December 2022 WilmingtonBiz Magazine

It Doesn

t Have To

As a coastal community, we face unique challenges when it comes to flooding, but we’re taking the necessary steps to reduce our risks and minimize impacts. Like, with the Clear Run Branch project. This $11 million project is the largest stormwater capital improvement project that we’ve ever undertaken to reduce chronic flooding, improve water quality, and enhance natural habitat.

Phase 1 underway now includes: ƒ

Large box culverts under College Acres Drive and Mallard Street ƒ

A completely new drainage system, sidewalk and street re-build for College Acres Drive from Racine Drive to Oriole Drive ƒ

A stream restoration and floodplain storage area along Clear Run Branch, including habitat restoration wilmingtonnc.gov/stormwaterprojects

Laundry List

of Impact

We launched the WilmingtonBiz 100 list in 2019. That’s 100 Power Players, Influencers, Connectors, Innovators and Rising Stars to highlight each year.

The closer we get to deadline, the more we ask, “WilmingtonBiz 25? That couldn’t have been a thing?” But after our editorial team has poured enormous effort into writing, photographing and designing the bios of 100 people in the region making a mark this year, it’s evident a dozen, 25 or 50 wouldn’t be enough to create the snapshot of the region’s activity. Even getting the list down to 100 is challenging. (Props also to our events team, which communicates with the list’s members after their selection and throws them a party in December.)

And here we are, the 2022 WilmingtonBiz 100 issue.

In this year’s issue (turn to page 23 for the special section), you’ll see some familiar names from previous lists – head officials for some of the largest organizations and economic drivers in Southeastern North Carolina. But the focus is on advancements they and their companies or institutions have made this year.

Others are names new to the list. We’re intentional about keeping a rotating roster of people who are bringing new ideas and new projects to the mix.

In many ways, 2022 marked a growth spurt for the area.

Wilmington International Airport wrapped up its multi-year terminal expansion with plenty of improvements around the property still in the works. Read about the next steps in economic development projects and how that has the potential to feed into lower airfare prices on page 88.

Meanwhile, this fall, GE Hitachi officials

announced a significant change to its Castle Hayne campus and workforce – the addition of nearly 500 workers to support projects in next-generation nuclear energy technology. Learn about the industry changes driving that expansion on page 16.

In some years on some 100 lists, the major story is evident. The sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center and the (now) $1.1 billion community endowment created from it was one of those leading topics. Now as the endowment prepares to begin issuing its first grants this month, other announcements join that story as items with the potential to impact the area for years to come.

In ways large and small, those included on this year’s 100 list touch all corners of the economy in the region and, in turn, the quality of life for its residents.

Congratulations to this year’s members. We’ll see what 2023 has in store.

VICKY JANOWSKI, EDITOR vjanowski@wilmingtonbiz.com

LOGAN BURKE

LOGAN BURKE is from St. Louis but moved to Wilmington to get away from the busier paces of life. With a background in business, photography wasn’t always in Burke’s background. It wasn’t until his father left him with some camera equipment and curiosity to understand it all. After a few times behind the camera, he developed a motivated interest to learn what made the picture. Burke photographed WilmingtonBiz 100 members Todd Godbey, Mike Langston and Cameron Moore for the section that starts on PAGE 23. loganburkephoto.com

MADELINE GRAY

MADELINE GRAY is a freelance documentary photographer based in Wilmington. With a master’s degree in photojournalism, her work is regularly featured in local and national publications. She enjoys spending time in places that are off the beaten track and collaborating to share the diverse stories found there. Gray photographed this issue’s cover and feature story about Wilmington International Airport on PAGE 88 madelinegrayphoto. com and @madelinepgray on Instagram

MIRIAH HAMRICK

MIRIAH HAMRICK is a reporter covering restaurants and hospitality for the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. Hamrick grew up working in her family’s restaurants, and although she didn’t continue in their path, she can’t stop thinking, talking and writing about food. Her career has included stints in news and magazine writing, including for Food Network Magazine Hamrick talks with airport officials about their next phase of growth for ILM on PAGE 88.

MAGAZINE

WINTER 2022 – $4.95

P ublisher Rob Kaiser rkaiser@wilmingtonbiz.com P resident Robert Preville rpreville@wilmingtonbiz.com e ditor

Vicky Janowski vjanowski@wilmingtonbiz.com

A ssist A nt e ditor

Cece Nunn cnunn@wilmingtonbiz.com r e P orters

Johanna Cano jcano@wilmingtonbiz.com Miriah Hamrick mhamrick@wilmingtonbiz.com

Johanna F. Still jstill@wilmingtonbiz.com

V ice P resident of s A les

Carolyn Carver ccarver@wilmingtonbiz.com

s enior M A rketing c onsult A nts Maggi Apel Matthew Coleman

Lucy Pittman

Craig Snow Stacey Stewart

M A rketing c onsult A nt Alexis Alphin

JOHANNA F. STILL

JOHANNA F. STILL is a reporter and photographer for the Greater Wilmington Business Journal who earned her bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A Wilmington native, she previously worked as assistant editor for Port City Daily before joining the Business Journal team. Still talks about the nuclear industry changes behind a recent announcement to expand GE Hitachi’s campus in Castle Hayne on PAGE 16.

d igit A l M A rketing s P eci A list Braden Smith bsmith@wilmingtonbiz.com o ffice & A udience d e V elo PM ent M A nAger Sandy Johnson sjohnson@wilmingtonbiz.com d igit A l s A les c oordin A tor Jillian Hon jhon@wilmingtonbiz.com e V ents d irector Elizabeth Stelzenmuller events@wilmingtonbiz.com e V ents & d igit A l c oordin A tor Jamie Kleinman jkleinman@wilmingtonbiz.com c ontributing d esigner Suzi Drake art@wilmingtonbiz.com d esigner Tara Weymouth tweymouth@wilmingtonbiz.com M edi A c oordin A tor Julia Jones jjones@wilmingtonbiz.com c ontributing P hotogr AP hers

Daria Amato, Christer Berg, Logan Burke, Madeline Gray, Aris Harding, Terah Hoobler, Michael Cline Spencer s ubscribe

To subscribe to WilmingtonBiz Magazine,visit wilmingtonbiz.com/subscribe or call 343-8600 x201. © 2022 SAJ Media LLC

ON

THE

RISE

After two years of renovations, Little Loaf Bakery & Schoolhouse opened the doors to its first brick-and-mortar location in November.

Owner Julia Castellano retained many of the historic features of the 1930s home at 3410 Wrightsville Ave. while renovating the space, including the original wood floors and windows.

Castellano has sold her fares at local farmers markets since March 2021, and customer favorites including sourdough focaccia and honey biscuits are also sold at the bakery. New offerings include a sourdough marbled rye and two different baguettes, one a traditional French recipe and another Castellano’s riff on the classic, along with other specialty breads.

As the name implies, Little Loaf will also offer classes, some on breadmaking and baking taught by Castellano (a former teacher) and others by local artisans.

B iz B ITE s

BEHIND THE NUMBERS | SOUND OFF | THE DIGEST | C-SUITE CONVO

photo by ARIS HARDING

BY JOHANNA F. STILL

OFFICIALS IN LATE OCTOBER UNVEILED the final business involved in a group of expansions teased earlier this year.

In February, New Hanover County and Wilmington pledged performance-based financial assistance to four economic development projects in the area. At the time, sparse details were made available about the projects, and the companies remained publicly undisclosed.

With the recent announcement of GE Hitachi’s planned $85 million Natrium fuel facility in Castle Hayne, all four of the incentive projects have been identified.

All but one, Savannah-based Port City Logistics, are companies with an already large presence in the region. Live Oak Bank, MegaCorp Logistics and GE Hitachi are among the biggest employers in the region.

Notably, MegaCorp Logistics and Port City Logistics are both in the growing third-party logistics sector. All projects except MegaCorp plan to construct new facilities associated with their expansions (however, the local company did purchase several properties in the Mayfaire area for $15.2 million last year).

Wilmington Business Development President and CEO Scott Satterfield said the tranche of announcements follows plenty of preparation. “These companies’s decisions to locate and/or further enhance their future operations in the region is not by chance; it is the result of many years of work,” he said.

In all, the four incentivized projects are committing to bringing 1,064 jobs and $126 million in property investments to New Hanover County over the next 12 years.

New Hanover County and the city of Wilmington have committed to paying the companies a combined $2.6 million, so long as they meet certain job-performance metrics. The state offered up another $1.7 million if the companies hit their targets.

With $1.5 million in state and $500,000 in local incentives, Live Oak Bank’s expansion is eligible to net the largest incentive package.

GE Hitachi’s plans include the largest capital expansion, the highest number of new jobs and the highest average salary. While no state incentives were announced for this project, the U.S. Department of Energy is helping to fund the fuel plant.

SOUND OFF

HE

GREAT

AMERICAN RECESSION RESULTED

IN THE LOSS OF 8 MILLION JOBS AND 4 MILLION HOMES WERE LOST TO FORECLOSURES

A SLOWDOWN, BUT NOT T

ANOTHER CRISIS

GUETTABI MOUHCINE

building permits increased substantially to accommodate the loose lending standards and wide availability of subprime mortgages.

Similar to the rest of the country, Wilmington experienced a significant increase in the supply of homes before the onset of the financial crisis.

BETWEEN 2007 AND 2009.

This severe economic contraction was preceded by significant debt accumulation. Household debt doubled between 2000 and 2007 increasing to more than $14 trillion.

Economic commentators, of late, have raised questions about the health of the economy, the state of the American consumer and whether we are about to enter another contraction similar to that of 2007.

In the past few months, the national economy has no doubt slowed, inflation has reared its ugly head and both the stock and housing markets have cooled, but the drivers of the run-up in economic activity in late 2020 and 2021 as well as these recent declines are very different from what caused the great financial crisis.

The COVID pandemic, surprisingly, has left many households in better financial shape than before its onset due to both significant fiscal stimulus and reduced spending due to business closures and lack of travel.

As a result, household debt service payments as a share of disposable income, an important metric in determining financial health, was only 8.3% in the first quarter of 2021. That is 1.5 percentage points below the level

it was at a year earlier. Since then, conditions have deteriorated, and debt service payment as a share of disposable income has increased to 9.57% but is still a far cry from the 13.1% reached in the fourth quarter of 2008. This difference in debt burden between the conditions that led to the financial crisis and the current landscape is important as consumer spending came to a screeching halt in early 2008 due largely to the unsustainable debt burden that many households were carrying.

The lack of crippling debt, this time around, means that the slowdown in consumer spending will be less abrupt and will therefore result in a less severe labor market contraction.

The Federal Reserve has, however, been single-minded in its attempts to curb inflation. The persistent and sticky rise in prices has forced them to tighten monetary policy, which will weigh heavily on economic activity. So while the debt burden this time around is much lower than in the financial crisis, households and businesses alike are having to deal with higher interest rates, which affect a number of important decisions.

In addition to the differences listed above, one of the main features of the run-up in the economic crisis was the significant increase in housing supply. At the national level, the number of

In March 2006, the number of housing permits reached 1,034 units, which was more than double the number of units authorized in March 2000. Since the housing crash, there was no month when the number of permits exceeded 650.

So not only are consumers not as financially strapped as during the financial crisis, but the dynamics in the housing market are very different given that the housing expansion observed pre-financial crisis did not play out this time around.

The aggressive increase in interest rates has, however, made home purchases/ownership considerably less attractive due to the much higher monthly payments required.

As a result, the housing market is what can be best described as being at a standstill with buyers reluctant to purchase at these elevated interest rates and most sellers facing the difficult decision of timing their sale and finding their next home.

Where does this leave us?

A slowdown is inevitable, but it is not going to resemble the financial crisis and should be both shorter and not as deep.

Mouhcine Guettabi is a regional economist with UNCW’s Swain Center and an associate professor of economics in UNCW’s Cameron School of Business.

SOUND OFF

BRIDGING A GAP

INEVITABLY, I ELICIT CHUCKLES IN ALMOST EVERY MEETING I ATTEND BY SIMPLY SAYING THE WORD “BRIDGE.”

I don’t mind creating an opportunity for people to laugh. Laughing is good for the soul, right? The tactic, however, has been tremendously effective. People in our region are aware that a replacement of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge (CFMB) is a top infrastructure priority for the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.

Of all the transportation needs in Southeastern North Carolina, why is this one our top priority? For, at least, the following five reasons: the aging infrastructure of the CFMB is becoming more and more costly to maintain; the CFMB connects to the route to destinations to and from the Charlotte region and other points west; the CFMB is a key connection for freight trucks going to and from the NC Ports at Wilmington; our population growth makes the CFMB increasingly insufficient for traffic volumes; and the CFMB is not currently funded in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).

The CFMB opened to traffic on Oct. 1, 1969. At over 50 years of age, the bridge is nearing the end of its lifespan. Annual maintenance costs continue to increase, and replacement parts are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. Some parts must be specially made to order because they are no longer in production.

The CFMB is a critical piece of the connection between the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County

NATALIE

ENGLISH

beaches to points west and south. Population growth in Brunswick County is leading to increasing numbers of commuters crossing the CFMB. Access to health care facilities, entertainment and shopping is impaired when the drawbridge is raised. Tourists traveling to our beautiful beaches, contributing to our economy, will find it increasingly difficult to get here as the bridge will need increasing downtime for maintenance.

The NC Ports at Wilmington is a critical component in our state’s economy. Current and future expansion and improvement will increase the number of freight trucks in and out of the area. The CFMB is the most efficient route for the trucks going to the port. Freight companies will choose our competitor ports in South Carolina or Georgia if the route is impaired for increased maintenance needs.

Southeastern North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. In the 10 years between the 2010 and 2021 Census, Brunswick County grew by 27%, or 29,260 people, and New Hanover County grew by 11%, or 23,004. That growth is forecast by the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) to grow by another 126,154 people by 2040 for a total population in the two counties of almost half a million people.

The N.C. General Assembly, in 2013, made changes to how transportation dollars are distributed

throughout the state. The changes ensured that money follows growth and economic development. The changes also prevent powerful legislators from influencing distribution to benefit their own districts. The days of legislators and influential NCDOT board members bringing home major investments, outside the prioritization process, are over.

The process involves public comment, and the local MPO (in our case, the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization) developing their list of priorities.

The CFMB is currently the top unfunded priority in the WMPO’s list. Why is such a critical piece of infrastructure unfunded, you might ask? Because there are many transportation-related infrastructure needs in our region, and the cost of replacing the CFMB would impair our ability to invest in other important projects.

I know that some people would like to pull up the proverbial (or literal) drawbridge to stop that growth. However, the secret is out that our region is a fantastic place to live, work and play. Business leaders are expanding their companies, and others are relocating here, following the people who are moving here. Now, we must invest in the infrastructure we need to accommodate that growth. We must continue to remain open to any, and all, options for funding a replacement.

That might include grants from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed earlier this year. Those grants carry some state and local funding matches. As an unfunded priority, the CFMB isn’t likely to be a top candidate. We might be able to find ways to make it a more attractive

candidate.

It might include advocating for increasing the revenue sources that contribute to transportation infrastructure. In fact, we’ve had some success in this area working alongside the NC Chamber and the Destination 2030 Coalition. During the 2022 session of the N.C. General Assembly, the sales tax associated with auto-related expenses (motor oil, windshield wipers, etc.) will now go into transportation funding rather than funding the general operating needs of our state.

It might include advocating for, and supporting, unique ways of funding infrastructure like a public-private partnership (P3). Private companies can bring capital to the table and construct a project like the CFMB much more quickly than traditional methods. The population explosion we’re expecting deserves consideration of bringing the CFMB to completion sooner rather than later.

And, finally, it might include tolls. There simply isn’t enough money, through the gas tax and the sales tax on auto-related expenses, to fund all of the critical transportation needs in the state of North Carolina. State leaders will be forced to consider other options to access revenue in the future. Tolls require visitors to pay and will limit future increases in the gas tax, the sales tax or the income tax. We can advocate that local residents pay less in tolls, and we can increase public transportation options that limit the tolls imposed on local residents.

While I will likely continue to elicit chuckles every time I say bridge in a meeting, I hope that citizens and elected officials in this region will also begin to understand the need to address this critical infrastructure ASAP and before all the extra people land in our beautiful region to fill jobs and contribute to our economy.

Natalie English is President and CEO of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.

CROWD SOURCING

THERMO FISHER HAS EXPLORED SELLING ITS 12-STORY FORMER PPD HEADQUARTERS BUILDING IN DOWNTOWN WILMINGTON. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE BUILDING USED FOR?

“ UPFIT THE INSIDE and offer leasing incentives to bring in another large employer to Wilmington = jobs.” -CHRISTINE ROZ DAVIS

“ THE SIZE IS BIG but a dorm for CFCC students so new students and families locally and out of the area can better see it as a great opportunity for continued education. Especially for straight out of high school, a dorm can provide a needed support system and independence.” -LEILA GARRISS

“ FOR LIFE SCIENCES companies on the floors where there are labs. The other floors can be for tech biz companies.” -JIM ROBERTS

“IKEA ” -JENN WRIGHT

TWITTER POLL: @WILMINGTONBIZ

“THIS IS A SIGNIFICANT PROJECT FOR THE CITY AND COUNTY , the largest joint project that the city and county have ever done to address the need for affordable housing.”

-WILMINGTON MAYOR BILL SAFFO ABOUT STARWAY VILLAGE, WHICH THE CITY, COUNTY AND STATE OFFICE OF RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE HAVE CONTRIBUTED MORE THAN $14 MILLION IN PUBLIC MONEY TOWARD

DIGEST

fficials with an organization that was aiming to raise $16 million to buy more than 80 acres on Eagles Island recently announced that they’ve terminated their contract to buy the property.

The Chapel Hill-based nonprofit Unique Places to Save announced the decision, explaining that it came after failing to secure a grant from the N.C. Land and Water Fund (NCLWF) to help buy the land.

A news release stated that Unique Places to Save was “counting on the state’s support to create the momentum needed to get private philanthropic donors to the table. Without NCLWF’s support and no other viable state or federal grants for land acquisition, the project has gone cold and there appears to be no major donors who are interested in preserving the land and therefore no viable path forward.”

Diamondback Development owns the property, where a hotel and spa has been planned by developer Bobby Ginn.

Jay Shott, co-owner of Diamondback Development, said in a previous Greater Wilmington Business Journal story that the $16 million purchase price was far lower than the $25 million the total acreage has appraised for.

“We have all the permits necessary to move forward with the development,” Shott said in July.

“If they aren’t able to do it, if the community doesn’t get behind it, then that lets us know that the community wants to see it developed.”

The proposed purchase price represented the amount Diamondback Development was prepared to seek from Ginn, said Jeff Fisher, chair of Unique Places to Save, in July.

LUXURY

SALES STREAK FALTERS

A streak of increased sales in the luxury home market came to an end in October, but not by much.

For the first time in more than two years, sales of homes priced at $1 million or more in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties decreased year over year, falling from 53 sold in October 2021 to 50 in October 2022.

The combined value in October this year fell to $78.4 million from October 2021’s total of $90.5 million, according to a report compiled by Wilmington-based Just For Buyers Realty.

“It almost seems a little unfair because last month was the second-best October ever recorded,” said Scott Saxton, of Just for Buyers Realty, in a news release. “And if you were to look at those numbers, they’re impressive. But when you view them in the context of this record-breaking streak, where month after month we witnessed gains in the luxury housing market, and now we see this dip, it says to me that if we’re not seeing a slowdown, at least we are seeing a calming down.”

SUITE CONVO

NEW PORT NEIGHBOR

BY VICKY JANOWSKI

PORT CITY LOGISTICS THIS SUMMER ANNOUNCED ITS PLANS TO BUILD A TRANSLOAD FACILITY IN WILMINGTON. THE $16 MILLION PROJECT IS EXPECTED TO BRING WAREHOUSE STORAGE SPACE TO HELP STREAMLINE TRUCKING SOLUTIONS AT THE PORT.

The third-party logistics company committed to creating 75 jobs in Wilmington as part of receiving up to $337,000 in state and local incentives. It also has leased office space in downtown Wilmington for transportation and administrative support.

Below is a recent Q&A with Eric Howell, CEO of the Savannahbased company. To read more, go to WilmingtonBizMagazine.com.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE PROJECT PORT CITY LOGISTICS IS BUILDING NEAR THE PORT OF WILMINGTON AND WHERE IT STANDS NOW?

“Port City’s operational focus is on getting shipping containers – TEUs –out of ports fast so that our customers receive their products in a dependable manner without time or steps wasted. One of our keys to success over the years in Savannah, Georgia, has been our close proximity to the port, which gives our trucks quicker turn times and increases our ability to manage peak volumes.

We hope to duplicate that success in Wilmington by building a

ERIC HOWELL CEO, PORT CITY LOGISTICS

150,000-square-foot, high-velocity transload facility on Raleigh Street.

The new facility will have 250 trailer parking slots and 45 dock doors on each side of the building so that we can maximize the TEU throughput of customers coming through the Wilmington container terminal, less than a mile away.

We are making great progress and are currently in the process of finalizing all of our government approvals with the city of Wilmington, New Hanover County and the state of North Carolina.

As of early November, most of our civil engineering plans have been completed, and we are in the final stages of our architectural and design plans.

We expect to have architectural renderings for publication before year-end, and we plan to begin construction in the first quarter of 2023.”

