Jan. 4, 2013 UBJ

Business Upstate

JANUARY 4, 2013

J OURNAL

complimentary

Upstate business reactions to the Affordable Care Act

WEIGHING THE COSTS OF

Obamacare PAGE 14

Alternative energy shines for SunTek page 4

Inside SC’s manufacturing boom page 7

Serrus Capital starts small, sells big page 12

UBJ 8

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Upstate businesses top list of fastest-growing SC companies

Statehouse Report

Clemson and ArborGen want to put a tree in your tank

Professional: Who’s Who

State can take lead in reducing gun violence

By Dick Hughes senior business writer

By Andy Brack contributor

By Charles Sowell staff

Manley joins cutting-edge Web services with old-fashioned customer service

By Charles Sowell staff

Serrus Capital has become one of the fastest-growing companies in South Carolina.

See complete story on page 12.

Co-founders of Serrus Capital Partners Inc. Steve Mudge, center, and Leighton Cubbage, right, conduct a meeting in their Greenville office.

Photo by Greg Beckner

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Nonprofit Matters

Create. Innovate.

Celebrate.

Guest Column

Digital Maven

Encouragement supersedes fear

Tool or toy? Your mobile device is what your apps make it

Take the PR plunge in 2013

By Debbie Nelson contributor

Intuition and ‘irrational exuberance’ pay off for Bolick

2 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

By John Warner contributor

By Rob Krulac contributor

By Laura Haight contributor

UBJ

US may soon lead world in oil production

By Jenny Munro | contributor Within a decade, the United States is projected to become the largest producer of oil in the world – at least for a while.

In fact, U.S. oil production is now at its highest level since 1998, with nearly 6.5 million barrels a day produced in September, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency credited horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing, known as “fracking,” for driving the production growth, with Texas and North Dakota experiencing the largest oil production increases.

“Because we’re producing more oil doesn’t mean gas prices will necessarily be lower,” said Angela Daley, a spokeswoman for AAA Carolinas.

“Oil is such a global commodity. We export our oil so we’re playing in the global market.”

Gas prices are now falling and could be near the $3 range by the end of the year, she said. Prices tend to go down in the fall as demand eases and refineries switch to less-expensive blends. But prices typically increase in the early spring.

The result of the continuing transformation in global energy production is likely to be good for the United States and North America by placing a lid on oil and gasoline prices and giving us time to make an orderly transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy, said David Bodde, a Clemson University economist who specializes in energy issues.

But it’s not enough, he said. U.S. leaders need to continue to create and improve alternative fuels and consumers need to understand that increased production does not necessarily mean lower prices – just a slower increase in prices.

The 2012 edition of World Energy Outlook, produced by the International Energy Agency, reported that the United States will overtake Rus-

sia as the largest producer of natural gas by 2015, overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer by about 2017 and will become a net oil exporter by 2030. However, Saudi Arabia is expected to again become the largest oil producer by 2035.

With increased production, especially of natural gas, as well as improved energy efficiency, America will become “all but self-sufficient” in meeting its energy needs in about 20 years or so, according to the agency.

Global energy demand is expected to grow until about 2035 but should decline slightly then.

Bodde said he thinks the report is generally correct. The move to more U.S. production comes from new technology in extracting oil and natural gas.

“It is a triumph of technology,” he said, adding that environmental damage by the new extraction techniques can be minimized. That is already happening, but federal regulations will be needed.

“You’ve got to have the cop,” he said.

In the end, “I think the ultimate limits on fossil fuel will be carbon emissions,” Bodde said, rather than a lack of the fuel.

What the increased production does “is give us time for a measured transition,” he said. For example, electric vehicles currently are not ready to be “drop-in substitutes for gasolinepowered vehicles. More work is needed with on-board energy storage.”

Bodde said U.S. leaders should not take increased production of domestic oil as a reason to halt research on alternative fuels. All combustion inevitably puts carbon dioxide into the air, he said, and that atmospheric carbon concentration has to be slowed considerably.

He said he hopes Americans will be responsible. The country has been improving its fuel efficiency since the 1970s, but that resulted in larger, faster vehicles. However, a change has been detected and vehicles “are getting smaller by the day.” He said he’d also like to see improvement in internal combustion engines, especially as rapidly developing countries such as China and India move to a higher vehicle use.

“Energy efficiency is just as important as unconstrained energy supply, and increased action on efficiency can serve as a unifying energy policy that brings multiple benefits,” said Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

In addition, natural gas will help the country replace the coal it is using, particularly in utility plants, Bodde

Photos by Greg Beckner

But that won’t necessarily mean lower pump prices, say Upstate experts

said. Natural gas also is a fossil fuel, but it burns cleaner and emits a little less carbon dioxide. That’s important because a little less than half of the carbon emissions in this country come from transportation and a little less than half from utilities. The remainder comes primarily from industries.

“Abundant natural gas gives us a better alternative to coal,” Bodde said.

Americans need electricity, but “it can be generated in a different way.”

That might push the use of coal elsewhere, which remains a problem.

The entire atmosphere is a carbon sink and carbon emitted anywhere travels around the world quickly, he said, adding, “We are able to detect Chinese emissions on the west coast of California.”

The solution, he said, will come from current users of coal rather than the coal companies. “The answer is, ‘Don’t burn coal.’ Natural gas is a transitional fuel, but the end has to be nuclear.” And only energy users can make the decision to forego one fuel for another, he said.

Bodde admitted the fear of nuclear energy ratcheted up after the Japanese tsunami in March 2011 that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor. But “I think it’s an irrational fear,” he said.

Nuclear designs have evolved since the Japanese plant was built, with a 1960s design, he said. Also, nuclear plants are smaller and are built in modules. They are both safer and more affordable. More is known about improving the safety of nuclear fuel. Eventually, the fuel will decay, he said. Although mention is made of the possibility of sequestering or storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, no one says that that compound never decays.

Bodde agreed that higher U.S. production can help the country be less bound to the Middle East and thus increase security. But, he said, the country is in danger from the zealots there rather than from the companies and governments selling us oil. That is unlikely to change greatly.

Contact Jenny Munro at jmunro@communityjournals.com.

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 3

focus: company profile UBJ

LET THE

SUN SHINE IN

4 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

Photos by Greg Beckner

▲

Kit Boan’s SunTek Energy harnesses solar power

UBJ focus: company profile “Solar is really, really good, and where we live, we’ve got about 300 days of sunshine each year,” says Kit Boan, owner of SunTek Energy Inc. Boan, 64, launched SunTek nearly four decades ago out of sheer curiosity about alternative energy. He’s been harnessing the power of the sun and wind ever since. Boan moved his business from Columbia to the Upstate a few years ago, and is now headquartered in Travelers Rest.

How did you become interested in alternative sources of power?

When I was a kid I was always into alternative energy: wind, solar and water. I studied it and read everything I could find. It was something that I really thought was interesting.

How did you launch SunTek Energy?

When I was a fighter crew chief in the Air Force, the pilot we worked with retired about the same time I was discharged. He went on to build a car wash in Savannah and I installed a solar system for him, my first, in 1973. I also owned a construction company, but moved to totally focus on SunTek in 1992.

What services do you provide?

In addition to solar panels and solar hot water, we install wind power generating units on the coast. For some customers, we install hydroelectric generators, but those are more what I would call “toys.” We also install a special thermal film for attics that saves tremendous amounts of energy. For every customer, we do an energy use assessment before installing any equipment.

What’s unique about your company’s approach?

We’re the only company that takes a holistic approach to saving money for our customers.

We perform an energy assessment and take a

satellite image of their home to track the sun’s angles, allowing us to install the solar panels in the best position. Installing photovoltaic panels is like the meringue on the pie. First we concentrate on energy conservation and then use the alternative forms of power to reduce (or eliminate) their power bills. We can save up to 30 percent of energy costs just through conservation. We also manufacture our own solar panels in the United States.

Why would a homeowner or business choose solar?

In addition to the cost savings, government incentives offset more than half of the cost of the system. Our company aims to provide a return on investment for our customers within five years. We had one family that paid about $750 per month for their electric and gas bills – and we eliminated that cost for them. Homeowners can use the money they would pay for power and invest in a system. With these systems, there are no moving parts, meaning there’s no maintenance involved.

How has your business grown?

It’s grown steadily over the years and we’ve seen an increase in business over the past few years. My wife, Susan, helps with everything and keeps everything running smoothly; we gave her the title of “empress.” My son, Michael, also works with us. Now we have locations in Greenville, Atlanta, Charlotte and Columbia and have installed equipment in every state except for Hawaii.

What’s in the future for solar energy?

At this point, for every kilowatt we put back on the grid, our customers get credit for two. In other states, the ratio is one to four and that will be coming to South Carolina and Georgia in the next few years. This means that our customers could soon be getting checks from the power companies.

fast facts • Boan recently checked on the first system he installed in Savannah in 1973 and discovered that it was making more electricity than it was nearly 40 years ago.

• Kit Boan estimates his company has installed 28,000 alternative energy system since 1973.

• Each solar panel makes an average of 255 watts per hour, and an average home needs only about 10 panels to provide power.

Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs?

I don’t have any specific advice, but what has worked for us is being consistent, going to work every day and focusing on providing the best product, service and price to our customers. If you drop the ball anywhere, the experience will be less than it could be.

Learn more about Boan’s company at www. suntekenergypros.com.

Contact April A. Morris at amorris@communityjournals.com.

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JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 5

UBJ

Greenville Tech’s Enterprise Campus plans take shape

By Jenny Munro | contributor

Greenville Technical College is in the early stages of planning a $30 million Enterprise Campus, an attempt to provide more highly skilled workers for high-tech manufacturing operations, a place for prototype building and an incubator for startup manufacturing companies.

Keith Miller, president of Greenville Tech, said he hopes to have more of the plans in place by spring of 2013.

If that happens, initial construction could begin sometime next year.

“It’s a very exciting project,” he said.

“There’s a lot of support out there for it. It’s a dynamic process. There’s no doubt it is going to be a challenge.”

The Greenville Chamber placed support for the new campus – considered a boon to manufacturing in the Upstate – in its 2013 Legislative Agenda. The Chamber historically supports training and education for Upstate workers.

“We’ve heard consistently the shortage of high-skilled workforce versus the demand,” said John Moore, Chamber executive vice president. “It’s not that workers aren’t being trained, but that the pipeline is not full enough.”

