July 5, 2019 Upstate Business Journal by Community Journals

JULY 5, 2019| VOL. 8 ISSUE 15

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TOP-OF-MIND AND IN THE MIX THIS WEEK

| THE RUNDOWN VOLUME 8, ISSUE 15 Featured this issue: Don Myers brings lifelong passion for aviation to work......................... 5 Seth Roberts gives new life to vintage watches........................................ 6 Will Slack replace email?.......................................................................... 10

WORTH REPEATING “There’s something about wearing an older watch that has history. It might be linked to someone important, whether it be someone in your family or someone in history.” Seth Roberts, Page 7

The Burrow recently opened at 2017A Augusta Street in the former Gregory’s Laundry & Cleaners. Small plates from roasted pork belly to ribs and entrees from red beans and rice to whole fried fish are sure to satisfy any palate. Read more on Page 9. Photo by Will Crooks.

“Together we’ve [Peace Center & Design Review Board] found solutions to enhance the public park along the river from Broad Street to Falls Park and at the same time preserve and activate one of our privately-owned buildings.” Megan Riegel, Page 8

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FIRST LOOK

Coastal Crust

n story by ARIEL TURNER | photos by WILL CROOKS

Coastal Crust, the wood-fire pizza-truck operation from Charleston, plans to open its brick-and-mortar restaurant at 1254 Pendleton St. in the Village of West Greenville in mid-July. For the three weeks prior to opening, the wood-burning oven imported from Italy has been lit every day to season it, while the staff works through the menu of pizzas, house-made pasta dishes, and salads. Coastal Crust opens at 11 a.m., seven days a week. The kitchen will close at 9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The bar will stay open later.

UBJ | 7.5.2019

AEROSPACE

PROFILE

Born to f ly Don Myers is the director of aerospace sales & marketing at Toray Composite Materials America, Inc.

n story by JOE TOPPE | photo by WILL CROOKS

As far back as he can remember, Don Myers was fascinated by airplanes.

His father was a pilot, his brother’s a pilot and so is he. Although Myers’ duties as Director of Aerospace Sales & Marketing at Toray Composite Materials America, Inc. and newest role as SC Aerospace Advisory Board Chair keeps him out of the cockpit most days, his interest in aerospace technology and family heritage has him grounded firmly in the field. Alongside his father and grandfather, Myers remembers going to Reagan National Airport as a child to watch the Concorde fly in and out. He remembers seeing the plane Chuck Yeager used to break the sound barrier. “Being around the technology my whole life made a career tangible,” he said. Although Myers’ was born in Columbia, his father’s military service kept him on the move at an early age and he spent time in Virginia and Southern California before returning home to South Carolina to finish High School at A.C. Flora. While still in school, Myers played baseball and did his best to keep busy. “I worked for the local rec like Chris Farley’s character in Black Sheep and I worked at the mall,” he said. “I had to be doing something.” After graduating high school, Myers decided to go big and enroll at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, FL. The college produces the most aerospace engineers and is the largest university of its kind in the U.S. “Dad was an engineer first and foremost and his understanding of the technology inspired mine,” he said. Before joining the SC Aerospace team, Myers’ career included work in the corporate and general aviation industry with extensive experience in commercial, military and corporate aircraft operations, sales and finance, supply chain management and Federal Aviation Regulations.

Q&Awith Don Myers:

UBJ: How will SC Aerospace define success in 2020? MYERS: Success will mean continuing work on what we’ve been doing, which is to

connect, grow and support the aerospace cluster in the state. First and foremost, I’d like to grow the number of companies involved in SC Aero. Participation is at the core of what we are trying to do, and actively increasing the number of companies is key to this. UBJ: As an aerospace executive and chair of an organization trying to grow the sector in your home state, what keeps you up at night? MYERS: Right now, it’s workforce. We currently have what I refer to as a “high class” problem in our state’s aerospace manufacturing sector. We have a lot of exciting things happening in the sector, but it’s a problem if we don’t have the workforce to support it. It’s absolutely critical that we continue to put efforts into growing and preparing our workforce to be successful. This starts in the classroom at a young age and spans all the way to how we develop applicable training and curriculum in the classrooms of our technical schools and universities, to how we recruit talent into the state. SC Aero will continue to lead the efforts on this and work with the state on making this a priority.

