Business North Carolina October 2020

THE STATE’S PRIVATE SCHOOL PROWESS JIM SEGRAVE FLIES HIGH • SHIBUMI SHADES SHORE • JIM THOMAS RALLIES ROBESON

2020

OCTOBER 2020 Price: $3.95 businessnc.com

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+ DEPARTMENTS 4 UP FRONT 8 NC TREND

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Shibumi shades beachgoers; Seniors slammed with scams; Mills River becomes a beverage and industrial hot spot.

62 TOWN SQUARE

A boat-building and commercial-fishing mecca, Wanchese wades through the pandemic’s turbulent tide.

COVER STORY

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+ SPONSO RED SECTIONS 22 ROUND TABLE

Corporate and legal leaders discuss progress in creating more diverse workplaces and some challenges that remain.

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2020

TRAILBLAZERS

Our third annual group of Trailblazers enhance their smaller cities and towns.

THE PRIVATE SCHOOL PULSE

Private schools share key metrics and how they are handling fall instruction.

BY SHANNON CUTHRELL

FLIGHT RISK

33 LAW JOURNAL

Legal experts weigh in on some of the most pressing challenges facing N.C. business owners.

CO V E R I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y R A L P H V O L T Z

56 REGIONAL REPORT: CUMBERLAND COUNTY Cumberland County is a business-friendly area that offers opportunities in workforce training, easy access to major metropolitan areas and an outstanding quality of life.

October 2020, Vol. 40, No. 10 (ISSN 0279-4276). Business North Carolina is published monthly by Business North Carolina at 1230 West Morehead Street, Suite 308 Charlotte, NC 28208.

Telephone: 704-523-6987. Fax: 704-523-4211. All contents copyright © by Old North State Magazines LLC. Subscription rate: 1 year, $30. For change of address, send mailing label and allow six to eight weeks. Periodicals postage paid at Charlotte, NC, and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Business North Carolina, 1230 West Morehead Street, Suite 308 Charlotte, NC 28208 or email circulation@businessnc.com.

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Jim Segrave displays little fear in growing his Kinston privatejet business amid a scarred aviation industry.

BY EDWARD MARTIN

ROBESON ROOTS

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Pembroke native Jim Thomas, who got rich developing Los Angeles real estate, hasn’t forgotten his rural hometown.

BY DONNIE DOUGLAS

Start your day with business news from across the state, direct to your inbox.

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UPFRONT

David Mildenberg

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

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he Trailblazers feature is one of our magazine’s favorite annual projects because it spotlights energetic young businesspeople and professionals in smaller communities who rarely attract media attention. None of the folks featured in this month’s publication were looking for adulation. Rather, we had to coax some to take part despite strong nominations from friends and associates.

They also tend to be busy people, something easy to understand for those who work for small businesses while juggling family responsibilities and various projects outside of the office. I asked Weyling White, a health care administrator who is the mayor of Ahoskie, what is the biggest issue related to his political job, expecting him to discuss attracting jobs and workforce development.

“Crime,” he responded, explaining that he had to spend much time that week on the issue because of a couple of shootings in neighboring Hertford County towns.

This year’s Trailblazers also include folks who run substantial businesses, such as the 200-employee egg company in Nashville led

by Trey Braswell. Eggs have regained popularity as comfort food during the COVID-19 shutdown, so it’s good to learn that a fourgeneration Nash County family is a beneficiary. Jeremy Smith has had success building JSmith Civil, a site-work and constructionservices company in Goldsboro that promises to make the state’s road-building industry more competitive.

Our list isn’t as diverse as preferred, for which I am not proud. But Black-owned businesses, which tend to be in service industries and lack long-term family backing, have been particularly harmed by the pandemic, Federal Reserve research shows. That is especially true in smaller N.C. communities, we learned in our reporting.

This year’s female Trailblazers offer some inspiring personal stories. An example is Emily McCurry’s commitment to building a financial advisory practice in Waynesville.

The daughter of a preacher, she sees helping families plan their futures as her call to

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service. And Bakersville restaurant owner Harley Masters explained why she’s running to be the second-female county commissioner since Mitchell County was formed in 1861: “A lot of my people don’t think politics is a big issue. They think it’s a thing for old white men.”

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his month’s round table on diversity and inclusion is also packed with insightful discussion, no matter one’s political views. Cree CEO Gregg Lowe explains how comments from the Durham-based company’s employees after the death of George Floyd opened his eyes to “horrible stories about what’s happened with them.” Fidelity Investments executive Wendy John describes how the money-management company encourages employers to make “simple starts” — changing one’s habits or making a new friend — as a way of creating a more inclusive outlook.

Valecia McDowell, a management committee member at the Moore & Van Allen law firm, says BNC readers should hire people of color for prime legal, accounting and consulting gigs. “It doesn’t work if you call the same white male lawyer that you’ve used since God was a baby,” says McDowell, whose firm is the largest based in the state.

Viewing many issues through racial, age and gender lenses can be tough to swallow for some of us “old white men,” and I see nuances. But new U.S. Census Bureau data shows Black poverty in North Carolina was 21.5% in 2019, versus 9.4% for the white population. Gregg Lowe is right when he says, “We need to keep this front and center.”

The September issue gave the incorrect name of Furnitureland South CEO Jeff Harris. We apologize for the error.

VOLUME 40, NO. 10 PUBLISHER

Ben Kinney

bkinney@businessnc.com EDITOR

David Mildenberg

dmildenberg@businessnc.com MANAGING EDITOR

Taylor Wanbaugh

twanbaugh@businessnc.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Cathy Martin

cmartin@businessnc.com SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Edward Martin

emartin@businessnc.com SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

Alyssa Pressler

apressler@businessnc.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Megan Bird, Shannon Cuthrell, Donnie Douglas, Vanessa Infanzon, Bryan Mims CREATIVE MANAGER

Peggy Knaack

pknaack@businessnc.com ART DIRECTOR

Ralph Voltz

MARKETING COORDINATOR

Jennifer Ware

jware@businessnc.com AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST

Scott Leonard

sleonard@businessnc.com

ADVERTISING SALES ACCOUNT MANAGERS

Sue Graf, western N.C. 704-523-4350 • sgraf@businessnc.com

Melanie Weaver Lynch, eastern N.C. 919-855-9380 • mweaver@businessnc.com CIRCULATION: 818-286-3106 EDITORIAL: 704-523-6987 FOR REPRINTS: CIRCULATION@BUSINESSNC.COM

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Contact David Mildenberg at dmildenberg@businessnc.com.

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BNC ONLINE

Business North Carolina

We love getting feedback from our readers.

Here’s a sampling of what you had to say about Business North Carolina on social media last month.

Have you grabbed a copy of our September issue yet? Read about Charlotte steel giant SteelFab, Inc, North Carolina’s top 125 private companies, the four-generation family business behind Lowes Foods and more.

Brooke Medina

Neil Kaufman I agree SteelFab is a great family owned business. If you are in the steel business in the Carolinas you know SteelFab for sure!

@Brooke_Medina

Epic Games, SAS, and Hendrick Automotive topping the list.

This @BusinessNC list represents an extensive amount of risk-taking, capital, and most importantly, jobs for North Carolinians.

BNC Top 125 private companies

Scott Norris SteelFab, Inc. is a top notch organization. For quality and service, there is none better.

NCICU Higher Ed @NCICUhighered

An inspiring article about the commitment to community of High Point University’s chair of the Board of Trustees, Robert Brown: Pillars: Robert Brown

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Phil Martin Great recognition for such a reputable group of companies. Integrity, responsibility to clients and sub contractors - they are second to none.

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Ken Loeber A great family, a great company and a great legacy Bradley Smith I worked for the Sherrills for 27 year and you just can’t get any better people

Read these stories and more at

businessnc.com.

Sign up to receive our free Daily Digest newsletter at businessnc.com/daily-digest/.

FOLLOW US Business North Carolina @BusinessNC Business North Carolina @businessnorthcarolina

Check out Business North Carolina’s weekly podcast at

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NC TREND ■ FRAUD Page 10

First take: Entrepreneurship

■ ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Page 14

■ STATEWIDE Page 16

SHADY BUSINESS THREE CHAPEL HILL GRADS CREATE A DESIGN TO BEAT THE BEACH HEAT WITHOUT THE AGGRAVATIONS OF UMBRELLAS.

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t’s a scorching hot day at the beach, and all you want to do is kick back with a cold beverage, relaxing with friends or family. One obstacle stands in the way: setting up the dreaded beach umbrella. You lug what feels like 100 pounds of gear across the burning sand, sweaty shirt sticking to your skin. Pulling out the massive metal and canvas beast, you begin what looks like a poorly produced semi-pro wrestling match, attempting to anchor the umbrella. More often than not, you give up, accepting the fate of returning from vacation looking like a well-done, sunburnt lobster.

That’s the unpleasant experience brothers Dane and Scott Barnes and their friend Alex Slater aimed to eliminate when they created the Shibumi Shade prototype in 2015. The UNC Chapel Hill grads spent summers at Emerald Isle Beach, often experiencing the frustrations of dealing with traditional beach umbrellas and tents.

“We took a little inspiration from different things like look-

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▲ The Shibumi Shade, which retails for $250, provides sun protection for as many as six. ing at a sheet on a clothesline just sort of flowing in the breeze,” Slater says. “And understanding that working with the wind, rather than trying to fight against the wind, seemed to be the best way to solve that problem on the beach, since wind is usually the biggest problem out there. So we made our first prototype by buying fabric ... and using a sewing machine and buying some PVC pipe at a hardware store, and putting together the very first version of a Shibumi Shade.”

The tunnel-like design of the shade caught other beachgoers' attention, and the Winston-Salem natives were soon getting requests to buy the shade.

“We realized, OK, other people are actually pretty interested in this,” Slater says. “Maybe we should take this idea and turn it into a business.”

The idea took off, and the Barnes brothers and Slater began selling the shade in 2016. With no experience in engineering or sewing, creating the perfect design was a challenge for the trio,

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHIBUMI

B Y TAY L O R WA N B A U G H

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who were math, business and English majors, respectively.

“Even learning how to thread the sewing machine was a pretty big challenge at first,” Slater laughs. “But we figured it out, and we essentially taught ourselves to sew and just went from there.”

Weighing less than 4 pounds, the beach umbrella-alternative boasts an easy setup and take down, with a three-minute assembly time. Segments form one long pole held together with a bungee cord.

Beachgoers thread the lightweight UPF 30 sun protection canopy onto the pole and secure each end in the sand at an angle. The carrying case can be filled with sand and is used as an anchor to secure the canopy at the apex of the arch, providing a counterweight to the force of the “drag” created by the wind passing through the canopy and preventing the shade from taking off like a kite.

The Shibumi Shade can withstand wind speeds as high as 30 mph.

“It's really lightweight so anyone in your family can carry it, from a young child to an older adult,” Scott says. As many as six adults can sit comfortably under the shade. “And because it works with the wind and not against it, it can't have the same kind of danger of umbrellas and tents that you see on the beach that can get picked up by high winds and tumble down the beach. So it's a little safer.”

The founders say that customers have self-reported taking a Shibumi Shade to more than 500 different beaches across the world, including up and down North Carolina’s coast.

With an influx of orders, the Shibumi Shade, which retails for $250, was on backorder on the company’s website as of mid-September with an estimated shipping date of Oct. 31. The shade is also temporarily sold out at 22 East Coast retail stores that carry the product. The trio did not disclose financial details.

The founders, who operate the business out of Raleigh, have contracted production to two manufacturing facilities in

Asheboro and near Asheville and employ a Raleigh-based warehouse distributor.

“For us, it’s really important and special to have every Shibumi Shade sewn in North Carolina,” Scott says.

Not every beach welcomes the shade.

Ocean Isle Beach allows only traditional umbrellas with a single pole. Myrtle Beach, which sees as many as 14 million visitors annually, prohibits anything besides traditional umbrellas from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Scott says they hope that Ocean Isle Beach and Myrtle Beach town governments will look at the current regulations and reconsider safe alternative tent options such as the Shibumi Shade.

“The amazing thing has been [customers] that write back to us just absolutely up in arms, and they go to the next town council meeting, and they advocate our case, which has just been incredible [to hear] that kind of support and feedback.”

Everyone wants to know about the name, of course. The three founders grin because the phrase perfectly defines the company.

“Shibumi is a Japanese design concept that means elegance of simplicity,” Dane says. “It was also the name of a really, really small apartment complex that Scott, Alex and I lived in at Chapel Hill. It was a common thread between us, so it has a fun double meaning.”

In the company’s infancy, the founders maintained full-time jobs at online software and marketing companies while running Shibumi. But last fall, they took the leap to pursue the business full time.

Scott says starting a beach shade company was never meant to be a life pursuit.

When the product’s popularity skyrocketed, “we started to realize that we had an opportunity to do something we really believed in with [me], my brother and best friend, which is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity. I was never in college studying math, [thinking] that entrepreneurship was my plan or path. But the way that the hand was dealt, it became a no-brainer.” ■ O C T O B E R

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NC TREND

Fraud

SENIOR SCAMMING A PROSECUTOR-TURNED-AUTHOR SAYS ELDER FRAUD IS AN EMERGING PROBLEM AS BABY BOOMERS REACH THEIR GOLDEN YEARS.

BY EDWARD MARTIN

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t was a call no grandmother desires: Her heart dropped as the man on the phone explained her grandson was in jail and he needed money for bail and to pay his fines. She did what any good Nana would, driving to the nearest ATM on Raleigh’s Six Forks Road and following the caller’s instructions to help her grandson. Using new technology that allows customers to access automated teller machines with a wave of their smartphone, she deposited $10,000 in accounts with personal IDs that he dictated.

Except, her grandson wasn’t in jail.

It’s one of the many common scams targeted at the 65-plus crowd, among telephone, internet, sweepstakes, Social Security and home-repair fraud, according to N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein. The average financial loss for these scams is $700.

“Compared to a few years ago, we’re doing much better [at preventing elder fraud],” says David Kirkman, former special deputy attorney general and head of the N.C. Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Division. Retired since 2017, he credits new laws in the last half-dozen years that allow Tar Heel banks and other financial institutions to report to local law enforcement agencies when the elderly are victimized and for the attorney general’s office to maintain a database of cases and scammers in order to investigate senior fraud.

Results of the 2018 law are beginning to take shape, Stein adds, citing nearly $300,000 reclaimed and returned to victims in 2019.

More than 1,240 complaints were filed last year.

The earlier law, which took effect in January 2014, had an even larger impact, unleashing a flood of elder-fraud reports after granting immunity from civil lawsuits and other actions against credit unions, banks and other financial institutions that report them.

Another factor, Kirkman says, is that the laws no longer require prosecutors to show the victim was disabled. “You don’t have to prove the person had Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia or some other disability, only that they’re over 65,” he says. “That has made

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prosecution a lot easier.”

Nevertheless, in his new book Elder Fraud Wars, Kirkman describes a battlefield on which criminals like the ATM scammers continue their race to thwart the state’s efforts to protect its older citizens.

It’s a shadowy arena with stakes that probably top $400 million a year in North Carolina. The number is based on estimates that fewer than one in 50 cases of elder fraud and exploitation gets reported, according to Kirkman. Known cases typically exceed $10 million a year in North Carolina.

Kirkman, a 30-year veteran of consumer-protection law, says crimes against the aged are particularly thorny to crack and prosecute. Victims, he says, are often reluctant to report them out of embarrassment at their gullibility and fear that their adult children will pressure them to surrender financial responsibilities or other independence, such as driving.

“The family might not want it to get out in the community, what happened to Mom and Dad,” he says.

As the state’s over-65 population grows, says Kirkman, so does the threat of Alzheimer’s. Citing studies by Chicago-based Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, he says one casualty of aging, even before Alzheimer’s is diagnosed, is the inability to spot dishonesty.

Rush researchers attribute that to physical changes in aging brains. The N.C. Office of State Management and Budget projects the state’s over-65 population will soar from 1.6 million to 2.6 million in the next two decades, the fastest-growing segment. Within that group, the most rapid growth will be in the 74 to 84 range.

“By age 74, about 24% of the population has early stages of the disease, and by age 84, that jumps to 50%,” Kirkman says. “In researching my book, we found repeat victims who’d lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. We’d hear, ‘The doctor said Mom was fine,’ but a few years later, she’d be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Time and time again we ran across that scenario. People develop

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reduced scam awareness.”

Kirkman also zeros in on elder-fraud stereotypes. One is that such crimes mainly target lower-income victims — driveway paving, roofing, home repair and other scams. Increasingly, criminals rely on sophisticated psychological profiles of their victims, often compiled through the victims’ own social-media postings. In fact, the biggest dollar hits usually come from well-to-do widows and widowers, sometimes former executives.

They have been able to accrue savings, trusts and other investments and might be particularly vulnerable to what Stein calls sweetheart frauds, in which suitors, operating on senior dating and social-media sites, prey on loneliness and isolation. “People in that age group often worry about, ‘Will I ever find anyone again, at my age?’’’ Kirkman says.

The best way to avoid scams? Common sense: You don’t get something for nothing, you don’t “win” sweepstakes you haven’t entered, and there are no Nigerian princes reaching out to you for large sums of money.

Still, Kirkman sees signs that his 30 years in consumer protection bear fruit.

At age 66, when he goes to his Chapel Hill bank to withdraw a large sum, he gets grilled on what he’s doing by well-meaning bankers keeping an eye out for fraud victims.

“I might say, ‘Well, I’m painting my house’ or whatever,” he says. “They do seem to be looking out for people a lot better. And I always tell them I appreciate them asking.” ■

Most common scams in North Carolina (Jan. 2019 through Aug. 2020) “Sweepstakes” scams ■ 655 reports filed ■ 106 victims ■ Total money lost: more than $3 million “Sweetheart” scams ■ 99 reports filed ■ 83 victims ■ Total money lost: more than $3.6 million “Government grant” scams ■ 121 reports filed ■ 40 victims ■ Total money lost: $331,663 “Inheritance” scams ■ 45 reports filed ■ 2 victims ■ Total money lost: $276,981 “Grandparents” scams ■ 170 reports filed ■ 27 victims ■ Total money lost: $263,280 source: N.C. Department of Justice

Congratulations to Neil Robinette for being a 2020 Trailblazer!

