming from chemical engineering, they’re getting a degree in chemical engineering. But then their research is on nonwovens, and they also have to take the five courses that we have, which gives them a graduate certificate.

“They learn all the basics of the processes, materials and all that.

That gives them an edge. So if you take a chemical engineer who’s worked on something else, versus one who’s worked on a lot of our problems, and you’re a nonwoven company, which one are you going to hire?”

He is proud of the Institute’s record of helping its students build good careers. “When I look at our history, I think before 2000, 3M had never hired from here. I think we have 18 or 19 former students at 3M. “At Freudenberg Performance Materials, which has facilities in Durham, Raoul Farer, the technology director, and chair of NWI’s executive committee, (says) a large portion of his research team graduated from here.” ■

Veteran journalist Dan Barkin went to high school in Newton, Massachusetts, arrived in the South for college in 1971 and moved to North Carolina in 1996. He can be reached at dbarkin53@gmail.com.

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LIST INTERVIEW

with Nido Qubein at High Point University

STAYING IN HER LANE Western Carolina University Chancellor Kelli Brown joined High Point University President Nido Qubein in the Power List interview, a partnership for discussions with influential leaders. Interview videos are available at www.businessnc.com.

Kelli Brown has led Western Carolina University in Cullowhee since 2018, overseeing a $300 million budget and about 12,000 students, including 1,700 graduatelevel students in Asheville. About 20% of students take online courses, while 40% are the first in their families to attend college. It is one of four UNC campuses that offer the N.C. Promise program offering tuition of $500 per semester for in-state undergraduate students. Brown has undergraduate and master’s degrees from The University of Toledo and a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University. She is a trained dental hygienist.

This story includes excerpts from Brown’s interview and was lightly edited for clarity.

How does Western Carolina prepare graduates for a global world?

As a regional comprehensive university, one of the things we really value is the idea of having a strong liberal studies, a strong general studies, the critical thinking skills, oral and written communication skills and the ability to work with diverse people. That’s something that we take very seriously. So if you’re a nurse that’s coming out, we want you to be able to understand that nursing is changing and be able to adapt to that. The same with teacher education, which is very different than what it is today.

Do you share my premise that the typical university has stellar faculty who are experts in their disciplines, but they didn’t take courses on the pragmatism that the business world and nonprofits demand today?

For the successful universities, we’ve had to change. I was not trained to be a teacher, I was trained in my area of public health. So I think that is very true. But I think that successful universities, places

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like Western, have been able to adapt by making sure we are selecting the right kind of faculty that come in. Selecting faculty that want to work with students outside the classroom and inside the classroom, helping them grow.

Many of our folks in our College of Business and our College of Engineering all have experience in the corporate world. In our College of Engineering, it’s required.

What three primary characteristics do you look for in a faculty member?

A faculty member has to understand our mission. We are a regional comprehensive university, which means that we are very grounded in our geographic area. I always say that we are going to stay in our lane.

We are a regional comprehensive university. We are not going to be an R1 or R2 (large universities that are research focused.)

Now, we do research, but it’s applied research at the undergraduate level. That’s very different if you are at a larger research institution.

The faculty also have to understand the importance of engagement within the community, within our region.

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Beyond the campus?

Absolutely. Working with our nonprofits, working with our local government agencies. We have a very strong affiliation with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. We actually are on their land so we work well with them. Knowing our mission, being engaged and having the passion and understanding of working beyond their classroom experiences, I think is critical. If we’ve got all three of those qualities, those faculty come and they stay forever.

How do we ensure that we are planting the seeds that feed the necessity of knowledge and discovery, while also learning about the needs of the marketplace?

Flexibility and the ability to work with people is part of the things we really try to incorporate early on in a student’s career here. So in their sophomore and junior years, they are doing internships and going out and working with companies. Like if you’re in marketing, having a marketing project and then pitching it to the CEO of that company. Those are the kinds of things that I think that we are doing at Western that will help them.

Engagement on campus is critical. Leadership roles on campus are critical, whether they be Greek or non-Greek. Be engaged. Be involved. Work with your faculty and take advantage of the networks and the internships opportunities.

Are you producing the kind of students that corporations need?

We cannot produce enough nurses, educators, engineers, accountants, financial managers. We are constantly being asked for more.

How many faculty does Western Carolina employ?

We have a little more than 500 full-time faculty. About 80% to 85% are tenured or tenure earning.

Is it difficult to be a chancellor at a school with 85% of the faculty either tenured or tenure-track?

This is my seventh institution. I’ve been in higher education for 35-plus years. At a place like Western, particularly given our location and the fact that we are a regional comprehensive university and really focused on undergraduate students, having tenured and tenure-track faculty at that level is extremely important. We need them to be committed. I cannot find a physicist or chemist in Sylva.

I think the other thing that’s really important for folks who are not in the higher education industry to understand is that, yes, they are on the books once one is tenured, but there are processes post-tenure. Prior to someone becoming tenured, there are many steps along the way. It’s a cycle that takes years and, oftentimes, folks are let go early on.

What are your biggest challenges?

First, I always worry about physical safety for our faculty, staff and students. Then I think of mental health as well. I also think about how we are going to be able to bring students back to higher education? We see so many more students not going into higher education.

Higher education has made many missteps that cause people to say, “Higher education is not worth the investment of resources — time, energy and especially money.”

I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job explaining to folks who are not in our industry what it is that we really do. What is that value?

We’ve kind of been set in this ivory tower.

Maybe we’ve stepped away from the fact that we’re really talking

about workforce development. We’re talking about how do we create people to go to work in those corporations? Of course it’s lifelong learning. We want people to continue to learn.

But, at the same time, we’re preparing people to go into those jobs that they’re looking for. I firmly believe in both two-year colleges as well as four-year universities. I think community college degrees are just as important. I need a good mechanic, a good HVAC person, and a good plumber every day of the week, right?

And at the same time, I think there are four-year degrees that are important. So, I do think we need to take a step back and do a better job of messaging and letting folks know what’s really happening and being more open about and transparent about what goes on in a university.

I also think we’ve got to get students in and out in a better way.

Why does it take longer for students to graduate in four years?

It shouldn’t. Four years later, you should be walking across that stage and graduating and going on to graduate school or into the workforce. This idea of a six-year graduation is over.

I can tell you that corporate leaders see higher education as inefficient vis-a-vis other comparable organizations. Is this correct?

I think that that’s how it’s viewed. If you were to follow a faculty member, [you’d see] our faculty members are working 50-60 hours a week.

That’s part of that transparency, that’s part of opening up that door. The UNC system in North Carolina is doing an excellent job.

We are being evaluated on performance. Our metrics are graduation rates, student debt at graduation, degree efficiency and the number of STEM degree students. I want to be held accountable. At the same time, I also want the system and others to know that sometimes it takes more to graduate a student that’s a first generation student than other students. Their needs are different. The support mechanisms are different.

Regarding N.C. Promise, are other UNC System chancellors jealous that the four campuses are taking away their students?

There is some of that. There is enough for everyone. I argue there are enough students for everyone. There’s a large population that wants to go to school. And there are going to be students who are going to go to other public institutions that cost more for a variety of different reasons. This is about affordability and accessibility to a four-year education.

The four institutions that have been selected are quality institutions and [students] are getting a quality education. I think that was the premise of this, and I think it was brilliant of the state Legislature. Since 2018, our numbers have grown at Western.

What would you still like to accomplish ?

I am looking forward to expanding our College of Engineering: Mechanical engineering, analytical engineering, robotics, all these different areas. We’ve talked about workforce development, and you talked about the economy and business. We are the only College of Engineering west of I-77.

You have a background in dental. Why don’t you have a dental school?

I mentioned we’re a regional comprehensive university. Most of our focus is on the undergraduate. We only have five doctoral programs and they are really focused on the applied. ■ S E P T E M B E R

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ENERGIZERS Enterprising young Tar Heel entrepreneurs.

MEASURING STICK GreenPlaces helps clients put sustainability dreams into action.

By Connie Gentry hen other kids were dreaming of being superheroes or astronauts, Alex Lassiter could never pick one career — he wanted to do everything.

“Doing just one thing is like my idea of hell,” says Lassiter. Fresh out of UNC Chapel Hill with a business degree in 2010, he worked at a Seattle start-up, followed by a couple of years at consultants Bain & Co. in Atlanta. Then, he had a “life-altering” interview at a venture capital firm in San Francisco.

“The VC partner told me, ‘Your whole career has been around taking the least risky choice,’ and that’s when I realized I had to do something irrational. I had to get off of the path I was on and explore.”

In early 2012, he and a buddy, Nicholas Miller, founded their first company, Frequentr, a software project that didn’t take off.

“We would have an idea, run with it, and get absolutely zero traction,” he recalls. “It reached this point where I’d say: ‘I don’t know what success looks like, but I definitely know what success doesn’t look like.’”

Fortunately, some of the ideas coalesced into Gather Technologies, which he co-founded in 2013 with Miller and Tom Merrihew, another UNC Chapel Hill alum. Gather was a customer relationship management platform that enabled restaurants, hotels and hospitality spaces to book wedding receptions, corporate events, reunions and other large parties. It also provided operators with the tools to manage large events.

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When the partners sold majority control of Gather to Austin, Texas-based Vista Equity Partners in 2017, it was on track to top $1 billion in reservations booked at about 3,500 venues. In 2020, Vista Equity bought Concord, Massachusetts-based Tripleseat, merging Alex Lassiter, founder and CEO, GreenPlaces the two platforms into a company with $2.6 billion in bookings.

Earlier this year, the New York-based General Atlantic PE firm invested $500 million in Tripleseat, which included acquiring the remaining stake held by Lassiter and Miller. Merrihew continues as a vice president of engineering at Tripleseat.

Now, Lassiter knew what success looked like. After Gather, he took various projects, including consulting with utilities and lumberyards, raising an investment fund, and working on a personalprotective equipment project during the pandemic.

“It was all fun, but I didn’t want to be a retired 33-year-old, I wanted to get back to actually building something,” Lassiter says.

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LASSITER PHOTO CREDIT: JKASS | PHOTOS COURTESY OF GREENPLACES

Seeking to make more of a social impact, he started GreenPlaces, an open-source platform that wants to “democratize” access to sustainability. It followed conversations with Jesse Lipson, founder of ShareFile (now part of Citrix Systems), along with support from noted Triangle entrepreneurs such as Scot Wingo of Spiffy, Todd Olson of Pendo and Tom Darden of Cherokee Investments. Lassiter officially launched the platform in January 2022.

Now, GreenPlaces has more than 2,000 integrations in a wide variety of enterprises including giant companies and small employers.

The platform helps companies aggregate data about their “carbon footprint,” which is the amount of carbon compounds emitted due to consumption of fossil fuels. The program syncs with a company’s energy and water use and suggests how to make changes and prioritize improvements.

“We can make climate something that is aligned with business,” Lassiter says. “If we’re going to be honest about sustainability, we’ve all got to [work at] it. But there’s also the practicality side … there’s no possible way of aligning a business interest without also aligning profits and business objectives.”

Barcelona Wine Bar has saved $75,000 at its tapas restaurants because the platform identified ways to save energy, says CEO Adam Halberg. The company, which started in Norwalk, Connecticut, has 20 restaurants in 10 states, including sites in Charlotte and Raleigh. It is owned by Connecticut-based private equity firm L. Catterton.

Barcelona Wine Bar’s experience epitomizes what Lassiter envisions for GreenPlaces: companies that want to address environmental issues, but are not necessarily early adopters and sustainability is not essential to their core brand.

“It is less about the size and more about the preparedness for being able to do this,” Lassiter says. “We might work with a relatively large company that only has one person working in sustainability.”

GreenPlaces has raised more than $17 million, including $13 million in June from a group that included California-based private-equity groups Redpoint Ventures and Felicis Ventures; New York-based Tishman Speyer Ventures; and Durham-based Bull City Venture Partners.

Lassiter says revenue is on track to double in the fiscal year that ends on Jan. 31, declining to be more specific. “It’s been a remarkably fast-growing business,” he says, noting that it is cash-flow positive.

The work more than satisfies his cravings for being that “everything guy,” as GreenPlaces seeks business from restaurant and hospitality groups, retailers, law firms and other professional services, software companies, financial institutions, franchise operators and educational institutions.

Lassiter says measuring climate impact has become a requirement for businesses. “You’re going to lose contracts if you don’t do it, I don’t care if you’re a law firm, bank, hotel or software company.”

About 92% of S&P 500 companies and 70% of the firms in the Russell 1000 published corporate sustainability reports in 2020.

Hotels tell Lassiter they’ve lost out on conferences because they lack needed detail, while executive search firms tell him candidates decline job offers with companies that don’t have a sustainability plan.

GreenPlaces is positioning itself to provide answers for how to develop sustainability plans that can evolve effectively.

Wilmington-based Live Oak Bank is planning to launch the GreenPlaces platform by early 2024. Live Oak serves clients nationally without operating brick-and-mortar branches. That creates unusual challenges in measuring the environmental impact.

“We’re a relationship-driven bank and we meet every single customer we make a loan to, so that means we have distributed teams and a lot of air travel for our lenders,” says Lillian Graning, head of corporate social responsibility. The challenge is to simplify the complex data into meaningful action item, which she says means answering Lillian Graning, Live Oak Bank pragmatic questions such as, “how much reporting capability is going to be required? What insight helps us actually be better environmental stewards? Where is it overkill?”

Lassiter is passionate about GreenPlaces’ plans and its scope of clients, who range from Redwood City, California-based software firm Zuora to Durham Academy, a private school with about 1,200 students from pre-K to 12th grade. “There’s no possibility that we ever actually get to our climate goals without involving everybody.”■

GREENPLACES ALEX LASSITER, FOUNDER-CEO AGE: 35 PLATFORM LAUNCHED: JANUARY 2022 HEADQUARTERS: RALEIGH EMPLOYEES: 27 INVESTMENT RAISED: $17 MILLION

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NCTREND ››› Aviation

RAPID DESCENT

A Greensboro rising star is waylaid by a turbulent aircraft market.

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elow, Appalachian forests drift through the morning haze. Piloting an F-15 jet fighter over Afghanistan was nothing like this for Glenn Gonzales, who followed his military career with a fast rise in corporate aviation.

His military aircraft included dozens of screens, dials and toggles that, among other things, could fire his ejection seat.

When Gonzalez takes control of the jet featured by his closely held company Jet It, the instrument panel looks like an SUV’s. Take off requires pushing a button that says “start.” Two 2,000-pound thrust turbofan engines atop the wings spin to life.

Once aloft, a digital display reads 420 knots, or 480 mph.

HondaJet’s $7 million, six-seat business jet, which was first delivered in 2015, has helped put Greensboro on the global aviation map. About 800 employees assemble the aircraft near Piedmont Triad International Airport. Plans call for 280 more as Honda Aircraft prepares an 11-passenger model.

Gonzales parlayed a position as a HondaJet executive into Greensboro-based Jet It, which he founded in 2018. The business sold and managed fractional ownership mostly in HondaJets, much like vacation-home time-shares.

Two years ago, Ernst & Young named him Southeast entrepreneur of the year. In 2022, Jet It ranked 11th nationally in flight hours, jumping 10 places in one year. It operated more than two-dozen planes and employed several dozen people. Gonzales, 46, regularly appeared on the covers of business publications, including this one in February 2023.

“I wouldn’t quite call him a superstar,” says a Greensboro executive who lunched with him as recently as July. “But he was on his way.”

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In May, Jet It crashed, leaving its fractional owners nationwide scrambling to recoup their investments. The company had raised $16 million last year from New York investor Michael Loeb and the Louisville, Kentucky private equity firm Blue Sky, according to Flying magazine.

Gonzales’ love affair with Honda spiraled into bitter recriminations and a lawsuit, which was settled earlier this year.

Attempts to contact Gonzales were unsuccessful. The company is in a “holding pattern” and its lawyers are telling officials to not comment, says Akir Khan, Jet It’s chief of staff. As of mid-August, it had not sought to reorganize in federal bankruptcy court.

Interviews with more than a dozen sources suggest Jet It grew too fast by undercutting competitors’ pricing and misinterpreting a temporary spike in its Glenn Gonzales industry as permanent good fortune.

Jet It rushed into what Craig Fuller, CEO of Flying magazine, calls “a massive bubble.” It emanated from the COVID-19 pandemic that sent business owners, doctors, lawyers and other wealthy individuals flocking to private jets to avoid crowded commercial flights.

Frenzied demand for flights meant that the cost of paying pilots and mechanics and buying small jets soared faster than

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JET IT

By Edward Martin

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PHOTO COURTESY OF FLYEXCLUSIVE

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JET IT

expected, says Fuller, a former Jet It shareholder.

“You had a lot of not necessarily high-worth individuals, but people worth, say $10 million to $20 million, who saw they could get into jet ownership in the $800,000 to $2 million range,” says David Hernandez, an aviation attorney at Chicago’s Vedder Price law firm. “You had a huge influx of companies like Jet It that didn’t understand what was happening. They used lower prices to attract customers.”

The pricing didn’t make sense, says a former fractional owner, who asked to remain anonymous. “Jet It lost about $900 every time I flew,” he notes.

The collapse went public on Friday, May 26, when Gonzales told employees to clear out of Jet It’s downtown Greensboro office.

One says he wanted the staffers “to have a path to move forward” and trim costs. Jet It’s space is on the market, says a spokesman for NCR Management, the leasing agent.

Almost simultaneously, in a terse message to hundreds of small-jet share owners, Gonzales told them to dispose of their jets as best they could.

A former owner in Tennessee says he paid $630,000 for his 10% share of a HondaJet in October 2021, and sold it in July for $405,000. “The first year, it was great,” he shrugs. Then began scheduling and maintenance delays, missed flights and unreturned calls. “At least it wasn’t hard to sell. We sold it in two days.”

A 1999 Air Force Academy graduate with an MBA from the University of South Carolina, Gonzales served as a trainer and pilot for Uncle Sam before leaving active duty in 2009. After a stint at jetmaker Gulfstream, he joined Honda Aircraft in 2014.

He rose to regional sales manager before leaving for his own venture.