For example, in the past couple of years manufacturers in the area have been searching for CNC operators of various types and sometimes have had difficulty finding people with the skills needed.

“The volume has gotten much louder,” he said of the increased demand that is coming from both large manufacturers and smaller ones.

The question, said Max Metcalf, BMW Manufacturing Co. spokesman, is “how do we get the pipeline to work for us?” Prospective employees need to see the opportunities available in manufacturing.

“It’s kind of a good problem to have” because it is making students and parents aware of the high-tech character of advanced manufacturing, Metcalf said.

“The Enterprise Campus at Greenville Technical College is another innovative approach to fill the pipeline of qualified workers for manufacturing in our area,” said Sky Foster, BMW’s manager of corporate communications. “BMW has contributed to the manufacturing growth of this region. Area colleges and universities are highly regarded as a key partner in our success and allow BMW to attract top talent, enhancing workforce development.”

Although no location has been selected for the enterprise campus, three or four are under consideration, Miller said. Also, the funding is not in place. Funding the project will require local, state and federal resources as well as private industry support. Miller expects most private support could be in obtaining the necessary equipment for the campus.

The state approved legislation allowing such enterprise campuses at any technical college and Greenville Tech obtained the necessary legislative authority several years ago.

Miller said a few other technical colleges in the state are considering creating an enterprise campus.

“It is to help us get around red tape to get closer to working with private industry,” he said of the concept.

The pieces started falling together in 2008 and 2009 as the country moved out of the recession and manufacturing picked up dramatically. As business improved, manufacturers needed more highly skilled and trained workers.

Even before the enterprise campus is a reality, Greenville Tech began working to enhance worker training and skills. The school established a production technology associate program that began in August.

Students learn about safety, communication, team building and industry standard manufacturing quality systems, such as Six Sigma and lean manufacturing. They visit manufacturing operations to view products

6 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

the goals • Drive innovation by providing a low cost/low risk production environment for manufacturers to bring ideas to life, develop solutions and test new products • Attract employers and startups with flexible office and production space to effectively test new hires for competencies and train their workforce without lost time on the plant floor • Build the manufacturing workforce pipeline by attracting young people to high-tech careers through innovative educational opportunities • Effectively train students to become highly skilled workers with hightech equipment, labs and interactive classrooms • Offer showrooms and exhibit space, including virtual tours showing the new generation of workers the high-quality career opportunities available in advanced manufacturing

from the beginning of the process until the product is completed.

“We have good programs. We’re just not getting people to take them,” Moore said.

Also, during the recession manufacturers had plenty of time to design and build prototypes of new products in-house, Miller said. But “now they’re so busy they can’t afford to shut down a line to build a prototype” and often send the building out of state or even out of the country.

Greenville Tech and its faculty have the expertise to build such prototypes and have done some of that already, he said. That would be an additional segment of the enterprise

campus.

The other piece of the puzzle, he said, is building accelerator or incubator space for startup manufacturing companies. Manufacturing entrepreneurship is growing in the Upstate, “but there was no place for them to go do it,” he said. A new manufacturer can’t just find an office to house his business because space is needed for equipment.

“The Enterprise Campus is sure to be a high-tech facility that provides infrastructure to help small businesses through prototype development and introduces students to innovation,” Foster said. “We look forward to learning more about this program and how it can contribute to a highly-skilled, quality workforce.”

Miller said the initial building probably will be 60,000 to 65,000 square feet, but the campus will grow from there.

As students are trained at the Enterprise Campus, they will be exposed to real-life situations of building new product prototypes and be around as businesses start from the group up.

“They’re going to see business in real life,” he said.

The campus will help students and parents see manufacturing in a new way – as a career that is well-paying and interesting. The entire manufacturing industry has a perception problem because many people still consider it a low-wage, dirty business. Instead it tends to be high-tech and require skilled workers who get paid well.

As well as recruiting students toward a manufacturing career, Miller said the campus will be a recruitment tool for startup manufacturers to locate in South Carolina and the Upstate. And Moore said that the access to a highly skilled workforce would also be helpful in recruiting larger companies.

Contact Jenny Munro at jmunro@communityjournals.com.

UBJ

SC outpacing nation in regaining manufacturing jobs

By Dick Hughes | senior business writer

South Carolina is regaining manufacturing jobs lost in the Great Recession at a much faster pace than the nation in a recovery that bodes well for future economic growth, according to TD Economics.

The state “has been recouping durable manufacturing jobs at a phenomenal pace,” TD Bank’s research division said in a quarterly report.

“In fact, South Carolina has regained nearly two-thirds of all durable manufacturing jobs lost through the Great Recession – the best performance within the TD footprint and well beyond the national average of less than one-third.”

According to a 2011 analysis by the S.C. Department of Commerce, South Carolina must regain 30,000 jobs in durable goods manufacturing to return to pre-recession levels in 2007.

From the officially designated recession end in July 2009, the study shows, employment in the

state’s manufacturing sector has grown at a rate of 4.3 percent, “leading the Southeast in manufacturing job growth.”

The state added 2,500 manufacturing jobs in 2010, more than 10,000 in 2011 and has added approximately 4,000 since Jan. 2012, according to the commerce study and state employment figures.

The pace of growth has slowed in recent months as manufacturers have experienced a slowdown in exports caused, in the main, by the economic doldrums of the Eurozone economy and, to an extent, in Asia.

“South Carolina’s producers are not immune to the global economic slowdown – with export activity decelerating in the third quarter of the year,” TD Economics said.

However, economists say the state is in a “sweet spot” with domestic demand growing at a “rapid clip” for autos and vehicle equipment, a

Photo Provided.

sector concentrated in the Upstate with BMW, Michelin and their many suppliers.

“This, along with rising global appetite for passenger aircraft, should see manufacturing contribute solidly going forward.”

TD took note of Boeing’s doubling to five the monthly production of the 787 Dreamliner at its two assembly plants in Washington State and North Charleston. TD said Boeing is expected to double production again to 10 a month next year.

The bank economists said

South Carolina’s economic activity “should get additional support if plans to dredge the Port of Charleston come to fruition,” keeping the port competitive with other East Coast ports that already have been deepened for supertankers that will traverse the Panama Canal when its lock-doubling is completed in 2014.

The cost of deepening the port from 45 to 50 feet is estimated at $300 million. The cost is typically shared, with states paying 60 percent and the federal government 40 percent. The state has committed to pay the entire amount if Washington, beset with debt challenges, does not allocate the federal share.

Before dredging can begin, the Corps of Engineers first must complete a feasibility study.

Contact Dick Hughes at dhughes@communityjournals.com.

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UBJ

Upstate businesses top list of fastest-growing SC companies

By Dick Hughes | senior business writer

Four of the five fastest-growing companies in the state are based in Greenville County, according to The Capital Corporation’s annual ranking of South Carolina’s 25 Fastest-Growing Companies.

Wireless Communications Greenville, which is an exclusive retailer for Verizon Wireless, is listed as No. 1 in the 11th annual listing.

Founded in 2008 with two stores and eight employees in Greenville, Wireless Communications had 265 employees in 37 stores by mid-2012 with plans to grow to 50 stores. It reported sales growth of 6,581 percent over a three-year period.

Wireless Communication was 25th on Inc. magazine’s 2012 list of 500 fastest-growing companies. It was No. 2 in the retail category.

1. Wireless Communications, Greenville 2. Serrus Capital Partners, Greenville 3. Ob Hospitalist Group, Mauldin 4. ENVRO AgScience, Columbia 5. Southern Tide, Greenville 6. Levelwing, Charleston 7. Vellman Industries, Johnsonville 8. Duke Sandwich Productions, Easley

Photo Provided.

Serrus Capital Partners of Greenville, which buys, refurbishes and sells or rents foreclosed and other distressed properties, is second fastest-growing. Serrus, which is three years old, is ranked

by the numbers Founded in 2008 with

South Carolina’s 25 Fastest-Growing Companies

2 stores and 8 employees

in Greenville, Wireless Communications had

265 employees in 37 stores by mid-2012 with plans to grow to 50 stores. It reported sales growth of 6,581% over a three-year period.

8 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

for the first time.

Since 2009, it has acquired 242 properties, and it is the only real estate firm on the fastest-growing list.

Ob Hospitalist Group of Mauldin, which provides health services, primarily in obstetrics and gynecology to hospitals and other health care institutions, is third. It is the first year on the Top 25 for Ob Hospitalist.

Southern Tide of Greenville, which makes casual clothing, is No. 5. Southern Tide was No. 2 in 2011.

ENVRO AgScience of Columbia, which is in construction and construction design and management, is ranked as the fourth fastest-growing.

Nominees are judged on financial and employee growth over three years. To be eligible, companies must be based in South Carolina, have been in business for three full fiscal years and have recent-year revenues of $3 million, except for financial institutions, which must have $50 million in assets.

Contact Dick Hughes at dhughes@communityjournals.com.

9. Tactical Medical Solutions, Anderson 10. Immedion, Greenville 11. Beneteau Inc., Marion 12. Steeger USA, Inman 13. O’Neal, Greenville 14. Pegasus Steel, Goose Creek 15. Agricultural Manufacturing & Textiles, Laurens 16. Clayton Construction, Spartanburg 17. MeWaters, Columbia 18. Network Controls, Greer 19. Avtec, Gilbert 20. Rythmlink International, Columbia 21. Williams & Fudge, Rock Hill 22. Somero, Greer 23. Keenan & Stuggs, Greenville 24. New South Construction Supply, Columbia 25. Cafe Enterprises, Taylors Source: The Capital Corporation

UBJ statehouse report

State can take lead in reducing gun violence As predictable as the rising sun, gun sales rose after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.

Some people across the country seem to think the government is going to take away their firearms.

Folks, that just isn’t going to happen. It won’t work, just like Prohibition didn’t work with alcohol.

With 300 million guns in a nation of about 315 million people, there’s no practical way to get rid of all of the guns, despite how some Americans might want to do so.

What can happen, however, is a more reasonable approach to gun laws with an eye to reducing the violence across America. The overwhelming majority of Americans who own guns handle them responsibly. What we need to do to reduce gun violence is to enact policies to keep guns out of the hands of crazy people and violent criminals.

Just look to Australia, where a single person killed 35 people and wounded 23 others in a 1996 shooting spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Soon after the bloodbath, Australia’s leaders made a conscious decision to tighten its relatively lenient gun laws by banning assault weapons, creating tougher licensing requirements and paying for gun buyback programs.

