Regional Business Reports

Charlotte
Construction Begins on Campus for IT Institute
Two years after its founding, the Charlotte Institute for Technology Innovation, a university technology research park, has garnered widespread corporate support and will begin to take on a physical shape early this year. A science and technology building to house UNC Charlotte’s acclaimed College of Information Technology is under construction, and two new buildings, one for applied optics and physics and another for engineering research, will get under way late in winter. Physically, the institute is 100 acres next to the UNCC campus dedicated to private and public collaboration in research. Its mission is to accelerate the school’s drive to become a leading research university.

“I like to say that talent begets talent,” says Deborah Clayton, founding executive director of the institute. “The Charlotte Institute helps us attract talented faculty, which attracts talented students, which attracts funding, creates entrepreneurship and positively impacts Charlotte and beyond. They are all linked together.”

UNCC is becoming widely known for its expertise in technical research. Over the past few years, research at the school has yielded 35 patents and resulted in the spin-off of 13 new companies doing work in such fields as optics, microelectronics, and bioinformatics. The goal of the institute is to foster more such development to drive what Chancellor James Woodward calls the “knowledge economy” and expand the economic mix beyond agriculture, banking, manufacturing and distribution. The institute will focus on areas that are already UNCC’s strengths: precision metrology and intelligent manufacturing, eBusiness technology, and optoelectronics and optical communication.

UNCC’s Center for Precision Metrology is already a National Science Foundation Center with national acclaim. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense National Security Agency designated the university’s College of Information Technology as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education — one of only 23 in the country charged with seeking solutions to issues of information security in digital formats.  

Corporations are embracing the concept of public/private collaboration to build the area’s intellectual capital to create new companies and new technologies for companies. The Duke Energy Foundation has given $10 million to enable the institute to focus on research on a few technologies that are likely to be on the leading edge of the knowledge economy.

The drive toward making UNCC a top research university is well on its way, says Clayton. The university recently approved masters and Ph.D. programs in optics and immediately had nine applicants. “The goal is to build UNC Charlotte’s research program to be a top-tier research program in 10 years. I think we can do it much quicker than that,” says Clayton. “I can’t see it not happening because of the commitment here.” -- Laura Williams-Tracy


Salisbury
Food Lion Sees Future Managers at Historically-Black Colleges
Supermarket chain Food Lion, a longtime supporter of scholarships and athletics at historically African-American colleges, is extending its involvement with the schools to a management-training program aimed at new graduates. This spring, schools in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), which in North Carolina include Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, Johnson C. Smith, Livingstone, North Carolina Central, St. Augustine’s, Shaw and Winston-Salem State, will receive applications for Food Lion’s Retail Management Trainee Program. Students who submit an application may be chosen for an interview and possibly selected in May to begin Food Lion’s management training program after graduation.

Graduates who take positions with Food Lion and complete the yearlong training program are likely to be placed in store positions as assistant store managers, department managers and even store managers, says Jeff Lowrance, Food Lion spokesman. Management trainees also have the opportunity to move into other areas of the company, including distribution, category management, finance, marketing and human resources.

The program allows Food Lion to increase the number of African-American college graduates trained for store management positions and allows the company to offer comprehensive training to trainees for them to become successful business managers. “We now have some 1,230 stores and operate in a lot of different types of neighborhoods and communities,” says Lowrance. “We want to make sure our store managers and upper-level managers reflect that diversity.”

The first 12 program participants selected in 2003 will come from CIAA schools. In subsequent years, the program will open to graduates of other historically black colleges located in Food Lion’s 11-state operating area. Since 1993, Food Lion has been a sponsor of the CIAA and supported its member institutions. In 2001, Food Lion renewed its support of the CIAA with a three-year sponsorship agreement. -- Laura Williams Tracy


Greensboro
Hospital's Grant Just the Tonic for Freedom Square
Moses Cone Health System will contribute $200,000 in the next four years to help build a park in downtown Greensboro, part of a master plan drawn up by Action Greensboro, a nonprofit agency designed to bring more and better paying jobs to the area. The hospital’s donation will go to Action Greensboro to use in developing Freedom Square. Officials say work for the park, which is planned at North Elm Street and East Friendly Avenue, is scheduled to start this summer and be completed early in 2004. The project has a price tag of up to $12 million, which includes land.

