Biz Briefs

DURHAM, INC.

Highlights from our talented and creative business community

Fullsteam Brewery managed to keep staff – including Ivan Schell, Matt Salinas, Amanda Scherle, Hannah Parris and Amber Milton – employed through the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

How the Pandemic Shapes Our Workforce

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photo by cornell watson

BIZBRIEFS

Compiled by Iphigenia Sarrimanonlis gerri@elinvar.com.

ON THE MOVE

Atinkue Diver joined Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods as its executive director and lead organizer in late July. CAN strengthens congregations and community institutions, builds relationships of trust among people and institutions across Durham and reflects faith-informed and democratic values to create a platform for constructive change in the community. Diver will help Durham communities identify and develop leaders with a hunger for public action.

Durham Public

background in corporate finance

Schools hired

Sheena Cooper

as its director of marketing and community engagement in July. She was previously the marketing manager for the

Washington Duke

Inn & Golf Club and JB Duke Hotel.

WeWork, a company providing shared workspaces for startups, freelancers and other enterprises, plans to shut down its Durham I.D. location in downtown, one of two WeWork locations in the city. It also has another location in Raleigh, which will remain open. Recognizing the potential Durham has surrounding business growth, the company One City Center location. The Research Triangle Foundation is looking to fill the role of Vice President of Strategic Engagement. This person will lead Research Triangle Park in the areas of mobility, diversity and inclusion, sustainability and workforce development. They will also create or evolve strategic partnerships and programs that uphold the Foundation’s mission: to facilitate collaboration among our region’s industries and universities and create economic impact for all North Carolinians. To express interest in this position, contact

Steven Bariahtaris

was appointed interim chief financial officer of Liquidia

Technologies

in August. He succeeds Richard Katz, who resigned from his role at Liquidia in order to pursue other opportunities. Bariahtaris joins Liquidia with an extensive plans to continue to operate at its

and management. Prior to Liquidia, he spent nearly 24 years at Johnson & Johnson serving in executive roles. Most recently, Bariahtaris served as J&J’s Worldwide vice president, corporate internal audit, where he acted as the chief audit executive for the $80 billion health care company. ReViral, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with offices in the United Kingdom and Research Triangle Park, announced the close of $44 million Series C financing led by the CP-CR Life Science Fund. Jason Zhou, CEO and managing director of CR-CP Life Science Fund, also announced his joining of the ReViral board of directors on Aug. 25.

NEW ON THE SCENE

vyb studio opened on Sept. 9. The hot yoga studio combines traditional yoga movements with highenergy, strength-building workouts. With the current pandemic, vyb is limiting class sizes, having customers sign up for classes online, checking temperatures upon arrival and requiring face coverings when not exercising. In addition to classes, vyb also offers pop-up outdoor classes for those who are not comfortable entering the studio.

Johnson Lexus of Durham

opened its pre-owned center in September across the street from its current location on Southpoint Autopark Boulevard. Usain Bolt’s electric scooter company Bolt Mobility expanded its offerings into Durham in September. Unlike competitors Byrd and Lime, Former Executive Vice President of Operations Will Nicholas said maintenance teams disinfect and clean the vehicles every day with a goal to clean them between each ride, when possible, by utilizing data to see when they’re being used and where they can be intercepted for sanitation.

Regional e-commerce parcel carrier and last-mile delivery company LaserShip opened a new facility at 3500 Tricenter Blvd. The 40,000-square-foot facility processes up to 14,000 packages per hour. As of September, LaserShip has hired 15 full-time employees with plans to hire up to 22 as well as

additional full-time employees in the next few months to prepare for the upcoming holiday season. Available jobs include freight coordinators, supervisors, dispatchers and sort managers. The facility also offers a new service called Visual Proof of Delivery, which provides photo confirmation when packages are delivered, allowing consumers more visibility and transparency with LaserShip’s services.

Cultivate | Garden + Harvest, located at 3666 Guess Rd., opened at the former Benson Nursery location in September. The more than 15,000-squarefoot exterior space will feature a wide variety of unique and native plants, indoor plants, socially distanced seating areas and art for sale from local Durham artists. The plant nursery and garden center was formed from a partnership of Haven Ventures – a certified B Corp and parent company of Haven Developers, Haven Design|Build and Haven Modular – with Artistry In Plants, a garden design and implementation firm.

AWARDS AND HONORS

TechTerra Education, a Durhambased organization helping to improve STEM curriculums in classrooms, was recognized in May by EdTech Digest’s EdTech Award program as a 2020 Organization Setting a Trend. The national awards are the largest recognition program of education technology. TechTerra Education CEO Susan Wells was also a finalist in the Leadership category. Chapel Hill-based Participate Inc., a social learning platform that combines social networking and online learning in one platform, was also recognized as a 2020 Organizations Setting a Trend.