“

FIRST AND FOREMOST, I’D LIKE TO GROW THE NUMBER OF COMPANIES INVOLVED IN SC AERO.

| PROFILE

timeless Hub City Vintage’s unique watches flirt with past, present, and future STORY BY ANDREW HUANG | PHOTOS BY WILL CROOKS

Seth Roberts deals in the commodity of time. Not “time” in the sense of a beachfront timeshare, or minutes for your phone plan, or the countdown of a parking meter. As the founder and watchsmith behind Hub City Vintage, Roberts specializes in “time” that is simultaneously literal and metaphorical: mechanical wristwatches, those impossibly complex and precise machines which keep track of time, powered only by motion. And, as you might have guessed from the name of his shop, he compounds that dimension of time with yet another, for his watches happen to be vintage Seiko timepieces. To be a watchsmith in this day and age is to be an anachronism. There are plenty more capable tools for keeping track of moments — smartphones, for one. But Roberts has a history with timepieces: “When I was a kid, if I had extra money, I always wanted to buy a watch. My grandfather was a big watch collector, and he would give me all his broken watches. I would take them anyway, just to have another one.” It didn’t hurt that his father was in the jewelry business, and when Roberts became a jeweler himself, his affinity for watches became a part of his professional repertoire. He found himself working with a 6

UBJ | 7.5.2019

jeweler whose father had been a watchmaker. “He was the first guy to sit down with me when I said I had an interest in learning about watchmaking,” Roberts says. “He handed me a pocket watch with instructions on how to take it apart and put it back together. It took me three days, and of course it wasn’t perfect. He gave it back to me and told me to do it again. It was very Mr. Miyagi.” The repetition and tedium didn’t turn Roberts away. Far from it. “Each watch is a small puzzle, and when everything comes together right, you get this machine that tells time. It just really fascinated me,” he says. But even as a jeweler, Roberts didn’t get many opportunities to apply his skills. These days, most watches are sent off to the manufacturer, rather than being serviced in-house. To satisfy his interest in watches, Roberts began working on them in his spare time, as a hobby. And that’s how this other dimension — vintage Seiko wristwatches — became intertwined. “I had a friend who introduced me to Seiko. He brought me a chronograph watch — a yellow “Pogue” [reference model 6139] — that hadn’t run in over 10 years,” Roberts says. Naturally, he opened up the watch to see if he could fix it. “It was the first 6139 I

broke down, and I was blown away by the engineering in this watch.” “All of Seiko’s manufacturing is vertically integrated,” he explains. “Everything they built for their watches was done right there in Japan. They didn’t outsource anything. The only other brand that does that is Rolex.” “Take the “Monaco” chronograph [reference model 7016] for example. It’s a five-hand, single register with a ton of complications, and it’s a watch you can buy for a thousand dollars. The Swiss counterpart is going to be five or six thousand dollars, at least!” Aside from the engineering, there’s another aspect of vintage Seikos that appealed to Roberts. “I always liken it to the Birds of Paradise,” he says. “They have no natural predators, so they’ve just evolved to attract a mate. They just get prettier. And that was the watch game in the ’70s. Everyone was just trying to create these immaculate looking watches.” Within Seiko, the governing design principles underpinning this aesthetic pursuit was known as The Grammar of Design. Invented by in-house designer Taro Tanaka, The Grammar of Design specified how surfaces were to interact with light; how cases were to be polished; and more. In essence,

“There’s something about wearing an older watch that has a history, It might be linked to someone important, whether it be someone in your family or someone in history.”