“Action Greensboro’s core committee of business, civic and foundation leaders, and volunteers and staff are exceedingly grateful for this contribution,” says Susan Schwartz, executive director of Action Greensboro. “Moses Cone Health System is a fine corporate citizen, and we thank them for this gift, which will help enhance our community.”

Dennis Barry, president and CEO of Moses Cone, says: “We believe the park will provide a place that everyone can enjoy. We are pleased to add this support to that which we have already given to initiatives to improve our public schools.” The nonprofit health system has given $50,000 to “Commitment to Excellence,” a program established to benefit public schools.

A Center City Park Committee has been appointed to oversee design and implementation of the park. Andrew May, vice president of marketing and product development, serves as chairman for the committee. Action Greensboro officials say a bustling downtown is a key ingredient in luring more and better jobs and workers to the area. The group’s vision also includes another kind of park — a baseball park — for downtown. However, many have protested, saying aging War Memorial Stadium, located on the edge of downtown and one of the oldest minor league stadiums in the country, should be preserved and renovated. — Jim Buice


Durham
Major Grant to NCCU Builds Its Biotechnology Reputation
North Carolina Central University has received $7.5 million — the largest federal grant in its history — to be used toward research into minority health problems. The five-year grant from the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities will support research in cardiovascular disease, cancer and drug abuse and addiction at NCCU’s three-year-old Julius L. Chambers Biomedical-Biotechnology Research Institute. It also will enable the university to add 14 employees, including four doctorate-level scientists, to the institute’s 32-member staff. The grant should solidify the institute as a strong player in the state’s biotechnology future, university leaders say, and help expand its partnerships with the medical centers at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University.

“This is a big confidence-booster for the whole staff here,” says Chancellor James Ammons Jr. “There was fierce competition for this grant — only six were granted in the country. For us to get this is proof that we’re on the right track, that we can contribute to the solution of these health disparities in this country. This is big.”

The institute’s director, Ken Harewood, says the additional scientists and support staff would fill the building. “We are ahead of our timeline in terms of establishing programs, writing grants and getting grants,” he says, noting that it recently received a $1.5 million grant from NASA to train high school, undergraduate and graduate students. Harewood aims to wean the institute, which works to uncover genetic markers for diseases that disproportionately affect the minority community, such as hypertension, breast cancer and prostate cancer, from its $350,000 yearly state appropriation. “We are going to move this institute to a state of self-sufficiency in the next five years,” he says. Barry Teater, spokesperson for the N.C. Biotechnology Center, says NCCU’s program is likely to form more industrial and institutional partnerships as it builds expertise in the niche area of minority health. “North Carolina Central has been coming on strong for several years,” he says. “It’s a well-kept secret.” -- Kevin Brafford


Wilmington
K-Line to Begin Calling, Opening Links to Asian Ports
The world’s seventh-largest container shipping company has committed to beginning service to the state port in Wilmington, Gov. Mike Easley says. Kawaskai Kisen Kaisha Ltd., known as the K-Line in the shipping industry, will deploy ships to Wilmington in a joint operating agreement with COSCO of China, Yang Ming of Taiwan and Hanjin of South Korea. Yang Ming vessels also will service the New Hanover County city.

Easley recently traveled to Japan to address a business-academia-government summit and was able to confirm the plans with K-Line at that time. “This is another indication that we are moving in the right direction by making capital improvements in our ports and deepening the Cape Fear River channel into Wilmington,” Easley says. “The enhancements to our infrastructure will bring new companies to our state. North Carolina’s commitment to pursuing distribution centers will mean more trade in the long term and more jobs for North Carolinians.”