Leading life sciences magazine PharmaVoice recognized Jude Samulski in its top 100 most inspiring leaders in the pharmaceutical industry. Samulski has launched six biotech companies since the start of his career and leads the global R&D reach of AskBio, a gene therapy company. Fundera, a company that helps small business owners shop, compare and make smart financial choices for their businesses, named Durham the No. 7 best city in the nation for women entrepreneurs in 2020. Durham received the recognition thanks to low housing costs, high job growth numbers (prior to COVID-19) and its large number of self-employed women business owners.

Esquire Advertising

and Sift Media were named two of the fastestgrowing private companies in the United States by Inc. business magazine in August. Esquire Media was listed at No. 56 and Sift Media at No. 175 on Inc.’s list of 5,000 companies. Founded in 2012 and owned by Eric Grindley (pictured), Esquire is a full-service advertising and marketing agency with a specialization in the furniture and mattress industry, providing services for Ashley HomeStore locations, among others. It grew 5,485% over three years. Sift, which uses machine learning algorithms and advanced A.I. to hypertarget app install ads for its clients, was founded in 2015 and grew 2,254% over three years.

MOVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

Beam Therapeutics, a biotech company developing precision medicines through DNA base editing, announced on Aug. 11 its plans to invest $83 million into a manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park, which in turn could create 201 jobs. Although wages will vary depending on position, the average salary for the new positions will be $102,654. The state and local area will see a yearly economic impact of more than $20.6 million from the company’s new payroll.

In July, Durham Technical Community College purchased a 13,520-square-foot building in September at 1551 Cooper St., adjacent to the main campus. The building was formerly owned by Piedmont Metal Works, which is moving into a new facility in Mebane and approached the college about purchasing the building. Chief Finance Officer Andrew Kleitsch said the college plans to renovate the interior of the building before opening it to students. It has not yet been announced what the location will be used for.

RTI International, in collaboration with Duke University, received funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to establish a Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Disease (CREID) Coordinating Center. NIAID created CREID with the intent to further promote the investigation of how and where viruses and other pathogens emerge from wildlife and how the results can cause diseases in people. The center, located in Research Triangle Park, will focus primarily on data management, outbreak research response and quality control for biospecimens, assays and reagents.

Duke University and 14 other institutions across the globe joined the new research center Quantum Systems Accelerator, a $115 million effort to forge technological solutions needed

DEFINING SECURITY SOLUTIONS FOR THE FUTURE E

ven if you’ve never been personally affected, you likely have heard of online data breaches; from the recent reports of the U.S. presidential election interference, to ransomware attacks on several cities across the U.S., including Baltimore and our very own Durham. These attacks on privacy and data security are becoming more common, and organizations are having to pay a high price in their aftermath. In fact, according to the 2020 IBM Data Breach Report, the average cost of a breach is $3.86 million and it takes 280 days to identify and contain the breach.

With its first location in Silicon Valley, StrongKey is helping companies around the globe fight online data and security attacks by providing them with products and services for strong authentication, data confidentiality, and data integrity. StrongKey’s solutions are installed at customer sites around the world, are key components of mission-critical business

Jake Kiser, COO

operations, and has defined a unique web application architecture to enable secure cloud computing, which not only ensures strong security of sensitive data in the public cloud, but also does so at lower costs than companies currently spend on enterprise security.

With growing demand for higher levels and more advanced protection from attacks, StrongKey’s executive team saw the need to expand, choosing Durham as its East Coast headquarters. “We choose Durham because it aligns so closely with our company values,” says Jake Kiser, Chief Operating Officer. “Durham’s talent pipeline and sense of community fit well with the long-term vision of our organization.”

StrongKey is committed to creating technology for the betterment of everyone. Because of this, they use, contribute to, product, and support open-source technology, which helps keep their product affordable for customers, as well as provides a portion of their code freely available on the internet for anyone to download, engage with, and learn from. By being a part of the open source community, StrongKey is hoping to contribute

THE AVERAGE COST OF A BREACH IS $3.86 MILLION AND IT TAKES 280 DAYS “ TO IDENTIFY AND CONTAIN THE BREACH. “ Ser ving 6 con tinen t s

Durham Team

in some small way toward improving security for everyone, whether or not they are a customer. With the sudden shift that companies have had to make due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many are susceptible to attacks. To assist companies during the shift to remote work, they’ve produced resources such as blog posts and webinars with helpful tips to keep remote workers secure on vulnerable at-home internet routers.

