April 29, 2016 UBJ

APRIL 29, 2016 | VOL. 5 ISSUE 18

LEGEND

The who defines

ENTREPRENEUR

community involvement

innovation

quality to HR

Spartanburg

MINOR SHAW

PETER BARTH

PAMELA EVETTE

TODD HORNE

The who’s developing

The that’s equipping the world

the capital market

ROBERT HUGHES III

SCANSOURCE

JOHN WARREN

YOUNG GUN

the Upstate

The who accelerates

COMPANY

WHO’S

The who brings BOSS

The WILD CARD who’s reshaping

The who’s commanding CLOSER

WHO

Who’s Who

at United Community Bank

President and Chief Operating Officer

Regional President of Upstate South Carolina

Sam Erwin

Michelle Seaver

Rick Stanland

Kimberly Mode

Jeff Thompson

Lynn Harton

Anderson, Pickens, and Oconee Counties

Spartanburg and Cherokee Counties

Greenville County

Greenwood, Abbeville, and Laurens Counties

The local United leadership for the Upstate is not only committed to providing exceptional banking solutions, but they are dedicated to helping their communities thrive.

Stop by your local branch today and experience United — ‘The Bank That SERVICE Built®.’

Member FDIC. © 2016 United Community Bank | ucbi.com

04.29.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

Not just ‘another awards gig’ With connections made among leaders, Who’s Who continues to hit the mark RYAN JOHNSTON | PUBLISHER

rjohnston@communityjournals.com We set out three years ago to create a brand that celebrated the business leaders of today that were positioning us for success tomorrow.

To give them all an “attaboy or “attagirl.” To celebrate them in front of their peers and connect them with new ones at a special celebration. Initial feedback our first year was, “Man, another awards gig. Do we really need another one?

Absolutely. We thought the system was broken. Not to discredit many of our readers who have probably made their way onto one of those lists in the past, but there was, in our opinion, two main issues with the execution of these other celebrations.

1. Transparency. You can see our selection process on page 6. We felt that what makes these awards special is a crystal-clear understanding of why and how these people were selected.

We felt that was missing in the market.

2. The Who’s Who event. The name came from our goal to create an event that was the “Who’s Who of the Upstate.” We want to celebrate these individuals in a leader-rich environ-

ment. Where the right handshakes and introductions are made on a C-suite level. We wanted to create an atmosphere that maximized the interactions and conversations between people and the follow up conversations it will spawn.

I think you will agree that after spending some time reading this issue – and especially if you’re able to join us for the event – we have hit the mark.

Hitting the mark is important because it allows us to bring the right partners to the table. These sponsors allow us to dedicate the appropriate resources to tell these stories right and create these environments for us to all move the ball forward.

Without them this would not be possible. So on behalf of my entire team here at UBJ and all our partners that were part of this process, thank you for supporting our efforts.

While we’re at it, we would also like to thank all our other advertising partners who continue to allow us to not only tell the stories found in this issue but the thousands of other headlines coming out of our region every year. Thank you for your continued support and partnership. We too will continue to do our part to move this business community forward.

PUBLISHER’S LET TER

| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 3

MBAe ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION

One year of transformation The Full-Time Clemson MBAe is designed for individuals who want to launch a startup, owners of existing small businesses seeking to expand their entrepreneurial knowledge and recent graduates who have decided not to pursue careers in corporate settings. APPLY NOW FOR 2016!

Our Contributors Leigh Savage is a freelance journalist who writes for clients such as Upstate Business Journal, Greenville Journal, Greenville Health System, Anderson University and the YMCA. A Furman graduate, she earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and has worked as an editor, travel writer and public relations manager.

Allison Walsh has been a part of the Community Journals team almost since the beginning, serving as Community Editor in the early 2000s. She has been a regular contributor to At Home and Behind the Counter ever since. Allison lives in Simpsonville with her husband, Spiff, and their two children.

Will Crooks is a recovering accountant turned street style and portrait photographer. See more of his work at wacavenue.com.

www.clemson.edu/mba

4 | WHO’S WHO 2016 |

UBJ

SPONSOR’S LETTER

|

04.29.2016

Empower others through your efforts SAMUEL L. ERWIN

Regional President and CEO – South Carolina, United Community Bank In just one generation, Greenville has transformed into a thriving, modern community.

This activity is seen in the electric atmosphere downtown on Main Street and in the workshops and laboratories at CU-ICAR. It is seen in the energy among the students at The Iron Yard and on the faces of people biking on the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail. It is proven by the increase in manufacturing production and explosive real estate development.

This activity and growth is not by accident. It is the result of coordinated efforts of community members who are consistently innovating, collaborating and pushing forward to make Greenville the best place it can be. These individuals are leading the charge to improve and grow our Upstate business community, and their work has a plethora of positive ripple effects.

While business drives this community financially, Greenville would not be the place it is without civic and philanthropic growth and improvement. And fortunately, in this community, our business leaders understand that partnership and frequently wear many hats as both business executive and community advocate.

At United Community Bank, we also value community involvement. As a community bank, we work hard every day to serve our customers and personally help them with both routine banking needs and unique financial objectives. Additionally, many members of our team are involved in organizations outside of the bank that have significant community impact, including the Peace Center, Artisphere, Greenville Health System, the Greenville Tech Foundation and the United Way. United Community Bank as a whole places a large emphasis on being a good corporate citizen and giving back to the communities we are a part of to help make them better places to live and work. In Greenville, we do this by partnering with organizations and projects that reflect our value of quality service, family and community growth. This includes being the title sponsor of two of the Upstate’s most treasured traditions, Ice on Main and a recently announced sponsorship of the Antiques, Fine Art & Design Weekend at the Greenville County Museum of Art. We have also been proud to partner with Greenville Technical College to sponsor the Workforce Development Salute and provide funds for valuable scholarships.

The leaders who take on these dual roles not only impact the economic development in the community but serve as an inspiration to the community as to what is possible through collaboration. There is no better example of this brilliant leadership than Minor Shaw, the 2016 Legend award recipient.

Through her inspiring leadership, Minor has contributed to the growth and transformation of the Upstate in countless ways. She is an accomplished businesswoman as president of Micco LLC. But

her civic leadership has contributed to incredible growth in all aspects of the community.

Minor serves as chair of the Daniel-Mickel Foundation, the Duke Endowment and the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission. She is a board member of several valuable organizations and businesses, including the Hollingsworth Funds, South Carolina ETV Communications, Piedmont Natural Gas, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina and the Columbia Funds. She has given of her time generously, previously serving as chairman of the Community Foundation of Greenville, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, the Junior League of Greenville, the Urban League of the Upstate and the YMCA of Greenville.

As she has effected real, positive change in all of these roles, Minor truly has empowered those around her to make our community better. By setting such a stellar example, she encourages others to take charge of their future and the future of this community by focusing on their aspirations, setting goals and taking steps to reach them. Her influence will extend into future generations, a true Legend of the Upstate community.

We applaud this year’s Who’s Who award winners not just for their significant accomplishments but for the energy that they inspire throughout the rest of the community. We are grateful for the commitment made by so many smart, dedicated people to making Greenville the best it can be.

LIBERAL ARTS LEADERSHIP:

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n

6 | WHO’S WHO 2016 |

UBJ

THE SELECTION PROCESS

people and organizations that made an economic impact on the Upstate and went above and beyond their professional roles. Finding this year’s Who’s Who class demanded a thorough selection process, involving nominations from the public, exhaustive work from researchers, the wisdom and expertise of a panel of judges, and direct engagement through social media.

When voting closed, our panel and our social media voters had selected these winners:

• The Legend: Minor Shaw,

Step 3: Social media activated

President, Micco LLC

• The Entrepreneur: Peter Barth, CEO, Iron Yard

The Wild Card candidates were:

• The Boss: Pamela Evette,

• Scott Dobson,

President/CEO, Quality Business Solutions

Co-Owner, Parkside Pediatrics

• The Young Gun: Robert Hughes III,

• Zach Eikenberry,

COO, Hughes Development

CEO, NEXT High School

Step 1: The public nominated

• The Closer: John Warren,

• Shay Hauser,

Founder/President, Lima One Capital

CEO, Greencloud Technologies

The 2016 panel was selected and announced on Feb. 5 (meet them on page 8), and the nomination process began. Nominations were open to the public until March 6, through submissions to the UBJ website. In total, 147 names were nominated.

(See all of this year’s nominees on page 52.)

• The Company: ScanSource

• Todd Horne,

• The Wild Card: Todd Horne,

VP of Business Development, Clayton Construction

VP of Business Development, Clayton Construction

• Krish Patel, President/CEO, Wireless Communications

Step 5: Who's Who celebrated

• Allen Smith,

Step 2: The panel deliberated

President, Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce

Researchers vetted up to 15 names per category and submitted them to the panel for their deliberation. Extensive research and interviews were conducted in order to provide the panel with plenty of information to evaluate.

After UBJ posted these names, 32,711 engaged in the Facebook Wild Card campaign and digital voting site, and with 1,054 likes, comments and shares and 4,054 website votes, the Wild Card was selected. The Who’s Who class of 2016 was now complete.

The seven members of the 2016 Class of Who’s Who are honored in this special edition of the Upstate Business Journal, and celebrated at a private event in front of a Who’s Who audience of the Upstate’s business leaders on Thursday, April 28.

The panel scored each nominee 1-5 in these areas: • 2015 accomplishments • Overall resume • Above and beyond

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They also selected the candidates to populate the Wild Card category.

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04.29.2016

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Selecting Who’s Who For the third year, UBJ sought to recognize

|

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To maximize thehassle value of Big bandwidth demands of the constantly expanding “The price of not investing in high-capacity g impact to other cloud applications, while avoiding impact to other cloud applications, A total of 2.5 quintillion bits of data are created volume of Big Data. siness goals realized Gigabit-plus networking will become steep as day. Storagewith and utilization of that data is ed aevery network dedicated businesses need a network with dedicated Start planning Start planning additional workloads that once resided only the cloud best served in thethat cloud. can withstand the or Big Data connectivity for Big Data that can withstand the within the enterprise transition to the cloud.”

Guard against BYOD mands of the constantly expanding bandwidth demands“The of the constantly price expanding of not investing “The price in of high-capacity not investing in high-capacity network demands ofEnterprise 2.5 quintillion bits of data are created organizations will continue to benefit by volume - Ted Chamberlin, principal advisorwill and analyst as gotal Data. of Big Data.Gigabit-plus networking Gigabit-plus will become networking steep become steep as the public and privateofcloud ry day.using Storage and utilization thatnetworks data is for the for Custom Shop Strategies additional workloads that additional once workloads resided that once only resided only Virtual desktop infrastructure, tablets and smart following workloads: served in the cloud. within the enterprise transition within the enterprise to the transition cloud.” to the cloud.” phonesagainst are great productivity ainst BYOD Guard BYOD tools, but each puts

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Visit Gig4Greenville.com Visit Gig4Greenville.com workloads are these shifting workloads are handled with ease. nterprise applications: HR,handled Finance and with ease. andits gowholly from your current and gowholly from speed your current tonetwork beyond speed tonetwork beyond behind owned behind and its managed owned and managed er ERP applications continue to run on premise, ata analytics Big(ger) Data analytics the gigabit with speeds the gigabit up with tospeeds 10 Gig. up to 10 Gig. ch in turn demands readily available, h-performance environments for visualization with last-mile service with andlast-mile industry-leading service and industry-leading service service trick? They consume unimaginable amounts scaling - Ted Chamberlin, principal - Ted advisor Chamberlin, and principal analyst advisor and analyst for Custom Shop Strategies for Custom Shop Strategies

©2016 Charter Communications.® Restrictions apply. Services may not be available in all areas. Call for details.

8 | WHO’S WHO 2016 |

UBJ

THE PANEL

The Who’s Who Panel

|

04.29.2016

Michael Bolick

Megan Riegel

Why him?

Why her?

Michael Bolick has been a both a product and shaper of today’s start-up ecosystem. He grew Selah as a case study of using a number of local resources working together. They clicked and it worked, and is now back working again. Through that process, he is an active participant in building on that framework to further support an attractive entrepreneurial environment.

If you haven’t noticed, tourism and the performing arts are a cornerstone of our economic development strategy, the backbone of the Upstate’s product offering. The Peace Center turns 25 this year, and Riegel has been there for more than 19 of those years.

Running a $20 million business, she has more than earned a place in the conversation.

What is the one key identifier that catches your attention that a company is growing and has a lot of room to grow?

How important is culture to attracting talent, and what opportunities do we need to capitalize on to bring our culture clout to the next level?

Co-founder and CEO, Selah Genomics

President and CEO, Peace Center

Meet the panel of judges for our 2016 Who’s Who awards.

If it’s true that it takes one to know one, then the diverse group of talented people who take their support of the Upstate far beyond their job descriptions was perfect for identifying others shaping this community’s future.

They are all leaders in fields critical to the growth and uniqueness of the Upstate: biotech, entrepreneurship, law, economic development and the arts.

Over the past months, the five volunteer members of this year’s Who’s Who panel looked hard for unsung heroes, for solid accomplishments and for characteristics that hint that there’s more to come.