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE COMPANY’S PRIMARY SERVICES AND CUSTOMER TYPES?

“We have a wonderful and very diversified customer base

that we provide drayage trucking (transportation of containerized ocean freight from port to destination), warehouse distribution, inventory control and security, and outbound Over-The-Road transportation services to.

Each and every day, we handle a large volume of food and beverage products, electronics, general merchandise and retail products, and nonhazardous chemicals and resins.

The majority of our customers import their products from overseas, but we also have a strong base of domestic manufacturing customers that export their products. We distribute a lot of household brand names, and we are always looking for opportunities to help new customers.”

WHAT MADE THE COMPANY PICK WILMINGTON FOR THIS EXPANSION?

“For years, my wife and I have been visiting extended family in Wilmington, and it was on one such visit three years ago that I was able to spend time with the Wilmington Business Development and N.C. Ports teams.

Those meetings left a great impression and things continued to align from there.

Wilmington checks all of our boxes for expansion in that it (1) is a great place to work and live and visit – our company culture is paramount, and we have to enjoy the places where we expect our team members to spend their time; (2) has a growing port with excellent transportation infrastructure providing access to a large population base within an eight-hour truck drive; (3) has a thriving and fast-growing workforce from which to recruit; and

Biz B ites

(4) has alignment across city/county/ state government entities.”

WILL THIS BE PORT CITY LOGISTICS’ FIRST FACILITY OUTSIDE OF THE PORT OF SAVANNAH AREA?

“Wilmington will actually be the second market outside of Savannah because we launched three new distribution facilities in the Greer, South Carolina, market … in 2022.

We currently have 3 million square feet under management in Savannah and 1 million square feet in Greer.”

WHAT

TRENDS

ARE YOU SEEING IN THE PORTS INDUSTRY THAT ARE DRIVING YOUR EXPANSION?

“Many of the major ports in the U.S. have been dealing with congestion and gridlock issues over the past couple of years. We want to be where containerized freight can flow the fastest and speed to market is celebrated.

With the fastest turn times of any container port in the U.S., the Port of Wilmington can gain significant market share and play a key part in the supply chains of a number of beneficial cargo owners with an HQ or significant commercial presence in North Carolina.

We also believe that it is better to be great in a few areas than to be mediocre in many. As a result, it’s our desire to be the logistics provider of choice for any customer that wants to import and get their products out to the population of the United States with ease and velocity. We strongly believe that Wilmington is well-positioned to streamline delivery across the United States.

Wayne Gretzky said, ‘Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it’s been,’ and we believe the puck is going to Wilmington and the state of North Carolina.”

JOBS J O L T

BY JOHANNA F. STILL PHOTO BY DARIA AMATO

ASIDE FROM AIMING TO CREATE ABOUT 500 JOBS IN NEW HANOVER COUNTY WITH AN AVERAGE SIX-FIGURE SALARY – NOTEWORTHY IN ITSELF – GE HITACHI NUCLEAR ENERGY’S CURRENT SLATE OF PROJECTS REPRESENTS A NEW FRONTIER FOR THE INDUSTRY.

Stateside, there’s a rebirth of nuclear technologies. As aging reactors continue to power a sizeable share of the nation’s carbonfree electricity, the next wave of nuclear innovations looks to deliver cost-effective, reliable and scalable solutions.

This comes as the Biden administration has set a goal for the U.S. to achieve a carbon-free electricity grid by 2035.

“You can add all the solar and wind that you want – and you should, by the way, absolutely,” said Jay Wileman, president and CEO of Wilmington-based GE Hitachi. “But it won’t get you there. You’ve got to have nuclear to be able to get to those net-zero aspirations.”

LOCAL LEAPS

Since 1969, General Electric has produced nuclear fuel in New Hanover County and chose its Castle Hayne campus as its nuclear

headquarters in 2003.

The bulk of the business’s operations has historically entailed producing boiling water reactor fuel and engineering support for most of the reactors designed by the company globally (some have closed, but nearly 70 GE reactors were built in 10 countries, according to Wileman).

In recent years, GE Hitachi pivoted. In addition to maintaining its domestic and global engineering support and fuel production, the company began dedicating additional resources to two newer ventures: developing smallmodular reactor and sodium-cooled fast reactor designs. Cooled using different mechanisms, both emerging technologies represent advanced blueprints contributing to nuclear’s renaissance.

“That’s really driving our growth,” Wileman said.

As part of the shifted focus, in October Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas (GFA) – a GE-led joint venture with Hitachi – unveiled plans for a new fuel fabrication facility in Wilmington, expected to cost at least $85 million to build.

This local operation will create the next generation of fuel, produced with ultraenriched uranium, for the proposed Natrium advanced sodium fast reactor being designed by GE Hitachi and TerraPower, a company founded by Bill Gates. About 100 new employees are needed to power the new facility, according to TerraPower.

Through local performance-based incentive agreements with the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County, GE Hitachi is eligible for $1.5 million to create 485 jobs to support the Natrium fuel facility as well as work on the company’s separate small-modular reactor design, called the BWRX-300.

The Wilmington site’s depth of experience with fuel fabrication made it a prime candidate for GE Hitachi’s new fuel venture, according to Wileman.

“We have an existing facility and a license with the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission),” Wileman said. “And so,

what better way to do it than just grow where we’re already good and we have a team here instead of a greenfield where you have to stand up all the infrastructure again?”

FEDERAL BACKING

Roughly 61% of the nation’s utilityscale electricity was generated by fossil fuels last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and about 19% was powered by nuclear energy.

In North Carolina, nuclear reactors provide three-fourths of the state’s carbon-free electricity,

according to the EIA; the nearby Brunswick Nuclear Plant that opened in 1975 with reactors designed by GE is one of three in North Carolina, all operated by Duke Energy.

After a spate of activity with the construction of nuclear reactors between the ’60s and ’80s, domestic investment in new facilities and technologies dried up, in part due to high-profile nuclear accidents and a stronger appetite for cost-competitive natural gas.

“Every time you’d see a little momentum (in the nuclear industry) built, there’d be something that

PHOTO COURTESY OF GE HITACHI

would come along and kill it,” said Tim Beville, the U.S. Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations’ acting associate director of project management for nuclear technologies.

The nation’s fleet of utility-scale reactors is decades old, Beville said, and some have shut down rather than receive upgrades. “Companies are loath to invest in those 1,000-megawatt reactors anymore,” he said. “They want to see things with more flexibility.”

Meanwhile, advanced designs have been making progress on an international scale.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work here for decades and decades trying to show that these designs can be built at some point and operated safely and moved into the commercial market. But more recently, there’s been a lot of movement in the international world,” Beville said. “China is developing sodium reactors. Russia’s got state-sponsored companies that are developing gas reactors. Congress is seeing this and saying, ‘Hey, what about us?’

“We’re a free-market economy, and we don’t have the state sponsorship to compete with these kind of capabilities.”

But lately, that’s changed. In the 2020 federal budget, Congress appropriated $230 million to launch the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), to fund two new reactors to be cost-shared with the

industry and constructed within five to seven years.

By October 2020, the Department of Energy had picked its two projects: X-energy’s gas-cooled reactor design, the Xe-100; and the Natrium sodiumcooled fast reactor design.

GE Hitachi’s new Castle Hayne facility will produce fuel for the proposed Natrium demonstration project reactor, planned near a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming (Similarly, X-energy is planning a fuel production facility to support its new reactor design).

Teams behind the Xe-100 and Natrium designs each received $80 million from the ARDP in 2020 and again in 2021 to help forge the concepts into realities. Then last year, Congress appropriated nearly $2.5 billion to the ARDP through fiscal year 2025 under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Beville, who leads the ARDP, said the amount – and mostly the fact that

YOU CAN ADD ALL THE SOLAR AND WIND THAT YOU WANT – AND YOU SHOULD, BY THE WAY, ABSOLUTELY. BUT IT WON’T GET YOU THERE. YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE NUCLEAR TO BE ABLE TO GET TO THOSE NET-ZERO ASPIRATIONS.

” ”

JAY WILEMAN PRESIDENT & CEO GE HITACHI

it included pre-appropriated funds – was unheard of. “I’ve been in government for 30 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

Through the cost-sharing agreements, the ARDP has committed nearly $2 billion toward the Natrium project and about $1.2 billion to the Xe-100 to help develop the advanced reactors.

“They’ll invoice us, and we’ll pay them 50% on the dollar for it,” Beville said.

To carry out a total financial split of the roughly $4 billion Natrium and $2.5 billion Xe100 projects (which includes the reactors and fuel facilities necessary to power them, like the one being built in Wilmington), Beville said more appropriation will be needed after 2025.

“If we’re going to fully fund these things, we’re going to need some more appropriation in the out years,” he said, “but I mean, that’s a pretty good start.”

Without government-backed assistance, Beville said he believes progress on both planned advanced reactors may not be occurring as promptly. “They may not have taken the risk, because the financial risk was way too high at the time,” he said. “But with a[n up to] 50% cost share, it really, really eases that burden.”

John Kotek, who was acting assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy during the Obama administration, said the value of the wind production tax credit, for example, has been more than $4 billion annually over the last several years. “We haven’t had that for nuclear until now,” he said.

Kotek said that another piece of recent legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, is a “landmark in U.S. clean energy policy and will provide a springboard for a broad range of new nuclear projects in the U.S. over the next decade.”

Production tax credits set to begin in 2026 in particular will incentivize utility companies to invest in advanced or modern

nuclear reactors, said Kotek, who is currently the Nuclear Energy Institute’s senior vice president of policy development.

Clean energy goals, many driven by state-level policies, have in part driven the urgency to decarbonize and the recent surge in federal nuclear support, Kotek said.

“We’ve gone from five years ago where you had essentially no U.S. utilities with a decarbonization commitment,” he said, “to a place now where more than 80% of the customers in the U.S. are served by a utility that has pledged to go largely or completely carbon-free by 2050 or sooner.”

A RUSSIAN MONOPOLY

Many next-generation nuclear reactor designs rely on fuel made with high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. The nation’s existing nuclear fleet is powered using fuel enriched with 5% uranium; HALEU is enriched between 5% and 20%.

Today, there’s only one commercial source of HALEU across the globe: the state-owned Russian company TENEX.

Both X-energy and TerraPower had initially selected TENEX as their sole HALEU supplier in their ARDP applications, according to Beville.

“We originally were going to buy the first load over in Russia,” Tara Neider, TerraPower’s senior vice president said at the October groundbreaking event for the fuel facility in Wilmington. “We absolutely will not do that now.”

“On February 23rd of this year, everybody was thinking about nuclear for net-zero carbon,” Wileman said. “On February 24th ... they started thinking about nuclear as energy security,” he continued, referencing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “So our phones have been ringing.”

Wilmington’s fuel facility is anticipated to be among the first

GE’S

1967

NUCLEAR HISTORY IN WILMINGTON

GE BREAKS GROUND IN WILMINGTON ON A 1,600-ACRE SITE IN CASTLE HAYNE

1969

GE BEGINS OPERATIONS AT THE FUEL AND REACTOR COMPONENTS MANUFACTURING OPERATION

2007

GE FORMS A JOINT VENTURE WITH JAPANBASED HITACHI TO CREATE THE LOCALLY HEADQUARTERED GE HITACHI NUCLEAR ENERGY (GEH)

2018

GEH INSTEAD FOCUSES ON DEVELOPING A SMALL MODULAR REACTOR DESIGN, MUCH SMALLER THAN TRADITIONAL NUCLEAR PLANTS; THE BWRX-300 IS THE COMPANY’S 10TH GENERATION OF BOILING WATER REACTOR DESIGNS

2003

GE NUCLEAR ENERGY MOVES ITS HQ FROM SAN JOSE TO WILMINGTON

2016

GEH ANNOUNCES IT IS LEAVING A VENTURE TO DEVELOP SILEX LASER ENRICHMENT TECHNOLOGY THOUGH IT CONTINUES TO LEASE ITS WILMINGTON TEST LOOP FACILITY TO SILEX’S LICENSEE

GEH PARTNERS WITH THE BILL GATESFOUNDED COMPANY TERRAPOWER TO DEVELOP THE NATRIUM REACTOR AND ENERGY SYSTEM THAT USES MOLTEN SODIUM INSTEAD OF WATER TO COOL REACTORS

OFFICIALS BREAK GROUND ON A NATRIUM FUEL FACILITY AT GEH’S CAMPUS; GEH ALSO ANNOUNCES PLANS TO HIRE ABOUT 500 PEOPLE IN THE COMING YEARS TO WORK ON BOTH THE NATRIUM AND BWRX300 PROJECTS

domestically to produce fuel using HALEU. Behind X-energy’s HALEU fuel production facility planned in Oak Ridge, Tennessee – which the company projects to be the nation’s first – the proposed Wilmington fuel plant is “probably the second-most” developed in terms of progress so far, according to Beville.

Work will begin next year on the Wilmington fuel facility, which is slated to be operational by late 2025, GE Hitachi officials said. Construction at the Natrium reactor site in Wyoming is expected to begin in 2025.

BIG THINGS, SMALL PACKAGES

In addition to work on the Natrium project, progress on GE Hitachi’s first-ever small-modular reactor (SMR) design also is key to the company’s growth.

This water-cooled design, the BWRX-300, is essentially a more compact and efficient version of existing boiling water reactors. In contrast, the Natrium design aims to use sodium as its coolant.

Unlike the HALEU fuel needed for the Natrium design, the BWRX-300 would rely on the boiling water reactor fuel GE Hitachi is already producing in Wilmington.

“Another big benefit is the fuel for this is exactly what I’m making,” Wileman said. “I don’t need to qualify a whole new fuel for this smallmodular reactor.”

The BWRX-300 is based on a previous, already-approved design, which officials believe will help fasttrack its deployment.

SMRs are smaller than traditional nuclear plants, and GE Hitachi’s design is more simplified, cutting down concrete and rebar by 90%, according to Wileman. The BWRX300 is 300 megawatts (MW); by comparison, each element of the twounit Brunswick Nuclear Plant has a generating capacity of about 930 MW.

Though it’s smaller, the SMR’s performance-by-megawatt will be about 50% better than traditional designs, Wileman said. “We’re making a standard plant that you can repeat

NEW PROJECTS BY THE NUMBERS

$85M

Minimum local Natrium fuel facility construction cost

2025

Year the facility is expected to be operational

NEARLY

$2B

Federal funding to the Natrium project (the total amount committed to Natrium technology, jointly designed by GE Hitachi and TerraPower, including a demonstration project reactor in Wyoming and the local fuel facility)

485

Number of employees GEH plans to hire in the coming years for the fuel plant and work on its BWRX-300 small-modular reactor

over and over and over again,” he said. “That’s not how this first wave of reactors was built back in the ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s.”

Wileman said the smaller design was intentional “to help facilitate, really a relaunch of nuclear.”

Momentum is already building behind the design.

Ontario Power Generation selected the BWRX-300 design for a planned facility, and GE Hitachi has potential deployment projects in the works with utilities ranging from the Tennessee Valley Authority to Polish-based Synthos Green Energy to SaskPower in Saskatoon, Canada.

“This is a highly gated process,” Wileman said of the licensing and engineering work required to meet

regulatory benchmarks. “You want to make sure you get your engineering work all complete before you make that final decision to build,” he said, citing a cautious optimism that the new partnerships will result in new reactors.

This summer, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved Oregon-based NuScale’s design, making it the first and only approved SMR template in the nation. Dozens more designs are underway, and GE Hitachi’s SMR design is in “pre-application status,” according to an NRC spokesperson.

GE Hitachi officials said they hope to deploy the design by the end of the decade.

‘

EVERY FLAVOR OF ENGINEER’

As GE Hitachi shifts pace with advanced technologies, the greater General Electric structure is preparing for a major reorganization.

Last year, the conglomerate announced it would split into three public companies, focused on aviation, health care and power. GE Hitachi will fit into the power arm, recently renamed GE Vernova, in the tax-free spinoff set for early 2024.

Earlier this year, GE Hitachi began its latest hiring spree to gear up for its Natrium and SMR projects, hiring more than 250 for its Wilmington campus. (Along with GE Aerospace, which has 530 employees, GE companies in Wilmington employed 3,100 as of last December, making them the area’s largest for-profit employer.)

Wileman said he needs “every flavor of engineer you can think of” –nuclear, mechanical, civil, electrical and more – to support the company’s endeavors, with an average $131,000 salary for the new jobs.

Sean Sexton, GE Hitachi’s executive vice president of advanced nuclear, said he sees Wilmington being the global epicenter of advanced nuclear growth.

“The amount of people,” he said, “we need to hire to execute what we have on our plate today is tremendous.”

The WilmingtonBiz 100 is an annual Greater Wilmington Business Journal initiative to recognize the top 100 Power Players, Influencers, Innovators, Connectors and Rising Stars impacting Southeastern North Carolina’s business landscape.

Those included in this year’s group were announced in October, but on the following pages you can read a little more about why they were picked.

Readers sent in names to consider during a nomination process, and the Business Journal’s editorial team selected the WilmingtonBiz 100. We’ll do nominations again next year for the annual issue.

To be considered, individuals had to either work or live in the region. Elected officials aren’t considered for the list.

– Compiled by Johanna Cano, Vicky Janowski, Miriah Hamrick, Cece Nunn and Johanna F. Still

JEFFREY BOURK

AIRPORT DIRECTOR, WILMINGTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Jeffrey Bourk started in his position at Wilmington International Airport in January after serving at the helm of Branson Airport in Missouri for 14 years, during which he built the airport from the ground up through investments in infrastructure development and low-cost carriers.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: In his first year as airport director, ILM saw significant increases in passengers and revenues. More than one million passengers traveled through ILM in fiscal year 2022, during which the airport brought in revenues exceeding $13 million, a record annual amount.

ILM secured its chances of future revenue growth with a flurry of business activity over the past year, with the airport bringing in 90 acres worth of new ground leases for its business park. A hotel near the airport is in the works, with plans released this summer outlining a 150room building outfitted with 5,000 square feet of event space, a restaurant and a rooftop bar.

ILM netted four new nonstop routes this year with the addition of lowcost carrier Avelo Airlines, contributing to the increase in total passengers along with the legacy carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines expanding service at ILM. Next up for the airport is a five-year capital program

totaling $125 million to fund terminal curb front improvements, the addition of two new gates in the terminal, runway overlay, and taxiway relocation among other projects.

PANDEMIC RECOVERY:

Pre-pandemic passenger numbers totaled 1,007,500 for the fiscal year ending in June 2019, compared to 1,017,500 for fiscal year 2022.

selected and what total amounts are awarded. Grant awards will be considered from four categories: community safety; health and social equity; community development; and public primary, secondary and postsecondary education.

Davis Foundation.

The impact of Cameron’s family on the area extends back before the Civil War and is evident in the region today.

SPENCE BROADHURST & HANNAH GAGE

CHAIR & VICE CHAIR, NEW HANOVER COMMUNITY ENDOWMENT

Chair and vicechair of the New Hanover Community Endowment, Spence Broadhurst and Hannah Dawson Gage, have led the new organization through its first year in operation.

WHY THEY’RE POWER PLAYERS: Created by the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health, the New Hanover Community Endowment oversees a $1.1 billion fund. As leaders of the board, both Broadhurst and Gage have helped the new nonprofit entity in its inaugural year, which began with the hiring of its first CEO and president, William Buster. Over the summer, the board and staff settled on grant criteria for its inaugural funding cycle and opened grant applications in September.

The organization received nearly 300 proposals, and grant awardees are slated to be announced publicly on Dec. 9. The board has the ultimate authority over which organizations are

BIZ BACKGROUNDS: Broadhurst, a former mayor of Wilmington, is president of the Eastern North Carolina region for First National Bank. Gage has an extensive career in media and previously owned Cape Fear Broadcasting in Wilmington. She also served on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors for 16 years and was the board’s first female chair.

Recent Cameron developments include shopping and entertainment center The Pointe at Barclay in midtown Wilmington and the International Commerce Center at the International Logistics Park in Brunswick County.

A LONG TIME COMING:

BILL CAMERON

CO-FOUNDER & PRESIDENT, CAMERON MANAGEMENT

Bill Cameron’s investment management company focuses on real estate development, brokerage and property management, and he and his family have a long history of both shaping the region.

Because of the efforts of Cameron’s firm, Brunswick County’s International Logistics Park of North Carolina is finally active (after about a decade of sitting unused) with its first tenants settled and operating. The industrial site’s three tenants (as of press time) – Precision Swiss Products, Lowe’s Companies and Tri-Tech Forensics – moved into the newly completed International Commerce Center at the park.

WHY

HE’S A

POWER PLAYER: Cameron is a member of the New Hanover Community Endowment board and will chair it next year.

He was a founding member and director of Port City Capital Bank and director of Crescent State Bank following its acquisition of Port City Capital Bank in 2006. Cameron currently serves on the board of directors for Live Oak Bancshares, Cape Fear Memorial Foundation and Champion McDowell

As the leader of the N.C. State Ports Authority, Brian Clark oversees activity surrounding the state’s two deepwater ports and its inland port in Charlotte.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: The Port of Wilmington has seen major capital investments in recent years to enhance and increase its offerings.