A Multi-Generational Commercial Real Estate Firm Committed To Exceptional Client Relationships.

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910.997.2544 | www.cfsmithpg.com O C T O B E R

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WHAT TO CONSIDER IF OUTSOURCING 401(k) PLAN INVESTMENT DECISIONS Outsourcing 401(k) plan investment decisions may offer a number of valuable advantages to the plan sponsor.

This is the seventh in a series of informative monthly articles for North Carolina businesses from PNC in partnership with BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA magazine.

The responsibility for a plan’s investments is a serious one. It involves making complex decisions that can affect the future retirement security of plan participants and has consequences that may result in personal liability.

It’s no wonder then that many plan fiduciaries look to outsource this critically important investment decisionmaking role.

As tempting as it may be to transfer this responsibility (and its attendant risks) to a third party, there are important considerations that must be weighed.

THE ADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING INVESTMENT DECISIONS

Outsourcing plan investment decisions may offer a number of valuable advantages to the plan sponsor, including: 1. Access to Expertise: Few companies have the requisite expertise or technology to fully evaluate investment alternatives. And, why should they? Their core competency resides with the products or services they sell in the marketplace. An outside service provider can bring a level of expertise, process, and technology to investment decisions that few plan sponsors can match with internal resources.

2. Ability to Focus on Core Business: Hiring an outside investment expert can save companies from having to devote financial and human resources to perform this function, relieving them from the distractions of managing investment responsibilities and allowing them to focus on their core business activities.

3. Improved Outcomes: Using an outside investment expert may result in better investment processes and improved documentation, both of which are cornerstones of managing fiduciary risk and improving investment outcomes.

4. Lower Fiduciary Risk: Fiduciary risks may be reduced through improved plan administration and compliance processes related to investment selection and monitoring.

5. Economies of Scale: An outside investment provider may provide a plan with access to investment opportunities or lower cost investment alternatives that might not otherwise be available to it. This can be an extremely valuable advantage given that plan fees have become a flashpoint for civil liability lawsuits.

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THE DISADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING INVESTMENT DECISIONS

As compelling as the above advantages may be, it is important that plan sponsors weigh them against some possible disadvantages.

1. Cost: There are costs associated with outsourcing the investment decision-making function, not least of which include the potential displacement of current employees who are performing the investment selection and monitoring function. These costs should be weighed against the cost of performing this role internally.

2. Loss of Control: Depending upon the third party provider, a plan sponsor may lose some flexibility over the changes that can be effected and the speed with which they can be made. Should dissatisfaction arise with the provider, it may be more difficult to switch providers or revert back to in-house control.

3. Ongoing Monitoring Remains: A plan fiduciary will still need to exercise the proper monitoring of the outside provider’s work product.

4. Fiduciary Risk is not Eliminated: While the plan’s investment fiduciary is not usually liable for an outside provider’s acts or omissions (provided they prudently appoint and monitor the provider), not all instances of fiduciary responsibilities and potential liability will disappear.

To learn more about the potential advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing investment decisions, please speak with your PNC representative.

Regional Presidents: Weston Andress, Western Carolinas: (704) 643-5581 Jim Hansen, Eastern Carolinas: (919) 835-0135 Or visit pnc.com/en/corporate-and-institutional.html Important Legal Disclosures and Information The material presented herein is of a general nature and does not constitute the provision by PNC of investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice to any person, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or adopt any investment strategy. Opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. The information was obtained from sources deemed reliable. Such information is not guaranteed as to its accuracy.

PNC uses the marketing name PNC Institutional Asset Management® for the various discretionary and non-discretionary institutional investment, trustee, custody, consulting, and related services provided by PNC Bank, National Association (“PNC Bank”), which is a Member FDIC, and investment management activities conducted by PNC Capital Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser and wholly-owned subsidiary of PNC Bank. PNC does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice unless, with respect to tax advice, PNC Bank has entered into a written tax services agreement. PNC Bank is not registered as a municipal advisor under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. "PNC Institutional Asset Management” is a registered mark of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. | Investments: Not FDIC Insured. No Bank Guarantee. May Lose Value. © 2020 The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Economic development

MILLING THINGS OVER A WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA TOWN ENTICES INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES WITH THE PROMISE OF ATTRACTIVE LAND AND LOW COSTS.

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ills River doesn’t have the tourism cachet of nearby Asheville, Hendersonville or Brevard, but it’s become a regional hot spot for economic developers.

The town has landed industrial developments from Amazon, Norafin Americas and others that prize its low tax rate and relatively level land.

“The greatest attraction to the businesses has been the available land,” Town Manager Daniel Cobb says. “Unlike neighboring communities such as Brevard or Asheville, much of Mills River is gently rolling hills or even flat terrain.

Coupled with access to utilities and the interstate, Mills River is well positioned to continue its positive trend of growth and development.”

Mills River incorporated in 2003 to protect itself from annexation by neighbors. Its population has jumped from about 5,800 to 7,400 since then, reflecting the region’s increasing popularity. Unlike its better-known neighbors, it doesn’t have a downtown district in its 22 square miles, though there are plenty of churches, small businesses and the 50acre Mills River Park.

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“Quality of life is a really big driver as to why people come here,” Cobb says. Low property taxes also help: The millage rate is 19 cents per $100 value, versus 43 cents in Asheville and 49 cents in Hendersonville.

Brittany Brady, CEO of the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development, traces Mills River’s growth back to 1994 when a family began parceling its farmland to industrial tenants. It became the 79-acre Broadpointe Industrial Park, which has 10 tenants including FedEx Ground, Gaia Herbs and Pepsi Bottling.

In 2009, Ferncliff Industrial Park became the county’s first North Carolina Certified Site, which involves a process to ensure potential users that a site is viable for industrial purposes. The 260-acre property is home to automotive-parts manufacturer GF Linamar and Sierra Nevada Brewing, Mills River's most prominent tourist attraction.

Since Chico, Calif.-based Sierra Nevada opened its East Coast site in 2015, the brewery's tour through its elaborately designed campus and neighboring forest has become a staple for visitors.

Because of the pandemic, tours and in-room dining are sus-

PHOTOS BY SAM DEAN

BY VANESSA INFANZON

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pended through the end of the year. Curbside pickup is offered.

The Henderson County economic development group is a 25-year-old public/private partnership promoting the region.

Staff members work with site location consultants focused on six advanced manufacturing sectors: health care, food and beverage production, machinery and materials, outdoor recreation, professional and technology services, and transportation components.

Access to Henderson Country’s 200 apple growers attracted Bold Rock Hard Cider to Mills River. In 2015, when Bold Rock decided to expand its main operation in Nellysford, Va., its staff considered regions that could provide lots of apples. North Carolina ranks seventh nationally, with Henderson County dominating the state’s production, says Lindsay Dorrier, Bold Rock’s brand manager. Bold Rock, which is owned by Charlotte-based Artisanal Brewing Ventures, now produces between 600,000 and 800,000 cases per year at the Mills River cidery.

“Once you have a client who lands in a community,” Brady says, “they’re telling other industries that this site is good. We’ve got a good infrastructure, it’s in a good location, there’s a strong workforce here. People like to be in good company. The work that was done at Broadpointe and the work that was done in Ferncliff has shown other corporate citizens that this is a good place to be.” ■

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Statewide

NEW TAXES, BETTER ROADS B Y DAV I D M I L D E N B E R G

“We need $1.5 billion to $3 billion a year to get us out of the range that is mediocre,” he says. “People will say that this looks like more government spending, but this is truly investment. We’ve seen that a $1 billion investment can generate 14,000 jobs.”

North Carolina’s dilemma is that about $3.2 billion of the annual $5 billion transportation budget comes from federal and state fuel taxes, which are fading as more consumers opt for cars with more efficient hybrid engines or electric vehicles. “Those sources are going to be more challenging, so we’ve got to look at different ways,” Nye says.

The NC Chamber Foundation report makes four recommendations: ■ Start a pilot program to study charging a road-use tax of 2 to 4 cents per mile. Similar tests are underway in seven states. ▲ Ward Nye, CEO of Martin Marietta

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orth Carolina needs to dramatically change how it pays for new and improved roads and other transportation needs and expand funding by at least $1.5 billion a year, the NC Chamber Foundation says in a report issued in August.

That’s a big jump from the $5 billion now invested annually for the state’s transportation infrastructure, reflecting unmet needs and the state’s rapid population growth, says Ward Nye, the CEO of Raleighbased aggregates and concrete supplier Martin Marietta and the chamber’s chairman.

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ith concern for Black-owned businesses mounting amid calls for social justice, Durham’s M&F Bancorp has become a logical place for some N.C. companies to park money as a way to show support. “This is the third minority-owned bank I’ve led and I’ve never experienced this with so many people calling us wanting to do business,” CEO James Sills III says. “It’s a really pleasant surprise.”

Nine businessmen started M&F in 1907 as part of an effort to build a strong Black business community in Durham. It now ranks as the second-oldest minority-owned U.S. bank and operates five offices in Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh and WinstonSalem.

The bank operated profitably every year since its inception until 2016 and 2017, when it posted cumulative losses of about $2 million, according to federal filings. M&F rebounded with small profits in the two following years.

In the second quarter this year, it added $27 million in deposits, boosting its total to $263 million. Pendo, K4Connect and Global

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■ If and when a permanent road-user tax is implemented, phase out the current gas tax of 36.2 cents per gallon, the eighthhighest rate in the nation.

■ Increase the state sales tax by as much of 1% with the additional funds going for transportation. A 1% levy would produce $1.5 billion.

■ Boost the tax on vehicle sales to 4% from the current 3%, which is among the lowest rates in the U.S.

Data Consortium are among the companies that put several million dollars into the bank because they know M&F has deep ties to minority-owned businesses in North Carolina, Sills says.

M&F recorded a loss in the first half of this year, as it set aside $605,000 to its reserves for expect▲ James Sills III ed loan losses related to the pandemic. Black-owned businesses have been particularly affected by the crisis with about 40% either closing or suspending operations, Sills says, citing Federal Reserve statistics.

As a result, loan demand is flat with M&F’s pipeline of potential business less robust than before the crisis, he adds. His bankers are calling on new customers to see if there are financing opportunities that can be mutually profitable.

“We’re positioning the bank to be ready for 2021,” says Sills, who joined the bank in 2014. “It is tough and challenging, but I’m optimistic we will finish the year in the black.”

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NC TREND

Statewide

VENTURE PAYDAY

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rueBridge Capital Partners, a Chapel Hill-based company that manages more than $3.3 billion in venture-capital investments, agreed to be acquired by Dallas-based P10 Holdings for $159 million in convertible preferred shares. If fully converted, that will make up about 36% of a holding company owned by P10.

“With common cultures, consistent long-term track records and a shared vision of building a premier alternative asset manager able to deliver market-leading returns to our investors, we see tremendous opportunity in the years ahead,” TrueBridge’s co-founders Mel Williams and Edwin Poston said in a release.

Williams is a former co-founder of Chapel Hill-based UNC Management, where he helped manage more than $2 billion of endowments for the university and other institutions. Poston was previously a managing director at The Rockefeller Foundation in New York. Both have bachelor’s degrees from UNC Chapel Hill.

TrueBridge in July closed its sixth fundof-funds, raising $600 million. The company invests in venture-capital funds that focus mainly on early and growth stage technology companies. It also provides data for Forbes magazine’s Midas List of the world’s top 100 venture capitalists.

TrueBridge’s website notes the “Kauffman Fellows Program was integral to the firm’s inception in 2007. Over 150 venture capitalists are personally invested in TrueBridge funds today.” The Palo, Alto, Calif.-based fellowship is a two-year program to train promising innovators.

Earlier this year, P10 acquired Winston-Salem-based Five Points Capital, which provides equity and debt capital to lower middle-market private companies.

P10 is an alternative asset-management company formed by Dallas investors Clark Webb and Robert Alpert.

TrueBridge is among North Carolina’s largest money managers, according to Business North Carolina’s rankings.

CONGRATULATIONS ANDREW LANIER 2020 Trailblazer

WHO ARE WE? JCI is a nonprofit organization of young active citizens age 18 to 40 who are engaged and committed to creating impact in their communities.

Active citizens are individuals invested in the future of our world.

Follow us on Facebook @jacksonvillencjaycees

CONGRATULATIONS Andrew Lanier

Jacksonville & Swansboro | 910-939-3585 | www.lfcattorneys.com O C T O B E R

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TRIANGLE MORRISVILLE PINEHURST

Cybersecurity startup JupiterOne raised $19 million in a Series A round led by Bain Capital Ventures. CEO Erkang Zheng plans to double the company’s 20-person headcount by the end of the year. JupiterOne has more than 40 customers including Reddit, Databricks and OhMD.

The United States Golf Association plans a second headquarters here after N.C. lawmakers approved $18 million in incentives.

The group says it will invest at least $5 million in the state, build at least two buildings, and hold at least one major men’s championship every five to seven years and a major women’s event every 10 years. The association also pledged to employ as many as 50 people with salaries averaging $80,000.

GREENSBORO Cree, a semiconductor maker based in Durham, is giving $4 million to N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University to back a scholars program for students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The program is expected to fund eight to 10 students a year.

Drugmaker Fortovia Therapeutics filed for bankruptcy protection, reporting $1 million to $10 million in estimated liabilities. Fortovia reported 50 to 99 creditors.

Coworking chain WeWork will close its location at the Durham I.D. by the end of the year and will consolidate its location in the One City Center tower downtown and focus its efforts on its Raleigh location.

Grubb Ventures plans a residential development, Fairview Place Subdivision, that will include 24 single-family homes, 27 townhomes and a five-story retirement home.

Lennar, a Florida-based homebuilder, is the contract purchaser for Triple Crown, a 350home development near Neal Magnet Middle School. The site is largely undeveloped.

CARY Dave & Buster’s Entertainment is laying off 229 employees in North Carolina because of COVID-19, effective Nov. 8. A site here will have 92 layoffs, with 79 in Winston-Salem and 58 in Pineville.

DURHAM ReViral, a biopharmaceutical company based in Stevenage, UK, and here, raised $44 million in Series C financing. Investors include CR-CP Life Science Fund, Andera Partners, Brace Pharma Capital, and Green Sands Equity.

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AveXis is now Novartis Gene Therapies after Swiss drugmaker Novartis acquired the gene therapy business in 2018. There are more than 400 people working in the manufacturing facility. Novartis said last year it would invest $60 million in the business.

Pharmaceutical company BioCryst received a $7 million order from the federal government for its Rapivab influenza therapy, which covers 10,000 doses. The order is part of a $34.7 million 2018 contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The company also recently landed a $44 million contract to investigate its antiviral drug galidesivir’s effectiveness in treating COVID-19.

Piedmont Triad International Airport received a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to further the final phase of the airport’s noise mitigation program.

The latest grant will be used to soundproof 40 homes.

HIGH POINT Hunter Commercial Properties plans a 75,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility near Interstate 40. The building is expected to cost $5.6 million. A Fortune 200 company has reportedly expressed interest in the facility.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CREE

RALEIGH

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fiber optic internet here. The grant, awarded to Shallotte-based cooperative Atlantic Telephone Membership, will help expand infrastructure for 6,853 homes. The expansion includes 285 businesses, 209 farms, 19 educational facilities, nine health care facilities and 15 critical community facilities.

WILMINGTON WINSTON-SALEM Hanesbrands named Kristin Oliver, formerly with Walmart and Walgreens, as chief human resources officer. Oliver has more than 15 years of experience in human resources and employment law and previously served as the chief HR officer for clothing retailer Chico’s.

K&W Cafeterias filed to reorganize

EAST PENDER COUNTY A $21.6 million grant from the federal government is set to bring high-speed

Raleigh-based McConnell Golf acquired Porters Neck Country Club for $4 million after it filed for bankruptcy last year. The country club includes an 18-hole golf course, a clubhouse, a driving range, tennis courts, swimming pools and more.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HANESBRANDS, INC.

under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings after closing six locations in the Carolinas and Virginia. The family-owned company, started in 1935, is operating 18 restaurants as it restructures.

The Wilmington and Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau plans a “fall is the new summer” marketing push to increase tourism and spending.

The goal is to make up for an estimated $6.8 million loss in visitor spending due to the pandemic this year.

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Trask Land is seeking New Hanover County approval to develop housing on more than 500 acres near the interchange of Interstates 40 and 140. The company says demand for “workforce” housing is strong in the region. The Trask family has owned the property for decades.

WEST

Bojangles named Monica Sauls its first chief people officer. Sauls, who has 20 years of experience in human resources, succeeds Vickie Smith, senior vice president of human resources, who is retiring after more than 25 years at the fast-food chain.

LENOIR Taylorsville’s Craftmaster Furniture will expand its manufacturing capacity by 20% with a new plant in the former Broyhill Complex. The upholstered furniture manufacturer will use 100,000 square feet of the 400,000-square-foot building and expects to continue expanding operations.

BOONE Enrollment at Appalachian State University topped 20,000 for the first time, marking a 3.9% increase from a year earlier. The UNC System’s overall enrollment edged up 1% to nearly 240,000 students.

Earth Fare, an Asheville-based specialty grocer, is reopening five stores here under new ownership after it filed for bankruptcy and closed all stores in February. Previous locations in Ballantyne, Concord, SouthPark, Fort Mill, S.C., and a fifth, undisclosed location could be open by the end of the year.

Engineered products supplier SPX is acquiring ULC Robotics for $90 million, with contingent cash payments of as much as $45 million to be paid in 2021 and 2022 based on meeting performance milestones.

Rhode Island-based Beeline, a digital-mortgage provider, says it will add at least 120 jobs here with a new 14,000-square-foot office space at LakePointe Corporate Center. It’s the company’s second office in the U.S. Beeline, which has 30 Queen City employees, recently launched a digital lending platform.

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Red Ventures is purchasing CNET Media Group for $500 million with a closing expected in the fourth quarter.