They reviewed dozens of submissions and, with the help of researchers, had lively discussions about what it takes to move a community forward.

You’ll get to know the honorees they selected in the following pages, but here UBJ takes a moment to recognize the panelists whose insight made Who’s Who 2016 possible.

In his report “The Job Generation Process,” David Birch identified small companies as the biggest creators of new jobs in the economy. Birch estimated that these growth-mode companies accounted for only 4 percent of all U.S. companies, but accounted for 70 percent of all new jobs. Gazelles are identified by their rapid growth pace, rather than their absolute size, but the key metric is when a company is increasing its revenues by at least 20 percent annually for four years or more, starting from a revenue base of at least $1 million.

People are attracted to cities offering diverse cultural opportunities and experiences. Theatres, museums, galleries, music and sporting venues, restaurants and retail, parks, plazas and hiking/biking trails are all part of the cultural landscape. Greenville’s “culture clout” is already remarkable compared to its size. Could there be more offerings? Sure, and in time there will be. But what we have now is pretty darn good, and if you talk to folks who have been transferred here for business, the majority of them never want to leave.

04.29.2016

|

THE PANEL

upstatebusinessjournal.com

| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 9

Jo Hackl

Joe Erwin

Nancy Whitworth

Why her?

Why him?

Why her?

An attorney at Wyche for more than 25 years and board member of United Way of Greenville County since 2013, Jo Hackl is one of the most respected local female leaders in the Upstate. She is active in conversations on diversity and female leadership.

As a mentor and leader, she sits right up there with names like Minor Shaw and Barbara League.

Joe Erwin, who stepped down late last year as president of the ad agency he founded in 1986, has led thousands of local people and built an industryleading company. After helping to shape Greenville’s marketing landscape, he is at it again with a new startup project: Endeavor, a space for creatives in downtown Greenville.

Everyone knows Nancy Whitworth. That’s because she is in almost every conversation about how to move the ball forward. When she shows up and speaks up, she helps find those who are truly contributing and helping the Upstate evolve.

Where would you like to see more women leading?

What is Greenville doing right to continue to make this business community competitive and get the right people here to build the great companies of tomorrow?

If you were a 28-year-old prof essional in Greenville today, what initiatives or business conversations would you be the most excited about getting involved in?

As young entrepreneurs who selected Greenville in 1986 (with one account and one employee), it was in great part due to the welcoming spirit we felt from the business community. It was a hallmark of the city then and today. This is a place that encourages entrepreneurship and creativity, where anyone who wants to work hard and contribute can make a difference. And it’s not just something we talk about; we live it. It’s one of my favorite things about this city.

The Greenville I saw as a 28-year-old is so different than it is now. I would be excited about the companies that are creating jobs, changing lives and providing healthy food alternatives; those that are focused on providing specialized training and financing – especially for those in our underserved communities; those that are developing innovative technologies and creating products that will improve the health of others; and those that are pioneering educational innovation that ensures Greenville will be prepared for the future.

Attorney, Wyche

Female leadership is growing, particularly in the sciences, technology and entrepreneurial efforts in the Upstate and globally. From Silicon Valley to Greenville’s vibrant downtown, there are countless examples of women bringing a unique perspective that inspires innovation. Women bring a diverse set of talents, and I’d like to see women’s leadership grow across all sectors. As a part of engaging all of our community’s resources, I’d also like to see our concept of leadership evolve so that it is increasingly focused on how to empower an expansive range of talent to expand opportunities throughout our community.

Co-founder, Erwin Penland

Director of Economic Development, City of Greenville

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upstatebusinessjournal.com

The YOUNG GUN who’s developing the Upstate

ROBERT HUGHES III

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UBJ

THE YOUNG GUN: ROBERT HUGHES III

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TITLE: COO, Hughes Development Corp.

AGE: 32 HOMETOWN: Greenville EDUCATION: B.A., public policy studies, Duke University; MBA, Columbia Business School COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Academic Advancement Council, USC School of Medicine, Greenville; Junior Achievement Upstate Board of Directors, Greenville Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors, Artisphere Board of Directors FAMILY: Wife, Elizabeth

Robert Hughes grew up familiar with real estate development as his father, Bob Hughes, led numerous Greenville projects as president of Hughes Development Corp. But Robert was so interested in so many fields, he didn’t imagine he would end up working there.

Before heading to Duke University, he took a year off and became an emergency medical technician, riding ambulances because he thought he might go into medicine. He worked for Sen. Jim DeMint in Washington, D.C., because he thought he might go into politics. He spent several months working in finance in New York City and then volunteered as a teacher. “It was a fun year,” he said.

After completing his degree in public policy studies at Duke, he worked in commodities trading at Lehman Brothers in 2007. “After helping Lehman Brothers to their demise,” he said, laughing, he was an assistant vice president at Barclays Capital from 2008 to 2011. He earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2012.

“That’s when I knew I wanted to come home and work in real estate,” he said. “The opportunity to come and work in a family business, and live in a town like Greenville and grow a business here outweighs any other opportunities I had.”

He returned in 2012, led the acquisition of the 196,000-square-foot Bank of America Tower in 2013, and managed its renovation, leasing and currently its sale. He has gone on to play a lead role in many key projects, including Greenville ONE, Aloft Greenville Downtown and a 181-acre project on Bull Street in Columbia.

“I still have a lot to learn, but that’s the most fun thing about this job,” he said. “I learn something every day.”

What projects are you currently focusing on?

Every day is different, and that’s something I love about this job. I’m handling the leasing at One Laurens that just got built, where Caviar & Bananas is going. I was in charge of construction and administration for Aloft, the hotel and the retail and office under that. I’m doing leasing at the Bank of America building and ONE. And then our biggest project right now is in Columbia, the old Bull Street campus.

It’s 181 acres, a mile from the state capital and a mile from the university. It’s a massive piece of dirt, right downtown. It’s been off-limits to the public for 100 years, so welcoming the public back to that site, in a way that is great for Columbia, is really fun.

Was it a difficult decision to return to Greenville after your years in New York City?

I had a great experience in New York, I learned a lot at the two banks, and learned what it was like to work in a big organization. I learned management styles and had very influential bosses. Dad had told me he wasn’t going to hire me right out of college.

He wanted me to get my own experience. Books on family business management always say it’s important for the family member to have a job for five years, get a promotion and do some things in another organization so they can have some skills and successes outside the family business.

Have you been glad your father encouraged you to go your own way after college?

Dad didn’t have a choice of where he went to work.

He had to come back and work for his dad. But he said he didn’t think any of us would come work for him and he wasn’t planning on it. There was no pressure. But having that experience definitely gives

“

A lot of business is a zero-sum game, with a winner and a loser.

In responsible real estate development, everyone can be a winner, and it can be a net-positive game.

”

me a better perspective on business here, and management. My dad wanted me to know I could be successful if I wasn’t here.

Have you experienced preconceived notions about you since you joined your father’s business?

My dad was incredibly successful taking the company he inherited from his father and growing it into a completely different business that has had some really influential projects. But I still have this article in my office, and there is a quote that said, “Critics say he’s the son of a favored developer, so he had a hand up,” or something like that. My grandfather was a residential developer and built Kmarts and Winn-Dixies. The company has evolved. It just reminds me that no matter what I do, it’s going to be in the light of working for the family business, working for my dad. I can’t get away from being cast in that light, so I just have to accept it and get comfortable with it. >>

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THE YOUNG GUN: ROBERT HUGHES III

upstatebusinessjournal.com

>> Was it challenging to switch gears from the father/son relationship to the boss/employee relationship?

Do you have a business achievement you are most proud of?

It’s working great so far. It’s been a lot of fun. We were both aware of the change when I moved home, and we had to get comfortable with where to draw the line between father/boss and son/employee.

Finding that balance was critical. But I respect him so much and I know I have so much to learn from him. I get excited about things, and I have to pull back and trust his knowledge and experience. There are 1,000 ways to try and accomplish something, and he might have tried 990 of them, so I try to pick up on as much as I can that he’s experienced over the years.

Are there key lessons you’ve learned in your four years with the company?

I’d say honesty and trust. That’s been instilled in all of us since we were young. We want to be able to do deals on a handshake. That was my grandfather’s reputation – if he told you he’d do something, it was done. That was passed down and we continue to try to emulate that.

I’m the young guy in this thing, so I can say I don’t have one yet.

Have you experienced failure, and how has it affected you?

In this business, you feel like you’re on the brink of failure all the time. On the trading floor at Barclays, every day you knew if you had a bad day or a good day. In real estate, projects take so long to put together, and it hinges on so many small things. And we might go after 10 projects and only get one, but that’s part of it. So I’ve failed to complete deals, but if you learn every time you fail, you’ll only be better.

What are you focusing on as your company evolves?

My dad gravitates toward complicated, challenging projects, and I think that’s where he found a niche.

If 10 developers are going for it, it might not be the project for us, but if it’s something a little more unique, and you have to get creative, and it has the ability to have a positive impact on the community, that’s where

| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 13

we like to focus. So I’m learning as much as I can and getting as much experience as I possibly can so we can provide great service to our tenants and build great projects in the communities where we work.

Do you think it’s important for young people to give back to Greenville?

Yes. There are so many interesting ways to get involved, and organizations that are hungry for young people to get engaged and plugged in.

And I think real estate has the ability to have positive social impact and create social change. A lot of business is a zero-sum game, with a winner and a loser. In responsible real estate development, everyone can be a winner, and it can be a net-positive game. The person you buy the land from wants to sell, and they make money. You build the right thing in the right place, and the neighbors’ asset values appreciate. The local municipality’s tax base goes up, providing more services to the community.

Tenants occupy the building and create jobs, provide services and make money. So everyone is better off.

That’s one of the things that drew me to real estate in the first place – you can do well by doing good.

“Robert Hughes’ energy, drive and entrepreneurial spirit clearly qualify him as a Young Gun. But it’s his commitment to honesty, respect and customer service that make him stand out from the pack. Those are all qualities that UBJ loves to see in the Upstate – and they’re why we’re proud to sponsor this award.”

Ryan Johnston, Publisher, Upstate Business Journal

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The BOSS who brings

quality to HR PAMELA EVETTE

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UBJ

THE BOSS: PAMELA EVET TE

Pamela Evette and her husband, David, launched Quality Business Solutions in 2000, carving out an acre of David’s family land in Travelers Rest to build an office up the hill from their home. Today they are competing with the big dogs in their industry, and though they have had to expand their office space as the QBS team has grown, the base of operations remains there in the corner of the horse pasture.

The Quality Business Solutions staff totals 33 full- and part-time employees. This small but mighty team processes payroll for clients in 48 states. The largest client has roughly 48,000 employees. The company has experienced revenue growth of nearly $300 million over the past three years, making it a nearly $1 billion enterprise.

Talk about your decision to launch your business in Travelers Rest. Why have you chosen to stay there as you’ve grown?

All this property started out as my husband’s grandfather’s, so we built our house here. It started out as just a good financial decision to build something here on our property. But then, TR has just grown – people love TR. We really like what’s happening in the city, we like that it’s quaint, we like that we’re not battling people on Woodruff Road. Last year when we had to make a decision to expand our building again or find another building, our employees said, “We don’t want to go.” They really like it here.

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04.29.2016

And a lot of them have moved and centered in this way.

How have you not been eaten by one of your larger competitors?

We just think it’s a cool place, and we’re really happy to be here and growing with it.

We do get offers all the time from people that say, “Hey, we’ve been watching you.” I laugh. We have a third-grader, so for me to sell... I don’t know what else I would want to do. I still like what I do. It’s a challenge. I like being out there, I like to talk to people.

How have you been able to turn the amount of business you do with such a small team?

Really, it’s technology. It’s staying ahead of the curve technology-wise. When I first got out of college and I was doing accounting, you had a 10-key and green bar. You weren’t doing anything in Excel. I can remember those huge audit bags that you’d carry around with five years of green bar paper and audits.

And now everything is automated.

Probably eight years ago we made a conscious decision to really invest in technology, to have really great security on our systems. Even when we started 16 years ago, our clients would fax in their time sheets and our people would key them. Our largest client is 48,000 employees. We would have needed 10 people just to manage it. Now you’re importing data.

Nobody’s hand-keying. What would have taken you weeks, takes you 10 minutes.

We have given our employees all the technology we can to make sure their job is easy, and we’ve been able to grow exponentially without having to add a ton of staff. We still have room for a lot of growth before we have to put a lot more bodies in the office.

It’s technology – not just in our industry but in every industry – that has really made you be able to shoot your revenue numbers out without employing a ton of people.

Our focus is customer service. And I have heard that cry from all of the clients we’ve taken over from our larger competitors: “I don’t want to call an 800 number.” “I don’t know who I talk to on a daily basis.”

“I’m so tired of them saying, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t accommodate.’”

As we’ve grown we have always grown with the ideal that we are never going to have this cookie-cutter, “if you’re a square peg we’re going to make you fit in our round hole or we’re not going to do business with you” [mindset]. We have always been very conscious of that and made sure our people know that, too. At the end of the day, customer service is what separates us from everybody.

I don’t know that the way we want to operate for our clients will ever be like [our larger competitors] – this big huge cruise ship that you can’t turn or steer or take in any direction but straight. I just know that our clients have left all those places because they’re tired of bad service, so that’s what we really focus on: giving great service to our clients.