The ports saw record operating revenue in fiscal year 2022, bringing in $68 million. The Port of

BRIAN CLARK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, N.C. STATE PORTS AUTHORITY

WILLIAM BUSTER

CEO & PRESIDENT, NEW HANOVER COMMUNITY

ENDOWMENT

Named the first leader of the county’s $1.1-billion endowment, William Buster oversees a large nest egg created by the 2021 sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: Buster is arguably one of the most in-demand leaders in the Cape Fear region. Tasked with overseeing the management and dispersal of more than $1 billion in hospital sale proceeds, Buster has been a highly sought-after fixture since he arrived in the area in March.

So far, Buster is leading the community endowment through the development of infrastructure and strategic development for the fledgling organization.

Previously the Ashevillebased Dogwood Health Trust’s senior vice president of impact, Buster had experience navigating a new health legacy foundation attempting to gain its footing. Before the Dogwood Health Trust, Buster was the executive vice president of community investments at St. David’s Foundation in Austin, Texas, and he worked for nine years at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Buster is currently the national advisory committee chair for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise initiative.

BILLION-DOLLAR DEAL: The New Hanover Community Endowment will be the area’s largest charitable funding organization and one of the largest endowments in the state.

PHOTO BY MADELINE GRAY

Wilmington handled its highest-ever refrigerated container volume, at nearly 18,000 containers, and a record-breaking total of more than 2.8 million tons of general cargo, a 27% increase from fiscal year 2021.

Clark is overseeing major capital expansion projects, including phase two of Wilmington’s $22.6-million refrigerated container yard. The port’s investments have spurred private development nearby, including the planned Port City Logistics warehouse and Cold Summit Development’s cold storage facility.

Clark was named director of the ports authority last year and served as its chief operating officer from 2017 through 2020.

With more than

25 years of maritime experience, Clark has served in senior-level positions at ports in various locations across the U.S.

In June, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appointed Clark to the Maritime Transportation System National Advisory Committee.

WORKFORCE ROSTER: 230 employees

companies, having cofounded Wilmington-based Cape Fear Commercial with Vin Wells in 2001 and partnering in Cape Fear Development and Cape Fear Construction.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER:

BRIAN ECKEL

PARTNER, CAPE FEAR COMMERCIAL

Developer and commercial real estate broker Brian Eckel i s involved in multiple

In addition to being a key leader in the commercial real estate industry in Wilmington and in major development projects such as Autumn Hall, Renaissance on Military Cutoff Road, Echo Farms and the redeveloped New Hanover County Government Center, Eckel is a trustee on the Novant Health Coastal Board of Managers and the overall Novant Health Board of Trustees.

Eckel has been working this year on convening a coalition to address the dwindling health care workforce. This work

resulted from friends and community members who knew of Eckel’s role with the hospital telling him they were having a difficult time getting relatives seen at the hospital, according to a Greater Wilmington Business Journal story in October. “That’s a direct correlation to the employee shortage,” he said in the article. “So I started thinking, there’s nothing I can do that I know of today. But what can we do longterm in this community?”

In one of its first big efforts, the group was able to secure a $2 million pledge from Novant Health to speed up its progress. Eckel also negotiated a contract for a downtown building that could become Cape Fear Community College’s planned expanded nursing and allied health facility.

BY THE NUMBERS: Eckel’s companies have made more than $3 billion in sales, with $400 million in development under construction and 3 million square feet under management.

NATALIE ENGLISH

PRESIDENT & CEO, WILMINGTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

As head of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, Natalie English represents and advances business interests in the region.

WHY SHE’S A POWER PLAYER: The Wilmington Chamber of Commerce plays a key role in several regional initiatives, serving as an advocate or a convener for a number of issues. English has decades of experience in the chamber industry and joined the Wilmington chamber in 2017 from the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, where she was the chief public policy officer.

Last year, English advocated to secure federal funding to establish a pilot program focusing on small business retention, expansion and recruitment and hired Josh Hallingse to head the new initiative. The chamber took over organizing the Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week program in October 2021 and led the program again this year, which featured dozens of seminars and set records for registration and attendance. English has championed the need to fund a replacement for

HUNTLEY GARRIOT

PRESIDENT, LIVE OAK BANK

Huntley Garriott joined Live Oak Bank as president in 2018 after more than 20 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner in the firm’s investment banking division.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: Garriott is president of a bank that has been the top SBA lender in the country for five years running, with $1.7 billion loaned to small businesses during the 2022 fiscal year.

In line with the organization’s focus on supporting small businesses, Live Oak launched Tidal Small Business Checking this year, adding its first-ever checking

product to its suite of services for small business owners.

In September, Live Oak announced a $25 million investment to construct a fourth building on the company’s midtown campus, an addition that will provide space for more than 200 new jobs added to the local economy over the next five years. Another investment in the local economy is Channel, Live Oak’s inclusive small business center serving minority entrepreneurs, which opened the doors to its downtown Wilmington location late last year.

Garriott also serves as a board member of the Carolina Small Business Development Fund.

PHOTO BY MADELINE GRAY

the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and support other infrastructure needs in the region. She continues to push for reliable and recurring long-term funding from the state’s Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund.

Each year, the chamber hosts over 100 events, from small-scale networking get-togethers to panel discussions to help the business community connect and grow.

ROLL CALL: The chamber has more than 1,000 members and is managed by a staff of seven.

growth,” Holbrook said.

She also sits on the 13-member New Hanover Community Endowment board, created from the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health and charged with overseeing how the $1.1 billion fund will be run as well as how grants from it will be dispersed.

With the endowment board, Holbrook serves as chair of its governance committee, “as well represent(ing) the importance of economic development for job creation and education for developing local talent and our future workforce.”

PREVIOUS ROLE: Holbrook served as Corning’s Wilmington optical fiber plant manager between 2014 and 2019.

ASWANI VOLETY

CHANCELLOR, UNCW

Ashwani Volety took the reins as chancellor of UNCW in July of this year following the retirement of former chancellor Jose Sartarelli in June. Volety came to Wilmington from Elon University, where he held the positions of provost and vice president for academic affairs. But in a sense, he was returning to Wilmington as he previously served as dean of the UNCW College of Arts and Sciences.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: Volety serves at the helm of a nationally ranked university enrolling nearly 18,000 students – in fact, this year the school earned high placement on U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of best colleges.

Volety has reinvigorated the university’s strategic planning process, including development of a strategic plan to guide the school’s growth over the next decade. These initiatives will follow a slew of construction projects across the school’s growing campus in recent years that have added or restored 23 buildings, four parking lots and more.

Continued investments in the future of UNCW will be funded by the “Like No Other Campaign,” which this fall exceeded its $100 million fundraising goal and established a new goal of $125 million under Volety’s leadership. Funds raised from the initiative will support unique features of the university identified by alumni and staff as those that make the school exceptional.

CAMPUS EMPLOYMENT: UNCW has about 2,500 employees.

MICHELE HOLBROOK

CAPITAL PROGRAM MANAGER, CORNING INCORPORATED

While based in Wilmington, Michele Holbrook’s role with Corning extends worldwide. She is responsible for the delivery of major optical fiber and cable capital projects across Corning’s global footprint.

WHY SHE’S A POWER PLAYER: Closer to home, Holbrook holds several positions with significant influence over community and business focuses. At the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, she serves as the board’s immediate past chair and is co-chairing the chamber’s strategic plan committee. That group is looking at the chamber’s five-year strategy, to keep it “focused on impactful areas that will position our community for prosperity by cultivating business

DAVID J OHNSTON

SENIOR VP & PRESIDENT, CLINICAL RESEARCH, THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC

Following Thermo Fisher Scientific’s purchase late last year of Wilmington-based PPD, David Johnston was appointed to lead the company’s PPD clinical research business and is a member of the corporate leadership team.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: Johnston became the top local official of the contract research organization after former PPD CEO David Simmons stepped down as planned as part of the acquisition. There are more than 30,000 employees in PPD,

now a business unit under Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific, and 1,800 employees are based in Wilmington either in the office or working remotely.

While under new ownership, the PPD clinical research business remains a major employer in the region and nucleus of the area’s growing clinical research sector. This year, the National Cancer Institute awarded PPD a 10-year contract to help the federal agency’s cancer trials support unit. The unit also continued to receive industry accolades this year for PPD’s role in helping Moderna develop its mRNA vaccine against COVID-19.

Before the acquisition, Johnston served as executive vice president and global head of

clinical development for PPD. In that role, he was responsible for the company’s early development services; patient recruitment and site networks; and Phase II-III clinical development operations. Other roles with the company were as executive vice president and head of PPD Laboratories.

BOARD SEAT: Johnston serves on the Association of Clinical Research Organizations’ board of directors.

As plant manager, Russ Lopatka is head of Corning’s Wilmington optical fiber manufacturing facility, which employs about 1,000 people .

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: Lopatka has been with Corning for 20-plus years and is originally from the Wilmington area.

Corning’s optical communications division focuses on innovating to increase the speed and capacity of optical networks, helping network operators upgrade their infrastructure as usage increases. The Wilmington facility on North College Road makes the optical fiber needed to respond to the increased demand.

Optical Communications division, headquartered in North Carolina, provides solutions for growing segments like outdoor and indoor 5G networks and hyperscale data centers.

Growth in fiberbased networks stems from public and private investments in broadband, 5G and the cloud. In his third-quarter earnings remarks, Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said the company saw 16% yearover-year growth in its optical communications segment – the largest contributor to the company’s third-quarter sales.

Demand for network infrastructure is expected to continue to grow.

RUSS LOPATKA

New York-based Corning opened the Wilmington plant in the mid-1960s. The company’s

HISTORY LESSON: The Wilmington facility was the world’s first optical fiber manufacturing plant.

WILMINGTON PLANT MANAGER, CORNING INCORPORATED

CHIP MAHAN

CHAIRMAN & CEO, LIVE OAK BANCSHARES

Live Oak Bank, the commercial banking subsidiary of Live Oak Bancshares, was founded in 2008 by James “Chip” Mahan III in Wilmington.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: Live Oak Bank specializes in lending and deposit services to small businesses nationwide. It has grown into the nation’s leading SBA and USDA lender. Locally it was a catalyst company for building the area’s fintech cluster, and Mahan has played key roles in several companies formed

and growing in their own directions.

He co-founded banking technology firms nCino and Apiture and is a managing partner at Canapi Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early- to growth-stage fintech companies.

He sits on the board of directors for digital payments company Payrailz; cloud-based cyber security firm DefenseStorm; and the American Bankers Association.

He previously served on the board of Finxact, the cloud-native core-as-aservice platform founded in part by Mahan.

Many of those activities are consolidated on Live Oak’s growing campus on Tiburon Drive, including Apiture, DefenseStorm and Canapi.

LOCAL BASE: Currently, nearly 700 of Live Oak Bank’s

900-plus employees are in Wilmington.

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast and the Advantage family of companies were named the No. 1 Coldwell Banker company in the nation last year.

TIM MILAM & DENISE KINNEY

CEO & PRESIDENT, COLDWELL BANKER SEA COAST ADVANTAGE

Tim Milam and Denise Kinney lead one of the largest residential real estate firms in Southeastern North Carolina, with a cadre of 800 agents and 70 staff members.

WHY THEY’RE POWER PLAYERS:

For the past four years, Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage has surpassed $2 billion in closed sales volume. In 2021, that number reached $3.2 billion.

As CEO, Milam has been looking at the company’s big picture, focusing on builder and developer relationships, along with the formation of vendor partnerships to provide services for clients. Potential expansion projects are also part of his responsibilities for the company, which was founded in 1988 and purchased by Milam in 1997.

Kinney was promoted to president after previously serving as senior vice president and general manager. Her roles include providing agents with exclusive tools and systems to ensure their success, serving on boards and speaking at local and national events to

build strong relationships within the company and the community.

RECENT EXPANSIONS: A merger with Coldwell Banker Alliance Group Realty in Jacksonville, along with new North Carolina offices in Havelock, Boiling Spring Lakes and St. James

throughout the year, will be enabled by New Hanover County’s purchase of a 55,000-square-foot facility to expand these programs coupled with Novant Health’s pledge of $2 million in funds to accelerate the group's progress.

recent quarter, SimpleNexus signed 26 new customers, including community and regional banks, credit unions and independent mortgage banks.

JIM MORTON

PRESIDENT, CFCC

Jim Morton was named to the top spot at Cape Fear Community College in 2018 after previously serving as executive vice president and vice president for business and financial services at the community college.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: CFCC continues to grow and expand its suite of apprenticeship programs under Morton’s watch, moving from the seventhlargest community college in the state to the fifth-largest last year.

The college has joined forces with more than 70 partners to allow CFCC students in the college’s Economic and Workforce Development and Career and Technical Education programs to learn with industry professionals while earning a salary during their programs of study.

Its newest continuation of this initiative is focused on addressing a nursing shortage and other staffing issues in the health care system with a proposed expanded nursing and allied health facility downtown.

This expansion, the product of recurring meetings of a coalition of community stakeholders

Additionally, the college received an economic impact grant totaling nearly $100,000 from the State Board of Community Colleges to expand its associate degree in nursing program, which has consistently ranked first in the state in various analyses.

CAMPUS EMPLOYMENT: CFCC has nearly 1,500 employees.

Overall, the Wilmingtonbased, publicly traded company now has about 1,750 employees worldwide. Locally, work wrapped up late this year on its expanded headquarters in the Mayfaire area. The construction project included a new building, parking deck and outdoor activity center for employees.

NEW HAT: Naudé recently added board chairman to his title, while continuing in his role as company CEO.

which is operated – but not owned – by Novant Health. Stevens heads up the Winston-Salem-based health system’s hospital facilities in the coastal region as well as its area medical group.

Staffing shortages, lingering impacts of the pandemic and continued integration with Novant Health, which purchased the New Hanover County health system in 2021, were all issues Stevens and other local system officials faced this year.

Meanwhile, capital projects are progressing as the system plans for a new, 66-bed hospital in the Scotts Hill area, a neuroscience tower at Novant Health NHRMC’s 17th Street campus and two medical office buildings in Brunswick County.

PIERRE NAUDÉ

Pierre Naudé was a key player in founding nCino, a spinoff of Live Oak Bank, in 2011. He has more than 30 years of financial technology experience.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: Naudé has headed up the fintech company since its early days and has been a key figure in its growth. The cloud banking software company now has more than 1,750 customers live on its platform, with assets ranging from $30 million to more than $2 trillion.

This past year, it has grown its international footprint, with recently opened offices in Paris and Madrid. That brings nCino’s number of locations to 11 in seven countries.

In January, the company acquired SimpleNexus, a home ownership platform, to further support nCino’s mortgage solutions. During a

SHELBOURN STEVENS

PRESIDENT, NOVANT HEALTH NHRMC & NOVANT’S COASTAL REGION

Shelbourn Stevens leads Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical as well as Novant Health’s Coastal region, which includes the Wilmington facilities and the Novant operation in Brunswick County. Stevens started his career with Novant as a respiratory therapist and previously served as president and COO of Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center before the sale of NHMRC to Novant.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: There are more than 8,000 employees between Novant Health NHRMC and Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center, easily the area’s largest employer and a primary source of care for residents. Another 200-plus work for Novant Health Pender Medical Center,

HOSPITALS UPDATE: Officials are expected to break ground on the Scotts Hill hospital in northern New Hanover County early next year.

NEIL UNDERWOOD

PARTNER, CANAPI VENTURES

Neil Underwood brings his banking experience as a partner of Canapi, a venture capital firm he helped co-found in 2018 along with Gene Ludwig, founder and chairman of Promontory Financial Group, and Chip Mahan, chairman and CEO of Live Oak Bancshares. Underwood also cofounded nCino, Apiture, and Live Oak Bank and serves as president of Live Oak Bancshares, the holding company of Live Oak Bank.

CEO & CHAIRMAN, NCINO

LAURIE WHALIN

COO, NOVANT HEALTH NHRMC & PRESIDENT, SCOTTS HILL MEDICAL CENTER

In 2021, Laurie Whalin became president and chief operating officer of Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center. This year she continued career moves within the hospital by accepting the promotion of chief operating officer of Novant NHRMC and president of Novant Health’s future community hospital in the Scotts Hill area of northern New Hanover County.

WHY SHE’S A POWER PLAYER: Whalin is a power player in the region’s health care industry and is one of the leaders overseeing Novant Health NHRMC’s expansion of services in Southeastern North Carolina.

As part of this expansion, Whalin will be head of Scotts Hill Medical Center, a new $210 million acute care facility planned to be built on the site of the existing free-standing emergency department and surgical center NHRMC Emergency Department-North. Officials said in a previous story that Novant expects to finish the facility in 2024.

Whalin is involved with the planning and designing of the hospital and medical campus, to include a medical office building with a cancer center and other specialty services.

NEURO NOTES: Another project Whalin has worked on is the final stages of completing the Novant Health Neuroscience Institute-New Hanover, which is slated to open on the main hospital’s 17th Street campus in January.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: Canapi is a fintech venture fund focused on early- to growth-stage companies. It’s advised by CenterHarbor Advisors and Canapi Advisors LLC, a subsidiary of Live Oak Bancshares. Canapi is closing its most recent fund at $800 million; its inaugural fund was $650 million.

With his involvement in Canapi, Underwood has helped incubate companies focused on digital bank transformation, including Finxact, Payrailz, DefenseStorm and Greenlight.

This year, Canapi led Series A funding for cyber insurance startup Elpha Secure Technology Inc. and Able, a company that has built a system to speed up the processing of documents and other data required for commercial loans. Other companies invested in this year include Middesk, a provider of identity infrastructure tools, and Codat, a universal API for business data.

ON BOARD: Underwood also serves on the boards of Live Oak Bank, Greenlight, Notarize, Defense Storm, Apiture, Posh and Able.

as president and manages the company’s day-to-day operations.

WHY THEY’RE POWER PLAYERS: The Wallaces head up the largest independent residential real estate company in the region. During 2022, the firm grew into South Carolina markets such as Little River, North Myrtle Beach and Cherry Grove Beach. It also continued activity on Bald Head Island, where Intracoastal took over sales and rental operations after merging with Bald Head Island Limited real estate.

The residential market overall this year was strong throughout the region as limited inventory and continued migration of new residents into the area pushed up demand and prices for sellers. Those trends didn’t start slowing down until the second half of the year as inventory loosened and mortgage rates increased.

Intracoastal Realty in 2021 surpassed $2 billion in sales for the first time in its company’s history on a 12-month basis. It now has more than 400 real estate agents and 100 staff members.

PRESIDENT & CEO, GE HITACHI NUCLEAR ENERGY

Since 2015, Jay Wileman has led the company, which has been based in Wilmington for more than 50 years. He has an extensive career in the nuclear industry.

WHY HE’S A POWER PLAYER: As head of GE Hitachi, Wileman leads the business in the development of new nuclear power plant technology, the design and manufacturing of nuclear power plant fuel (through the GE-led Global Nuclear Fuel joint venture) and the delivery of maintenance services for plants.

In October, GE Hitachi announced it is expanding its operation at 3901 Castle Hayne Road by about 500 jobs in the next five years.

Wileman said some of that work would focus on the future of advanced nuclear growth, including the commercial deployment of its BWRX-300 small modular reactor. The company is working with others domestically and abroad to deploy that reactor technology.

TREY & JIM WALLACE

PRESIDENT & FOUNDER/CEO, INTRACOASTAL REALTY CORP.

Jim Wallace founded Intracoastal Realty after moving to Wilmington in 1976. Today, his son, Trey Wallace, serves

BEACHCOMBER: Separately, Jim Wallace was part of a group of partners that bought the 112-room Golden Sands hotel and the Ocean Grill and Tiki Bar in Carolina Beach for $16.8 million.

The announcement also included plans for a new $200 million fuel facility at the Castle Hayne site.

Global Nuclear FuelAmericas (GNF-A), a GE-led joint venture, and TerraPower, a Bill Gatesfounded nuclear innovation company, plan to build a Natrium fuel facility. The new GE employees will also boost the Natrium reactor technology being jointly developed by GEH and TerraPower.

JAY WILEMAN

FULL STORY: For more info about the Wilmington plant’s future, turn to page 16.

The new ILM is impressively larger, significantly more modern, and as easy as ever for travelers. We’ve added new low fares, a choice of five airlines and several new nonstops.

ILM is also a top economic driver for our region, with an awe-inspiring $2.2 billion economic impact that includes a growing ILM Business Park, first-class fixed-base operators and a thriving general aviation community. And now, two of our leaders have been recognized among the WilmingtonBiz 100. Congratulations, Spruill and Je ! We greatly appreciate your leadership as ILM soars to new heights.

The mission of DREAMS is to create a culture of confidence for youth and teens through equitable access to arts education supported by the values of respect, family, and community.

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS! SUPPORT OUR MISSION AT: GIVETODREAMS.ORG

Spruill Thompson INFLUENCER New Hanover County Airport Authority Chairman

Je Bourk POWER PLAYER Airport Director

THE INFLU E N C ERS

WILMINGTON

After working with General Electric for over 14 years, Jackson Autry was named plant leader of GE Aerospace Wilmington in March.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER:

Throughout his career, Autry has worked at nine GE manufacturing sites across the globe.

This year, GE Aerospace Wilmington hired more than 60 new employees and has seen 20% growth, despite significant supply chain obstacles. The Wilmington team is currently crafting hardware for the world’s largest and most powerful aircraft engine, the GE9X. This engine was designed specifically for the Boeing 777X family of aircraft and is the most fuel-efficient instrument in its class, according to GE.