Red Ventures will purchase the group from ViacomCBS, which bought CNET Networks for $1.8 billion in 2008.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF USGA, RED VENTURES, BOJANGLES

The city launched a $4 million Food Service Recovery Grant Program for restaurants, bars, food trucks and caterers that have been affected by COVID-19. About 350 businesses will receive either $10,000 or $25,000 grants depending on the size of their payroll.

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Medical software startup Translational Imaging Innovations received a $1.5 million Small Business Innovation Research award from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Italy’s FITT, which makes pipes, hoses and conduits sold by Lowe’s and other retailers, plans a $25 million, 120,000-square-foot building here that will create as many as 144 jobs. Iredell County and Mooresville are providing about $1 million in incentives over five years.

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Truist Financial launched a venture capital division to invest in early-stage financial tech companies. The new Truist Ventures invested $6 million in Veem, a payments company based in San Francisco.

C A R O L I N A

9/21/20 1:15 PM

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT YOUR COMPANY? North Carolina’s Best Employers For 2021 Registration is now open for Business North Carolina’s statewide program to recognize the “Best Employers in North Carolina”.

Participation is FREE and open to companies with at least 15 full-time or part-time, employees in North Carolina.

The winners will be announced in May 2021.

Register your company, at no cost, for the opportunity to be recognized in North Carolina For more information or to register your company, go to www.BestEmployersNC.com Registration deadline is November 20, 2020.

In partnership with:

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ROUND TABLE

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

DIVERSITY MATTERS

With recent social justice events and a spotlight on issues of diversity and equity, it is crucial for businesses to examine their workplace practices and create welcoming, inclusive environments. Senior executives inevitably set the tone, so Business North Carolina assembled some leading corporate and legal officials from across the state to discuss progress in creating more diverse workplaces and some of the challenges that remain.

PANELISTS

Janet LaBar

William Spruill

Wendy John

president and chief executive officer,

co-founder/president,

head of global diversity and inclusion,

Charlotte Regional Business Alliance

Global Data Consortium

Fidelity Investments

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The event was sponsored by Fidelity, Cree and Moore & Van Allen Law Firm. The transcript was edited for brevity and clarity.

WHY IS DIVERSITY IMPORTANT IN BUSINESS AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR INDUSTRY? JOHN: Diversity is important, and creating inclusive interactions is important to each of us. Sometimes we do the shorthand, and we think of everyone in terms of either one-dimensional frames or in terms of visible differences. The truth is more than 70% of differences are invisible. Everyone wants to be engaged right in the position that they’re in and from the perspective that they sit in and to have their own personal lived experience acknowledged.

We really are focused on diversity and inclusion in terms of the customer and because it’s a business imperative, but also because it really is the right thing to do in terms of engaging with all individuals across a diverse spectrum. And that starts with our associates as well, in terms of ensuring that they all are able to bring their perspective to bear on the solutions and the services that we’re providing to customers.

It’s important, and particularly at this point in time, whether it’s because of the pandemic or some of the recent events that have brought racial equity to the forefront of our discussions. We’re all very vulnerable, whether it’s to the coronavirus or to some of the other factors that are influencing our lives. We want to create interactions that are meaningful, that are candid, and we believe that this is about behavior being changed.

At Fidelity, we have this concept of simple starts, which are behavior-based approaches where you start with small behavioral changes that can help you create new, diverse and inclusive interactions in the workplace and also in your customer interactions. Changing up your diet a little bit: Who are you talking to? What are the books and movies and other things that you’re watching? Are they all coming from the same sources? Have you spent time with colleagues or individuals that are different from you, have a different lived experience, and really engage [with] them directly?

LABAR: There’s a lot of data out there that says this is important. There’s a business imperative. There’s an economic imperative, but where we are right now, there is a moral imperative. And I think we have to, within the business community, be brave. It’s time.

It’s been time. And within the business community, especially in the South, it’s too convenient to push conversations about race and diversity to the side because it’s not the polite thing to do.

The business community, again and again, has led in investments that make [the Charlotte region] vibrant, has led not only in expansion and growth of jobs but has really been a catalyst for how the Charlotte region has grown up. Why should we not lead in the conversations around race and inclusion and equity as well? That is something that I’m proud that the [Charlotte Regional Business Alliance] is going to plant a flag in.

The business community, together with the public sector, is at the table at the alliance. … How can we, as a community, collectively come together to create the space so

Gregg Lowe

Valecia McDowell

chief executive officer, Cree

management committee member and diversity committee co-chair, Moore & Van Allen, PLLC

that we can trust and build the relationships that will continue enabling us to do business here, to do business with each other, and to create opportunities for people who deserve those shots at economic growth and vibrancy?

I get lit up about these things. It’s an important regional competitiveness issue, but at the end of the day, this is about people.

We have to be there for each other, and we have to lift each other up. The pandemic has certainly uncovered disparities for people from a health crisis standpoint, a socioeconomic standpoint. The layering that we’re seeing due to some of the systemic barriers has just put the exclamation points all over this, and it’s time.

MCDOWELL: In addition to the moral imperative, which should be the driver for everyone, we are in the talent business.

We sell time and intellect. We don’t make anything, it doesn’t produce anything. We problem-solve. I co-chair our investigations practice, which is a very collaborative problem-solving endeavor. As is most of the work that we do at our firm, I can tell you from personal experience, if you try to build a team to solve a problem and everybody on that team has the exact same experience, you’re going to produce the same outcomes over and over again.

Just as a funny anecdote to that point, I had an investigation years ago [where] we had a team that was not as diverse as the overall firm. And they were looking to see if people were talking in code to one another in these particular communications. And they had stared at these communications for an extended period of time, and they could tell that there was something going on, but no one could figure out what was happening. So someone gives me a binder of these communications, and I’m not even really on this case. And they say, ‘Can you just take a look at it?’ I look at it for 10 minutes. And I said, ‘You mean other than the rap music lyrics that are contained in this binder?’ It’s a funny story because you’ve got people who are doing their level best.

And these are brilliant people with incredible amounts of talent, but their lived experience is very different.

The same thing happens when we’re talking about … cases that involve sexual harassment. If you don’t have the lived experience of being a woman, there are questions that might not be obvious. So there’s really something to the substance of the work that I don’t want to get lost in here.

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Yes, we want to create environments where everyone feels included. And yes, we want to create environments that mirror the overall population, but the actual outcomes of the work will be so much better if you have people who are bringing those different lived experiences to the table. To me, that’s really what matters for our business model beyond the fact that it’s just plain the right thing to do.

LOWE: I would add to that when you talked about how there’s tons of studies [on how] diversity produces a better result, I think that’s absolutely true. Just on the social injustice situation that we’ve all been experiencing and seeing life play out in front of us, when George Floyd was murdered, it took me a couple of days to find my voice and figure out what I wanted to tell our organization. I wrote a one-page note to the organization giving my thoughts on it, and I got hundreds of emails back from our employees talking about their experiences. It took a situation where intellectually you say, ‘It’s Minnesota, it’s Wisconsin, it’s somewhere else,’ and realize it’s not somewhere else. It’s look to the left and look to the right, the people you are working with are experiencing the same thing.

As a leader, you want to jump into action, and we were very much wanting to do something that day. We took a moment to take a deep breath, and we said, ‘You know, what we really need to do is listen to our employees who have all of these … horrible stories about what’s happened with them.’ So we had a series of about 10 listening sessions. … We listened to those experiences, and we’ve come up with recommendations for action we’re going to take. I do a video every two weeks for our company, and in two weeks, I’m going to do a video explaining all of the actions we’re going to be taking. These are a broad set of things that basically come from the voice of our organization.

The George Floyd murder shocked me.

I would say the stories from the people I work with were equally as shocking and horrible and despicable. I think it really demands attention from leaders and demands action from leaders, and we can’t get into a mode where it’s three weeks from now, it’s sort of a forgotten thing. We need to keep this front and center.

SPRUILL: The importance really is around points of view and perspectives. If you don’t have different points of view and perspective inside your organization, you’re going

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to be monochromatic and, as a function of that, you are not going to be as economically profitable. You’re not going to get the best possible output. That’s a known; that’s a math equation. It’s very simple for anyone to understand that, and it’s pretty much indisputable.

One of the reasons why our business is actually uniquely successful in the global digital identity space is because we actually come at it with different points of view and perspective. The number of CEOs I meet around the world, when we engage with them around partnering, whether I walk into the room or engage via email, they look me up on LinkedIn and they’re like, ‘How’s this guy running this global business?’ It’s amazing. And when you actually get into a conversation, come into the dialogue with a different point of view, ... it actually opens a lot more doors. In my particular experience, being a person of color running a global business in tech has actually been fantastic because it gives the people I’m dealing with [the opportunity to] see [things] differently, and I’m able to engage differently.

[Social injustice issues] have been ongoing throughout the history of my life.

So none of this is necessarily new to me. … I think I’ve heard Janet mention this from a perspective of [living] in the South.

I experienced systemic issues in tech on the West Coast when … I was COO of the company that was acquired by a West Coast firm, and I ended up being the most senior African American employee inside that firm. What was really interesting is they would only give me a senior director title.

They claimed that they didn’t give out [vice president] titles very easily, which I took at face value. But what was more interesting was when I left the company, … the person who replaced me inside that company, an older white male, they made him a VP within six months. And so you say, ‘What are the differences here? What is going on here?’ It does call a lot of things into question.

My company, we’re profitable. We’ve been fantastically profitable for a few years now. But we recently raised a strategic round of capital. We took that money and said, ‘Well, wait a minute, we’re sitting on this money in the bank because we’re going to be spending it for some growth initiatives, not immediately, but over time.

Why do we have it sitting in this large bank account at Silicon Valley Bank, which is a traditional tech bank based out in California?

Why do we have it there when we’ve got these community banks that could actually put that money to work immediately in the

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community to help impact the community?’

It costs us nothing to do that. … Mechanics and Farmers Bank is the second-oldest African American-owned bank in the country and it happens to be based here in the Triangle. … They’re doing North Carolina-based lending in communities that are not reached by traditional banks. … We moved $3 million over there within a week.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT YOUR ASSOCIATIONS, ORGANIZATIONS AND BUSINESSES TO SUPPORT DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION? LOWE: I came from Texas Instruments, which is a very strong company in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion. When I joined Cree, we really didn’t have a whole lot going on in any of those areas. So we started some employee resource groups.

We started with the women’s initiative. A group of women got together and formed the initiative, and it’s been a huge success.

After that, we started a pride group for the LGBTQ community. That has been a roaring success as well. It’s really important that people can bring their entire self to work, and I think that particular group is challenged in that regard. The support that they’re getting through the pride organization has been fantastic. We’re kicking off a couple more groups. Most notably, there’s a Black employee initiative group that is going to be started; that’s going to kick off within the month.

These employee resource groups are really great forums for discussion, dialogue and action. They eventually turn into resource groups that help with career progression and mentoring programs. It’s been a pretty big success for us so far.

MCDOWELL: We have leaned into our affinity groups. It’s been a huge benefit to us.

We actually began with a lawyers of color affinity group that rolls up to our diversity committee. We also have had the WOMVA — Women of Moore & Van Allen — affinity group for some time.

In the wake of George Floyd and the rest of the Black Lives Matter developments over the summer, … at the suggestion of two of our associates, we’ve established a Black lawyers affinity group that is separate and distinct. I think this is an important point for businesses to understand. We have a wonderful, fully engaged, lawyers of color group, SPONSORED SECTION

9/21/20 1:50 PM

but there are certain issues, particularly in this environment, where Black lawyers or Black professionals need to feel like they are in community with other Black professionals.

One of the things I wanted to make sure that we talked about here is folks are really vulnerable right now. Greg, you talked about the many, many emails that you had received. That’s been my experience within our institution, with our lawyers and with our staff as well. We have a very diverse staff.

And while we’re talking about all these other sort of business components, I think we need to acknowledge how much pain people are experiencing, and when we’re talking about what we want to do institutionally from a business perspective to support our folks and to diversify our pool of employees, we need to start by just caring for one another. And some of that caring is just developed in a space where people can safely communicate with one another without fear of negative consequence and be supported and be able to come in and say, ‘You know, I just don’t feel good about being at work today.

I don’t feel comfortable, I don’t feel myself.’

It’s been an assault on folks emotionally. That may not be abundantly clear. But I guarantee you that there are people in all of these orga-

nizations that are doing their best to do their jobs who have been crying in their offices, because of the emotional weight of what has been going on this summer.

So, yes, we have affinity groups, but I want to make that point to say it’s really about creating safe spaces for folks. Yes, we’re doing facilities dialogue, where we’re talking about how not to be racist.

And we’re engaging our folks, our majority folks as well as our minority folks, in those discussions. But I think it’s important to acknowledge that there’s a push pull for our people of color during this time. They want to support those larger dialogues; they really appreciate that our businesses are doing them. But it’s like, ‘Ah, this is another place where I have to come to be vulnerable. Can we have a safe space?’ On a more human basis, businesses can really serve their employees by acknowledging that pain and creating the space for people to deal with that safely within their institutions.

JOHN: We were many months into sort of a disrupted environment where everyone was subject to some amount of vulnerability, whatever the circumstance, so it created an environment that required managers

and leaders to step up and lean into their leadership role, perhaps in a way different than we have all expected leaders to show up in the past. There’s been a blurring of the lines between personal and professional life.

We’re all here from our personal environments. I think we were perhaps fortunate in a weird way to already have the door of vulnerability already opened to then set the stage for what happened a few months ago where many organizations found themselves thrust into a conversation that I would argue our Black associates were unprepared for in environments where people typically have been discouraged from having conversations around race and equity and having those conversations with others who appear different.

Our employee resource groups have been really critical in those conversations, and it’s important to remember those are volunteer organizations. They were tapped to lead some of those conversations. We all probably created those spaces to have those conversations. What we acknowledged was, you’re inviting individuals to share trauma that maybe they haven’t shared before.

This has been a learning opportunity. I

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think we have to be also candid that everyone is in a different position. Some of us have been having the conversation in private spaces for a long time. Others are now starting. It requires a great deal of patience. …

It’s challenging because many are frustrated, and it’s an emotional time. But we also have to allow those that are newer to the conversation the grace to make mistakes and to come along with us and to learn the language and help.

[Another thing we] think is very important at Fidelity is that while we have our own environment, our own workplace environment, we are part of a broader community.

In building on prior relationships that we had with local schools and others, we’ve also partnered within North Carolina with 100 Black Men, Black Girls Code and Village of Wisdom. … We have a real commitment to early-stage education and financial literacy.

you’re doing and then make that available and accessible to the smaller companies who don’t know where to start or even how to create these programs?

I think through our advocacy efforts, we are going to try to lift up the visibility around these systemic barriers, specifically around employment. We’re talking about folding into our advocacy agenda the need to address fair chance hiring, second chance hiring, clean slate reform, and things that both North Carolina and South Carolina can do at the state level. And then how do we apply some of those things even at the local level among some of the municipalities in the Carolinas and the jurisdictions that we represent? There’s a lot of work being done among the employers around inclusive hiring and retention of diverse talent. But we need a much bolder employer commitment to do this work.

LABAR: I think internally, the work is being done. But I think our responsibility as the voice of business for the Charlotte region is, more so, how do we leverage what our employers and the business community are doing? ... How can we take those best practices, those learnings and findings and what

MCDOWELL: Everything you’re saying is right; we’re doing much better from a recruiting perspective. We have a majority of female associates at our firm at this point. … Fourteen percent of our associates are people of color. So the recruiting front demonstrates our commitment to this

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work, but it doesn’t work if you guys don’t hire those people. It doesn’t work if you call the same white male lawyer that you’ve used since God was a baby, and that you play golf with and you expect that person to just staff those matters in a way that would be consistent with your conscience, right?

Because what happens in law firms and consultants and accountants, the very places that ultimately lead to board membership on your own companies where now you’re desperately looking for board members.

Where are they? Well, they all left those companies because you didn’t give them work directly.

So if there’s one thing that I could ask the business community through your magazine, through this effort, to do it is hire people of color, hire women, hire them directly, make sure they get credit for having been hired, and then keep an eye on them.

They’re not going to be at the institutions that you’re using if they aren’t talented.

They have what it takes to do the work: Hire those folks. And then you will begin to see not just associates but you’ll see partners

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or directors or managing directors, or VPs or SVPs [of color]. You’ll begin to see that build through our business community. That’s what is missing. … And once we have that diversity at the top, it is so much easier to actually do a better job of recruiting people to begin with.

SPRUILL: I look at it as a barbell approach. ... I think D&I initiatives are great and wonderful. But if we’re not actually threading people into the fabric of corporate organizations, it does not matter. It never gets above a certain threshold — that’s corporate board level. That’s something that I’m getting very vigorous around calling out. … If you don’t have that support at the board level and the C-suite level, you’re going to gravitate and leave along the way because you don’t have someone who’s looking out to say, ‘Hey, have I reached into my organization? Am I giving them the mentorship, the guidance, the counseling, the forward momentum?

Am I helping them find their next opportunity, even if it’s not here? Can I plug them elsewhere into the network so that they continue their career or in a way that makes them influential all the way through?’

Epic Games actually has this amazing

pool of internal talent on the legal side that are people of color. I was stunned to find out about that. They didn’t do a deliberate act to necessarily create it, but it happened because, most likely, one or two people were hired and brought others along. And when you look at what Epic Games is engaged with currently in the market and their battle with Apple as a billion-dollar entity, they’re doing battle on a global stage. These attorneys are getting the experience of a lifetime. … This is where the opportunity is on one side of the barbell, and I think it behooves us to get these people involved.

But it’s got to come at the C-suite level and at the corporate board level.

Then the other side of the barbell is education. I’m amazed at the number of African American computer engineering students who I encountered who will not go to work at a smaller tech startup. Rather, they’re going to go to work at IBM or Cisco because, frankly, there’s a familial responsibility, and they are programmed to think this is the path to go. … It’s more money than anyone else in my family has made. They there’s not that acknowledgement of, I can go to this startup and make the same amount of money. Yeah, the risk is there. But my worst

case scenario is a startup fold. And I have to go get another job. And in today’s world, that’s a nominal risk if you’re a computer engineer. If you’re any good, people will grab you within hours of you putting your name out on the street.

I think that if we can’t also do a better job of creating these opportunities in the community, just say, ‘Come on over here, the water’s fine.’ Help them understand.