I’d love to keep growing; I’m not afraid of growing.

I just always want to make sure that as we grow we keep those core things in line. I think we would do ourselves and our company a disservice if we ever >>

AGE 48 TITLE: President and CEO, Quality Business Solutions HOMETOWN: Middleburg Heights, Ohio EDUCATION: Studied at The Ohio State University and earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration (BBA) from Cleveland State University in 1989.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: St. Francis Foundation, Prince of Peace, Loves & Fishes, Breast Cancer Relay for Life, and Pendleton Place. Quality Business Solutions provides internships and supports the Greenville Drive, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits and the Peace Center FAMILY: Husband, David; children, Amanda, Joey and Jackson

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THE BOSS: PAMELA EVETTE

upstatebusinessjournal.com

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“A great boss has the vision and resources to continually grow and improve his or her organization. At Cherry Bekaert, our firm is dedicated to providing guidance to help our clients grow and optimize innovation. That is why Cherry Bekaert is honored to recognize Pam as a leader, go-getter and all-around great boss.”

Mark Cooter, Managing Partner, Cherry Bekaert

>> try to go away from that, because it really has got us to where we are today.

How can the Upstate take advantage of what you have to offer?

I have my business give back to things that I feel are really great charities. I love anything kid-related. Kids and old people. I think those are the two most vulnerable groups. When I go to Pendleton Place and hear those stories, that just breaks my heart, to see them in these situations they didn’t ask to be a part of.

And older people, who have this great wealth of knowledge and insight. We have a lot of retired people who work for us part-time. I love hiring retired people if they want to come work. I love bringing them back.

These days older people and young people don’t really mix, and I think that’s such a loss. I always thought one day when I had a ton of time, if I could somehow meld kids that have issues and older people that have a ton to give and nobody to give it to, it would be a phenomenal business investment. I don’t know how I would do it and I know right now I don’t have the time to try, but if I had time and resources that would be something I could put 100 percent behind.

What’s your idea of work/life balance?

I’ve always tried to show my kids that nothing comes easy – everything you want you have to work hard for. I don’t think I’ve tried to downplay how hard it is to run a business and be successful.

I recently missed a local business event because my son had a lacrosse game and he was starting. I would have loved to have been there and seen everybody, but he’s only going to be in high school another year.

“

I’d love to keep growing; I’m not afraid of growing.

I just always want to make sure that as we grow we keep those core things in line.

”

I have a million opportunities to network and meet people, and I only have a few opportunities to watch him play lacrosse.

That’s the balance I look for. I just don’t want my kids to ever think work was more important than they were. And in my heart I think I’ve achieved that.

What is your proudest business achievement?

When I reached the Inc. Impact 50. I never realized where I fell in that line. And then we found out I was number 3 [among the Top 50 Women Entrepreneurs in America]. You just don’t know where you’re ranked, but it was just like, wow. And then 2016 brought Enterprising Women of Year.

I grew up with three older brothers, and so being a girl never seemed like a hindrance to me. I never got in a situation – even when I was in public accounting – where I felt uneasy or uncomfortable because it was all men. If it got uneasy I always tried to make a joke. And I never felt intimidated by men because I grew up around boys.

But then as I got involved with more women stuff I realized there was a whole different world out there,

where women did feel intimidated. If some of those accolades help one girl my daughter’s age, or help my daughter to think there’s no reason you can’t be anything you want to be, that’s a really proud moment. If it helps just one girl take a leap, I think that’s huge.

How do you celebrate success?

We celebrate as a company. We try to not run as a hierarchy, we run as a team. I use this example all the time: I can be out here getting our name recognized, and David can be selling to great companies, payroll people can be doing everything they need to do, and then we have some part-timers and interns in our distribution room. If you look at a hierarchical chart, those people would be on the bottom of your graph.

But if they put a check in a wrong envelope and it doesn’t get where it’s going, we all look bad.

There is not one job in this building that really is more or less important than another job. We all sink or swim as a team. So when we get these [accolades] I try to celebrate them at work and say, “You guys are all part of this, too.” If our philosophy is sink or swim together, then anything I achieve, they achieve, too.

How do you motivate?

We hire very self-motivated people. I always tell whoever is doing the interviewing to be honest with people. Not everybody can work independently – it’s a style, it’s the way you’re hard-wired. But you have to be honest with people because you don’t want to set them up to fail.

I really haven’t had to motivate [our staff] a lot. They have a lot of personal pride in what they do. That’s probably why we’ve been so successful.

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The ENTREPRENEUR who accelerates innovation

PETER BARTH

20 | WHO’S WHO 2016 |

THE ENTREPRENEUR: PETER BARTH

Peter Barth hadn’t planned on living in Greenville. In fact, he was in the process of moving his family from Boca Raton, Fla., to Charlotte, N.C., 10 years ago when a leisurely stopover here turned his head. Charlotte’s loss has been Greenville’s tremendous gain, as Barth hit the ground running with the NEXT organization.

There he took a lead role in launching the NEXT Innovation Center and eventually the accelerator, through which he has mentored and invested in a number of young tech entrepreneurs.

Through this, Barth recognized a critical need for local software engineering talent in order to keep those startups anchored in Greenville, and five years ago The Iron Yard was born. The Iron Yard trains programmers through a gritty, intensive 12-week vocational training program. Today, it operates in 22 cities around the world, working closely with local employers to build a curriculum relevant to each market.

This string of success earned Peter Barth recognition as The Entrepreneur for the 2016 UBJ Who’s Who Awards. UBJ sat down with him to learn more about how he got to where he is and his vision for the future.

We’ve heard you crossed career paths with the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort. What was that experience like?

I didn’t work directly for Jordan, but if you’ve seen that movie, I worked at the country club where Jordan was a member and got to know him over playing golf. He encouraged me to become a stockbroker, which is the first real job I had. I dropped out of Vanderbilt and became a stockbroker in New York at a firm that Jordan was affiliated with – Jordan wasn’t running it because he was already in trouble. In the movie when the yacht sank, that’s about when I met Jordan.

It was the best sales experience you could ever possibly have. I came in as a cold caller for the firm where I had to make 400 calls a day. So I learned a ton about talking to people and selling things.

Does Greenville have what it takes to keep and attract more companies like The Iron Yard?

That’s specifically why we’re doing what we’re doing [training software engineers], because it was a big challenge I saw with the young tech companies we were investing in through NEXT. It was great when it was five people; then all of a sudden they raise some money and they need to hire 20 people. That becomes really hard to find. It’s been a challenge as we’ve scaled, so we recruit a lot of people from other parts of the country to come here.

Especially for young tech organizations, we don’t have human resource professionals here who have ever employed a tech workforce, and we don’t have marketing or PR people here who have scaled a technology organization. There are plenty of successful salespeople and PR people and marketing people here, but they’ve never done it in the software

world. It is definitely a challenge that we face.

It’s getting easier. If you can get them on the ground in Greenville it sells itself. But getting them to Greenville when they’re considering San Francisco is hard. I think the great thing Greenville has going for it is that the quality of life is amazing and the cost of living is amazing. And Greenville, I think, is doing a really good job of selling itself nationally.

Once a year we fly in 10 or 12 venture capitalists for the weekend around Euphoria, and we try to make it a different group every year, so they get to come and experience and know Greenville. I think that’s really helped in the circles that I run in, so when I go to meet with venture capitalists in San Francisco they know where Greenville is, they’ve heard of it before. It’s been a huge change. It’s helping to be able to recruit, but still a lot of folks we have to recruit from outside.

What opportunities are in front of us right now as relates to your industry?

For the space that we’re in, which broadly is education, there are a lot of challenges, mostly around college debt. I think we’re in the very early stages of a huge shift in education because of the cost and because employers – again, we’re super early in this, but specifically in our industry – are no longer valuing credentials, or at least not near as much. At this point if you go work at a major tech company, they probably don’t care about your college degree; they care about can you do the specific skill.

I think we’ll start to see that in other fields. I think you’re starting to see it in sales and marketing and other fields where things change frequently. That’s the problem with traditional higher ed now. It’s about a four- or five-year cycle to get new a curriculum in the classroom, and we change tools every six months. So the curriculum is not possible to be current in that paradigm.

Which is why Iron Yard works. We teach 12-week classes, we can change out the tooling from one

“

UBJ

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04.29.2016

One of the really great things about Greenville is that sense of community.

That’s something you should take advantage of – because you can’t do that in New York or Atlanta or other big markets. We have some really successful people in town that are approachable.

”

12-week session to the next, and we develop a really tight relationship with the employer who’s telling us what they want to be taught.

I think an interesting thing now is there’s a big [public] swing toward STEM education. Actually most employers that I talk with don’t really value that near what the public dialogue is. They really are interested in the liberal arts degree long-term – it’s a more well-rounded employee – but they want them to have the skills.

I don’t know if we’ll get there, but I kinda hope we get to a model where there’s short-term vocational education – whether it’s 12 weeks like Iron Yard or it’s a yearlong apprenticeship kind of model – and then a longer-term liberal arts kind of education where you’re learning management skills and people skills and those kinds of things as they’re needed, as you’re moving up in the organization. >>

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THE ENTREPRENEUR: PETER BARTH

upstatebusinessjournal.com

| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 21

TITLE: CEO, The Iron Yard AGE: 39 HOMETOWN: Born in Chicago; grew up in New Port Richey, Fla. EDUCATION: Vanderbilt University (dropped out) COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Has served on boards of The South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and The Children’s Museum of the Upstate. Currently is a member of the NEXT Board and a volunteer in the middle school youth group at Brookwood Church.

FAMILY: Wife, Melinda; children, Charles (13) Katherine (10), Rachel (9), Elizabeth (5), and Alexander (4)

“Peter Barth embodies Northwestern Mutual’s message to ‘Live Life Differently.’

He chose the courageous road of the entrepreneur, blending his unique market vision with exceptional business skills and stamina. The result: a company whose growth has been phenomenal and whose future is limitless. We’re proud to sponsor Peter’s award.”

John Tripoli, Managing Director, Northwestern Mutual

>> It’s going to be interesting. There are going to be big huge shifts over the next few years.

What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?

I try to be intentional about spending time with other entrepreneurs in town. On a regular basis I go to lunch or coffee with somebody new who just moved to town or reaches out cold. I was in their shoes 10 years ago, and this is only working for me because Bob Hughes took that meeting with me, or Craig Brown took that meeting – so I try to pay it back in that regard.

One of the really great things about Greenville that other folks starting a business should take advantage of is that sense of community. Most of our community leaders will take that time, if it’s intentional, relevant and you’ve done your background. That’s something you should take advantage of – because you can’t do that in New York or Atlanta or other big markets. We have some really successful people in town who are approachable.

How do you motivate?

I think we’re different from a lot of places in that there’s pretty wide-open space to work in. We try to set a very clear mission and vision of where we’re going on a routine basis, but inside of that you should kind of own [it] like it’s your own business. There’s definitely no micromanagement. We’ve got some clear things we need from your role, but how you get there is totally up to you.

What is your proudest business achievement?

That’s a tough one. I think the thing I am mostly internally proud about is employing people, providing a good place to work and recruiting really talented, fun people to work with.

How do you celebrate success?

We just took one of those five-factor tests. On the emotional scale, I was like a zero. I’m one of those guys where if you just broke something or your car ran through the front window, I don’t tend to get upset

about it because it already happened. We’ve just got to figure out how to go forward. The same thing is true if we just closed a $10 million deal – I don’t really care, because we gotta work on the next one.

I don’t tend to celebrate. I don’t know that that’s good.

The rest of my team was not on that side of the spectrum. But my wife would say, yes, that’s exactly me.

What is your idea of work/life balance?

That’s a good question, because I don’t know that I see a lot of separation, which is interesting. I think that’s probably a big change in the workplace in general. I’m very intentional about being home. I pretty much leave the office at 5 every day. Sometimes it’s 4:30, sometimes it’s 5:30, but I’m not in the office at 7. I just don’t do that. So I’m there when the kids get home, try to be around for all their activities, have dinner together, that kind of thing. But at the same point it’s not like I don’t work after 5. At 3 a.m. last night I was still doing emails, and that’s just normal. So they kind of bleed together. I don’t know if it’s healthy, but it’s what’s worked for me.

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SCANSOURCE

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THE COMPANY: SCANSOURCE

ScanSource was founded in Greenville in 1992 by six partners, five of whom are still helping run the show, though the show is now much bigger.

ScanSource is a leading global provider of specialty technology products – from point-of-sale systems to 3-D technology – with 43 locations throughout North America, South America and Europe, and over 2,100 employees worldwide.

ScanSource remains headquartered in Greenville, with 650 employees making up the local workforce. That number continues to grow as word gets out about the company’s innovative approach to keeping employees happy, healthy and, ultimately, productive.

As ScanSource prepares to mark a quarter century in business, UBJ sat down with CEO Mike Baur to get his take on the successful company he helped build.

How have you managed to maintain your upper-level management team for nearly 25 years, and how has that contributed to ScanSource’s success?