Despite challenges brought by the global pandemic, StrongKey remains committed to Durham, it’s customers, and its resolve to provide equal access to the most advanced security technologies, as is evident in its open-source declaration:

StrongKey believes in, and is committed to, pushing forth the mission of open-source technology, especially because open-source means: •

Having a decentralized knowledge base, allowing for constant iteration and development

No licensing fees or payment per seat, effectively focusing the value on the product itself We got where we are today because of open source, thus, we believe in giving back—we have contributed many of our modules to the open-source community We do our best to financially support the open-source companies whose products we use through value-added subscriptions Our value as a company is in customer support and continuous innovative software development, while we stay close to the open-source community It’s important to us that we remain supportive of opensource and we strongly believe that it is the only sustainable model in the future of software

“We solve the hard problems. This includes cyberthreats faced by cities today. Cities are vulnerable to ransomware and denialof-service attacks as well as phishing. These are the types of problems we tackle every day. While data breaches are inevitable, we believe that with the right technology, they can be irrelevant.”

to harness quantum information science for discoveries that benefit the world. Duke’s Quantum Center specifically received more than $11 million in funds to head the design and fabrication of quantum computer systems based on trapped ions. Chris Monroe will lead the center and plans to join Duke as an electrical and computer engineer and physics professor at the beginning of 2021.

RTI International announced on Aug. 25 that it had reached a licensing agreement for a portfolio of compounds to APIE Therapeutics, which allows APIE to receive compounds developed by RTI. As a nonprofit research institute, RTI develops apelin receptor agonist compounds that could potentially be used for the development of a treatment that fights the rare, fatal lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis as well as other important diseases, including heart failure.

The Research Triangle Foundation livestreamed the groundbreaking of its Hub RTP project on Sept. 22 via YouTube. The $1.5 billion, 44-acre development at the intersection of Davis Drive and I-40 will include 2 million square feet of office, residential, retail and hotel space, as well as 14 acres of green space, where an existing storm water creek is being converted into an outdoor recreational feature that connects to the RTP trail system. The video included historic information about RTP’s beginnings and highlighted project stakeholders. KDC, a developer of corporate build-to-suit campus projects, is both leading the infrastructure for the project and developing up to 1 million square feet of Class-A office space at the site. JLL is serving as broker for the office component. MAA real estate investment trust will develop the apartments at Hub RTP. These will be the first residences ever located inside the historic science research park boundary

Liquidia received a notice of allowance from the Food and Drug Administration for its patent application related to the company’s proprietary dry powder treprostinil, designed to be used for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Multinational agriculture company UPL Limited will open

a research and development hub with 45,000 square feet of laboratory space called the OpenAg Center in the Alexandria Center for AgTech in Research Triangle Park.

STUDIES AND RESEARCH

Jessilyn Dunn, an assistant professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Duke University, launched a new study called CovIdentify. The study takes data collected from people’s smartwatches and phones to analyze and identify whether the user is infected with COVID-19. As of August, there are 5,500 people participating in this study. Using an algorithm to collect data, they are still unsure how the data will translate to predicting the virus but hope to recruit more participants and gain more funding in the future. The hope is that CovIdentify will also introduce the benefits of digital health through these smart devices beyond the COVID-19 virus.

BASF and UNC-Chapel Hill signed a Master Research Agreement on Sept. 1 to combine their strengths and facilitate easier collaboration between industry and academia on addressing global challenges such as climate change, food security and scarcity of resources. The Master Research Agreement contains pre-agreed terms for intellectual property, publication and confidentiality, which allows for more scientific discussion and an increase of collaborations on starting different research projects.

Durham Tech Community College launched its Backto-Work initiative in July. This initiative provides residents with short-term courses in an effort to help them gain immediate employment. As COVID-19 continues to play a part in high unemployment, this program helps the community get back on its feet, offering courses focused on highdemand occupations and industries, including information technology and health care.

BioAgilytix Labs announced the launch of its COVID-19 workforce testing service, COVIDence, in August. COVIDence aims to help employers across the United States combat exposure and spread of the virus. The company has engaged BRIO Systems, a tech company with a platform that broadens access to COVID-19 testing, to provide the technology and logistics

infrastructure that powers the COVIDence testing program. Together, they offer employers a one-stop solution to rapidly deploy and easily manage employee testing, backed by reliable results that can be used to effectively guide COVID-19- related risk mitigation strategies.

IN OTHER NEWS

AveXis changed its name to Novartis Gene Therapies in September. This change personifies the company as one that is focused on building and leading with advanced therapy platforms. Novartis is responsible for the research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of AAV-based innovative gene therapies.

In late August, NC IDEA, a private foundation that supports North Carolinians’ entrepreneurial ambition and economic empowerment, announced the formation of the North Carolina Black Entrepreneurship Council. This council is designed to serve the entrepreneurial aspirations and economic potential of the state’s Black community. “The Council will focus on economically empowering Black people with entrepreneurship, thereby combating economic inequality that perpetuates racial disparities,” said Thom Ruhe, CEO and president of NC IDEA. Out of the 25 council members, two are from Durham: Dee McDougal of Pacific Western Bank and Kevin Price of the NC

Institute of Minority Economic

Development.