The laws have worked, The New York Times reported, with firearm homicides between 1995 and 2006 dropping 59 percent. “In the 18 years before the 1996 laws there were 13 gun massacres resulting in 102 deaths, according to Harvard researchers, with none in that category since.”

Other countries with tough gun restrictions include Great Britain, which had 32 gun deaths in 2008, compared to more than 11,000 in the United States in the same year.

So it’s time for creative thinking to figure out how to reduce violence

With 300

million guns in a nation of about

315 million people,

there’s no practical way to get rid of all of the guns, despite how some Americans might want to do so. without taking away rifles and shotguns for hunters. Personally, I don’t believe in the plethora of handguns because they’re too easy for people to turn to in the heat of the moment to solve problems violently. I realize, however, that if handgun owners have proper training

• Ban unregulated should only be able to gun shows in the state. use firearms that have If people want to buy a one shot per trigger pull. gun, they should have The government should to undergo extensive again ban civilian verbackground checks like sions of automatic rifles, in stores. They shouldn’t such as the AR-15 (based

By Andy Brack be able to avoid checks on the M16 rifle) and AKby purchasing guns at shows.

47 (I have fired this gun). While these civilian assault rifles are “one • Use technology to track purshot per trigger pull,” they can be chases. Currently, the state tracks fed with high-capacity magazines the sale of some cold medicines at and are dangerous. If you’ve seen pharmacies because people were kids in a video arcade, you know turning the medicine into methamthey can pull a trigger two or three phetamine. Why can’t we create a times a second. In my view, huntcentral database for gun sales that ing rifles are fine – as long as you is automatically updated so state have to reload an individual carofficials know who is buying guns tridge before another trigger pull. and how often? As one wag noted, it • Keep guns from felons. South Carolina could pass a law banning ownership of any firearm by a

doesn’t make much sense to control how much fat defines milk if we can’t responsibly track guns.

• Ban or regulate sales of violent video games from our stores.

While this suggestion might not pass constitutional muster, South Carolina should start taking control of the culture of violence that’s portrayed in violent video games and through the media by requiring content controls.

• More mental health funding.

Since deinstitutionalization of mental health facilities starting in the 1980s, more people with problems have ended up on the streets.

The state needs to figure out ways to provide more mental health services for people who might be on the edge.

on use and safety, handguns pose less of a societal threat.

Here are some ideas that South Carolina lawmakers could look at – regardless of any federal action – to make the state safer: • Ban assault weapons and highcapacity magazines. While it is fun to shoot semi-automatic weapons at a gun range, there’s really no need for them. If someone wants to shoot a rifle, fine. But shooters

convicted felon.

Even though there are currently two statutes that prohibit gun possession by people convicted of violent crimes, that’s not tough enough. A convicted violent criminal found with a gun should go back to jail for a while, not just pile up another charge that may send them back to jail.

There are scores of other ideas that can be explored without infringing tremendously on the Second Amendment. But as one mayor pointed out, gun owners also need to remember that the first 20 words of our Constitution include language to “insure domestic tranquility.” With a too-permissive gun culture, we cannot have peace in our communities. Just visit Newtown.

Andy Brack, publisher of Statehouse Report, can be reached at brack@statehousereport.com.

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 9

UBJ

Faust named to Advisor Hall of Fame

By Jenny Munro | contributor

Lynn Faust, vice president of investments for The Faust Boyer Group of Raymond James, has been selected as one of five financial advisors nationwide to Research magazine’s 2012 Advisor Hall of Fame.

Greer-based Faust, 64, is the only advisor from South Carolina in the group. The magazine created its Hall of Fame to recognize outstanding financial advisors 22 years ago. Candidates for the honor are required to have a minimum of 15 years in the industry and have substantial assets under management. They also must have demonstrated superior client service and have earned recognition from their peers and the community.

“It’s always an honor when your peers recognize you as outstanding in the business world,” Faust said. But she considers the greatest honor to be her clients who remain with her over the years.

Her office is now scanning hard copies of old information and they recently found a financial plan she

completed in 1982 for a client with more liabilities than assets. That client is still with her and is more than a millionaire, she said.

“Continued trust and confidence on the part of clients is the biggest honor,” she said, adding that her staff is also responsible for her gaining the honor.

Faust, who has $350 million in assets under management, began her financial career in 1979 after 12 years as an elementary and middleschool teacher. She redesigned a university-level financial planning course and decided to change her educational focus and become a financial advisor.

“Education is a passion of mine.

It’s how I got into the business; it’s why I got into the business,” she said. “Teaching is my natural talent.

It’s taken me wherever I’ve gone.”

She joined Waddell & Reed as a planner in 1979 and moved to Paine Webber in 1981. She became a Raymond James & Associates advisor in 1988. In 2001, she opened her own practice with her son and business partner Michael Faust. The team now has five licensed professionals.

LYNN FAUST

Faust became the first female branch manager for Raymond James when she ran a Greenville branch office, and was the first woman to serve on the Raymond James Executive Council. She achieved membership on the Raymond James Chairman’s Council every year since 1989. She also is part of the national speaker circuit, covering topics such as estate and retirement planning and a person’s bucket-list plans.

Although initially a financial planner, she added investment advisor to her portfolio because she wanted to ensure that clients’ investments followed her design, she said.

“Because of her enthusiasm, professionalism, dedication and willingness to give back, we wish we had many more Lynn Fausts in our firm,” Dennis Zank, chief operating officer of Raymond James Financial, said in a press statement.

Faust, who said that her relationships with clients go much deeper than just financial relationships, moved to Raymond James because it is a “layman/client-centric firm.”

The Faust Boyer Group specializes in high net worth financial planning, executive financial planning, generational planning and investing for women. Raymond James & Associates is a member of the New York Stock Exchange.

Other members of the 2012 Advisor Hall of Fame hail from New York, N.Y.; Norfolk, Va.; Lomita, Calif.; and Nashville, Tenn.

Contact Jenny Munro at jmunro@communityjournals.com.

Good news and bad news for unemployment Despite statewide drop, slight increases seen in 3 Upstate counties

By Dick Hughes | senior business writer

Unemployment dropped in November statewide but increased slightly in Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson, though those counties remain below the state rate.

The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce reported that employment rose 9,758 and unemployment declined 6,434 to lower the state jobless rate to 8.3 percent from 8.6 percent in October.

It was the lowest level of the year, and the fourth consecutive month the state’s unemployment rate has dropped.

The national rate rose slightly from 7.8 to 7.9 percent.

Greenville’s rate rose 0.02 percentage points to 6.6 percent, dead even with Charleston’s rate as the 10 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

second-lowest behind Lexington’s 6.3.

It also rose slightly in neighboring counties: in Pickens from 7.3 to 7.5, in Anderson from 7.9 to 8 and Spartanburg from 8.1 to 8.4. Unemployment declined in Laurens to 8.1 percent from 8.2.

The major gains statewide were in retail “with the Christmas holiday rapidly approaching,” said DEW. The retail trade, transportation and utilities segment gained 5,500 jobs. Employment gains also were made in government, education, health, manufacturing and information and financial services.

There were lost jobs in “accommodation and food services in the coastal areas” as the seasonal cutback in tourism was evident. Professional and business services and construction also took hits, albeit slight.

As the year approached a close, the biggest gains since November 2011 were in leisure and hospitality (3.57 percent), education and health (3.47), information (3.01), financial services (2.69) and manufacturing (2.68).

The natural resource and mining segment is

by the numbers Unemployment in the Upstate County

Nov.

Oct.

Nov. 2011

Greenville 6.6 6.4 Pickens 7.5 7.3 Anderson 8.0 7.9 Laurens 8.1 8.2 Spartanburg 8.2 8.1 Oconee 8.6 8.4 Greenwood 9.3 9.5 Abbeville 10.1 9.9 Cherokee 10.1 9.9 Union 12.6 12.7 State

7.4 8.1 9.4 9.1 9.4 9.2 10.3 11.0 11.0 15.3

8.3 8.6 9.8

down 5.26 percent from November 2011. Construction is down 0.66 percent.

Contact Dick Hughes at dhughes@communityjournals.com.

UBJ

Clemson and ArborGen want to put a tree in your tank

By Charles Sowell | staff

The ubiquitous Carolina poplar could be the fuel that your car runs on in the not-too-distant future if research by Clemson University and ArborGen, a biotech company specializing in forest products, pays off.

Using Clemson’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center, ArborGen and the university are collaborating to plant thousands of poplars to find out if some varieties are suitable for bioenergy production.

David Brown, ArborGen’s Southeastern field research manager, said biomass for bioenergy gives landowners another market for their crops.

“Clemson’s Pee Dee Center plays a vital role developing bioenergy markets by growing a variety of bioenergy feedstock,” Brown said.

“In the case of this project, we are working to determine the absolute best tree for bioenergy and having that available to South Carolina forest landowners.”

Some of the trees planted by ArborGen last year are already more than 20 feet tall.

Four species were in that original planting.

In November, Brown and crop

physiologist Jim Frederick of Clemson planted 690 varieties of Populus nigra (“black poplar”) to learn which are best suited as bioenergy stock and as “parents” for making hybrids with P. deltoides, the local eastern cottonwood that grows well in the U.S. Brown and Frederick planted more than 3,000 trees, which they will monitor and evaluate during the next few years. The time between harvests is about five to six years, by which time some trees may be more than 50 feet tall, Brown said. The trees will sprout again and grow from the cut stumps; thus, they need to be planted just once.

Clemson and ArborGen formed a research cooperative in 2009. The cooperative centers on development of purpose-grown woody biomass as feedstock for the biofuels industry.

Clemson and ArborGen collaborate in such areas as plant genetics and development, field trials, equipment engineering, material handling and woody biomass pretreatment, among other areas.

Research is conducted on tree

Photo Provided.

Using Clemson’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center, ArborGen and the university are collaborating to plant thousands of poplars to determine if certain varieties are suitable for bioenergy production.

species that include coastal loblolly pine, sweetgum, eucalyptus and poplar trees as possible sources of renewable biofuel.

Clemson’s Frederick said much of the woody biomass for bioenergy likely will come from purpose-grown bioenergy trees

that have fast growth rates and is an important area of research for Clemson to be involved in.