Help the younger cast understand that taking risk is not a bad thing at that age.

Yep, recognize that you got to pay off your student loans, recognize that you’ve got to help take care of the family. These are the things that we deal with as Black people. … You go back home, and you’re taking care of some folks along the way. But there are [ways of] creating the paths for that. … Corporations [can create] student loan forgiveness programs that say, ‘You come to work for us, you stay here, we’re going to pay off a chunk. You stay another year, we’re going to pay off another chunk. And whether that’s corporations doing that or the state government doing that, I think that’s another way that you can actually create grassroots activity that matters at the end of the day. ■

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BY SHANNON CUTHRELL

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ears of COVID-19 outbreaks prompted North Carolina’s large public school systems to mostly opt for exclusively online instruction this fall, a take-it-safe strategy that drew praise and criticism.

The state’s private schools universally chose to offer in-person instruction with online options, prompting higher enrollment at most institutions. Applications from prospective students increased at double-digit rates at many schools, but capacity restrictions blocked major expansions.

Business North Carolina asked 21 highly rated private schools how they are handling instruction given pandemic concerns and how enrollment is faring. About a dozen other schools declined to participate.

Detailed reports of the private schools’ efforts to diversify their populations and staffs is included in the online version of this story at businessnc.com. Such efforts are a major push at most schools.

Tuition reported by the schools does not include scholarships and other aid, which reduces cost for some students.

Kinston, parrottacademy.org Transitional kindergarten through 12th grade

Concord, cannonschool.org Junior kindergarten through 12th grade

Enrollment (2020-21): 668 As of Aug. 24. Enrollment has remained at full capacity for the past five years.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: On-campus with reduced class sizes and safety measures Average tuition: $9,633 Founded in 1964, Arendell Parrott Academy attracts students across eastern North Carolina, from Greenville to Jacksonville. The school’s 80-acre campus contains seven academic buildings, a fine arts building, six science labs and an athletic complex.

Enrollment (2020-21): 1,031 A record in the school’s 51-year history Fall 2020 instruction plan: In-person and remote. Students are divided into two groups that meet in-person one week and virtually the next. Remote-only is an option.

Tuition: $17,970 to $24,230 Founded in 1969, Cannon School has a 65-acre campus featuring a performing arts center, dedicated technology spaces, indoor and outdoor dining, and athletics facilities for 46 teams in the middle and upper school grades.

Winston-Salem, calvaryday.school Preschool through 12th grade

Cary, carychristianschool.org Kindergarten through 12th grade

Enrollment (2020-21): 820 Enrollment increased by 8% over last year, preceded by six consecutive years of growth.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: 94% of families opted for on-campus learning. 6% chose the virtual option.

Average tuition: ​$9,000 Founded in 1971, Calvary Day School emphasizes a Bible-centered curriculum, teaching academics and critical thinking. The school has 40 honors-level courses and 14 Advanced Placement courses.

Enrollment (2020-21): 818 Enrollment has continued to grow over the past five years.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: About 95% of students are on campus for in-person learning, and 5% of students are distance learning.

Average tuition: $ ​ 8,144 Since its founding in 1994, Cary Christian School has grown to become the third-largest in the Association of Classical Christian Schools in the U.S. Families desire a school with “like-minded values, rigorous academics [and] a large variety of options from athletics to the arts, all with a biblical worldview,” says Leah Thomsen, communications director and assistant to the headmaster.

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Wilmington, capefearacademy.org Preschool through 12th grade

Charlotte, charlottelatin.org Transitional kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): 1,480 Continuing steady increases over the past five years Fall 2020 instruction plan: In-person learning with hybrid and remote options Tuition: $ ​ 19,550 to $26,900 Founded in 1970 and operating on a 128-acre campus, the school hosts a curriculum focused on classical languages, critical thinking and teacher-student collaboration. The school has reached 95% of a $30 million fundraising goal in its latest campaign, the largest in school history.

Enrollment (2020-21): 673 Up from 600 in 2016 Fall 2020 instruction plan: In-class for all grades with a remote-learning option Average tuition: ​About $16,000, ranging from $11,900 to $19,450 Cape Fear Academy is located on a 27-acre campus that includes a new science and innovation center, a fine arts center and two athletic facilities.

Charlotte, charlottechristian.com Junior kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): 1,133 Continuing record enrollment for at least five straight years Fall 2020 instruction plan: On-campus, with at-home learning options Tuition: $15,900 to $21,655 Established in 1950, Charlotte Christian School is a nondenominational college preparatory school focused on infusing a biblical worldview with academic experience.

The school broke ground in January on new athletic fields, parking and a fieldhouse.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPE FEAR ACADEMY

Charlotte, charlottecountryday.org Junior kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): 1,701 Continuing annual growth of 10 to 20 students in the past five years Fall 2020 instruction plan: Elementary and preschool students: On-campus five days per week Middle and high school students: Alternating between online and on-campus learning Tuition: $18,695 to $26,020 The school recently completed a multiyear project including a new media center, student center, and science and math building. It is opening a natatorium and gymnasium this fall funded by more than $30 million in donations.

Matthews, covenantday.org Transitional kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): 945 As of Aug. 27, continuing a five-year growth pace Fall 2020 instruction plan: In-person Average tuition: $ ​ 14,000 Covenant Day School is a private college-preparatory school that centers academics around a biblical worldview.

The school opened in 1989 as a ministry of Christ Covenant Church.

Durham, da.org Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): 1,232 At full capacity. Applications increased 31% this year.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: 11% of students have chosen full-time, at-home learning, but the majority will be learning in-person at school. Depending on the child’s grade level, students attend school in-person two to four days per week.

Average tuition: $23,062 Formed in 1933, Durham Academy opened an Upper School STEM and Humanities Center last year and expects to complete a middle school a​ rts and languages center in December.

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Fayetteville, fayacademy.org Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade

Gastonia, gastonday.org Preschool through 12th grade

Enrollment (2020-21): 275 This year’s total declined from an average of about 388 students over the past four years, reflecting coronavirusrelated issues.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: All classes in school; remote-learning option available.

Tuition: Approximately $11,000 to $17,000 Established in 1791 but reopened under new leadership in 1970, Fayetteville Academy offers a college preparatory experience focusing on academics, arts and athletics.

Lewisville, fcds.org Preschool through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): 800 Continuing five years of steady gains Fall 2020 instruction plan: In-school every day; students in fifth through 12th grade can choose a remote option.

Tuition: ​$14,500 to $24,590 Founded in 1970, Forsyth County Day School’s classes have an average size of 14. Nearly two-thirds of teachers have advanced degrees.

Enrollment (2020-21): 485 As of Aug. 24. Capacity was reduced from 530 to comply with social-distancing standards.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: On-campus every day; remote learning available Average tuition: $ ​ 15,196 Founded in 1967, Gaston Day School is a nonsectarian college-preparatory school enrolling students from preschool to 12th grade across Gaston, Mecklenburg, Lincoln, Cleveland and York counties. It recently completed a $2 million project to renovate several science labs and classrooms and install energy-efficient windows.

Southern Pines, onealschool.org Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade

Enrollment (2020-21): 771 As of Aug. 27, an increase of 175 from 2019, the biggest single-year gain since 1972 Fall 2020 instruction plan: 85% of students opted for in-person classes, while 15% chose remote learning.

Tuition: ​$8,500 to $24,475 Founded in 1970, Greensboro Day School has a 65-acre campus and contains more than 60 classrooms, nine science labs, two libraries and two theaters. The school started a multiyear, $9 million endowment campaign last year to boost financial aid.

Charlotte, providenceday.org Transitional kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): About 1,780 A 3% increase and continuing a five-year trend Fall 2020 instruction plan: Lower school meets entirely on campus; middle and upper schools alternate days on campus with days of remote learning. Full remote learning is an option.

Tuition: $19,340 to $27,455 Providence Day School completed a $27.8 million capital campaign in 2018, the largest of its kind since the school’s founding in 1970. The funds seeded an 80,000-square-foot learning center, a 7,200-square-foot entrance building and the school’s first endowed chair position.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF GASTON DAY SCHOOL

Greensboro, greensboroday.org Preschool through 12th grade

Enrollment (2020-21): 468 The highest level in the past five years Fall 2020 instruction plan: On-campus Average tuition: $ ​ 14,100 The O’Neal School is a private college-preparatory school founded in 1971. Located on a 40-acre campus in Southern Pines, the school also enrolls students from Pinehurst and surrounding towns such as Whispering Pines, Sanford, West End and Aberdeen.

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Raleigh, ravenscroft.org Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade

Enrollment (2020-21): 1,196 An increase of about 50 students from three years ago Fall 2020 instruction plan: 78% of families opted to start the year on-campus. Remote learning is an option.

Average tuition: ​$22,712 Ravenscroft is an independent, coed day school founded in 1862 that offers an experience balancing academic, athletic and artistic pursuits. It recently announced plans to add a 33,000-square-foot student center to A.E. Finley Activity Center.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RAVENSCROFT SCHOOL, MARY VIRGINIA SWAIN, ST. MARY’S SCHOOL

Huntersville, southlakechristian.org Junior kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment(2020-21): 597 A 7% increase after several years of stable enrollment Fall 2020 instruction plan: In-person with online-only option.

Average tuition: ​$11,441 SouthLake Presbyterian Church established the school in 1994. It emphasizes biblical principles in academics, arts, athletics and community service.

Raleigh, stdavidsraleigh.org Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): Nearly 600 Lower school enrollment is the largest in the school’s history after a building expansion in 2015.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: On-campus with the option to participate remotely Tuition: $11,000 to $23,950 St. David’s School is an independent Episcopal preparatory school founded in 1972. The school has 43 athletic teams, four bands, seven choirs, two annual theater productions and 17 educational travel programs.

Raleigh, sms.edu ninth-12th grade

Enrollment (2020-21): 302 A 14% increase over the past five years. Retention was 96% last year.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: Periods of both virtual and in-person learning Tuition: Boarding tuition: $58,900; Day tuition: $29,500 Founded in 1842, St. Mary’s School is an all-girls, Episcopal boarding and day school located on a 23-acre campus near N.C. State University and downtown Raleigh. The school offers AP courses, several electives, a seminar program, arts education, college counseling and athletic teams in 11 sports. The Saint Mary’s Forever Campaign has raised about $25 million to improve financial sustainability, grow the school’s endowment, and boost academic integration and innovation. The school is also undergoing a multiphase renovation of the Cruikshank Hall dormitory and upfitting the auditorium and science labs.

High Point, wesed.org Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade Enrollment (2020-21): 978 Little changed over the past five years. Applications increased 37% this year.

Fall 2020 instruction plan: On-campus with an option for remote learning Average tuition: $ ​ 10,850 Wesleyan Christian Academy’s 28-acre main campus is home to eight science labs, three computer labs and a STEM lab. The school also has a 71-acre sports complex.

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2020 LAW JOURNAL

2020 LAW JOURNAL Business North Carolina has asked legal experts to weigh in on insights into the world of business. The scope of business law can be overwhelming to many. Topics such as enforcing dress codes in the changing landscape of the workplace and event cancelations due to the pandemic are imperative for most business owners in the state, but laws are confusing and require a deep knowledge. These issues are explored by some of the state’s top legal minds in the following pages.

“Skirting” trouble when the law is anything but “uniform”: Creating and enforcing a dress code in a changing legal landscape.

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BY JESSI THALLER-MORAN, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP

COVID-19 cancelled my event. Now what?

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BY CHRIS EDWARDS, Ward and Smith, PA

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“SKIRTING” TROUBLE WHEN THE LAW IS ANYTHING BUT “UNIFORM”: Creating and enforcing a dress code in a changing legal landscape.

BY JESSI THALLER-MORAN Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP

Unless you are a lawyer heading to court, you probably aren’t wearing a suit today. In fact, most people probably weren’t wearing formal work attire even before the pandemic. Across industries, jeans, flip flops, and “athleisure” apparel are becoming staples of both personal and work wardrobes. The casual workplace was on the rise well before stay-home orders, and now seems guaranteed to become a cultural fixture.

This trend sometimes finds itself at loggerheads with both traditional ideas of professionalism and health and safety requirements, made no less significant by current working conditions. Employers live in fear of the infamous video-conference-in-no-pants moment, or an employee wearing a t-shirt with an offensive slogan to an important virtual meeting. Workplaces operating in person must deal with not only standard professionalism and safety concerns, but also requirements for face coverings.

Employers often address these concerns by either requiring a company

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uniform, if applicable, or by implementing a dress code. Created and enforced appropriately, both uniforms and dress codes are reasonable solutions to workplace attire quandaries. Courts have regularly upheld the right to create and enforce such requirements so long as employers do not discriminate, either in language or in application, based on protected characteristics such as race, national origin, sex, religion, disability, or age, and so long as the requirements do not infringe upon other legal rights by, for example, preventing employees from wearing labor union insignia.

The limits to this general deference have become starker following recent legislative updates and the Supreme Court’s landmark holding Bostock v.

Clayton County, which clarified that Title VII extends protection to individuals based on sexual orientation and transgender status. Now, more than ever, employers must be attentive to the intersection of traditional norms and evolving legal and social standards.

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LEGAL TRENDS Even before Bostock v. Clayton County, gender-based dress codes were subject to increased scrutiny. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has long taken the position that a dress code that disproportionately burdens one gender over the other is discriminatory.

Jurisdictions like New York, which often pave the way for legislative trends across the country, have implemented their own legislation on the same topic. New York City’s Human Rights Law, for example, prohibits employers from imposing dress codes or grooming/appearance standards that impose different requirements based on gender. New York City’s Commission on Human Rights issued corresponding guidance clarifying that differentiation based on gender “is sufficient for it to be considered discriminatory, even if perceived by some as harmless.”

This clarification of the law means that a dress code with gender-specific limitations, like prohibiting male employees’ use SPONSORED SECTION

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of makeup or earrings, is likely to land the

dation, employers must have meaningful

that ask employees to “dress profes-

company in hot water. By the same token,

dialogue with the applicant or employee

sionally” or “dress for their day.” Others

a dress code that disproportionately limits

in question. In general, accommodations

may prefer the added clarity that comes

“female” clothing options by specifying

should be granted unless they would pres-

from listing specific items of clothing, but

skirt length, number of earrings, strap

ent the employer with an undue hardship.

should draft that policy so that it does not

width on tank tops, height of high heels

A co-worker’s jealousy of the employee’s

single out people with protected traits.

and other clothing items typically selected

accommodation, or customers who prefer

No matter the wording of the policy,

by women is likely problematic.

to interact with employees of a certain

management should be trained to en-

It is important to note that these trends

appearance would not constitute an

force dress code and grooming standards

are not limited to the context of gender.

undue hardship. Things like workplace

in a consistent and non-discriminatory

To the contrary, the legal landscape is

safety, security, or health could constitute

fashion, and to recognize “flags” that

indicative of a broader awareness of

an undue hardship—if those concerns are

suggest the company may need to take

discrimination based on protected traits.

actually relevant and not just assumed,

action to protect an applicant or employ-

For example, New York amended its anti-

and if there is no way to both accom-

ee’s legal rights. Employers should also

discrimination laws last year to explicitly

modate the employee and address the

be consistent about notifying applicants

protect “traits historically associated with

workplace concern. For example, the

about dress code and uniform require-

race,” which the law defines to include

manufacturer above should actively

ments during the interview process; if

hair texture and “braids, locks, and twists.”

examine whether the employee can

an applicant accepts the position with

California passed a similar law. This type

safely perform her job while wearing a

advance notice of the dress requirements,

of legislation is another reminder that

skirt. Of course, if the skirt would actu-

the employer will be in a better position

employers must be attentive to dress

ally present a significantly higher risk of

when and if that employee challenges

and grooming expectations that may

injury, that would likely constitute undue

the validity of that dress code. Finally,

disproportionately impact some groups

hardship. The restaurant should examine

employers should regularly review those

over others.

whether any health and safety concerns

policies to ensure compliance with current

around the beard could be addressed by,

requirements.

APPLICATION

for example, a beard covering.

As with any other workplace policy, a

With respect to COVID-related face

dress code or uniform requirement that

coverings, employers should ensure

is neutral on its face may still be discrim-

they are up to date on applicable legal

inatory in application. Employers should

requirements and be prepared to engage

ensure that management and human

with employees who present medical

resource departments receive appropriate

or religious reasons for not wearing the

training on consistent application of poli-

required covering, balancing workplace

cies. Are people of color or women more

safety concerns with the requested ac-

frequently penalized for their apparel? Is

commodation.

a “professionalism” dress code explained with reference to clothing or hairstyles typically associated with a particular group of people?

Even employers with compliant dress

Jessi Thaller-Moran, an attorney in

RECOMMENDATIONS

the Raleigh office of Brooks Pierce,

Ultimately, restrictions must be revised to comply with the evolving legal landscape. Dress codes based on outdated norms—particularly

JESSI THALLER-MORAN

as

more

focuses her practice on employment law and litigation, counseling employers on compliance with state

codes must be prepared to accommo-

gender

date applicants and employees who need

employees identify as gender fluid, trans-

and federal laws. She also uses her

exemptions to follow religious dress and

gender, or gender non-binary—or that

experience in the North Carolina

grooming practices or because of a dis-

disproportionately burden members of

Business Court to develop strategies

ability. A manufacturer’s requirement that

certain racial, ethnic, or religious minori-

employees wear pants may have to be

ties should be revisited and updated

for clients embroiled in a wide range

relaxed for an employee whose sincerely

accordingly.

of complex business litigation disputes, helping clients to think creatively about

held religious beliefs require her to wear

Some employers have opted to skirt

skirts or dresses; a restaurant that re-

(pun intended) these dichotomies by

opportunities for resolution and

quires employees be “clean-shaven” may

providing a consolidated list of expected

zealously advocating for their interests

have to permit an employee with a skin

apparel, for instance “professional cloth-

in court when the need arises.

condition to grow a beard.

ing, such as suits, dresses, and blazers.”

In responding to requests for accommo-

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COVID-19 CANCELLED MY EVENT. WHAT NOW?

BY CHRIS EDWARDS Ward and Smith, P.A.