“He’s a great pilot, hard worker and brilliant man,” says Julie Hughes, who worked with him at HondaJet. The first woman certified to fly the jet, she retired in 2022 and is executive director of the 800-member HondaJet Operators and Pilots Association.

“I’m as puzzled as everyone else.”

Gonzales’ fighter pilot background opened doors. “He’s an entrepreneur, a great American who served his country honorably,” says Khan, echoing how Gonzales was widely regarded in the Triad.

His relationship with his former employer became less positive last year, when Honda sued Jet It in a contract dispute settled in December. Before the agreement, Gonzales fired off a letter to Fuller and other owners, lamenting Honda’s “ineptitude” and “shocking lack of support” for its planes.

He grounded Jet It’s fleet, claiming the HondaJet had a history of accidents, including about 20 “runway excursions,” when it overshot landings. There were no injuries.

Hughes says she’s seen no design flaws in the plane. “So far as we can tell, there’s nothing wrong with it.” Other fractional companies have continued flying the jets.

The Federal Aviation Administration has found no issues to ground the HondaJet. Fuller, who is a pilot, doesn’t see a problem,

either. “Every plane has a different personality,” he says. “You just train for it.”

Gonzales used the safety issue as a smokescreen to cover his failing business model, Fuller adds. “The economics of Jet It were incredibly bad. In hindsight, you know why they went under.

Their charges were well below costs. Everybody assumed they’d figured out how to make this work. They hadn’t.”

Gonzalez had blamed a net loss of $23.2 million in 2022 on its inability to get enough planes amid the pandemic bubble. (It lost $2.6 million in 2021.) He projected an industry turnaround, and suggested the company would earn $108 million in 2025.

That forecast involved adding customers by undercutting competitors, Fuller says. But its fixed costs for owners ran about $3,500 a month, in line with peers, while its per-hour charge for actual flying time was $1,600 an hour, or about half of its rivals, he notes.

Jet It also agreed to forego fuel surcharges as costs rose during the pandemic, unlike some peers. “The economics of Jet It were incredibly bad,” Fuller says.

The future of Jet It is dim, say former employees, several former owners and outside analysts. The rush to fractional-jet ownership has fizzled since pandemic fears eased in early 2022, says Hernandez. “Once the music stopped, they were gone.” ■

FLYEXCLUSIVE PRESSES AHEAD While Jet It is grounded, Kinston-based FlyExclusive plans remain aloft for an IPO through a merger with EG Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition led by New York investors.

Started by Jim Segrave in 2015, FlyExclusive is the fifth-largest subscription-based jet company. It resisted the bidding war for planes triggered by the pandemic and has focused on reining in costs and delivering profitable growth, President Tommy Sower says.

“It was hard to buy planes, so we slowed down our purchases in the last year and a half. We didn’t think we could be profitable,” he says.

FlyExclusive has centralized maintenance work for its 95-jet fleet in Kinston. It has 800 employees, including 300 pilots, and expects to add another 60 planes over the next year. It outsources 20% of its repair work, versus 50% a year ago, Sower says.

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NCTREND ››› Insurance

AVOIDING THE STODGY

Speedy the Rhino and a poop emoji trophy enliven a Durham annuity seller.

By Chris Roush

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very quarter, the staff at Durham-based Aspida Financial Services gathers for a town hall meeting where an employee receives its GSD Award, so named after the phrase “Get S*#* Done.” Amid loud cheers, Chief People Officer Sandy Ball announces why the staffer was chosen.

The most recent winner was a senior cybersecurity engineer who built the life insurance company’s occupational risk dashboards. She received a giant poop emoji trophy – not your typical employee of the month award. “We think we’re cool insurance,” says Ball. “It’s not this whole stodgy thing.”

Less than three years old, Aspida Financial has grown to more than $10 billion in assets under management by selling fixed annuities with a simple strategy — build software that allows it to approve annuity applications faster than peers. The new technology helps staffers avoid antiquated systems that at times bedevil older insurers. A vibrant work environment has also attracted talented people, Ball says.

A subsidiary of Los Angeles-based asset manager Ares Management, Aspida has almost doubled its staff to 154 in the past year, hiring 70 people nationally. It’s in a 32,000-square-feet office on the edge of Research Triangle Park looks more like a biotech company than a life insurer, with pink neon lobby lights and sayings from Mahatma Gandhi and others printed on the walls. It’s expanding into another 10,000 square feet.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Stewart says the company is mulling an initial public offering in 2027 if the markets are receptive.

“Our size and technical know-how makes us agile,” says Stewart. “A lot of our competitors take eight weeks to process an 14

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annuity app. We’ve issued a contract in as little as 21 seconds.”

The company’s mascot, Speedy the Rhino, pops up in its marketing materials and on its website.

Stewart, Ball, CEO Lou Hensley and some other Aspida executives previously worked at Richmond, Virginia-based Genworth Financial, a large insurer that now focuses on long-term care insurance. Ares created the business in 2021 by buying an insurance company shell, as well as a Bermuda-based reinsurer, and renamed it Aspida, the Greek word for shield. Last year, it launched sales of annuity products through independent agents and is about to start selling through an unnamed bank.

Ares manages about $360 billion in assets, including Aspida’s investment portfolio.

Annuities have become more popular as interest rates shot up in the last year, with industry sales surging 22% to $310 billion last year, according to the industry’s Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association, or LIMRA. Among the industry leaders is Charlotte-based Brighthouse Financial, which reported annuity sales of $11.5 billion last year, a 26% increase.

Fixed annuities are a more stable business than variable annuities, whose returns are typically tied to stock market performance, says Michael Adams, an associate director at insurance rating agency A.M. Best. “[It’s] a very competitive environment. There are risk mitigation strategies that insurers can implement, and Aspida has done a good job managing these risks.”

A.M. Best rates Aspida A- for financial strength rating, which is considered excellent on the company’s A+ to D scale.

Because the company is so young, it’s not burdened with out-of-date technology, says Stewart. Its marketing materials also avoid “insurance speak,” aiming to avoid the industry’s

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NCTREND ››› Litigation

FLAT TIRES

By David Mildenberg

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reenville used-car dealership owner Tim Sutton promised dozens of people in eastern North Carolina that vehicle lending could provide safe returns of 12% to 18%. But the auto dealer’s foray into consumer finance ended badly when three creditors, owed a combined $2.9 million, pushed Sutton’s Greenville Auto World into an involuntary bankruptcy in June.

Bankruptcy trustee Kevin Sink of Greenville was assigned to investigate the matter. More than $10 million may be involved from dozens of investors, according to a person familiar with the situation. “It looks like a Ponzi scheme,” the person said.

Requests for comment from Sutton, and his lawyer Allen Brown of Greenville, were not immediately returned.

Since starting the business in 2011, Sutton recruited people to invest in or buy contracts related to specific auto purchases, according to a case filing. As car buyers made monthly payments, Greenville Auto World would make payments to the investors, many of whom knew Sutton through his leadership of the “Tim Sutton Trio” gospel music singing group.

The GSD Award is given to the Aspida employee every quarter who got s%#@ done.

historically dense and archaic subject matter.

Then there’s the corporate culture. During a Business North Carolina Best Employers event that recognized the company,

“Many of the contracts were invested in or purchased by multiple investors at the same time. In other cases, the Contracts did not exist at all,” according to a filing that requested Sink’s hiring. Investors stopped getting paid in or before March 2023, and Sutton stopped responding to inquiries, the filing notes.

The three creditors named in the initial bankruptcy petition are: Gary Harris, a former partner in an optometry business in Greenville, who is seeking repayment of $1.9 million. Sutton Edmondson III of Oak City is asking for $562,500, while Greenville developer Michael Overton filed a claim for $428,000.

Some of the money was used for purchases of individual cars, while other investors were involved in so-called “floor planning,” which auto dealerships use to finance their inventory.

Sutton’s former business in southeast Greenville is still operating under the same name, with new ownership, according to a case filing ■

Stewart cartwheeled down the aisle. Two pickleball courts outside Aspida’s office are regularly booked. It pays for lunch on Tuesdays, and a recent field day included food trucks. There’s a walking competition among the staff, and in August, the company offered “roam days” to enable staff to work anywhere.

In part of August, Stewart worked from California.

To build that culture, officials say they purposely hire employees with non-insurance backgrounds, complementing those with specific insurance skill sets. The goal is for a fresh perspective, innovation and an urgency to act.

Aspida’s staff recently worked on a new fixed annuity with an income rider designed to guarantee a specific growth rate.

Just weeks before its launch, the company delayed the rollout, a decision a larger insurer may not have made.

“For us, it’s about the power of moments,” says Ball.

“Creating experiences — whether fleeting or lasting — that really impact our employees. From new hire orientation to special benefits like roam days to our most coveted award — the GSD Award — we look for ways to attract, engage, and retain our team that make us stand out as an employer of choice.” ■ S E P T E M B E R

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NCTREND ››› Construction

BUILDING BINGE Growth-minded Atrium Health is stoking the construction market with $2.2 billion in Charlotte area and Triad expansions.

By Kevin Ellis

• $900 million for a 12-story, 448-bed hospital tower at its Carolinas Medical Center campus in Charlotte’s Dilworth neighborhood. By 2027, the 1.1 million-square-foot building is expected to add a net 191 beds. The existing center now has 868 beds licensed by the state.

• $425 million for the new medical school building, less than a mile from the new hospital tower. Atrium and Wake Forest School of Medicine are building the roughly 300,000 square foot Howard R. Levine Center for Education and a 331,000 square-foot research building tower that will be the centerpiece of the 20-acre, $1.5 billion “Pearl” innovation district. Other announced tenants include Wake Forest University School of Business, Wake Forest School for Professional Studies and Carolinas College of Health Sciences.

• $450 million for an eight-story tower at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center campus in Winston-Salem, slated to be completed in 2024. It’s the first major investment in the Triad since Wake Forest Baptist joined Atrium in a 2020 combination.

• $228 million for the 30-bed Atrium Health Lake Norman, in Cornelius in north Mecklenburg County. Atrium broke ground on the project in May. The hospital is expected to employ 280 when it opens in 2025.

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Those projects follow two other major Atrium projects to open in the past two years: • The reported $100 million David L. Conlan Center at Atrium Health’s Carolina Medical Center, which opened in January on the site of the former rehabilitation center and a parking lot. It’s named after Conlan, a business partner of Charlotte real estate developer Howard “Smoky” Bissell and his wife, Margaret, who donated $30 million for the project. Bissell sold Ballantyne Corporate Park to Northwood Investors for more than $1 billion in 2017.

• The $150 million-plus Atrium Health Union West, a 40-bed site that opened in February 2022, marking the first Atrium hospital to open in more than 30 years. It is serving fastgrowing parts of east Mecklenburg and west Union counties.

Atrium, the state’s largest private employers, is spreading the work among various contractors. Redwood City, California-based DPR Construction and Charlotte-based Rodgers Construction are general contractors for the Dilworth project. The building at Charlotte’s Carolinas Medical Center will include 38 operating rooms and a 62-room emergency department.

Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner Contracting, in partnership with Charlotte-based R.J. Leeper Construction, is leading the medical school building construction. The medical school building is part of a partnership between Atrium, Wake Forest and Baltimore-based Wexford Science and Technology to develop a research district aimed at making Charlotte a leader in medical innovation, Atrium CEO Gene Woods says. Wexford has been part of the Winston-Salem Innovation Quarter development for many years, in partnership with Wake Forest

PHOTO CREDIT: KEVIN ELLIS

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trium Health is in the midst of a capital investment explosion that is unprecedented in the history of North Carolina’s hospital industry.

The Charlotte-based health care system has committed $2.2 billion to projects in the Charlotte and WinstonSalem areas over the past few years. The not-for-profit authority is working on four major projects simultaneously.

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ARTIST RENDERING COURTESY OF WAKE FOREST SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

PHOTO CREDIT: KEVIN ELLIS

Baptist Health. Wake Forest’s medical school will start training students at the site next year.

DPR Construction and Rodgers Builders also partnered on the rehabilitation center in Charlotte. It’s a 150,000-square-foot building that includes an outpatient clinic, aquatic therapy program and a center to help patients relearn activities for daily life.

To build its Winston-Salem tower, Atrium tapped Birmingham, Alabamabased Brasfield & Gorrie and Blum Construction, based in Winston-Salem, to lead the construction. It will include an upgraded emergency department, operating rooms and enhanced intensive care units. Brasfield & Gorrie also was the general contractor for Atrium Health Union West. Kansas City, Missouri-based JE Dunn partnered with Charlotte-based McFarland Construction as general contractor for the Lake Norman hospital.

Atrium is investing millions of dollars in other projects at its 67 hospitals. In early August, state regulators approved its plan for a $246.5 million, 36-bed hospital in north Greensboro. It’s on hold pending an appeal from rival Cone Health, which dominates the Guilford County hospital market. Winston-Salem-based Novant Health also opposed Atrium’s plans.

Atrium Health can make such investments because of a strong financial status, which draws top investment-grade reviews from the major rating agencies.

Its combination last December with Downers Grove, Illinois-based Advocate Aurora Health created the third-largest nonprofit health system in the U.S. with annual revenue of $28 billion and reserves of more than $12 billion. The combined Charlotte-based company, which is called Advocate Health, employs more than 150,000 people. ■

Wake Forest School of Medicine plans to open its Charlotte campus next year. A rendering depicts the new site, which will complement the Winston-Salem-based school that dates to 1902.

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NCTREND ››› Retail

CRYSTAL PERSUASION

The state’s most famous China collector stays current amid a changing market.

REPLACEMENTS LTD. HEADQUARTERS: McLeansville CEO: Bob Page REVENUE: $90 million

By Chris Roush

EMPLOYEES: 375, with more than 150 having worked at the company for at least 20 years.

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PRODUCTS: More than 300,000 discontinued china patterns, 80,000 crystal patterns and more than 60,000 flatware patterns are stocked in a 500,000-square-foot building.

patterns, though it stocks more than 300,000 discontinued patterns.

Its website, where 90% of its sales are derived, allows customers to take a picture of a plate to determine the name of the pattern they’re looking for. Replacements’ network of 450 suppliers scour estate sales and stores for items.

“What people are looking for is changing,” says Page. “Some of the older patterns from 25 to 30 years ago, the demand has declined,” while patterns from Pier One, Crate & Barrel and Williams Sonoma are popular. Adds President Scott Fleming: “High-end patterns have held up very well.”

Page started by placing classified ads in Southern Living and Better Homes and Gardens, offering to help people complete their china sets from his attic. In 1981, he sold $250,000 worth of china.

Within four years, sales grew to $4 million. It moved to its current location in 1989 and added 200,000 square feet in 2011. Estate jewelry was added in 2018. Replacements also makes handcrafted items – taking a handle and turning it into a tomato server — and sells several thousand dollars worth each day, notes Page.

Page also operates his Bob’s Closet clothing charity out of the back of Replacements. It delivered more than 50,000 pieces of clothing last year. In other words, he’s not slowing down.

“I don’t know what I’d do” in retirement, says Page. “I would be bored to death. I’m not ready for that rocking chair. I’m out on the road lifting heavy boxes.” ■

PHOTOS COURTESY OF REPLACEMENTS

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eplacements Ltd. founder and CEO Bob Page turned 78 in April. He’s had three ankle replacements, a partial knee cap replacement and prostate surgery. He’s blind in his right eye.

But two bags of trail mix and a box of health food bars sit on a table behind his desk at the company’s McLeansville headquarters, 10 miles east of Greensboro. Page works out an hour a day in his home gym and complains that he’s recently added some weight to his thin 142-pound frame. “I can’t imagine Bob not working,” says chief marketing officer Linh Calhoun.

After starting Replacements in 1981 in Greensboro, Page shows no signs of slowing down. A former accountant for the state, he scours estate sales and Goodwill locations. During the past year, he’s been developing software to make price changes based on marketplace trends. As he scans his office computer, he quickly rattles off daily sales statistics.

Replacements has changed with the market. Although china still makes up more than 60% of sales, crystal is now 12% of sales, as is stainless silverware. Sterling silver is 6% of sales, collectibles is 3%, and estate jewelry — think Rolex watches and diamond earrings — is another 3%. The company also restores and repairs silver.

Sales in 2022 were just north of $90 million, down from a record of nearly $100 million in 2021, which Page credits to COVID-19. “We had people sitting at home with time on their hands, dining more, cooking more, on the computer looking at our website,” says Page.

The company operates from a 500,000-square-foot facility.

More than 370 employees peruse 60,000 shelves of discontinued and current china and plate patterns, crystal and flatware. Replacements ships 2,000 to 2,500 orders each day, though from Nov. 15 to Jan. 15 that number rises to 6,000 packages daily.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF REPLACEMENTS

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NCTREND ››› Statewide

CHARLOTTE CHARLOTTE CTech startup Craftwork, which aims to modernize the home painting process, closed on a $4 million funding round.

Craftwork is participating in Y Combinator, a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley.

Campbell Soup will lay off 55 workers

by December at its corporate office as part of a consolidation with its headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. There are 166 employees, and some will be relocated to other company offices or work in remote roles, according to a state filing.

Spectrum will add 200 workers by the end of the year to the call center to the call center it opened in late 2022.

The cable services and internet provider employs 5,400-plus workers in the Charlotte area, and almost 12,000 in the state. Spectrum has hired 420 workers at the call center.

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Brightspeed will bring more fiber-optic internet connectivity to about 5,000 households and businesses in Halifax, Nash, Person and Wake counties. A key factor is a $12.1 million grant through the Growing Rural Economics with Access to Technology (GREAT) program. It has received about $103 million through the program since 2018.

Axum Capital Partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for Wild Wing Cafe and Back Yard Burgers. The filing for Wild Wing cites assets of between $10 million and $50 million. The Back Yard Burgers filing claims assets of between $1 million and $10 million and debts of between $10 million and $50 million.

The shutdown of trucking company Yellow Corp. caused layoffs of 885 workers in North Carolina, including more than 500 in Mecklenburg County. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company filed for bankruptcy. Job losses were also felt in seven other North Carolina counties.

Truist Financial committed $15 million to the Housing Impact Fund, which has raised almost $67 million and has a goal of preserving 1,200 units

of affordable housing in Mecklenburg County over the next two years.