The Grammar of Design served as a brand guide for Seiko, and those principles imbued their watches with truly unique personas. One look at Hub City Vintage’s catalog confirms as much. Some watches feature brilliant, deep cerulean dials; others showcase a subtle sunburst shimmer, visible only from the way light shifts across the dial. The watch hands even have their own character. An hour hand might be shaped like a slashing sword. By contrast, a sweeping seconds hand could be needle thin and dipped in fire-enginered paint. Some of the watch cases are sleek and simple, elegantly tapered around domed crystal covering the watch face. Others are stainless steel behemoths encasing hardened mineral glass: robust, hardwearing, and reassuring. The names for these watches are remarkable, too: Monaco, Samurai, Turtle, Skyliner, World Time. “There’s something about wearing an older watch that has a history,” says Roberts. “It might be linked to someone important, whether it be someone in your family or someone in history.” That very first 6139 Roberts worked on is a prime example: it’s the same model worn on the Skylab 4 mission by astronaut Colonel William Pogue in 1973.

“Guys don’t get to wear a lot of accessories,” Roberts continues. “Besides my wedding ring, I only wear a watch. And so I want it to be the coolest watch it can be. For me, that means it needs to have a good story. I think that’s an opportunity every guy should capitalize on. You should have a watch you can talk about.” The vintage watch world is a funny one. In one sense, the timepieces that Roberts finds and restores are timeless. They might be 30, 40, or 50 years old in some cases, but in that time, they’ve taken on lives of their own. They’ve grown beyond their original mandate for timekeeping and now exist outside their epoch. Simultaneously, these watches are running out of time. All the watches and parts have already been made, which means that the supply of both dwindles each day. But as a specialist in the commodity of time, Roberts is perhaps the most acutely aware of this truism: for mortal beings and material goods both, time is a finite resource.

NEWS |

NEED TO KNOW

REAL ESTATE

Wyche Pavilion design revision headed to special DRB session on July 9 story by ARIEL TURNER photos SUMMEROUR AND ASSOCIATES

The Peace Center has revised its plans for restoration of the Wyche Pavilion and will return to the City of Greenville’s Design Review Board July 9 during a special session. The DRB typically recesses during July but has called the session specifically to discuss the Wyche project and The McClaren mixed-use project proposed for the West End. The July 9 meeting at 4 p.m. in City Hall follows a public hearing in February, where the Design Review Board provided feedback on the proposed project. Based on those recommendations and further meetings with members of the city and Design Review Board, the design was updated to make the expansion more subordinate to the existing Wyche Pavilion, while preserving the elements required to transform the Wyche into a fully functioning music and entertainment venue. “The Peace Center and its design team have worked collaboratively with the Design Review Board and city staff to successfully modify the plans for the Wyche,” said Peace Center President and CEO Megan Riegel. “Together we’ve found solutions to enhance the public park along the river from Broad 8

UBJ | 7.5.2019

Street to Falls Park and at the same time preserve and activate one of our privately-owned buildings. These efforts will greatly enhance the park, stimulate activity along the banks of the Reedy River and allow for the continued fulfillment of the Peace Center’s mission. We look forward to a time when the Wyche reaches its full potential, offering year-round concerts, community engagement programs, lectures and events of all kinds.” The design by Summerour and Associates retains the 3,578-square-foot iconic shell of the Wyche Pavilion. Riegel and members of the Peace Center board have argued the addition of custom-made windows and doors, wood floors and ceilings, fans, architectural lighting and HVAC will allow for year-round use. The enclosure of the pavilion will mean it is no longer publicly accessible in the same way it is now. At the February DRB, Riegel said the Peace Center would consider how to allow the public to use the space once it is enclosed. The Wyche will be outfitted as a fully

functioning performance venue, featuring state-of-the-art sound and lighting equipment. The open floor plan allows for a variety of performance configurations, from cabaret to concert-style seating, to standing room only club space. The full footprint of the original building (circa 1835) which is much larger than the existing Wyche Pavilion will be used for an addition to house the infrastructure required to support the venue. This new structure includes a glass entryway, a Green Room for artists, restrooms, storage and equipment rooms, and a catering kitchen. Features of this project include a large outdoor deck connecting to a walkway which cantilevers from the Wyche along the river, and a large gathering space facing Main Street, both of which will be open to the public. The landscaping, by Earth Design,