RTI International’s Tobacco Consumers Project is starting to rely on telephone data collection rather than inperson data collection in an effort to keep their employees and participants safe as the COVID-19 pandemic remains a threat. The company laid off 50 employees and furloughed roughly 1,500 employees in August. The hopes of resuming field work will unfortunately take longer than the company previously anticipated.

Through the Payroll Protection Program, Nido Coworking & Childcare was able to secure $20,000 in forgivable loans, as well as $75,000 in a low-interest Economic Injury Disaster Loan. With these funds, the nonprofit will be able to continue to work toward its goal of finding a space where students have room to learn, play and grow.

Change the way you think about construction We specialize in lab & healthcare renovations, corporate interiors, facility projects and building renovations.

PROUDLY LOCATED IN DOWNTOWN DURHAM SINCE 2008

www.bridgepointnc.com

HOT SHOTS: BRIGHT BLACK CANDLES AND AUTOPILOT Two small Durham businesses were chosen to help celebrate the national release of an HBO series

BY HANNAH LEE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CORNELL WATSON

Tiffany Griffin, Dariel Heron, Christopher Tuning and Talib Graves-Manns.

Before HBO’s sci-fi thriller “Lovecraft Country” aired in late July and early August, the network sent out stylized influencer packages made up of items from Black-owned businesses, brands and creatives. The series was created by a Black woman and stars Black heroes, so HBO’s marketing teams wanted to make sure the touchpoints for fans also remained Black. Inside the bags was a booklet-style guide providing insight into the vendors, their company missions and the creative process behind each product. Of the eight products in the gift bag, two were from Durham-based businesses: an “Atticus” tote bag from Autopilot and a “Sundown” candle by Bright Black Candles.

In This Conversation

Talib Graves-Manns, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Autopilot Christopher Tuning, CEO and co-founder of Autopilot Tiffany Griffin, co-owner and founder of Bright Black Candles

*Responses have been edited and condensed

DURHAM MAGAZINE Can you both give me a brief history of your businesses?

TALIB GRAVES-MANNS Our company and both of our personalities [are] built out of hip-hop culture, street wear, African American culture [and] primarily metropolitan areas. The first product that Christopher created is called “Skycap,” and it protects your baseball caps when you travel so they don’t get crushed – a very stylish solution that we own the patent for. The story is: I went to go visit Christopher when he was in New York, and he had this big [piece of] Styrofoam. It looked like a baseball cap. I said, “What’s that?” He said, “I’m working on something. Come back.” I came back next year, and he had a prototype. I understood his vision. Then he asked me to join the team as a co-founder to help bring these products to market. We began to build other products that have a similar aesthetic. That was almost seven years ago. We’ve been working hard ever since to bring innovative luggage products into the market.

TIFFANY GRIFFIN I co-founded Bright Black with my husband, Dariel Heron. We use scent as an artistic medium for sharing positive stories around Blackness. We launched our business in the fall of 2019, so we are very new.

DM Tell me about your products that were in the tote bags.

TGM The advertising firm Translation did all the marketing strategies for “Lovecraft.” [It’s] an African American-owned advertising company based in New York [who we’ve worked with before]. They reached out to us to say, “Hey, we want to deliver really high-quality Blackowned products to influencers and promote the treatment of the show, backstory of the show, as well as the videos they have.” And Christopher just leaned into it and studied Atticus, [the main character], studied the book and offered them a few different designs and bags that we thought represented the aesthetics of “Lovecraft Country.” They fell in love with the tote bag and decided to order that bag for I think 300 people globally. We’re calling that design specifically “The Atticus Tote,” which is made out of high-quality green canvas.

TG We were approached by Translation, who we don’t have a relationship with, and we’re not super clear how they actually found us. They reached out and said, “Hey, we have this partnership with HBO and [“Lovecraft Country” Executive Producer] Jordan Peele, and we’re creating this virtual screening premiere kit and want to include a candle. Could you make a suggestion on what kind of candle that you already have in your repertoire that would fit the screening of this premiere?” Upon watching the trailer, it was pretty clear that our Durham scent was the most fitting for the show and for the kits. I sent them samples and said, “This is our recommendation, but we would do a custom label.” They smelled it – we sent them all of our scents – and they agreed that the Durham was perfect. We created a smaller version of our full size offering [in] our signature black matte vessel with a wooden wick. Although the packaging is cobranded with Bright Black and HBO, it’s not the Durham candle. It’s a “Sundown” candle.

DM And you both didn’t know that you’d be featured in these influencer bags together beforehand? How did you discover the link?