Carowinds’ Fury 325 roller coaster started rolling again after the N.C. Department of Labor’s Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau approved the reopening. The biggest ride in the park was shut down for more than a month after a video showed the ride with a crack in one of its pillars.

KINGS MOUNTAIN North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore, 52, said that his record fifth twoyear term presiding over the chamber will be his last. The Cleveland County Republican has served in the House since 2003 and was elected speaker in 2015.

MOORESVILLE Lowe’s customers can get same-day delivery nationwide. Lowe’s began a pilot program for same-day delivery for orders through its website and app in its Charlotte market, which expanded to nearly 600 stores by late April. Same-day delivery is now available in its 1,700 home improvement stores nationwide.

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HICKORY CommScope plans to add 250 jobs and invest $60.3 million to expand its fiberoptic cable manufacturing operations.

The company has operated in the state for 45 years and has 1,747 employees statewide, with 1,671 in Catawba County.

SALISBURY

EAST GREENVILLE Joe Pecheles Hyundai completed its $7.5 million, 22,000-square-foot facility, replacing an original dealership that was built in 1965. The Pecheles family has six dealerships across eastern North Carolina with three in Greenville.

JACKSONVILLE

Michigan-based General RV Center, the nation’s largest family owned recreational vehicle dealer, will invest $25 million and open its first North Carolina location here in the fall of 2024.

General RV Center will have 700 vehicles on its lot and build a 71,000-square-foot building. It will be the company’s 16th supercenter nationwide and employ 150 full-time workers.

Ward and Smith announced attorneys Charles Ellis and retired Army Maj. Gen. Hugh Overholt will serve on the plaintiffs’ leadership team for claims brought under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, which seeks compensation for Marines, their families, civilian contractors and other on-base personnel damaged by water contamination at the military base.

ROCKY MOUNT A tornado damaged a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant, scattering medicine and debris. No serious injuries were reported. A Pfizer employee said the incident sounded like a bomb occurred in a span of 60 to 90 seconds. The tornado produced 150 mph wind gusts, according to the National Weather Service. The warehouse portion of the facility was the most heavily damaged.

WILMINGTON The North Carolina State Ports Authority reported record revenue of $79.3 million in the 2023 fiscal year, a 16.7% increase from a year earlier. A record year for general cargo and strong increases in intermodal business contributed to the increase. Container volume through the Port of Wilmington increased by 7% as the N.C. Ports added two new vessel operators, which led to increased global connectivity.

PHOTO COURTSESY OF PETFOLK

SHELBY

IMC-Metals America began an expansion at its site, which will double its workforce by adding about 75 jobs.

IMC-Metals America, a subsidiary of Connecticut-based Prime Materials Recovery, manufactures copper, brass, tin and nickel products in the form of bars, nuggets, balls and rods.

CHARLOTTE Petfolk, a veterinary practice, raised $35 million from 15 investors with plans to raise $5 million more, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The company’s founder and CEO is Audrey Wystrach, who started the company in 2019. Her brother, Michael Wystrach, is the founder of the Freshly prepared-meal company.

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NCTREND ››› Statewide

TRIAD ASHEBORO

WILLIAMSTON Martin General Hospital suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy. The hospital has lost $30 million since 2016, including $13 million last year. The 49-bed hospital is about 28 miles from ECU Health, the largest hospital network in eastern North Carolina, and many of the county’s 22,500 residents seek medical care there.

GREENSBORO Klaussner Furniture, once one of North Carolina’s major manufacturers with annual revenue topping $500 million, closed its business. The company, which had five plants in North Carolina, was owned by New York-based Monomoy Capital Partners since 2017. In 2022, the company had estimated sales of $300 million, ranking 36th of the largest U.S. wood products manufacturers. A total of 884 workers lost their jobs, including 826 in Randolph County and 58 in Montgomery County.

WILMINGTON Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar, which started as a 900-square-foot shack in Carolina Beach in 2007, plans to open a Florida eatery. The location in Lutz, Florida, north of Tampa, could open as soon as this month. Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar began franchising in 2014 and has grown to 19 locations across seven states.

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Duke Energy started an 11-year process of excavation and clean-up at its steam station here as it turns a coal basin into a landfill to dispose of coal ash.

Approximately 12 million tons of ash will go into the landfill, which has a 24-inch thick liner to prevent leaks. Most of the new ash produced from the power plant is being recycled into building materials. The project was prompted by a settlement after runoff spilled into the Dan River in 2014.

Unifi’s chief financial officer, Craig Creaturo, stepped down. The yarn manufacturer named Andrew Eaker, the county’s treasurer, as its interim CFO. The global company has manufacturing facilities in Yadkinville, Madison and Reidsville.

HIGH POINT Charlotte developer Keith Corp. and Hunter Oglesby’s IDM Ventures of High Point are partnering on an industrial park with as much as 1.4 million square feet of space on 185 acres. South Point Commerce Center includes land in Guilford, Davidson and Randolph counties.

Lumos Fiber, a fiber optic network operator that is expanding across North Carolina, secured $1.1 billion in new funding for more growth as well as to refinance debt. The company secured the money from majority owner EQT Group, a Sweden-based investment firm.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BMW GROUP AND SHUCKIN’ SHACK OYSTER BAR

Penske Automotive Group acquired BMW of Wilmington and Porsche Wilmington for an undisclosed amount.

The two dealerships are expected to add $140 million in annual revenue. Michiganbased Penske also owns Mercedes-Benz of South Charlotte in Pineville. The public company sold more than 123,000 new and used vehicles in the past year.

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KERNERSVILLE

Illinois-based Deere & Company and Kreisel Electric GMBH, an Austrian company, which John Deere acquired majority ownership of in 2022, will create 50 jobs and invest $69.6 million in establishing North American headquarters for John Deere Electric Powertrain and building a battery and charger manufacturing factory. John Deere Electric Powertrain will build a 115,000-square foot space to expand Kreisel batteries and chargers.

MONCURE

WINSTON-SALEM Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine received a $4.4 million grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to assess the benefits of primary care physicians expanding telehealth to children with chronic conditions and their caregivers.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOHN DEERE, CHATHAM EDC AND WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BMW GROUP AND SHUCKIN’ SHACK OYSTER BAR

TRIANGLE CARY

A July 22 fire at the Mediterranean Deli, Bakery, and Catering on West Franklin Street began on the roof due to work being done and was accidental, according to a Fire Department report. The restaurant plans to rebuild and is offering catering services from another location. The deli opened in 1991. A GoFundMe page raised more than $213,000 to help the deli’s 50 employees.

Vietnamese car maker VinFast broke ground on its $4 billion plant, where it plans to build electric vehicles for the North American market by 2025. This will be the state’s largest state-backed economic development project, based on expected job creation. The company has pledged to hire as many as 7,500 workers this decade.

VinFast went public through a SPAC merger with Black Spade Acquisition in a deal that values the business at $23 billion.

Aspirar Medical Lab, and its CEO, Pick Chay, agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by billing North Carolina Medicaid, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte announced. The allegations involved unnecessary urine tests tainted by illegal kickbacks in a case where two other men with another entity received prison terms for their roles.

WINSTON-SALEM

CHAPEL HILL

Biotech firm Novan filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring and agreed to sell most of its assets for $15 million.

The company was formed in 2006 based on UNC Chapel Hill research, then went public in 2016. Its shares traded as high as $3.33 in the past year. It developed drugs to treat skin diseases.

Phillip White filed a class-action lawsuit accusing T.W. Garner Food Co. of deceptive marketing its Texas Pete hot sauce as a Texas product, when it’s actually made in North Carolina. A California judge has refused to dismiss the claim, which seeks to force Texas Pete to change its name and branding and return money to past customers.

C.J. Skender, an accounting professor who has taught 353 courses and more than 35,000 students at UNC Chapel Hill since his first class 42 summers ago, retired.

Skender has collected dozens of professional honors and helped shape the careers of countless students.

Home Depot’s venture arm has invested in startup Higharc, which has developed what it calls an “intelligent homebuilding platform.” Higharc has gained more than $40 million in its new round of funding, and secured capital from former Autodesk CEO Carl Bass and Standard Industries.

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Phreesia bought health technology company MediFind for an undisclosed sum.

As part of the transaction, the company’s board approved the grant of restricted stock awards of 13,161 shares of its common stock to 12 new non-executive employees of MediFind, which uses advanced analytics to help patients.

Ryan McCurdy is now senior vice president of Lenovo North America, reporting to Matt Zielinski, executive vice president and president of international markets. McCurdy comes to Hong Kongbased Lenovo after 23 years at Intel, where he was vice president and general manager of global accounts. McCurdy succeeds former North America President Vlad Rozanovich, who now leads go-to-market strategy and sales for Lenovo’s international infrastructure business.

Pendo will utilize data gathered from 10,000 companies using its products and artificial intelligence to create suite Pendo AI, which it says will help clients improve software experiences. The privately held company is a tech “unicorn” with more than $1 billion in valuation.

BOONE

Bandwidth, which provides cloud communications software to companies, moved into its new headquarters after two years of construction. More than 750 employees will have access to two indoor basketball courts, a child care center as well as tennis courts and a soccer field. The company bought the land, near the PNC Arena, for $30 million in June 2021. Bandwidth has received state incentives of $32.2 million, pending creation of more than 1,000 jobs.

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Asheville Regional Airport eclipsed its pre-pandemic passenger numbers, setting a record in the process. According to the airport’s 2022 annual report, the airport served more than 1.8 million passengers in 2022, that’s almost a quarter million more passengers than in 2019. This was the busiest year in the airport’s history.

The Asheville Downtown Association named Hayden Plemmons executive director. She had been senior director of operations at the Downtown Denver Partnership. The Georgia Southern University graduate previously worked at The Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

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A company that had been developing drugs to treat digestive disorders notified investors of plans to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy and cease operations. The assets of 9 Meters Biopharma will be sold, and the proceeds will go to those who file claims with the bankruptcy court. In the first three months of this year, the company reported a net loss of $13.9 million.

TG Therapeutics secured a deal worth $645 million to license its multiple sclerosis treatment outside of North America.

The pharmaceutical company disclosed a deal that grants Neuraxpharm Group an exclusive license to commercialize its treatment in Europe and other countries outside of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

TG Therapeutics will receive an upfront payment of $140 million.

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Biogen will spend more than $7 billion to buy Texas-based Reata Pharmaceuticals and bolster its rare disease treatments. Reata’s FDA-approved Skyclarys (omaveloxolone) is the only approved treatment for Friedreich’s ataxia in the U.S., and the company is developing a portfolio of products for a range of neurological diseases.

Appalachian Regional Healthcare System is rebranding to UNC Health Appalachian. It will remain a locally owned healthcare authority with governance and decision-making through its board of directors, according to CEO Chuck Mantooth. UNC Health manages UNC Health Appalachian, which has three hospitals, 15 medical practices, a cancer center, a heart and vascular center, a rehabilitation center and a healthcare foundation. ■

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CLEAN & GREEN

SUSTAINABILITY FOR THE PLANET, AND PROFITABILITY More North Carolina businesses are integrating sustainability into their business strategy, realizing they can do well by doing good. Business North Carolina gathered a panel of experts to discuss their sustainability programs and how they are working to improve conditions in our state as well as improve their bottom line.

Amy Aussieker

Mike Lizotte

Bonnie Loomis

executive director, Envision Charlotte

sustainability officer, UNC Charlotte

interim executive director, E4 Carolinas

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Raglan and UNC Charlotte sponsored the discussion. It was moderated by Ben Kinney, publisher of Business North Carolina. It was edited for brevity and clarity.

NORTH CAROLINA HAS A RICH HISTORY IN SUSTAINABLE PROGRAMS AND CONTINUES BUILDING ON THAT. TO GET THINGS STARTED, PLEASE TELL A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION. AUSSIEKER: I’m Amy Aussieker, executive director of Envision Charlotte.

We’re a nonprofit that’s been around about 12 years. Our first big project was our energy efficiency program. We worked with the largest buildings in Uptown Charlotte to reduce energy use by up to 20% over five years. We saw a 19.2% reduction in 61 buildings, which was $26 million in savings. From there, we started looking at sustainability a little more holistically.

In the last few years, we’ve really transitioned to the circular economy approach. Basically a zero waste society. We’ve gone from focusing just on energy to looking at sustainability because it gives businesses a lot more

opportunities around savings and doing better by planet Earth.

WRIGHT: I’m Daniel Wright, I’ve been with Pike Electric for 15 years. I was on the construction side for 14 years, and recently I’ve been on the engineering side, which is my academic background.

Pike is a 78-year-old, privately owned company started in Mount Airy, which is my hometown. We engineer, construct and maintain the electrical infrastructure for over 300 customers, who are predominately investment owned utilities, cooperatives and municipalities.

We’re working in more than 40 states.

Predominantly we’re mostly concentrated in the southeast with our engineering headquarters in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

LOOMIS: What we have here in the Carolinas is a true energy industry cluster and we’re in the midst of working to integrate with the economic development community. E4 Carolinas works to connect the dots on the fact that energy is no longer just an enabler of other more traditional economic development clusters such as automotive, aerospace or life sciences. Energy has become its own cluster. Our organization is an energy trade association. We have over 150 member organizations from all aspects of the energy industry — small, large,

investors and utilities service companies, consultants, lawyers, education. We’re working to connect the organizations who have any footprint in the energy industry in the Carolinas. Our mission is to grow the Carolinas’ energy economy. We do that primarily through economic development and workforce development. On the workforce development side, we have programs with Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We also have a leadership program from an economic development perspective. We have various research activities that are taking place to identify the value chain associated with different aspects of the energy industry, advanced nuclear, hydrogen energy storage and electric vehicles. One of those most recent grants is through UNC Charlotte’s award from the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines. We are a little over 11 years old and enjoy a growing membership.

TILLMAN: At Raglan, I think we’re emblematic of the changes that are occurring within North Carolina. My co-founder and I, and most of our team, are actually from the mid-Atlantic originally. We’re not born and bred North Carolinians, but Raglan is a 100% veteran owned and operated company.

We were founded in 2020 out of

Olee Joel Olsen

Ryan Tillman

Daniel P. Wright

CEO, O2 Group Ventures

co-founder, Raglan

vice president of engineering, Pike Engineering

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Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach to be an innovative mobility and technology solutions company. We first wanted to attack the pain points that existed within classic car ownership as well as their perception of EVs. Our forward facing consumer product right now is a fully bespoke, completely restored, fully electrified Land Rover Defender.

We’ve expanded our operations the last year to include technology solutions across a myriad of different platforms, including legacy vehicles within the Department of Defense. Our goal is to play a role in helping the EV revolution via full spectrum mobility transition of the U.S. fleet through combustion engine conversions. Our belief is that it’s just not going to happen on an Original Equipment Manufacturer level, there has to be a whole approach to transitioning the resources we’ve already harvested and have already dedicated manufacturing hours to.

pay particular attention to urban, large scale problems.

LIZOTTE: I’m the university sustainability officer at UNC Charlotte. It’s a requirement for all the UNC campuses to have one. I’ve been here almost 10 years.

A lot of the role is tied to construction that’s going on because the whole system continues to grow. I also work with waste management. We get involved a bit in curriculum and the research that comes out of the laboratories. For example, we’ll run workshops for the faculty on incorporating sustainability into more and more of the curriculum. We are the urban research university for the state, so we 28

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OLSEN: I started my first O2 company in 2009 with only one client who wanted to enter the business of engineering and building solar power plants. I want to thank Pike, who helped us get the lights on. We were consulting for PIKE to learn how a private non-utility company could design, develop, own, and operate utility scale solar power plants because it really hadn’t been done before by non-utility companies. By 2011, we had built the Mayberry Solar Farm in Mount Airy, and Avery Solar, near Grandfather Mountain in Newland. Over the next several years, O2 became what’s called an independent power producer, developing, owning and operating large scale solar power plants across North Carolina.

But we also have been trying to create sustainable business models in the areas of agriculture and hospitality. One of our largest projects, the Montgomery Sheep Farm, is in Biscoe in Montgomery County.

Even though there’s a 28-megawatt solar farm there, we use it as a research station for sustainable agriculture and energy on the same piece of land. We saw that one of the largest costs for operating solar farms was maintaining the vegetation.

We started a company called Sun Raised Farms that used sheep to maintain the vegetation on these solar farms. After the growing season, the sheep needed a new home because we didn’t want to feed them all winter. So we started Sun Raised

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AMY AND BONNIE, TELL US ABOUT SOME OF THE PROGRAMS THAT YOUR ORGANIZATIONS ARE WORKING ON LATELY? AUSSIEKER: We have several programs in different buckets. We have an education piece and a lot of volunteer engagement activities with some of the companies here and several business solutions that we’re working on.

For example, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, and actually every municipality, has a problem with glass. There is too much glass. Right now, Charlotte sends glass to Atlanta. It costs more to ship it than it’s worth. It’s about 18,000 tons per year, and that’s just from the residential side.

We are working with two entrepreneurs on this. Peaceful Ponds, they do outdoor water features, partnered with us. They bought us a glass crusher and sifter, so we are crushing glass. Another entrepreneur, Resource Flooring, takes the glass, which ends up becoming sand. They use it as an aggregate in concrete and are now pouring floors around the Charlotte area using this glass. We have two concrete companies who are testing the different types of glass because it’s not virgin glass.

It’s wine and milk bottles that have some residue. They want to see how it stands up on durability and weather proofing.

The number one thing businesses ask me is: how are you going to scale it?

Sometimes I think we need to think of scaling differently because scaling is what

PHOTO COURTESY OF MONTGOMERY SHEEP FARM

Montgomery Solar, a 20MW utility-scale solar power plant owned by O2 emc, is located at Montgomery Sheep Farm.

Foods to develop the market for lamb in North Carolina. We have lamb cuts and lamb salami that we sell to retailers, local restaurants, and our farm-to-table dinners.

Also, we invested in a bed-and-breakfast because we felt like the hospitality industry needed more sustainability in the business model. We bought the Lovell House Inn in Boone and created a microgrid to power the property by solar power and have implemented a lot of sustainable activities.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF MONTGOMERY SHEEP FARM

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got us in this problem. We have three big recyclers of glass around the country.