The arrangement benefits North Carolina business with a direct call to a Chinese port and a stronger presence in the Far East, says Karen Fox, director of public affairs at the state port. “We’re very excited about this,” she says. “We’re expecting the first ship in mid-March.”

More than 160 Japanese firms have invested in North Carolina in the past 40 years.  — Kevin Brafford


Boiling Springs
Business World Becomes College's Best Classroom
Business leaders often lament that students arriving from school to work frequently lack skills in leadership, self-discipline and good communication. Gardner-Webb University wants to make sure its top business school graduates don’t face that criticism and has launched a program called Graduates in Executive Management, or GEM, for students who want to enter the business environment with a higher level of practical management training and expertise than students with classroom experience alone.

Dr. Charles Tichenor II, distinguished executive in residence and professor of business at Gardner-Webb, established the program, drawing on his years working as the president and chairman of the board of Champale Sparkling Beverages. He saw a need for students to mature while they are in business school and to gain skills in public speaking and persuasion to be able to deal with shareholders, the media and the many other constituencies. “You can come late to class but you’d better not come to a corporate meeting late, so get used to it now,” says Tichenor, a professor at Gardner-Webb for six years. 

To qualify for the program, students must achieve and maintain a 3.0 grade point average. But once they enter the program, the rigors are much greater. GEM students must complete at least one-third of their required business courses under the instruction of a corporate CEO, COO or Superior Court judge who is teaching on the GWU campus. Students in the program face a more difficult grading scale, attend a retreat with corporate executives, and travel abroad on an international study experience where they visit foreign businesses. Last year students traveled to Switzerland. This year’s retreat, the first of the program, will be held at Lake Lure, with executives representing banking and investments, publishing and manufacturing. 

Seventeen students participated in the program during 2001, its first year, and some of them will be graduating this fall. Many have already enrolled in Gardner-Webb’s MBA program. Another 25 students are enrolled in GEM this year. Tichenor says the judges and corporate executives teaching the courses have attained the highest levels of credibility and therefore command respect and attention from students. And, he says, the retired executives, like him, gain something from the experience of helping shape the next generation of business leaders. “There are a lot of CEOs who are not happy in retirement,” says Tichenor, 74. “They want to teach.” -- Laura Williams-Tracy


Greensboro
Burlington Industries Weaves Successful New Business Model
Burlington Industries executives say that a restructuring program outlined last January has spurred an improved bottom line and that the textiles company expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the middle of the year. “Our focus in the past year was to restructure our operations and to establish a new business model that will expand our product and technology capabilities globally and open new avenues for growth,” says George W. Henderson III, the Greensboro-based company’s chairman and CEO. “We have accomplished this by divesting or closing geographically disadvantaged assets, focusing our remaining assets on more profitable market niches, and developing an international network or partner mills that will enable us to compete globally,” he adds.

In the past year, the company:

Reduced its apparel fabrics capacity by more than 50 percent;

Significantly reduced its interior furnishings fabric capacity and sold off its consumer products and upholstery fabrics divisions; and,

Recorded an income tax benefit of $146.5 million and received tax refunds of $35.8 million in cash. Additional tax refunds totaling $67.6 million are expected in the first half of fiscal 2003.

“Our strategic initiatives and the effective management of our assets and working capital have contributed to the generation of a significant amount of cash,” says CFO Charles E. Peters Jr.  -- Kevin Brafford


Durham
GSK Seals Deal for Space in Former Tobacco Complex
GlaxoSmithKline is the latest big-name company to come on board as a partner in the development of the American Tobacco Historic District, the revitalization project of downtown Durham’s most prominent industrial complex. Jim Goodmon, president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting, the Raleigh-based company that is spearheading the project, announced GlaxoSmithKline as the project’s latest major tenant at a news conference early this winter. The RTP pharmaceutical company will lease space in the 1.4-million-square-foot property, which sits beside the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, home of the city’s popular Triple-A baseball team.