“Interest in bioenergy as a whole is the basis for the partnership,” Frederick said. “There’s no big grant involved — just two groups working together for a common cause.”

Contact Charles Sowell at csowell@communityjournals.com.

R E A D I T. K N O W I T. G R O W I T.

UBJ

Upstate business Journal

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– TheUpstateBusinessJournal JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 11

entrepreneur UBJ

Launched at ‘the weirdest time’ in the market, Serrus Capital has become one of the fastest-growing companies in South Carolina

Starting small

selling big

By Dick Hughes | senior business writer

12 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

UBJ entrepreneur

Jump Start Entrepreneurship is everywhere Steve Mudge and Leighton Cubbage formed Serrus Capital Partners with some savvy local investors to buy boarded-up houses on the cheap in the worst days of the housing collapse.

Applying the age-old adage to “buy low, sell high,” they would buy financially troubled housing below replacement cost, improve them, profit from sale or rent and patiently wait for a better market.

Serrus was starting a business of buying distressed properties in bulk when, in 2009, the housing market was a place investors were running from, not investing in with a new venture.

“In this weirdest time,” as Cubbage put it then, they saw opportunity, starting small to “make sure it works.” It did.

Three years into it, Serrus is the second-fastest-growing company in South Carolina. It has $40 million in assets, twice where it expected to be in two or three years.

It has acquired 242 properties and expanded beyond the Upstate to Columbia and into North Carolina.

The company’s investors are realizing higher returns than anticipated.

Once-skittish investors are knocking on their door.

Putting contractors to work

They started with five people – Mudge and his wife, Amanda, Cubbage and his wife, Tammy, and one other employee – and today have 15 on the payroll.

The company provides regular income for three contractors and several subcontractors who, “especially a couple of years ago,” otherwise would have had no work.

Mudge estimates Serrus has spent $6 million for labor and materials, all locally. “In addition to making money, we are not taking this money to New York, we are not investing in the Caribbean. It is right here.”

Serrus typically “buys a house that is torn up and boarded up, looking bad in the neighborhood, and now it is probably the best house in the neighborhood.”

As an example, Serrus acquired a house in Greer for $82,710 in December 2010, spent $67,317 on improvements and sold it in June 2011 for $175,000 for a gain of $24,973.

In February 2012, it bought a house in Greenville for $166,078, put $170,637 into improvements and sold it in October for $392,790 for a gain of $56,085.

Condos at Biltmore Village

In contrast of scale, Serrus recently acquired 50 condominiums at the Residence of Biltmore outside the gates of Biltmore Estate in Asheville that had gone through a difficult bankruptcy. It paid $7 million for the condos and spent $1.5 million for rehabbing and furnishings.

When Serrus acquired the condos, one was on the market for $350 per square foot. Serrus paid $125 per square foot, spent about $5 per square foot to “clean them up” and expects to “begin our sales slowly at $250 per square foot.”

Serrus also acquired condos at The Summit @ Pelham Springs in Greenville and at Carolina Walk in Columbia, across from University of South Carolina’s Brice Stadium.

Not all banks receptive

Unlike private equity firms who “do minimum

Foreclosure Sales 3rd Quarter 2012

Total*

% of All Sales

Average Price

Average Discount**

Greenville

227 13.3 $116,943 32%

Spartanburg

125

12.5

$87,170

24.50%

Anderson

87 11.4 $72,012 38%

Pickens

41 8.8 $126,638 10%

South Carolina 2,075 14.2 $131,256 30% *All foreclosure sales, including bank repossessions and short sales **Differencebetween average sales price and average sales price of non-foreclosure sales Source: RealtyTrac. See http://www.realtytrac.com/trendcenter

work and rent,” Mudge said, Serrus still is “doing what we started and are one of the few who really tries to sell as we go along rather than just exclusively rent,” he said.

The pool comes from foreclosures held by banks, bankruptcies and direct sales. Mudge and Cubbage find small and regional banks receptive to selling foreclosed housing at “realistic” prices, but find big national banks “impossible to deal with.”

According to the National Association of Realtors, “foreclosures and short sales sold at deep discounts accounted for 22 percent” of housing sales in November. On average, foreclosures sold 20 percent below market value, short sales 16 percent.

While some Wall Street money, mainly Real Estate Investment Trusts, early on went into bulk buying of detritus left by the housing collapse, the business “was little known” when Serrus started, Mudge said.

Buffett endorses investment

That changed early in 2012 when Warren Buffett set off a national frenzy by calling real estate “as attractive an investment as you can make now” and said he would load up on a “couple of hundred thousand singlefamily homes” if he had the means to manage such an undertaking.

“When that happened,” said Mudge, “the pessimistic naysayers on Wall Street also endorsed it. We have capital sources reaching out to us now.”

Cubbage said Serrus’ success is attracting prospective investors by “word of mouth. In one instance, one led to a second to a third. We didn’t know the second guy much less the third.”

Most investors are individuals, local or regional, including “a lot”

in Spartanburg, but Serrus now is in discussion with several institutional investors. “Friends and family believed in us well before institutions did,” Mudge said.

Looking to diversify

While they see “a lot of opportunity yet in our core business” of buying single-family homes in the distressed market, Serrus is looking to diversify.

“We are looking now at a couple of busted subdivisions, because we think in two or three years there may be a demand for new,” said Mudge.

“We have allocated some money to partner up with some good remaining builders and developers to joint venture with them because they still can’t get ahold of money (from banks),” Mudge said.

“We can still buy more properties than we have capital for, but there is going to come a time when we will want to build new and rent for our margins or profit on selling. We have the expertise to do both either ourselves or with partners. We prefer partners.”

Being a “hybrid financial institution with a link to real estate has given us a huge advantage,” Cubbage added.

Cubbage said Serrus also is looking to take advantage of Mudge’s “worldwide experience” in resort properties. Mudge’s experience includes top executive roles in resort community development for Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Centex Destination Properties.

“The other tract would be the bread and butter, the basic unit and the planned units to get the whales, but we always will focus on our core business,” Cubbage said.

Contact Dick Hughes at dhughes@communityjournals.com.

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 13

UBJ cover story

Companies weigh insurance options ▲

Obamacare backlash may not be as serious as originally thought

By Jennifer Oladipo | contributor

Business owners made national headlines after the November elections with vows to cut pay and staffing or raise prices to get around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – or “Obamacare” – mandate that will require them to provide insurance options for employees or pay a penalty starting next year. No local businesses will say whether they plan to follow suit.

Some of the loudest pushback against the act surrounds the “shared responsibility” clause, which requires large employers who don’t offer full-time employees and their dependents the opportunity to enroll in a minimum coverage plan to pay $2,000 per employee – after the first 30 employees – if the workers receive tax credits to buy their own insurance. A company with more than 50 full-time employees is considered a large employer, so an employer with 50 full-time workers would pay $40,000.

The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that fewer than two percent of large employers will have to pay the fee. However, opponents of the law say companies will be forced to make staffing and other cuts in order to avoid paying the fees, or to recoup their costs if they must pay.

Was backlash exaggerated?

Last November’s dissent was exemplified by statements from an owner of 40 Denny’s franchises in Florida, who said he would add a 5 percent surcharge to customers’ bills in order to offset employee healthcare costs. The restaurant chain’s corporate office in Spartanburg quickly distanced itself with a statement saying the independent owner’s opinion was “not shared by 14 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

the company or hundreds of franchisees/small business owners who make up the majority of the Denny’s community.” Nevertheless, stores suffered from the resulting consumer boycotts.

However, reports of an anticipated backlash may prove overblown, as in the case of recent news reports referencing a 2011 announcement that Boston Scientific would lay off up to 1,400 in the U.S. and open new positions in China.

However, the layoffs and Obamacare were not linked until a more recent reprint of an old article reporting the announcement carried the headline “Obamacare Fallout.”

In another instance, the original reports quoting Papa John’s Pizza CEO John Schnatter promising mass firings turned out to be rhetorical comments made in a classroom setting.

Hospitality industry ‘particularly vulnerable’ Still, some local companies are admittedly

worried. Michael Ivey, CFO of the Rick Erwin Group and chair of the local board of the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, said restaurants and others in the hospitality industry are particularly vulnerable to the healthcare mandate. Such companies tend to employ large numbers of part-timers seasonally.

New rules that will count 30 hours or more as full time don’t account for fluctuations in staff size.

The Rick Erwin Group employs 140 employees who work 30 hours or more and will now be considered full-time according to new rules.

That number will rise as it adds a third restaurant to its group in January. Ivey said the company already provides an insurance option for employees. The debate is now whether to keep doing so in 2014, or to discontinue its program and pay the penalty.

“We haven’t made the decision,” Ivey said.

“There are a lot of pros and cons to provide health coverage. There are a lot of competitive advantages to a company like ours to providing health coverage. I don’t know how the hospitality industry as a whole will react.”

Ivey said that after six months of studying the issue he still doesn’t fully understand its implications, but the added costs estimated so far are “quite alarming.” He would like to avoid passing costs on to customers, though that may not be possible in light of rising food costs that have already affected the bottom line.

>>

Images Provided.

The new small business tax credit Who qualifies?

Businesses and nonprofits with 25 or fewer full-time employees and average wages of $50,000 or less.

What’s the maximum tax credit?

The maximum tax credit is 35 percent of the cost of coverage, rising to 50 percent in 2014.

How is it calculated?

The tax credit is available on a sliding scale – businesses with 10 or fewer full-time employees and average wages below $25,000 receive the full credit.

Source: www.healthcare.gov

>>

Help for small businesses

The law, set to go into effect next year, contains some provisions to help employers cover healthcare costs. The government’s explanation of the rules, available at www. healthcare.gov, say small business owners will benefit from being able to choose insurance coverage through one of the state exchanges, and will also receive a new tax credit to help offset the cost of covering their employees.

Todd Bennett, owner of Chick-fil-A in the Hampton Village shopping center in Taylors, said he is not sure what to expect.

“We as a company have people at the corporate level who are looking at that for us,” Bennett said. “Right now we’re just trying to understand all the implications and move forward from there. A lot of us, if we just have one store, it looks like we won’t be affected that much.”

Contact Jennifer Oladipo at joladipo@communityjournals.com.

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 15

UBJ professional: who’s who

By Charles Sowell | staff

In each of the five years since its founding, Engenius, a Web design company in Greenville, has had extraordinary growth.

They’ve done it the oldfashioned way in the cuttingedge world of Web design – with customer service and satisfying results.