GE Aerospace has invested more than $120 million in Wilmington over the past five years, according to Autry, to support the introduction of its most complex products that service the commercial and military industries.

As plant leader, Autry prioritizes workforce safety and product quality, delivery and cost. He also works with Cape Fear Community College to recruit and train future talent and engages with local middle and high schools to increase awareness of manufacturing.

Before being named plant leader, Autry spent over two years as the plant’s senior operations manager.

He obtained his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from N.C. State University and a master’s in logistics, materials and supply chain management from Penn State.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 530

PHOTO BY TERAH HOOBLER

CHRIS BONEY

RELATIONSHIPS OFFICER, LS3P

As LS3P’s chief relationships officer, Chris Boney oversees business development and leadership for the architecture firm’s offices across North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: LS3P has been the architecture firm for major projects throughout the Wilmington area including redevelopment of the New Hanover County Government Center, Novant Health’s upcoming hospital in Scotts Hill and nCino’s Mayfaire campus, to name a few.

The firm this year marks the 100th anniversary of Boney Architects, which along the way merged with LS3P and became its Wilmington office.

Local buildings designed by Chris Boney through the years include Live Oak Bank’s midtown headquarters, the Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College and the Betty H. Cameron Women’s and Children Hospital. Among his current projects are the expansion of Live Oak Bank’s campus and the city of Wilmington’s Gateway Project to build a multi-block mixed-use development on downtown’s northern waterfront. His work has been recognized with awards from AIA Wilmington, AIA North Carolina and AIA Southeastern as well as the Lower Cape Fear Stewardship Development Coalition for exceptional design and sustainable

building practices.

As a founding trustee for the New Hanover Community Endowment, Boney is among the stewards of the $1 billion fund allocated to promoting social and health equity in the community.

CHAMBER ROLE: Boney has also previously served as chairman of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and helped to establish the Cape Fear Future Fund.

management is in the works as well as other programs in the financial technology and real estate sector.

sustainability program, which has pledged to achieve net zero emission across the entire value chain by 2050.

Rob Burrus has served since 2014 as dean of University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Cameron School of Business, where he holds responsibility for its budget, curriculum, programs, student success, hiring and retention.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER:

The business school was ranked again this year in the top 60 on Poets&Quants list of Best Undergraduate Business Schools and on The Princeton Review’s list of Best Business Schools.

Enrollment continues to grow – currently at more than 2,800 students, and its MBA program has grown to more than 600 students. Over 95% of students placed in either a job or graduate school within six months of graduation.

Burrus oversaw the addition of a new program in cybersecurity, MBA specializations, management information systems, entrepreneurship and supply chain management.

WHAT’S NEXT: An MS degree in supply chain

WES CARTER

PRESIDENT, ATLANTIC PACKAGING

Wes Carter is the president of the Wilmingtonbased packaging and equipment distributor, made up of about 1,500 employees. Under his guidance, the company launched a sustainability initiative aimed at reducing plastic-centric packaging and replacing them with more environmentally minded, often fiber-based options.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: Carter realized that as leader of a large industrial packaging company in North America, he could directly enact environmentally friendly practices in his company and influence other industry partners to do so as well.

This year, Atlantic Packaging officially launched A New Earth Project – an initiative made up of outdoor enthusiasts, industry – leading brands and environmentally conscious packaging suppliers to find and scale sustainable packaging solutions to stop plastic pollution. As part of the launch, which took place on Earth Day, the company released a new documentary series, Journey to a New Earth, as well as a catalog of recyclable mailers featuring a website with a collection of products that are 100% curbside recyclable, made from renewable resources and not harmful to wildlife and ecosystems. He also oversees the company’s own

CONSERVATION CALLING: This fall, Atlantic Packaging and A New Earth Project partnered with Garden & Gun for the magazine’s inaugural Champions of Conservation to highlight scientists, advocates and groundbreakers working on conservation efforts to protect Southern ecosystems.

DANA COOK

CHAIR, NOVANT HEALTH COASTAL BOARD OF MANAGERS

Dana Cook, president and owner of Julia’s Florist since 2008, has played connecting roles in the community for years, particularly around health issues.

WHY SHE’S AN INFLUENCER: This year, Cook serves as chair of the Novant Health Coastal Region Board of Managers. She has been involved with the local health system’s governance since 2016 when she was first appointed to New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s Board of Trustees.

That board, along with New Hanover County commissioners, reviewed proposals from health systems to buy the countyowned New Hanover Regional and ultimately voted to sell it to WinstonSalem-based Novant Health.

After the purchase closed in February last year, the hospital trustees board transitioned to a new hospital board, the Novant Health Coastal Board of

CHIEF

ROB BURRUS

DEAN, UNCW CAMERON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Managers, which Cook joined along with other former trustees, medical providers and regional representatives.

OTHER BOARDS: Cook also has served on several local and state boards and committees including for CFCC Foundation; Friends School of Wilmington executive committee; Cape Fear Garden Club, assistant treasurer; Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry; Cape Fear Guardian ad Litem Association, vice president; Wilmington Central Rotary, vice chair; and WILMA’s Women to Watch Leadership Initiative’s advisory council.

CFCC to expand its nursing and health science offerings, an action motivated by efforts of a local coalition to address staff shortages in the health care industry. Other current projects include weighing ideas for what county officials want to see on the Cape Fear River’s downtown-facing west bank, wrapping up an expansive redevelopment of the county government center and continuing onward with plans for Project Grace, the county’s project to repurpose the downtown library and surrounding block into a development including the Cape Fear Museum.

COUNTY STAFF: 2,047

New Hanover County. In January, the organization closed on a portfolio of 68 single-family homes, which was purchased through Collective Ventures, a for-profit arm of the organization that provides social impact investment. Collective Ventures, in partnership with Live Oak Bank, First Bank, First National Bank, First Citizens and Dogwood State Bank, deployed close to $17 million into affordable housing and an affordable car ownership pilot. This year the investment arm has exceeded its initial investment goal. Under Dennison’s leadership, the team has also provided over $2.5 million in pro bono data science to support area nonprofits.

SANDWICH SHOP: Dennison opened The Half with her husband and friends this year on Red Cross Street.

Parkway Hyundai, Capital Lincoln, Wilmington Trade Center 2, Yogasleep’s national headquarters, Arrive Wilmington hotel’s expansion, Plantation Village’s expansion and The Roger Bacon Academy’s expansion.

Dull has served on numerous civic and professional boards including the city of Wilmington Planning Commission (chairman of the board for four years) and the New Hanover County Planning Board (chairman for three years). In the past, he has also served on boards for Wilmington Business Development, the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association, Wilmington Housing Authority and several banks. Dull also serves as an elected official for the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen.

CHRIS COUDRIET

COUNTY MANAGER, NEW HANOVER COUNTY

As the county’s chief administrator, Chris Coudriet oversees all departments under the watch of the board of commissioners and manages a balanced operational budget for the county exceeding $500 million.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: Under Coudriet’s tenure, the county has garnered a rare triple-A rating by Moody’s and S&P Global for its creditworthiness for the 10th-straight year while expanding services to residents, including increased funding for and investments in New Hanover County Schools and Cape Fear Community College.

In October, the county moved to purchase the former Bank of America building in downtown Wilmington on behalf of

MEAGHAN DENNISON

CEO, CAPE FEAR COLLECTIVE

Meaghan Dennison began her career with Cape Fear Collective in 2019, becoming one of the social impact nonprofit’s first hires with the role of managing programming and relationships with stakeholders. In 2022, she was named interim CEO and then became full-time CEO in May.

WHY SHE’S AN INFLUENCER: While heading up the organization for just under a year, Dennison has moved several projects forward.

During her time as CEO, Dennison oversaw the launch of CFC’s Healthy Communities Dashboard, a collection of community data and analysis part of the Healthy North Carolina 2030 initiative.

One of CFC’s integral projects has been providing affordable housing in

KEN DULL

PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, MCKINLEY BUILDING CORP.

Ken Dull, who leads a 74-employee company, continues to have a hand in high-profile projects in the region, delivering more than 360 commercial projects since he started the company in 1992.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER:

Some of the more recent construction work McKinley Building has finished or is working on include Bradley Creek Station, Wilmington Trade Center, Quality Chemicals’ campus expansion, Novant Health’s regional corporate headquarters and Brunswick Beer and Cider. Other notable projects are

PHILANTHROPY: Dull has organized a fundraiser for The Harrelson Center, A Day in the Country, for 10 years. He also continues to serve on the N.C. State University Foundation Board.

DANIEL FOUNTAIN

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, SUMMIT LOGISTICS GROUP

Daniel Fountain is the director of Summit Logistics Group, a fast-growing transportation company headquartered in Wilmington.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: The company placed No. 353 on this year’s Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies nationwide. It reported that

Summit Logistics saw 1,654% growth over the past three years.

During the past two years, under Fountain’s leadership, the third-party logistics company also has tripled its staff and plans to continue to hire as it grows.

The privately owned company is part of Summit Industrial Contractors.

SPORTS BACKGROUND: Fountain played guard for UNCW’s basketball team between 2004 and 2008 and logged time as the head golf pro at Echo Farms Golf & Country Club.

CHARLES FOUST

SUPERINTENDENT, NEW HANOVER COUNTY SCHOOLS

Charles Foust was hired in September 2020 as the head of New Hanover County Schools. He oversees day-to-day operations for 45 schools serving 25,000 students. Additionally, the school system is the secondlargest employer in New Hanover County, putting Foust in charge of nearly 4,000 employees.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: Foust, whose 25-year career includes a record of doubledigit student growth and measurable increases in student proficiency, has helped guide the school system through recovery from learning loss resulting from pandemic-induced school closures.

His goals include going beyond restoring schools to pre-pandemic levels; Foust has set his sights on improving literacy rates in the district to 90% for students over the

MOUHCINE GUETTABI

REGIONAL ECONOMIST, UNCW

After making the jump from Alaska, Mouhcine Guettabi joined UNCW in August 2021 where he teaches as an associate professor of economics. He officially took over as regional economist in the spring.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: As a regional economist, Guettabi’s insights on economic activity and forecasts are highly sought after and utilized by various community organizations. His role is a public-facing one, including dozens of speaking engagements annually to offer reflections on economic conditions. Guettabi also serves as a professor at the university, guiding students through two courses on the principles of microeconomics.

Before joining UNCW, Guettabi

worked in a similar role as an associate professor of economics for the University of Alaska Anchorage, where he frequently testified before the legislature and worked with lawmakers on researching economic programs.

Guettabi attended the University of Central Oklahoma and later earned a doctorate in economics with an emphasis on urban and regional economics from Oklahoma State University.

Since moving to the region, Guettabi has crunched local data and is currently researching the economic consequences of remote work.

PUBLISHED RESEARCH: Guettabi’s work has been published in various acclaimed academic journals, with research topics spanning a range of topics, including the Alaskan salmon industry, urban sprawl and obesity, universal cash transfers, stand-your-ground laws and more.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER

WILMINGTONBIZ 100 INFLUENCERS

next three to five years. Foust has also pushed a districtwide initiative to enhance technology in classrooms, including a program currently underway to provide oneto-one electronic devices for all students by the 2025-26 school year.

Other efforts include working to reorganize the county’s career and technical education programs to ensure they align with the local economy’s needs.

strategy officer shortly after her tenure on the board ended.

This year, Girardot was elected chair for a fourth term on the county planning board. As the previous head of the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association and founder of Business Alliance for a Sound Economy, Girardot’s impacts landed her the prestigious The Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award from Gov. Roy Cooper in 2020.

FIRST IN FLIGHT: Girardot was named the first female chair of the airport authority in 2018.

infill and redevelopment projects of high character that provide mixes of uses and space to businesses and the community.”

In 2014, at the age of 26, Hewitt started a full-service real estate company in Charleston, South Carolina, that also acquired and repositioned distressed assets in-house, which he quickly grew to a portfolio of 400 multifamily units. In November 2020, he sold this business to relocate to Wilmington, his wife’s hometown, and dedicate his time to development opportunities in downtown Wilmington.

employment throughout the pandemic and added about 130 to its Wilmington team in 2021.

DONNA GIRARDOT

NHC PLANNING BOARD & CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, CIL CAPITAL

Al ongtime fixture of the local development community, Donna Girardot is a key stakeholder in a variety of local ventures. Girardot heads up the New Hanover County Planning Board and was named CIL Capital’s chief strategy officer in August.

WHY SHE’S AN INFLUENCER: As a member of the airport authority, Girardot helped lead the Wilmington International Airport (ILM) through a major growth period, notably including large developments this year. This summer, Girardot wrapped up her fourth term as chair of the New Hanover County Airport Authority, seeing it through the hiring of a new airport director, the opening of the extended terminal, the announcement of a planned hotel and millions in economic investment in the business park. One of those investors, CIL Capital, tapped Girardot as its chief

HEWITT & SANDY THORPE

PARTNERS, PARASTREAM REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT

Andrew Hewitt and Sandy Thorpe are the developers working to transform the heart of Wilmington’s Soda Pop District.

WHY THEY’RE INFLUENCERS: The duo, through their company Parastream Real Estate Development, is playing a major role in the revitalization of the district on Princess Street, including working with the city of Wilmington to preserve industrial uses in downtown Wilmington in the former Coca-Cola bottling facility, which now provides space for craftsmen and urban manufacturers. Thorpe said they are dedicated “to preserving buildings of historic relevance or architectural character” and “to facilitating urban

REUSE RECOGNITION: Hewitt’s first project in Wilmington was 1020 Princess St., a former car dealership that he purchased in 2019 and completed in 2021, which is now home to Hi-Wire Brewing and Cugino Forno Pizzeria. The project won the 2020 Adaptive Reuse Award from the Historic Wilmington Foundation and was a 2020 Finalist for the Cape Fear CREW Placemaker award.

MegaCorp brought in roughly $700 million in revenue last year, up from $50 million a decade ago. Legg and his wife, Denise, launched the thirdparty logistics business in Wilmington in 2009, the day a noncompete agreement with a former business partner expired. Earlier this year, the company purchased several properties around the Mayfaire area surrounding its current headquarters to help the company prepare for its planned expansion. MegaCorp is also expanding its presence in the Jacksonville, Florida, market.

Ryan Legg is involved in community projects, including recently serving as chair of Home for Good: A Campaign for Permanent Solutions, a Good Shepherd initiative to build housing for the unsheltered population.

EMPLOYEE BASE: The company has 530 employees among its five locations, including 375 in Wilmington as of March.

RYAN LEGG

As co-owner and CEO of MegaCorp Logistics, Ryan Legg has fostered business growth from a company built from scratch.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: This year, Legg and economic development agencies announced that the Wilmington-based firm would expand in the area, with plans to hire more than 300 employees over the next five years. The company nearly doubled its local

TYLER NEWMAN

PRESIDENT

& CEO, BUSINESS ALLIANCE FOR A SOUND ECONOMY

Representing a network of business interests in the region, Tyler Newman advocates for policy-related changes at the local and state government levels.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: The Business Alliance for a Sound Economy

CHAIR,

ANDY

CEO, MEGACORP LOGISTICS

(BASE) serves a coalition of businesses and associations in the Cape Fear region. Newman was named president and CEO in 2016 and previously worked on the city of Wilmington’s management team as special assistant to the city manager for legislative affairs.

As BASE’s leader, Newman regularly works with an array of legislators, local elected officials, regulators, industry organizations and business leaders. He is a registered lobbyist and frequents Raleigh to advance regional business interests at the General Assembly.

BASE works with the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, WilmingtonCape Fear Home Builders Association and local Realtor organizations to identify common issues. Newman diagnoses these issues and communicates them to lawmakers and regulators, focusing on common themes including infrastructure funding, regulatory framework, economic development, shoreline funding, development ordinances, elections and more.

Recent focuses include returning Brunswick County to the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, streamlining stormwater permitting at the regional N.C. Department of Environmental Quality office, transportation alternatives for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and more.

PREVIOUS LOBBYING: Before moving to Wilmington from Atlanta in 2007, Newman worked as regulatory affairs director for the Home Builders Association of Georgia.

STEPHANIE MANN

Live Oak Ventures and Live Oak Private Wealth.

WHY SHE’S AN INFLUENCER:

As the lender’s strategy officer, Mann oversees the company’s engagement with its partners and business community, which include the investment arms Live Oak Ventures and Live Oak Private Wealth.

In her role, Mann leads Live Oak Bank’s fintech partnership strategy, including investments and partnerships with Live Oak spinoffs Apiture and nCino and other companies such as DefenseStorm, Kwipped and Vantaca.

Some Live Oak Ventures investments this year included to Apiture

and Asset Class, a fintech firm based in Dublin, Ireland, and more.

Mann is involved in the bank’s strategic planning process and is working on investments for the venture’s portfolio. This year, Live Oak Ventures, announced it has exited its investment in Payrailz, a digital payments platform, recently acquired by Jack

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER:

Henry & Associates Inc. Officials anticipate an estimated pre-tax gain of about $28 million.

BUSINESS BACKGROUND: Mann was previously a managing director of investment banking at Citi, where she advised Fortune 500 technology companies and worked on more than $125 billion in M&A transactions.

CHRIS NORVELL

FOUNDING PRINCIPAL, EDGEWATER VENTURES

Chris Norvell leads the efforts of Edgewater Ventures in the acquisition and development of industrial assets throughout the Carolinas and the Southeast.

Norvell and his company are having a major impact on the industrial sector of Wilmington’s economy. In July, Norvell announced that Edgewater Ventures, in partnership with McKinley Building Corp., would be developing its second building at Wilmington Trade Center on U.S. 421, following the completion of the 157,610-square-foot Building 1.

“Wilmington Trade Center Building Two is Edgewater Ventures’ second

ground-up development in the Wilmington market and will add to the company’s industrial portfolio in the area, which will grow to approximately 1.5 million square feet,” according to a news release.

AIRPORT PLANS: Late last year, officials announced that Edgewater Ventures and CIL Capital LLC are bringing a combined $120 million in investment to Wilmington International Airport’s business park through two separate projects.

Stephanie Mann has over 20 years of experience in advising companies on capital structure and growth strategies. As chief strategy officer, she is responsible for corporate strategy, development and strategic investments, including

CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, LIVE OAK BANK

MARIE PARKER

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WAVE TRANSIT

Marie Parker began her tenure as Wave Transit’s executive director in December 2020, bringing more than 14 years of senior-level management experience in the public transportation industry to the position –most recently, as general manager of GoRaleigh.

WHY SHE’S AN INFLUENCER: Parker was hired to help revamp Wave Transit to better serve the Wilmington area’s mass transportation needs. Planned service reductions were paused due to Parker’s advocacy

and a joint committee was formed to discuss sustainable sources of support for Wave, resulting in a proposed quarter-cent sales tax to support public transportation on the November election ballots. The measure, however, failed to get enough votes to pass. In the meantime, the organization has taken on several new initiatives under her guidance, including the launch of a microtransit program that offers rides in Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties similar to those available on rideshare apps.

This year, Wave improved its service with increased stop frequency during peak hours for some of its routes and the addition of new bus stops, including one at the YWCA Lower Cape Fear. Other recent initiatives involve

modernizing the public transit experience for customers with a mobile app to allow riders to book rides, track buses along their routes in real time or purchase bus fare.

TRANSIT AWARD: Under Parker’s leadership, Wave Transit scooped up statewide recognition by the N.C. Public Transportation Association in April with the designation of Transit System of the Year due to its innovative expansion of services.

Chris Reid established Thomas Construction Group in 2005 with more than a decade of experience in management and technology. Since then, he’s secured an unprecedented amount of work for the firm, notably in the corporate commercial, behavioral health care and senior living program sectors.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: Reid is responsible for directing and managing all aspects of the company’s day-to-day operations. Under Reid’s leadership, Thomas continues to be one of the contractors of choice for major projects in the Wilmington area.

CHRIS REID PRESIDENT & COO, THOMAS CONSTRUCTION

Projects this year in Wilmington alone include the mixed-use redevelopment of the New Hanover County Government Center; nCino’s new corporate

Tim Milam CEO Denise Kinney President

headquarters and parking deck; new Autumn Hall office buildings and Origins restaurant; a new medical office building for Novant Health in Brunswick County; and Eden Village, a tiny home village for the homeless and disabled in the Wilmington community.

UPCOMING PROJECT: The company announced on its website that it has entered into a pre-construction agreement with Bella Vista Development in partnership with Craig Davis Properties for Paseo, a mixed-use project planned to hold 298 residential units, about 15,000 square feet of commercial space and a parking deck on South College Road.

Construction is expected to begin in 2023.

GENE SMITH

PRESIDENT, BRUNSWICK COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Gene Smith started as president of Brunswick Community College in early 2019 after 25 years in roles at Wayne Community College, from biology instructor to vice president.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: Brunswick Community College provides workforce training and education for 1,750 curriculum students and more than 2,000 continuing education students. The college’s recent investments in workforce training include repurposing an existing facility into the Myong and

Paul Jensen Workforce Development Center to provide trades education.

The college also recently received a Golden LEAF Foundation grant to buy an eight-axis CNC machine to support machining technology in the region. That type of training from the college also helped Brunswick County economic development officials convince Precision Swiss Products to move its East Coast headquarters to Leland.

The school has implemented National Coalition of Certification Centers industry-recognized certifications for technical and trades program students.