TGM I got a funny story. The Autopilot team was on a call with Translation. And I’m like, “Well, I know a lot of Black people, and I know a lot of Black business owners. I need to know who else is in this bag. Who else is dope enough to be in the bag with us?” They’re like, “Yeah, there’s a company from Durham.” We’re like, “We know. I live in Durham.” And they’re like, “No, Autopilot, we didn’t even know you were in Durham. It’s Bright Black.” And I said, “Get out of here!” Literally a month before COVID-19 happened, Tiffany was at Knox St. [Studios] for [an] event.

TG Wow. And I found out when Talib reached out on Instagram and said, “Hey!” (laughs) The thing is, we negotiated the deal back in June, but we couldn’t say anything. We didn’t know who else was in it. It was pretty hushhush until the launch of the show, but when Talib had a meeting with them he reached out, and we were like, “Oh, my gosh, what are the chances?” It’s a highly curated kit, and there’s literally hundreds of candle companies, so the fact that you have these two companies that are both Durham-based is pretty crazy.

DM Who received these bags? What was the feedback like?

CHRISTOPHER TUNING It kind of exceeded my expectations, all the love we’ve been getting. People supported the whole kit and really genuinely love the bag.

TG I was telling Talib, I don’t have HBO (laughs), but I feel like the influencers kind of fell into a few different buckets. Some of the influencers are really high-profile actors and actresses on a number of HBO shows including “Insecure.” There were also influencers on the back end of HBO. Some animators and videographers and editors who reached out and said that they received the candles and the packages and really liked them.

TGM One of the targets – outside of these famous Black people like actors, actresses, musicians, athletes – was the blerd community, meaning Black nerds. People who read comic books, who are into anime, science fiction, and [many who have] already read the Lovecraft books. [If you haven’t seen the show], it’s really good. Prepare to binge watch. It’s horror inspired. The main character, Atticus, as well as his uncle, they’re voracious readers of science fiction and horror books. And a big part of the storyline is that they have really vivid imaginations. They’re traveling from Chicago to Connecticut in search of Atticus’ father, who has gone missing. They have to use the Green Book, which was used around that time for African Americans who were traveling and needed safe places to sleep and to eat. They address all of the historical context of Black readers, fiction, travel, throughout the entirety of the show.

DM So it was very purposeful that the influencer bags included Black-owned businesses. Why is that important at this moment, especially in conjunction with the subject of this show?

TG I’m going to answer a slightly different question, which is: Why is it always important – not just at this moment – for Black businesses? One of the major pathways to social justice –

including racial justice in the United States, and I would argue everywhere – is through economic justice. And one primary pathway to economic justice is through supporting Black entrepreneurship.

One of the best things about working both with Translation and with HBO on this project is that they did not try to haggle us at all. Companies as big as Amazon and Nike and Google, and as small as coffee shops literally around the corner from my house, are all recognizing or jumping on bandwagons around the utility of Black partnership, Black economic partnership and aligning themselves with Black businesses. And usually, it’s kind of on their terms, right? It’s like you as a Black business should be just eternally grateful to have access to customers or capital or various sorts of collaboration activities to the point that is actually often detrimental to business. They either want very deep discounts or incredibly fast turnaround times, that are just completely unrealistic and would never be asked of white-owned companies, both in terms of timeframes and/or money.

That was not the case with HBO and Translation; they paid a fair rate. They were incredibly reasonable with timelines. Obviously they’re working under a timeline, but they didn’t ask for something in a day, and when they did need certain types of parameters, they paid for them. They really treated us like equal business partners and recognized our value.

The point is that, when partnering with Black businesses, you should also partner with them as equals. You shouldn’t partner with them in some sort of charity mindset or mindset to where they should just be grateful for your partnership.

HBO and Translation clearly were mindful about curating this package that was a tribute to highlighting Black dynamics in the United States. They’ve partnered with Black businesses in a fair, human way that recognizes us as business people.

TGM Well said.

CT Well said.

TG I’m really passionate about that point, if you didn’t notice. (everyone laughs)

DM Would the Autopilot team like to add anything?

TGM She dropped the mic.

DM This show has a global reach. What sort of positive impact does it have not just on your brand, but also on bringing more visibility to Black-owned businesses in general?

TGM Black businesses are present within communities but are more often overlooked. There’s a quote that I really love that’s resonating now in the Black entrepreneurship community that says, essentially, “Black businesses are over mentored and underinvested in.” I’m often hearing, as a Black business, that somebody needs to mentor me and/or coach – coaching is good. But mentorship and assistance should always come with capital, [in] the form of investment, as well as in purchasing power. So, I think that the exposure that this has had for our company, and the other ones that were included in the kit, will give them exposure, which should lead to more revenue. Ultimately, that is what is most important for us; to be able to grow, [we need] to have direct investment in the form of purchasing into our business.