We’re looking at a way to maybe build eight hubs around Charlotte so that these little glass crushers can take down about three tons of glass a day.

ARE YOU WORKING ON POLICIES OR PROGRAMS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO DISCUSS? OLSEN: I’ll jump in a little on the recycling issue. My wife is Norwegian and I get a chance to see what they’re doing in Oslo compared to what we’re doing here in Charlotte. I think we all noticed, especially during COVID, the amount of plastics that’s accumulating.

From 2019 to 2021, China basically quit taking our plastic, which was our solution for recycling plastic. So now, about any sort of plastic container that doesn’t have a lid is being landfilled.

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Finished compost at UNC Chapel Hill’s Brooks compost facility.

AUSSIEKER: Let me interrupt, you can bring it to the (Envision Charlotte Innovation) Barn. We don’t landfill it.

OLSEN: That’s fantastic. But in general, I think something like 90% of what we use in the county was being thrown away and I see that as a huge economic opportunity. In Europe they have wasteto-energy plants, but we just haven’t been able to get around the clean air regulations for that (in the United States.)

We need policies at the state level and the federal level that provide an incentive to efficiently get rid of the most hazardous things like chemicals and batteries. Whereas in other countries, they seem to have figured it out in a way that’s not creating new landfills.

LIZOTTE: We’re large enough to collect a lot of waste on campus that we can try to handle very locally. We can buy equipment if we can show that we’ve got enough material and we can do some processing on campus.

But we’ve struggled a lot with food waste and yard waste. Quite a bit of our diversion is sending materials to a composter that’s 35 miles away. That’s too far of a distance to be shipping a significant part of the waste stream that literally has to move every day. The next closest option we have in North Carolina is 85 miles away. So we’re severely underdeveloped in being able to recycle organic materials. It’s a missed

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opportunity that could fit quite nicely into the kind of idea Joel was sharing about a farm economy. If you look at other states in the United States, their agriculture departments have greatly developed the ability to handle materials and convert materials in rural areas. We only have 12 commercial composters with capacity that could handle a customer our size.

TILLMAN: There’s difficulty in recycling EV batteries at the moment. It’s a technology and chemistry problem based on the materials and the different recycling methods. One of the best ways of exploring innovation actually is finding applications for materials that are already harvested. EV batteries are actually very versatile in their own right as stores of power. They are also quite mobile. Our solution is to take an EV battery that may be in a wrecked vehicle, but it only has 30,000 miles on it. It can be used for upwards of 300,000 miles. Taking those batteries and being able to repurpose them across a myriad of former combustion engine vehicles is really a two-for-one solution.

WRIGHT: We’re working with folks like Joel in the renewables arena doing a lot of engineering and construction work in the solar arena, as well as building those interconnecting distribution tie lines to bring that generation onto the grid.

We’re also doing a lot of work in battery

PHOTO COURTESY OF UNC FACILITIES SERVICES

LOOMIS: The conversation about creating local hubs is so appropriate.

It’s something we’re digging into with E4 Carolinas around solar recycling. The recycling of solar panels is becoming a challenge and they’re going to overwhelm landfills if we don’t figure it out. That transportation cost to recycle solar panels is just exorbitant. We need a whole community approach for sure.

That’s part of the conversation we at E4 Carolinas are working hard to have with the Economic Development Associations in both Carolinas and the member organizations. The traditional economic development metrics don’t reward the hyperlocal small win approach. They honor the big box approach and we’re running out of land and we’re running out of people, quite frankly, who can work there. Not that we should move away from the big box solutions, and the workforce opportunities they bring, but it’s going to take this sort of whole of the community — local communities, state communities, regional communities — conversation to get us to the next place that we need to be as the energy transition continues.

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energy storage. Up to last year, most of that work was taking place in Florida and Texas. But we’re really starting to see more in North Carolina. It’s starting to come online in a big way. A third lane for Pike is in E.V. charging stations.

They’re coming online all over the place in parking decks, hotels and other commercial areas. We’re doing a lot of designing and bringing those online.

I think what I’m most excited about is the internal focus on our transportation fleet. We have over 13, 000 employees at Pike and well over 9,000 pieces of rolling equipment. We are at the front of the line and ordering an all new hybrid bucket truck. I think these are going to be a game changer in our space. Once you are in the working mode, you shut off the engine and have a secondary power pack powering an electric motor. And that is what is powering the hydraulic boom and the bucket instead of keeping the truck running.

tremendous value for people who want to move to Charlotte. It represents a quality of life you can’t get in Atlanta, or Mobile, Alabama, or Florida. So there’s a value to preserving our natural assets. Also, we’ve demonstrated that solar energy is cheaper than coal and it can be competitive with natural gas, especially during heat periods. So when you look at reducing your operational costs as a company, it only makes sense. Sustainability should be about profitability. It should be about this circular economy which lowers the cost to do business. Now, when we talk about Gen Z, I think I’ve seen surveys that up to 80% would pay more for a product that is more sustainable. As much as some people like to malign sustainability, it’s really about profitability and success in the coming decades.

WE KNOW THAT THESE THINGS ARE GOOD PRACTICES AND ENVIRONMENTAL, BUT CAN ANY OF YOU SHARE HOW THE PROGRAMS AND INCENTIVES BENEFIT THE N.C. ECONOMY?

LIZOTTE: We talk about regulations sometimes getting in the way of projects, but I think this is a story, too, for North Carolina to celebrate. We have had some political leadership and some policies that really helped us out and created demand at a time when maybe it wasn’t really there. In our case, the state government regulations that said we had to reduce energy use and buildings by 30% and water use by 50% and most of the agencies met those goals. I think the avoided costs are approaching $2 billion. That saved somebody something or somebody wasn’t taxed because of those savings. That’s a success. The state created a demand when maybe the demand wasn’t there in the private sector.

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMY AUSSIEKER

PHOTO COURTESY OF UNC FACILITIES SERVICES

TILLMAN: Energy efficiency problems are largely solved by technology and advances in science. So these types of things draw people from the rest of the country and from research institutions. We’re creating jobs here and encouraging a talent flow.

AUSSIEKER: From a different perspective, a lot of the companies that we work with volunteer (in sustainable opportunities) every month.

You can tell sustainability is highly important to their employees.

I think for the attraction and retention of employees, it’s uber important.

OLSEN: Let me say a few things about why sustainability makes sense.

Amy mentioned that Charlotte has the second-largest tree canopy in the United States and that represents a

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE TO BRING UP?

OLSEN: One thing that I think is critical, and I’ve worked on this a little bit because I’m based in north Mecklenburg County, is we’ve talked about a red line that would connect the northern part of Mecklenburg County with the city center for a long time and nothing has happened.

The biggest economic creator we have in North Carolina is the Charlotte airport. We have 48 million people flying

Envision Charlotte’s Materials Innovation Lab is named the Innovation Barn.

through our airport every year. But, it is an island separated from the rest of the city. There’s not a good, easy way to get from the airport to the city center. The only public transportation we have there is a 38-minute bus shuttle. Otherwise you’ve got to rent a car or drive or take a taxi.

We need to tie our airport, by far one of the biggest employers and certainly one the biggest economic creators of the entire state, to our city center to benefit our businesses and to make North Carolina not only a destination, but a place where you want to locate your headquarters.

There are so many pieces to this, but it’s rooted in the fact that we need to reduce the number of single-occupancy vehicle trips in our city to reduce our traffic. I’ve been enthralled by Elon Musk’s Boring Company, and its idea of a publicly owned system of electrical vehicles that would ride in tunnels. In Las Vegas, you can see an example of how that’s working. They’ve recently done 29 miles of tunnels, or at least voted for it. That could connect our biggest economic generator to our biggest city in less than five minutes, helping to bring more business to downtown Charlotte and to the rest of the area. ■

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THE NEW OLD Looking to the future of EV conversions

The founding team.

R

aglan was founded in November 2020 in Wilmington, North Carolina by two longtime friends and veterans who believed that innovative applications of modern technology could significantly enhance the experience of owning and driving classic cars.

Intrigued by the idea of seamlessly synthesizing the oftencompeting sensations of nostalgia and novelty, Raglan’s elegant solution to the various pain points of classic car ownership – maintenance issues, parts scarcity, mechanical expertise - relies on the electrification of the drive train.

The company built a prototype vehicle by early 2021 but chose to delay the debut of their product in order to focus on quality and production worthiness. CEO Joe Comiskey said, “We wanted to differentiate ourselves by having a rigorous focus on product. Throughout our R&D phase, we were constantly guided by the strict engineering standards we’re used to from our experience in the military.” Over the course of a two-year development phase, the Raglan team believed that it was essential to meticulously innovate and re-engineer the entire vehicle to ensure the quality of their electrification modifications.

Raglan’s debut commercial product is an electrified and tastefully reimagined Land Rover Defender. Few cars are as iconic or as evocative of the bygone age of adventure as the

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Defender. It has a ‘classless’ quality rare among vehicles.

During its legendary history it was owned by queens, farmers, and everyone in between. From the outside one can hardly tell the Defender is even electric. Open the door and you’re greeted with the pleasant aromas of leather and wood. The original gauges, converted to run off digital readouts, are there. The only immediate tell-tale something is different about this Defender is the addition of a modern display screen.

With the elimination of internal combustion engine components, all the headaches of Defender ownership have been left firmly in the past. In a noticeable break from the original vehicles, collectors can enjoy their EV Defender without the persistent roar of the diesel over music and conversation, the smell of exhaust fumes, plodding through the gears of the manual transmission, or the painfully slow acceleration. All the elements of a modern EV are there: regenerative braking, modal driving controls, cruise control, a reverse camera, a modern digital display, instantaneous, consistent torque and ample power.

Raglan offers two pathways to the EV Defender. The first is a complete, bumper to bumper design process which results in a truly one-of-a-kind vehicle built solely for the discerning collector or business. The second option is for those Defender owners who want to go electric, but don’t want to sell their beloved vehicle in which they have invested memories. Regardless of the pathway you choose, Raglan has successfully ‘future proofed’ their Defender builds, allowing these timeless icons to be passed down instead of discarded.

Despite the rise in popularity of EV conversions,

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questions over long-term viability of such builds are common; questions the Raglan team hopes to put to bed through their safety, engineering, and performance focus. It is in the pedigree and credentials of their team, comprised of motor sports experts and seasoned technical innovators, that Raglan has sought to separate themselves from the pack. The team boasts Formula-1 race engineers, SEMA-award winning fabricators, IMSA team engineers, and former members of the Dyson EV project. Counting the Lead Prototype Engineer of the Tesla Model S among their advisers, Raglan has quietly built a team of technical experts dedicated to producing the best EV electromods on the market.

Their restoration team has extensive experience restoring and maintaining both vintage Le Mans and contemporary race cars. A deliberate, focused effort allowed for the preservation of craftmanship beloved in classic cars but largely absent from modern mass production. By sourcing the best leathers, carpet, wood, and other materials, their restorations reflect a mentality which holds things that are well crafted are well saved and that form need not be sacrificed for function.

Co-founder Ryan Tillman remarked, “This certainly wasn’t easy. We had to develop our own hardware and software along the way. To validate our work, we’ve conducted a comprehensive test and certification program at the famed Millbrook test facility, alongside the newest prototype McLarens and Aston Martins. We wanted to go the extra mile to demonstrate the capabilities of our vehicle.” Raglan’s promise to their collectors, regardless of option, is that this is the best Defender to ever tread over asphalt, mud, snow or rubble.

Efficiency, reliability, and sustainability were at the core of Raglan’s founding ethos. While classic cars served as the initial medium for Raglan’s technology development and application, the company has embarked on a path of growth. In late 2022, the company expanded the scope of its electrification efforts to include fleet vehicles.

Looking to the future of EV conversions, the company has demonstrated a long-term commitment to being at the forefront of technical innovation through partnership with the OSU Center for Automotive Research.

Amidst uncertainty over resource mining and technical limitations in battery recycling, it is likely that electrification of old vehicles, especially fleets and specialty vehicles, must be pursued as a supplement to new construction. Indeed, this might be the only way to increase the rate of EV adoption across the transportation sector and transition to a zero-emissions future. Raglan’s goal is to play a role in ensuring the efficient utilization of already harvested resources and manufacturing man-hours. Leveraging engineering principles and electrification expertise, Raglan is engaged in various projects for the Department of Defense in its efforts to implement EV technology, improve the capabilities and reduce the maintenance burden of aging platforms.

Through these projects, Raglan seeks to be a job creator and ambassador for the North Carolina tech sector both domestically and abroad.

The Raglan team on set with Jay Leno’s Garage..

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT RAGLAN.COM S E P T E M B E R

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THEMATICALLY-DRIVEN STRATEGIES We are sector-focused investors with experience in service,

distribution and tech-enabled

Building Better Businesses For 30 Years

business models.

GROWTH-ORIENTED STRATEGIES • ~20% average annual EBITDA

growth for realized investments

• 130+ add-on acquisitions

completed over the last decade

TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Since 1993, the principals of Ridgemont Equity Partners have invested over $6 billion in 165+ companies. Ridgemont is the largest private equity firm in North Carolina and among the largest in the Southeast. The firm has been consistently named to Inc.’s list of “Founder-Friendly Private Equity Firms,” which recognizes Ridgemont for a track record of building leading middle market companies alongside entrepreneurs.

For the fifth year in a row, we are pleased to sponsor Business North Carolina’s “Top 125 Private Companies” list and wish to congratulate the honorees! For more information on Ridgemont’s team and investment strategy, visit www.ridgemontep.com.

• The investment professionals of Ridgemont have over 200 years of collective investing

With the right alignment in vision

experience, and the firm has

nearly tripled in size over the last decade

• We employ over 15,000 people

and strategy, Ridgemont supports our management team partners in building leading growth-oriented businesses.

across our portfolio companies, and have increased the

employee base by nearly

50% on average for realized investments

ridgemontep.com

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BE GREATER DMJPS PLLC (“DMJPS”) is pleased to sponsor Business North Carolina’s Top 125 Private Companies for the third consecutive year.

As a North Carolina CPA and advisory firm with a mountains to the coast footprint, we understand the pivotal and essential role privately held companies play in our state’s economy. We celebrate all who make North Carolina Be Greater and congratulate this year’s Top 125 Private Companies.

DMJPS CPAs + Advisors is a tax, assurance, and business advisory firm that routinely solves complex matters for individuals, privatelyheld businesses, nonprofit organizations, and corporations with a wide range of specialized solutions. Clients work with us because we build reliable relationships dedicated to providing exceptional results and innovative solutions.

DMJPS is committed to helping its people, clients, and community reach their goals. With an uncompromising commitment to clients and service quality, DMJPS was formed to make a positive impact by one guiding principle: Be Greater.

Mountains to Coast With North Carolina offices from the mountains to the coast in Greensboro, Asheville, Boone, Durham, Marion, Sanford, and Wilmington, DMJPS provides solutions from one reliable firm.

The DMJPS team of 165+ professionals is future ready through the firm’s advanced technologies, specialized industry knowledge, and a strong commitment to meaningful client relationships. Advisory services include business valuations, mergers and acquisitions, succession and exit planning, and healthcare practice consulting.

DMJPS’ deep industry knowledge includes professional services, real estate, manufacturing, agriculture, and hospitality.

Your Strategic Business Partner Business growth and opportunity is supported by a sustainable value system – one that your team relies on in times of rapid expansion or change. When you become a DMJPS client, everyone on our team works for you. Clients can expect a trusted relationship and a knowledgeable partner who is dedicated to supporting their financial needs. That is our commitment to you.

For more information about DMJPS visit dmjps.com.

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PRIVATE PERFORMANCE

By Kevin Ellis, Audrey Knaack, David Mildenberg and Ebony Morman

L

ed by famed entrepreneurs such as Rick Hendrick, Tim Sweeney and Jim Goodnight, closely held companies based in North Carolina play a vital role in boosting the state’s economy. The annual BNC 125 list continues a four-decade tradition in highlighting the state’s biggest private companies.

This year’s list cites 77 enterprises with annual revenue topping $300 million, including 25 that top $1 billion.

Our goal is to make the list more comprehensive every year, while realizing we are unintentionally missing some obvious entrants.

Many companies provide revenue and employment information for the BNC 125. For others, we rely on lots of emails, phone calls and research to develop estimates for employers that decline to provide specifics. Trade publications with deep expertise in specific industries are key data sources.

Newcomers this year include retailer Fleet Feet of Carrboro, medical-data organization Velocity Clinical Research of Durham and forestry products manufacturer Jordan Lumber of Mount Gilead.

The list includes North Carolina-based companies controlled by private-equity groups.

Most of the businesses are closely held organizations, including many family-owned operations.

Many thanks to the dozens of people who contributed to this report.

&

SPONSORED BY 

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 SPONSORED BY

C A R O L I N A

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$1 BILLION AND MORE

MARKET VALUE

2

Epic Games

Epic Games reported it had 230 million users of its game store in 2022, up 36 million from the previous year. In 2022, its daily active users peaked at 34.3 million, while those active at least monthly reached 68 million. Publishers and developers brought 626 new PC titles to the store in 2022, bringing Epic’s total count up to 1,548. Including Epic’s own games, players spent $820 million in 2022, down 2% from 2021.

6

PRICE & STOCK PERFORMANCE

SAS Institute

The Cary-based company, which is mulling an initial public officer, committed to investing $1 billion over the next three years in creating AI-powered advanced analytics solutions.

The company employs about 4,000 people in the Triangle, about 1,000 fewer than cited three years ago by Wake County Economic Development.

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KEY UPDATES

18 Samet

Changes at some BNC125 Top Private Companies over the last year.

The Greensboro-based contractor cracked into the Top 100 contractors in the country based on revenue, according to the industry publication Engineering News-Record. Samet climbed 53 places — from 137 to 84 — over the last year.

7

Pike

Under a leadership restructuring, Eric Pike became chair and former COO James Wyche became CEO. Matt Fisher is president.

8

Amwins

Charlotte-based insurer Amwins partnered with Tokyo-based MSIG North America to provide significant underwriting capacity for more than 20 Amwins underwriting programs. The partnership will support existing business, and provide a catalyst for new product development, says Amwins CEO Scott Purviance.