We are very fortunate to have a strong management team leading the company, both in Greenville and across the globe. Our team has been instrumental to the continued growth and success of the company.

Many have been with us since the early days and others came later, but each of them brings a unique perspective to the company and to our employees. The goal is to empower our employees to make decisions and do what is right with our employees, customers, investors and community in mind. Five of our original six employees are still here, including myself, Greg Dixon [CTO], Shari Huffman [Director of Business Operations], Janet Rollins [Sales] and Leah Gangloff [Management Information Systems]. >>

PERSPECTIVES FROM SCANSOURCE LEADERS John Harvey Vice President – Global Human Resources

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The business place has changed. No longer do employees expect to go to work and sit at a desk from 9-5. They want to be able to volunteer, to work out, to visit the wellness clinic, to eat on campus. We’re proud that we have all of that to offer our employees.

”

are dealing with issues and problems that are generally behind the scenes.

That said, company executives who have been positively impacted by the work of our team often will go out of their way to make sure they recognize the team members who have provided assistance to them. We all enjoy a good pat on the back for a job well done. My team is also very fond of baked goods – a great way for all of us to reward ourselves. Even the wellness team loves a good scone.

Christy Thompson Vice President – Global Marketing What is your idea of work-life balance?

How do you motivate?

While I have tried various approaches to motivate my team, I have found that the best method is to constantly communicate with them about what is going on with the business. My team continually tells me that they feel energized when they know that they are one of the keys to the company’s success. Other forms of motivation – such as bonuses – while appreciated, typically only provide a short-term benefit, can be more for recognition than motivation, and can usually only be done on a one-off basis, not across the department.

How have you celebrated success?

In HR we often celebrate our successes amongst ourselves –as a support function, we generally do not seek the limelight, and many of our “victories”

Blake Zemp Chief Information Officer

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Cleveland McBeth Vice President, Global Reseller Financial Services

I don’t really believe in work-life balance. I believe in work-life integration. There are so many demands placed on our time today, particularly for working mothers, that it seems impossible to be all things to all people every day as “work-life balance” might suggest. Some days you may succeed at work at the expense of something at home, other days you may succeed in the community at the expense of something at work. It’s the collective progress over time that helps you grow to become the person you aspire to be.

Learning to accept daily successes and failures as part of the process are all part of achieving a sense of work-life integration. In this “Pinterest world” where perfect is seemingly easy to achieve in every area of life, we have to give ourselves room for imperfection and setbacks, for failures and reflection. We have to do our best, and then be willing to let our best be enough.

Greg Dixon Chief Technology Officer

Mary Gentry Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations

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THE COMPANY: SCANSOURCE

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“For nearly 25 years, ScanSource has been an inspirational model of success for Upstate businesses – doing well in the global marketplace while doing right by its employees here at home. At Century BMW, we applaud success in all its forms, and we’re honored to sponsor the award for this outstanding company.”

Chad Domonoske, General Manager, Century BMW

>> ScanSource has a history of flying under the radar, but seems to be tooting its own horn a bit more lately around recruiting and retaining employees. Why has this become important?

What are some of the methods you’ve employed to attract young talent?

Our concern in sharing more about the company’s involvement in the community was that it would appear to be self-serving, and that was certainly not our intention. In fact, that was one of the main reasons we continued to fly under the radar. But one thing we have continued to learn, specifically related to employee recruitment and retention, is that employees want to work for a company that cares – about its employees and its community.

We have a long history of supporting our communities, through our Foundation and as a company as a whole. Our employees feel good about giving back and they want to be able to talk about it. I would often get asked, “Why is such-and-such a company in the media talking about what they are doing, but we never are?” Our employees are proud of the work they do, and seeing that commitment to service acknowledged has been a good thing for our team. And from a recruitment standpoint, prospective employees want to work for a company that is altruistic.

The business place has changed. No longer do employees expect to go to work and sit at a desk from 9-5. They want to be able to volunteer, to work out, to visit the wellness clinic, to eat on campus. We’re proud that we have all of that to offer our employees.

We want to be the most attractive employer so we can recruit the best and brightest.

Is your involvement with and support of events like iMAGINE Upstate and the Reedy River Run specifically targeted at recruitment?

For us, iMAGINE Upstate and the Reedy River Run focus on two very important issues: education and

wellness. iMAGINE Upstate is committed to sharing information and insight on science, technology, engineering, the arts and math in unique and innovative ways to children. We have long been committed to supporting education initiatives in the communities where we live and work. iMAGINE Upstate was an ideal opportunity for us to do that. We are reaching the future leaders of our company, while also showcasing our technologies in a fun and interactive way. Certainly, as the title sponsor of the festival, we hope that people who don’t currently know much about us might want to know more. But more than that, we hope that we can help to reach young people and get them excited about technology and learning.

As for the Reedy River Run, we have a lot of competitors at ScanSource. Several years ago, we implemented a wellness program that has been very well received, not only in providing opportunities for our employees to improve their health and wellness from a holistic perspective but also to find new outlets for working out and getting healthy.

We will have many employees taking part in the race, as they do in other local races. It’s a great way for our employees to interact together outside of the office, while also taking care of their health.

ScanSource is seen by some as the Google of Greenville, owing to the company’s focus on wellness and work/life balance. What are some of the unique benefits ScanSource employees enjoy? How did this become a company priority?

I like to think ScanSource was a bit ahead of our time when it comes to focusing on work/life balance and wellness. That line has

become blurry for many. It has always been very important for us that our employees take their vacations, spend time with their families and unplug from the business when they can. But when they are in the office, we have always wanted to ensure they had access to workout facilities, as well as an on-site restaurant. Because of that, we have had a gym and café on campus since our very early days. Over the years, we have enhanced both of those. Our bistro provides delicious, healthy meals – breakfast and lunch, including a homestyle buffet. We now have two gyms on campus, personal trainers, boot camps and yoga classes. We have a Wellness Center on-site that provides employees convenient access to health care and prescription delivery. Our wellness team has a comprehensive wellness program in place focusing on improving and enhancing employees’ health in a personalized manner. I am very proud of the steps our team has taken to continue to grow this program. A happy, healthy employee leads to a thriving, successful company.

Congratulations to our client, John Warren of LimaOne Capital, LLC as the winner of the “Closer” category for the annual “Who’s Who” event for 2016

INNOVATIVE LEGAL SOLUTIONS FOR INNOVATIVE COMPANIES Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP offers the strength and resources of attorneys and professional staff with experience in a range of services. Nelson Mullins provides advice in litigation, corporate, economic development, securities, finance, intellectual property, government relations, regulatory, and other business needs of clients ranging from private individuals to large businesses.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP Attorneys & Counselors at Law Poinsett Plaza | Suite 900 104 South Main Street | Greenville, SC 29601 www.nelsonmullins.com | 864.250.2300

Neil Grayson | Bo Russell | John Campbell

The CLOSER who’s commanding

the capital market JOHN WARREN

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THE CLOSER: JOHN WARREN

What does it mean to you to be considered a “closer”?

It’s funny – my wife is known as the closer in the family. She closes a lot of deals, too. [Courtney Warren is risk consultant at Rosenfeld Einstein.]

But to me, being a closer is being able to complete things. A lot of people start really well, but to close, you have to have the complete package – not as an individual but as a company. I think it’s being complete and being able to sell yourself and have the reputation to continue to close.

AGE: 36 TITLE: Founder, CEO, Lima One Capital HOMETOWN: Greenville EDUCATION: B.A. in politics, Washington and Lee University; MBA, Stern School of Business, NYU COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Business Executives for National Security, a nonprofit that brings business solutions to defense problems; assists Marines as they transition to civilian life FAMILY: Wife, Courtney; son, Stevie, 3 months

John Warren was working toward a degree in politics at Washington and Lee University, considering careers in business or law, when 9/11 changed the trajectory of his life. Upon graduating in 2003, he joined the Marine Corps.

“If there hadn’t been a war, I would not have gone into the Marine Corps,” he said.

He was commissioned an infantry officer and given command of 1st Platoon, Lima Company (call sign: Lima One), deploying to Iraq in 2006 for seven months. After a second deployment, he left the Marines as a captain in 2008.

As founder and CEO of Lima One Capital, Warren has found his military experience to be invaluable as his business grows, influencing everything from how he hires to his focus on evolving and innovating. The company, which provides capital in the form of first mortgage loans to residential real estate investors, has grown to 46 employees with plans to double that number over the next year. Lima One reported 175 percent year-over-year loan volume growth in 2015 and revenue grew by160 percent, and, for Warren, that’s just the beginning.

The company is currently looking to expand its office space, is considering rolling out a multifamily commercial loan and just became licensed in California, bringing Lima One into 39 states so far. The growth doesn’t surprise those who know Warren, who, at age 7, went door-to-door offering shoe shines around North Main, charging 50 cents each. Even then, “I had a huge business,” he said, laughing.

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look at the overall investor market, 24 percent of all homes sold each year are sold to real estate investors.

There are 14 million rental homes in the U.S., and it’s a $1.5 trillion market. We serve all of those real estate investors.

After the financial meltdown, with all of the new regulations, traditional lenders were regulated out of non-owner-occupied investor homes. I started lending in 2009, so I got really lucky on the timing.

A lot of closing is probably luck, too.

What niche does Lima One Capital fill?

Your first business venture didn’t go as planned.

How did that inform the creation of Lima One?

We provide first mortgage loans to residential real estate investors, which helps them to either flip a home or to buy long-term rental properties. If you

I was co-founder of a social media platform geared toward college students. We probably made every bad decision you can make as a company. It really >>

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THE CLOSER: JOHN WARREN

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“John is intense and competitive. As an ex-Marine, he is a man of few words. His actions tell his story.

As soon as he closes one deal, he moves on to another.”

John M. Campbell Jr., Partner, Nelson Mullins

>> taught me what you need to do to be successful: how to raise capital, how to have sales channels, what you need from an operational perspective. We had an amazing product, but we didn’t understand the market and the barriers to entry to get into the market, and that was the No. 1 contributing factor to why that venture failed.

Do you look back on that as an experience that got you where you are today?

It was tough at the time. But not only did I learn a lot, I made a lot of contacts who are still advisors and mentors today, so that was a huge benefit. But I wouldn’t want to go through it again.

How has your military experience informed how you run your business?

The military has had the biggest impact for us as a company. One of the biggest lessons that make us different is we do everything for a reason here. That sounds basic, but in Iraq, we had to adapt our tactics, because it’s the ultimate chess match when you’re fighting insurgents. It’s not a linear war or about taking ground. So you’re always changing tactics to outsmart the insurgents, and they counter. Your tactics always evolve. In business, especially the financial services sector, I see businesses do things because it’s industry standard. There is no innovation.

We always try to do things for a reason and make sure it makes sense, and that’s why we’re efficient.

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To me, being a closer is being able to complete things. A lot of people start really well, but to close, you have to have the complete package – not as an individual but as a company.

You’ve said you hire based on the individual and not on his or her experience. Why? In the Marine Corps, you hire based on core values and then you train them. No one really has combat experience before going into the Marine Corps. They share core values with the Marine Corps, and the Marine Corps trains them on industry standards – in that case, combat, war.

In business, if you’ve been an underwriter at four banks, you’ll get hired because they aren’t going to have to train you much – though you might be a terrible underwriter. We look at people based on their core values and competencies, so an underwriter would need to be able to juggle a lot of things, be organized, have great phone skills and be aggressive. I don’t care if they’ve been an underwriter. If they share our core values of honesty, being extremely hardworking, then we want them. We’ll spend more time and money training them. That’s why we have such a high retention rate.

How do you motivate employees?

If you have to motivate an employee, you made a bad hire.

What is your biggest concern about your industry?

The risk in lending is the race to the bottom. Right after the financial crisis, there was a reset, and commonsense standards came back into play. People had to put money down, have decent credit – just basics.

Starting now is a small deterioration of those common-sense lending standards in an effort to gain market share. I would be concerned that lending standards erode and we have somewhat of a repeat of 2008.

How have you celebrated your success?

I had a baby and bought a house. I also try to eat out downtown as much as possible.

What are your thoughts on work-life balance?

I guess I’m lucky because I require less sleep, so I can fit a lot more into my day, both for family and business.

I need about five hours of sleep. I think I have a good balance. My wife is driven as well, and we’re lucky.

We work a lot of hours and are committed to our careers, but our careers offer us flexibility with scheduling, so that helps with family life.

Rumor has it you have political aspirations. True?

I come from a service-oriented family. I risked a lot joining the Marine Corps after 9/11. I love my country and I wanted to fight for it. I think we have a huge leadership problem politically. We have a failure of competence and a failure of values. You compound those two things, and that’s where we are now. A lot of people run who have never been successful in the real world. They go into politics because that’s a way for them to make money or get the most fame. But I think you need to be successful in business before you can run a $3.5 trillion P&L. So I’m committed to Lima One Capital right now. I love being here. But I definitely continue to love my country and I would look for opportunities in the future to serve in elected office.