The college’s first graduates of its new culinary arts program graduated, and the school partnered with Brunswick Electric Membership Corp. to begin

an electrical lineworker program.

SCHOOL BOARD: Smith serves on the American Association’s Commission on Small and Rural Colleges Commission.

LESLIE SMITH

PROPERTY OWNER & FOUNDER, CARGO DISTRICT

Leslie Smith has worked as a general contractor for more than two decades, starting L.S. Smith Inc. in Wilmington 17 years ago.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: Having focused on multifamily construction for so long, Smith wanted to do something different,

envisioning a unique community in Wilmington around what was then his Queen Street home.

“I always wanted to build something with shipping containers,” Smith said, a feature that inspired the Cargo District’s name. “And then one day my wife was like, ‘You should just do it because you’re not going to stop thinking about it until you do.’”

These days, the area he’s worked to create, which centers around Queen Street between 15th and 16th streets, is a growing mixed-use sector. The district includes numerous offices, restaurants and other businesses, as well as apartments made from shipping containers.

Smith and partners have continued to accumulate properties to expand the revitalized area, recently buying a Wrightsville Avenue shopping center. He’s also reviving preCOVID plans to create a food court in the city block

bordered by 15th, 16th, Castle and Queen streets. The food court will include all local eateries in shipping containers, Smith said.

LATEST TENANT: Smith’s vision has lured a variety of tenants to the district, including Bull City Ciderworks. The company opened its fifth taproom in the Cargo District, in the former Superior Millwork Building on 17th Street that Smith bought for $500,000 in February 2021. Through the Cargo District, Smith created an atmosphere similar to where Bull City’s other taprooms are located, said Bull City Ciderworks CEO John Clowney.

Through McAdams Homes and other related companies, Adam Sosne is a prolific developer of apartment communities, single-family neighborhoods and selfstorage.

CO-FOUNDERS, DRIFT COFFEE

Ben and Michael Powell opened the first Drift Coffee & Kitchen in Ocean Isle Beach in 2014, and although the brothers had no experience in restaurants or hospitality work, they have scaled that first operation to a thriving local chain with five locations in less than 10 years.

WHY THEY’RE INFLUENCERS: The brothers were inspired to open the first Drift location by their experience as professional surfers. They credit their commitment to memorably serving both customers and team members

ADAM SOSNE MANAGING MEMBER, MCADAMS HOMES

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: Since 2007, Sosne and his companies have completed more than $400 million in construction and development in North Carolina and South Carolina.

After graduating from UNCW, he realized there was a need for student housing and started developing dedicated student housing in Wilmington to serve the growing enrollment at UNCW and CFCC.

Sosne turned to building market-rate and workforce housing apartment communities upon selling the student housing portfolio to a national student housing operator in 2013. He started

a retail home building division in 2010, originally by buying lots and land inventory that had been foreclosed on by banks during the Great Recession with a focus on building affordable homes geared toward entry-level and first-time, move-up buyers. His company also amassed over 1,500 acres in southern Pender County and is working with planning officials to shape how that area will be developed over the next several decades.

CURRENT PROJECTS: Work includes The Landing at Lewis Creek, a 439-unit residential development on 86 acres on Gordon Road of single-family homes, townhomes and apartments. Silo Ridge is a more than 300-lot, build-to-rent subdivision in the Scotts Hill area of southern Pender County. Sosne and his team are also currently working on planning and zoning of a 200-unit workforce housing complex on land

BEN & MICHAEL POWELL

for the business’s rapid growth despite their lack of industry experience; in their own words, their accomplishments stem from a “determination to do better each day and make something good.”

The brothers moved into their first Wilmington location in Autumn Hall in 2017, followed by another in Mayfaire Town Center in 2019. This year, two new Drift locations popped up in the Wilmington area: one in downtown Wilmington as well as Drift Cafe in Wrightsville Beach, where the brothers tweaked the original concept to include table service with an expanded menu of food and drink options.

CAFÉ INSPIRATION: Traveling the world, the brothers found themselves at home in local cafes and initially wanted to replicate the experience in a cafe of their own.

near Monkey Junction in Wilmington and two residential subdivisions in Hampstead.

SPINKS

Economic development consultant Robin Spinks has guided numerous local, regional and out-of-state communities and businesses through various strategies and decisions through her firm, Greenfield, which she runs with her business partner Mary Lilley. (Lilley doesn’t live in the area so was not eligible for the 100 list.)

WHY SHE’S AN INFLUENCER: With experience in 35 states, much of Spinks’ clientele is from out-of-town businesses or communities seeking input on major location-based insights or strategic plans. However this year, Spinks delivered her own community, New Hanover County, with arguably its most important economic development document in nearly a decade.

Through Greenfield, Spinks was

ROBIN

PARTNER, GREENFIELD

tapped to present New Hanover County with a wide-ranging economic development review and report that now serves as an update to the 2014 report performed by Garner Economics.

In Greenfield’s recent report, “Economic Mobility,” the firm identified several strengths and weaknesses of the area.

In her career, Spinks has split her time on each side of the economic development equation: as a community recruiter marketing industrial locations, as an owner buying industrial properties and as a siteselection consultant.

Spinks has previously served on the N.C. Economic Developers Association’s board.

LICENSES: In addition to holding a real estate broker license, Spinks holds an FAA private pilot license.

In recent years and during Stanley’s leadership, the hospital has been able to turn its financial health around. It closed its 2020 fiscal year with a net loss of $1.2 million. It finished up the following fiscal year with a total net gain of $11.2 million and it is expected to show a net operating income for 2022. The funds allowed the hospital to up its minimum wage to $15 an hour and give employees a one-time $1,000 bonus.

EXPANDING TECH: Dosher plans to begin offering teleneurology, allowing the community hospital to provide emergency care of a higher acuity for a patient who may be having a stroke or another neurological event.

portfolio is The Forum, a shopping center on Military Cutoff Road that was one of the heralds of high-dollar, high-profile construction that came in subsequent years to the corridor.

During the early phase of his career, David Swain developed and constructed in excess of 45 apartment complexes.

Since 1979, a division of Swain & Associates has specialized in the development of retail shopping centers and has developed, constructed or redeveloped about 80 properties.

rising from assistant superintendent to his current roles of president and CEO. Thomas was part of the founding team to grow Monteith Construction from a small office in Monroe to four locations in North Carolina and South Carolina.

LYNDA STANLEY

PRESIDENT & CEO, DOSHER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Lynda Stanley served as Dosher Memorial Hospital's COO between 1986 and 2014 when she became president of the hospital’s foundation. In February 2020, she was appointed as the hospital’s president, and in December 2021 was appointed as its CEO.

JASON & DAVID SWAIN

DEVELOPERS, SWAIN & ASSOCIATES

Father-son duo David and Jason Swain have led the way for the creation of CenterPoint, a massive mixed-use project getting underway on Military Cutoff and Eastwood Roads.

WHY THEY’RE INFLUENCERS:

In addition to the upcoming CenterPoint development, the Swains’ development vision can be seen throughout the Wilmington area and beyond.

After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002, Jason Swain joined the Swain & Associates team to learn the family business. Today, he is involved in all new projects the company undertakes and oversees all elements of the development process including property acquisition, project leasing and financing.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT:

The son of a schoolteacher, David Swain and his wife in 2009 donated $1 million to UNCW to found the Swain Center for Business and Economic Services. Jason Swain is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, a member of the board of the Swain Center and a member of St. Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian Church.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: These days, Thomas oversees high-level operations for each of Monteith Construction’s construction projects. One of the most notable sites in the Wilmington area is the Wilmington International Airport (ILM). According to company officials, an expansion/renovation project in the early 2000s at ILM initially brought Monteith Construction and Thomas to Wilmington, eventually leading the company to relocate its headquarters here from Monroe. “That early history with ILM makes Monteith Construction’s current work on the terminal expansion and renovation all the more meaningful,” officials said. In 2018, the company worked to repair dozens of New Hanover County schools following damage from Hurricane Florence. The next year brought the opening of Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW) built by Monteith. In 2021 came the launch of Spotlight, Monteith Construction’s renovation, upfit and specialty project division. In 2022, the firm opened a larger office in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to expand operations and local ties across the Grand Strand Region.

WHY SHE’S AN

INFLUENCER: Stanley heads up Southport’s critical access hospital. Dosher employs 350 people, making it an economic driver for the surrounding communities as well.

CenterPoint is anticipated to include a hotel; apartments above retail space; retail shops and restaurants that combine national chains and local boutiques; firstclass office space; and two multi-level, structured parking decks.

Included in the Swains’ extensive development

BRYAN THOMAS

PRESIDENT & CEO, MONTEITH CONSTRUCTION

Bryan Thomas has worked for 24 years at Monteith Construction,

CURRENT WORK: Among Monteith’s projects in the Cape Fear Region outside of the airport are Live Oak Bank Building 4, The Davis Community campus renovation, SPARK Academy Early Childhood

Development Center and the renovation and expansion of the Brunswick County Courthouse.

Thompson served as president and CEO of 1stAtlantic Properties Inc.

welcoming shoppers, Landfall Center sits on about 17 acres.

SPRUILL THOMPSON

In addition to his position as senior vice president for Cape Fear Commercial, Spruill Thompson utilizes more than 30 years of professional experience in commercial real estate and business development in multiple leadership roles for local organizations.

RAIFORD TRASK

PRESIDENT, TRASK LAND CO.

Raiford Trask III is responsible for all aspects of day-to-day management, strategic planning and long-range planning for Trask Land Co.

ACCOLADES: Trask has been the recipient of numerous awards through the years, including recognition from the American Planning Association’s North Carolina chapter and the city of Wilmington. He previously served on the UNC Board of Governors, completing a fouryear term in 2015.

water, primarily through eight granulated activated carbon filters installed at the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant. He guided the project to its completion and in October, when installation was complete, water tested at the Sweeney plant was free of PFAS contamination.

ZACHARY WELCH

KENNETH WALDROUP

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CFPUA

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EMERGEORTHO COASTAL REGION

WHY

HE’S AN INFLUENCER: Thompson serves as vice-chair of the board for Wilmington Downtown Inc. WDI has supported numerous economic development initiatives in recent years, including redevelopment of the Soda Pop District, the city’s Gateway Project on the northern waterfront and Project Grace as well as its small business microloan program.

Similarly, Thompson brings his professional experience to bear while serving on the New Hanover County Airport Authority Board since 2018, including his current tenure as chair since July. His business experience comes at a time when the airport has seen a flurry of business development on its grounds, including the announcement in April of a long-awaited hotel coming to the airport by 2024.

PRIOR ROLE: Before joining Cape Fear Commercial,

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: With roots starting in the 18th century, the Trask family’s influence on the Cape Fear region goes back hundreds of years. They first made a name for themselves as successful lettuce farmers and then landowners and prominent developers. These days, Raiford Trask III continues to be closely involved in numerous developments, bringing in new lifestyle concepts to Wilmington such as Total Wine in Trask Land Co.’s Renaissance Market and a new residential opportunity for active adults in the Blake Farm community. Trask was also essential in not only creating but executing the overall vision of the popular mixed-use community Autumn Hall.

Trask has been making investments in his company’s future. In September, a partnership between Cameron Management, Trask Land Co., SHP Acquisitions and Charlotte-based Collett Capital announced its $30 million purchase of Landfall Center.

The Food Lion-anchored shopping center at 1319 Military Cutoff Road includes a variety of businesses, from local favorites such as Lovey’s Market to bigger stores like Havertys Furniture and Dollar Tree. Built in the 1980s, decades before Mayfaire Town Center’s first store began

Kenneth Waldroup was tapped as Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s executive director in June 2021. He brings nearly 30 years of experience in public utilities to the position including 15 years with Raleigh’s public utilities department, most recently as assistant director.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: CFPUA recently outlined a capital improvement plan to guide the next 10 years of improvements to the region’s water and sewer infrastructure so local utilities can meet demand as Southeastern North Carolina continues to grow.

Fast-growing communities in northern New Hanover County, for example, will benefit from investment of more than $32 million to build a northern pump station and force mains. Additionally, the organization is currently working with the town of Wrightsville Beach to determine the feasibility of merging the two water systems.

PFAS UPDATE: Waldroup joined CFPUA in the midst of a yearslong effort to mediate dangerous levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the region’s drinking

Zachary Welch was appointed executive director of EmergeOrtho’s Coastal Region in April. He previously served as CEO of Wake Orthopaedics in Raleigh for nine years and as practice administrator of Advanced Laparoscopic Associates, a general and bariatric surgery practice in Raleigh.

WHY HE’S AN INFLUENCER: In his role now with EmergeOrtho, Welch is in a leadership position for one of the largest physician-owned orthopedic practices in the country. EmergeOrtho has grown statewide and locally through a series of mergers and acquisitions.

Some of his current projects include expanding EmergeOrtho Orthopedic Urgent Care (formerly known as AccessOrtho) to more regional locations; hiring more providers including physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapy and occupational therapy specialists, athletic trainers and a psychologist; and implementing new communications for patients such as secure texting and patient self-scheduling.

REGIONAL WORKFORCE: EmergeOrtho’s Coastal Region, which includes 11 office locations in Southeastern North Carolina, employs about 450 people.

SENIOR VP, CAPE FEAR COMMERCIAL & CHAIR, NEW HANOVER COUNTY AIRPORT AUTHORITY

SEAHAWKS LIKE NO OTHER.

Cameron School of Business

Robert Burrus Dean

Ulku Clark

Professor, Congdon School of Supply Chain, Business Analytics and Information Systems; Director, Center for Cyber Defense Education

Mouchine Guettabi Associate Professor, Economics and Finance Department

Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Heather McWhorter Director

Center for Marine Science

Ken Halanych Executive Director

Chancellor Aswani K. Volety

INNOV A T ORS

ULKU CLARK

DIRECTOR, UNCW CENTER FOR CYBER DEFENSE EDUCATION

Ulku Clark has published over 30 research articles in the past 15 years. In addition to being a director of the University of North Carolina Wilmington center, Clark is also an information systems professor. Her research interests include information communications technologies, telecom policy, information security, IT productivity, health care IT and more.

WHY SHE’S AN INNOVATOR: Clark delves in the world of cybersecurity, which has seen recent growth for its importance protecting computer networks, devices and data from unauthorized access.

Clark is a founding member of the Center for Cyber Defense Education, which has received funding and also helped start a new bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity at UNCW.

In 2022, Clark helped bring more than $500,000 in federal grants to UNCW to develop cybersecurity programs. Clark was also a leader in hosting the fourth annual Cybersecurity Conference in October, which brought in nationwide and local experts and had a focus on informing the local business community on ways to protect their business operations through cybersecurity. The event included a number of tracks focused on small- and medium-sized businesses, and to serve local industries, it included fintech and maritime security.

INVOLVEMENTS: Founder and chair of UNCW Cybersecurity Advisory Board

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER

CHRIS BABCOCK

CEO, APITURE

The Wilmington-based fintech company has experienced significant growth since Chris Babcock joined in 2019. Babcock leads the company of about 300 employees.

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: In 2022, Apiture launched the Apiture Digital Banking Platform after Babcock recognized the opportunity to combine Apiture’s two products to avoid duplication and help differentiate the business’s products.

The company combined Apiture Xpress and Apiture Open, which provide web and mobile consumer banking, business banking, digital account opening, API banking for interaction between banks and tech companies and data intelligence.

The company serves more than 300 clients in the U.S.

This platform has been recognized by awards in recent months, including Best Business Digital Banking Solutions Provider winner and Best Consumer Digital Banking Solutions Provider finalist by FinTech Futures Banking Tech Awards USA, and more.

In July, Babcock spearheaded a $29 million fundraising round, bringing the total funding raised by Apiture to $69 million since its inception in 2017. Officials said they would use this investment in part to accelerate product development. In 2022, Babcock continues to drive

the company’s growth with investments in sales and marketing along with research and development.

LOCAL BASE: About 40% of the company’s employees are based in its Wilmington headquarters.

and Sweyer are committed to growing the company locally and supporting local jobs with UNCW alumni making up one-third of its employees.

2022 LAUNCH: Vantaca Vision industry conference

WAYNE HIPPO

OWNER, PS SOLUTIONS

BEN CURRIN & DAVE SWEYER

CEO & FOUNDER, VANTACA

Under Ben Currin and Dave Sweyer’s leadership, Vantaca has emerged in the past few years as a leading tech company in the region. In 2021, Gov. Roy Cooper announced a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) awarded to Vantaca, which would more than double its workforce with a $5 million expansion.

WHY THEY’RE INNOVATORS: As leaders of the software-asa-service company, Currin and Sweyer have overseen the company’s growth in the past year, which includes adding over 70 jobs in 2022.

This year, the company has completed several funding initiatives. In February, the company received $5 million in an angel-led capital raise. In September, it received an undisclosed amount from JMI Equity described as a strategic growth investment that the company will use to significantly accelerate its growth, invest in talent and develop product innovations.

This year, Vantaca was recognized by Inc. 5000, as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the country, with Vantaca ranked as one of the top software companies in North Carolina. Currin

KEN HALANYCH

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNCW CENTER FOR MARINE SCIENCE

Ken Halanych became head of the university’s Center for Marine Science (CMS) last fall

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: In his role, Halanych oversees programs and facilities housed in the CMS, including MARBIONC, the Shellfish Research Hatchery and finfish mariculture program.

CMS-related activities have included additional grant-funded projects and research.

A National Science Foundation (NSF) grant of nearly $1 million is funding research by a UNCW team, including CMS members, to look at sea sponges’ role in coral reef health.

The NSF also is funding an unoccupied aerial system (UAS) Coastal Observatory that will be housed in the MARBIONC labs. Supported by a nearly $851,000 Major Research Instrumentation Grant, the observatory will consist of three commercial drone platforms with remote sensors and other instrumentation to study the coastal ecosystem.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION: The center this fall held an open house to show its facilities and examples of research being done out of it.

With a background in law, Wayne Hippo cofounded PS Solutions in 2018. The company provides custom software solutions for small businesses, and while it is headquartered in Pennsylvania, it has a large presence in Wilmington, which provides the company’s biggest market and makes up its second-largest team.

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: As the founder and leader of PS Solutions, Hippo is responsible for the company’s brand development and expansion of business development opportunities.

PS Solutions provides innovative software solutions to businesses with three development centers in the U.S. PS Solutions is one of few area companies that provides software solutions to businesses which range from full-scale enterprise software development projects to developing mobile apps and creating client web portals.

Since opening a Wilmington office, Hippo has led the expansion in the region. He also co-founded employee engagement mobile application WorkTok with Lisa Leath. In 2022, PS Solutions partnered with WorkTok to develop CyberTok, a tool within WorkTok that provides resources and education on cybersecurity.

Hippo has also led initiatives to expand STEM opportunities for women and minorities in software development. Hippo is part of a private collaborative with the goal to identify ways

100 INNOVATORS

to increase the untapped talent pool of local workers and expand the pipeline of technology workers into the region.

POLITICAL BACKGROUND: Hippo previously served as mayor, vice mayor and councilman in the city of Altoona, Pennsylvania, between 1997 and 2010.

KEITH HOLDEN

CEO, FOCUS BROADBAND

Keith Holden has served as CEO and general manager of FOCUS Broadband (formerly Atlantic Telephone Membership Corp, or ATMC) since he received a promotion in 2018. A native of Brunswick County, Holden has been employed at the memberowned, telecommunications cooperative since 1998.

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: As FOCUS Broadband’s leader, Holden has re-examined the company’s services to keep up with changing technologies.

Starting in 2022, Holden has been leading the company’s rebranding effort, which has the goal to reflect the company’s evolution since it was founded in 1955 and its business change from a traditional telephone and cable TV provider to one that specializes in delivering fiber optic, high-speed internet.

From 2019 to 2022, Holden has led a project team that secured over $103 million in funding through 16 N.C. Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants and three USDA ReConnect grants. These grants help the company expand fiber optic broadband to over 30,000

KIRK ENGLEBRIGHT

PRESIDENT & CEO, DARK HORSE STUDIOS

Businessman Kirk Englebright launched a new venture in 2020, Dark Horse Studios, to introduce new sound stage space to the Wilmington market.

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: Dark Horse Studios plans to construct a $20 million new studio facility, introducing three new sound stages to the area, with the goal of opening in 2023. The construction of new large-scale studio space hasn’t happened in the Wilmington area since EUE/Screen Gems added its 10th stage in around 2010.

In early 2020, Englebright upgraded the space he bought off Market Street to host three sound stages. He initially purchased the building for a health carerelated purpose, but after he received calls from studio executives eager to find space in the post-pandemic film boom the region was experiencing, he decided to switch gears. The 80,000 square feet of sound stage space and office area have aided a variety of filmmakers. Dark Horse Studios’ website lists productions including Florida Man, Welcome to Flatch, Our Kind of People, George & Tammy, Along for the Ride and more as its previous clientele.

MATTRESS MAN: Englebright previously spent 17 years as founder and president of Mattress Capital and has experience owning other Wilmington-area retail businesses, including A Goodnight Sleepstore and Wilmington Furniture & Mattress Co.

rural addresses in Eastern North Carolina. Holden also oversees multiple construction projects including building fiber-tohome networks to provide broadband to unserved areas of Bladen, Brunswick, Chowan, Columbus, Duplin, Hoke, Pender, Perquimans, Robeson and Scotland counties.