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Bojangles

The chain’s new restaurants won’t offer bone-in chicken, reflecting easier preparation and consumer’s preferences. It collaborated with Appalachian Mountain Brewery to offer “hard sweet tea” at various groceries.

14 Shoe Show

19

Weisiger Group

Formerly called CTE, it changed its name in July to honor its nearly 100-year history as a family-owned organization. L.M. Weisiger started his business supplying Caterpillar equipment in 1926. Ed Weisiger Jr. has been CEO since 1991.

The Concord-based company expanded its retail portfolio with the acquisition of Charleston, South Carolina-based Half-Moon Outfitters.

The outdoor-focused retailer will continue to operate under the HalfMoon Outfitters brand.

20 Prestage Farms

17

Flow Automotive

The automotive dealership based in Winston-Salem purchased six dealerships and eight franchises in the Charlottesville, Virginia, area in April, bringing its total number of franchises in North Carolina and Virginia to 53, representing 26 brands. Flow acquired the Umansky Automotive Group dealerships, with locations for Honda, Toyota, Subaru, Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. In July, it bought a Kia dealership in Charlottesville from Jim Price Auto Group.

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Founder and President Bill Prestage died last October, at age 87. He began his career as an animal feed salesman in 1960. He would later co-own Carroll’s Foods in Warsaw. He sold that interest and with his wife, Marsha, founded Prestage Farms in 1983 by purchasing the Swift turkey operations in Harrells. The family company has grown to 2,700 employees and has contracts with 500 farms in seven states. The company also produces and processes pork.

25 Concord Hospitality Enterprises The lodging company has been owned by Alleghany Corp. since 2018.

It bought the 135-room Cambria Chelsea in Manhattan for $48 million in March, and is opening the 348-room Westin Atlanta Gwinnett next spring. Berkshire Hathaway bought Alleghany last year.

C A R O L I N A

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SPONSORED

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$500 MILLION TO $999 MILLION

29 Charlotte Pipe & Foundry

32 ECMD

The family owned company started full operations at its 500-employee Stanly County plant. It also said it would invest $80 million and create 50 jobs in Maize, Kansas, marking its seventh U.S. plastics plant. Construction is scheduled to begin next year and be completed in early 2025.

The employee-owned business bought Alabama-based Madison Lumber.

It was a title sponsor for a late-model race during NASCAR’s return in May to the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway.

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$300 MILLION TO $499 MILLION MARKET VALUE

PRICE & STOCK PERFORMANCE

NET INCOME

At

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Atlanta | Charlotte | Raleigh | Greensboro | Fayetteville | Hickory | Asheville | Greenville, NC | Wilmington | Outer Banks | Florence, SC | Greenville, SC SPONSORED

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48 Insightsoftware Michael Sullivan succeeded Jim Triandiflou as CEO at the company, which is owned by private-equity firms Hg, TA and ST6.

Sullivan had been CEO of Boston-based Acquia, a software-as-aservice company.

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Mako Medical Laboratories

Founded in 2014, the company continues its rapid growth, getting named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies for the third time. Earlier this year, it said it would add its first New Jersey office.

64 Tepper Sports and Entertainment The Carolina Panthers made Alabama quarterback Bryce Young the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and named Frank Reich as head coach.

They haven’t had a winning record since 2017.

67 The Biltmore Company The Hallmark Channel will feature “A Biltmore Christmas” based on the Asheville estate this holiday season. The time-traveling romance story stars Bethany Joy Lenz and Kristoffer Polaha It’s the first time the Biltmore Estate has served as a setting for a film.

54 Blum Construction In its centennial year, the company moved into new headquarters near downtown Winston-Salem, allowing more room for employees and meetings.

55 Velocity Clinical Research

68 OrthoCarolina The medical practice added Physis, an Australian Labradoodle, to its pediatric team to comfort patients. More than 300 providers in several dozen locations handle more than 1 million patient visits annually.

The company, which operates about 80 sites in the U.S., Europe and India, added three executives: Nick Campbell is chief commercial officer, Nick Spittal is chief operating officer and Steph Anderson is chief of staff.

77 Coastal Beverage

58 Hog Slat Founder William “Billy” Herring was inducted into the National Pork Industry Hall of Fame after more than 50 years in the industry.

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The Wilmington company signed an agreement with Florida-based Splash Beverage Group to distribute Copa di Vino wine, Pulpoloco sangria and performance drink TapouT.

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$150 MILLION TO $299 MILLION

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80 Charlotte Hornets

90 Eagle Transport

Michael Jordan, the NBA’s only Black majority owner, sold his controlling stake to New York investors Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall. Plotkin has owned shares in the Hornets since 2019, while Schnall was a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks since 2015.

The Rocky Mount-based company, which specializes in transporting petroleum, chemicals and plastics, bought Georgia-based Bulk Carriers, which has 22 tractors, 34 trailers, and 18 staffers.

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UP TO $149 MILLION

118 DMA Industries

122 Pendo

The Tabor City-based auto-body parts supplier changed its name from DMA Sales to DMA Industries in late 2022. The change was made to “match the rapid growth and additional business it gained in recent years, pointing to improved business portfolios, more employees than ever before and a clear future outlook,” according to trade industry reports.

Raleigh-based Pendo launched Pendo AI, which will utilize data gathered from 10,000 companies using its products to help clients improve software experiences through the use of artificial intelligence. The company, which has been valued at $2.6 billion, has cut about 145 jobs in the past year, about 15% of its staff.

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BIFF BAM POW Can a 64-year-old hedge-fund veteran be the superhero of Charlotte football?

By Tucker Mitchell

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PHOTO CREDIT (LEFT): BEN SOLOMON / AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE | (RIGHT): KAT LAWRENCE / UNC CHARLOTTE

Francis X. “Biff ” Poggi’s first spring as UNC Charlotte’s football coach was not going as smoothly as hoped.

The former hedge fund manager and Maryland high school football coaching legend was a few weeks into spring practice, and his team looked like it might be falling apart. The 49ers had three identifiable factions: holdovers from last year’s team; college transfers who had played for Poggi at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore; and transfers from somewhere else. They were at each other’s throats.

Tension was disrupting practice and handcuffing Poggi as he tried to assemble a first team. Fights broke out several days in a row, culminating in a battle that witnesses called an “absolute brawl.” The hyper-competitive Poggi lost his cool.

After order was restored, he sent everyone to the locker room except for the players.

This is not the kind of team we are going to be, the coach told his team before ordering a seemingly endless series of sprints back and forth across the field. Gassers, they’re called. The 49ers ran them until they dropped.

A team meeting followed. Poggi confronted the situation with brutal honesty and sincere concern — his coaching calling card.

Issues were addressed. It got emotional.

The problem was solved and the players learned that they were playing for an uncommon coach, one with real ability to lead and inspire.

“Things get very real very quickly with him,” says Jonathon Jacobson, a successful Boston money manager who Poggi hired as assistant head coach and special adviser. “When it comes to coaching football, Biff has that secret sauce. He really does.”

Pivotal moment

Charlotte — the athletic brand name for the UNC system campus in the Queen City — hopes Poggi’s sauce will turn 49er football into a tasty, lucrative dish. Leadership, in turn, is counting on football to increase the school’s visibility and boost Charlotte’s national stature as a top urban research university. Like it or not, these days a big-name athletic program can do just that.

The school hired Poggi (pronounced Poh-JEE) last December after nine lackluster seasons since the university agreed to add Division I football in 2008. (Games started in 2013.)

Lackluster might be charitable. The football 49ers have had one winning season, averaging fewer than four victories a year.

The program’s signature victory is a 2021 win over a mediocre Duke team that dumped its coach later that year.

Gene Johnson, a former telecom company CEO and leading UNC Charlotte booster, says, “You can say our football program has had limited success.”

The university hopes that is about to change as it approaches a pivotal moment. Despite Charlotte’s football record, the American Athletic Conference gladly accepted it to join East Carolina University and 12 other member-schools, starting this year. The AAC is considered more prestigious than Conference USA, Charlotte’s previous affiliation. Its football reputation is, by most accounting, below the Power 5 conferences that dominate college sports: the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC. The university has a $102 million campaign to raise funds for, among other things, the expansion of 15,300-seat Richardson Stadium on the Charlotte campus.

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athletics. But that is exactly what the still-nascent Charlotte program needs, he says.

“In the end, what most intrigued us about Biff was that he was different,” says Hill, who hired Poggi’s predecessor, Will Healy, in 2018. “We’re a young institution, competing against schools that are far more mature, especially in terms of football programs. We felt like we needed an accelerant, something to move us forward in a great leap. We think Biff can do that.”

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I did not come to Charlotte to run a regular football program. I came to Charlotte because I find it one of the most fascinating cities in the world — because of the banking. I think we can do something really special here. I think we will.

-Biff Poggi

Charlotte’s startup football program has averaged four wins a year since 2015.

It won’t be easy. Poggi and company must build a football program when 131 Football Bowl Subdivision programs are in a monetary arms race to achieve notoriety, higher enrollment and increased alumni giving.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE 49ERS ATHLETICS

And, it has Biff Poggi, 64, as its coach.

He’s not a household name in North Carolina, but he qualifies as a semi-legend in his native Baltimore, where locals still marvel at the unlikely story of an investing guru who became a hotshot high school football coach and then a key assistant to Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. Poggi is compelling enough to have been featured in the New York Times bestseller “Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood” and in a four-part HBO series that aired in 2020. Now, ESPN is preparing a longer series Poggi’s new job, slated to start in September..

Poggi played football at Pittsburgh for a couple of years, then transferred to Duke, where he graduated in 1984. Poggi began a career as a low-level college coach and then a high school coach and teacher but veered into financial services after his father-in-law, Joseph Mix, told Poggi he doubted that high school football pay could create the lifestyle he expected for his daughter, Amelia.

Aided by private investing lessons and an initial $25,000 stake from Mix, a successful global textiles executive, Poggi made millions at Samuel James Ltd., the investment firm he founded nearly 40 years ago in Baltimore. An early success involved hedging stocks before the 1987 market crash.

The football itch never left, though. After establishing his firm, Poggi got back into coaching at his alma mater, The Gilman School, an elite Baltimore prep school where the annual tuition is now $36,000. He won 13 state titles there, dominating Maryland’s private league. After quitting Gilman, he used his money, contacts and skills to build a superpower at St. Frances Academy, a tiny Catholic, inner-city Baltimore school. Buoyed by transfers from Maryland and out-of-state schools, the Panthers were so good that traditional opponents — including Gilman — refused to play them.

Poggi’s success at Gilman had prompted University of Michigan coach Harbaugh to hire him as a special adviser and assistant head coach in 2016. Poggi returned to Baltimore a year later, then worked at Michigan in 2021 and 2022. He had met Harbaugh when Michigan recruited Poggi’s son Henry.

Harbaugh credits Poggi’s counsel with helping reverse the Big 10 school’s fortunes. Michigan ranks No. 2 in preseason polls.

Still, hiring Poggi as a first-time college head coach is a roll of the dice, concedes Mike Hill, UNC Charlotte’s director of C A R O L I N A

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“We’re going to be comparable to the teams in our conference, especially those other teams that are coming in with us (University of Alabama-Birmingham, Rice, North Texas and Florida Atlantic),” says Hill. “We will have to increase our revenues across the board, but almost half the league looks about like we do.”

The majority of UNC Charlotte’s $41.4 million athletic budget — about $21.5 million — comes from student fees. Donor contributions make up about one-fifth, with giving increasing for five straight years under Hill’s leadership. Gate receipts are relatively miniscule. In 2022, Charlotte made nearly as much from payouts during visits to opponents with stronger football traditions as it brought in at home games.

More cash is on the way. The AAC has a better TV deal than Conference USA, though it’s minimal compared with the Power 5 affiliates. AAC teams with full shares of the conference’s TV distributions received nearly $7 million last year, compared with the $1.6 million Charlotte secured last year from CUSA. Charlotte and the other new schools won’t receive a full AAC share for several years to come. Hill wouldn’t discuss specifics or confirm the reported $2 million entry fee levied by the AAC. Everyone agrees that more investment is needed for the 49ers to become a big-time football school.

Ruffled feathers

When he was hired last spring, Poggi said he was comfortable with UNC Charlotte’s commitment to football. Chancellor Gaber and university leaders favor an aggressive leap forward, and the community seemed a willing partner.

The tone shifted in a June talk-radio interview, when he criticized the community’s laggardness in writing checks for the football team. “That’s beginning to ruffle my Italian feathers,” Poggi said on Charlotte’s WFNZ radio.

Hill says fundraising is going just fine, declining to share details. The capital campaign, which will mostly pay for more stadium seats, suites and a new football locker room, is “making good progress.”

That facility work is needed. Richardson Stadium’s capacity barely clears the NCAA’s requirement that FBS teams average

PHOTO CREDIT: KAT LAWRENCE / UNC CHARLOTTE

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE 49ERS ATHLETICS

At Charlotte, it’s part of the drive to become an “R1” research university, the Carnegie classification system’s designation for the nation’s leading research campuses. That’s a top priority for Chancellor Sharon Gaber.

Football may hold a key to reaching that status. “Football is very important,” says Dennis Bunker, a Charlotte developer and incoming chair of the university’s board of trustees. “There are any number of top research universities that also have major football programs. It brings visibility, alumni loyalty and interest.”

UNC Charlotte has been “a best-kept secret for a long time. We don’t want to be best-kept anymore,” Bunker says. “We’re doing great things here. It’s time to sync the reality with the perception.”

The national football race is accelerating because of dramatic changes in the college football landscape. Players can now be paid cash beyond their scholarship benefits, and, thanks to newly liberalized transfer rules, switch schools at the drop of a $900 helmet.

Football budgets at the largest schools — Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and others — are approaching $100 million a year.

UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University have budgets in the $30 million-plus range, according to the Knight-Newhouse College Athletic database. Charlotte’s football budget was about $12 million last year, or slightly above the median for teams in Conference USA, its former conference. The AAC median last year was more than $19 million, although that figure is inflated by Houston, Cincinnati, and the University of South Florida. Those three schools had the league’s biggest budgets before jumping to the Big 12 this year.

Charlotte faces a classic chicken-and-egg question: Which comes first for the 49ers? The funding it needs to build a big-time program, or the big-time success it needs to attract fans and donors?

Charlotte’s teams have generally excelled in Conference USA, except for football and basketball, which produce the bulk of revenue.

Charlotte is increasing its football operating budget for the coming year, including boosting its total coaching salaries by about $1 million. Still, its football spending will be near the bottom of the AAC. Poggi has a five-year contract with an initial salary of $1.25 million, making him among the lowest-paid coaches in the AAC. He’s giving back about half of that to help with assistant coach salaries and the athletic foundation.

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UNC Charlotte Chancellor Sharon Gaber and Athletic Director Mike Hill hired Poggi, who got kudos from coaches Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban.

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jobs. Jacobson worked for Harvard University’s investment arm and was CEO of Boston-based Highfields Capital Management, which invested more than $10 billion.

“If you give me the opportunity to explain the value proposition, I think we’ll do well,” Poggi says.

Gene Johnson believes early gridiron success under Poggi will prompt a strong response, especially from the university’s 80,000 alumni in the Charlotte region. He recalls the Charlotte basketball team’s Final Four appearance in 1977, led by Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell. “We had people standing in lines on campus to make a donation. I’m bullish we can get there again.”

Adds Bunker, “Back then, the bandwagon was full. I have no doubt that when we start winning, that will happen again.”

What about NIL?

Conventional funding is not the only issue these days, thanks to the NCAA’s new Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) programs that allow players to be paid directly for endorsement and branding “work.” Sports pundits suggest that any school that wants to compete must have a strong NIL program to attract talented athletes.

Charlotte has a collective, albeit a nascent one. Charlotte mergers adviser Mark Magan started the Goldmine Alliance for the 49ers with a “six-figure” gift. It is providing small stipends to some 49ers, but obviously must grow to have a real impact.

By comparison, Wake Forest University’s “Roll the Quad” NIL group is granting “multiple players” on the Deacons’ football and basketball teams with at least $100,000 annually, Triad Business Journal reported in July. It’s largely funded by seven Wake Forest boosters including auto dealer Don Flow, developer David Couch, hotel owner Mit Shah and sports marketing executive Ben Sutton. At other elite football programs, some players have received seven-figure payouts.

“Biff ’s a legend in Baltimore,” says Magan, who grew up there.

“I’ve been to a few events here (that Poggi has attended) and the atmosphere is electric.”

NIL money is exacerbating the great divide between college football’s biggest programs and the have-nots. But Poggi insists a

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE 49ERS ATHLETICS

15,000 attendees, at least once every two years. The stadium is named after former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who pledged $10 million in 2013. Several universities, including Charlotte, don’t appear to have met the attendance threshold, but bookkeeping on ticket sales and attendance allows for some creativity, and besides, it’s not clear there’s a real penalty for low attendance.

The real reason attendance needs to grow is to bring in more dollars and create an experience that will unlock donations, both now and in the future. Charlotte fans will have a great place to party this season: Before Poggi’s hiring, an anonymous donor gave $10 million for the “Forty-Ninth Acre,” a large tailgating area near the stadium.

Poggi’s presence is boosting ticket sales, donations and enthusiasm, Hill says, without being more specific. “But look,” he adds, “it is a process. In the end, developing and cultivating authentic relationships, that’s how you get to where you want to go. It’s like planting a tree. It’s not going to become a full-blown oak right away.

“Of course,” Hill says, “time is the enemy of any business deal.

Biff would be the first one to tell you that.”

Poggi knows dollars and fundraising. He pulled in millions for his hedge fund, which he still chairs, and he and his wife have donated millions to charities themselves. At St. Frances Academy, he paid the full or partial tuition (about $10,000 a year) for 40 or more players for several years, according to the local diocese. All told, Poggi says he gave about $2.5 million to the school. He also endowed the Poggi Pediatric Orthopaedic Fellows program at Johns Hopkins University’s medical school in Baltimore.

“It’s very expensive to run a Division I football program, especially at the level we’re going to be at, so we have to raise a bunch of money,” says Poggi. “That means those rich guys, they have to understand the value that this brings to the city of Charlotte, to the university.”

Top initial priorities for Poggi are “investing in our product.”