Helping create custom solutions with people.

www.htijobs.com

Industrial Staffing | Professional Recruiting Logistics Services | Organizational Development

The WILD CARD who’s reshaping

Spartanburg TODD HORNE

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THE WILD CARD: TODD HORNE

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Todd Horne joined Clayton Construction in Spartanburg eight years ago. Since then, the company has been named one of the fastest-growing in the state, with 32 employees and record revenues of $43 million in 2015 – up from about $8 million when Horne joined the team. Horne was brought on board to expand the company’s focus by seeking out clients in the private sector: retail groups, large industrial enterprises, health care and churches.

Horne is also serving as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce – a position he hoped to achieve by age 40 but managed to reach at 33.

“I felt like Spartanburg was ready for somebody young to come in, and if I did things right, I could be that person,” he said.

Along with Chamber president Allen Smith, 34, he is putting a youthful spin on leadership in Spartanburg, and showing potential residents and businesses that it is a city on the rise.

His numerous connections turned out in droves to vote for him via social media to be named the Who’s Who Wild Card, though he was rooting for his friend and fellow nominee Smith. “I think the world of him,” Horne said. “But it’s great for someone from Spartanburg to be recognized.” account management. I loved that job. They supplied me with the tools to go out and sell. They spent money on their staff for training, and it had the family-owned atmosphere I like.

How did you end up living and working in Spartanburg?

My dad was a Methodist pastor, and we moved every four to six years. I went to USC Upstate and planned to transfer to Columbia, but I stayed and never left.

I’ve been in Spartanburg longer than I’ve ever been anywhere in my life. Spartanburg has become home.

When did you know you wanted to go into sales?

AGE: 33 TITLE: Vice president of business development, Clayton Construction Co.; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce HOMETOWN: Born in Columbia, grew up in Greenville EDUCATION: B.A., USC Upstate, Communications COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Has served on the boards of Hub-Bub, Ten at the Top and Spartanburg Young Professionals, among others FAMILY: Wife, Sephanie; children, Harper (3), Holton (1)

I always saw myself doing something like this.

Moving every few years, you always have to meet new people, and I knew I wanted to do something that involved meeting people. It’s fun. People think about sales and it doesn’t always have a positive first impression, but I think of it as meeting new people every week, and if you do that, a lot of the time, things fall into place.

What do you think is the key to success in sales?

It’s not thinking about what’s in it for you necessarily, but thinking about other people and how you can help them. If you take that mentality in sales, things just happen.

What was your first job?

I started with Greenville Office Supply right out of school and worked there for four years in sales and

Why do you prefer family-owned businesses?

I don’t think I’m cut out for the corporate world.

I like smaller, family-owned businesses. I’m a personable guy and I want to know the people I’m working for and have a relationship with them. The Claytons are like my second parents. Everyone who goes to work here, it’s like joining the family.

What achievement are you most proud of?

Serving as chairman of the board of the Spartanburg Chamber at 33 years old is a pretty big deal. It was a personal goal I set for myself to achieve before I turned 40 – I wrote that goal down back in 2011. So Allen and I are running the day-to-day operations of the Chamber, and there is nowhere else in the state where people in their early 30s are doing that.

It shows that Spartanburg is willing to let young folks lead.

Why was it important to you to get involved with the Chamber?

I care for the community. People see Spartanburg as a good-old-boy network or a textile town, but we feel like that’s changing and we want to be part of changing that. We communicate with the leaders in the community who have been around a long time, and we let them know what we’re doing, and they’ve been nothing but supportive. >>

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THE WILD CARD: TODD HORNE

upstatebusinessjournal.com

>> How does your Chamber work affect your work at Clayton?

It correlates with what I do day-to-day – meeting new people. The Clayton family has been so supportive of my community involvement. Not all companies are willing to let staff folks spend 20-plus hours a week doing something like this.

With so many commitments, do you think about work-life balance?

It’s very important to me. I’ve seen a picture of a wheel with family, social, spiritual and work, and you’re supposed to keep an even balance of the four.

I make a conscious effort to do it, even if I’m not perfect at it, by any means. I could be doing something every night, but I want to spend time with my family and put my children to bed, so I do that as much as I can.

How has Spartanburg changed since you arrived for college in 2001?

Spartanburg has seven colleges, which is a lot for a city with 30,000 people, but back then, it didn’t have a lot to offer young people. Now there’s the brewery [Hub City Tap House], which was huge, and the Chapman Cultural Center. We’re about to open the state’s first co-op grocery store [Hub City Co-op], we have the $20 million hotel going in downtown with a rooftop bar [AC Hotel]. It’s been the perfect storm of everything happening at the same time.

People move to places because of the quality of life, and you have to offer those things.

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anymore. People might think a superintendent in construction is digging or doing HVAC, but it’s really project management. So we need to let people know that these are on-site project managers who are managing subcontractors.

“

I don’t think I’m cut out for the corporate world. I like smaller, family-owned businesses.

I’m a personable guy and I want to know the people I’m working for and have a relationship with them.

”

Where do you see yourself in five years? 10 years?

I will definitely stay engaged with the Chamber, so I hope we’ll still be on the front end of community development, moving the community forward and taking that next step. We’ll raise what we have to raise to put this new strategy into place [a five-year plan set to be complete in October], so I hope in five years we’ll have achieved the goals we sought to do and we’ll be developing the next five-year plan.

How does Greenville’s downtown revitalization play into what’s happening in Spartanburg?

Do you try to inspire other young professionals to give back to the community?

Greenville has done a great job, but we don’t want to do similar things to Greenville. We want to be Spartanburg and have our identity. Greenville has done so many great things that have happened in the past 15 years or so, and now Spartanburg is at the start of that. People are starting to say, “I never used to go to downtown Spartanburg, and now I do.”

People have to make that decision for themselves, but people want young people to be engaged in the community. Young people have to get that sweat equity, work hard and show they can take on the leadership roles and take them seriously. There are plenty of avenues to get engaged, but you have to make the most of opportunities presented to you, because they can lead to opportunities and growth.

How has failure affected your career?

Anyone in sales is going to get knocked down and rejected. You’re going to lose a deal you thought you had a good shot at. Harry Clayton told me when I came to work here that this job is full of disappointment. But some will, some won’t, so what, move on.

What is your biggest topic of concern for your industry?

The workforce, especially in the field. The average age of [construction] superintendents is probably mid-50s, and you don’t see young people going into that field. So in five or 10 years, where is our workforce coming from?

What are you doing to address the problem?

It’s just like with industrial jobs. People might look at that as textile work, even though it’s not that

“Todd has been a true innovator in the strategic growth Clayton Homes has experienced. As a fellow ‘Best Place to Work’ and innovator in our industry, HTI is proud of Todd for his community involvement and commitment to growing his company and professional career.”

Herb Dew, CEO, Human Technologies Inc.

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Fostering a walkable environment, Verdae’s vision ranges from corporate headquarters and niche offices to a village square filled with specialty retailers, local restaurants and professional services, all interconnected by pedestrian-friendly streetscapes, a lush central park and abundant greenspace. It’s happening at Verdae.

Garden photo by Promotion Imaging, LLC

Verdae Development 340 Rocky Slope Road, Suite 300 Greenville, SC 29607 (864) 329-9292 • verdae.com

The LEGEND who defines

community involvement MINOR SHAW

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THE LEGEND: MINOR SHAW

For Minor Mickel Shaw, business, economic development and philanthropy are in her DNA. Born in Elberton, Ga., her family moved to Greenville when she was 4 years old. Her father, Buck Mickel, was president of Daniel Construction Company, which later became Fluor Daniel, and was among the early advocates and architects of Greenville’s downtown revitalization. Her mother, Minor Mickel, was active in the Junior League, United Way, the Peace Center and many other organizations. Growing up, Shaw took note as her parents worked to improve their town.

Shaw earned a history degree, but when an aptitude test showed skills in time management and cost accounting, she took a job at Citizens & Southern (C&S) National Bank in Atlanta. “It was an analytical job, and it was fun,” she said. “You could figure out how to save money by doing something better. I was basically an efficiency expert.” She still draws on those skills to look at the big picture in her philanthropic and business pursuits, “pulling the parts together and then trying to connect the dots.”

After she married Dr. Harold Shaw, now an ophthalmologist at Jervey Eye Group, the couple lived in Charleston, Houston and Miami before returning to Greenville in 1979. She was focused on raising her three children, but became involved with the Junior League, the United Way and other organizations. Before long, she had helped launch the Roper Mountain Science Center, Ronald McDonald House and the Governor’s School for the Arts, and had played key roles in everything from the Greenville Spartanburg Airport Commission to the RiverPlace development.

“I like being involved,” she said. “That’s something my two brothers and I were taught: When you live somewhere, you need to try to give back and make it better. That was always ingrained in me. And if you do try to give back, it certainly makes your life a fuller life. You get more out of it than you give.”

How do you stay so closely involved with so many different organizations?

A lot of them intermingle, and my knowledge of one can help me with the others. My relationships and my involvement with the Hollingsworth Funds and the Daniel-Mickel Foundation helped me network with organizations and opportunities that have opened doors with the Duke Endowment, or with BlueCross BlueShield Foundation.

What drives your desire to be involved in so many projects?

My family was always involved. My dad and mom were always very involved, and we would sit around the dinner table talking about business. I was always aware of community development, because my dad was so involved in that, and we talked about these things. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my parents.

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Did you always want to focus on community development?

Community development and economic development have always been interesting to me. The whole family was involved in that. Growing up, I was a Brownie and a Girl Scout, and I first got involved in giving back to the community that way.

Because your family has a history of involvement in Greenville, do you feel a sense of responsibility to the community? And do you find it difficult to say no to community projects?

I do feel a sense of responsibility, but I am interested in a lot of different things: education, the arts, human services, economic and community development. And a lot of that overlaps. One thing leads to another. I do say no sometimes, but that’s what I grew up with, wanting to help. Not just what I grew up with but really my makeup – I’ve always enjoyed it and felt compelled to give back. I can’t really explain it.

When you moved back to Greenville in 1979, what did you get involved with first?

I got involved in the S.C. Children’s Theater when we first moved back, and now I’m co-chairing their capital campaign. It was something for my two girls to do when they were young. And then I got involved in the Junior League, which I had been involved with in Charleston and Atlanta. I was president of the Junior League and that opened doors for me at Roper Mountain Science Center. We were involved in that from the beginning.

The Junior League helped train me well, and does a great job of training women in leadership skills, managing time, running meetings, organizational skills. It helped me get very involved in a lot of things.

And it was one of the first organizations, back in the ’80s, to relocate to downtown Greenville when the revitalization was going on.

Did your knowledge of business, from Daniel Construction and your work with C&S, help you in your philanthropic work?

Early on, I also got involved with the United Way, and from that I learned more specifics about the community and what it takes to run a good organization – the analytics of nonprofits. I was on the budget review panel, and that was at the detail business level. The job at the bank really has helped, because it combined looking at the big picture and winnowing down to details, and then also looking at the details to develop the big picture. Analytical skills really help you learn to run things more efficiently and leverage resources.

Who do you consider your mentors?

My mom and dad, along with Tommy Wyche and Roger Milliken. Hugh Chapman opened the doors for me to become a trustee for the Duke Endowment, and that’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve done because it puts resources back in the Carolinas >>

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THE LEGEND: MINOR SHAW

upstatebusinessjournal.com

>> and works across the entire state. It has such an impact.

How did you become involved with the Airport Commission?

About 17 years ago, Roger Milliken approached me about putting my name in the hat for a seat. I had known him since I was a teenager through Daniel Construction, which did work for Milliken. I was really way out of my comfort zone, but I didn’t want to tell him no. My great uncle Charlie Daniel had been a primary mover in getting the airport built in 1962, and my dad was very involved, so it was carrying on a tradition. The legislative delegation votes on you, and I won the seat. It was totally different from anything I’d ever done, but it’s been fun and really interesting.

Tell us about the latest updates there.

We had to update, and we considered a new terminal, but it was much more financially feasible and effective to remodel the terminal we have. The architecture is extraordinary, and we updated that and updated security, processing, baggage, ticket counters, everything. We’re positioned for growth, and this will serve us for a long time. We know people

“

When you live somewhere, you need to try to give back and make it better. That was always ingrained in me. And if you do try to give back, it certainly makes your life a fuller life. You get more out of it than you give.

”

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would like more direct flights, and we are always working on that, though a lot of that is dependent on the airlines. Everything, including the garden, will be done by the end of October.

What do you think about Greenville’s transformation over the past 10-15 years?

I have a good perspective on that since my dad was so involved and I grew up with it. It is far superior to what I envisioned. RiverPlace has followed the vision of what we hoped, but it has far exceeded our vision.

It was difficult in the beginning, when they reduced Main Street from four lanes to two and added the trees. These were important decisions at the time. It has taken off beautifully, but you can never rest on your laurels or stop working to move forward.

You have been involved with so many successful projects. Did you ever have a project fail, or that you thought would fail?

Even when something is successful, anything you’re involved in has ups and downs. That’s true for business and for nonprofits, and also life. You have to realize it’s not a straight line but has many detours.