will feature environmentally friendly plantings chosen to evolve with each season. “As the Peace Center’s vision has evolved, activity on the campus has expanded as well,” said Peace Center Board Chairman and CEO of United Community Bank Lynn Harton. “In addition to the wonderful Broadway shows and concerts showcased in the Peace Concert Hall, there is continuous activity throughout the campus. The Peace Center hosts songwriters, local performing artists, summer camps, a poetry program for students and adults, music education salons, film, student jazz performances and much more. The board of the Peace Center is excited to see the iconic Wyche Pavilion restored and expanded to become another outstanding performance venue that will benefit the entire community.” The Wyche restoration is the first phase of the Peace Center’s larger master plan, which includes renovation of the Roe Coach Factory and two buildings located on Main Street: the Markley and the Gullick.

FIRST LOOK

The Burrow n story by ARIEL TURNER | photos by WILL CROOKS

Retreat, dugout, dwelling: All are synonyms for “burrow” and also describe The Burrow restaurant and bar that opened June 27 in the former Gregory’s Laundry & Cleaners at 2017A Augusta St. This third restaurant for Josh Beeby, owner of side-by-side restaurants Barley’s Taproom and The Trappe Door on West Washington Street, is named after the homophone for neighborhoods in large cities and a safe haven for small animals. Those animals – foxes, meerkats, otters, and the like – are depicted in whimsical illustrations on the glassware and custom wallpaper.

THE BURROW 2017A Augusta St. OPEN FOR BAR SERVICE & SNACKS Daily from 3-5 p.m.

OPEN FOR DINNER

M-Th, 5-10 p.m.; F-Sa, 5-11 p.m.

OPEN FOR BRUNCH

Sa-Su, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Warm wood tones complemented by pops of teals, orange, and gold in a variety of textures from seat coverings to tiled walls provide a wow factor atypical of

strip-mall restaurants. The barrel-shaped five-seater booths create added interest and a unique seating option. And don’t ask to squeeze more than five people in if the group is eating – the central table can fit only so many dishes. Family friendly, yet date-night-appropriate, the restaurant features a wide variety of cuisine, with the focus on wood-fired dishes using a 60-inch Grillworks Argentine-style open-fire grill. The menu hits nearly all the hemispheres with a common theme of savory comfort food. Small plates include poutine, roasted pork belly, ribs, and wings. Bowls of poke, a family recipe of red beans and rice, and pozole, along with salads, soups, and big plates of steak, rotisserie chicken, grilled octopus, and whole fried fish offer an option for almost any palate. The Burrow has already been overwhelmed with reservations, considering Beeby’s reputation in the community and the small number of dinner options along that stretch of Augusta. Plan to be patient with the new kitchen staff as they work to meet the high demand. Hours of operation are 3-5 p.m. daily for bar service and snacks; 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday for dinner; 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday for dinner; and brunch 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 7.5.2019 | upstatebusinessjournal.com

DIGITAL MAVEN |

THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF BUSINESS

Can the battle for business collaboration finally kill off email? By LAURA HAIGHT president, portfoliosc.com

Can email survive? That seems kind of a stupid question when you consider the prediction that 246 billion emails will be sent every day by the end of this year. And that number represents a 3 percent increase over last year – a growth rate that’s been holding steady for a decade. Nonetheless, everyone – and I don’t think I’m overstating here – hates email. For the average person, email is a necessary evil. But for business, email is time-sucking, loss-leading, and