Since March, businesses across North Carolina have been cancelling events at a breakneck clip. For example, my firm cancelled its annual retreat. In the face of Governor Roy Cooper’s executive orders, we had to hope that our host would accommodate our need to postpone.

A large-scale cancellation can have far-reaching consequences. Businesses spend tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars planning their events— securing space, lodging, catering, and the like. When businesses are forced to cancel an event, what happens to all that money? More than that, often venues try to reschedule events. But let’s be realistic: in the wake of COVID-19, many businesses are probably angling for the same day; and not every company can host its convention, retreat, or golf tournament on the third Saturday in May 2021.

So what’s a business to do? How should it handle its cancelled reservation? Or,

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perhaps more importantly as we emerge from the virus, how should it deal with future disappointment? This article outlines three considerations for determining what effect COVID-19 will have on your group event.

FORCE MAJEURE A force majeure clause is something of a “get out of jail free” card. These clauses, which may excuse contract performance in the event of an “act of God,” likely are the easiest way to determine your responsibilities, now that COVID-19 has ruined your event.

Many—but not all contracts contain force majeure clauses. To determine if your contract contains a force majeure clause, you must read the contract.

Force majeure clauses aren’t always clearly labeled, but usually have a readily recognizable form. They often excuse performance under a contract in the

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event of an “act of God,” war, insurrection, or the like. The point is this: force majeure clauses often contain similar language.

A pandemic, like the one caused by COVID-19, may fall within the scope of your force majeure clause. Force majeure clauses are not created equal. Some, for example, expressly excuse performance in the event of a pandemic. If that is the case, you’re in luck; you likely are off the hook.

Others are less clear. They may include only “act of God” language. As of now, it is unclear whether that language applies to the pandemic. Because COVID-19 is so new, that theory is untested.

Even if your force majeure clause covers COVID-19, your right to a refund depends on the clause’s language. Yes, it’s true. Some force majeure clauses allow one or both parties to undo the contract.

In that instance, your obligation to pay likely will be excused. But other clauses will hold you to your bargain.

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IMPOSSIBILITY What if you have no written contract?

Or what if your contract does not contain a force majeure clause? If relying on a force majeure clause isn’t an option, an alternative may be the doctrine of impossibility.

The Supreme Court of North Carolina has recognized this doctrine.

Impossibility, though, is difficult to prove. In North Carolina, impossibility excuses the performance of a contract with a contract when “the subject matter of the contract is destroyed without fault of the party seeking to be excused from performance.” Brenner v. Little Red Sch. House, Ltd., 302 N.C. 207, 209 (1981).

Because COVID-19 will—at some point—pass, the doctrine of impossibility is probably a poor fit for most COVID-19 related cancellations. To apply the doctrine of impossibility, courts require a showing that the subject matter of the contract was literally and permanently destroyed. It is not enough that the subject matter of the contract is temporarily unavailable—even if that temporary unavailability might last for years. For example, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has suggested that an easement agreement—one establishing an easement that was used by an apartment’s tenants as a loading zone—was not impossible even though the City of Charlotte had since designated the easement a fire lane. The reason: the City might “at some point” determine that the easement no longer needed to be a fire lane.

Even if COVID-19 did destroy the subject matter of your contract, you’re not guaranteed any relief. It’s harsh, but true.

Before courts will apply impossibility, they typically require a showing that the cause of the impossibility was not “reasonably foreseeable.” On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic.

If you entered into a contract after March 11, the doctrine of impossibility probably is unavailable to you. It is possible that some

courts may determine that a COVID-19 outbreak was reasonably foreseeable even before that. Like so many problems created by COVID-19, this is an untested question that will have to make its way through the court system before we have clear answers.

FRUSTRATION OF PURPOSE So if you don’t have a force majeure clause, and impossibility gets you nowhere, then what? A third option is “frustration of purpose.” In North Carolina, the doctrine of “frustration of purpose” protects parties when performance under a contract remains possible, but some unforeseeable event destroys the contract’s value. See Brenner, 302 N.C. at 211.

Frustration of purpose is a high standard. Before courts will apply frustration of purpose, they require a showing that an unforeseeable event has totally undermined the value of a contract. It is not enough that an unforeseeable event may make performance under a contract either inconvenient or incredibly expensive. So just because the cost of holding an event during COVID-19 may have skyrocketed, those increased costs do not frustrate the purpose of your contract. Likewise, frustration of purpose does not apply when the parties have already allocated the risk of loss between themselves. For example, a frustration of purpose argument is unlikely to persuade a vendor to provide a refund if your contract includes “no refund” language.

Frustration of purpose still may provide some relief in the era of COVID-19.

In particular, frustration of purpose is likely to apply to some service contracts. So, for example, if you had contracted with a catering company to provide services at your now-cancelled corporate retreat, you likely have no obligation to pay the catering company. That question is less clear when it comes to the location for that retreat.

It is unsettled whether something like Governor Cooper’s executive orders,

which limited large-scale gatherings, frustrated the purpose of your rental contract. Likewise, it is unclear whether the venue’s choice to reschedule your event at an unfavorable time will give rise to a winning frustration of purpose argument.

Ultimately, the success of this argument may depend on how much the venue knew about your event.

CONCLUSION In the face of COVID-19, the law is rapidly changing. This article provides insights based only on the law as it exists today. In a few months, once these theories have been tested, courts may change the scope of impossibility or frustration of purpose.

While these insights offer a general lay of the land, remember that every case is fact specific. You should seek the advice of an attorney before determining your rights.

CHRIS EDWARDS

Chris is an appellate attorney and civil litigator in the Wilmington office of Ward and Smith, P.A. His multifaceted practice encompasses complex legal issues related to business, intellectual property, and appellate matters. As a civil litigator, Chris handles all aspects of commercial disputes involving contracts, non-compete clauses, trademarks, copyrights, and patents.

A significant portion of his practice also involves critical motions and appeals.

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he joys of small-town living came into greater focus over the last six months as the pandemic induced fear of close contact associated with living in denser urban cities. For many of this year’s Trailblazers, though, life in smaller communities was an easy sell long before COVID-19. Emily McCurry spent a year in Boston after graduating from UNC Asheville before deciding to return to her roots in Haywood County, where the financial adviser says strangers still smile at each other.

This annual feature recognizes thriving business owners and professionals under the age of 40 who work in N.C. cities and towns that have fewer than 100,000 residents.

We received nominations for talented people based from Jacksonville near the coast to Waynesville in the mountains. This year’s list spanned a wide variety of occupations, including a coffee roaster, lawyer, hotel manager and engineer.

Demographers say it’s too early to know if the pandemic will reverse the long-term trend in which most population growth in North Carolina occurs around the Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham metro areas. State leaders, the N.C. Rural Center and others are emphasizing investments in rural broadband service that is required for businesses to operate effectively in an increasingly digital economy.

These Trailblazers are having a significant impact in sustaining their communities. We appreciate their participation and those who made nominations.

BY TAYLOR WANBAUGH ALYSSA PRESSLER MEGAN BIRD DAVID MILDENBERG

Laura Barry

Gregory Brady

BOONE

Lindsay Wagstaff

NORTH WILKESBORO

Weyling White

ROXBORO

AHOSKIE

Zach Barricklow Jake Robinson CANTON

Harley Masters

WAYNESVILLE

NASHVILLE

BAKERSVILLE

Melinda Covert

Matthew Raker

CLAYTON

ASHEVILLE

Emily McCurry

Courtney Silver

Peyton Holland

CONCORD

FLAT ROCK

David Casper MONROE

Shane Fraser WAXHAW

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Trey Braswell

WILKESBORO

Jeremy Smith GOLDSBORO

Gary Curry NEW BERN

Neil Robinette ROCKINGHAM

Andrew Lanier JACKSONVILLE

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Zach BARRICKLOW, 38 Wilkes Community College, Wilkesboro

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ach Barricklow has a passion for community building that shines through his career. A graduate of Hope College in Holland, Mich., he spent nearly five years with the Peace Corps in Panama before co-founding Raleigh-based Versado Training, which provides training software. While there, he started working with Wilkes Community College on developing a five-year strategic plan, which led to a job offer as vice president of strategy. His mission is to maximize the impact the college has on upward mobility in Wilkes, Ashe and Alleghany counties. In the community, he’s helping create teams to save financially stressed education programs in the area, while serving as a board member of the Alleghany County Community Foundation and as a committee member of Alleghany County Economic Development Corp. He’s also pursuing a doctoral degree in organizational change from the University of Southern California. He and his wife, Lauren, have three children, ages 10, 8 and 5.

Laura BARRY, 34 Peak Basketball, Boone

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“Being surrounded by a program like that really made me want to be a coach and want to give kids opportunities both in high school and beyond.”

aura Barry was 7 when she discovered her love for basketball. Dribbling across the court at summer camp, she already had an innate athletic talent, fueled by her mom’s job as Cary’s parks and recreation director. She still remembers the thrill of running across the squeaky court, shooting hoops and working as part of a team.

“Just immediately, I loved it,” Barry says. “I was good at it, it was fun, and from there, it was something I continued getting better at. I liked working at it. It became something that I was pretty serious about by the time I got to high school.”

Barry’s love for the game inspired both her own basketball career and those of young athletes, whom she mentors as head basketball coach for the men’s and women’s teams at Watauga High School in Boone and as director of Peak Basketball.

Her path to coaching and Peak Basketball has taken her across the state. The Cary High School grad played as a walk-on for UNC Wilmington’s basketball team before transferring to UNC Chapel Hill her sophomore year, where she majored in exercise and sports science and communications studies. An NCAA rule required her as a transfer to sit out for a year before joining the UNC team her junior year. The Tar Heels won ACC championships during her two years on the team and played in the Final Four in 2007.

“That was life changing for me,” Barry says. “Being surrounded by a program like that really made me want to be a coach and want to give kids opportunities both in high school and beyond.”

She served as an assistant coach at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, a graduate assistant at St. John’s University in New York, and as an assistant coach at East Tennessee State University.

At St. John’s, Barry earned an MBA in executive management, while helping coach the team to beat undefeated University of Connecticut in the regular season and earn the program’s first NCAA Sweet Sixteen spot.

In 2016, Barry moved to Boone to become Watauga High’s head women’s basketball coach and teach marketing, then she added the men’s team job in 2019. Teaching in a classroom wasn’t her true passion, so she founded Peak Basketball in 2018. Peak, which stands for Process, Effort, Accountability, and “Keep at it,” offers individual and group training, teams, and camps to young athletes from elementary to high school.

Boone-area players didn’t have the same opportunities as Barry enjoyed in Cary, “and I think they need it,” she says. “I learned a lot about myself and was able to develop as a person and an athlete. So I created a place in the image of that, where kids could grow their game and come because they love basketball but realize that they could learn more through basketball than they realized.”

Though COVID-19 restrictions have put a damper on this year’s in-person programs, so Peak has conducted remote training sessions.

“It worked out really well,” Barry says. “Kids were able to set up in their driveways and log on and do some work with me. And they really enjoyed the social aspect of it. So maybe I had a group of five seventh- and eighth-grade boys on Zoom. And we talked about some personal development for 10 minutes, and then they did a 20-minute workout. ... It was at a time where I think the kids really needed to see some friends.”

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Gregory BRADY, 31 Anchor Coffee, North Wilkesboro

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ike many small businesses, Gregory Brady’s enterprise started in an unusual spot: his kitchen. Brady and his business partner, Nate Griffin, began roasting coffee in 2014 in old-school popcorn pots and selling the beans to their friends. They opened their first site in downtown North Wilkesboro when both were 26 and are planning another site in Winston-Salem once the economy recovers.

Griffin focuses on the business and finance aspects, while Brady concentrates on his passion for coffee.

Brady can remember the precise moment he realized he loved a cup of joe: He was at a small cafe drinking an Ethiopian blend roasted by Durham’s Counter Culture Coffee.

“Everything before that with coffee was just stuff my dad would drink and was from a can or instant,” Brady says. “You have these beautiful flavor notes being expressed out of this thing that you’ve only ever thought of as coffee. I started digging in on that and realized there’s this whole community of farmers and importers and these really cool systems that bring coffee to the states.”

Brady and Griffin had been friends for years after playing praise-band music together at their church. After leaving Brady’s kitchen, they occupied a make-shift garage that had a small coffee bar before moving into their current location.

For Brady, a joy of the business is building relationships with farmers and coffee processors and ensuring everyone receives a fair wage for their work. This has become more commonplace in the coffee industry, with Starbucks disclosing how it sources its coffee. When Brady and Griffin were starting out, however, this was a relatively new idea.

Anchor Coffee has found success in its small town, drawing crowds pre-pandemic with beer offerings in addition to coffee and frequent live shows by local and regional musicians. You won’t catch Griffin or Brady on stage anymore, however. Brady jokes his music days are over. Now, it’s all about coffee and community.

He loves living in Wilkes County with his wife and two kids, ages 3 and 1. He’s heavily involved with Unified City Church and volunteers with the Justice Proj-

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ect, a church-affiliated organization that works with the local elderly and homeless populations.

With an expanding business, two young kids and other community work, Brady acknowledges he doesn’t sleep much. But it’s OK, he says. “That’s one of the perks of having coffee around me all the time.”

“Everything before that with coffee was just stuff my dad would drink and was from a can or instant.”

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Trey BRASWELL, 35 Braswell Family Farms, Nashville

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he Braswells put an emphasis on the word “family,” with each generation laying a brick in the foundation of a four-generation business that is among the top producers of eggs and feed on the East Coast. It supplies 220,000 tons of feed and more than 60 million dozen eggs annually.

With nearly 2 million hens, the 77-year-old company sells eggs under Eggland’s Best, Natural Choice, Nature’s Finest, Land O’Lakes and other private label brands.

Trey Braswell’s great-great-uncle, J.M. Braswell, and greatgrandfather, E.G. Braswell, started the company in 1943 when they purchased Boddie Mill in Nashville, producing corn meal. E.G.’s sons, Ronald and Gene, joined the business in 1956 and grew the farm with the purchase of an old mill in Nashville from the Wayne Feeds franchise. They expanded into pullet production — growing young hens to sell to egg producers — and providing feed for chicken, pigs and cows.

“It’s grown over time, and each generation has added a little bit to that,” Trey says. “The Lord has been very kind to us. That’s kind of how I got started: a lot of blood, sweat, tears, sacrifice and God’s grace.”

Trey’s dad, Scott Braswell, joined in 1979, focusing on developing modern pullet and laying hen complexes that sped up production efficiency while maintaining a quality product. In the late ’80s, the Braswells invested in a franchise of Eggland’s Best, a Malvern, Pa.-based industry cooperative formed in 1990 that is credited with reversing a slide in U.S. egg consumption. The Braswells now run the second-largest Eggland’s Best franchise in the U.S. Trey, an N.C. State University grad with an executive MBA from the College of William and Mary, started working for the family business at a young age, sweeping the floors of the processing plant and other manual labor around the farm. He returned to work full time in 2008 after his dad struggled with some health issues.

“It was probably before I was prepared to or wanted to, but I just feel such a strong respect and gratitude for what the people in our company and my family members before me have done to steward the business,” Trey says. “It’s been hard at times, certainly been challenging. I really had no experience, and I just kind of jumped in. … There were different kinds of people in my life that helped give guidance and, by God’s grace, things have continued well, and the Lord has grown me as a leader.”

Trey helped expand the farm, adding pullet and hen houses and overseeing the construction of the company’s first pasture-raised organic farm, which began production in early 2018. The business has achieved various certifications for humane treatment of animals and organic production.

In 2017, Trey became president and oversaw a rebranding of the 200-employee company from Braswell Foods to its current name. “We just didn’t give consumers a good idea of who we were and what we do,” Trey says. “There’s just such

a need to tell our story. … Braswell Family Farms provides a much better portrayal of our brands… and helps people understand you may work on the farm or at the feedmill, but you’re part of this family and this company and here’s what we stand for and what we do.”

Braswell’s Caring Team, made up of employees from each of the four company locations, helps care for the needs of company employees, families and the community.

The business supports a variety of primarily Christianbased philanthropies including Samaritan’s Purse, Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Corporate Chaplains of America. In the midst of the pandemic, Braswell Family Farms donated 90,000 dozen eggs to regional food banks.

“Because we believe this business is the Lord’s, it compels us to say our resources are not really just our resources,” Trey says. “Giving is a very important part of why we run the business.”

Trey also serves as president of the North Carolina Egg Association, as a member of the national United Egg Producers’ board of directors, and on the North Carolina board of addiction recovery nonprofit Hope Is Alive Ministries. He enjoys spending time with his wife, Wimberly, and three children in the outdoors fishing, hunting and hiking.

“I’m a rural guy,” Trey says. “I love going to Raleigh, but I like going home, too. … I love a small town, a rural community because it is agricultural. It’s based on hard work and people know each other and pitch in and help each other.”

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David CASPER, 34 Union Diversified Industries, Monroe

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s executive director, David Casper oversees a nonprofit organization that provides behavioral health care and industrial jobs to adults with disabilities. A Monroe native, he leads 40 employees who provide services to about 80 individuals. The Wingate University grad joined the group in 2017 as chief operating officer and was promoted to his current post in July 2019. Since then, Union Diversified has added 10 positions, increased staff pay and benefits, remodeled its office and earned a three-year accreditation from a national group for rehabilitation facilities. He retained the group’s employees during the coronavirus pandemic and increased UDI’s presence on social media and in the community. Casper is also involved in the local Rotary and Boys & Girls Club organizations.

Melinda COVERT, 29 Fluor, Clayton

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“We change the world one day at a time. I really believe that.”

any millennials set out in their careers with the hope they will make a tangible difference in the world. Melinda Covert believes she has that opportunity at Fluor, a global engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance company.

As the project manager for Fluor’s advanced technologies and life sciences segment, Covert oversees massive engineering projects for the life-sciences sector, including in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology in Clayton. Essentially, “we design and build tough jobs,” Covert says.

“That means starting with nothing but a blank sheet of paper and designing and building facilities for companies that create life-saving drugs.

“We do really cool stuff. It’s the best way I have to summarize it,” Covert says. “My job is hard to explain to my parents without showing them a photo and saying, ‘This used to be a blank piece of paper, and now it’s something that’s making a drug product for someone.’”