SPEEDING UP: FOCUS Broadband is also in the process of building a $100 million fiber optic upgrade project for Brunswick County that will provide multi-gigabit broadband internet to over 60,000 locations.

JAMES

CEO, WILMINGTON HEALTH

Jeff James has served as head of Wilmington Health, the largest independent multi-specialty physician practice in the region, since 2008. It now has 1,000 employees.

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: Besides being head of the practice, James also has a hand in other projects Wilmington Health is expanding into.

He supported the physician leaders in the development of WH Research, which according to Wilmington Health, to date conducts the highest volume of local research studies in the community. Many of the studies directly supported the rapid deployment of the COVID-19 vaccines.

He also developed Innovo Research, a providersponsored, provider-led network of high-performing Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) that utilize clinical research as

WILMINGTONBIZ

JEFF

PHOTO BY LOGAN BURKE

WILMINGTONBIZ 100 INNOVATORS

part of their population health strategy.

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With its most recent Innovo Research expansion, several new states were added, and Innovo now has potentially 400 more clinical research sites serving over 4 million patients and with more than 2,000 providers in the research network.

On the local patient care side, Wilmington Health has expanded into additional locations in Brunswick and Onslow counties, as well as increased its number of specialties in the area, such as with its Women’s Center of Excellence.

OUTPATIENT SURGERY: Wilmington Health’s Ambulatory Surgery Center opened in the spring on Glen Meade Road.

TRACEY & GIRARD NEWKIRK

CO-FOUNDERS, GENESIS BLOCK

H

usband-and-wife team Girard and Tracey Newkirk were both entrepreneurs before starting Genesis Block in 2019. The incubator provides business development services supporting small business owners, entrepreneurs and early-stage startups. Genesis has a special focus on supporting ventures led by minorities and women.

WHY THEY’RE INNOVATORS: This year brought changes to Genesis Block, including a move to another office location in downtown Wilmington that marked the organization’s transition away from offering coworking, meeting rooms and event spaces as its service offerings.Now, housed at coworking space Common Desk, Genesis is launching Genesis Block Academy, Block Eatz and Genesis Bridge/DiCE. The Academy provides curriculum-based training programs for early-stage startups, entrepreneurs, diverse-owned businesses and local small business owners. Block Eatz is an incubator kitchen launched in partnership with Cape Fear Community College in Castle Hayne that food industry entrepreneurs can use for food prep and to develop their recipes.

TODD GODBEY

CEO, BEACON EDUCATION

Todd Godbey was tapped in 2015 to oversee the development of GLOW Academy as leader of Beacon Education (formerly GLOW NC), the nonprofit foundation that supports the all-girls charter school.

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: Godbey helped bring the idea for GLOW Academy to life with a new way to serve students who, data shows, are more likely to slip through the cracks in traditional school settings. The mission for GLOW, which was the first single-gender charter school in the state, was to provide academic opportunities for young women from low-income families in an environment tailored to increase their likelihood of success.

This school year, Godbey’s work overseeing operations at the school has taken on a special meaning as GLOW prepares to graduate its first class since the school opened in 2016.

Godbey is also currently overseeing the organization’s work to expand their offerings to include SPARK Academy, with the first of up to five early childhood development centers slated to open in August 2023. The schools, which will introduce hundreds of openings in a tight local market for child care, plan to serve diverse mixed-income families with scholarships available to those who need them.

Plans are for SPARK to be followed by a co-ed elementary school as well as an all-boys charter middle and high school similar to GLOW.

NURTURING THE WHOLE CHILD: Plans are underway to equip GLOW with a community health care clinic, staffed daily by a mental health professional with weekly time from a physician assistant. Beacon’s other schools will also include community health clinics.

PHOTO BY LOGAN BURKE

NATALIE WAGGETT

CEO, OHANAFY

Natalie Waggett has 20 years of experience in banking and finance. She then made a transition to the tech industry by joining fintech company nCino. There she worked in presales and sales enablement for eight years. In 2022, she launched a software firm that arose out of her experience in banking and technology.

WHY SHE’S AN INNOVATOR: This year, Waggett and a team at Ohanafy, developed a software product for the adult beverage industry, specifically breweries.

As an investor in a small brewery, Waggett saw how many small business owners lack the functionality they need to be successful.

The Ohanafy Brewery Management System is an end-to-end craft beverage management software. Housed within Salesforce, the platform is designed to be used by anyone employed at a brewery, with a price based on beer production as opposed to the usual software-as-a-service model pricing. The platform includes tools to manage several aspects of running a beverage business from production to sales to employee management.

With an innovative solution for breweries, Waggett said her goal is to empower independent brewers, distillers and other craft beverage manufacturers with software that helps them with business management and growth.

IN A NAME: For the startup, their company name loosely means to create family, playing off ohana, the Hawaiian word for family.

This year, Genesis Block was chosen by a coalition called Diversity in Clean Energy, known as DiCE, described as an action-based coalition created by Duke Energy, to build an online platform that promotes diverse-owned businesses in the clean energy industry. The platform will serve as a tool for monitoring ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance and has the goal of bringing together diverse suppliers and buyers in the clean energy industry.

BRIDGEWORK: Genesis Block also spent time this year working on

Genesis Bridge, an online platform to streamline the procurement process for large organizations that gives diverse, small businesses access to greater opportunities.

Olsen founded CloudWyze, an internet service provider, in 2012. Since then, the company has grown to more than 40 employees and is also a Managed Service Provider for businesses.

SHAUN OLSEN

FOUNDER & CEO, CLOUDWYZE

With a background in information technology, Shaun

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: In 2022, Olsen continued to lead the company’s efforts to expand high-speed internet service to underserved, rural areas of the state with the need for internet connectivity becoming more pressing in today’s digital world.

The company was instrumental in getting a general statute passed allowing joint funding

for broadband between a county government and a provider. Since then, CloudWyze has secured $30 million in grant funding for underserved North Carolina counties. This includes an announcement in October that the company is receiving about $18.4 million in grant funding to expand internet access to rural areas of the state through the 2022 Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant program. This funding will help CloudWyze expand its service to about 8,600 underserved and unserved homes in those counties.

PHOTO BY TERAH HOOBLER

Currently, CloudWyze is building fiber and wireless networks in New Hanover, Nash, Harnett, Martin, Edgecombe and Johnston counties with more locations expected to start soon.

ADDITIONAL ROLE: CEO and founder of AcoustiCreations

guests can use to talk to their hotel for services and amenities without needing to use a corded phone.

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: As an innovator, Quiros has developed a software solution to enhance guest experiences at hotels and resorts.

investors through pitch contests.

In 2022, F3TCH won the Capital Connects Pitch Contest in Greensboro. The company was also chosen out of 450-plus applicants to participate in Venture Atlanta 2022 as one of the top technology companies in the Southeast.

Tyler Rees heads up Innovative Financial Group, one of the fastest-growing insurance platforms nationally.

JOSE QUIROS

CO-FOUNDER & CEO, F3TCH

As a self-taught app developed, Jose Quiros blended his tech skills and work experience with a large guest room telephone manufacturer to develop F3TCH, an application for the hotel industry that

The application he developed provides benefits for both guests and hotels with guests being able to connect with their hotel from any location and with hotels being able to consolidate services. Highend hotels and resorts can use the platform to upsell their service and amenities and enhance their loyalty programs.

In working to officially launch the app, Quiros has been active in the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem and has been introducing the company to potential customers and

PROJECTS MANAGEMENT: Besides F3TCH, Quiros also is working on ideas for an incubator for Wilmington, a nonprofit around the use of small urban spaces for nature and an app for travel.

WHY HE’S AN INNOVATOR: This year, Wilmingtonbased Innovative Financial Group ranked No. 78 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastestgrowing companies in the U.S., with a three-year revenue growth spurt of 5,232%.

The company, with about 40 employees, provides a platform to insurance agents and managers to help grow their brand.

TYLER REES

With a national brokerage distribution of over 10,000 agents and more than 3,500 licensed Medicare agents, Innovative Financial Group assisted 13,000 clients in 2020 with navigating benefits. Last year, the company’s client base grew

FOUNDER & CEO, INNOVATIVE FINANCIAL GROUP

fourfold and will continue to this year, officials project, estimating it will help 165,000 seniors this year.

YOUSRY SAYED

PRESIDENT & CEO, QUALITY CHEMICAL LABORATORIES

Entrepreneur Yousry Sayed is growing his company, Quality Chemical Laboratories, into new realms.

WHY

HE’S AN INNOVATOR: Undergoing a significant expansion, Sayed’s Quality Chemical Laboratories will soon officially welcome its sister company, Pyramid Pharmaceuticals, next door to its facility off Interstate 40.

Sayed started Quality Chemical Laboratories (QCL) in 1998 with just a handful of employees. The contract research, testing and prototyping firm has since grown to a team of about 250. Amid a $110 million expansion, the new facility calls for the addition of about 180 new employees.

Through the venture, Sayed –who has a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Minnesota – has been developing original pharmaceutical products on the Food and Drug Administration’s shortage list. One product he has developed over several years is about one year from federal approval, according to Sayed. Though the company started in 2005, Pyramid Pharmaceuticals’ formal public launch will take place in the next couple of years, following the completion of the new facility. This facility will be capable of manufacturing drugs, and eventually, will produce original products.

ONCE A SEAHAWK … : Before founding QCL, Sayed was a professor in UNCW’s chemistry and biochemistry department and served as director of the general college. He currently serves on the UNCW Board of Trustees.

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THE CONN E C

RHONDA BELLAMY

PRESIDENT & CEO, ARTS COUNCIL OF WILMINGTON/NEW HANOVER COUNTY

Rhonda Bellamy has been the head of the Arts Council of Wilmington/ New Hanover County since 2012. She was previously a news director and talk show host for Cumulus Media.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: The organization Bellamy leads is the arts agency of record for the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County.

She said some of her organization’s main tasks are to provide a stream of funding to support artists and arts organizations in the city and county; promote the arts as essential to economic development; market Wilmington and New Hanover County’s arts and cultural assets; advocate for the arts at the local, state and national levels; and facilitate communication and collaboration within the arts community.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: A few examples of Bellamy’s and the arts council’s impacts include spearheading development of the Wilmington Rail Trail, organizing the local coordination of the national Arts & Economic Prosperity study, managing Fourth Friday Gallery Nights for local galleries, commissioning a mural for the new Novant Health Neurosciences Institute in Wilmington and serving on the board of the Wilmington Area Hospitality Association.

LANNIN BRADDOCK

COO, THE BRADDOCK GROUP

Lannin Braddock is responsible for all the operations of The Braddock Group, a real estate company she co-founded with her husband, Michael, in 2019. The firm has recently been involved in numerous high-profile developments.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: Currently, Braddock said she is part of reshaping the supply chain for the cold-storage industry by helping Braddock Group clients buy and lease three facilities, working to bring the first and only hotel to Wilmington International Airport (ILM) and chairing one of the largest commercial real estate networking and awards events in the area through Cape Fear Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW).

Braddock recently represented CIL LLC in its purchase of 805 N. 23rd St., a 70,000-squarefoot partially refrigerated cold storage building. She also serves as a development consultant for the 750,000-square-foot cold storage facility under construction at ILM, as well as the new $40 million Crowne Plaza hotel coming to the airport.

Braddock, who has 15 years of commercial real estate experience, honed her skills working at Brunswick Forest in leasing, sales and project management for the major master-planned development’s commercial area, The Villages at Brunswick Forest. Her

property management portfolio included about 1 million square feet of retail, office and industrial buildings. She also chairs the Novant Brunswick Medical Foundation.

INDUSTRY ADVOCATE: As chair of the Cape Fear CREW Awards of Excellence, Braddock leads a team procuring submissions for nominations, helping to secure partners/ sponsorships for the program and assists in coordinating the marketing and advertising.

to visits to what was then St. John’s Art Gallery in downtown Wilmington as a child. An artist herself, she secured a position on the museum’s staff in 1990 after a stint of volunteering to get her foot in the door.

MILESTONE EXHIBIT: The museum is celebrating 60 years of operation, 20 of which have been in its current home on South 17th Street. To celebrate, the museum is hosting a commemorative exhibition of its history and the artists it has displayed titled 60+ running through April 2023.

ANNE BRENNAN

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CAMERON ART MUSEUM

Anne Brennan was named executive director of the Cameron Art Museum in 2011 after serving as assistant director and curator at the museum.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: From her time as assistant director, when she launched the Museum School to offer art classes to area residents, to her current tenure at the helm of the museum, Brennan has helped to establish CAM as a local institution built on community engagement. Because the museum is funded through private gifts, its status as a cultural gathering place is crucial to its success –and under Brennan, CAM has established itself as an indispensable feature of the cultural fabric of Southeastern North Carolina.

Brennan has deep roots in the Wilmington art community, dating back

JERRY COLEMAN

DIRECTOR, CFCC SMALL BUSINESS CENTER

As director of Cape Fear Community College’s Small Business Center, Jerry Coleman oversees program services, sponsorships and coordination with local community initiatives all with the goal of helping small businesses. To achieve this, Coleman partners with various organizations including the U.S. Small Business Administration, N.C. Department of Commerce, N.C. Department of Agriculture, N.C. Military Business Center and others.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR: In his role, which is also as senior director of business and industry services, Coleman connects entrepreneurs with the resources they need to launch and grow their businesses.

In the fiscal year 2020-21, CFCC’s Small Business Center provided

CHAKEMA CLINTON- QUINTANA VP-INCLUSIVE SMALL BUSINESS, LIVE OAK BANK

Chakema Clinton-Quintana leads a Live Oak Bank initiative to serve underserved small business owners and individuals who aspire to become entrepreneurs.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: The bank opened Channel, a small business center at 106 Market St. in downtown Wilmington, in November 2021, and since then, Clinton-Quintana has led the center as it has reached hundreds of small business owners in the Wilmington area. She has “created a foundation of trust while providing coaching, community and capital,” ClintonQuintana said, as well as providing resources such as financial literacy, business formation, marketing, networking, roundtable events and collaboration with local partners.

One of her goals is to focus on strengthening and supporting inclusive small business growth through research, job-creation programs, capital allocation, mentorship and programming.

Clinton-Quintana has a degree in business management with a concentration in management from Strayer University in Herndon, Virginia, as well as nine years of experience as a bank compliance officer. She held compliance and security positions at both Live Oak Bank and RBC Bank in Raleigh.

ACCOLADES: Clinton-Quintana’s work has garnered numerous awards and recognition, including a New Hanover County Business Equity Award for 2022. She graduated from the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Wilmington 2021-22 program, was named co-chair of the chamber’s African American Business Council and was a 2021 WILMA’s Women to Watch Awards finalist.

confidential one-on-one business counseling to 222 prospective and existing business owners, which resulted in 39 new business startups creating 292 new jobs in our community. The organization also provided 150 business seminars on a variety of business topics and best practices for more than 2,600 small business owners in New Hanover and Pender counties.

During his tenure at the center, Coleman has mentored 1,438 entrepreneurs in the community. This year, Coleman also partnered with Genesis Block to launch an incubator kitchen for entrepreneurs.

PARTNERING UP: In 2022, Coleman received Carolina Small Business Development Fund’s (CSBDF) Partner of the Year award for going above and beyond in supporting small businesses and CSBDF throughout the year.

departments to promote diversity and inclusion in city services and practices and through education and training initiatives for city employees to ensure a fair workplace.

Additionally, Conway is tasked with helping the city in its current efforts to finalize a strategic plan built upon awareness of equitable allocation of resources for capital improvement projects, community outreach efforts and business development opportunities. His work also extends outside the realm of city government with initiatives fostered through relationships with other individuals and organizations.

For example, this year he worked with the New Hanover County Office of Diversity & Equity to host CONNECT, a multicultural networking event as well as with UNCW’s chief diversity officer for the 2022 Institute on Truth, Racial Health and Transformation.

JOE CONWAY

CHIEF EQUITY AND INCLUSION OFFICER, CITY OF WILMINGTON

The city of Wilmington tapped Joe Conway for the newly created position of chief equity and inclusion officer in January of this year. The position resulted from the city’s Rise Together initiative, launched in August 2020. Conway joined city staff after more than a decade with Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center, where he had most recently served as director of health equity and human experience

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR: Conway works with city

Conway is also a member of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce as well as the African American Business Council and the Latin American Business Council.

TRAINING TOPICS: Conway provided education and coaching on implicit bias to area Realtors this year to help real estate agents mitigate bias and better relate to minority clients.

BILL EARLY

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BRUNSWICK BUSINESS & INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT

Longtime economic developer Bill Early joined Brunswick

Business & Industry Development (BBID) in 2018. The group is a nonprofit agency that contracts with Brunswick County for business development services.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR:

For over 30 years, Early has worked in the field of economic development with extensive experience in rural communities.

Before joining Brunswick County, Early worked for the Hertford County Economic Development Commission for 20 years, most recently serving as executive director, bringing in 64 business recruitment or expansion projects, over $1.1 billion in investments and nearly 2,000 jobs.

Pacon Manufacturing in Leland was one of Early’s first major local projects, which now has over 200 employees.

Brunswick County

saw the International Commerce Park come to life this year after a decade of inactivity. This megasite – one of just seven statewide – has been a top priority of Early’s since he joined BBID. The BBID team has long advocated for the construction of speculative buildings to help meet industry needs in an area where eligible sites are lacking and for the installation of infrastructure to make sites more marketable.

With the construction of the International Commerce Center, the speculative building attracted Precision Swiss Products, Tri-Tech Forensics and Lowe’s Companies as tenants.

FUTURE FOCUS: Early said that BBID plans to continue working with Brunswick County government on increasing water and

Congrats to this year

wastewater capacity, as well as with potential investors and developers to build additional spec building space to increase the county’s product availability.

which is up 200% over preCOVID levels in the past two years.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR: Fernando shepherded the Wilson Center through the pandemic and the venue’s schedule of national Broadway tours and concerts has fully rebounded from the pandemic.

SHANE FERNANDO

VP OF ADVANCEMENT AND THE ARTS, CFCC WILSON CENTER

Shane Fernando was appointed vice president of advancement and the arts at CFCC in 2020 after six years of leadership at the Wilson Center. He still serves as executive director and artistic director of the Wilson Center and oversees fundraising and donor relations for the college,

A major focus of Fernando’s is to engage CFCC students in programs and opportunities at the Wilson Center, where students work at the shows and perform onstage in productions of the CFCC drama department.

Furthermore, Fernando has overseen fundraising efforts totaling more than $2 million for an expansion of the Wilson Center to include a Residency and Events Center to expand the organization’s arts education footprint.

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CONSTANCE

FOREMAN , CRYSTAL PELLAM & SHERI SHAW

FOUNDERS, THREE LADIES IN WILMINGTON

Constance Foreman, Crystal Pellam and Sheri Shaw are co-founders of the local professional networking group Three Ladies in Wilmington. With full-time jobs, the trio decided to start the group with the goal to connect the professional Black community in the region to each other and to local businesses.

WHY THEY’RE CONNECTORS: To be able to carry out their mission of connecting professionals, Foreman, Pellam and Shaw work to host events that are hosted in partnership with local businesses. Since the group’s formation in 2019, they have organized over 10 social gatherings for Black professionals in Wilmington. Events hosted this year by the group include Thirsty Thursdays, Denim Day Party, Sneaker Ball, and more. In 2022, the group received recognition from New Hanover County by receiving the Community Equity Award during the second annual Equity Awards. In addition, the group also collaborates with other organizations by supporting other minorityled initiatives including collaborating with the N.C. Black Film Festival held in Wilmington. The group has the goal to continue to grow its resources and provide recommendations for Black professionals moving to the area.

NETWORKING: Since its start, Three Ladies in Wilmington has created a social network for over 500 Black professionals in the Southeastern North Carolina area.

PHOTO BY MEGAN DEITZ

BETH GAGLIONE

BRANCH DIRECTOR, FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL & EASTERN NC

As director of the food bank’s Wilmington branch, Gaglione manages the nonprofit’s work to provide food to those in need and build solutions to end hunger in four counties in Southeastern North Carolina: Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender.

WHY SHE IS A CONNECTOR: To fulfill the organization’s mission to nourish people in need, Gaglione is tasked with navigating partnerships with the community as well as managing fundraising campaigns.

This includes a new 35,000-square-foot facility to accommodate the distribution of an additional 4.2 million pounds of food annually, a 37% increase in the overall distribution.

Gaglione was a part of a small team responsible for raising the funds necessary to build the

new food bank, which required investments totaling $12 million.

The new food bank in Wilmington will include a commercial kitchen to produce 5,000 hot meals a day, a fresh food marketplace, a volunteer center and a 30,000-square-foot warehouse. Gaglione and the team secured a $1 million donation from nCino for the project, which is under construction at 1000 Greenfield St. and is slated to be called the nCino Hunger Solutions Center.

In 2022, Gaglione was also able to help acquire $150,000 from the Wilmington City Council’s disbursement of ARPA funding, which the organization will use to assist its operation at the new facility.

OVER THE YEARS: Since 2002, the Wilmington food bank has provided more than 150 million pounds of food across its service area, an investment valued at nearly $200 million.

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his role at CFCC, Fernando serves in many community and national roles for the arts, including as a trustee for the Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, board member for Arts North Carolina and member of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

through the organization’s Wilmington Realtors Foundation to develop a community of 48 singlefamily homes targeted to this group. The foundation is launching a capital campaign to fund the project, Pierson Pointe, named after the founding president of the WRF, John Pierson.

for 13 years. Griffin also previously served as a member of Gov. Roy Cooper’s Advisory Council on Film, Television and Digital Streaming.