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UBJ | 7.5.2019

productivity-wasting. Although spam is considerably reduced for businesses thanks to better filtering through firewalls and additional services, it still represents 20 percent of all emails that get through. And then, of course, there are the very real cybersecurity concerns of phishing, whaling, and malware getting through and infecting systems, exposing a business to ransomware, or data breaches. In the 25 or so years that most of us have had email, very little has changed – especially when you consider the tectonic changes that have evolved in many other technologies. This week, Slack, the communi-

cations/productivity tool for workplaces and teams, went public. And its stock (NYSE: WORK) soared nearly 50 percent on the first day. That put Slack in the news – with both positive and negative reports. But it did make me wonder if this – or any other collaborative tool – could take email down. After all, so much of email for work consists of things we used to F2F with our colleagues: lunch orders, after-work plans, scheduling meetings, discussing business plans/ideas. I don’t think I’ll find a stat on this, but I’d be willing to guess that at least 10 percent of our work emails consist of one word – ”Thanks” or “OK”.

Instant messaging and chat apps duplicated these functions a decade ago, and over the past several years they’ve evolved to be platform agnostic and mobile. Collaboration apps, including Slack, have done a good job of expanding “chat” to include voice, video, desktop and document sharing. But to challenge email applications, these tools have to move beyond chat to creation and CRM. One tool cannot rule them all. After all, we’ve got Office 365 for documents, spreadsheets and presentations; a website, customer relationship applications, social media sites where customers live chat with the support team, data

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THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF BUSINESS

storage, marketing, time and attendance and way more. There are a lot of big guns trying to build this tool. In addition to Slack, Microsoft brings Teams, a part of the Office 365 Suite, and Facebook bellies up to the bar with Workplace. Each of these competitors brings something unique to their product: Slack has 1,500+ integrations with other apps most teams and businesses use, and a single sign on; Microsoft has the sheer mass of being in pretty much every business in the world already; and Facebook has the experience of creating a vast communication experience and being the largest connector of people on the globe with more than 2.5 billion users. All of these companies and a bunch of other niche competitors also benefit from the idea that people want to communicate differently. And the move to kick email off its pedestal is not a new one. In 2015, Inc Magazine pre-

| DIGITAL MAVEN

dicted email would be obsolete by 2020. Old habits are hard to break and some products transcend tech and defy improvement. The return of flip phones and the resilience of Windows XP and its 1.5 billion users are two examples. Transcending email is going to be a ripping-off-the-bandage process. Consumers may have already done that. My personal email is not full of messages from family and friends; they text me with photos, news, and updates. Most of my email goes directly to the tra sh in a morning, coffee-fueled purge of newsletters, offers, and solicitations. Of 42 personal emails this morning, three escaped the trash and were looked at. Sometimes businesses lead; but just as often they go where consumers are. Maybe email could be one step closer to obsolescence. Or in 2021, will we still be ringing the death knell for email?

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PLANNER |

NETWORKING & BUSINESS EVENTS

PLANNER NETWORKING & BUSINESS EVENTS

Golden Career Strategies Roundtables

Links Group #3

Chamber Connects Referral Group 1

Business After Hours

Steve Olson: “The Art of Boss Management: Making the most of your relationship with your manager”

This non-compete leads group offers business networking and referral marketing.

Each group is industry specific with one seat reserved for each profession.

Musical Innovations

9 am | Golden Career Strategies

8:30 am | Greenville Chamber

8:30 am | Simsponville First Baptist Church

150-G Tanner Rd, Greenville, SC 29607

The Point, 33 Market Point Drive, Greenville, SC 29607

24 Cleveland Street, Greenville SC 29601

3 Hedge Street, Simpsonville SC 29681

The Mauldin Chamber at 864-297-1323

864-527-0425 or steve@goldencareerstrategies.com

Ebony Austin at 864-239-3730 or eaustin@greenvillechamber.org

Aaron Rupe at Aaron.Rupe@dexyp.com

Golden Career Strategies Roundtables

Five Forks Chapter – Monthly Meeting

Propel Greenville

Elevate Upstate Grant Workshop

Steve Olson and Sunny Handa – “Living Room Conversations”

Discuss issues of importance, events/ projects, and common challenges/ opportunities.

