PUBLIC problems
PHILIP BROWN Novant Health
RUSTY CARTER Atlantic Packaging
HUNTLEY GARRIOTT Live Oak Bank
CHIP MAHAN Live Oak Bank
JOHN MONTEITH Monteith Construction
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CORPORATE
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GEORGE TAYLOR TRU Colors
LANDON ZIMMER Zimmer Development Co.
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N INFORMAL GROUP NAMED THE “BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE,” CREATED BY SOME OF WILMINGTON’S MOST INFLUENTIAL BUSINESS LEADERS, AIMS TO SHED LIGHT ON SOME OF THE AREA’S MOST IMPACTFUL SOCIAL ISSUES. In January, the group authored an editorial on affordable housing. “The state of housing in New Hanover County has reached crisis levels, and as business leaders and major employers in this community we believe that immediate catalytic funding is a critical component to solving this crisis,” the editorial stated. The piece was signed by leaders with Monteith Construction, Live Oak Bank, Novant Health, Zimmer Development Co., Atlantic Packaging and TRU Colors.
BY CECE NUNN
Some of those same leaders had already begun discussions about change through Initiative 1897, an effort focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. The initiative’s name refers to the year before Wilmington’s thriving Black community was struck down by a white supremacist coup d’etat. The corporate partners in Initiative 1897 last year commissioned nine large-scale portraits of prominent Black men and women living in Wilmington during the post-Reconstruction era for display to the public. “The art was meant to be kind of the welcome to the conversation – let’s have the conversation, let’s celebrate these people. And then phase two, let’s get to work on doing the work to change some things,” said John Monteith, founder of Monteith Construction. “So this (the Business Roundtable) is kind of the outcropping of that