CT Some of the most positive feedback we’ve been getting, and talking about, is everyone involved in the kits and how good quality the products are. At times, I think Black companies get a bad rap for having inferior products or like, they should be cheaper. With this kit, everyone was really pleased not only with how it looked, but also the quality of the products. So that was important for us as a brand and as a whole community to kind of get past that stigma that we’re inferior.

TG Christopher took the words out of my mouth around quality. There is a stigmatization around Black business and creating products. I would just echo that point that we received a ton of feedback on quality. Literally, one woman posted a story on Instagram where she was singing to the candle and was just like, “This is the most amazing thing that I’ve ever gotten,” or something to that effect. The feedback has been incredibly positive. We’re pretty confident; we don’t necessarily need external validation and yet, it’s not a bad thing to get. And, yeah, if it’s good enough for Jordan Peele and HBO and [producer and actress] Issa Rae, then it should be good enough for anybody. And, just to tilt Talib’s point around, that hopefully drives sales to the degree that we and other Black businesses are successful. That success directly funnels back into the city via tax revenue. So there should be an incentive among the city and the county and the state to think about creative pathways to economic development for Black makers and Black artisans. There are more pathways to prosperity than just tech. I think Autopilot and Bright Black are two incredibly great examples of pairing creativity and entrepreneurship. We’re not a nonprofit. We’re here to make money.

DM What did it mean to have both your businesses chosen for this opportunity?

TG It made me really proud. It really highlighted both the history of Black entrepreneurship, but also the current state of Black entrepreneurship. Black businesses are here. They’re doing really great work, really high-quality work, giving back to the community more often than not. This company was objectively putting together a kit and wanted the best makers and artisans. And in this kit, two of the [businesses] are in Durham. That’s pretty cool.

TGM I gotta be honest. It does feel great. It’s amazing it happened. It’s also a little bit bittersweet. You know, we constantly show up ready to play ball all the time. It’s unfortunate that I can’t point to 10 different HBO deals that happened through the year. Right? It is not lost on me that if it were not for Black Lives Matter, if it were not for Black men being murdered in the street and raising the profile of the Black experience, maybe this very decisive decision would not have been made. That’s not lost on me. But … understand if there was a more equitable decision-making process across America, maybe the forces that led to this decision might not have happened.”

HIRING AND RETAINING EMPLOYEES IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

BY BRANDEE GRUENER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CORNELL WATSON

en D’Agostino and her family packed up their home in the Washington, D.C., area in February so that she could start her new job as the vice president of talent acquisition at RTI International in Research Triangle Park. Her husband, Avery Macierowski, planned to search for a new job. Their 20-month-old daughter, Cora Macierowski, was enrolled in a day care in Chapel Hill.

One month later, Cora wasn’t in day care anymore, Macierowski became a stay-at-home dad, and D’Agostino was looking for prenatal care during a pandemic. In this strange new world, D’Agostino’s employer played a part in recommending doctors and babysitters, helping her strategize time off and maternity leave, and keeping her connected with a community of other employees.

“The challenge whenever you move to a new place is creating a new support system of friends and neighbors,” D’Agostino said in early September. “The employee community [at RTI] is pretty awesome, and people are very generous with their time and support. Even just today, my team threw me and another expecting mom a great

Amanda Scherle, who leads packaging at Fullsteam, with a pallet of her finished work that is ready for refrigeration.

virtual baby shower with wacky baby games and fun virtual backgrounds.”

Employees had to adjust to the new normal of working during a pandemic. Those operating from home had to adapt to a disconnected world of Zoom meetings. Those whose jobs required going into work had to weigh the possibility of exposure to the COVID-19 virus against the benefits of staying employed. And working parents had challenges with managing child care and virtual schooling while trying to stay productive.

Durham employers had to do their best to be accommodating and flexible so that they can keep employees on board and hire more talent when necessary. Jobs began to return this summer; though local unemployment was still high at 7.9% in July, about 19,000 jobs had returned to the DurhamChapel Hill region since the labor market bottomed out in April.

Hiring talent happens to be the focus of D’Agostino’s job. With the exception of essential workers like janitors, security and scientists who use the labs, the RTI campus was not scheduled to open before Jan. 7 at the earliest. Even then, management was not requiring anyone to return. In the meantime, they have hired about 150 people in

the Triangle, primarily to staff new research projects. Interviews took place over Zoom, with candidates facing the prospect of not meeting their co-workers in person for months.

“We have to make hiring decisions without actually meeting them, and that takes some getting used to,” D’Agostino said. “Everyone has been making those adjustments and figuring out the new normal of how to get together virtually.” RTI began hosting virtual socials for new hires and assigned a buddy to each new employee to make sure they could get to know one another. They also allowed flexible work schedules (some employees worked from 5 to 9 a.m. and then returned after the school day ended) and reimbursed expenses for office equipment at home. Somehow, everyone had to make the new reality work.