Chris Manley, 28, a partner in Engenius, said he got into the business of Web design after working for a local nonprofit.

“I was ready to start a family and needed a job that would pay the bills,” he said.

Q&A When was Engenius started?

We started in January 2008.

We’re about to mark our fiveyear anniversary.

Describe the startup of your business.

Photos by Greg Beckner

Engenius at work Chris Manley joins cutting-edge Web services with old-fashioned customer service chris manley – a partner in Engenius 16 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

I was working for a small nonprofit at the time and during the course of several conversations while working on our website realized there was really nothing out there for nonprofits or small business.

We were trying to start a family at the time and needed to pay the bills. We started Engenius in January of ’08 with a focus on small business. Some of our projects have grown quite large over time, but our focus is still on small business and providing quality service.

What’s the one thing you know now that you didn’t know when you started your business?

When we first started, the economy was good, but not great. In the years since then we’ve watched the economy go to places we never imagined it would. In spite of all that, we’ve had double-digit growth each year.

>>

UBJ the facts

What is the biggest challenge for a business like yours?

• Hometown: Greenville

Unfortunately we see a lot of companies popping up because of the state of the economy – maybe someone has lost their job – where the people running the company may not have all of the tools needed to do the job right. Yet they’re charging what a company with six employees charges. A lot of our customers come to us after being burned.

• Age: 28 • OCCUPATION: Partner in Engenius Web Development.

• FOUNDED: Engenius in 2008.

• EDUCATION: A graduate of Wren High School and Clemson University (’06).

• FIRST JOB: Out of college – was working with a small nonprofit.

• FAMILY: Married with two small children.

>>

Did you do any market research before you started your company up, or did you just charge up the hill?

Embarrassingly, we didn’t do a lot of market research. We consulted with friends and former mentors.

Fortunately, there were just not a lot of resources out there on setting up websites for small businesses and nonprofits. There were a few companies that charged, like, five figures to design and set up a site.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give anyone looking for a Web design company?

Challenge them. Of course, ask the questions about work they’ve already done, but more than that, I’d ask about what they see as their role in setting up a website that will help the customer’s bottom line.

Contact Charles Sowell at csowell@communityjournals.com.

But for a small business, that’s not even in the realm of possibility.

Your website mentions that you do a considerable amount of work pro-bono for nonprofits.

I’m not sure exactly what percentage of our nonprofit work is done pro-bono; it’s a good bit. We can’t do them all on that basis and stay in business. Roughly 20 percent of our work is done with nonprofits.

OLD SCHOOL MEETS NEW SCHOOL

Fortunately, there were just not a lot of resources out there on setting up websites for small businesses and nonprofits.

OLD SCHOOL MEETS NEW SCHOOL OLD SCHOOLMEETS MEETS NEW SCHOOL OLD SCHOOL NEW SCHOOL

Check us out, we’ve gone digital.

Check us out, we’ve gone digital. www.GreenvilleJournal.com www.GreenvilleJournal.com

Check us out, we’ve gone digital.

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 17

UBJ nonprofit matters & new to the street

Take the PR plunge in 2013 How did you spend New Year’s Day? Eating black-eyed peas and greens? Watching football? Or were you one of the adventurous folks on Sullivan’s Island who lunged into the icy water of the Atlantic Ocean?

Over the past nineteen years, Dunleavy’s Pub New Year’s Day Polar Plunge has raised thousands of dollars for Special Olympics South Carolina. In addition, this chilly annual event has provided a wonderful public relations opportunity to launch each new year.

Thousands of “Polar Plungers” were “freezin’ for a reason” on January 1. These enthusiastic revelers were demonstrating their support of the Special Olympics, an organization that strives to create a better world by fostering the acceptance and inclusion of all people, through the power of sport. If you have a moment, you should check out some of the many compelling YouTube videos.

I encourage all of my nonprofit friends to join the Special Olympics

and take the PR Plunge in 2013… which leads me to a question I was asked recently at the Chamber’s legislative breakfast.

Our organization has been around since the 1960s, though we continue to be the best-kept secret in town. We need to tell our story. Please offer your top recommendations for starting a public relations strategy in 2013.

– Sid S Sid, I applaud your New Year’s resolution, and I am happy to share the following insights for initiating a public relations plan this year.

1. Set your goals. The first step of each plan is… well, creating the plan.

Think about the goals that you want to achieve with your PR campaign and prioritize them. Then develop complementing strategies and a realistic annual schedule.

2. Use your website. Update your website regularly to communicate your good work.

3. Make friends (on social communications plan. media). Encourage your supHopefully, you won’t need

By Debbie Nelson it, but it is always better to porters to connect with you on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. be safe than sorry.

10. Give thanks. Does your 4. Build media relations. organization rely on volunteers or Differentiate by telling compelling have board members that deserve stories that demonstrate your recognition? Send thank-you notices organization is unique. or interesting stories to their employ5. Write a letter to the editor. ers’ communications departments and Send a letter or op-ed when there is a urge them to put something in the timely, newsworthy reason for it that company newsletter or intranet. is directly related to your nonprofit.

As you check off your list of New 6. Share your expertise. EncourYear’s resolutions, don’t let your good age your staff to attend and present intentions waver and take a nosedive. at conferences and local events.

Hang tough and accept the PR 7. Put on a special event. Raise Challenge. You will be glad you did. awareness (and funds) by hosting an Until next time, event for your loyal supporters and Debbie (Debbie@dnacc.com) others in the community.

8. Branch out. Spread your messages across multiple channels, such as blog posts, email blasts and social networks. Offer multiple ways for people to receive and share your story.

9. Create or update your crisis

Debbie Nelson is the president and founder of DNA Creative Communications, a public relations firm that partners with nonprofit and government organizations in the education, human services and sustainability sectors. Each year DNA offers its Live Here Give Here pro bono program and Shine the Light on Your Nonprofit workshop series.

BON SECOURS FAMILY MEDICINE CENTER ON MEMORIAL MEDICAL DRIVE

MIDTOWN ARTERY

Midtown Artery recently relocated to The West Greenville Arts District on Pendleton Street. A fine art and sculpture gallery representing international artists renowned worldwide, Midtown Artery is owned by Charlie and Laurie Thompson. In addition to the fine artwork and sculpture 18 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

Bon Secours St. Francis Health System recently opened the Bon Secours Family Medicine Center on Memorial Medical Drive in Greenville and added Robert G. Johnson Jr., MD, to the Bon Secours Medical Group. The practice will offer a Robert G. Johnson Jr., MD full spectrum of family medicine, including newborn care and minor surgery, and will accept all forms of insurance, including Medicaid. for sale, the gallery is also available for special events including wedding receptions, rehearsal dinners, cocktail parties and business meetings.

Midtown Artery is open Wednesday-Saturday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and at all other times by appointment.

Have the inside scoop on what’s “New To The Street”? Drop us a line at

Business@CommunityJournals.com

UBJ create, innovate, celebrate

Intuition and ‘irrational exuberance’ pay off for Michael Bolick Often what successful entrepreneurs have accomplished seems like it was inevitable. The reality is that at the beginning of highly successful entrepreneurial companies it was impossible to predict how they would evolve. Success isn’t an entrepreneur proving that his initial insight is correct, because it likely isn’t in important ways.

Success is an entrepreneur starting with that initial insight, having conversations with customers and resource providers about what assumptions are right and which aren’t, and then iterating to a business that is highly successful. Only in retrospect is this clear.

Several years ago, Matt Gavaert from Clemson came to InnoVenture 2006 to present carbon-based quantum dots invented by Clemson researcher Ya-Ping Sun. These nanoparticles had the potential to treat cancer. Matt was looking for a major company or a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record to license the technology.

Michael Bolick was a plant manager with a contract pharmaceutical company, Irix Pharmaceuticals, who attended the InnoVenture conference that year. Had Matt asked us to fill the room with successful entrepreneurs, we wouldn’t have invited Michael because he didn’t fit the profile. Michael selfidentified by showing up, a key trait in all successful entrepreneurs.

Seeing Matt’s presentation, Michael said, “I got so excited I looked around to see who else was taking notes.” He really didn’t have much to worry about, because there were only a handful of others in the room of several hundred people who had any clue what carbon dots were.

Even if someone else did know what carbon dots were, no one else, not even Matt, was having the same conversation in their head that Michael was having. He was connecting what he heard on

PhotoProvided.

Michael Bolick is CEO of the North American operation for Lab21. Lab21 and ITOR partnered to create the Clinical Genomics Center with the vision of providing personalized cancer care – delivering the right drug, at the right time, to the right patient.

the stage to his own experience and relationships, and envisioning an opportunity that no one else saw. Michael was so certain of his insight, that he left his job and started Selah Technologies to license the technology and make something of his new product, Selah Dots.

This is a moment of irrational exuberance that all entrepreneurs understand. I was recently contacted by a fellow with a pregnant wife and two children, who wanted my advice about starting a new company. Given his family situation, I told him he really needed to think twice about leaving a steady paycheck and health benefits.

Looking back, even successful entrepreneurs learn starting a company was harder, took longer,

and cost more than they thought.

It always does.

When Michael started Selah, he reached out to me and other people he knew to ask for introductions to people who could provide the customers, capital, talent and technology necessary to create his company. He found Ken Morgan who had two decades of pharmaceutical experience and brought him onboard as chief operating officer. Michael engaged the law firm Wyche Burgess. At InnoVenture 2008, Michael met Tom Vogt from the University of South Carolina’s NanoCenter, who helped Michael develop an efficient targeting mechanism so his dots only lit up cancer cells.

Michael connected with local

By John Warner

investors, the Upstate Carolina Angel Network and SC Launch.

Michael also has presented and raised capital from a wide base of other investors. He has found, like most entrepreneurs do, that the quest for capital is an ongoing, time-consuming effort that makes it hard to do everything else necessary for the company to succeed.

Among the most important connections Michael made were with Larry Gluck and Joe Stephenson at the Institute for Translational Oncology Research, known as ITOR, which is a part of the Greenville Health System. They helped Michael create a cancer diagnostic tool.

I serve on the SC Venture Capital Authority, which recruited a Boston venture capital firm, Nexus Medial Partners, to invest in South Carolina. Ed Snape, a Nexus partner, introduced Michael to Lab21, a UK pharmaceutical company. Lab21 acquired Selah, and today Michael is CEO of their North American operation. Lab21 and ITOR partnered to create the Clinical Genomics Center with the vision of providing personalized cancer care – delivering the right drug, at the right time, to the right patient.