And you have to be willing to step out of your comfort THE LEGEND continued on PAGE 38

AGE: 68 HOMETOWN: Born in Elberton, Ga.; grew up in Greenville; moved back in 1979 EDUCATION: B.A., history, The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill KEY POSITIONS: Chair, Daniel-Mickel Foundation; President, Micco LLC; Chair, Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission; Trustee, the Duke Endowment; Trustee, The Hollingsworth Funds; board member, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina; Board of Advisors, The South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities FAMILY: Husband, Dr. Harold Shaw, three children, nine grandchildren

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UBJ

THE LEGEND: MINOR SHAW

COMMUNITY INFLUENCERS CONGRATULATIONS WHO’S WHO 2016

Colliers International celebrates and congratulates UBJ’s Who’s Who 2016 award winners.

At Colliers, we recognize that becoming a community influencer requires hard-work and dedication. It means becoming an expert in your industry and finding opportunities in even the toughest challenges. It’s that kind of tenacity that inspires our commitment to accelerating the success of our clients and our communities.

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04.29.2016

“We congratulate Minor not only on this award, but on her countless valuable contributions to this community. At United Community Bank, we want to help make our communities better places to live. Minor has devoted her life to making this goal come to fruition, and it is our honor to present this year’s Legend award to such an inspiring leader in this community.”

Lynn Harton, President and Chief Operating Officer, United Community Bank

THE LEGEND continued from PAGE 37

zone and do things you might not feel qualified to do. The Airport Commission is a good example, and the Governor’s School is another. It was “build it and hope they come,” and they did.

What’s your take on work-life balance?

colliers.com/southcarolina +1 864 297 4950

|

It’s hard. I’m involved with some boards that involve travel. I need to do a better job of work-life balance, but I wasn’t always this busy. I’ve always been involved, but my investment work (through Micco LLC) is flexible. I didn’t travel so much when the kids were growing up. It’s interesting: I got a lot busier once my children got older. Now I want to be home a bit more for my grandchildren, and eventually I will.

But I’m still working on balance – I do the best I can.

What do you do when you aren’t working?

I like to read and I also enjoy walking and hiking. I enjoy being with my

family very much. We have nine grandchildren and it is really fun to be with them.

What issue is most pressing for Greenville?

You can’t just focus on one. In Greenville right now, we have the issue of increasing the graduation rate and making sure young people have the opportunity to further their education.

A better-educated population is certainly important.

Because of all of the growth, we really do need more affordable and workforce housing. We need to bring the community together, developers, the city and county and organizations, and get on top of it. A lot of people have worked on this for a long time, but now we need to have a plan and execute that plan. Along with the growth we’re seeing downtown, we need to make sure we grow the right way and that we make sure we continue to have the community that we’re so proud of.

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WORDS OF WISDOM

upstatebusinessjournal.com

Wisdom to live by Honest—and sometimes surprising— words of advice have guided the success of the Who’s Who winners.

Never be afraid to take a chance.

“We have this huge client that bought out one of our larger clients. We pitched them, and they are what kind of skyrocketed us to where we are. If we had sat and analyzed – how would we do it, what if we couldn’t do it, what if we pitch it and we can’t handle it – if we hadn’t taken that leap I don’t think we’d be where we are today. My dad was very entrepreneurial, but he came from a different generation and was very cautious. So cautious that once he got older and realized how much he could do and what he was worth, it was kind of late in his career. Don’t be afraid. Don’t overthink it.”

Pamela Evette

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Always give back. Keep moving forward.

“Always give back, live by the Golden Rule, and always do what you say you’ll do and follow through.”

Minor Shaw

“I like the Rocky Balboa quote, ‘It’s not about how hard you’re hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.’ I’m a big Rocky fan. He’s the guy no one thought would win, but he did.”

Todd Horne

Solve a real problem.

Look for the winwin.

“The wisdom I live by is to generally be solving a real problem. I think in everything I do I try to find those win-win scenarios – is there a way you can do it and create a healthy company by fixing a real problem versus selling something that already exists?”

“Structure deals in a win-win situation.

If you do a deal that is really good for both parties, it’s a longterm win. I see too many people make really good immediate deals but it upsets the other party. They have to agree on it, but it ruins the relationship.”

Peter Barth

John Warren

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

“The simplest piece of wisdom is the Golden Rule. It applies to business and personal relationships, and it’s such an easy thing to fall back on in any difficult situation – how would l want the person across the table to treat me?”

Eat the big frog first.

“This is the advice I give to every new employee at ScanSource during their orientation: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Just because you can’t doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Just because you failed the first time, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again. Every new idea is a good idea (but before you tell your boss about it, do the math). It’s easy to be a character. It’s hard to have character. If you have to eat a frog, don’t look at him too long. If you have to eat two frogs, eat the big one first.”

Robert Hughes III

Our community is our first priority.

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INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

The Who’s Who Bookshelf For inspiration, motivation and stimulation, the Who’s Who winners reach for these volumes.

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John Warren “My favorite is ‘All the Devils Are Here'

by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera. It’s about how the whole financial crisis came about, like ‘The Big Short’ but more detailed and in-depth.

I recently read ‘The First Tycoon' by T.J. Stiles.

I use Audible, and this one was 28 hours long.

It was great, though. It was about Cornelius Vanderbilt, who really innovated two industries: steamboats and railroads. Next up is ‘The Boys in the Boat' by Daniel James Brown. I also enjoyed ‘Fields of Fire' by James Webb.”

Robert Hughes III

Minor Shaw

Peter Barth

“I recently read ‘Turn

the Ship Around: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders' by L. David Marquet.

“I recently read ‘The Japanese Lover'

by Isabel Allende and ‘The Nightingale'

by Kristin Hannah. I really can’t pick one

Most of the reading on my bedside table is leases. But Matthew Smith, who runs CoWork Greenville, recommended this and it was a very interesting read. A favorite is

“I read a lot, almost all science fiction and fantasy. The most recent book I read was ‘Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline.

I really like a book called ‘Daemon' by Daniel Suarez, but it’s hard to pick one favorite.”

Cleveland McBeth,

‘Good To Great: Why SomeCompanies Make the Leap... and Others Don't'

by Jim Collins. That’s one I go back to and think about a lot.”

Todd Horne “My favorite book is ‘The Go-Giver' by Bob Burg and John David Mann. I feel like it’s the way I want to live my life and pursue business, always focusing on the other person and what you can do to help them. I recently read

‘Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia' by David Cook.

I don’t get to read or golf much, but this was great.”

favorite book – there are so many.”

Vice President, Global Reseller Financial Services, ScanSource “My bookshelf primarily consists of books relating to financial and credit matters, effective management styles, leadership and travel.

One of my favorite books is ‘The Decision Maker' by Dennis Bakke, as it is an excellent illustration of the effectiveness of delegation.

The last book I read was ‘Good To Great:

Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't' by Jim Collins.”

Pamela Evette “I don’t read a ton of business-related books.

I’m a CPA by trade so I take care of a lot of the tax and compliance stuff, and I read so much content all day long. So when people say ‘What do you read on the beach?’ – I read romance novels. I go completely to the other side because I just want that mindless reading that doesn’t have anything to do with trying to figure something out. I’m finding now that I also really like political history books.

Right now I’m reading ‘Killing Patton'

by Bill O’Reilly.”

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INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 41

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POWER PLACES

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Minor Mickel Shaw

Power Places

5

Court Street downtown Greenville “My brother Charlie and I have offices here, and it’s our philanthropic center where we have our meetings.”

Keep your eyes open for Who’s Who at these spots – and you might just overhear the Upstate’s next game-changing conversations.

Peter Barth

6

Methodical Coffee 101 N. Main St., Greenville

Todd Horne The Coffee Bar 188 Main St., Spartanburg

1

“It has a great atmosphere and if you go in there, you’ll see everyone. In Greenville, I meet people at Coffee Underground.”

Blake Zemp, Global Chief Information Officer, ScanSource Rick Erwin's West End Grille 648 S. Main St., Greenville “I like Rick Erwin’s for an after-work conversation or casual meeting.”

2

John Warren Del Frisco's 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York City

3

“When I’m not at my office, or I go to New York a lot. The spot there where everyone talks hardcore finance is Del Frisco’s in Midtown. A lot of deals are closed at Del Frisco’s, or at least celebrated.”

Robert Hughes III

4

Soby's 207 S. Main St., Greenville “Most of our meetings are in our office, but I’d say the Soby’s bar after work.”

“I meet at Methodical pretty often. For lunch I tend to meet at Barley’s or Trappe Door. I’m not a coffee drinker, so I don’t usually end up at any of the coffee places that are only coffee.”

Pamela Evette

7

Everywhere “I think any place is a great opportunity to tell your story if there’s somebody there who really wants to hear it. I can kind of talk to anybody and everybody. I’ve started conversations with people in a restaurant, and then you find out they have a business and the next thing you know you have a call scheduled and you’re exchanging business cards on a Saturday night when you didn’t expect to be talking business at all.”

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POWER PLACES

upstatebusinessjournal.com

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| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 43

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WHAT ’S NEXT?

THE BEST OFFSITE MEETINGS HAPPEN WITH HOTDOGS.

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Next steps The Who’s Who winners take a look ahead at the opportunities, concerns and excitements in their fields, and how they personally plan to get involved.

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Minor Shaw

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“I do hope to be involved with the discussions around workforce housing in our community, individually or through my work with the Hollingsworth Funds. I think we are at a critical point with this discussion and we have the opportunity to make a real difference. Our growth must be the right kind of growth, strategically planned. And we must be sure that all of the citizens in our community have the opportunity to succeed and have a good quality of life.”

Robert Hughes III “I think how technology influences real estate and how people use their real estate is definitely changing, and will change how we develop real estate going forward. Things like driverless cars, or even Uber – it has an impact on parking revenue and demand. That’s a big component of any real estate development.

Technology also allows for fewer desks in offices, or fewer square feet for less stock in retail. So we just keep up with what’s coming and try to build as much flexibility as you can into your development model so you are prepared for when those trends come.”

Mike Ferney, President, Worldwide Communications and Services, ScanSource “One of the big issues facing our industry, like many others, is consolidation.

That is, we are seeing our customers and vendors buy each other, resulting in fewer players, but making those that remain larger. This creates both opportunities and threats, as leadership teams change, and partner programs change.

It makes me, personally, want to spend more time with my top customers and vendors, to strengthen our relationships, and find more opportunities to drive growth together. Never underestimate the importance of personal relationships.”

Pamela Evette

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“Government regulation always is a concern. What other regulations will the government impose on employers that will make it harder for them to grow?

With ACA [Affordable Care Act], for example, that put a huge burden on people.

It’s just trying to find a good balance and trying to make sure that as a national group [National Association of Professional Employer Organizations] we champion for our clients and make representatives and senators and house leaders aware of what they’re doing on a business level. As a PEO we connect with a ton of businesses – we have hundreds and hundreds of clients, and we feel the impact, from small to medium to large.”

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WHAT ’S NEXT?

upstatebusinessjournal.com

| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 45

Peter Barth

“For the education space, there are a lot of challenges, mostly around college debt. I think we’re in the very early stages of a huge shift in education because … at this point if you go work at a major tech company, they probably don’t care about your college degree, they care about if you can do the specific skill. I think you’re starting to see that in sales and marketing and other fields where things change frequently. Which is why Iron Yard works. We can change out the tooling from one 12-week session to the next, and we develop a really tight relationship with the employer who’s telling us what they want to be taught.”

Congratulations to our Who’s Who “One to Watch”

JON GOOD NAI Earle Furman CEO and Broker-in-Charge

John Warren

“We have a tremendous opportunity to really build what we call the Rental30 product and have a billion dollars under assets within two years. We have a revolutionary product, we’ve beaten the market out there, and it’s a huge market.

And we have amazing capital providers that enable us to originate as much as we can originate.

3 Upstate Offices 48 Brokers 600 Deals in 2015

Todd Horne

“On the [Spartanburg] Chamber side, we’re in the early stages of creating a five-year community and economic development vision, which is something we’ve needed for a while. That will wrap up in the fall. Fifty-two community leaders are helping to draft that plan. On the Clayton [Construction Co.] side, I’m excited about our team and the growth we’ve experienced over the past few years. The growth is planned and strategic, and the construction industry is doing well, so it’s exciting to see the activity. We could grow as big as we wanted to right now, but we have to make sure we do it the right way.”

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MORNING ROUTINES

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Rise & Shine You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to match the a.m. routines of our Who’s Who winners.

Todd Horne “I get up at 5 every morning and work out with the men’s workout group F3.

It stands for fitness, fellowship and faith. Then I go home, get ready, get the kids’ lunches, wake them up and get them ready. My wife’s a teacher and out the door at 7, so I’m on kid duty and I drop them off. Then every morning, I have coffee with someone. It might be community-driven or business-driven – I’m always open to meet. I schedule it about three weeks out.”

Peter Barth “I’m not one of those people who’s in a very structured routine – every day is different.”

Pamela Evette WORLD-CLASS LAWYERS

“My morning routine is getting my kids up, getting them out, getting them fed, taking them to school. What I do enjoy in the morning is that quiet 15- to 20-minute ride between dropping off my youngest one and getting to the office, where I can mentally go through my head and start to prioritize my day – what I need to do, who I have to talk to, meetings I need to be at.”

DEEP local ROOTS

John Warren

“I wake up every day at 4 a.m., work for four hours, work out at the Life Center and then get to the office by 10. I get a lot done in those four hours.”