Covert has always had a love for math, science and engineering, earning a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University in Boston in 2013. She worked as a process engineer in Albany, N.Y., for several years on the engineering-design side but wanted to explore larger and more challenging projects.

In January 2016, she joined Irving, Texas-based Fluor, where she says the scope of projects has enabled her to expand her engineering expertise. She started as a process engineer before landing her current position. She says she loves her job but didn’t really understand the potential for a career like hers existed before falling into engineering as a major by chance. Now she’s trying to help introduce young girls to science and technology careers as a volunteer with the Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville, S.C., where Fluor has a major operation.

“Looking back, I can see where I had that engineering mindset as a kid, but it wasn’t fostered,” Covert says. “We’re introducing them to career choices and things that are maybe not so prevalent, or at least weren’t when I was a kid.”

When she’s not working, Covert loves to travel, read and do yoga. During the week, she says she stays happily busy with her work.

“I’m really passionate about what I do,” Covert says. “We change the world one day at a time. I really believe that.”

Gary CURRY, 39

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arry Curry moved to New Bern in 2006 by chance when a good friend relocated to the Craven County city and invited him to make a similar move. Curry didn’t expect a long-term stay, but instead he fell in love with the area.

“I moved here and thought, ‘I’m going to live here forever and visit other places,’” he says.

He worked for other local hotels before becoming general manager of the town’s Hampton Inn four years ago.

He spends his time outside work traveling and bouncing to different nonprofits in the area to spread his expertise and support. His goal is to serve on every nonprofit board in the area before he retires. He’s known for having created the large MERCI on Middle fundraiser event in which 750 community members gather for a five-course meal at a long table in the middle of the street. A Rotarian, he’s a past chair of the local tourism authority and is on the boards for downtown development in New Bern and the Tryon Palace Foundation. He and his wife, Ashley, celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in June and are parents of Evie, 4.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF TREY BRASWELL

Hampton Inn, New Bern

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Shane FRASER, 32

SNA Today, Waxhaw

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or businesses in Union County that need help with social media, Shane Fraser has become a go-to source. He founded his business in New York in 2012, then moved to North Carolina when he was one of the few social media companies in the Charlotte area. (SNA stands for Social Networking Assistance.) Though competition has increased dramatically, he’s carved a niche and now manages work for 23 different clients. His work covers pretty much anything social media-related, including organic and paid reach, scheduling, posting and idea generation. When he’s not working on expanding his business, he serves on the board of directors for the Union County Chamber and the Union County Community Shelter, which serves the area’s homeless population. He’s also an adjunct professor in social media at Houghton College, his alma mater, in Houghton, N.Y.

Peyton HOLLAND, 34 National Technical Honor Society, Flat Rock

eyton Holland has dedicated his professional life to career and technical education, which has a principal mission of preparing students for skilled jobs. A Sanford native and alumnus of N.C. State University, Holland credits careereducation courses with changing his own life. The nonprofit society started offering scholarships to encourage students to seek technical careers in 2005 and has since provided more than $2 million in aid. Holland succeeded co-founder Allen Powell as the group’s executive director in October 2019. He led the first virtual NTHS graduation this spring, in which more than 600 students were celebrated, and he helped develop a virtual toolkit for teachers. About 47,000 students participated in the society’s programs during the 2019-20 school year. He oversees about 14 full- and part-time staffers.

Holland previously worked for the state’s public school and community college agencies and as executive director of Raleigh-based SkillsUSA North Carolina, where he increased membership by 93%. He enjoys speaking at schools and conferences and is launching a podcast, CTE @ Work.

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Andrew LANIER, 34 Lanier, Fountain, Ceruzzi & Sabbah, Jacksonville

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“My dad always told me, ‘Don’t worry about money.

If someone comes in and needs help, you help them.’”

ndrew Lanier is busier than most as a father of two sons, an attorney with 300-plus open cases, a Rotary member, a Juvenile Crime Prevention Council board member, and a former president of the Jacksonville Jaycees. But the graduate of East Carolina University and Charlotte School of Law doesn’t seem worn down. In fact, he’s an easygoing jokester with a big desire to support the community: He helped raise money for a local charity by agreeing to lip sync James Brown’s 1970 R&B hit, Sex Machine. Lanier passed the state bar exam in July 2014, then joined the nine-lawyer firm that his father, Charles, founded in 1972. He’s heavily involved in the community and often takes on pro bono cases. “My dad always told me, ‘Don’t worry about money. If someone comes in and needs help, you help them.’” He focuses on all aspects of civil and criminal law and enjoys volunteering in his neighborhood when he’s not working.

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Harley MASTERS, 29 Southern Ridge Café, Bakersville

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arley Masters is a Mitchell County restaurant owner who is giving politics a fling. After earning a degree in aviation mechanics from Northeast State Community College in Blountville, Tenn., Masters moved back to her hometown four years ago to work in her uncle’s restaurant. Shortly thereafter, she converted an old barbershop into the Southern Ridge Café in August 2018.

The community-oriented restaurant serves soups, sandwiches and desserts and was awarded the Amazing Customer Service/President’s Award by the Mitchell County Chamber of Commerce in 2019. “Most days I’m cooking, but sometimes I’m on deliveries,” she says.

Masters also enjoys serving her community, including teaching line dancing at the local senior center and planning the first annual N.C. Mountaineer Festival. Now, she’s running for county commissioner in the November election, hoping to become the youngest person and second woman to hold the office. She says she wants to show that politics isn’t just for “old white men.”

Emily MCCURRY, 31

Edward Jones, Waynesville

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“My business plan has been to attain enough high net-worth clients so I can serve smaller clients.”

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mily McCurry helped pay her way through UNC Asheville by working as a waitress at a corporate-owned restaurant, where she learned quickly about her approach to sales. The manager set a quota on selling appetizers, which McCurry rejected, curtailing her restaurant career. “I’d say, ‘This appetizer isn’t any good, and people don’t want it. It’s not my job to trick people to do things for my benefit.’”

Now, McCurry is in her fourth year as a financial adviser for Edward Jones, a St. Louis-based broker-dealer with more than 19,000 advisers who work from about 14,600 U.S. offices. Many are in small towns, including nine in Haywood County; McCurry’s office is in downtown Waynesville across the street from the First Baptist Church.

A Haywood County native, McCurry worked at a Boston trust company after college but missed her small-town roots. “Here, you look at people and they smile. Up there, they look at the ground.”

She started at Edward Jones as an office manager in 2013 and quickly realized that the praise the brokerage receives for its working conditions — 21 years on Fortune magazine’s list of 100 best workplaces — is deserved. “It’s not hype, it’s true,” she says. “After six months here, I realized that I was pretty sure this is what I was meant to do. It’s been everything I hoped it would be.”

The brokerage paid for her MBA at Western Carolina University and assisted her as she received certifications to become a full-time adviser. The daughter of a pastor, she views financial planning as an equally important type of service.

“My business plan has been to attain enough high net-worth clients so I can serve smaller clients,” she says. “It’s the high net-worth people who keep my lights on, but I know I can make a difference for small and middle clients. I don’t take my job lightly at all.”

Convincing clients that she will be around for the long haul remains challenging. “Being a woman is a little different in Waynesville. People ask me what happens to their account when I quit to have a baby. I tell them that I have a higher chance of getting hit by a city bus than not returning to work if I get a kid.”

About a fifth of Jones’ advisers are women, who McCurry says are making a difference at the company. She cites the recent decision to stop requiring new advisers to spend their first five weeks knocking on doors of potential customers. It had been a trademark for the brokerage, but the change makes Jones more appealing to women and minority advisers who weren’t comfortable making those visits, she says.

To build her business and support her area, McCurry stays very active in civic affairs, including young professionals, women in business, networking and arts council groups.

She’s also been an actor and volunteer at Waynesville’s HART Theatre since she was 15, reflecting her passion for community theater.

“I’ve built my business through networking and doing lots of civic work,” she says. “The only thing I can get fired for is not supporting my clients and treating people right.”

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Matthew RAKER, 39 Mountain Bizworks, Asheville

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longtime advocate for entrepreneurship in western North Carolina, Matthew Raker became executive director in January after five years at the 19-employee nonprofit that operates as a Community Development Financial Institution certified by the U.S. Treasury. CDFIs provide loans and consulting services to small businesses and community organizations. Mountain BizWorks has a $2.1 million annual budget for its region covering the state’s 26 western-most counties. Much of Raker’s work this year involved Paycheck Protection Program loans, especially for businesses in rural areas that had limited access to banks. He also has partnered with the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority to establish the Tourism Jobs Recovery Fund, aided by $5 million from the state to help the county’s hard-hit hospitality industry stabilize amid the pandemic. In 2020, the Lexington native and UNC Asheville graduate oversaw $18.3 million in loans to small businesses across western North Carolina, a fourfold increase from the previous year. The PPP loans and other programs involving Mountain BizWorks have saved an estimated 8,000 jobs, at least temporarily.

Neil ROBINETTE, 32 CF Smith Property Group, Rockingham

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ith a master’s degree in real estate development from Clemson University, Neil Robinette is following in a tradition at the family business the late Claude Smith formed in 1965 and expanded into more than 20 states.

After working for an apartment developer in Greenville, S.C., for a few years, Robinette joined his grandfather’s Richmond County-based company in 2014, shortly before Smith died of cancer. Working with other family members has proven rewarding, Robinette says, noting the business retains holdings in 13 states, though its main focus is on central and eastern North Carolina. Married with a 1-year-old and 4-year-old daughter, he and his wife, Catherine, live in Moore County, where CF Smith has helped upgrade downtown Southern Pines by renovating an old bank building, among other projects. The COVID-19-racked retail-leasing market isn’t easy, of course; J.C. Penney recently closed its Rockingham store in what was Claude Smith’s first shopping center, still owned by CF Smith. “We’re dealing with a fair share of challenges, but we also have Lowe’s and drugstores and grocery stores that have been beneficiaries, so we feel fortunate for our business.”

Jake ROBINSON, 32 Champion Credit Union, Canton

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he credit union formed in 1932 for workers at the adjacent Champion Paper mill looks a lot different today, with change accelerating since Jake Robinson became CEO in 2015. Its assets have increased to $330 million from $180 million, while its office count will soon have doubled to six with a new branch pending in Hendersonville. The credit union initially focused on Haywood County and Robinson’s hometown of Canton, where the 1,000-employee mill is now called Evergreen Packaging. But it now has offices in Buncombe and Henderson counties with a goal to be the “financial institution of choice in western North Carolina.” The region is now home to only one locally owned commercial bank (Asheville-based HomeTrust Bancshares) and a smaller credit union, Robinson says. He credits much of the growth to its mortgage business, which has led to new customers forming deposit accounts and taking out auto loans. He started working at Champion as a college junior, then joined full time after graduating in 2010. He’s active in affairs at his alma mater, Western Carolina University, where he played basketball as a 6’8” forward and held the school career record for 3-pointers when he graduated. He received the Young Alum Award for immediate career success earlier this year. He also chairs a county task force to retain local teachers and serves as a director for the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce.

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Courtney SILVER, 39 Ketchie, Concord

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ourtney Silver started working at custom-machined parts manufacturer Ketchie in 2008, running the human resources, purchasing and financial departments.

After her late husband, Bobby Ketchie, died at 35 after a 7 1/2-year battle with brain cancer in 2014, the then-pregnant mother of a 2-year-old stepped up to lead the company as president, persevering through heartbreak with the support of her employees, friends, family and faith. Ketchie, a Business North Carolina’s 2018 Small Business of the Year finalist, now has 20 employees and more than $6 million in 2019 revenue with another $5 million in projected 2020 revenue, shipping parts to all 50 states and across five continents. The 2019 Manufacturing Institute S.T.E.P. Ahead Award winner is active in promoting the advancement of the manufacturing industry on a national and local level. Silver is on the board of the National Association of Manufacturers and partners with local community colleges and high school and elementary schools at the North Carolina Manufacturing Institute. Outside work, the Michigan State University grad enjoys spending time gardening, hiking, camping, and fly-fishing with her husband, Andy Silver; 8-year-old son, Sam; 6-year-old daughter, Lilly; and dog, Sonny.

Lindsay WAGSTAFF, 39 Wagstaff Farms, Roxboro

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he Wagstaff family has been farming in Person County for generations, a tradition that Lindsay Wagstaff has helped carry on since completing an East Carolina University MBA when he was 26. The MBA helps, he says, given the needs of the constantly evolving farming industry. Raising cattle is Wagstaff’s main effort, but his work also involves soybeans, hay, timber, and leasing land for solar power, hunting and cell towers. There’s also some real estate development with old warehouses leased for commercial purposes. “We’re trying to keep the farm intact,” he says. Wagstaff also leads the Roxboro Jaycees, which holds community events to raise funds for worthy causes. The coronavirus has blocked some projects this year, but the group conducted a blood drive and golf tournament in recent months. While getting younger people interested in community service is challenging, Wagstaff likes Person County’s prospects, given its strong rural heritage and proximity to the Triangle area.

Weyling WHITE, 34

Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center, Ahoskie

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fter earning a bachelor’s degree at Winston-Salem State University, Weyling White returned to his rural hometown with a desire to run a behavioral health business and to give back. “I wasn’t sure what was drawing me here, but it was in a direction to help people,” he says. He joined Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in 2013 and is now practice administrator for the government-funded organization that helps underserved people receive primary care. Seeing an opportunity to use his health care experience for the greater good, he won the election for mayor of Ahoskie last year; he’s the first Black person to hold the office in the Hertford County town with a population of about 4,800. It involves work on many issues, he says, including focusing on crime prevention after some mid-September shootings in nearby towns. He’s participated in statewide leadership programs through the N.C. Rural Center and Leadership North Carolina and was appointed to the N.C. Institute of Medicine this year.

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Jeremy SMITH, 39

JSmith Civil, Goldsboro

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ow do you start a business with four employees and two pickup trucks in March 2016 and build it into an operation with about 140 staffers, an equal number of pieces of equipment and annual revenue topping $19 million last year? Besides winning a lot of construction-services contracts, Jeremy Smith says JSmith Civil’s growth “starts with our work ethic and building the right culture with the people.”

“Part of running a business is that it’s not just about the bottom line but also about helping the community.”

It also reflects a couple of decades of a learning curve for Smith, a Goldsboro native who says he didn’t gain his entrepreneurial streak from his dad, who worked in construction, or his mother, a teacher. But their work ethic was motivating as he started in the tobacco fields at age 13, then started a mowing and landscaping business as a high school junior, eventually employing more than 20. He is a semester short of earning an associate degree in turfgrass management at Wayne Community College.

At age 21, he bought a clearing and grading business in Johnston County that had projects as large as $750,000 but sold it two years later. He then spent 12 years working at a Goldsboro site-work company, overseeing contracts of $750,000 before becoming an owner again.

“I’ve done things backwards in my life because I didn’t know what I was doing,” Smith says.

That appears to have changed. He started BridgePoint Civil after borrowing $40,000 from a partner, Shelley McPhatter, who runs the BridgePoint construction company in Durham. Smith says he paid the loan back within a year and now owns 100% of the renamed company.

JSmith operates four divisions that provide a diverse client mix. Its projects include highway-construction paving, laying pipe for utilities, building concrete ramps and sidewalks, and clearing sites to prepare for schools and commercial developments. “We’re pretty evenly split between our four divisions, and we’re not overly leveraged,” he says.

Not being too reliant on N.C. Department of Transportation jobs has been a smart strategy given the agency’s financial pressures. But Smith is thankful that his company won its biggest state contract for a road-widening project just before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

JSmith operates mostly in eastern and central North Carolina, having earned jobs as far west as WinstonSalem. Hiring experienced people who share a vision for growth is critical to success, he says. “You need to surround yourself with smart people and build a company where people want to work and want to be part of something.”

Smith says Goldsboro is an excellent site for the business because it has a solid supply of hard workers, plus his office is about five minutes from his house. The company supports various local charities including Habitat for Humanity and the Wayne Pregnancy Center.

“Part of running a business is that it’s not just about the bottom line but also about helping the community. I feel strongly about that because I’m a Christian, and that’s how I was raised.”

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JIM SEGRAVE DISPLAYS LITTLE FEAR IN GROWING HIS KINSTON PRIVATE-JET BUSINESS AMID A SCARRED AVIATION INDUSTRY.

he nose of the business jet, darting and bobbing in air currents rising from the flat-topped mesas and wooded canyons below, arches downward.

On top of a plateau in the distance, just feet above a sheer canyon wall, is a narrow, impossibly short runway that culminates in a thousand-foot plunge to Colorado’s San Miguel River.

In the last seconds, the pilot extends the flaps and flares the nose up slightly, and the white center line of the runway rushes up. The plane touches down lightly.

“There’s no better freedom,” Jim Segrave says, “than to be able to fly an airplane.”

Compared with his early days flying single-engine planes through darkness over mountainous western North Carolina, nailing a daylight landing in Telluride, Colo., isn’t so difficult.

Segrave’s business is fast, private charter jets for hire. He and the 180 pilots of flyExclusive, the prime component of his 400-employee Kinston-based LGM Enterprises, regularly fly CEOs, movie stars and other celebrities. The business is headquartered at a oncedilapidated World War II airport in the soybean, corn and cotton fields of eastern North Carolina. Segrave estimates its value at about $200 million.

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Now, facing a storm he can’t fly above or around, Segrave, 49, is stacking his chips higher, continuing to grow in the pandemic-plagued aviation industry. It’s a gritty, unconventional move at a time when industry giants such as American Airlines and United Airlines are losing billions of dollars as they cut staff, reduce flights and wait for a travel rebound.

LGM’s revenue plunged to 5% of its normal level by late March, forcing Segrave to summon his suddenly stricken air force back to the Global TransPark headquarters. The assortment of Cessna Citation Encores, Excels and fast, continent-spanning Citation Xs, jammed the ramp in front of flyExclusive’s white metal hangar, nose to nose.

With a fleet of more than 60 jets, it’s the eighth-largest of nearly 2,000 private jet-charter companies in the nation, and biggest in North Carolina, according to the Washington, D.C.-based National Air Transportation Association and Federal Aviation Administration.