ANNE GARDNER

CEO, CAPE FEAR REALTORS

Anne Gardner was hired for the organization’s top post by Cape Fear Realtors in 2019. Gardner was previously CEO of the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. She has more than two decades of experience in leadership in real estate associations.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: Gardner leads an organization with more than 3,600 Realtor members across a six-county region of Southeastern North Carolina and the city of Wilmington. Since 2020, she has successfully lobbied to ensure real estate was deemed an essential service during the pandemic, modernized transactions with the successful passage of remote notarization led by NC Realtors and lead the organization through an 18-month repair and renovation of The Terraces on Sir Tyler, a more than 25,000-square-foot association headquarters, office building and premium event venue.

Gardner said a persistent lack of housing affordable for the area’s workforce of teachers, firefighters, police officers and supporting medical professionals resulted in a new initiative

CENTENNIAL OF SERVICE: Gardner has been leading a yearlong series of events celebrating the role of real estate professionals in the Cape Fear region, honoring the founding of CFR in April 1922.

JOHNNY GRIFFIN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WILMINGTON REGIONAL FILM COMMISSION

Industry veteran Johnny Griffin has ridden the many waves of filmmaking in the Wilmington area. As the sole employee and executive director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission, Griffin helps connect production companies and other industry players to local opportunities to help foster a thriving film scene for the local workforce.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR:

For the film commission, Griffin oversees all activity – marketing, recruitment, operations and daily inquiries – and serves as the local point of contact for nearly all film-related matters.

He has maintained an Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) membership for 23 years and Certified Film Commissioner status

INDUSTRY REBOUND: After the evaporation of film opportunities following the sunsetting of a state incentive program in 2014, the Wilmington scene has made a hearty rebound, netting an estimated $311 million in the region in 2021. This year, while activity hasn’t been quite as voracious as the postpandemic build-up, the region could see $225 million in spending, according to the latest estimates. As several local productions continue their work on current projects, Griffin anticipates the arrival of new productions in 2023.

Board of Directors. In Wilmington, he has championed existing small business owners and entrepreneurs and has worked to enhance a business environment that attracts new ventures to the area. Through the chamber’s program, Hallingse works with businesses with fewer than 25 employees.

DEALMAKING: In June, the N.C. Economic Development Association awarded its 2021 Smaller Market Deal of the Year to Hallingse for his work in attracting Raybow Pharmaceutical to Brevard, which brought wages that are double the local average. The life science deal brought more than 70 jobs to the small rural town.

JOSH HALLINGSE

VP, SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & BUSINESS RETENTION, WILMINGTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Josh Hallingse is the first employee of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce’s recently added small business development and business retention division that New Hanover County first funded last year.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR:

Hailing from Brevard, North Carolina, Hallingse worked in his hometown as the executive director of the Transylvania Economic Alliance and began his role with the Wilmington chamber in November 2021. Since 2008, Hallingse has served on the N.C. Economic Development

PAM HARDY

DISTRICT MANAGER, DUKE ENERGY

Duke Energy’s district manager Pam Hardy took over the reins of the Wilmington office in October 2021. Hardy began her career in the field as a customer service specialist for a Duke Energy predecessor and has remained with the company her entire career, previously working in corporate communication in the customer service division.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: As district manager, Hardy maintains relationships with top local government officials in the region and helps oversee Duke Energy’s local philanthropic mission. Her coverage of government and community relations includes New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender, Columbus, Bladen and Sampson counties.

JAMES FLOCK

CHAIR, CAPE FEAR MANUFACTURING PARTNERSHIP

James “Jim” Flock is general manager of HSM Machine Works/MA Group, a manufacturer of landing gear components for the aviation and aerospace business in Brunswick County. Frustrated with the pitfalls of workforce recruitment initiatives and unsavory national manufacturing industry trends, Flock along with a group of other local manufacturing officials formed the Cape Fear Manufacturing Partnership (CFMP).

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR: The group sprung out of conversations from the Cape Fear Workforce Development Board and officially formed in 2021, with Flock as its leader. Since formalizing, the partnership has grown to represent more than 40 businesses in the region. Putting competition aside, the partnership convenes to jointly advocate for education- or policy-based changes that could help advance the industry. The diverse group aims to improve the perception of manufacturing jobs, which can be high-paying opportunities, and offer viable career paths for locals to find longevity in the market. Through working with regional educational institutions, the group hopes to more closely align students with local opportunities.

AEROSPACE MINDED: With nearly 40 years of experience in the sector, Flock has helped HSM Machine Works maintain and attract new business. HSM is currently working on several military projects that will help increase high-tech job opportunities in the region.

In this role, Hardy brings together local officials and emergency management leaders for storm resiliency and preparation events to foster enhanced teamwork during major storms.

After living for nearly 30 years in Raleigh, Hardy relocated to Wilmington last year for the role. Since the move, Hardy has already plugged into several local organizations, including serving as a mentor in WILMA’s Women to Watch Leadership Initiative and as a member of the CFCC Electrical Lineworker Advisory Board. She also serves as a mentor within the Duke Energy Employee Resource Group.

COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Hardy attended Shaw University in Raleigh for her undergraduate degree in mass communication and holds a master’s in organizational leadership from Waldorf University.

Hufham is an advocate for topics affecting the tourism and hospitality industry, which supports more than 6,000 jobs and generates a local economic impact of more than $930 million.

She works to link area stakeholders to resources they need from local, state and national organizations to address challenges such as workforce shortages, sustainability and proper use of the room occupancy tax generated from stays in local hotels and short-term rentals.

Hufham helps to curate tourism dollars and shape the trajectory of one of the county’s leading industries, including the allocation of funds generated by tourism to help replenish the area’s beaches, support the Wilmington Convention Center, fund ocean safety programs and more.

This year, she is working on an updated training program for the tourism ambassadors stationed around downtown Wilmington as a resource for visitors.

TRAVEL BUDGET: Hufham oversees a $13 million budget that is utilized primarily for destination marketing activities.

education, economic and workforce development

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: Jenkins oversees all community outreach programs at the YWCA that help to empower and advocate for local women and people of color.

The effects of these programs are felt throughout the area, from free swimming and water safety programs for children to the Grandparent Support Network for grandparents providing full-time care for their grandchildren. Jenkins has led the creation of several initiatives designed specifically to engage the community on issues of racial equity, social justice and health disparities.

For example, Jenkins envisioned an event in 2020 that would highlight local inequities in health care, a goal brought to life in this year’s Health Summit: Empowering and Building Healthier Communities. Other projects on Jenkin’s plate this year included a Get Out the Vote campaign that helps people register to vote and arranges for transportation to the polls in partnership with the NAACP as well as a new program providing financial literacy education for middle school students.

Serving the growing biotechnology industry in North Carolina, Randall Johnson heads up N.C. Biotechnology Center’s (NCBiotech) southeastern office.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR:

As a board or committee member to dozens of local and statewide organizations, Johnson has helped cultivate growth in the state’s life sciences sector.

Johnson led the creation of the N.C. Economic Development Association Foundation in 2020 and has served as founding board chair since. He served as president of the N.C. Economic Development Association last year and is currently a board member of the N.C. Community Colleges Foundation.

Kim Hufham heads up the New Hanover County Tourism Development Authority, which does business as the more visible name, Wilmington and Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau. She has worked for the organization for 30 years. As New Hanover County tourism indicators surpass pre-COVID levels, Hufham is leading the organization in a shift to new marketing strategies designed to sustain the industry’s growth.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR:

VELVA JENKINS

CEO, YWCA LOWER CAPE FEAR

Velva Jenkins was called out of retirement to lead the YWCA Lower Cape Fear in 2019, first as interim CEO and then as the official head of the organization in 2020. Before her retirement, she worked as Brunswick Community College’s vice president of continuing

GRANT GETS: Under Jenkins’ leadership, the local YWCA has secured over $500,000 in grant awards.

Through his efforts at NC Biotech’s Southeastern Office, Johnson has helped attract millions in research and commercialization dollars to the area. Though he said that many of the ongoing recruitment efforts cannot yet be disclosed, Johnson also has recently worked to support several local ventures boosting the local life sciences sector, including Frontier Scientific Solutions and Quality Chemical Laboratories.

RANDALL JOHNSON

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, N.C. BIOTECHNOLOGY CENTER, SOUTHEASTERN OFFICE

GOING STATEWIDE: Johnson established the NC BIONEER Venture Challenge in 2020 with the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Earlier this year, the challenge launched statewide across all five of NC Biotech’s offices, offering startups intensive mentorship and $200,000 in combined grant opportunities.

KIM HUFHAM

PRESIDENT & CEO, NEW HANOVER COUNTY TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

HEATHER MCWHORTER

DIRECTOR, UNCW CENTER FOR INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

In July, Heather McWhorter officially took over as director of UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) after serving as interim director since August 2021.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: While still acting as interim director, McWhorter continued a role she had held since 2017: serving as the regional center director for the UNCW Small Business and Technology Development Center. This center helps connect

businesses in the region to resources.

At the CIE, McWhorter does similar work, with a focus on nurturing earlystage startups to accelerate the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Last year, the CIE assisted 180 startups and hosted 6,000 participants through its entrepreneurial programming. McWhorter leads the CIE mentorship program, organizes 1MC, serves as chair of the Wilmington Business Coalition and more.

PENN ROOTS: Before joining the UNCW-based business outreach organizations, McWhorter worked at the Penn State Small Business Development Center for 17 years. She continues to serve as an adjunct professor for the Penn State College of Engineering where she teaches entrepreneurial leadership.

McWhorter earned a bachelor’s and master’s from Penn State and also obtained a professional engineering license in environmental engineering from the university.

find jobs and successfully advance at work.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR:

Rikard oversees a full-time staff of 13 people, who together placed clients in 176 jobs in the last fiscal year, a 32% increase from the previous year.

WILL RIKARD

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STEPUP WILMINGTON

Will Rikard joined StepUp Wilmington in 2013. Rikard headed up the organization’s rebranding in 2018 from Phoenix Hometown Hires to StepUp Wilmington, and he continues to lead the organization to find new ways to fulfill its mission to help unemployed and under-employed clients

He created Beyond Talent, the social enterprise job placement division of StepUp Wilmington. StepUp connects people to jobs in various industries including hospitality, manufacturing and health care.

Soon, the organization will add in-demand tech jobs to the list with the forthcoming DigitalBridge Wilmington, a collaborative project expected to open in StepUp’s new space on North Fourth Street in early 2023. DigitalBridge will provide training and upskilling resources to help people get started with tech

With the Wilmington Biz100, the future is so bright… we brought our shades.

companies. In addition to more space for state-of-theart training facilities, their new office is a standalone space with easy access for clients. Because they aim to improve the economic standing and quality of life for their clients, the organization’s work goes beyond sharing job opportunities with people.

DIGITAL FUNDING: Other partners in DigitalBridge Wilmington include Cape Fear Collective and Wireless Research Center of North Carolina. The program was backed this year by $2.5 million in ARPA funds approved by the Wilmington City Council in August.

STEPHANIE LANIER

FOUNDER, LANIER PROPERTY GROUP & THE INSPIRATION LAB

Stephanie Lanier opened Lanier Property Group, a boutique real estate firm in Wilmington, in 2012. She also created The Inspiration Lab, a rapidly growing women’s membership community through which she can connect working

women with one another and the greater business community.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: Lanier has been recognized by her peers and clients for her real estate and networking talents. She was named the Cape Fear Realtors Salesperson of the Year in 2021 and received the Cape Fear CREW Award of Excellence for her dedication to advancing the careers of women in real estate in 2020.

Lanier has also been the recipient of the NC Realtors Rising Star Award and was named to an international list of real estate influencers by Inman News.

Lanier Property Group was named to the Real Trends list of the top 1.5% of real estate teams in the country and No. 26 for North Carolina.

In 2021, Lanier launched and hosted The Inspiration Lab Podcast, focused on inspiring women in their personal and professional lives that released 48 episodes in its first season.

CHAMBER LEADERSHIP: Lanier served as 1st vice chair of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce’s executive committee and will move into the role of chair next year.

SCOTT SATTERFIELD

CEO, WILMINGTON BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Since 1995, Scott Satterfield has led Wilmington Business Development, the nonprofit agency supported by membership dues and funding from the city of Wilmington, New Hanover County and Pender County.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR: Satterfield has long worked behind the scenes to help usher in new businesses to the region in his role at Wilmington Business Development (WBD).

The WBD office has a hand in major industry announcements and keeps a pulse on economic trends to help foster business or public investment to spur enhanced economic opportunities for the region.

This year, WBD worked

on multiple deals at the Pender Commerce Park, including a new Amazon delivery station and a cold storage warehouse from RL Cold. WBD also helped curate deals with New Hanover County to advance two new business parks: the Blue Clay Business Park, which is expected to have infrastructure on-site by next summer, and the proposed Holly Shelter Business Park, a new venture made possible by a private land donation.

The organization helped secure local and state incentives this year for four companies planning to bring more than 1,000 additional jobs to the region in the coming years: MegaCorp Logistics, Port City Logistics, Live Oak Bank and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.

LOCAL TIES: A local of

the area, Satterfield is a graduate of New Hanover High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from UNCW in 1983.

received her MBA from Webster University and joined the BCC SBC in 2016.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR:

Over the years, Scott has helped over 90 businesses start and has individually educated more than 3,000 business owners on how to grow their businesses.

APRIL SCOTT

DIRECTOR, BCC SMALL BUSINESS CENTER

April Scott has worked with the Brunswick County entrepreneurial ecosystem for six years, which includes working hand-inhand with entrepreneurs. After a switch from nursing to business, Scott became the executive director of T he Carousel Center after 12 years of working with the nonprofit. She then

As the director, Scott is responsible for all services through the center including one-on-one counseling and training. The center offers free courses on different aspects of business ownership. She also oversees a coworking and manufacturing incubator in Brunswick County.

This year, Scott worked on establishing the first Womenpreneur Empowerment Summit, in collaboration with the college and with funds from the NC IDEA Foundation.

EXPANDING OUTREACH: Over the past two years, she has included an emphasized focus on educating and supporting the Hispanic community including adding Spanish-speaking support at the center and offering a 10-part academy during Hispanic Heritage Month.

LINDA THOMPSON

Linda Thompson stepped into the role of chief diversity and equity officer in 2020 after working in community and media relations for the Wilmington Police Department for 25 years.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: Thompson serves as a liaison for change among underrepresented groups to ensure services, policies and procedures within county government are inclusive and equitable. This includes community outreach in these underserved communities.

This year, the office’s projects included a new YouTube show for the county’s Hispanic community called Su Condado, as well as cosponsoring the second annual Hispanic Festival, where attendance grew to more than 2,000 people.

Other initiatives launched under Thompson’s tenure include a free training session on diversity and equity for nonprofits and small businesses in the community, which trained more than 500 people this

CAMERON MOORE

EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WILMINGTON-CAPE FEAR HOME BUILDERS ASSOCIATION

Cameron Moore leads a trade association with nearly 1,500 members. The Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association (WCFHBA) is the second-largest homebuilders association in the state and fourth-largest in the nation, Moore said.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR: The WCFHBA “provides services to members that enhance their success and stability,” Moore said. “As the largest trade association in Eastern North Carolina, the association serves as the voice of the building and development industries and strives to advance professionalism and promote community involvement. The WCFHBA is recognized as a positive influential force for responsible growth by protecting property rights and the privilege of homeownership.”

In February, Moore was named the National Association of Home Builders Local Executive Officer of the Year for 2021.

GIVE BACK : Moore has worked to transform the local association’s philanthropic outlet – The Paul Gregory Foundation, which provides students in the Wilmington area with scholarships and other funding mechanisms to help advance the construction programs and trades in the area. He also reorganized the association’s annual fall golf tournament into a scholarship fundraiser for the foundation called the Swing for Education Golf Tournament. Moore is also establishing a relationship between the WCFHBA and local middle and high schools to engage students and garner interest in the construction and trades industry to address a labor shortage.

year; the annual Equity Awards to highlight and honor individuals in the region for expanding and elevating equity and diversity; and conducting the first Equity Summit of Southeastern NC this year.

EQUITY EDUCATION: Thompson has also helped with events and activities organized by the county to commemorate the 124th anniversary of the 1898 Wilmington massacre and coup as well as the office’s co-sponsorship of the Bias Inside exhibit at the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science.

BILL VASSAR

EXECUTIVE VP, EUE/SCREEN GEMS

With a half-century of experience in production, Bill Vassar has worked for EUE/Screen Gems Studios since 1998 and was brought in to manage the Wilmington facilities in the early 2000s.

WHY HE’S A CONNECTOR: Offering 10 sound stages with 150,000 square feet of space, Screen Gems’ services and facilities helped cement Wilmington’s reputation as Hollywood East. Shortly after taking over the Wilmington studios, Vassar introduced on-site lighting and equipment rental services to productions, which were previously contracting with outside companies.

Vassar’s career in the area includes well-known highlights, from the longrunning Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill to landing big-screen flicks including Ironman 3 and Halloween

CHIEF DIVERSITY & EQUITY OFFICER, NHC OFFICE OF DIVERSITY

PHOTO BY LOGAN BURKE

Kills , among others. After and amid the pandemic, Screen Gems was booked solid and contributed to the record-breaking spending in 2021 that marked the industry’s official local comeback after the major contraction in 2014. While activity was still lulled by the pandemic, Vassar led a $1 million parking lot repaving project and is currently spearheading efforts to future-proof the facility with system upgrades. Screen Gems has recently assisted local productions including The Summer I Turned Pretty and Our Kind of People .

FIRST JOB: Vassar’s lengthy career in media began as a disc jockey at 16.

Cynthia Walsh has worked with the Brunswick County Association of Realtors for 16 years, serving as CEO since 2005.

WHY SHE’S A CONNECTOR: In one of the fastest-growing areas of the state and nation where the residential real estate industry is one of the dominant sectors, Walsh leads an organization that connects its 1,200 members to tools and support.

In February last year, she earned the Certified Association Executive accreditation from the American Society of Association Executives.

Under the guidance of Walsh and with the help of five employees, the group continues to monitor and engage counties and municipalities to focus on private property rights.

VOLUNTEERISM: BCAR has coordinated members volunteering and giving to multiple organizations in the area including a Habitat for Humanity build, blood drive, beach sweep and backpacks for schools, to name a few. In October, the association hosted another Feed the Funnel event to package more than 40,000 meals for distribution to Brunswick Family Assistance.

CYNTHIA WALSH

CEO, BRUNSWICK COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS

MAGGIE BLACKHAM

FOUNDER, ELEVATE COWORKING

As the owner of the coffee shop Cheeky Monkey in downtown Wilmington, Maggie Blackham took her entrepreneurial skills to launch Elevate Coworking in 2022. Elevate is a coworking space at 2512 Independence Blvd. designed for female entrepreneurs.

WHY SHE’S A RISING STAR: With many coworking spaces popping up in the region, none of them were focused on solving an issue many mothers face, finding child care and space to get work done. This is why Blackham opened the first space in Wilmington designed for female entrepreneurs and offering child care on-site for working moms.

Through Elevate, Blackham seeks to create community and resources for new and emerging entrepreneurs as well as provide networking opportunities. The space provides dedicated co-working spaces, quieter rooms with multiple desks for communal focused time and rooms with dedicated desks.

There are two child care rooms, and it also offers community events

on topics such as website design, email marketing and more. This year, Elevate also hosted its first free communitywide event, a Women’s Health Summit with speakers and vendors. Currently, Blackham is working to create free child care for

members through local sponsorships –mostly local female entrepreneurs and small business owners.

GOALS: Blackham would like to offer some scholarships for local nonprofits who need office space as well as offer microloans for female-owned startups.

TRAVIS GILBERT

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HISTORIC WILMINGTON FOUNDATION

Travis Gilbert joined Historic Wilmington Foundation in 2021. He previously worked as an educator and collections coordinator for The Old Baldy Foundation.

WHY HE’S A RISING STAR: Gilbert leads a small staff of

seven full-time employees who have expanded the nonprofit’s footprint in recent years to include Legacy Architectural Salvage as well as advocacy on current issues such as development of the Cape Fear River’s west bank, replacement of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and removal of the city’s Confederate monuments and relocation instead for educational purposes.

Since Gilbert joined the organization, Historic Wilmington Foundation has developed initiatives to ensure equitable preservation of the city’s built history. One example is a partnership with

Giblem Lodge, the secondoldest Black Masonic lodge in North Carolina. This partnership, bolstered by support from various other organizations, recently resulted in a new roof for the Giblem Lodge. Another example is the Preservation Equity Fund, which helps families rehabilitate homes on the city’s demolitionby-neglect list to protect family access to generational wealth and mitigate the effects of gentrification in Wilmington’s historic districts.

NEXT GEN: When he started in the role, Gilbert was the organization’s youngest-ever executive director at age 27.

BRAD J OHNSON

CEO, SWEYER PROPERTY

MANAGEMENT

Brad Johnson was named CEO of Sweyer Property Management, a 35-yearold company, in July after serving as general manager for a year and a half.