“I think all of our employees have had to get really creative with this new work-life balance,” D’Agostino said.

Fidelity Investments used similar approaches to support employees during the pandemic, according to Market Leader Robert Merdes. While more than 90% of its employees worked remotely after its offices closed, the company added about 100 employees in the Triangle.

“Our goal is to make every new employee immediately feel like they are a part of the Fidelity community,” Merdes said. New employees were brought on virtually and connected with a peer buddy and hiring manager.

The company also added more time off for issues with child care or recovery from COVID-19, eliminated copays for telemedicine appointments, set up a referral system for COVID-19 tests, and held a kids’ camp over the summer. Once the school year started, Fidelity worked to help arrange backup child care and elder care for employees who needed it. 

Amber Milton pulls a pallet of beer through Fullsteam’s warehouse to refrigeration. The brewery stepped up its canning operation for fans who preferred drinking at home.

Brewer Jon Simpson working on a batch of Fullsteam’s beer. “All the staff have been in kind of varying levels in their interest, need and ability to get back to work,” said Fullsteam Chief Executive Optimist Sean Lilly Wilson.

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“We know that working parents in particular are crunched for time and resources,” Merdes said. “Fidelity has responded quickly to support the total lives of our employees – helping them both in and outside of work regardless of whether or not they test positive with COVID-19, which is an approach that not all companies are able to take

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Insurance products made available through Fifth Third Insurance Agency, Inc. Businesses That Work With the Public Face Safety Concerns All employers that Durham Magazine spoke with implemented cleaning protocols, masks and social distancing for employees in the workplace. But businesses like doctors’ offices, restaurants and hotels interact with the public, making protection from exposure an even greater concern.

When Dr. Jenny Bennett opened Urban Tails Veterinary Hospital on the Golden Belt Campus in June, she lost a part-time vet assistant who did not want to relocate during the pandemic. The son of a friend gladly stepped in; he had just graduated from Durham School of the Arts and wanted experience in the workforce. Bennett’s full-time employees were all former colleagues she had recruited, and none had children at home.

Bennett owns a “fear-free” practice, with animal-soothing music, cat-specific rooms, lots of treats, and comfy sofas and cat shelves in place of exam tables. Not as many experienced the cozy environment as Bennett had hoped. Downtown foot traffic was low, and clients couldn’t stop in just to get their dogs a treat. With many appointments virtual and only one client allowed inside at a time, employees did not always wear masks when clients weren’t in the building.

Then, in July, Bennett had to shut down the practice for 10 days. Her teenage son, who worked at a grocery store, was diagnosed with COVID-19. “If I wasn’t the one who’d been directly exposed, we could have stayed open,” said Bennett, the only veterinarian in the practice.

“As far as I know, the rest of us managed to dodge it,” she added. “Now we all wear masks inside all the time.”

While business started off a little slower than she wanted, Bennett would like to build up her client base and hire another doctor in a year.

At another downtown business, Fullsteam Brewery’s CEO (Chief Executive Optimist) Sean Lilly Wilson had his own concerns. The brewery and kitchen closed in March. They stayed on life support with curbside service for two months until they reopened at 50% capacity. Wilson had to let a couple of managers go but managed to keep most staff employed with the Paycheck

Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. Tavern revenues have since become “nearish normal,” Wilson said. But not every customer wanted to return, and the same was true of his employees.

“All the staff have been in kind of varying levels in their interest, need and ability to get back to work,” Wilson said. As someone who had a kidney transplant and is immunocompromised, Wilson felt he should be flexible. They have outdoor seating set up in the alleyway, and a big, open space with seating in the building. But he does not work in the bar area because of his health condition.

“I feel like it would be hypocritical of me if we didn’t accommodate everybody’s concerns,” Wilson said. Meanwhile, Wilson stepped up his canning operation for Fullsteam fans who preferred drinking at home. He was looking ahead to an expansion at Boxyard RTP, a trendy “microshopping” development of shipping containers expected to house 15 retailers and restaurants, that was originally slated to open in spring 2020. Wilson planned to add 10 part-time staff to his team. Perhaps the circumstances of the pandemic will change by next spring (Boxyard’s new targeted completion timeframe), but fortunately for Wilson, his staff and his customers, seating will be in an open-air courtyard.

Diversity and Inclusion Receive More Attention in Hiring Employers like to say that diversity and inclusion have always been considerations during hiring. But the protests surrounding social injustice brought a national reckoning over how racism affects opportunities in America.

Wilson said he has long been aware that the craft brewing industry historically was overwhelmingly male and white. He said Fullsteam has made progress in better representing the population of Durham, but they still have work to do. They have made some changes in the vendors they use and are “working even harder to try to push diversity within hiring processes and make sure that we don’t have any blind spots in that,” Wilson said. “If you’re not careful, you can miss out on great opportunities to bring people in.”