Today, when you drive down Church Street in Greenville and see the Lab21 headquarters and the Clinical Genomics Center in the NEXT Innovation Center, it seems so clear that this is what Michael’s initial intuition would come to. It wasn’t at the beginning. I recently told Michael I was looking forward to seeing what the next chapter of Lab21 would be. His response was, “Me too.”

John Warner is CEO of InnoVenture, whose global Web platform helps people with big ideas about changing the world for the better attract needed customers, capital, talent and technology. InnoVenture.com partners include major corporations, universities, and entrepreneurial companies regionally and around the world.

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 19

UBJ commercial development

Indianapolis group buys 2 Woodruff Road shopping centers

By Dick Hughes | senior business writer

Kite Realty Group of Indianapolis has purchased the Shops at Plaza Green on Woodruff Road and a smaller nearby shopping center anchored by Publix, in the first of several acquisitions it seeks in Greenville and elsewhere in South Carolina.

Kite, a publicly traded company, bought Plaza Green, a 194,000-square-foot center, from Picoa Inc., a privately held Los Angles company, for $28.8 million.

Kite also purchased a 68,000-square-foot center anchored by a Publix Supermarket, which, like Plaza Green, is also on Woodruff Road near the intersection of I-85 and I-385. It paid $9.1 million for that center, which is 97 percent occupied.

Purchase of the Publixanchored center closed on Dec. 17, and the Plaza Green acquisition closed Dec. 21.

Plaza Green is 95 percent leased, and anchored by Bed Bath & Beyond, Christmas Tree Shops (owned by Bed Bath & Beyond), Shoe Carnival and Party City.

In announcing the two acquisitions, Kite cited attractive trade activity with average household incomes of $81,800 and population density of 143,300 for Plaza Green and $89,100 and population density of 114,300 for the Publixanchored center.

“We plan to continue increasing our presence in the Southeast by completing our development projects and acquiring well-located assets,” said John A. Kite, chairman and CEO. Adam Basch, a spokesman for Kite, said the company was impressed with the trade traffic on Woodruff Road, the area’s vibrant growth, and the presence of major foreign corporations in the Greenville area.

“We would like to buy more there,” he said. “We want to grow in South Carolina.”

In regulatory filings, Kite said it dedicated a majority of $52 million in net proceeds from a common stock offering of 10.5 million common shares to the purchase of the two Greenville properties.

Plaza Green was included as a potential use of funds in the prospectus for the stock offering

when presented to investors in October.

Kite is a real estate investment trust with ownership of 62 proper-

dealmakers • Chuck Langston of Langston-Black Real Estate represented Agracel in the purchase of an industrial facility across from BMW. This is a 45,000-squarefoot facility leased to an international automotive supplier.

THE business news for the Upstate’s most powerful, influential, sophisticated & educated –

ANYTIME… ANYWHERE… EVERYWHERE. 20 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

• NAI Earle Furman’s multifamily division represented the purchaser/ developer in a land sale for low-income housing tax

ties, consisting of approximately 9 million square feet.

Contact Dick Hughes at dhughes@communityjournals.com.

credit. Brokers Tony Bonitati and Kay Hill represented the purchaser, Pope Field Terrace SC LLC, who will also be the developer. The nine-acre land tract located on Pearson Road in Pickens County sold for $600,000. This particular project will be named Pope Field Terrace and will consist of 55 affordable housing units targeting families in the community. This is the second year in a row that NAI Earle Furman’s multifamily division has located a developable site that has been awarded federal housing tax credits.

UBJ guest column

Encouragement supersedes fear

• What industries am I interested in?

• What size of company am I interested in?

• What minimum salary am I willing to accept?

• Am I willing to relocate?

You can think these through with the view of “Where do I want to be three years from now?”

Why move forward without FEAR? Because many of the companies that reduced their workforces in 2008/2009 have only rehired a low percentage of those positions, meaning that many in today’s existing workforce continue to do the work of their original job while absorbing the work of those who left, and they are getting burned out, retiring, resigning, reinventing themselves in different industries, etc. Ultimately this means that the workplace needs you and your skill set, as the jobs will incrementally become available. Stay positive, persistent and patient while moving forward without FEAR – False Expectations Appearing Real. It’s just a matter of timing.

The next conversation and planning mechanism you should have in place with a coach or mentor is, “What really happens going forward when I walk through that door on my first day on the job and how do I position or brand myself toward being recognized as a high performer?”

Rob Krulac is owner and business coach at IDEAL Business Ventures. IDEALbv provides coaching services to business owners and leaders whose vision has taken a back seat to the day-to-day.

Coaching programs are offered to interface as a direct resource extension to client management and their teams.

Additional information is available at www.idealbv.com.

Rick Davis, CPA Firm Managing Shareholder

We’ve helped businesses succeed through the Great Depression, the recent recession and every market in between.

For 88 years, Elliott Davis has advised businesses on how to run efficiently, grow wisely, be more profitable.

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Encouragement supersedes FEAR, or at least it should for college students preparing for their future.

To all those college graduates within the last year and for all those soon-to-be graduates preparing for life after their December 2012 or May 2013 college graduations, guess what: The job marketplace needs you, companies from large to small need you and the existing workforce within those companies definitely need you. They’re just not jumping to send the signal yet.

The beginning phase of your career lies ahead based on the discipline or field which you have diligently studied, so move forward without FEAR. This is a time that requires you to build your job-hunting strategies around persistence and patience while not getting discouraged because it isn’t happening soon enough.

You can’t control the time factor, but you can control what you learn and how you learn in everything from your initial job search research and applications to the candidate interview process. The learning process will also provide you the opportunity to make adjustments toward your whole approach, as it is you, “the product,” that you are selling. So don’t be afraid to modify your personal branding approach as you go.

While you are working through this transition phase, continue to evaluate some of the basic questions in your ideal vision of what you are willing to consider. Some of those may be:

By Rob Krulac

200 East Broad Street • Greenville, SC 29601 • 864.242.3370 • www.elliottdavis.com

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 21

UBJ on the move

hired

promoted

certified

honored

honored

James I. Means II

Blake Bridges

Ellen Adams

Adair Smith Senn

Matt Petrofes

Appointed as Hampton Inn & Suites Greenville/Spartanburg’s new director of sales and marketing for the Piedmont Hotel Group LLC Southeast region. Means brings to the management team a proven track record in sales, marketing, business development and finance. Previously, he has held mid- to senior-level positions with Continental Tire North America, Michelin Tire Company North America, Bank of America and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Named WYFF-TV’s new general sales manager. Bridges succeeds John Humphries, who was recently named president and general manager of Hearst’s WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Pa. Bridges is a graduate from the University of Georgia Journalism School. While there, he was a Peabody Award student judge. He joined WYFF-TV in 2007 as national sales manager, with previous experience at WSPA-TV in Spartanburg and WXIA-TV in Atlanta as an account executive.

Managing Partner at Collins & Lacy, P.C.; recently certified as a South Carolina Circuit Court Mediator from the South Carolina Supreme Court’s Board of Arbitration and Mediator Certification. According to the American Bar Association, Adams is in an elite group as managing partner of a statewide business defense firm because only 15 percent of managing partners in law firms across the country are women.

Realtor with Prudential C. Dan Joyner Co., REALTORS; recently won the Realtor of the Year Award. This award is selected by a committee of peers and is based on demonstrated leadership in the industry and service to the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors (GGAR). Senn has worked in the real estate industry for 15 years, she is a member of the South Carolina Association of Realtors, and serves as president of the GGAR.

Of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control; recently honored as a “public health hero” by national health advocacy group The United Health Foundation. Petrofes was recognized for his focus on obesity-fighting efforts in school-aged children. He led an Upstate effort through which a variety of community partners created a program to evaluate body mass index among first-, third- and fifth-grade students.

The process is being touted as a model that can be used statewide.

FINANCIAL • Benchmark Mortgage recently announced the hiring of its new marketing coordinator, Amanda DeSisto. DeSisto comes to Benchmark from The Children’s Museum of the Upstate, where she was the events coordinator and development associate.

HEALTHCARE • Greenville EyeCare Associates, a provider of comprehensive eye healthcare services, recently added Lauren Laico and Catalina White to their patient care support team.

Laico joins Greenville EyeCare as a technician bringing more than five years of experience in the optometry field. White comes to Greenville EyeCare as a Spanish translator and receptionist.

• Greenville Hospital System’s manager of practice operations Chris Plemons was recently elected to serve as governor of the South Carolina Medical Group Management Association (SCMGMA).

Plemons will assume duties as governor on Jan. 1. On a national level, MGMA seeks to elevate the performance of medical practice leaders and their organizations by connecting members, building partnerships, setting the standards

for certification, advocating for physician practice, and providing innovative solutions. SCMGMA is largest MGMA affiliate in the southeast.

NONPROFIT • Upstate Forever recently announced the addition of Glenn Hilliard and Don McClure to its board of directors. Hilliard has led, as CEO and chairman, Liberty Life Insurance Co., ING Americas; and, as chairman, CNO Financial Inc. A retired orthopedic surgeon, McClure has called Spartanburg County home for 40 years, currently residing at Pauline Creek Farm, a 250-acre tract protected by a conservation easement held

by Upstate Forever. At the Board’s final meeting of the year, the following officers were elected for 2013: Dick Carr of Spartanburg County as chair; Brice Hipp of Greenville County as vice-chair; Dianne Culbertson of Laurens County as secretary; and Tom Brown of Greenville County as treasurer. In addition, John Frampton, former director of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, has joined Upstate Forever’s Advisory Council.

• The Slow Food USA Regional Governors recently announced

22 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

the election of Janette W. Wesley as regional governor for the Slow Food Southern Region, which covers South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Wesley will fill the place of Thom Duncan of Charlotte, N.C., who was just elected to serve on the Slow Food USA Board, but will still serve as chapter leader throughout 2013. Slow Food USA is part of the global grassroots Slow Food organization founded in 1989 to counter the rise of fast food, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

• The Mary Black Foundation recently announced the following staff changes: Amy Page has been promoted to a new position of grants manager; Cece Brown has accepted the new position of administrative assistant; and Curt McPhail will leave the Foundation effective Feb. 1 to pursue a new business venture.