“GlaxoSmithKline’s decision to be a part of this historic campus is a sign of our belief in this project and our commitment to this community as an attractive place to live and do business,” says Bob Ingram, the company’s outgoing president and COO.

GSK will take over space in the Fowler and Crowe buildings, located at the south end of the property. Approximately 400 staff members will be moving to the site, company officials say, with specific departments to be determined at a later date. “This is really the last piece of the puzzle for getting this project completed,” says Mike Hill, vice president and general counsel of Capitol Broadcasting.

Other companies committed to the project are Duke University, Compuware and McKinney & Silver.  -- Kevin Brafford


Greensboro
New CEO Named to Lead RF Micro Devices' Growth
When David Norbury joined RF Micro Devices as president and CEO in 1992, the Greensboro-based wireless component maker had fewer than 15 employees and minimal revenues. Ten years later, under Norbury’s leadership, the company has more than 1,500 employees worldwide and revenues of about $500 million. Norbury, 51, announced in November that he was retiring, effective this month. Bob Bruggeworth, who joined RF Micro in 1999 and eventually replaced Norbury as president last June, will succeed him as the company’s new CEO.

“I am delighted that Bob Bruggeworth will be the company’s next CEO,” Norbury says. “Bob is a very talented leader with terrific knowledge of RF Micro Devices’ businesses. When transition planning began early this year, I identified Bob as my first choice as successor.”

Bruggeworth held several executive positions at AMP Inc. from 1983 to 1999 before coming to RF Micro. He served as vice president of the wireless products group from September 1999 to January 2002 and then as president of the group.

“It’s been an honor to have worked with Dave,” Bruggeworth says. “Under Dave’s leadership, the company has executed on a growth strategy allowing it to become a world leader in supplying wireless communications solutions.”

Highlights of Norbury’s tenure include RF Micro’s pioneering role in the commercialization of GaAs HBT technology, a climb to the forefront in power amplifier market share, an ongoing international expansion in the handset market and the company’s initial public offering. Norbury will continue with the company as a member of RF Micro’s board of directors. With his appointment to CEO, Bruggeworth will join the company’s board of directors, bringing the number of board members to eight, five of whom are independent directors.   — Jim Buice


Charlotte
City's Newest Skyscraper Opens, Likely the Last for Several Years
The long-awaited grand opening of Charlotte’s newest skyscraper came this winter amid much fanfare and perhaps a few heavy hearts. The debut of the $160 million, 46-story Hearst Tower, with its distinctive ice cream-cone shape, lobby art gallery and decorative outdoor plaza, just may be uptown’s last skyscraper until near the end of the decade. Three factors — oversupply, corporate downsizing and an uncertain economy — are combining to scale back high-rise development in a city where people are accustomed to seeing tall buildings arise.

Developers have completed six buildings exceeding 20 stories since 1990. The Hearst Tower is the Queen City’s second tallest behind the 60-story Bank of America Corporate Center. Bank of America also owns the Hearst Tower. The new building, replete with a soaring dome and triangular windows, spans the majority of a block formerly occupied by CityFair at 214 North Tryon.

The Heart Tower has two fronts — on Tryon and College streets — with restaurant and retail establishments lining both sides and along a 160-by-65 foot outdoor plaza. The lobby of the Tryon Street entrance has granite floors, veined-marble walls and the eye-catching Bank of America Gallery. Visitors have access to the shops, restaurants and an enclosed walkway over Fifth Street into Founders Hall and the Overstreet Mall system.

As of last month, the building’s 960,000 square feet of office space is 99 percent leased, although not all of the tenants have been announced. Bank of America occupies slightly more than one-third of the space, and the last of its employees will arrive by the third quarter of this year, increasing the tower’s population to about 3,700. — Kevin Brafford

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