He wants higher salaries for his assistant coaches, better facilities for his players.

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big NIL fund isn’t key to Charlotte’s success. He calls NIL “the biggest canard out there.”

That’s because most football coaches have an uncanny ability while recruiting young men, he says. “They can spend about 30 seconds with you and your parents, and they will know exactly what you want to hear,” says Poggi, “ and then they will make sure you hear it.”

Poggi says the fact that more than 8,000 student-athletes entered the NCAA transfer portal this year, officially signaling their desire to transfer to another program, demonstrates the endemic mendacity of big-time recruiting.

“You don’t get in the portal unless promises have been broken,” Poggi says. “That’s how it works.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE 49ERS ATHLETICS

Win now – or fire me

Poggi wants to build a football program based on the same fundamentals and values that carried him to success at Gilman and St. Frances, and which were detailed in “Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood.” Care for people.

Make their lives better. Prepare them for life.

Only a tiny percentage of college players succeed in the NFL, notes Poggi.

“Football is great, but there’s what, 60 years or something (of life) after that?” says Poggi, an offensive lineman during his playing days. “You’d better find something you love just as much, or more, than athletics. I tell the kids that all over the country are smokefilled bars, full of former athletes telling everybody how great they were and nobody cares. …. We don’t want to be a supplier of that.

That niche is already filled.”

Instead, Poggi envisions a legion of street-savvy ex-49ers ready to tackle the real world. He launched an internship program for players with Charlotte-area businesses, and he is requiring team members to attend twice-weekly financial literacy classes that include how to handle credit cards, but also describe the language of Wall Street.

A Q&A series for players to meet executives has included Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison; Kieth Cockrell, president of Bank of America’s Charlotte market; and famed financier Ken Langone.

The Queen City’s global role in finance gives the university and its football team an off-the-field advantage over most rivals, Poggi contends.

Great ideas to be sure, but none will matter if the 49ers don’t win on the field.

Poggi thinks that will happen this fall because he’s completely overhauled the roster from last year’s 3-9 team that surrendered a whopping 39 points per game. Seventy-five players, including players who graduated or expended their eligibility, are gone.

He’s brought in 52 new players, including 37 transfers from other colleges. Twenty-one transfers, and 25 new players overall, are St. Frances alums.

The new Charlotte team is undeniably bigger and stronger

than its predecessor. Whether it’s better remains to be seen. Poggi assembled a fairly young staff made up mainly of coaches who are getting their first big taste of responsibility. Poggi met most of them during his Michigan tenure. They handle details while Poggi focuses on managing the organization, coaching the coaches, and loving the players.

Poggi says the 49ers will mimic Jim Harbaugh’s strategy with a physical style of football that emphasizes running the ball, good defense and elite kicking. “If you’re looking for a bunch of 62-59 games, this is not the place to be,” jokes Poggi. “We’re going to win, like, 14-3. We’re going to set football back 100 years.”

It’s a formula that’s worked for him in Baltimore, and he thinks it will work in Charlotte. The 49ers will win the AAC this year, he said in mid-August. The Athletic picks them last.

If it doesn’t work, he fully expects to suffer the consequences.

“We have lots of big-time, really good football players here and they’re invested. If we’re not successful, I would encourage Mike Hill to walk down the hill and fire me immediately. Because this team should win right from the start.” ■

AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE FOOTBALL SPENDING 2022 TEAM

2022 FOOTBALL BUDGET (MILLION)

Cincinnati* Central Florida* Houston* South Florida Memphis ECU Texas - San Antonio** Alabama - Birmingham** Florida Atlantic Charlotte** North Texas**

$23.5 22.2 20.5 18.7 18.4 15.6 14.8 14.2 13.3 12.1 11.3

AAC median

15.6

*Cincinnati, Houston, and Central Florida moved to the Big 12 Conference this season. **Texas-San Antonio, Alabama-Birmingham, North Texas, Rice, and Charlotte moved from Conference USA. AAC members Navy, Rice, Southern Methodist, Temple, Tulane and Tulsa do not report their budgets.

source: Knight-Newhouse College Database

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STAYIN’ ALIVE Truist’s merger has investors shaking.

Leaders say it’s all right, it’s OK.

By David Mildenberg and Edward Martin

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PHOTO CREDIT: STEPHEN KNAACK

B

B&T got very big when it decided to merge with SunTrust to create the nation’s sixthlargest bank in February 2019. The verdict is out on whether the combined Truist Financial got better.

Chief Financial Officer Mike Maguire stresses that the premise underlying the merger is intact four years later: Truist has a powerful, 17-state franchise rooted in many fast-growing Sun Belt markets. With more than $550 billion in assets, 53,000 employees and a solid capital base, it has the resources to compete effectively with the four U.S. megabanks and thousands of smaller institutions, ranging from community banks to regional lenders like Regions or Fifth Third.

“After navigating a global pandemic and the recent headwinds in the banking industry, we feel quite good about our financial strength and the power of our franchise,” Maguire says.

The deal has been a benefit for Charlotte, where CEOs William Rogers of SunTrust and Kelly King of BB&T agreed to place the headquarters in a 47-story downtown tower topped by a massive Truist sign. Eschewing Atlanta and Winston-Salem, Rogers and King chose the Queen City as its anchor and favored a new brand, epitomizing a “merger of equals” in which the best of both banks would emerge to create a stronger institution.

Like most big mergers, however, this one has been tougher than expected. Maguire acknowledges that, citing the pandemic and various other factors. “The merger took a heckuva longer than anyone thought it would. Heck, they were still talking about it during the last quarterly conference call,” says John Norris, head of investments at Birmingham, Alabama-based Oakworth Capital Bank. It does not own Truist shares.

Particularly for investors, the deal has been a disappointment. As of mid-August, Truist stock had

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PHOTO CREDIT: STEPHEN KNAACK

declined more than 40% since the deal’s disclosure. That’s among Bank. “Are they going to compete for institutional business and probably get crushed by JPMorgan and Bank of America? the worst performances of the big U.S. banks, and compares Or compete on a retail level and probably be too monolithic with a 63% increase in the S&P 500 Index in that same period. without the ability to offer personal services?”

That’s stung the BB&T shareholders that controlled 57% of the Norris cites the analogy of a merger of his alma mater, combined shares when the transaction closed.

Wake Forest University, and Georgia Tech. “People would Analysts blame unfulfilled pledges for increased growth and be wondering, `Why can’t they still beat Alabama,” he says, cost-cutting that were made by King and Rogers in 2019. More referring to the college football powerhouse. recently, fears of pending losses from commercial real estate loans and investments bought and loans made before interest rates shot up have pressured bank stocks.

ALIVE AND WELL Unfortunately for Truist, the environment didn’t get any How Truist can start reporting stronger revenue and easier this summer. Lenders face additional pressure from ratings profit growth divides the investment community. Veteran agencies as regulators consider boosting capital standards for Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo, known for his acerbic views, banks with assets of more than $100 billion. The goal is to make questions Truist leadership including its board, which has had them better prepared for shocks such as the March collapse of the no additions since the merger. They seem “overly complacent, $210 billion Silicon Valley Bank, the third-largest bank failure in tone-deaf to concerns of investors and lacking candor,” he wrote in July. He called the U.S. history. Forcing banks to company “primed” for an hold more reserves can lead activist investor push for to curtailed lending, reduced major changes. "Truist needs profitability and delayed a major reset soon." dividend increases or stock After taking $5 billion buybacks. That is happening in merger-related charges at Truist, experts say. between 2019 and 2023, In August, Moody’s Truist’s efficiency ratio — a Investor Services and key barometer for banks— is Fitch Ratings cut ratings or warned of possible barely changed than before downgrades of a wide the combination, Mayo wrote. variety of banks, citing While it trimmed staff by 10% UNC Chapel Hill graduate William Rogers joined Trust Company of Georgia likely stricter regulation and and cut about 900 branches in 1980. East Carolina University alum Kelly King started at BB&T in 1972. weaker economic prospects. since 2019, Truist’s expenses The ratings agencies, which per site grew at double the were panned for underestimating the banking industry crisis of pace of its peers, he noted. It now has about 2,000 branches.

2008-10, don’t want to make the same mistake again Such concerns explain why investors have turned so harshly Moody’s cut the ratings of 10 mid-sized lenders and said it on Truist, but they miss the bigger picture, says Chris Marinac, is closely reviewing 21 others, including Truist, Minneapolisan analyst with Janney in Atlanta who has studied Southern based U.S. Bancorp and Pittsburgh-based PNC. Each has big banks for 31 years. Truist contends it met its targets for N.C. operations and make up the second tier of U.S. banking merger-related expense cuts, he says, but higher inflation and with assets of more than $500 billion, but less than the trillions particularly pandemic-era wage increases forced it to spend more controlled by the four megabanks. than anticipated to spur revenue growth.

Combining BB&T and SunTrust created a bank with staying “Truist is alive and well and has all kinds of opportunities,” power, one less likely to get picked off by a larger entity. That he says. “Like these other banks that the rating agencies are appealed to Rogers and King, both highly respected CEOs downgrading, they are making money and they have a lot of who’d spent their entire careers at their respective banks and cash flow.” Over the past two years, Truist averaged an annual weren’t anxious to hand over the reins. profit of about $6 billion. In 2018, BB&T and SunTrust earned But getting bigger put Truist in something of a “no mans a combined $5.9 billion. land” that makes it a hybrid amid national powers and more Rogers, speaking to analysts after a disappointing earnings locally-oriented competitors, says Norris of Oakworth Capital report in July, said Truist is taking prompt action. “We too

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TRUIST SNAPSHOT (As of Aug. 16, 2023)

$39 billion Price-earnings ratio 6.6 52-week stock range $25.56 - $51.26 Dividend yield 7% 2022 profit $6.26 billion 2022 revenue $23 billion Median pay for all employees $86,728

must shift and make tough decisions to fit the realities of today’s economic environment and tomorrow’s regulatory requirements,” he said. “This means being more disciplined about where we choose to compete and deploy our capital, whether businesses, clients or products, and looking deeper and at more structural cost opportunities that exist for Truist.”

Truist leaders are restricting spending on many initiatives, according to people familiar with the company who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Truist has estimated expense growth of 7% this year, the highest of its peers, Mayo noted in his report.

Truist benefits from having less than 10% of its total loans tied to commercial real estate loans, a major worry for bank investors. It has chargd off $1.2 billion in soured loans over the past four quarters, a small fraction of its $326 billion portfolio.

Even if demand for office space craters, the losses will be taken over a couple of years, not in a single swoop, Marinac notes. The same is true for securities that are now valued at a loss because of interest rate changes, a metric that looks more troublesome for Truist than many peers.

Fear of losses from “underwater securities” caused the liquidity crisis at Silicon Valley Bank, where $40 billion of deposits were withdrawn within 10 hours. Truist's deposits are stable and it has plenty of capital to weather a storm, Marinac says.

“The big difference from 2007-08 is that banks then weren't taking action fast enough. Truist has learned their lessons. They are taking action,” citing decisions to build capital and not raise the dividend payout or buy back shares.

Making customers happier is also important for Truist.

It ranked near the bottom among its peers for overall retail banking satisfaction in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic in an October 2022 survey by market research firm J.D. Power. But retail customers now score Truist's digital services at strong pre-merger levels, Rogers said in July. He expects investments in innovation to spark continued improvement.

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Market cap

UNCOMMONLY GOOD For long-time BB&T observers, the deal defied the company’s independent approach that had contrasted with its larger N.C. peers. The bank has deep roots in eastern North Carolina, just as SunTrust is famous for its Deep South history.

Trust Company of Georgia helped underwrite the IPO of CocaCola in 1919 and its vault held the soft drink’s formula from 1925 until 2011. A 1985 merger with Orlando-based SunBanks created SunTrust.

Branch Banking and Trust, started by Alpheus Branch and Thomas Hadley in Wilson County in 1872, would help North Carolina rebuild after the Civil War by lending farmers money for seed. Its growth accelerated through the 1995 merger of Lumberton-based Southern National and Wilson-based BB&T, prompting a headquarters move to Winston-Salem.

As much as any large U.S. bank, BB&T relied on internal promotions and became known for a tight-knit top management team formed in the late ’70s and early ’80s. When Daryl Bible became BB&T’s chief financial officer in 2008, he was the first senior manager hired from outside the bank in a dozen years.

Over a 32-year stretch, starting in 1989, BB&T had two CEOs: John Allison and King, who stepped down as Truist's leader in September 2021. He remains a director.

Competing against First Union, Wachovia and Bank of America, BB&T’s focus on small and mid-sized businesses paid off with decades of market share gains, solid stock market performance and limited internal drama. It grew from the 36th biggest U.S. bank in 1995 to ninth in 2018. Over that period, 15 of the 25 largest banks merged or failed, including First Union and Wachovia. A $45 billion government loan helped Bank America survive in 2008-09.

In its 2019 annual report, King’s shareholder letter featured a chart showing BB&T’s stock decline of 10% in 2018, noting it was the best performance of 12 peer banks. SunTrust shares fell 19% that year. Chief Operating Officer Chris Henson, who joined

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BB&T in 1985, appeared poised to succeed King.

“I’ve been saying for the last 20 years or so just how uncommonly good the leadership and management group at BB&T actually was,” says Tony Plath, a retired finance professor at UNC Charlotte. “BB&T never missed its earnings targets, and almost never missed a dividend increase, and never announced big credit losses, even in the height of the mortgage crisis back in 2009.”

Plath adds that BB&T may have been “prone to a little Christian proselytizing and objectivist moralizing,” referring to King’s frequent references to faith in speeches, and John Allison’s focus on libertarianleaning character traits. “But it was always competent, predictable, transparent, and proficient at delivering results for its shareholders.”

Then, the confidence by King and the BB&T board in a go-alone strategy changed. “BB&T must disrupt itself to continue to thrive,” King wrote to shareholders in the 2019 annual report. The combination with SunTrust would allow “substantially more” investment in technology to enhance customer trust and confidence.

He also noted that BB&T would adhere to “our longheld values, while simultaneously making fundamental changes in the way we deliver products and services.”

Four years later, it’s widely agreed that Rogers and other legacy SunTrust executives are largely in charge.

That isn't surprising because the merger was set up with King leading for two years, followed by the former SunTrust CEO, Marinac says. King is 74, while Rogers is in his mid-60s. Most "mergers of equals" end up with one side in charge, such as the First Union-Wachovia and AmSouth-Regions Bank combos, Norris notes.

With fewer seats at the table, mergers lead to executive shifts. Henson left in 2021 and now chairs the High Point University board of trustees. Departures last year included Daryl Bible and Brant Standridge, a former BB&T executive viewed as a potential CEO. Bible is CFO at Buffalo-based M&T Bank, while Standridge is president of consumer and regional banking at Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bank.

Some former SunTrust veterans also left, including Vice Chair Mark Chancy, who wasn’t part of the merged bank’s initial leadership team. He became a director at Wells Fargo in 2020. CFO Allison Dukes, who was slated to be a top Truist exec, left before the merger.

Maguire, a UNC Chapel Hill graduate who joined SunTrust in 2001, sums up the merger succinctly: “It’s been challenging, but certainly worth it. We’re still very excited about the potential our company has ahead of us.” ■

ROCKY RIDE Stock performance of key peers since the BB&TSunTrust merger was announced on Feb. 7, 2019.

(Change as of Aug. 17, 2023)

JPMorgan Chase

47%

Capital One

35%

Bank of America

3%

PNC

2%

Wells Fargo

(-11%)

U.S. Bancorp

(-27%)

Citigroup

(-31%)

Truist

(-42%)

-50%

-25%

0%

50%

(The S&P 500 Index rose 63% in the period.)

HIGHEST-PAID EXECUTIVES 2022 TRUIST

2019 BB&T

$13.2M William Rogers

$11.5M Kelly King

$7.9M Clarke Starnes III

$8.0M Christopher Henson

CEO

chief risk officer

$7.9M Hugh Cummins vice chair

$5.3M Dontá Wilson

chief retail & small business banking officer

$2.9M Michael Maguire

chief financial officer

CEO

head of banking and insurance

$6.1M Clarke Starnes III chief risk officer

$4.9M Daryl Bible

chief financial officer

$4.6M Donna Goodrich treasurer

(Rogers, Cummins and Maguire are ex-SunTrust execs.

Wilson and Starnes were at BB&T.)

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MEDICAL

HEART & CANCER CARE

SAVING LIVES With technology and careful planning, healthcare providers are making heart and vascular care more accessible.

W

hether delivering life-saving equipment directly to patients in cardiac arrest, bringing cutting-edge therapies to prevent strokes, or using technology to allow open-heart-surgery patients a way to recover more quickly at home, health systems are making heart and vascular care more accessible and convenient, and saving lives.

Football fans across the country were shocked to witness Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapse on the field after a seemingly routine tackle in a nationally televised game against the Cincinnati Bengals in January.

In July, Bronny James, the teenage son of NBA player LeBron James, suffered cardiac arrest during basketball practice at the University of Southern California. A medical team was on hand to quickly treat him and get him to a local hospital where he recovered.

In Hamlin’s case, a blow to his chest during a tackle stopped his heart, and thanks to on-field medical personnel who immediately administered CPR and applied an automated external defibrillator (AED) to restart his heart, Hamlin lives to play football again.

The remarkable recovery of both athletes is far from the norm. Out-ofhospital cardiac arrest claims the lives of nearly 350,000 people in the United

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States each year, according to the American Heart Association.

And the Mayo Clinic reports sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in young athletes. Estimates vary, but some reports suggest that about 1 in 50,000 to 1 in 80,000 young athletes die of sudden cardiac death each year.

Inspired by Hamlin’s recovery from a potentially devastating event, Duke cardiology researcher Dr. Monique Starks is developing a drone network to deliver AEDs to people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest in their own communities.

Last January she received funding from the National Institutes of Health to explore development of the network and in June the American Heart Association included her drone project among five programs sharing a $20 million grant to develop the infrastructure. The drone project received $3.5 million, Starks says.

“In cardiac arrest, time is of the essence, with only 10 minutes before the patient dies,” she says.

“And really five minutes is the optimal time for using an AED effectively,” she adds.