Page has been with the Foundation for 12 years and will provide significant expertise managing relationships with nonprofits and the Foundation’s grantees as well as grant evaluation and reporting.

Brown has served as the Foundation’s receptionist since 2006.

McPhail will continue to assist the Foundation with its involvement in the Northside through a part-time contractual relationship.

PUBLIC RELATIONS/MARKETING • Erwin Penland recently promoted Kinley Cothran, Brandee Ellis and Kathryn Mudge to account executive, Jeff Hinshaw to senior graphic designer, Beth Moats to management supervisor and Lucy Zeiger to senior art director. Cothran is being promoted from assistant account executive to account executive.

She is moving from the agency’s Verizon Retail team to work with Verizon’s South Area marketing group. Ellis also formerly served as assistant account executive. She will continue in her role supporting the agency’s efforts on behalf of leading national homebuilder Lennar.

Mudge joined Erwin Penland about two years ago and has been working as an assistant account executive on the Denny’s field marketing team.

Hinshaw joined Erwin Penland in 2009 as a graphic designer working on the Verizon Shopper Marketing account. Moats becomes a management supervisor after serving as a senior account supervisor.

She will continue to work on the Verizon Wireless National Retail account overseeing national

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for Residential Capital Corporation, and is currently working towards his CCIM designation as a Certified Commercial Investment Member. CCIMs are recognized experts in commercial real estate brokerage, leasing, valuation and investment analysis.

REAL ESTATE

• Greenville Carpet One, a preferred flooring provider of more than 25 major insurance companies in the event of damage from fire, flood or natural disasters, recently announced that Stacey Brock and Mark Wilson have completed training to become certified service providers for the Carpet One Floor & Home insurance restoration program. They join Greenville Carpet One staff members Todd Center and Chip Pringle, who previously were certified. Brock serves as sales manager/interior designer for Greenville Carpet One. Owned and managed by Michael Wilson, Greenville Carpet One is part of Carpet One Floor & Home, the largest flooring company in the United States with more than 1,000 stores nationwide. Wilson established Michael & Company Interiors in 1988, and in Jan. 2012 purchased the Greenville operations of Carpet One.

• NAI Earle Furman recently welcomed broker Michael Greer back to the industrial division and Investment Services Group. Greer returns to the company after more than two years of active duty as an officer in U.S. Navy Reserves, completing two overseas tours in Europe and southwest Asia. In 1997, Greer joined NAI Earle Furman after receiving his master’s degree in political science from the University of Florida. During his time at the company, he continually ranked as a top producer in the industrial division and completed more than 180 significant transactions. He also holds both the CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member) and SIOR (The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors) designations.

• Coldwell Banker Caine’s Greenville office recently welcomed Joye Lanahan as a residential sales agent. Lanahan comes to Coldwell Banker Caine after three years as a realtor with an Upstate real estate firm where she earned Rookie of the Year in 2010.

• South Carolina Home Corporation recently hired Dan Horner as a property management leasing agent. Prior to this position, Horner worked as the service manager in the Property Management Division.

• Prudential C. Dan Joyner Co., REALTORS, recently announced that Jeffrey Henson has joined the company and serves as a sales associate at the Pleasantburg office.

Henson earned his bachelor of arts in business administration at Furman University in Greenville.

He continues to serve as the vice president of Greek housing finance

Note: This item appeared in the December 21 Upstate Business Journal with the wrong photograph.

It is reprinted here with the correct photograph. We apologize for our error.

RETAIL

SPORTS • The Boston Red Sox recently announced that Carlos Febles will return to Greenville in 2013 for his second season as the Drive’s manager. The rest of the coaching staff are familiar faces in the Red Sox organization but new to Greenville, as Paul Abbott has been named the pitching coach, while Tim Hyers will serve as the hitting coach. Febles returns after posting a 66-73 record in his first year at the helm in Greenville. The 2013 season will be Febles’ seventh in the Red Sox organization. Abbott joins the Drive after spending two seasons as pitching coach with the Lowell Spinners, the Red Sox’s short-season affiliate in the New York-Penn League. Hyers has spent the past four seasons as an area scout in Georgia for the Red

promoted Julie Dacus Named purchasing manager of Renewable Water Resources (ReWa).

Previously, Dacus worked in the engineering department as a senior engineering technician for 10 years managing the design, development and implementation of collection system construction and rehabilitation projects.

Dacus also spent two years working at the Mauldin Road WWTP as an operator.

Sox organization. He last coached professionally in 2002 as a hitting coach in the Tigers minor league system, where he helped guide Single-A West Michigan to the best regular season record in the Midwest League.

TECHNOLOGY • Sabai Technology, a specialized networking innovations company headquartered in Simpsonville, recently announced the promotion of Anja Smith to chief marketing officer. Smith will continue to pursue marketing, advertising and public relations opportunities for the company in addition to a central role in the company’s strategic planning. After two years of running her own design and marketing firm, Smith joined Sabai Technology in the spring of 2012 and her marketing expertise has been instrumental in accelerating the company growth rate.

Feed Your Inner Food Enthusiast

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print, broadcast and circular advertising. Zeiger moves from art director to senior art director, where she will provide creative concepts for such accounts as Advance America and Lennar.

She graduated from Clemson University with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, and joined Erwin Penland in 2008.

UpstateFoodie.com

UBJ on the move

movers and shakers New hires, promotions, award-winners, or stand-out employees can be featured in On The Move... send information & a photo. onthemove@upstatebusinessjournal.com

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 23

PLANNER Friday January

4 UBJ social

The Simpsonville Area Chamber of Commerce meet-and-greet

First Friday Luncheon: “What’s Happening in Columbia in 2013?”

Greer City Hall, 301 E. Poinsett St., Greer, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Sponsored by Greer Memorial Hospital. Cost: $10 for Greer Chamber members, $15 for non-members. Speakers: Representatives from the Greer Delegation of the General Assembly. Register at www. greerchamber.com or call 864-877-3131.

Monday January

GCS Roundtable: Make the Plan, Work the Plan The Office Center at the Point, 33 Market Point Drive, Greenville; 8:30-9:30 a.m. Speakers: Bob Barreto and Doug Stout, former clients.

Call Golden Career Strategies at 864-527-0425 to request an invitation.

Tuesday January

7

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Business Before Hours Commerce Club of Greenville, 55 Beattie Place, Ste. 1700, Greenville; 7:30-9:30 a.m. Open to Greenville Chamber members only. Cost: $7 to pre-register, $10 at the door, or $5 if also Commerce Club member. Contact Dot Drennon at ddrennon@greenvillechamber.org or Lorraine Woodward at 864-239-3742.

Wednesday January

The Simpsonville Area Chamber of Commerce recently held a meet-and-greet at The Springs at Simpsonville, an assisted-living facility. Photos by Jeanne Putnam

9

Pelham Power Breakfast Blueberry Frog, 215 Pelham Road, Greenville; 8-9 a.m. Free for Greer Chamber Members.

Register at www.greenvillechamber.com.

Spartanburg Young Professionals The Spartanburg Young Professionals celebrated the holidays with a Christmas party at Main Street Pub downtown.

Diversity Connections CityRange Steakhouse, 774 Spartan Blvd., Spartanburg; noon-1:30 p.m. Guest speaker is Rebecca West of Spartanburg Water. The event is open to members and guests. Lunch is Dutch treat. Contact Doug Gregory at 864-594-5062 or dgregory@spartanburgchamber.com.

FemCity Greenville The Lazy Goat, 170 River Place, Greenville; 11:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Speaker: Nathalie Gregg, FemCity Columbia president and author of “Leading in Stilettos.” Cost: $30 for members and $45 for non-members. Register at: www.femfessionals.com/FemCities/Greenville/ Calendar.htm.

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Thursday January

Entrepreneurial Readiness Greenville Chamber of Commerce, 24 Cleveland St., Greenville; 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Cost: $20. Attendees are invited to bring lunch; dessert will be provided. Register at http://scwbc.net/events/greenvillespartanburg/.

2013 Spartanburg Visitor Guide Release Party Zarza Eclectic Cuisine, 149 S. Daniel Morgan Avenue, Spartanburg; 3-5 p.m. This is the first opportunity to get the first look at the newest Visitor Guide and also to pick up a supply of visitor guides. Contact: Amy Phillips at 864-594-5050 for more information.

Monday January

14

Submit your event: events@upstatebusinessjournal.com

Photos provided

GCS Roundtable: Clemson Small Business Development Center The Office Center at the Point, 33 Market Point Drive, Greenville; 8:30-9:30 a.m.

Speakers: Scott Whelchel and Renn Mills.

Call Golden Career Strategies at 864-527-0425 to request an invitation.

UBJ digital maven

Tool or toy? Your mobile device is what your apps make it That shiny new mobile device you got for Christmas is soooo cool. The screen is so sharp and beautiful – you’ve watched “The Hangover, Part 3” several times on it. And the gaming... Wow! But now you are back to work.

Now what? Is this bright and shiny new iPad, Surface, iPhone, Android, whatever, a toy or a tool?

That all depends on what you feed it. The device is the foundation for great things, but it’s the apps that make it.

The ones you choose will ultimately be a very personal choice.

Like scanning the titles of someone’s bookshelves, you can tell a lot about someone by the apps they use.

Here’s a starter list. For experienced mobile users, I’d love to know what your favorite and most useful apps are – especially some things specific to your industry.

Share them with other readers on our Facebook page: http://goo.gl/ jIwgZ.

• Dropbox: Your business may already use Dropbox for cloud storage and file sharing. It is a nearly indispensable tool on the iPad (versions also available for Android, Blackberry, Nexus and a version in development for the Surface). Many apps integrate with Dropbox so it makes saving content you created or downloaded very easy. This is especially important on the iPad which has no inherent file system or external transfer – no USB or SD card access here. There are other services but, in my experience, this is the one that nearly every app seems to integrate with. That makes it a must-have.

Evernote: I have had Evernote

for years, but didn’t really get it until this year. This is a great tool. You can file anything, from anywhere, including handwritten notes that are then read and indexed for later searching. Even my handwriting seems to work, which is pretty incredible since I can’t read it most of the time. Evernote is everywhere: There are browser plugins so you can easily capture a Web page, article or link. Evernote, like Dropbox, is integrated into a huge number of business apps.

Where that’s not available you can email them to your account.

