2021-2022 NC State Innovator and Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Announced

Author: Matt Simpson

For over 30 years, NC State University has held an annual Celebration of Innovation, awarding an innovator of the year and an entrepreneur of the year. On the evening of Oct. 12, for the first time since 2019, Chancellor Randy Woodson hosted the event in person again, at his residence on Centennial Campus, The Point.

“It’s great to get back together and to celebrate innovation and the innovators at NC State,” Woodson said at the event. “Thank you for your entrepreneurial spirit and everything you do to continue to build the economy of the country and the region through your science.”

This year, Woodson named both Craig Yencho and Ken Pecota as winners of the 2021-2022 Innovator of the Year award and named Marshall Brain as the winner of the 2021-2022 John S. Risley Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Entrepreneur of the Year Innovator of the Year

Dr. Craig Yencho and Mr. Ken Pecota Department

of Horticultural Science

Craig Yencho and Ken Pecota were both recognized with the Innovator of the Year award for their work to develop a cultivar that now accounts for nearly 90% of sweet potato production in North Carolina. Released in 2005, Yencho and Pecota’s “Covington” sweet potato makes up 20% of the total acreage of sweet potatoes grown in the U.S. and has become a lucrative European export. Since its release, the Covington variety has earned North Carolina sweet potato farmers over $3.5 billion in revenue.

Yencho and Pecota’s collaboration in the Sweetpotato Breeding and Genetics Program has also led to the launch of multiple lines of ornamental sweet potatoes, 27 of which have been licensed and sold globally, generating an estimated $20 million in retail sales.

Mr. Marshall Brain

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Marshall Brain was recognized with the John S. Risley Entrepreneur of the Year award for his work to help engineering students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and learn about launching new ventures. As director of the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program, Brain mentors hundreds of students each year, many of whom go on to enter — and win — NC State’s eGames, the university’s annual startup competition.

Brain is also a well-known entrepreneur in his own right, as the founder of HowStuffWorks.com, which was acquired for $250 million in 2007 by Discovery Communications. Started as a hobby in 1998, HowStuffWorks.com at one point became one of the topten most-visited websites in the world.