As a co-investigator with Duke’s ongoing Randomized Cluster Evaluation of Cardiac Arrest Systems program, Starks has been working on strategies C A R O L I N A

for reducing response times to meet that five-minute window. One way is to make sure all first responders are equipped with AEDs. Adding a drone network can further reduce the response time to under five minutes. She has been conducting tests with the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State University with a goal of integrating AED delivery by drones into 911 calls. Pilots would be standing by to dispatch drones and ensure they arrive to the patient in need. Users receiving the AEDs will depend on the 911 operator for instructions on how to use the device.

“We discovered that counties need, on average, five to eight drones to substantially move the median response time for cardiac arrests from eight to 10 minutes to a median of five minutes,” she says.

Recently, Starks aligned her testing procedures with Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough, who is using drones as part of a Drones as First Responders program, the first of its kind in North Carolina.

“It’s a dream come true, and an incredible opportunity to have a hand in bringing this technology to our current cardiac arrest standard of care,” she says.

Bringing cutting-edge care to rural North Carolina, cardiologists at SPONSORED SECTION

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CarolinaEast Heart Center in New Bern are now offering a minimally invasive procedure to treat people with atrial fibrillation (AFib) who are at risk of ischemic stroke.

Dr. Josh Kramer successfully performed the first procedure at the hospital last June using the new Abbott’s Amplatzer Amulet Left Atrial Appendage Occluder, a catheter-based therapy to close the left atrial appendage and alleviate the patient’s need for blood thinners, says CarolinaEast CEO Michael Smith.

CarolinaEast serves the rural northeastern part of the state and has been recruiting specialists like Kramer to help local patients avoid having to travel to distant cities for lifesaving procedures. “We’re proud of the work our folks do here,” Smith says. “They’re incredibly talented.”

AFib occurs when the upper chambers of the heart (atria) beat out of coordination with the lower chambers (ventricles) and contract rapidly and irregularly. AFib can also increase the likelihood of a clot formation, which can travel to the brain and cause a stroke.

Smith says cultivating heart care gives CarolinaEast an advantage for a hospital of its size. “For us to accentuate what we do well, we want to grow that service line,” he says.

“We’re recruiting more cardiologists and electrophysiologists, and we’re preparing to serve more patients across a wider region in this part of the state.”

At FirstHealth in Pinehurst, Dr. Michael Pritchett is using Immertec, a virtual reality technology that allows medical professionals in distant locations to observe procedures in a one-ofa-kind immersive environment.

“As soon as they put on the headset they are transported into our facility,” Pritchett writes in an email. This specialized technology uses video inputs from the hospital’s devices, including FirstHealth’s groundbreaking robotic bronchoscopy platform, and from cameras placed in strategic locations including the pathology lab, Pritchett wrote. The interactive technology also allows viewers to talk with FirstHealth doctors in real time. “This technology has been invaluable in training physicians from around the world on new innovative procedures being performed at FirstHealth,” Pritchett writes.

Adding a layer of convenience to heart care, Atrium Health is using technology to enable heart surgery patients to recover at home, thanks to its Perfect Care program launched in 2018 with a $1.1 million grant from The Duke Endowment.

The program relies on remote patient monitoring and virtual follow-up visits with doctors, and along the way, it collects data that can impact patients’ health and the health of others in the future.

According to articles in the Daily Dose, a newsletter published by Atrium Health, Perfect Care enlists technology – like smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, and digital scales – to help keep an eye on patients’ health and well-being.

“We set patients up with a digital toolkit, and then we monitor key health indicators such as weight, blood pressure, and heart rate remotely,” says Shannon Crotwell, clinical nurse navigator at Atrium Health’s Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute. “We also offer virtual visits on a weekly basis for up to 90 days after the patient has been discharged following cardiac surgery.”

Over the last five years, Atrium Health has expanded the use of this program to patients in treatment for diabetes, stroke, weight management

When cardiac arrest occurs, it’s vital for automated external defibrillators to be deployed within five minutes optimally, medical experts say.

and hypertension. The Perfect Care program, which is popular with patients and clinicians, may extend to other specialties soon.

Often the medical journey for heart patients is long and complicated, requiring them to visit multiple specialists in different locations and a variety of appointments.

In 2020, Novant Health opened its Claudia W. and John M. Belk Heart & Vascular Institute and Agnes B. and Edward I. Weisiger Cancer Institute.

Though the name is long, the outcome is streamlined. The center consolidates all outpatient cardiac and cancer specialists, treatment services, and support programs in one location to improve the patient experience.

“The Belk Heart and Vascular Institute addresses the development of cardiology and its specialties,” says Mariane Carna, Novant Health Heart & Vascular Institute system administrative executive. “Our role as leaders is to ensure our patients have access to care, that we have the right physicians, and the quality is where it needs to be.”

The Institute is also focusing on prevention. “As our population starts to age, we’re seeing advances in heart care, more prevention, and predictive analysis around what our future holds for us,” she says. “If we course correct at an earlier age, I think in the future we can mitigate a lot of the mortality and devastating heart events.” ■ — Teri Saylor is a freelance writer in Raleigh.

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MEDICAL

HEART & CANCER CARE

TREATING THE WHOLE PATIENT Development of cardio-oncology is just one way cancer teams are treating the whole patient, not just the disease.

A

cancer diagnosis can be devastating, both physically and emotionally. Even treatable forms of the disease often take months to stabilize, and depending on its stage, the treatment patients receive can diminish their quality of life, even if they ultimately survive.

Doctors today are finding ways to improve their patients’ experience by focusing on taking a more holistic approach to cancer care.

“We as oncologists have been focused on curing cancer and extending the life of our patients, but we haven’t focused the same degree on the consequences of the treatments or the impact of those treatments on other pre-existing conditions, like cardiovascular disease,” says Dr. Susan Dent, a medical oncologist at Duke University School of Medicine and co-director of the Duke Cardio-Oncology Program.

For the last 15 years, Dent has been making strides in developing cardiooncology, an emerging subspecialty,

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recognizing that some cancer patients may have pre-existing heart disease, which may worsen during treatment.

And patients who are heart healthy before their cancer diagnosis, may be at risk of developing cardiovascular disease because of their treatment.

Dent began working in cardio-oncology in Ontario, Canada 23 years ago. She is the founder of the Canadian Cardio-Oncology Network and is president of the International Cardio-Oncology Society.

“I like to think of this specialty as moving away from a disease-centric approach to a person-centric approach,” Dent says.

“We’re treating the person, not just the cancer, and we know the treatment they get affects their entire system.”

Dent has worked with cancer and cardiology specialists and primary care doctors to emphasize the importance of treating other conditions like hypertension, diabetes, or heart problems, which in some cases can shorten people’s lives more than the cancer itself.

C A R O L I N A

At the Novant Cancer Institute in Charlotte, Dr. David Rizzieri is also exploring a multidisciplinary approach to cancer care, bringing physicians from different disciplines together under one roof, and aligning medical oncologists with radiation oncologists, surgical oncologists and other specialists.

“This approach to care recognizes that one person can’t do it all, and everyone must come together,” he says.

Rizzieri, is the senior vice president and system physician executive for the Novant Health Cancer Institute. He holds the Agnes B. and Edward I. Weisiger Endowed Chair for Cancer Research.

“Fifteen to 20 years ago you could have a generally trained oncologist up to date on all the latest information and treat everybody with every illness, but we don’t believe that’s the way patients receive the optimum care today,” Rizzieri says.

He adds that the multidisciplinary approach to care recognizes that one person can’t do it all.

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she says. “We’re just looking at alternative ways to get the expertise to the patient rather than requiring the patient to come to us, and that’s the challenge in an emerging specialty.”

Dent notes that because of the speed at which many new cancer therapies are developed, the average cardiologist would struggle to know the potential for cardiovascular toxicities they might contain.

“I think for patients who encounter cardiovascular problems while on novel or recently approved cancer therapies, it’s more appropriate for them to go to a dedicated, cardio-oncologist or a cardiologist that has more expertise in treating cancer patients,” she says.

At Novant, the concept of pairing the Cancer Institute with the Belk Heart and Vascular Institute in the same building is part of that same strategy.

“All these new technologies and new therapies are great, but we can’t forget the patients and making sure their whole heath is considered,” Rizzieri says. “So we focus on nutrition, physical therapy, survivorship, and optimize what we call ‘prehab’ to get them on a plan that’s going to help minimize heart damage while they go through cancer treatments.”

A cardiology clinic is located across the hall from Rizzieri’s office.

“We have a gym right here in my cancer building, and we have fitness classes for our cancer patients,” he says.

Before joining Novant, Rizzieri was the clinical vice chief of the hematologic malignancies and cellular therapy division

HEART & CANCER CARE

at Duke University. He says his colleagues dubbed him “Dr. Walkamile” because he prescribed every patient in chemotherapy to walk a mile a day.

“The old ways of staying on bed rest are out the door,” he says. “You have to get up every day, consume healthy nutrition and get good exercise.” He adds that collaboration with cardiovascular colleagues is essential to patients’ continued good health and is one of the things that he wants to foster.

And Dent says that Duke’s cardiooncology program is starting to see an increase in referrals of patients with compromised heart function, who need to continue their cancer treatments without causing further heart damage.

“We even see heart transplant patients,” she says. “I have had a few patients in my practice who have had heart transplants and then developed cancer.”

The International Cardio-Oncology Society has set a mandate to educate providers and works with individuals around the world.

“The Society has 1,000 members from 23 countries, and we are now working with cancer and heart organizations to bring awareness to them about cardiooncology,” she says. “We’ve done a lot in 15 years, but there is still a lot to do.” ■ — Teri Saylor is a freelance writer in Raleigh.

Several N.C. hospitals, including FirstHeath in Pinehurst, have added expanded, improved cancer care centers in recent years. FirstHealth serves 15 central N.C. counties.

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PHOTO CREDIT: EDDIE HARRIS WITH FIRSTHEALTH OF THE CAROLINAS

“Research shows that patients access about 10 different services across their cancer journey, and here at Novant, we focus on bringing specialists together to provide patients a personalized plan,” he says.

FirstHealth Cancer Center in Pinehurst takes a similar approach to comprehensive care. Located on the campus of Moore Regional Hospital, the four-story, 120,000 square-foot-center opened last March to bring all FirstHealth’s outpatient cancer services under one roof.

In addition to state-of-the-art treatment facilities, the center includes palliative care services, research and clinical trials, navigation and support services for patients and caregivers, nutrition services, a dedicated wellness center, and a healing garden outside where patients and their families can connect and relax.

“We wanted our cancer center to be patient-centric,” Barnes says. “The building is designed for easier navigation from one department to another, and it is designed to be warm and inviting.”

Oncology services at FirstHealth once were spread across several different locations. In the new facility, scheduling appointments is now more streamlined, saving patients time and money.

“Patients that were seeing two or three providers over the course of two weeks can now be seen in a two-hour period,” Barnes says. “Decreasing the number of trips patients have to make improves their overall treatment experience.”

In addition to bringing local specialists under one roof, FirstHealth is taking its multidisciplinary services to patients in outlying communities. The health system draws patients from a 15-county area in the Sandhills region of the state.

“We’re bringing the physicians to the patients, giving them the opportunity to go to a local clinic and see two or three different doctors in one setting, as opposed to having to go to different areas on different days to see those specialists,” he says.

At Duke University, Dent and her team are also exploring ways to push cardio-oncology practices into communities and academic settings.

“We’re exploring ways we can support community centers, and use telehealth visits or video consults with local providers,”

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SMOOTH TRANSITIONS Military–friendly colleges and universities help pave the way for veterans to succeed in civilian life.

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ith a little help from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Alex Blain is ready for his next chapter.

After serving 23 years in the U.S. Army, Blain is transitioning into civilian life and the MBA he is earning will help pave the way to a post-military career in business consulting.

He is most interested in aerospace and defense, consumer goods and technology.

“I like problem solving and collaborating with teams, and the opportunity to get into those sectors is very motivating,” he says.

Blain is just one of thousands of veterans starting a new chapter at one of the state’s numerous colleges with programs tailored to people with

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a military background. Schools know veterans come with skills and a work ethic that make them strong students and they can help fill the ever growing workforce demands from North Carolina’s new and expanding population of employers.

Blain already has plenty of professional experience in his current role in the inspector general’s office at the Pentagon and in KenanFlagler’s STAR program (Student Teams Achieving Results), which matches business students with corporate partners to help them solve problems and challenges.

“The STAR program is giving me some exposure to the business world before actually going out to work with the civilian sector,” he says.

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the real-world experience he’s also receiving. Kenan-Flagler’s ranking by militaryfriendly.com as one of the nation’s top military friendly MBA programs provides an extra incentive.

Militaryfriendly.com ranks colleges and universities, employers, and other entities as an incentive for them to invest in programs that improve the lives of veterans and help them pursue higher education. Rankings are based on responses to a survey of important factors in supporting military talent.

More than 1,800 schools participated in the 2023-2024 survey, with 530 of them earning awards designations, and 250 designated as “gold,” including Kenan-Flagler and other North Carolina universities and community colleges.

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PHOTO FROM UNC-CHAPEL HILL UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

North Carolina are well-positioned to serve military personnel and veterans because of the number of military bases and the robust business and industry growing in the state, primarily in the STEM sectors.

A native of Boston, Blain joined the military in 2000 to see the world, and a year after enlisting, he found himself fighting in post 9/11 wars.

“I’ve deployed five times – three times to Iraq and two to Afghanistan,” he says. He is now ranked as a chief warrant officer 4 and is using funds from the post 9/11 GI Bill program to complete his education through Kenan-Flagler’s online program.

As a public institution, the online MBA currently enrolls 300 military students. It’s a significant number, representing about a third of the school’s overall enrollment, says Karsen Spain, MBA veterans affairs specialist.

One of the hallmarks of KenanFlagler’s program is flexibility.

“Kenan-Flagler is a top-ranked military-friendly school for a lot of reasons,” Spain says. “But especially for our online program, which allows the military community to access the classes from anywhere, which is attractive to students.”

N.C. State University, another gold military-friendly school, enrolls about 850 students identified as active-duty service members and veterans, and 1,400 military dependents, split about 50-50 between undergraduate and graduate school, says Nick Drake, director of military and veteran services at the Jeffrey Wright Military and Veterans Service Center.

Like most colleges and universities with military-affiliated student

populations, N.C. State offers the Green Zone program, designed to help students recognize staff and faculty who have been trained to be resources and allies for student veterans and active-duty service members.

“We want veterans to come to N.C. State, and because that transition period can be difficult for service members coming in, we provide support programs for them,” Drake says.

An engineering degree from N.C. State can open doors to a great career, and it became more accessible to veterans last year when alumnus Jerry Collier and his wife Pat endowed the College of Engineering with what has been called “a transformational” planned gift of $25 million.

The gift, designed to grow undergraduate engineering scholarships for military-connected students represents the largest

commitment to support the military community in university history.

“This endowment is destined to fully fund roughly 100 scholarships for students each year, which translates into 100 lives that will be changed,” Drake says. “It will be a great tool to increase enrollment numbers for veterans in that college specifically.”

Central Carolina Community College in Sanford is also rolling out the red carpet for military-affiliated students, including those seeking jobs in technology and life sciences in North Carolina.

As a top-rated military-friendly community college, CCCC offers many educational opportunities and assistance for veterans pursuing careers after their service, says Jennifer Dillon, director of the Veterans Upward Bound and Military Affiliated Initiatives.

While some veterans and activeduty personnel seek avenues to higher education, many come

The Carolina Veterans Resource Center in Chapel Hill provides study space, a lounge and meeting rooms where veterans can connect and build community.

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training, and including veterans is a key component.

“These are high-paying, great jobs in our area that we’d love for our veterans to have access to,” Dillon says.

From cybersecurity to Shakespeare, Fayetteville Technical Community College considers its continuing education program as an “on-ramp” into industry and higher education, says Scot McCosh, senior director of military and veterans programs.

FTCC is poised in Fort Liberty’s backyard to offer both certificate and degree programs to the community’s active military personnel and veterans.

Among the many professions FTCC supports, cybersecurity is a growing need in North Carolina, McCosh says. FTCC is partnering with the Carolina Cyber Network, composed of 14 community colleges and four universities, to close the cybersecurity workforce gap across North Carolina. “We have military students interested in cybersecurity and we’re getting them the training they need,”

Eighteen North Carolina colleges and universities are participating in the Carolina Cyber Network. It’s part of an effort to close the gap in the state’s cybersecurity workforce.

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PHOTO CREDIT: WWW.CAROLINACYBERNETWORK.NET

out of the service needing immediate employment, and CCCC is focused on preparing them for quickly growing myriad of career opportunities.

“I feel like we’re having a shift in educational needs here in North Carolina with so many industries coming to our area,” Dillon says.

“Central Carolina is rising to the occasion, providing many short-term trainings and certifications that lead directly to viable employment.”

One way CCCC supports employment for veterans is through Veterans Upward Bound, a career exploration and counseling program to help them take the skillsets they developed in the military and apply them in the civilian world.

Last November, the State Board of Community Colleges allocated $16.5 million for 10 community colleges to support the bioscience industry sector as part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge Grant.

CCCC will receive nearly $1.4 million to support biotechnology

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PHOTO CREDIT: WWW.CAROLINACYBERNETWORK.NET

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he says. “And as they begin to transition out of the military, they can earn credentials in this specialty and others that will help them find jobs in the civilian world” In addition to preparing military students for careers, colleges also provide services and programs to hone their soft skills and nurture their souls.

The Trauma Research Foundation reports that programs like DE-CRUIT uses theater — and specifically Shakespeare — to address traumatic stress and associated problems encountered by veterans as they navigate from the military. So McCosh is at work on a grant to recruit a Shakespeare expert to FTCC.

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“Our goal is to access tools and programs, including the fine arts, to connect with veterans and provide mental health assistance and healing,” he says.

At CCCC, a variety of programs and services are in place to smooth the social aspects of transitioning into civilian life.

Named for the school’s mascot, the Cougar Club provides the camaraderie veterans may miss after leaving the military, Dillon says.

The Military Affiliated Resource Center is another place students can go to connect with each other, and the school’s Veterans Upward Bound program offers workshops on topics

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ranging from financial literacy, time management and the arts.