Blake Zemp, Global Chief Information Officer, ScanSource “My wife and I get up at 4:45 a.m. and either run 5 miles or do Pilates for 30 minutes. We then wake our two boys and get them ready for school, leaving the house just after 7 a.m.”

V I S I T our W E B S I T E W W W.W Y C H E . C O M

Robert Hughes III “There is no standard morning. It’s either up early and to the gym, up early to a meeting or up early to Columbia. It’s always up early.”

Minor Shaw “I get up at 6 or 6:30, have coffee, read the paper and have the news on.

I enjoy doing that, and I also like to get organized, and get everything ready for the day.”

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FIRST AMBITIONS / FIRST JOBS

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First Ambitions

First Jobs

What did the Who’s Who class of 2016 want to be when they grew up?

How did the Who’s Who winners’ young ambitions match up to their first paying gigs?

John Warren “I wanted to be an attorney like my father – and he strongly encouraged me not to do it, for which I will forever be grateful. I’m a strategic thinker, not detail-oriented, so it would not have been a good fit for me.”

“I was a neighborhood shoeshine boy. I’d take my dad’s shoeshine kit and go door-to-door, asking people on North Main if they wanted a shoe shine.

I’d charge them 50 cents. I was probably 7 or 8.”

Todd Horne “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a car salesman. A close friend’s dad owned a car dealership, and I thought he was the coolest. He drove new cars all of the time.”

“I started with Greenville Office Supply right out of school and worked there for four years in sales and account management. I loved that job.

They supplied me with the tools to go out and sell. They spent money on their staff for training, and it had the family-owned atmosphere I like.”

Minor Shaw “I knew community work would be fulfilling. I also considered international relations, law and politics. I realized I didn’t want to run for anything, and I’m better off being able to help make things happen in other ways.

“I worked at C&S Bank in Georgia after college. We took these aptitude tests and one area I qualified in was cost accounting. It was an analytical job and it was fun. You could figure out how much money to save by doing something better.”

Pamela Evette “I just knew I wanted to work for myself. When I was young, my dad said, ‘Whatever you want to be, picture that in your mind, and then that’s what all the decisions you make in life will be aiming towards,’ and that’s what I’ve always done. And I always knew I was a little OCD and I liked numbers and things that would work out and things that made sense to me, and so I became an accountant.

“I worked at Dairy Queen. I loved that job. I say all the time when I retire I’m going to open up one of those walk-up Dairy Queens on the beach and just hang out there. I love old people, I love little kids – that would be my complete clientele.”

Robert Hughes III “I had no clue what I wanted to do. I was interested in a lot of things, and I remain interested in a lot of things.”

“I worked at a hardware and bait shop on Pawleys Island one summer.

I remember that summer I also worked in a movie store that had tanning beds I had to clean.”

Mary Gentry, Vice President Treasury, ScanSource “I wanted to be an FBI agent when I was young. I remember collecting my classmates’ fingerprints for a fifth-grade project on the Bureau; it was interesting to see how respectfully my friends treated me once I had their prints.”

“My first job continued a law enforcement focus. I was a flagger for the Ohio Department of Transportation, controlling one of those two-sided Stop/Slow signs. Once I figured out that as an FBI agent I would have to carry a gun, I abandoned that aspiration, went into finance, and now have my true dream job working at ScanSource.”

Peter Barth “Honestly, I wasn’t one of those kids that wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer.

I was really into sports. My dad was a pastor – which is interesting because a pastor is very entrepreneurial, so we m oved every couple of years and started a new church, which is constantly starting a business essentially. I knew I didn’t want to preach, but I liked the other stuff, the starting of the thing. But I never would have told you I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I probably in pipe dreams wanted to be a basketball player – a 5-foot, 10-inch white guy.”

“The first thing I ever did was work part-time for Chick-fil-A in high school.”

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IN A WORD

| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 49

In a word We asked the Who’s Who winners: What is the one word that best describes you?

Resilient.

Christy Thompson, Vice President, Global Marketing, ScanSource

Interested.

Robert Hughes III

Let us tell your story.

Positive.

Todd Horne

Driven.

Peter Barth

Empathetic.

Minor Mickel Shaw

Perseverance.

John Warren

Fun. Pamela Evette

28 Global Dr., Suite 107, Greenville 864.991.9012 | carolinazoom.com

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ONES TO WATCH

Ones to Watch The judge’s panel was able to choose only a handful of winners from the nearly 150 nominees (see the full list on page 52). Here are 27 more who have made considerable contributions to the Upstate—and whose work in the future will be well worth keeping an eye on.

INDIVIDUALS: Mario Brown Realtor, Eastwood Homes; BuildGREENville “What sets me apart is my desire to promote the industry,” Brown says. “I saw a huge disconnect between the construction and homebuilding industries and millennial homebuyers.” Brown set out to forge that gap through social media integration and content-driven marketing. His website, buildgreenville.com, is a hyperlocal site focused on new construction and green building and averages 6,000 unique visitors per month.

Jon-Michial Cartier Co-Founder and CEO, ChartSpan Medical Technologies ChartSpan, a mobile consumer health platform for patients, is the No. 1 most downloaded medical app in the U.S., with 200,000 downloads. It has been named one of the Top 10 most innovative health care companies in the U.S. And Cartier now plans to stake a claim in downtown Greenville with a 100,000-square-foot space and 300 new jobs. “It was a love affair between ChartSpan and the leaders of Greenville,” he says. “And we can’t wait to give back to them.”

Scott Dobson Co-Owner and Pediatrician, Parkside Pediatrics Dobson co-created Parkside Pediatrics in 2006, and grew it from four employees to 150 today. He aimed to create a more personalized customer service approach to health care. “We are creating this umbrella

company that provides administration for health care providers, along with a consistent culture,” Dobson said. “We’re planning to offer another choice for medical care that’s not a huge corporation.”

Zach Eikenberry Founding CEO, NEXT High School Eikenberry committed himself to building the most innovative school in the Southeast right here in Greenville. With the opening last year of NEXT High School in its brick-and-mortar location on Wade Hampton Boulevard, his vision is now reality and continuing to grow.

NEXT is powered by the business and entrepreneurial community and seeks to empower high school students to begin their life, business and impact today, instead of when they graduate college.

Jon Good CEO and Broker-in-Charge, NAI Earle Furman

the firm. Coworkers and clients have said Halter is honest, fair and reasonable. He says professionalism and customer service are the cornerstones of the business.

Lacey Hennessey Account Executive, Crawford Strategy Through her role with Crawford Strategy, Hennessey works directly with business owners and those in leadership positions to help the business community become more collaborative and join forces over common interests. Her impact on the events she runs is mostly behind the scenes, but between the many public and private events she has planned, managed and executed, she has helped host thousands of guests and participants.

Kurt Herwald President, Tech-24

When Good was named president of the firm at 36, real estate was struggling under the recession and the older partners saw Jon’s generation as the key to keeping Earle Furman on the cutting edge of the industry. He became broker-in-charge in 2014, and led the relocation of the Anderson office and doubled the size of its staff.

He also led the merger of NAI Earle Furman and Orion Properties, forming the firm’s first official Spartanburg location.

Herwald, a certified turnaround professional who has won several Turnaround of the Year awards, worked on a financial turnaround at Commercial Foodservice Repair beginning in 2004, and became owner in 2009. The company had been focused on internal growth and operations, and he started looking at acquisitions. “I wanted us to grow faster than we could organically,” he said. In 2014, he oversaw a merger with Tech-24, and completed acquisition of Service Solutions Group.

Brad Halter

Shay Houser

Chairman, The Caine Company

Founder and CEO, Green Cloud Technologies

Halter is responsible for the strategic direction of the company and leads community outreach and business development initiatives for

From the very beginning, Green Cloud has been an employee-owned company. Every employee is a

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04.29.2016

shareholder and has a stake in the business. Employees choose to work there not for the salary, but rather for the long-term value creation each employee is building. Shay Houser is building a legacy as a serial entrepreneur providing tremendous opportunities to those employees who choose to build companies with him.

Rob Howell Principal, Avison Young While it may seem contrary to his job as a real estate broker, Howell is a strong advocate for land preservation, expansion of public greenspace, and development of robust bike and pedestrian transportation alternatives for the region. He sees it as his responsibility to help Greenville develop in a thoughtful way, and to help protect special areas that add to the quality of life and appeal of the Upstate, such as Paris Mountain State Park and the Mountain Bridge Wilderness areas.

Seabrook Marchant Founder, The Marchant Company Marchant genuinely cares about people. He is invested in the success of the people who work for him, and has a sense of compassion for the needs of the community his company serves. “Twenty years from now I hope to look back and see we’ve left a reputation of being a company that is trustworthy and reputable – that we did things the right way,” he says.

Allison McGarity President and CEO, Simpsonville Area Chamber of Commerce The Simpsonville Area Chamber of Commerce is the lead business organization that promotes the Simpsonville area and the local business community. It is comprised of businesses and individuals who band together to advance the commercial, financial, industrial and civic interests of the community. The Chamber fosters programs, events and initiatives designed to create more business, better living conditions, and a more attractive and desirable community in which to live, work and visit. >>

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ONES TO WATCH

upstatebusinessjournal.com

>> John Moore President and CEO, NEXT 2015 was a watershed year for NEXT as the organization “added major new elements to the region’s entrepreneur ecosystem, saw a continued dramatic rise in the number of startup ventures engaging with us and created a new entity, NEXT LLC,” which is an affiliate of the Greenville Chamber, Moore says. “So our growth was not only in numbers of companies being supported and breadth of support services and facilities provided, but we also grew in terms of maturation of the NEXT effort itself which should provide for greater impact and sustainability long term.”

Josh Morris Assistant Vice President and Division Director, Robert Half Technology Morris is a rising business and civic leader who helps to lead growth in his community as well as driving programs like the Red Shoe Society.

In his work with Robert Half, he is responsible for establishing relationships with local technology decision makers. He has consistently surpassed revenue expectations. He has always valued volunteering, beginning with the YMCA’s Camp Greenville while he was still in college.

Grier Mullins Executive Director, Public Education Partners of Greenville County Public Education Partners is a local education fund dedicated to improving student achievement in Greenville County public schools.

The group collaborates with the community, educators and elected officials to craft initiatives, celebrate progress and address challenges.

They currently focus their effort on quality teaching, early grades reading success and public policy.

Chad Odom CEO, Encore Container The Greenville native grew up working afternoons and weekends at The Pickwick, the historic Greenville pharmacy that has been in his family for three generations.

He and his brothers purchased the

pharmacy from their father in 2007.

Today Encore Container is a leading manufacturer and reconditioner of industrial containers headquartered in Greenville, and is the only company in the industry that offers container manufacturing and reconditioning under one roof.

the Yeah, That Greenville campaign for VisitGreenvilleSC that led to thousands of user-generated images on social media using the hashtag.

Krish Patel

Smith was named president and CEO of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce in June 2014. Prior to that he served as president and CEO of the Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce for four years, preceded by five years with the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina. He graduated from East Carolina University in 2003, earning a B.S. in Political Science and Government.

President and CEO, Wireless Communications In 2015, around the time of his 30th birthday, Patel negotiated the sale of roughly 20 of the Wireless Communications-operated Verizon retail locations in South Carolina (approximately 10 of which are located in the Upstate) to one of the largest Verizon Premium Retailer operators in the U.S. Following the streamlining of his retail holdings, Patel partnered with William Timmons to launch Soul Yoga Studio off the Swamp Rabbit Trail, and the two are currently working on a proposed cafe/event venue.

Beth Paul General Manager, Bon Secours Wellness Arena Last year, Paul was appointed General Manager of the Bon Secours Wellness Arena after more than nine years as its assistant general manager and director of finance. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to lead this great organization. I look forward to contributing to the expansion of event programming and continuing to work with the dedicated arena staff to provide exciting entertainment options and excellent customer service,” Paul says.

Allen Smith President, Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce

Jim Sobeck President and CEO, New South Construction Supply New South has grown from one location in Columbia to nine branches. Sobeck led an investment group that bought the company in 2001. He helped unveil the new slogan, “Know how. Can do” to make clear that the associates at the company can offer expert advice and have a can-do attitude. New South was featured on the cover of Contractor Supply magazine because of the company’s business practices. “We’ve been featured in many other trade magazines for our business practices and embrace of IT,” Sobeck says.

Wade Wallace President, Tietex International

Robbin Phillips Co-Founder and President, Brains on Fire Brains on Fire is committed to the belief that marketing has the power to touch lives. Phillips blends the creativity of a designer with the keen business sense to facilitate strategy.

They strive to deliver innovative, impactful solutions that elevate and celebrate a diverse range of clients, including Anytime Fitness, Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, BMW, Perception Kayaks, Ryobi Tools and Best Buy. They assisted in

During his time as president and COO of the world’s largest producer of Stitchbond fabrics, Wade has worked hard to cultivate a diverse, innovative workforce and to make the company a world-class manufacturing operation. He also works to dispel the notion that his industry is mired in an old way of thinking.