“We had 47 planes sitting here,” he says. “It was incredibly beautiful but incredibly scary at the same time.

It was costing us a fortune, paying the banks, insurance, the pilots, the staff.”

The planes, which might normally average $5 million

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JIM SEGRAVE

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a year in revenue normally, were racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in maintenance and other costs. “We didn’t lay anyone off, but it was a really, really stressful time for us.”

Six months later, aided by a couple of million dollars in Paycheck Protection Program support to help preserve jobs, Segrave says he is breathing a bit easier. “We’re not where we were previously,” he says. “We’re running about 75% of the revenues where we were before. If you looked at what we projected this year, that was about $185 million to $200 million. Now we’re projecting about $150 million. We’re not back to making money yet, but we’re not losing a whole lot now.”

LGM and flyExclusive have satisfied a string of lenders, and Segrave expects to expand to nearly 70 jets by year end. “We’ve grown one plane at a time, plowing all the profits back into the business. As we’ve made money, I’ve used that to finance the equity portion of the next acquisition.”

FlyExclusive courts wealthy clients for its Citation X jets, which cruise at 600 mph, with an unsubtle slogan: “Fly nonstop from Boston to Napa Valley, from chowder to wine country, quickly and with ease.” Jet Club members pay $150,000 to join and as much as $7,000 an hour to fly.

LGM Enterprises also owns Jetstream Aviation, which paints and refurbishes planes. It launched in Kinston last year with about $5 million in bank financing and $3 million pledged from the state and Global TransPark Foundation. If Segrave creates 145 or more jobs as promised within 12 years, it would qualify for another $2.3 million in state incentives.

As a pilot, Segrave is certified to fly a half-dozen different planes and has more than 9,500 hours at their controls. He’s also a member of one of North Carolina’s most prominent business families.

Segrave is the great-nephew of the late Felix Harvey, an eastern North Carolina business titan whose Harvey Enterprises included a bank, insurance company, cotton bins, farm stores, oil distributors, tractor and farm equipment dealerships, and other businesses. Harvey was a founding force behind the Global TransPark and helped it obtain more than $200 million in public support. It floundered for more than a decade until landing Spirit AeroSystems in 2008. The park has since grown with aviation-related companies, including Segrave’s.

His grandmother was Felix Harvey’s sister, and she married into the Brody family, whose department stores once dotted eastern North Carolina. Their contributions funded East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine. Segrave is a board member of Harvey Enterprises, which owns or partners with more than 30 John Deere dealerships in the Southeast, along with other ventures.

“We’ve been trying to bring in smart people from the sixth generation, and Jim is one of them,” says John

▲ Valuations of bigger business jets declined about 13% from the onset of COVID-19 through mid-June, while lighter jets fared slightly better, according to the Amstat research firm.

McNairy, the company’s longtime leader and Felix Harvey’s son-in-law.

While Felix Harvey was famous for his common-man demeanor, Segrave lives a jet-set lifestyle, while doting on his four children. (He has remarried, and his first wife, Michelle, married St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt in March.)

Segrave has multiple million-dollar homes and a Florida-anchored yacht that employs a captain, chef and other crew. It’s a style that can get under the skin of some. Four years ago, he rankled neighbors in Pine Knoll Shores, a Carteret County beach town where his family owns property, by repeatedly landing his personal helicopter there.

“He’s got a really big personality, is a gregarious guy and likeable as all get-out,” says Harry Smith, a Greenville businessman and former chairman of the University of North Carolina System board of governors.

DELTA DEAL Jim Segrave was born in Kinston, but when he was a year old, his family moved to Hickory, where his father, Thomas, ran an insurance agency. The family later moved to Columbia, S.C., then Florence, S.C., where the elder Segrave was part owner of a Pepsi-Cola distributorship controlled by the Harveys and Brodys.

When Segrave was about 8, the family switched brands and invested in East Carolina Bottling Co., distributing Coca-Cola products in Kinston, Greenville and other areas. Soft drinks were then sold in glass bottles, and Segrave went to work unloading empties picked up by route trucks. “They had me sorting them.

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▲ Kinston is Jim Segrave’s home base for a business that he says will turn over $150 million this year. But his fleet of more than 60 aircraft has him traveling constantly. [bottles], all had to be sorted and put in crates.”

Like a lot of folks in eastern North Carolina, Segrave quickly gained a love for boats. When he was 13, his parents gave him a 15-foot Boston Whaler. He obtained a diver’s certification and a Coast Guard captain’s license. An initial goal was to operate his grandmother’s 54-foot boat. He also started a boatdelivery business, shuttling sailboats up and down the Tar Heel coast for wealthy owners who raced them on weekends.

When he was 17, Segrave used his diver’s license to start Scuba Clean, charging $300 to dive under boats in the Morehead City harbor and scrape barnacles off their hulls. “Otherwise, they had to pay $300 or $400 to merely get the boats pulled out, then had to pay for the cleaning too.”

His father also had a Virginia Beach, Va., business and a pilot who regularly flew there. Divorced, his mother married an orthodontist, who also flew. Segrave would occasionally take the controls of their small planes, mostly Cessna 172s, 182s and Pipers, and his fascination with flying grew. At 19, he earned his pilot’s license.

He worked in quality control for his father’s American Coatings Technology, a Greenville company that

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supplied Chrysler, Ford and others. When a Tennessee customer reported a problem, Segrave saw an opportunity for a new venture.

“I got to rent an airplane to fly to Tennessee with somebody else paying for it,” he says. The customer asked if he could bring a load of parts, was pleased with the delivery, and asked if Segrave would ferry parts on a regular basis.

“I figured maybe $1,500 a trip, so I told him $2,500 and he hung up,” Segrave says. “I figured, ‘I blew it by asking too much,’ but then he started booking me five, six, seven times a month, and I was making $150,000 a year as a college kid.”

Tom Segrave signed a loan for his son to buy a singleprop Piper Saratoga, and soon he was regularly flying parts to Tennessee and elsewhere. He logged more than 600 hours in the first 10 months, much of it flying over the Smokies at night.

He pressed his dad for a bigger plane. “I took the approach of ‘You don’t want your son up there flying over the mountains at night with just one engine, do you?’”

Segrave soon had five Beechcraft Barons and similar planes, carrying freight and auto parts and ferrying canceled checks from banks to Federal Reserve sites. All this business activity, which included a trucking unit,

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didn’t make for a traditional college lifestyle.

He majored in math and computer science at ECU from 1989 to 1993, but he didn’t complete his degree.

He never returned as a student but in 2019, he was appointed to the ECU board of trustees.

Segrave created Segrave Aviation in 1994, flying charter jets, running airport-based filling stations for planes and offering maintenance service. In 2010, Delta AirElite, the charter arm of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, bought the business, which then had 21 jets. No price was disclosed.

BACK IN BUSINESS Saddled with a noncompete agreement, Segrave ventured into other businesses, including a child care center.

When the noncompete ended in 2017, he got back into charter jets, ramping up from six employees and three jets to its current size, says Allen Thomas, executive vice president of flyExclusive and a former Greenville mayor and Global TransPark director.

Segrave credits lessons learned from Segrave Aviation for the growth. Where he had operated 17 different plane models at his old business, he has focused mainly on two variations of Cessnas at flyExclusive, cutting maintenance costs and increasing scheduling and flexibility for his pilots.

He mostly buys jets that are 10 to 15 years old, depreciated but relatively young in aircraft terms. Some jets leased to the company are owned with outside partners.

A primary function of his newly created Jetstream Aviation is repainting and upgrading interiors for a consistent brand look. “The idea is to present a world-class product to our customers,” he says. “They demand it.”

In March, just as the coronavirus crisis struck, flyExclusive expanded its international reach by acquiring Sky Night, a Greeneville, Tenn.-based company with four Gulfstream jets with capacity for as many as 13 passengers for travel to Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

Segrave leaves no doubt that LGM and flyExclusive have run up considerable debt with banks including Little Rock, Ark.-based Bank OZK, Chicago-based Northern Trust and Lafayette, La.-based IberiaBank, which was acquired in July by First Horizon. FNB, a Pittsburgh bank that bought Yadkin Financial to expand into North Carolina in 2017, facilitated the company’s PPP loan earlier this year, federal filings show.

OZK bases lending decisions on the financial strength of borrowers and history, age and time on the plane, and its engines, among other factors, says Michael Cole, managing director of its business aviation group.

“The airplanes we finance are essential business asset, working airplanes,” he says. “We support charter operators like flyExclusive that fly under higher FAA operating standards. They have dedicated professional

pilots, maintenance staffs and experienced managers like Jim Segrave.”

OZK’s analysis, he adds, supports Segrave’s optimism for the future of the charter industry. “Individuals that historically have flown first class are now flying with organizations like flyExclusive for health and safety reasons.”

Because of the pandemic’s impact, the cost of charters “has dropped as much as 50% on some flights,” Cole notes. For companies that have several employees on a private jet, the cost is often the equivalent of firstclass fare on commercial airlines.

Paul McCluskey, vice president of Hunt & Parker USA, a Daytona Beach, Fla.-based broker of charter flights, is less sanguine. He also heads the Air Charter Association of North America and relies on flyExclusive as a primary flight supplier.

“Our industry is holding its breath to see what happens next with the virus,” he says. “Is there a second wave coming?” Still, he adds, companies like Segrave’s might fare better than commercial airlines. “In chartering an aircraft, people have a higher degree of control.

They are not exposing themselves to the public, and they know the aircraft will be sanitized and low risk.”

In the same Global TransPark office he occupied before selling his business to Delta, Segrave turns reflective in sizing up the future. “I don’t have any private equity money in the business, and I have just four little partners — my four children. Each owns a little piece.

My oldest girl is 14, and so far, they listen to me pretty good.”

Much of his Segrave Aviation staff has returned to his new venture. They realize flyExclusive is not out of pandemic turbulence yet.

On a summer day, Segrave props at his desk, outlining the growth, struggles and future of LGM and flyExclusive, while 900 miles away, a 97-foot Hatteras yacht is idling in the harbor of Ocean Reef Club on the northern tip of Key Largo, Fla., preparing for a trip to the Bahamas. Palm trees line its canals, in turn lined by million-dollar homes. One is Segrave’s. He had a second one at the club but sold it earlier this year.

Within a day or so, Segrave, his wife, Lyndsay, and his children will jet to the Bahamas to spend a month on the yacht, in the blue waters and white sands of the islands.

“I’m living a good life,” Segrave shrugs. “I’m playing a little bit this summer. I’ve got the best team I’ve ever had, and that lets me sneak away.”

The Bahamas are hardly more than two hours by private jet from Kinston. But much farther, he says, from sorting sticky Coca-Cola bottles at the family soft-drink plant. ■

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BY DONNIE DOUGLAS

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t is a long way from Pine Street in Pembroke to Bing Crosby’s old house on the 13th hole of California’s famous Pebble Beach Golf Links, but the 2,764-mile journey reflects the unusual life story of Jim Thomas.

Thomas, 83, was born into modest circumstances in Robeson County and became a leading real estate developer and community leader in Los Angeles. He founded Thomas Properties Group in 1996, took it public in 2004 and sold the business for $1.2 billion in 2013. His life’s path has remained a two-way trek, with frequent trips back home — a testament to his love of his Lumbee Tribe heritage as well as a desire to put others on a similar path to success. He has done so by writing

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF JIM THOMAS, UNC PEMBROKE

Pembroke native Jim Thomas, who got rich developing Los Angeles real estate, hasn’t forgotten his rural hometown.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNC PEMBROKE

large checks while also being generous with his time and business acumen.

Thomas and his wife, Sally, have donated nearly $10 million to UNC Pembroke, which was established in 1887 to educate Native Americans.

That includes $7 million for a new business school building, scheduled to open next summer, that will bear Thomas’ name. The university’s enrollment has more than doubled in the last decade, with a record 8,262 students this semester. It now offers 41 undergraduate and 18 graduate degrees.

Though he never attended the school, it served as a launching pad for Thomas, who grew up across the street. “My formative years were there,” he says in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he now lives. “My parents were graduates of the college, and I always felt some obligation to, if I could be helpful, to do so.

“We would all play whatever sport the season was — football, baseball and basketball. I remember having a good time with sports. I cropped tobacco to make money. I didn’t like the sand lugs, but I liked the money.”

Thomas’ parents, Earl and Ophelia, were teachers who moved their family to Ohio in the early 1950s.

He graduated with honors from Baldwin Wallace University, a private, liberal arts college in Berea, Ohio. He earned an economics degree while also playing basketball, both of which came into play when he owned the NBA’s Sacramento Kings from 1992 to 1999.

He graduated magna cum laude from Ohio-based Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and served in the chief counsel’s office of the Internal Revenue Service in Seattle and Los Angeles. He later

▲ Jim Thomas grew up near Pembroke State College, which in the 1940s was the nation’s only state-supported four-year college for Native Americans. It joined the UNC System in 1972 and became UNC Pembroke in 1996. This year’s enrollment tops 8,200.

became a partner in two prominent Los Angeles law firms and used his expertise in real estate law to develop many mixed-use, commercial and residential projects. He earned the moniker of “architect of the LA skyline,” with his signature project being the 73-story Library Tower, which opened in 1989.

It is now called the U.S. Bank Tower.

Thomas also has homes in Pebble Beach, reflecting his love of golf, and Williamsburg, Va. But he’s never forgotten his roots.

The gift for the business school was a tough sell for Thomas. The deal was sealed only after a dinner with Robin Gary Cummings, a heart surgeon and former N.C. public health leader who became chancellor of UNCP in 2015.

During an initial phone conversation about the business school, Cummings remembers Thomas saying, “Are you asking me for $7 million?” Cummings replied, “I guess I am,” but the request gained little traction.

“I’m not a big believer that you need a big business school,” Thomas recalls telling Cummings.

“That is not of interest to me. But he was really persistent. It became clear to me that this was a big thing in his mind for his success and the success of the university and the success for our people. … I very much wanted to see the chancellor succeed.”

Cummings remembers that dinner at the chancellor’s home on the UNCP campus. The building’s cost was projected to be about $30 million, and state lawmakers were asking for about 25% in pri-

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vate funding. It has since escalated to $38 million.

With renderings of the business school prominently positioned, Thomas took notice and reconsidered his earlier position. “I might have a deal for you,” he told the chancellor. “Sally and I will go home and look at this.”

According to Cummings, “a week later he called, and said yes on the name.” Thomas pledged $4 million for the construction and $3 million for an endowment for maintenance, understanding that the public sector tends to be better at constructing buildings than maintaining them.

At the time, Sally — whom Thomas married in 1957 — also provided a gift of $110,000 for an endowment to generate revenue to help poorer students attending UNCP with proper nutrition and clothing.

Thomas says a factor in the business school gift was that it aligned with the Thomas Family Center for Entrepreneurship, a business incubator initiative established in 2005. The center has grown rapidly since establishing a 20,000-square-foot home on Pembroke’s Main Street in 2016. It smooths the road for people trying to establish a business by giving them affordable office space as well as free consultations.

Thomas helped pay for the new site and hired Thomas Hall as the executive director. Hall had been executive director of Hult International

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Business School, a nonprofit, accredited graduate business school in Cambridge, Mass. Thomas visits twice a year to chair board meetings, Hall notes before rattling off a list of local nonprofits that have benefited from Thomas’ benevolence, including the Boy Scouts of America.

“He is fully engaged and doesn’t suffer fools easily,” Hall says. “He dives completely into the numbers and impact of every issue. … [Coming] into a meeting with Jim unprepared will not end well.”

Thomas says his can-do attitude toward life took root in Pembroke as a child. He notes that he was very aware of the mistreatment of Native Americans but didn’t let it change his mindset.

“One of the things I was taught by osmosis mostly was not to be a victim,” he says. “Your fate [is] in your hands; don’t make excuses. I was aware that we were discriminated against. We were not welcome in Laurinburg, Lumberton, surrounding places, but we always thought we were better than those who didn’t like us. It wasn’t a big deal.”

Thomas is unabashed about the value of working hard. ”I think that there’s something very satisfying about work at every level,” he says. “I was a janitor at one time, but the point is the happiest people are those who have a job. Hopefully they can get a job that is satisfying to them. There is self-responsibility, and you are responsible for your actions and nobody else.”

Thomas’ most recent venture in Pembroke is the A.S. Thomas Center, a 36,000-square-foot, mixed-use development that will feature stores,

PHOTO COURTESY OF UNC PEMBROKE

▲ UNC Pembroke Chancellor Robin Cummings, left, is a heart surgeon who took his post in 2015. He and his wife, Rebecca, are Lumbee Tribe members. Former NBA team owner Jim Thomas says his wife, Sally, is a bigger basketball fan.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM THOMAS

restaurants and student apartments. The general contractor for the business school and the new center is Pembroke-based Metcon, a regional success story with projected revenues of more than $125 million this year. Metcon CEO Aaron Thomas is Jim Thomas’ first cousin once removed — Aaron Thomas’ great-grandfather was the brother of Jim Thomas’ grandfather.

Aaron and Jim met in 2005, when both served on the board for the Thomas Family Center of Entrepreneurship.

“He was very personable,” Aaron says. “You would expect he would be very intelligent, but he had a humble disposition about him. You speak with him and think, ‘That’s a good man there, a solid human being.’ You don’t see a lot of folks with that kind of wherewithal — highly successful but at the same time a guy who cared so much about where he came from. He spent an inordinate time coming back and trying to make things better for the people here.”

Aaron says Jim is committed to improving the plight of Lumbees, a Native American tribe of about 60,000 — the largest east of the Mississippi River — that is prominent in Robeson and surrounding counties. More than a fourth of the Lumbees live below the poverty line, but members have gained significant political power since the late 1980s.

“[Jim] was very proud to be a Lumbee,” Aaron says. “He comes at projects … from a different angle than some philanthropists do. His whole deal was, I am not giving handouts. He is about trying to create tools and programs to help people make their own lives better. He is an enabler — a pullyourself-up-by-the-bootstraps guy.”

The A.S. Thomas Center is named for Alfred Stephens Thomas, Jim Thomas’ grandfather, who was shot to death in 1917, 19 years before Thomas was born.