Notability: I do a lot of writing, I have a lot of meetings, I take a lot of notes. So this is one of the most important tools on my iPad. I settled on this app after trying dozens of other contenders. You can type or draw (or use handwriting). There’s a wrist-free zone that you can resize to ac-

commodate your personal style when using handwriting. There are many features I don’t have space to go into, but my favorite and most-used feature is the ability to record audio while you are taking notes – such as in client meetings or interviews – and have the text and audio synchronized.

So instead of scrambling to grab a lengthy quote, I can type “great quote,” click on it in the note, and the recording will jump to that spot and play. When exporting, you can get a timecoded document as well. The best 99 cents I’ve ever spent.

Trello: Project management in a bulletin board, drag-and-drop style. Trello has a card stack approach that is visually familiar to a lot of us. You can add stacks and move cards from one to another as jobs progress. Integration with Dropbox and Google Drive lets you easily connect documents. So you can keep everything you need in one place. Team members can be invited to individual boards so they can be involved in the projects that affect them without having to see those that don’t.

Air Display: This is an iPad app that can either mirror or extend your desktop, essentially creating a second monitor. You can drag windows between from one monitor to another – say, to write on one side while looking at a reference document on the other. It’s a $9.99 purchase and only for the iPad but

By Laura Haight

it does work via Bluetooth with either a Mac or a PC.

DocuSign Ink: You are talking to a client, you agree on a deal.

What’s better: Going back to your office, finding the contract, emailing it for them to sign OR handing over your iPad and getting a signature on the dotted line right away? I thought so. DocuSign Ink lets you securely and digitally sign your own documents or request signatures from others. The app is free for all platforms; the service has a limited free level and then escalates in cost depending on how many people will use it. For many, the free level may be sufficient.

Have an “appy” New Year!

Check out more apps on the Digital Maven Facebook page and share your favorites, too. Laura Haight is the president of Portfolio (www.portfoliosc.com), a communications company based in Greenville. She is a former IT executive, journalist and newspaper editor.

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 25

UBJ snapshot

Photo Provided .

CITY HOSPITAL evolved into greenville hospital system university medical center In 1831, Greenville first incorporated as a city and had only one doctor in town. By the 1890s, the population grew from 10,000 to 50,000, so more doctors moved in and ran mini-hospitals called sanitariums for their private patients, but nothing similar was open to the general public. Eighty years after becoming a city, Greenville opened its first community hospital on January 10, 1912, after money was raised by the Greenville Hospital Association, which included the Ladies Auxiliary Board.

Three days after opening, the City Hospital Training School for Nurses was founded and accepted its first student.

The 84-bed City Hospital evolved through the years into the Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, which is now the county’s largest employer and one of the nation’s most respected healthcare systems.

(Above) The Greenville City Hospital on Memminger Street and Arlington Avenue, circa 1921. (Right) A historic marker at the spot of the first Greenville City Hospital.

(Below) The Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center on Grove Road. The hospital moved to its current location in 1972.

Photos by Greg Beckner

how it is

how it was

Got an old photo you’d like featured here? Send an image file to snapshot@upstatebusiness.com with a description of the photo and do your darnedest to identify any people in it.

Upstate

Business J OURNAL

HOW TO REACH US 148 River Street., Suite 120 Greenville, SC 29601, 864.679.1200 Copyright @2012 BY COMMUNITY JOURNALS LLC. All rights reserved. Upstate Business Journal (Vol. 2, No. 1) is published weekly by Community Journals LLC. 148 River Street, Suite 120, Greenville, South Carolina, 29601. Upstate Business Journal is a free publication. Annual subscriptions (52 issues) can be purchased for $65. Visit www.UpstateBusinessJournal.com. Postmaster: Send address changes to Upstate Business, 148 River St., Ste 120, Greenville, SC 29601. Printed in the USA.

26 Upstate business | JANUARY 4, 2013

PRESIDENT/Publisher Mark B. Johnston mjohnston@communityjournals.com Senior Vice President Alan P. Martin amartin@communityjournals.com UBJ Associate Publisher Ryan L. Johnston rjohnston@communityjournals.com eXECUTIVE Editor Susan Clary Simmons ssimmons@communityjournals.com Assistant editor Jerry Salley jsalley@communityjournals.com

Marketing Representatives Lori Burney | Mary Beth Culbertson Kristi Jennings | Donna Johnston Pam Putman staff writers Cindy Landrum | April A. Morris Charles Sowell SENIOR BUSINESS writer Dick Hughes contributing writerS Jenny Munro | Jennifer Oladipo Jeanne Putnam | Leigh Savage EDITORIAL INTERN Shelby Livingston Design LEAD Kristy M. Adair GRAPHIC Design Whitney Fincannon

photographer Greg Beckner CONTRIBUTING photo EDITOR Gerry Pate MarketinG Katherine Elrod Marketing & EVENTS Kate Banner Billing Shannon Rochester PrODUCTION Holly Hardin Client Services ManagerS Anita Harley | Jane Rogers ADVERTISING DESIGN Michael Allen BUSINESS STORY IDEAS ideas@upstatebusinessjournal.com IDEAS, FEEDBACK, OPINIONS opinions@upstatebusinessjournal.com

UBJ the fine print Lender appoints new CFO

Regional M a n a gement Corp., a subprime consumer finance lender based in Greenville, has announced two high-level executive appointments.

Donald Thomas was appointed chief financial officer effective Jan. 1. He succeeds Robert Barry, who is retiring effective Jan. 15.

Brian Fisher was named vice president and general counsel.

Thomas has 30 years of finance and accounting experience, including as CFO of TMX Finance of Savannah, Ga., the holding company for TitleMax among other alternative financing subsidiaries.

Before that, he was with 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain, in various executive finance capacities for 17 years.

Fisher joined RMC from the law firm of Wombie Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, where he has been working with Regional Management Corp. over the last few years. Fisher received his law degree from the University of South Carolina and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Furman.

Thomas Fortin, CEO, said Thomas and Fisher would play instrumental roles in RMC’s “expansion efforts and ultimately providing our shareholders with long-term value.”

New European head for ScanSource

ScanSource has named Glen Baker as interim president of its European division to replace Xavier Cartiaux, who left the company.

Baker will be based in Brussels and report to Scott Benbenek, president of worldwide operations. Baker has been with ScanSource since 1995 and had been president of its North American communications unit since 2008.

In that capacity, said Benbenek, Baker “achieved record sales results for our last fiscal year.”

ScanSource, which is headquartered in Greenville, sells and services point-of-sale systems, chief among them bar-coding systems, and communications and security systems to retailers in North and South America and Europe.

Recruiter joins SC Launch

The Kidder Group, a professional recruiting firm, has become a mentoring and hiring consultant to startup companies sponsored by SC Launch.

Uniform maker and customer merge forces at RiverPlace OOBE, the Greenville provider of corporate uniforms, has announced a merger that absorbs Mail Sort of Lawrenceville, Ga., into its fold as a separate division.

The company also announced it would move this spring to new headquarters at RiverPlace, occupying 14,000 square feet on two levels of the mixed-use center overlooking the Reedy River in Greenville. It plans a showroom at the location to display its products.

OOBE’s 30 corporate employees now based in an office on East Park Avenue in Greenville will move to RiverPlace.

Mail Sort provides direct mail, financial processing, printing, order fulfillment and, under the Striking Solutions identity, promotional products.

OOBE said Mail Sort’s 65 workers would remain in Lawrenceville under the direction of CEO Butch Floyd. Floyd assumes the position of chairman of the combined company.

Within a year, Mail Sort and Striking Solutions will assume the OOBE brand name, the companies said.

“The merger with Mail Sort opens additional doors for business growth, as will the move of our corporate headquarters to a location as dynamic as RiverPlace,” said Tom Merritt, co-founder and co-CEO with Mike Pereyo, both of Greenville.

Merritt and Pereyo retain their current titles in the merged company “and assume the added responsibility of managing synergies among the “We are in an outstanding position to guide entrepreneurs and startup firms through the review process, gauging new employee requirements and providing our expertise in the hiring process of top-notch talent,” said Gary Tompkins, president and CEO of Kidder.

To join the SC Launch Resource Network, Kidder went through “an extensive application and approval process” as a resource to help SC Launch client companies, Kidder said it a statement.

SC Launch is a nonprofit affiliate of the South Carolina Research Authority, which works with South Carolina universities to foster, support and commercialize research in knowledge-based enterprises.

Sticking to conflict-free minerals

KEMET, the Simpsonville-based maker of capacitors, said it is moving forward with its initiative to operate a conflict-free chain of supply of minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo for use in capacitors for electronic products.

Daniel F. Persico, senior vice president for special projects, reaffirmed KEMET’s commitment after two major business groups challenged a federal provision requiring public companies to disclose

three operating divisions.”

“For more than two years, OOBE has supplied Mail Sort with apparel for its promotional products business and in that time we’ve found many commonalities in our operations and corporate cultures,” Floyd said.

In conversations “about how we might more closely align our businesses, it became apparent that there was tremendous potential for growth, and things fell into place quite nicely,” he said.

In January 2011, Mail Sort secured a place in Greenville with acquisition of iTrajectory Inc. and opened an office downtown.

OOBE supplies corporate uniforms and apparel that are custom-designed. Among recognizable companies for which it provides branded apparel are Chick-fil-A and Wolverine, as well as the YMCA. Merritt and Pereyo, classmates at Clemson, started out selling T-shirts in a garage and in early 1990 formed OOBE to design and make custom-designed uniform apparel that is “stylish, functional, comfortable and durable.”

the contents of products mined, transported and processed from areas where it is exploited by rebel and criminal gangs.

The National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently filed suit against the final rule on the matter by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Our commitment to developing a multi-stakeholder, closed-pipe, vertically integrated conflictfree supply chain is on target and already reaping benefits for the people of the mining village Kisengo in the conflict-free Katanga province of the DRC,” said Persico. “Our focus on developing long-term opportunities for these individuals is too important to have impacted by legal activity an ocean away in Washington.”

KEMET and AVX, which is based in Fountain Inn, have been out front of most industries in ensuring that minerals used in their products are not being stolen or diverted to fund civil discord and crime in Central Africa.

JANUARY 4, 2013 | Upstate business 27

UBJ

Less than an inch. The difference between off and on. For you, there is no in-between. Just today’s deals and deadlines. Clients to email and copies to make. You don’t think about all that goes on behind that switch. Because we do.