“There is no reason we can’t be just as innovative and forward thinking as any other industry,” he says, noting that very few textile companies are led by young people such as himself.

| WHO’S WHO 2016 | 51

Phil Yanov Executive Producer, Tech After Five Most networking events “are terrible,” says Yanov. “You have the wrong people bumping into each other not making the right things happen. They can’t; the recipe is wrong.” Yanov’s recipe involves asking attendees “What is it you’re looking for tonight?” and adding that information to the name tags.

“Look, you can come hang out with us, but you’re going to have to tell us what you want,” he says.

COMPANIES: Boyd Cycling Boyd Cycling is a high-performance, high-tech bicycle wheel manufacturer that designs and engineers products in the United States and is beginning to bring all manufacturing to the Upstate. Devoted to “the handcrafted revolution,” the company produces carbon and alloy bicycle wheels.

Creative Builders Founded in 1971 by William H. “Billy” McCauley II, Creative Builders “has committed to consistently deliver hands-on, quality-conscious work at a reasonable cost.”

Today, Creative Builders is one of the fastest-growing commercial builders in the region.

Condrey Corp.

Condrey Corporation software is employed by millions of users in over 30 countries around the world. Its customers represent major commercial and Fortune 1000 organizations, as well as a wide range of vertical markets such as government, military, financial, health care, K-12 and higher education.

RealOp Investments RealOp Investments is a commercial real estate investment firm focused on acquiring value-add and opportunistic properties in the Southeast. The company is “committed to building long-term relationships with our investors and assisting them in creating and sustaining wealth through strategic real estate investments.”

52 | WHO’S WHO 2016 |

UBJ

THE NOMINEES

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04.29.2016

Who’s Who 2016 Nominees

Presented by

Nearly 150 names were put forward for consideration by the Who’s Who panel, a worthy representation of the talent at work in the Upstate. Thanks to the nominees and those who nominated them – keep up the good work.

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George Acker James Akers Fritzi Barbour Bobby Barreto Peter Barth Mike Baur John Bearden George Bell Brad Benjamin George Biediger Keith Boling John Boyanoski Brittney Brackett Holly Bridwell Benjamin Brown Craig Brown Julie Godshall Brown Mario Brown Creative Builders Randy Bunch Joey Burton Jon-Michial Carter Michael Cinquemani Merle Code Kelly Collacioppo Mark Combs Leighton Cubbage Derek Davis Zack Devier Greg Dixon Scott Dobson Sean Dogan Gordon Early Dave Edwards Johnny Edwards Zach Eikenberry Mark Ells Amy Emery Olivia Esquivel Pamela Evette Wake Fickey Stacey Flax Earle Furman Michelle Gaillard David Glenn Jon Good Trevor Gordon Brad Halter Sean Hartness

Jared Hartzell Ryan Heafy Jim Heard Lacey Hennessey Kurt Herwald Zach Hines Todd Horne Shay Houser Bob Howard Rob Howell Harold Hughes Robert Hughes Rob Jackman Eric Jarinko Hayes Johnson Tammy Johnson Danny Joyner Lee Kester Sam Konduros Stacy Kuper Sergio Loaiza Neville Lockwood Anne Marie Maertens Seabrook Marchant Ivan Mathena Mike McBride Phil McCreight Allison McGarity Deborah McKetty Clark Mickel Bill Mitchell John Moore Josh Morris Allyn Moseley Ben Moseley James Moseley Wayne Mullen Grier Mullins Bob Munnich Mark Nantz Julian Nixon Shante Nixon Chad Odom Carlton Owen Mark Owens Krish Patel Beth Paul Kristian Pffieger Robin Phillips

Holly Pruitt Elizabeth Ramos Charles Ratterree Lisa Rourk Charles Scales IV Brian Seidel Minor Shaw Tara Sherbert Will Shurtz Steve Sincropi Allen Smith Marie Majarais Smith Matthew Smith Jim Sobeck Toby Stansell Bo Stegall Lindsey Steman Jennifer Stilwell Chris Stone Llyn Strong Mark Taylor Spence Taylor Kristina Teague Tommy Thomason Christy Thompson Stephen Thompson Steve Townes Wade Wallace Jill Wanner John Warren Erik Weir Walt Wilkins Rodney Williams Scott Williams David Wyatt 9 Rounds Boyd Cycles Condrey Corp Creative Builders EmergencyMD Greencloud InvestiNet Iron Yard Lima One Capital Perspective Recruiting RealOp Recruiting Solutions Scansource Tangible Strategies

54 | WHO’S WHO 2016 |

UBJ

EDITOR’S LETTER

Who’s Next?

JERRY SALLEY | MANAGING EDITOR

jsalley@communityjournals.com

If you’ve spent the time we hope you have with this week’s special issue of UBJ, you’ve learned something new about the seven winners of our annual Who’s Who awards – and been reminded again of what an impact they have had on the Upstate community.

Be it a Marine turned investor who is bringing tactics from the battlefield into the business world, or a legendary community figure who is blending economic development with philanthropy, or a company balancing worldwide success and innovation with hometown values, the members of the Who’s Who Class of 2016 have had the ingenuity to redefine and revolutionize their professional roles.

When our panel, who you met on pages 8 and 9, sat down to select this year’s winners, they had a very specific set of criteria. Each Who’s Who winner had to have made an economic impact on the Upstate, and had to go beyond the strict confines of their job descriptions – traveling the extra mile to make a difference. Who’s Who winners would never

be off the clock. When they’re not in the office, we look for them to be out in the community, making connections and doing whatever they can to make the Upstate a better place to live, work and play. They’re willing to invest in their city.

The Upstate is an entrepreneurial region, and its cities continue to win national attention and acclaim.

We have gotten there with an unparalleled gift for pairing government and private enterprise in progressive ways.

Who’s Who winners are also not afraid to get out of their comfort zones, to walk out of the wellworn paths that others in their industry or life position have worn down before them.

They know that to make positive change, we’ve got to get a conversation started between people who wouldn’t or-

ART & PRODUCTION

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04.29.2016

dinarily be in the same room. How do we get the boomers to talk with Generations X, Y and Z? What can the Greatest Generation share with the Millennial Generation – and vice versa? Wherever that alchemy happens – typed on Prezi screens or scribbled on the back of a napkin, in a conference room or a coffee shop, first thing Monday morning or at midnight on Saturday – that’s where we learn.

That’s where we grow. That’s where we succeed.

So who will be in the Who’s Who class of 2017? That’s up to you.

Keep your eyes and ears open for those who are out in the community outside of office hours, putting their resources and time behind making their town greater – walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

Better yet, get out and do it yourself.

We’ll see you here next year.

IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE OF UBJ? WANT A COPY FOR YOUR LOBBY?

ART DIRECTOR Whitney Fincannon 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

PHOTO COORDINATOR/LAYOUT PRESIDENT/CEO

Mark B. Johnston mjohnston@communityjournals.com

UBJ PUBLISHER

Ryan L. Johnston rjohnston@communityjournals.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Jerry Salley jsalley@communityjournals.com

STAFF WRITERS

UBJ milestone

UBJ milestone jackson Marketing Group’s 25 Years 1988 Jackson Dawson opens in Greenville at Downtown Airport

Tammy Smith

1988

>>

with a majority of them utilizing the general aviation airport as a “corporate gateway to the city.”

In 1997, Jackson and his son, Darrell, launched Jackson Motorsports Group. The new division was designed to sell race tires and go to racetracks to sell and mount the tires. Darrell Jackson now serves as president of the motorsports group and Larry Jackson has two other children and a son-in-law who work there. Jackson said all his children started at the bottom and “earned their way up.”

Jackson kept the Jackson-Dawson branches in Detroit and others in Los Angeles and New York until he sold his portion of that partnership in 2009 as part of his estate planning.

The company now operates a small office in Charlotte, but its main headquarters are in Greenville in a large office space off Woodruff Road, complete with a vision gallery that displays local artwork and an auditorium Jackson makes available for non-profit use. The Motorsports Group is housed in an additional 26,000 square feet building just down the street, and the agency is currently looking for another 20,000 square feet.

Jackson said JMG has expanded into other verticals such as financial, healthcare, manufacturing and pro-bono work, but still has a strong focus on the auto industry and transportation. It’s

OPERATIONS Holly Hardin

ADVERTISING DESIGN Kristy Adair, Michael Allen

1997 Jackson Dawson launches motorsports Division 1993

1990 Jackson Dawson acquires therapon marketing Group and moves to Piedmont office Center on Villa.

Chairman larry Jackson, Jackson marketing Group. Photos by Greg Beckner / Staff

Jackson Marketing Group celebrates 25 years By sherry Jackson | staff | sjackson@communityjournals.com

Solve. Serve. Grow. Those three words summarize Jackson Marketing Group’s guiding principles, and according to owner Larry Jackson, form the motivation that has kept the firm thriving for the past 25 years.

Jackson graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in video and film production and started his 41-year career in the communications industry with the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office. He served during

Vietnam, where he said he was “luckily” stationed in the middle of Texas at Fort Hood.

He left the service and went to work in public affairs and motorsports at Ford Motor Company in Detroit.

After a stint at Bell and Howell, where he was responsible for managing Ford’s dealer marketing and training, the entrepreneurial bug hit and he co-founded Jackson-Dawson Marketing Communications, a company specializing in dealer training and product launches for the auto industry in 1980.

In 1987, Jackson wanted to move back south and thought Greenville would be a good fit. An avid pilot, he

learned of an opportunity to purchase Cornerstone Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) that served as a service station for the Greenville Downtown Airport, providing fuel, maintenance and storage.

In fact, when he started the Greenville office of what is now Jackson Marketing Group (JMG) in 1988, the offices were housed on the second floor in an airport hangar.

“Clients would get distracted by the airplanes in the hangars and we’d have to corral them to get back upstairs to the meeting,” Jackson said.

Jackson sold the FBO in 1993, but says it was a great way to get to know Greenville’s fathers and leaders

>>

2003 motorsports Division acquires an additional 26,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space

1998 1998 Jackson Dawson moves to task industrial Court

also one of the few marketing companies in South Carolina to handle all aspects of a project in-house, with four suites handling video production, copywriting, media and research and web design.

Clients include heavyweights such as BMW, Bob Jones University, the Peace Center, Michelin and Sage Automotive. Recent projects have included an interactive mobile application for Milliken’s arboretum and 600-acre Spartanburg campus and a marketing campaign for the 2013 Big League World Series.

“In my opinion, our greatest single achievement is the longevity of our client relationships,” said Darrell Jackson. “Our first client from back in 1988 is still a client today. I can count on one hand the number of clients who have gone elsewhere in the past decade.”

Larry Jackson says his Christian faith and belief in service to others, coupled with business values rooted in solving clients’ problems, have kept

2009 Jackson Dawson changes name to Jackson marketing Group when larry sells his partnership in Detroit and lA 2003

2009-2012 Jackson marketing Group named a top BtoB agency by BtoB magazine 4 years running

him going and growing his business over the years. He is passionate about giving back and outreach to non-profits. The company was recently awarded the Community Foundation Spirit Award.

The company reaffirmed its commitment to serving the community last week by celebrating its 25th anniversary with a birthday party and a 25-hour Serve-A-Thon partnership with Hands on Greenville and Habitat for Humanity. JMG’s 103 full-time employees worked in shifts around the clock on October 22 and 23 to help construct a house for a deserving family.

As Jackson inches towards retirement, he says he hasn’t quite figured out his succession plan yet, but sees the companies staying under the same umbrella. He wants to continue to strategically grow the business.

“From the beginning, my father has taught me that this business is all about our people – both our clients and our associates,” said his son, Darrell. “We have created a focus and a culture that strives to solve problems, serve people and grow careers.”

Darrell Jackson said he wants to “continue helping lead a culture where we solve, serve and grow. If we are successful, we will continue to grow towards our ultimate goal of becoming the leading integrated marketing communications brand in the Southeast.”

2011 Jackson marketing Group/Jackson motorsports Group employee base reaches 100 people

2008 2012 Jackson marketing Group recognized by Community Foundation with Creative spirit Award

Thanks for reading our special Who’s Who issue of UBJ.

pro-bono/non-proFit Clients American Red Cross of Western Carolinas Metropolitan Arts Council Artisphere Big League World Series The Wilds Advance SC South Carolina Charities, Inc. Aloft Hidden Treasure Christian School

CoMMUnitY inVolVeMent & boarD positions lArry JACkson (ChAirmAn): Bob Jones University Board chairman, The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center board member, Gospel Fellowship Association board member, Past Greenville Area Development Corporation board member, Past Chamber of Commerce Headquarters Recruiting Committee member, Past Greenville Tech Foundation board member David Jones (Vice President Client services, Chief marketing officer): Hands on Greenville board chairman mike Zeller (Vice President, Brand marketing): Artisphere Board, Metropolitan Arts Council Board, American Red Cross Board, Greenville Tech Foundation Board, South Carolina Chamber Board eric Jackson (Jackson motorsports Group sales specialist): Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Advisory Board

November 1, 2013 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal 21

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Think GSP First

The GSP Airport Commissioners and Staff congratulate

MINOR SHAW

for being recognized as a 2016 Who’s Who Award Winner.

GSP International Airport 2000 GSP Drive, Ste 1, Greer SC 29651 | gspairport.com Customer Service: 864.877.7426 | Airport District Administration: 864.848.6254