A 5-week board training and executive leadership program. $500 per person.

We will guide applicants through the application process, with panelists to include past winners.

9 am | Golden Career Strategies The Point, 33 Market Point Drive, Greenville, SC 29607 864-527-0425 or steve@goldencareerstrategies.com

5 pm | 150-G Tanner Rd, Greenville

Noon | Crave Coffee

Noon | United Way of Greenville County

1099 E Butler Rd, Greenville, SC 29607

529 Edinburgh Ct., Greenville, SC 29607

250 Executive Center Drive, Greenville, SC 29615

864-963-3781 or info@simpsonvillechamber.com

Ebony Austin at 864-239-3730 or eaustin@greenvillechamber.org

Sharon Purvis at 864-283-0346 or spurvis@tenatthetop.org

1:30 pm | Ten at the Top

Coffee & Connections

Links Group #4

Tech After Five

Innovative Leadership Series

Meet fellow investors and learn how to maximize your face-to-face opportunities with this structured networking event

This non-compete leads group offers business networking and referral marketing.

Connecting the tech community through face-to-face networking.

Speaker- Zachary Brewster

8:30 am | Greene Apartment Homes

11:30 am | Greenville Chamber

5:30 pm | Revel Event Center

Noon | Clemson MBA at Greenville ONE

1108 S Main St, Greenville, SC 29601

24 Cleveland Street, Greenville, SC 29601

304 East Stone Ave, Greenville, SC 29609

1 N Main St, 5th floor auditorium, Greenville, SC 29601

Ebony Austin at 864-239-3730 or eaustin@greenvillechamber.org

Free for job seekers and tech pros, $10 for recruiters and community members; register online

Free and open to the public; register online

UBJ | 7.5.2019

NEW HIRES IN THE UPSTATE

| ON THE MOVE

APPOINTED

HIRED

JORDAN ROBERTS was recently appointed

GEORGE ALLWES has joined Miracle Hill

as financial advisor associate of Greenville UBS office. Roberts spent the last 4 years working with Black Cypress Capital Management. Roberts is a graduate of Clemson University and earned his juris doctorate from Charleston School of Law.

Ministries as vice president of Thrift Operations. Allwes has more than 20 years of experience leading multi-site operations and sales. He has held leadership roles with Goodwill, Raymour & Flanigan Furniture, and Gander Mountain.

HIRED

PROMOTED

MAC HOGAN joined Carolina Alliance Bank as

STEPHEN COOPER has been promoted to

vice president, relationship manager. Hogan graduated from Lander University. He is a volunteer with Mobile Meals and is a former board member for the Salvation Army and the Boys and Girls Club of the Upstate.

senior project manager at McCrory Construction. Cooper brings more than eight years of project management experience to the role. He is currently pursuing the Designated Design-Build Professional credential from the Design-Build lnstitute of America.

PROMOTED

NAMED

C. WILL BOND, IV has been promoted to

DR. THOMAS TAKAYAMA has been named

senior trading manager at Greenwood Capital. Bond joined Greenwood Capital in 2002. He has obtained his registration with the Series 65 and Series 7 North American Securities Administrators Association.

dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Greenville Technical College. Working in higher education for 18 years, Takayama has served in both educator and administrator roles at some of the country’s leading community colleges.

You didn’t work this hard to worry about the unexpected.

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FYI |

WHAT ’S GOING ON GVL

THE 2019

READER’S

LENS PHOTO CONT E ST The Greenville Journal invites you to share your best photos of what the Upstate has to offer. Each month one lucky winner will win a $250 gift card to be used at any Rick Erwin’s Dining Group restaurant. Three honorable mention photos will also receive a $25 gift card to an Upstate business. Winning entries will be published in the Greenville Journal.