Career counseling also plays a role in veteran education at community colleges and four-year universities.

Sandra Chandler, senior associate director of employer engagement and recruiting at Kenan-Flagler, focuses on responding to the needs of the business community. One way is through the MBA Veterans Career Conference, an independent event where student veterans or military affiliated students can come together and interact with employers in a conference-style format.

There are often as many as 100 employers in attendance, alongside

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about 1,000 students. Kenan-Flagler usually has the largest cohort of student veterans in attendance because of the volume of vets enrolled in its MBA program.

UNC has recently created the Carolina Veterans Resource Center and a newly formed Carolina Veterans Alumni Network.

The Resource Center, like the one at CCCC, provides a welcoming environment to study, relax, and meet other military-connected students.

And the Veterans Alumni Network connects students and alumni through mentorship, educational support and advocacy.

“We have some fabulous alumni

who are always willing to support students and help them pave a pathway to career success,” Chandler says. “It’s a great community,” And it’s a community Blain enjoys being a part of.

“My experience at Kenan-Flagler has been phenomenal,” he says.

“And I’m happy to be part of the Tar Heel network.” ■ — Teri Saylor is a freelance writer in Raleigh.

“I like problem solving and collaborating with teams, and the opportunity to getting into those sectors is very motivating.”

Alex Blain UNC Chapel Hil Kenan-Flagler Business School

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PHOTO CREDIT: ASHEVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

BUNCOMBE COUNTY

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BUNCOMBE TRIFECTA Its economy thrives with national companies, homegrown businesses and tourism.

PHOTO CREDIT: ASHEVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

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hile Asheville and Buncombe County are beloved by tourists who provide a huge economic impact, the county’s economic narrative has two more storylines: big, national companies choosing western North Carolina for manufacturing sites and entrepreneurs excelling locally and nationally.

“When talking about economic development, my mind goes to two extremes,” says Clark Duncan, senior vice president of economic development at Asheville’s Chamber of Commerce. One is the changing economic landscape of western North Carolina.

“This current fiscal year, we just had the ribbon cutting of the Pratt & Whitney turbine airfoil manufacturing plant, the largest investment west of Charlotte, at $650 million and 800 new jobs. That’s a scale of project we aren’t used to winning out here in the west.”

P&W wages, he says, will average $68,500 annually, higher than the county average of $40,000.

“They’re 250 hires in on the way to their 800 and probably will employ 1,000 to 1,500 in due time,” Duncan said in mid-June. Manufacturing, healthcare and leisure and hospitality are key economic drivers, with Mission Health

employing more than 1,000 and top manufacturers including Eaton (electrical and components), Continental Teves, (transportation manufacturing), GE (electrical, appliance and components) and BorgWarner Turbo Systems.

Then, the other extreme is the success of small start-ups. “Venture Asheville [an entrepreneurship initiative] is an intentional effort started about 10 years ago to diversify our strategy and grow our own.

Call it economic gardening,” Duncan says.

“That 10-year trajectory has passed really significant milestones. In April, we put out a release that says our startups have exceeded more than $100 million in revenue.

“The common thread is it’s a region that champions economic development. It has a common goal, a shared goal across the region, across the communities and a lot of teamwork to make things happen.”

Homegrown Success

The Economic Development Coalition’s board launched Venture Asheville in 2015 as part of its “AVL 5X5 Strategic Plan,” which laid out directives to add 5,000 new jobs and $500 million in capital investments. As of April, its mentorship-based incubator, Elevate, had raised upward of $50 million in capital

and generated more than $100 million in revenue. It has served more than 70 Asheville-headquartered start-ups that have created more than 360 jobs with wages averaging $78,000 a year.

“In the world of entrepreneurship, success often hinges on the ability to navigate complex and rapidly changing environments,” says director Jeff Kaplan.

“At Elevate, we believe that mentorship, experiential learning and competency assessments are essential tools for founders seeking to build resilient and sustainable businesses. Investing in this community of founders is a smart long-term strategy, as these entrepreneurs will become our region’s future philanthropists, civic leaders and possibly elected officials.”

One company that grew through Venture Asheville’s Elevate incubator is Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn.

Company founder Ginger Frank started Poppy in 2014 as a one-woman show. She now employs 45, has more than 30 flavors, and her Parmesan & Black Pepper variety ranked No. 1 of all bagged popcorns by Tasting Table, a popular website for food and beverage connoisseurs.

“Venture Asheville came along at a very pivotal point in the Poppy journey.

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Dorfman reached out to me in 2017,” Frank says. “After joining VA, I was assigned an incredible team of mentors: Robert Anoff, Dawn Walker, John Forrester, John Bernard. This group of volunteers jumped in with me with both feet. They offered advice, helped me carve out direction, provided connections to financial resources, helped me solve problems, even showed up at times to help fix machinery or fill orders.”

In mid-June, Frank announced a $4.3-million investment to double Poppy’s

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overall total economic impact. Its 3,471 jobs pay an average annual salary of $51,844, according to research done for the Economic Development Council.

David and Christina Ackely’s entrepreneurial journey was also guided by Venture Asheville and Elevate.

After living in Panama, where they discovered ginger beer and a way to make it themselves, they returned to the United States and started showcasing their product at homebrew festivals. In 2015, the couple officially incorporated their beverage and Ginger’s Revenge opened in 2017. Now, it employs 23, is brewed in batches of 472 gallons at a time and is distributed to more than 650 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio.

Ginger’s Revenge has four year-round flavors and small-batch seasonal varieties.

Education gearing up for Pratt & Whitney

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College’s Manufacturing Center announced in February it was accepting applications for its free Pratt & Whitney Fast Track training program, designed to put county residents into full-time aerospace manufacturing jobs.

“We have been preparing for this important step for several years through new equipment acquisitions, adding key staff members, and developing training curricula,” Kevin Kimrey, A-B Tech’s director of economic and workforce development says in a release. The Appalachian Regional Commission awarded the college two $1.5 million grants for technical equipment purchases for specialized Pratt & Whitney training. The commission is an economic development partnership that exists to strengthen economic growth in 423 counties in 13 states across Appalachia.

A-B Tech training areas include: introduction to lean manufacturing, work instructions, communication skills, employer expectations, shop math, problem solving, team building, computer skills and online learning modules.

This is just one example of how area community colleges cater training programs to employers’ needs.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GINGER FRANK, OWNER OF POPPY’S HANDCRAFTED POPCORN

Ginger Frank, owner of Poppy’s Hand Crafted Popcorn

manufacturing space with 45,000-squarefeet of new production facilities and the creation of 66 jobs in the next five years.

Wages will be $26.40 per hour.

Venture Asheville and the camaraderie of entrepreneurs helped guide her success.

She credits Kaplan, the organization’s director, for helping build that sense of community and being a confidence builder and source of wisdom as each entity grows. Frank and other entrepreneurs started a peer mentorship group that has grown from five members to more than 30.

“While we’re all at different stages, we know where to turn if we need advice or guidance,” she says. “We truly want to see each other succeed. We are each other’s biggest fans.”

Buncombe County’s list of growing and big businesses includes many breweries, which make up the largest employer within the manufacturing sector, according to Duncan.

The Asheville-Metro Breweries Industry saw a 357% increase in jobs from 2014 to 2019, the largest increase among manufacturers in the Asheville area. In 2019, the industry had a $935 million

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Part of the plan

proximity to jobs, but growing up around people who have jobs. … Research is making it clear: If we want better outcomes for our next-generation residents, we must work to provide jobs to their parents and neighbors.”

“For the west, it really is about attracting the next generation and the technological state of our workforce,” Duncan says. “We are one of those regions that lags behind the rest of the state in a wage perspective, so that’s the highest priority of our coalition – mobility and career paths that will sustain us for the next several generations. Our automotive and aerospace sectors and our entrepreneurship really speak to our innovation.”

The AVL 2015-2020 report notes the EDC and its partners assisted in attracting three new companies, eight expansions and 1,180 direct jobs, with an investment total of $198.9 million.

“We have a very specific focus. We have always been a low-unemployment market, and in the five years going into 2020 we had the lowest unemployment in all 100 counties,” Duncan says. “That also speaks to a tighter market. So, we

want to, number one, grow our economic participation, and two, create partnerships to bring more people into economic opportunities. When I say that, I’m talking about populations that are typically disconnected, whether through poverty, substance abuse or re-entering the economic picture from justice involvement.

We see great value in fast-tracking those individuals to high-wage employment opportunities.

“We’re really focusing on growing those pipelines and bringing more people into western North Carolina’s success.”

Getting there and living there

With business growth comes the need for more housing, health care and transportation. Buncombe County has several projects in the works.

The YMCA of Asheville and First Baptist Church of Asheville are collaborating on Project Aspire, a proposed 10-acre mixed-use and mixedincome development that would serve as the “gateway to downtown Asheville,” according to a release. Greenville, South

PHOTO COURTESY OF GINGER FRANK, OWNER OF POPPY’S HANDCRAFTED POPCORN

The “AVL 5x5 Strategic Plan” has five areas of focus: nurture local growth in sectors with a homegrown competitive advantage; recruit new growth; fast-track startups; integrate and strengthen workforce systems; develop industrial sites and buildings.

The 2020-2025 outline is the plan’s third cycle. It also is targeting growing and recruiting in five employment sectors: advanced manufacturing (automotive, aerospace, food and beverage), life sciences (biotech and medical devices), climate technology, outdoor products and office/information technology.

The EDC plans to conduct retention interviews, consult companies about such things as expansion, recruiting workforce and financial needs, and visit at least one national headquarters a year for companies that have branch offices in Buncombe.

The report notes: “We find a strong positive correlation between the employment rates of adults who live in a tract and rates of upward mobility for children who grow up there. Evidently, what predicts upward mobility is not

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OUT AND ABOUT Things to do around Buncombe County:

ARDEN Named for the Forest of Arden from the Shakespeare comedy “As You Like It.” Your to-do list includes visiting Lake Julian Park for fishing, paddle boats and fishing.

BILTMORE FOREST Located between the Biltmore Estate, Blue Ridge Parkway and the City of Asheville.

In December, its 100th Anniversary Committee will host trolley rides through town.

BLACK MOUNTAIN Hike the 4.8-mile Graybeard Trail to the sixth-highest peak [2,400 feet] in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Play the Donald Ross-designed golf course. Visit downtown for the eateries, Black Mountain Center for the Arts and Lake Tomahawk, with a half-mile hiking loop around the water.

MONTREAT Home of Montreat College, an independent, Christ-centered four-year liberal arts institution. The town of Montreat has about 700 residents and 4,000 acres of land, the Billy Graham Conference Center at the Cove is open for tours.

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Carolina-based developers Furman Company will begin construction in late 2024 if the project is approved by Asheville City Council. The master plan shows Project Aspire going up between Central Avenue, Woodfin Street and Charlotte Avenue.

The church and YMCA have had plans for about five years to create a walkable urban village, according to First Baptist senior pastor Mack Dennis.

“We were able to confide in them about our own big dreams, and then we decided that we could really do a lot more together than we could do respectfully on our own,” Dennis says in a press release.

Twelve miles from downtown, Asheville Regional Airport is steadily growing to serve the Asheville-Buncombe County metro area’s 450,000 residents and its many visitors.

The airport authority’s recent request for $175 million in transportation revenue bonds was approved by the N.C. Local Government Commission, making way for the second phase of construction to expand from a single-story, seven-gate terminal to a two-story, 12-gate building.

The airport serves six airlines: Allegiant, American, Delta, JetBlue, Sun Country and United. With 25 domestic and international destinations, it’s the third-busiest airport in North Carolina, according to a release from the N.C. Department of State Treasurer. Asheville Regional served 1.8 million passengers in 2022.

The region’s healthcare is ever growing, too. AdventHealth has proposed developing a $254 million, 67-bed hospital in the Candler area, 20 miles west of Asheville. It’s projected to be completed in 2025.

The facility, to be named AdventHealth Asheville, will also have a cesarean section operating room and five procedure rooms.

Last November, AdventHealth, Mission and Novant each submitted bids to bring a new project to the area, with AdventHealth winning approval from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. ■ — Kathy Blake is a freelance writer from eastern North Carolina

PHOTO CREDIT: ASHEVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Buncombe County Manufacturers gather at New Belgium Brewing for a quarterly meeting of the Chamber’s Sustainability Council

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THE MOUNTAINS ARE CALLING

PHOTO CREDIT: ASHEVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

PHOTO CREDIT: ASHEVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Along with natural wonders, themed hotels and local food are additional tourism lures.

Buncombe County’s mountains, abundance of arts galleries, varied culinary experiences, music scene and historical buildings are tourism magnets.The N.C. Department of Commerce reports Buncombe ranked second in N.C. traveler expenditures in 2021, with visitors dropping $2.6 billion. (Mecklenburg County ranked first.)

The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority recently announced a new course for tourism that “includes the adoption of strategic imperatives that are informing and guiding the direction of Explore Asheville’s program of work and community investments,” according to a release.

The five ‘strategic imperatives’ touch on sustainable growth, safe and responsible travel, engaging more diverse audiences, promoting and supporting Asheville’s creative spirit and running a healthy and effective organization.

Cass Herrington with Explore Asheville says a trend for 2023 is to promote group travel experiences and places for parties to stay that “foster meaningful connections and integrate wellness into their corporate and event travel itineraries.”

“Asheville is known as one of the most

colorful fall destinations in the nation, and one of the longest leaf seasons in the world due to the biodiversity combined with staggered color change at different mountain elevations,” she says. “This is a great time to take in the scenes with trail running, hiking, mountain biking and forest bathing.”

Theme hotels such as The Flat Iron (prohibition-themes, with hidden speakeasy), The Radical (also with speakeasy) and Zelda Dearest (as in novelist Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald) are on the list for group experiences. Wrong Way Cabins & Campground, which opened in 2022 with 16 tiny A-frame cabins near the French Broad River, is another addition to the lodging mix.

Herrington points to Wrong Way River Lodge & Cabins, on the French Broad River. “It’s one of the few rivers in the world that flows north, thus inspiring the ‘wrong way’ moniker,” she says. “The riverside accommodation is a first-of-its-kind lodging option that combines the casual nostalgia of a campground with hotel conveniences.”

Destinations for animal enthusiasts include Mountain Horse Farm, Montgomery Sky Farm and Dr. King’s Farms.

Outdoor activities are a big focus, she says, with 2023 being Buncombe’s ‘Year of the Trail,’ touting its proximity to state parks. Outdoor tour company Asheville Wellness Tours has several guided experiences for groups.

Foodies have continued reasons to treat their palates in Asheville. The area offers popular farm tours, farm-to-table restaurants and the NC Green Travel Initiative, which “recognizes North Carolina restaurants (and other businesses) who go above and beyond to reduce their carbon ‘forkprint.’” Cheese enthusiasts love the WNC Cheese Trail, which pairs western North Carolina cheeses with wineries as well as the Blue Ridge Mountain Creamery and Round Mountain Creamery.

“Asheville during the fall season is more than colorful leaves and stunning mountain vistas,” Herrington says.

“Shaped and nurtured by nature, Asheville speaks to the growing number of travelers seeking to authentically connect with the natural world and the local community.” ■

— Kathy Blake is a freelance writer from eastern North Carolina

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Revitalizing rural N.C.

BISON BOUNCE

A quick look at where the buffalo roam.

Jerry Nelon says he raises bison to support his golf game. Problem is, says his wife Robin, her husband, 74, never swings the club. “That’s just a thing he says,” she notes. “He doesn’t play golf, he’s a workaholic.”

Nelon has nearly 100 bison on his 153-acre Polk County farm in Green Creek, between the western North Carolina towns of Forest City and Columbus. He has been raising bison for about 20 years and now has about 15 calves. The need for a liver transplant last year, which he blames on contact with Agent Orange while serving with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, kept Nelon from selling any of his herd for three years. Now feeling healthy, he has sold 13 in the past two months.

“They’re just too hard to catch,” he says. A bull can weigh more than 2,000 pounds — an adult cow weighs about 1,400 pounds — and stand more than 6 feet tall. They prefer to be left alone, says Nelon.

“Go out there and try to catch one. They’ll have your a.. up a tree,” Nelon says without abbreviating his words. “They really are calm animals until you try to catch one.”

An adult bison fetches about $3,000 at market, he says. Most customers buy bison as a healthier meat alternative, says Nelon, who is one of a handful of bison ranchers in North Carolina.

Bison meat has about a third of the grams of fat, almost three times as much iron and fewer calories than skinless chicken, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The same organization says 100 grams of raw bison contains 109 calories and 1.8 grams of fat. The same amount of raw beef contains 291 calories and 24 grams of fat.

Still, bison consumption is limited at less than a pound per capita of annual consumption in the United States, according to the National Bison Association. Most grocery store chains and some restaurants offer bison meat for sale. People generally like its taste, but it costs more than other proteins, Nelon says. “People just like to look at them.”

About 300 years ago, bison roamed much of North Carolina. There are at least 40 locations in the state named for the buffalo – places like 80

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Buffalo Shoals in Catawba County and Buffalo Ford in Randolph County. A plaque at milepost 373 of the Blue Ridge Parkway marks where Joseph Rice, an early settler of the Swannanoa Valley, shot that area’s last bison in 1799.

The American bison – early settlers called them buffalo, derived from the Jerry Nelon next to the buffalo French word “bouef ” for sculpture on his property. beef – joined the bald eagle as the official symbol of the U.S. in 2016, when it was named the country’s national mammal. In the early 19th century, between 30 million and 60 million of the majestic animals roamed North America. Their story is tied to the history of America’s first Transcontinental Railroad and intertwined with many Indigenous communities, which used the animal for food, clothing and to make tools.

The bison’s demise came in the 1800s when they were slaughtered by hunters, travelers and U.S. troops. The completion of the crosscountry railroad in 1869 accelerated the decimation. By 1900, naturalists estimated fewer than 1,000 bison remained, according to the National Park Service.

Now, there are about 400,000 head of bison in North America, according to the national trade association. Seventeen bison herds — or approximately 10,000 bison — live on public lands managed by the Department of the Interior. That’s about one-third of the wild bison in North America. ■

PHOTO CREDIT: KEVIN ELLIS

BY KEVIN ELLIS

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