WHY HE’S A RISING STAR: Johnson is in charge of more than 20 real estate professionals, and his firm manages more than 1,000 single-family and condo

PHOTO BY ALLISON JOYCE

MIKE LANGSTON

OWNER, FOUNDAATION FOOTWEAR/BOSEMAN’S SHOES

Mike Langston, in 2020 became the owner of Boseman’s Shoes, a longtime store in Wilmington.

WHY HE’S A RISING STAR: Langston turned the local mom-and-pop-style shoe store into a sneaker boutique with buyers from near and out of town.

“Having a sneaker store of my own was a dream. Working with and for the previous owner and establishing a great relationship with Nike and Jordan Brand made it somewhat easy as acquiring accounts with them is very tough,” he said.

“One of the upcoming projects we have in the works is something that we can’t announce yet is with a major brand, but it’s a very exciting time for us to be working on it,” Langston said. “Also we are working on the B Her initiative, where we want women and women of color to be exposed to the footwear industry more.”

ANNIVERSARY YEAR: Boseman’s turned 66 this year.

PHOTO BY LOGAN BURKE

rental units in the Wilmington area.

“We work with everyone from the ‘accidental landlord’ to the sophisticated multifamily investor, so we are able to serve the broad range of needs in our community from both a housing standpoint as well as a management standpoint,” Johnson said. “Our impact has been particularly strong over the last two years as Wilmington has faced a housing crunch because we are the largest single source of single-family rentals in the area.”

CURRENT PROJECTS: Johnson said some of his main priorities are exploring geographic expansion opportunities, expanding the company’s service offerings (such as its new multifamily division), seeking out additional ancillary revenue sources, researching and implementing technology solutions to modernize and streamline the firm’s business model, networking and growing Sweyer Property Management’s reach and influence in the Wilmington business community.

OWNER & CEO, TAYLORED CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

With many years of work with construction companies, Taylor King used her experience to start Taylored Construction Service, a new construction and real estate cleaning and repair service. The business offers cleaning services for builders at the end of a new build and for Realtors, it can work on items prior to a property listing such as hardware work, paint touch-ups, cabinet and drawer inspections, and more.

WHY SHE’S A RISING STAR: Having worked in the real estate and construction industry locally for the past five years, including at Alpha Mortgage Corp., Majestic Kitchen & Bath Creations and Guy C. Lee Building Materials in Sneads Ferry, King found a niche for cleaning services within the construction industry.

INDUSTRY VOICE: In addition to launching her own business this year, King was named the director of the Wilmington-Cape Fear chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC). The organization aims to provide education, community and advocacy for women in the construction industry. She was also chair of the Women in Construction Week for which she helped put on numerous events including panel discussions and fundraising for grants for women enrolled in construction courses at Cape Fear Community College.

ALEXIS RAEANA JONES

OWNER & CEO, AEXIS RAEANA LLC

Alexis Jones is an artist who has received degrees in environmental science and environmental engineering from University of North Carolina Wilmington. As a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, she is an advocate for Indigenous peoples and environmental rights. During her time at UNCW, she participated in an internship with a Native Americanowned construction management firm Metcon. She was the only woman on-site representing Metcon.

WHY SHE’S A RISING STAR: Jones founded Alexis Raeana LLC to utilize her passions and talents. The multifaceted company combines her musical talent, modeling and makeup industry work along with her advocacy for Indigenous peoples. Deciding to major in environmental science was guided by her connection to the land and obligation to protect the earth due to her Native American heritage, she said in a UNCW profile story.

HIGH NOTES: In addition, Jones has appeared on American Idol auditions, performed at the Kennedy Center, and participated in the U.S. Department of State’s American Music Abroad program.

TAYLOR KING

DOWN TO DOLLARS & CENTS

BY CECE NUNN PHOTO BY CHRISTER BERG

To say Dale Folwell hasn’t been a fan of some recent decisions by New Hanover County’s government and elected officials is a bit of an understatement.

Folwell, who was sworn in as state treasurer of North Carolina in 2017 and re-elected in 2020, tends to offer his opinions bluntly, without any sign of fretting about how they’ll come across to politicians in New Hanover or elsewhere in the state.

To that end, Folwell states plainly that, in his view, New Hanover’s efforts to redevelop a county-owned block in downtown Wilmington using a publicprivate partnership made no sense. Not when the county could borrow the money for the project itself at a low rate. This fall, Folwell made his opinion of the effort – Project Grace –clear as chair of the Local Government Commission (LGC), which oversees large financial transactions for the state’s municipalities. Ultimately, the LGC had the authority to make or break Project Grace as a P3, and in September, it swatted down the idea of an $80 million, 20-year lease between New Hanover County and Zimmer Development Co. when no one on the LGC seconded a motion to approve the agreement.

“We’re talking about a county that has some of the highest economic momentum of any county, not just

STATE TREASURER’S INFLUENCE FELT IN NEW HANOVER COUNTY

in North Carolina, but maybe on the whole Eastern Seaboard. And we’re dealing with a county that is financially in the shape where they can borrow money cheaper than anyone else,” Folwell said in an interview in October. “So, I’m asking myself, why would a county that has all this stuff going for them, that 85 counties in this state would trade places with in a snap of a finger, do something this complicated when they can borrow money at 3% interest and they’re paying somebody either 8 or 12% profit on this?”

New Hanover County officials defended their proposal, which could have resulted in a new main branch of the county public library, a new facility for the Cape Fear Museum and private development in the form of residential and commercial space.

“We appreciate the LGC’s consideration of the financials for this project and the LGC staff’s thoroughness and recommendation for approval, and we are certainly disappointed in the outcome,” New Hanover County Manager Chris Coudriet said in a Sept. 22 statement. “This public-private partnership would have ensured that the county could control the uses on the entire block so they are complementary to what our community vision is, while also bringing in tax revenue through the private investment in a well-timed and expeditious way for the community’s benefit. At this time, based on board actions to date, the county still plans to move forward with a new state-ofthe-art museum and library, it will just be in a different structure and will not have the same near-term transformation of the full block that we had hoped for.”

In a previous New Hanover County

matter, the state treasurer’s office had no authority to intervene, but Folwell made his opinions known by joining the group Save Our Hospital as he opposed the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health.

“You had one of the only independent, high-quality, high-access, profitable, affordable, major hospitals in the United States,” Folwell said, lamenting what he sees as a loss of that status.

In a deal that closed in February 2021, Winston-Salem-based Novant Health bought the NHRMC health system for nearly $2 billion. Now called Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center, the system has been the subject of patient complaints about wait times and service availability. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services informed the hospital in July that it was at risk of losing Medicare funding because of alleged issues with services and staffing unless improvements were made, according to a Greater Wilmington Business Journal story in September. By August, CMS officials had notified current hospital president Shelbourn Stevens that Novant Health NHRMC was again in compliance with the agency’s conditions of participation, the article stated.

“I firmly believe that NHRMC would be in worse shape today without our partnership with Novant Health,” Gizdic said in a media briefing Sept. 9. “The health care industry has changed dramatically the past few years.”

Whereas hospital officials describe a bright side, Folwell sees more money coming out of the pockets of the average resident. And he’s been taking all hospitals in the state to task on

places for people

PROFILE

pricing transparency and loss claims.

Folwell and the State Health Plan released a report Oct. 25 showing that the majority of North Carolina hospitals did not lose money on Medicare but profited. According to a press release from Folwell’s office, the report found disparities between the Medicare losses claimed by hospital executives and the numbers that hospitals reported to the federal government.

“The hospital cartel is overcharging you because they can, not because they need to,” Folwell said in the release.

Hospital system officials pushed back against the findings. Novant Health called the content of the treasurer’s report “an incomplete narrative that utilizes inconsistent data sources and provides an inaccurate picture of our financial results because it reflects hospital data only,” in a statement to the Winston-Salem Journal.

Folwell said he knows what it’s like to struggle to pay bills. Born in Winston-Salem, Folwell grew up in a single-parent household with three children and no child support during the 1960s and ’70s, experiencing what he describes as “the inequality of low expectations.”

“When I was in 10th grade and went to speak to a guidance counselor about taking an AP (Advanced Placement) class, they pulled my folder and they looked at my grades and they said, ‘You know, you’d probably be better suited to apply for a job bagging groceries at the A&P.’”

He said determination led him to start taking college classes anyway, and he graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

During a recent trip to Western North Carolina, some fourth graders asked him what he likes most about his job, to which Folwell replied, “advocating for the invisible, especially those who teach, protect and otherwise serve the taxpayers.”

GAINING ALTITUDE

WILMINGTON’S AIRPORT READIES FOR ITS NEXT PHASE

BY MIRIAH HAMRICK | PHOTOS BY MADELINE GRAY

THIS YEAR SAW WILMINGTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TAKE OFF, AS EVIDENCED BY A STEADY STREAM OF ANNOUNCEMENTS: THE FIRST LOW-COST CARRIER BRINGING FOUR NEW NONSTOP ROUTES, MONTH AFTER MONTH OF RECORD-LEVEL PASSENGER NUMBERS AND MORE THAN 100 ACRES OF GROUND LEASES SIGNED FOR THE AIRPORT’S BUSINESS PARK, TO NAME A FEW.

Airport officials expect to continue this trajectory in the coming years as they work to improve airport facilities, increase air service for passengers and expand development of hundreds of acres of airport property.

This is the kind of work airport director Jeff Bourk, who started at ILM in January, likes to do. In planning for the airport’s future, Bourk said is he emboldened by rising passenger numbers, a crucial component in bringing these plans to life.

“This is what excites me,” Bourk said. “We think it can happen.”

Across the country, many airports inched closer to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. A different story unfolded in Wilmington with May, August, September and October logging some of the best numbers in the airport’s history for those months. The trend shows no signs of stopping in 2023. Projected seat counts for January, February and March –typically slower months at ILM – are higher than this year’s strong summer months.

Airport officials are working to expand air service at ILM to fuel continued passenger growth, Bourk said, and in the meantime, they’re shoring up the airport’s facilities to ensure it can meet the need.

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This was the goal of a yearslong expansion project initiated nearly a decade ago that’s now nearing completion at ILM. One of the biggest components of this project was a new concourse, which opened earlier this year. With three new gates and more than 77,000 square feet of extra space in the concourse, the airport is now equipped to serve about 550,000 outbound passengers per year compared to the original facility, designed for closer to 200,000 travelers when it was built more than 30 years ago.

The remaining smaller components within that $76 million expansion project are expected to wrap up by summer of 2023. The next task for airport staff is improving the facility’s curb front and parking capacity. The curb front, like the terminal itself, was designed for far fewer travelers than the airport currently sees.

“It’s outdated. It’s not adequate,” Bourk said.

Airport officials hope the estimated $25 million cost of the project will be funded through pending federal grant

applications. If funding comes through, construction could start in July.

Increased parking at ILM will generally have to wait until after curb improvements are complete, but Bourk said a new lot compatible with curb expansion plans will bring 260 additional parking spaces next summer.

Other upcoming projects include runway maintenance, taxiway improvements and construction of additional hangars to be used for storing private aircraft.

THE ‘WHOLE SCIENCE’ OF DEVELOPING AIR SERVICE

2022 brought four new nonstop routes to ILM with the addition of Avelo Airlines: New Haven, Connecticut, and Orlando, Florida, as well as seasonal service to Baltimore and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In November, airport officials announced a second low-cost carrier, Sun Country Airlines, coming to ILM in June

with seasonal nonstop service to Minneapolis-Saint

Wilmington International Airport opened its new concourse, which is part of a multi-year, multi-stage expansion project, earlier this year.

Paul International Airport. Bourk said airport officials are working every day to bring more nonstop routes to ILM by sharing the most persuasive case possible for airlines to expand service from Wilmington.

“The main thing that we have to do as an airport is present the business case the best we can to the carrier, and they’re going to make a decision on which markets they’re going to serve,” Bourk said.

With limited numbers of crew and carriers, airlines must make strategic decisions about which routes to offer and from where. Because of this, Bourk said he sees ILM as in competition with every other commercial airport in the country.

Keeping rates low for airlines to operate at ILM is one way to stay competitive for airlines, and Bourk said the airport cut rates this year to a level slightly lower than peer airports. Another factor is the price of the average fare, with high prices indicating constrained demand for routes that could overflow to new nonstop options.

Cell phone data about area travel patterns also bolster ILM’s case by revealing untapped markets for nonstop routes to locations that people travel to via Raleigh-Durham International Airport or Myrtle Beach International Airport. According to Bourk, the data shows roughly 250,000 people a year who live closest to ILM fly out of Raleigh or Myrtle Beach instead.

These are some of the factors that

JEFF BOURK AIRPORT DIRECTOR, WILMINGTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

airport officials weave into their pitch to airlines, Bourk noted.

“It’s a whole science that goes into it, and the airlines understand it very well. As an airport, we try to understand it as best we can and try to make the business points strong for them compared to any other airport in the nation that might win service over us,” Bourk said.

Even with the strongest case, airlines might walk away due to internal factors that are incompatible with ILM’s pitch. Because of that, Bourk said airport officials must play the long game.

The top contenders for new nonstop routes out of ILM, according to the data, include Denver; Nashville, Tennessee;

and Tampa, Florida. The data also indicates significant demand for service to Los Angeles, which is trickier to pitch due to its distance from Wilmington and the associated costs of servicing it with a nonstop route.

MOMENTUM LEADS TO MOMENTUM': BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ON ILM

PROPERTY

An improved and expanded airport campus isn’t the only change coming to airport grounds. Another transformation of airport property is underway as businesses move to develop the airport’s empty land.

More than 100 acres of ground leases for airport property were secured this year, filling most of the remaining space in the airport’s 140-acre business park adjacent to the airport’s terminal off Airport Boulevard between N. 23rd Street and Blue Clay Road.

Some businesses were drawn to amenities unique to an airport, such as foreign trade zones and U.S. Customs and Border Protection access.

It was these perks, coupled with the potential for direct runway access and proximity to transportation hubs such as the Port of Wilmington and railways, that led CIL Capital to initially sign on with ILM Business Park in November 2021, according to Donna Girardot, chief strategy officer for the company.

“We all realized the ILM location just made sense,” said Girardot, who served on the airport authority board at the time the CIL deal was inked. She joined CIL Capital after stepping down from that role.

This year, CIL has expanded its plans at ILM from 500,000 square feet of cold storage for pharmaceutical products on one parcel to three parcels housing close to 1 million square feet of warehouse space. Like CIL, 84 Lumber snagged additional property adjacent to its current location in a move to double its footprint at ILM.

Bourk credited the publicity generated by each announcement as a factor that fueled the rapid progression of development.

‘

CIL Capital plans to construct a campus at ILM Business Park that includes cold storage for pharmaceutical products and administrative offices with runway access. The building above, to be called The Girardot Life Sciences Center, will be 500,000 square feet.

THE MAIN THING THAT WE HAVE TO DO AS AN AIRPORT IS PRESENT THE BUSINESS CASE THE BEST WE CAN TO THE CARRIER, AND THEY’RE GOING TO MAKE A DECISION ON WHICH MARKETS THEY’RE GOING TO SERVE.

” ”

“Momentum leads to momentum,” Bourk said.

The airport’s quick accumulation of deals, coupled with its potential to keep growing, is one of the things that helped ILM land a deal for a hotel earlier this year, according to Chip Weiss, managing member of ILM Hotel Partners.

“We hope to see the commercial park fill up,” Weiss said. “Long term, that’s part of our calculus.”

ILM Hotel Partners is planning a sixstory Crowne Plaza Hotel near the airport. Weiss expects construction to begin next year on the property, which he said will incorporate “a level of detail and interior design” that will set it apart from other local offerings.

The Crowne Plaza brand is typically associated with business travel, and while Weiss said they expect the hotel to serve business travelers, they are also taking steps to make it appealing for leisure as well. For example, the hotel will feature a large restaurant and rooftop bar as a nod to Wilmington’s culinary scene.

If all of the new ground leases proceed past the current development and feasibility stage, which Bourk compared to the due diligence period when buying a house, the airport will eventually rake in about $2 million in additional yearly revenue. As those funds start to trickle in over the next year or two, the airport can further slash the rates charged to airlines, which Bourk hopes will lead to lower fares and increased routes for passengers flying out of ILM.

“We not making money. We’re a government entity. But if we make more money from other sources, and we can translate those savings back to the airlines and have them pay less, then they can grow their service at ILM,” Bourk said. “That’s good for everybody.”

Although the business park is nearing capacity, Bourk said airport officials are already in the early stages of planning for a second business park on airport grounds.

“Even though the business park is down to 25 acres, there’s hundreds of acres of undeveloped land that the airport owns and controls,” Bourk said, “and we’re in the process of inventorying that property to identify types of uses for some of it.”

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DOGS TO THE

BY JUSTIN WILLIAMS POPE | PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER

HEN SAM STEGER OPENED MESS HALL AT THE OUTPOST IN THE SUMMER OF 2020, HE KNEW HE WAS TAKING A BIG GAMBLE. AFTER ALL, HE WAS OPENING A RESTAURANT DURING THE EARLY DAYS OF THE PANDEMIC.

But he soon found success with the burger-based menu with seating at the Cargo District’s shared space including a coffee stand and beer garden.

Fast forward two years and Steger along with his business partner, Stone Tippett, are trying something new called Ruff Draft.

“It’s a dog park bar,” Steger said.

Ruff Draft opened in September and already is attracting locals and their four-legged friends.

And while it’s not a new concept, it is a first for Wilmington. Dog-friendly bars abound in the Port City, but this one puts the canines front and center.

Steger said there were challenges to get it open.

“It’s a whole different kind of thing with permits and the process you have to go through to open something new like this,” he said. Taking that in stride, Steger and Tippett decided to let their creativity flow and set up Ruff Draft in a unique way not just for the pooches but for the people too.

The dog park is located between the two buildings at 2144 Wrightsville Ave. – the site of Steger’s relocated and expanded Mess Hall space – and a fence is

Walong the front.

Just like any other bar, there are some rules; these, however, are pet related. Pets must be spayed or neutered as well as be up-to-date on their vaccinations.

Ruff Draft’s membership is based on if customers bring their dogs. Humans are free to visit and imbibe, but a day pass for a dog is $8, with monthly and annual passes also available for pooches.

“We like to think of this as a time for you to allow your dog to play while you have the time to sip on a drink and enjoy the afternoon,” Steger said.

It wouldn’t be a dog bar without dog treats, according to Steger. The bar is going all out with a “dog of the month” program. The “dog of the month” gets its picture and bio hung on Ruff Draft’s wall.

Steger said he has always loved dogs.

“Anytime I get stressed out, if there’s a dog within 15 feet of me, I pet it and I feel so much better,” he said with laughter.

Ruff Draft isn’t alone. Petthemed locales are popping up all over. Charleston’s Pounce Cat Café allows visitors to sip wine or coffee while petting cats living in the shop. Charlotte has a similar dog park/ bar scenario with Lucky Dog Bark & Brew.

Locally, Bill’s Brewing Company has branded and brewed beers based around Billie, the family’s English Bulldog. Bill’s has several beers based around dog themes for human consumption and Calvin’s Craft Dog Beer, a nonalcoholic blend of beef broth, vegetables and herbs, for the pups.

And what’s for humans who drop by Ruff Draft? Eight beers are on tap that are all local Wilmington beers. Steger said the beers are all in cans, no glass to protect dogs’ paws. In addition, there is a full cocktail bar as well as white and red

wines. The plans are for only North Carolina beers to be served at Ruff Draft.

While Steger has been pouring his energy into Ruff Draft, he has not forgotten about Mess Hall. Slated to reopen on Wrightsville Avenue by the end of the year, Steger said Mess Hall will return with its popular Sam Burger as well as the McWhat? The restaurant will also add something new when it returns – a breakfast menu – and will be opening earlier in the day. Plans for the reopened Mess Hall are currently underway.

In this new venture, Steger brought along Tippett as a partner. Steger says Tippett was the first person he hired at Mess Hall, and the two collaborating on Ruff Draft allowed them to really make the new establishment the best it could be.

“Expansion is always exciting, and we want to get everything going here. It’s fun to have something new for customers but fun for us as well,” Tippett said.

Both are locals to Wilmington. Steger studied at Cape Fear Community College’s culinary arts program. He said restaurant work was a natural choice even with everything else that comes with the job.

“When I first started in this business, I thought people were highly competitive, but I feel like we have received so much support not just from customers but from other business owners in the neighborhood as well,” Steger said. “It makes me very grateful. We are excited about what lies ahead with both locations.”

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‘YOU'RE SO COOL’ ‘YOU'RE SO COOL’

Ten years ago, Daniel Storm was on the hunt for a very specific item: a 1974 Cadillac Eldorado, bright purple and driven through the California desert by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. Storm looked everywhere for the car, a main element of the Quentin Tarantino-penned 1993 flick True Romance . “ True Romance is my favorite movie, so I decided to see if was still in existence out there somewhere. The movie was partially shot in Los Angeles, and I was living there at the time, so I figured if it wasn’t in a junkyard, it was around L.A. somewhere. I found it about 20 miles outside of Los Angeles in the city of Granada Hills,” said Storm, who now lives in Wilmington. Through his website (trueromancecadillac.com) , Storm rents out the car, with him as the driver, for weddings, photoshoots, anniversaries, birthdays or other occasions that call for some swagger and leopard-print interiors.

PHOTO BY DARIA AMATO

STEVE ANDERSON Developer, SAMM Properties 910.616.0483 steve@sammproperties.com

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