JULY THEME: CELEBRATING AMERICA

UPSTATE BUSINESS NEWS & NOTES Top Greenville wealth management firm gets a mountain view Black Harbor Wealth Management, an award-winning financial planning team based in Greenville, is expanding to North Carolina, opening its newest office location in Asheville. Nationally recognized for outstanding work, the team has brought 30 years of experience and expertise in finance to the Upstate, helping clients protect their assets, increase their income, and reduce their taxes. They now offer their strategic financial planning to the Asheville area. To schedule a consultation at Black Harbor’s Greenville or Asheville locations or to register for free events with financial tips and advice, call 864-882-9859 or visit www.blackharborwm.com. Products and Services BHWM provides wealth accumulation, asset protection, tax strategies, and retirement income strategies.

Retrain Your Brain seminar aims to help millennial and Gen X workers succeed The Retrain Your Brain seminar, a collaboration of two experienced business and performance coaches, Dr. Ann Holland of Strive Performance Coaching and Liz Parker of LT Consulting, will help modern workers manage their own stressors and work fears. The first Retrain Your Brain seminar will be Friday, July 26, at Serendipity Labs in Greenville. The event will start at 7:30 a.m. with networking and registration, and the program will run from 8 a.m. to noon. To register, go to www. striveperformancecoaching.com. Two more seminars are slated for Aug. 23 and Sept. 20. Seating is limited to 30 people per seminar.

Furman recognizes graduates of Women’s Leadership Institute Independence Day often brings fireworks, picnics, a cookout and a day off from work. How do you celebrate America’s birthday? Upload your photos that show your love for America.

For details on each month’s contest and to submit your photo, visit

GreenvilleJournal.com/ReadersLens

The Women’s Leadership Institute of Furman University recently recognized: Tina Belge, Greenville County; Deanna Berry, McWhorter Capital Partners; Katherine Boda, Furman University; Jamie Bryant, Christ Church Episcopal School; Rachel Cavin, Lockheed Martin; Donna Cox, Furman University; Erin Culbertson, Kehl Culbertson Andrighetti LLC; Dawanda Evans, Newell Brands – Process Solutions; Yukichi Hagins, Yukichi Hagins Realty; Tracy Harper, Fluor Corp.; Nichelle Harrison, The MAP Agency; Sommer Johnson, Timken; Jennifer Maness, Prisma Health-Upstate; Allison McGarity, Simpsonville Area Chamber of Commerce; Heidi Medlin, Fluor Corp.; Tami Miller, Greenville Chamber of Commerce; Gaia Phillips, Greenville County Schools; Lauren Prunkl, Furman University; Lisa Rouby, Michelin; Karina Santos, Michelin; Brandy Sperry, GHS Eye Institute; Johanna Stoddard, Gregory Pest Solutions; Laura Turner, Prisma Health-Upstate; Valida Walker, Sherman College of Chiropractic.

For more information on these stories visit www.UpstateBusinessJournal.com Submit your press release at: www.UpstateBusinessJournal.com/submit

UBJ | 7.5.2019

BRIEFS, TIDBITS, BLIPS, DATA & MORE

UP NEXT GOT ANY THOUGHTS? CARE TO CONTRIBUTE? PUBLISHER

Mark B. Johnston mjohnston@communityjournals.com

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

LET US KNOW AT

upstatebusinessjournal. com/submit.

| ROUND UP

NEW to the STREET

RECENTLY OPENED BUSINESSES IN THE UPSTATE

Susan Schwartzkopf

EDITOR

Claire Billingsley

COPY EDITOR Rebecca Strelow

STAFF WRITERS

Melody Cuenca, Ariel Gilreath, Ariel Turner

EVENTS: Submit event information for consideration to events@ upstatebusinessjournal.com

MARKETING & ADVERTISING DIRECTOR OF SALES Emily Yepes

MANAGER OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Donna Johnston

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

MARKETING REPRESENTATIVES

Heather Propp | Liz Tew

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

UBJ milestone

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

1988

RELATIONSHIP MANAGER Meredith Rice

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

ACCOUNT MANAGER Callie Michalak

1997 Jackson Dawson launches motorsports Division 1993

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

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

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

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

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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