Thomas recalls that his grandfather ran a general store that catered to Native Americans, giving them an option other than the locally owned Pate Supply. “There was a feeling that Indians were being taken advantage of because many could not read and write,” he says.

A white man shot and killed his grandfather in broad daylight outside that general store. The shooter was acquitted by an all-white jury in “under 10 minutes” in a courtroom in nearby Lumberton, Jim Thomas says. “Folklore” informs him that his grandfather was murdered as a way to eliminate retail competition.

The A.S. Thomas Center and the Thomas entrepreneurship center are both located on land that was once owned by Pate.

Asked if that was a less-than-subtle message, Thomas is coy. “You can say that, but I didn’t.” ■

The A.S. Thomas Center is expected to revitalize downtown Pembroke with stores, restaurants and student apartments.

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COMMUNITY CLOSE-UP

CUMBERLAND C O U N T Y

A HOTBED FOR INNOVATION Cumberland County is a business-friendly area that offers opportunities in workforce training, easy access to major metropolitan areas and outstanding quality of life.

While Cumberland County is well known for its long-standing military history as home to the U.S. Army’s Special Forces Command and Fort Bragg installation, the region is well-positioned as a strong contender for business investment, talent attraction and job opportunities across a range of sectors.

Fayetteville, the sixth-largest city in North Carolina with more than 210,000 residents, is one of the most diverse cities in the nation with some of the state’s best schools, a strong workforce and a people-centric community that offers abundant resources for active-duty military members, veterans, families and students alike. Its central location is within an eight-hour drive of twothirds of the U.S. population — including Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Atlanta; and New Orleans. Business community and healthy lifestyle offerings are just a few

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of the region’s key differentiators that not only keep residents active in their community but also puts Cumberland County at the forefront of growth and innovation.

TRAINING WORLD LEADERS

One of the primary, and arguably most unique, pillars of Cumberland County’s economic development position as a rising hub for global innovation is its strong military and veteran population that transitions into the workforce each year. From rigorous training programs at Fort Bragg to local colleges and universities that offer top-rated and affordable education programs, the county produces a steady pipeline of high-quality talent.

Fayetteville State University, Methodist University and Fayetteville

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Technical Community College have a total enrollment of more than 25,600 students. FTCC set a record this fall for the largest enrollment in its 153-year history, with 6,726 students enrolled.

Fayetteville State University’s MBA program was recently ranked No. 3 in North Carolina by U.S. News & World Report, and it boasts a top nursing program in the country, according to the Journal of Nursing. FTCC recently ranked No. 5 in Military Times’ “Best for Vets” designation. Students have a range of industries to train in, from skilled trades and technical roles to sales professionals and cybersecurity experts.

Troops stationed at Fort Bragg, the world’s most populated military installation, are technologically advanced leaders with international training and skill sets. FSU and FTCC both have satellite campuses at Fort Bragg and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in SPONSORED SECTION

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nearby Wayne County, with in-person and online degree programs for military members and training options at nearby Womack Army Medical Center and Fort Bragg Research Institute. More than 6,500 military personnel transition out of Fort Bragg and into the workforce each year, while more than 50,000 veterans work for 850 U.S. Department of Defense contractors in the community. There is no question that one of the region’s greatest assets is its people.

WORKFORCE ADVANTAGES FOR BUSINESSES

Cumberland County is centrally located along Interstate 95, which provides key advantages for business and lifestyle. Its location makes Fayetteville one of the most accessible and cost-ef-

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COMMUNITY CLOSE-UP

CUMBERLAND C O U N T Y

A STRONG DEFENSE Defense makes up a huge part of the North Carolina business sector.

In fact, it’s the second-largest industry of the state’s economy, according to the North Carolina Military Business Center, whose state headquarters is located at Fayetteville Technical Community College.

Defense has a $66 billion annual impact and represents 12% of state gross domestic product.

Defense and federal contracting also represent a huge portion of the local and statewide economy. In fiscal year 2019: Federal agencies awarded $7.1 billion in prime contracts to companies in 98 of 100 North Carolina counties, an increase of $1 billion from fiscal year 2018.

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded $4.6 billion in prime contracts to companies in 80 of 100 North Carolina counties, an increase of $900 million from fiscal year 2018.

Cumberland County ranked second to Onslow County in both federal ($1.25 billion) and Department of Defense ($1.11 billion) contracts.

With 13 offices across the state, the NCMBC serves as the federal and defense business development and technology transition entity of the state of North Carolina, with a goal to increase federal revenues for businesses statewide. In 2020, the center has helped businesses to identify and compete for a record volume of federal contracts — both COVID-19-related and normal acquisitions in support of military and federal agencies.

The NCMBC also supports the recruitment of defense contractors to North Carolina and integration of transitioning military, family members and veterans — a huge engine for economic development — into the state’s workforce.

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fective cities in the country for supply chain and logistics. Fayetteville and Cumberland County are less than four hours from the ports of Wilmington, Morehead City and Charleston, S.C. The area is conveniently located near Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads, the Aberdeen, Carolina & Western Railway, and Fayetteville Regional Airport, which has a 7,709foot runway that can accommodate cargo jets.

Cumberland County’s location attracts a diversified industry base, including third-party logistics providers, large manufacturers, building-supplies makers and chemical companies, in addition to the military and Department of Defense-oriented businesses that employ more than 66,000 workers in the region. Some of the businesses currently hiring include Taylor Express, Walmart, Union Corrugating, Chemours and Dansons, a grilling-equipment manufacturer that plans a $28 million plant in Cumberland County.

The region ranks No. 1 in North Carolina for government-contracting work, but the local business community also boasts a strong network of organizations, both large and small, fostered by year-round professional development events, networking opportunities, access to capital and the local workforce. The Greater Fayetteville Chamber also supports a local Military Affairs Council, which fosters opportunities to serve the military and their families through events, education and outreach.

Community leaders are establishing an International Support Network for businesses, with ties to Germany, the U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Israel and Italy, further cementing Cumberland County as a center for global innovation.

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Fayetteville Technical Community College supports the active duty, transitioning military and family member and veteran populations with several widely utilized programs, including: The All American Veterans Center honors our veterans and provides a location where veterans can gather, find assistance and receive the support necessary to ensure their success at FTCC and beyond. More than 9,000 veterans visit the center annually.

Operation Green Zone trains members of the FTCC community on the issues and concerns that military-affiliated students face and identifies individuals to assist this population.

Veterans Success: The Department of Veterans Affairs selected FTCC to have an on-campus presence to serve veterans and their families that are transitioning from active duty to civilian life.

Transition Tech provides short-term, industry focused training, certificates and credentials for transitioning military service members, as well as resume assistance and mock interview opportunities designed to prepare individuals to enter the civilian workforce. These courses are free to veterans and active military in transition through a partnership with Workforce Development.

Fayetteville Technical Community College

Other resources and support include:

N.C. Division of Veterans Affairs Scholarship Student Veterans of America and FTCC Chapter Yellow Ribbon Scholarship Program Community Veterans Engagement Board Heroes Homecoming Committee

Visit FTCC online at faytechcc.edu or NCMBC online at ncmbc.us for more information on the programs and resources available.

Relocating or expanding in North Carolina?

Let us train and develop your workforce!

PHOTO COURTESY OF FAYETTEVILLE TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Fayetteville Technical Community College has been building a globally competitive workforce for Fayetteville and Cumberland County employers for over fifty years. We provide: • All solutions based on results of collaboration with your training management team • Customized training to site-specific objectives that lead to your business success • Leveraging our resources and strategic partners to meet your workforce needs • Unparalleled contact with 6,000+ highly motivated transitioning military soldiers and their family members in the Fort Bragg/Cumberland County area annually

Fayetteville Technical Community College

The SMART choice for education!

910-678-0168 | www.faytechcc.edu

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@faytechcc

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LIFE IN FAYETTEVILLE: THERE’S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE An important aspect of attracting and retaining talent is a community’s livability. History buffs might know Fayetteville as the site of baseball legend Babe Ruth’s first professional home run, where George Washington formed the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry under the Militia Act, or where the nation’s first well-known African American novelist, Charles W. Chesnutt, lived during childhood.

Fayetteville is “America’s hometown” and celebrates a diverse, young community for families, military members and students, with a median age of 30. Today, it’s a top 100 U.S. city with a low cost of living and quality housing. For residents who actively seek a healthy lifestyle, the

region has plenty of trails, lakes and social sports, such as tennis, golf, annual Spartan Race events and the U.S. Army MWR All American Marathon. Residents and visitors alike can also take advantage of more than 750 miles of themed cultural heritage driving trails, historic sites, entertainment venues, and museums such as the U.S. Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum, which recently celebrated two decades in Fayetteville. Locals say that Cumberland County’s best-kept secret is the food,

but the region’s lifestyle offerings are undeniably part of its recipe for establishing a strong community and hometown pride.

Cumberland County’s familyfriendly community, affordability, and workforce advantages make it a competitive place for businesses and people who are looking for high-quality talent and jobs. With people and businesses gravitating toward neighborhood-like amenities and strong support networks, the region has what it takes to be top of mind.

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Wanchese

WATER CRAFT

+ TALKING POINTS

A boat-building and commercial-fishing mecca, Wanchese wades through the pandemic’s turbulent tides.

WA N C HE S E

1,600 POPULATION

5.5

SQUARE MILES TOTAL AREA

7 FEET ELEVATION

$46,813 MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME

BY BRYAN MIMS

WANCHESE NAMED AFTER A CHIEF OF THE ROANOKE NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE

NO. 1

BELIEVED TO BE THE FIRST FISHING VILLAGE OF THE OUTER BANKS, DATING BACK TO 900 A.D.

WICKED TUNA NORTH VS. SOUTH

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TV SHOW WAS FILMED AT THE OUTER BANKS MARINA IN WANCHESE sources: Data USA, outerbanks. com, U.S. Census Bureau

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anchese has a definite grit and saltiness about it, less polished than its neighbor on the opposite end of Roanoke Island. Manteo, on the island’s northern flank, is full of ice cream parlors and boutiques and cafes with wine and lattes. Wanchese, on the southern end, is home to trawling supply stores and welding shops and garages with boat hulls in various states of repair.

It’s where the whine of belt sanders and power saws mingles with the hum of trawlers and the squawk of gulls. The place smells of dust, fish and seawater.

The town is actually an unincorporated village of 1,600 people who live in ranch-style houses, cottages and mobile homes. Most yards are big and open. Wanchese, named for an Algonquin Indian of the Roanoke tribe, lacks a well-defined downtown. Though it’s built around a small harbor, it has no waterfront promenade inviting an after-dinner stroll. The core of Wanchese is a commercial park, run by the North Carolina Marine Industrial Park Authority.

The road signs still call it the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park, but seafood is only a small portion of the activity. It’s a 53-acre tract with 30 lots, each filled with tenants since 2003. The park is exclusive to businesses in the maritime industry: boat builders, boat-supply dealers, marinas and charter outfits.

At Outer Banks Marina, Tracy Payne is standing on ground paved with oyster shells, a camouflage sweatband around his tousled gray hair. Right now he has several charter fishing boats and dolphin tours out on the water. “Business has been pretty good,” he says, adding that dolphin tours are “pretty loaded.” In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as Dare County closed to visitors, tours hit a wave of cancellations. But when the county reopened in mid-May, the tourists came streaming back. A retired commercial fisherman, Payne has lived all of his 53 years in Wanchese and savors the no-fuss

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF JARROD UMPHLETT, OBX MARINA, VISITNC.COM

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▲ Roanoke Marshes Light, top, guides boats into the bay on Roanoke Island. The Outer Banks Marina, bottom, in the heart of Wanchese, is 6 miles from the Oregon Inlet, a popular fishing destination.

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▲ Wanchese is located on the southern end of Roanoke Island. It’s connected to the mainland by Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge.

character of the village, its utilitarian ethic.

“I like the old-school fishing,” he says, pointing across the harbor to what’s now an empty lot. “I started right there when I was 9 years old, in one of the fish houses.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JARROD UMPHLETT, OBX MARINA, VISITNC.COM

COVID-19 takes cut of commercial fishing Wanchese is home to fish wholesalers that have long supplied markets across the U.S. and worldwide. But tightening regulations, catch quotas and persistent sand buildup in Oregon Inlet have vexed the area’s commercial fishermen for years, forcing some to pull up anchor. A venerable fish house is Willie R. Etheridge Seafood, founded in the early 1930s. Its manager, Mark Vrablic, is a familiar voice in the rallying cry against what he deems burdensome regulations, and he feared COVID-19 would only batter the industry more. “I was in big-time panic,” he says. In March, as the pandemic began in earnest, restaurants closed, and demand for certain species hit bottom. He says flounder and snow crabs, popular restaurant staples, were “punished.”

By late May, as many N.C. restaurants reopened to half-capacity seating, sales improved, but the market is still struggling. “You take 200 restaurants in Dare County and you cut their capacity by 50%, that’s a lot of popcorn shrimp that’s not getting fried tonight,” he says after unloading two boats of shrimp at his dock. He notes in July, the height of tourist season, that a local restaurant was seating 500 people a night, compared with about 1,700 a year ago. But there is a flip side to this fish tale: The retail seafood business has been jumping at “Harris Teeter and little mom-and-pops — they’ve had the best of their life, as good as any time.”

At O’Neal’s Sea Harvest, 1,500 pounds of shrimp just arrived at the dock, and a tuna boat is due later in the day.

On a wet concrete floor, men in orange rubber waders stuff Spanish mackerel in boxes labeled “Fresh Seafood” and

stack them on pallets. They pour another glimmering catch onto the scales for weighing. Women stand around a table, removing the heads from mounds of shrimp.

Benny O’Neal, who’s “pushing 76 real hard,” gave up commercial fishing in 1995 to open this processing facility and eventually start a restaurant. His menu reels in the crowds with grouper, snapper, tuna, wahoo and swordfish.

Like all restaurants, it floundered during the shutdown, though retail business has been strong. “More people were buying and taking it to their cottages and cooking,” he says while sitting on the front deck of his restaurant as lunch patrons amble in. “When they opened Dare County back up for folks to come in, we were busier in our retail than we’ve ever been any summer. July was exceptionally busy.”

His restaurant was down about 500 plates that month, but “the retail compensated for the loss.”

Both fish houses hit headwinds in wholesale markets, especially when shipping fish to the Northeast. As New York City became a coronavirus hot zone in the spring, it had a chilling effect on seafood markets across the region. “If [wholesale markets] were going to take a thousand pounds of fish several times a week, they might have cut that back to 200 pounds of fish because most of our stuff goes to Philly, New York and Boston,” O’Neal says.

Bob Peele, director of the N.C. Marine Industrial Authority, says the hardest blow to the commercial fishing industry came when out-of-state markets went on lockdown.

“The places we ship our seafood closed,” he says. With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, local catches are again bound for distant cities as restaurants promote “catch of the day” offerings.

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Wanchese

Rocking the boat-building trade The pandemic has been smooth sailing for the other big business in Wanchese: custom boat building. The village has a dozen or so boatmakers and mechanics, most clustered in the industrial park. Their handiwork includes sporty, custom-made vessels with tuna towers and million-dollar yachts with owners as far away as Hawaii and Dubai.

At Blackwell Boatworks, proprietor Craig Blackwell says, “COVID stepped in, and our work went through the roof. We’ve got more work than we can shake a stick at.” He and his sons build boats from scratch, but repairs have really gone full throttle.

“Everybody wanted to get their boat repaired,” he says. “They thought this was a great time to repair a boat.”

Blackwell learned the craft of building boats as a teenager in his native Michigan before moving to Florida. But he had a young family, and the Sunshine State had lost its allure, so in the mid-1980s, he sought out a more rustic coastal lifestyle. Wanchese fit the bill. He founded Blackwell Boatworks in 1986 as a family affair: His wife, Sandy, manages the finances. His sons, Jeff and Jason, along with his son-in-law, Bow, work on boats and handle the day-to-day.

The 2007-09 recession pounded the custom-boat business, but the pandemic has sent in a raft of orders. “We were slam-packed during all of it,” says Blackwell’s son Jeff. “A lot of our clientele [doesn’t] have to worry about money, which is good. They’ll bring us the boat and say, ‘Well, I can’t use the boat right now, so why don’t you guys do a bunch of work on it?”

Boats made here in Wanchese and elsewhere along the North Carolina coast are a prized catch, their craftsmanship admired around the world. At Briggs Boatworks, Jeffrey Desilva watches as workers put the finishing touches on his white sport-fishing boat that he’ll drive back home to Bermuda, a 30-hour voyage.

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He brought it to Wanchese for structural and varnishing work.

He and his father had three boats built at Briggs. He calls Briggs’ owner, Sunny Briggs, a legend who “does amazing work.”

Back in Bermuda, the made-in-Carolina boats are headturning. “You see the Carolina boats with their really, really pretty lines,” Desilva says. “They’re really good in the rough seas.

They’re fuel-efficient, they’re fast, they’re sleek.”

Boat builders bolster other trades, such as upholstery, cabinetry and carpentry work. “A lot of what you see in here is support business,” says Peele, the industrial park director. “We’re not mass producing anything back here. It’s all craftsmanship.”

Opened in 1981, Wanchese Marine Industrial Park initially billed itself as a seafood venue, but Peele says the park was slow to attract tenants. In the 1990s, when the state expanded its definition of eligible tenants to include any marine-related enterprise, things revved up. The first boat builder arrived in 1996.

The largest builder, and one of the community’s largest employers, is Davis Boatworks, which the late Buddy Davis started in 1973. It now has a payroll of about 180 people.

It’s gritty work to make boats shine, and it’s grimy work to unload, weigh in and box up fish. Wanchese shuns the tourist sheen of its neighboring coastal communities; the palatial beach houses across Roanoke Sound might as well be an ocean away. With his windblown hair and two-day growth of beard, Tracy Payne looks across the harbor and gives an unvarnished assessment on his lifelong home. “I enjoy seeing the sun come up in the morning, the birds, the dolphins,” he says. “I like everything simple.” ■ Bryan Mims is a writer and reporter at WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MEREDITH TRAVEL MARKETING

▲ Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is home to several endangered species including red wolves, red-cockaded woodpeckers and American alligators.

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