D’Agostino said they had the same conversations at RTI and planned to bring in consultants to analyze the hiring process and see where they could improve. “Diversity and inclusion have always been a focus for us, but I don’t think you can go through the last few months without taking another look,” she said.

Merdes said that they have made measurable progress at Fidelity. The company’s hires in 2019 were 13% more diverse than the rest of their workforce, and they plan to continue building on that success by expanding recruiting, scrutinizing the language in job postings and advertising on diverse job boards. The company also announced the appointment of a new head of global diversity and inclusion in July. “It is a strategically important function that helps us build a connected and collaborative workforce that reflects the broader society,” he said.

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engagement Megan Le & Edward Nishio

BY SARAH ROLLINS PHOTO BY NIKKI WHITT, FANCYTHISPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

Wedding Date Postponed until January 2022 - March 2022 Occupations Megan is a strategic services associate for perioperative services at Duke University Hospital. Edward is an IT auditor at IQVIA. Crossed Paths The couple met at a sports bar in Athens, Georgia, during their junior year at the University of Georgia. Megan says she saw Ed walk in and thought he was the most handsome person she’d ever seen. By the end of the night, Ed asked for Megan’s number. Two weeks later, they went on their first date at Cali & Tito’s in Athens. They celebrated eight years together in August. The Proposal On a Saturday afternoon this past February, Megan and Ed went hiking in William B. Umstead State Park with their dog, Ollie. They reached one of their favorite picnic spots by the lake, and Ed got down on one knee and asked Megan to marry him. Megan hugged Ed and then turned around, surprised to see

her best friend, Tiffany Jung, and her husband, Dan Jung, who drove down from Washington, D.C., to capture the moment as they hid behind a tree. Megan says she is notoriously difficult to surprise, but Ed pulled off the proposal with the help of friends. After many happy tears and pictures, she was surprised by more friends back at their apartment. They ended the night with a celebration at The Roof at The Durham Hotel. Now, “I Do” Megan and Ed will have their ceremony at Duke University Chapel followed bya reception at Bay 7 at American Tobacco, catered by the Angus Barn. Willis J Entertainment will provide the music.

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wedding

Scott Galpen & Kendall Schmidt

BY ANNA SOUTHWELL PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROSE TRAIL IMAGES, ROSETRAILIMAGES.COM

Wedding Date November 22, 2019 Occupations Kendall is an assistant coach for the Duke University rowing team, and Scott works in Raleigh for I Must Garden. Crossed Paths In November 2016, Kendall was wanting to play soccer again and joined a men’s team in New Jersey –the only team she could find nearby. Little did she know that she would end up teammates with her future husband. “We clicked right away,” Kendall says. When Kendall was later hired as a rowing coach at Duke, Scott moved with her to Durham. They adopted their dog, Mia, and bought a home together. The Proposal The couple made dinner plans with their friends at American Tobacco Campus in November 2018. Kendall noticed that Scott was wearing an unusually large coat for the weather but didn’t think anything of it at the time. Turns out, it was the only coat with big enough pockets to hide a ring box. As they crossed the bridge outside Bay 7, Scott kissed her, knelt down and proposed to her. “Our friends were hiding nearby taking video of the whole thing,” Kendall says. “I had no idea!” The Big Day When the couple first moved to Durham, they stopped on a walk to watch a wedding through the window of Bay 7. “We both thought it would be amazing to have our friends and family visit Durham for our wedding, so it was a no-brainer that we’d try to get married at Bay 7 ourselves,” Kendall says. Emily Katherine Events helped plan the big day, which included a soccer playing bride and groom atop their wedding cake and metal-stamped “DURM” keychains for guests. Tre Bella provided the flowers, and Bella Trio Studio took care of Kendall’s hair and makeup. The rehearsal dinner was held at It’s A Southern Thing, and guests joined in a brunch at Pine & Poplar, complete with Monuts Donuts, the next day before enjoying brews at Ponysaurus Brewing Co. and games at Boxcar Bar + Arcade later that day.

Favorite Moments Instead of a first look, the couple exchanged personal letters without seeing each other before the ceremony. “What was amazing was, between laughing and choking up reading the letters, we realized we wrote almost identical notes referencing the same moment we knew we had found our other half,” Kendall says.

That evening, when the reception began to wind down and the dancing came to a close, the couple snuck away from the party to soak in the moment. “From upstairs, we could look down at the dance floor and appreciate all the family and friends who traveled to celebrate our day,” Scott says. “You don’t often get all the important people in your life together in one space.”

Do you live in Durham and want your wedding or engagement featured in our magazine?

Email weddings@durhammag.com.