NEER Announces Finalists For 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year Award
B. Mayo Boddie, Sr., Chairman of the NorthEastern Entrepreneur Roundtable (NEER), has announced the names of the five finalists for the 2006 NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Award including Watson Electrical Construction Company from Wilson.
NEER 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year Finalists are shown here with Mayo Boddie, Chairman of the Board of Advisors for the NorthEastern Entrepreneur Roundtable, who is second from the right. The finalists left to right on the front row are Craig Myers, Watson Electrical Construction Company, Wilson; Stephen and Inez Ribustellow, On The Square Restaurant & Wine, Tarboro; Woody Riddick, Riddick BayRunner Boats, Rocky Mount. The finalists left to right on the back row are Lane Weatherly, Eagle Press, Rocky Mount and Dr. Dan Crocker, Eastern North Carolina Medical Group.
"We received 16 highly qualified nominations for this year's Entrepreneur of the Year Award competition. Our NEER Advisory Board had a difficult time narrowing the field of candidates for this honor, but we believe we have chosen five outstanding candidates," commented Boddie.
The finalist entrepreneurs and their companies are K. Lane Weatherly, Eagle Press, Rocky Mount; Dr. Dan Crocker, Eastern North Carolina Medical Group, Rocky Mount; Stephen and Inez Ribustello, On The Square Restaurant & Wine, Tarboro; Woody Riddick, Riddick BayRunner Boats, Rocky Mount and Craig Myers, Watson Electrical Construction Company, Wilson.
The winner will be announced at the Twelfth Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Banquet sponsored by NEER on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 at 6:00PM at the Rose Hill Conference Center in Nashville. W. Randolph Chitwood, Professor of Surgery and Chief of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery and Director of Eastern Carolina Cardiovascular Institute at East Carolina University, will be the keynote speaker.
After graduating from college, Lane Weatherly moved to Rocky Mount in 1986 to join his uncle's company. George Weatherly was the owner of the local area Quick Print. Several years later, after discovering that printers thought that business cards were labor intensive and unprofitable, Weatherly began a printing company focused solely on printing business cards for banks and other multi-unit corporations.
Since its founding in 1989 with one financed printing press in the back room of Quick Print, Weatherly has seen his sales grow steadily. The company has already had to move two times to keep up with production demands and will soon move again to a much larger facility. Eagele Press also survived 22" of Floyd's floodwaters on the floor of the plant.
Today Eagle Press targets the Fortune 1000 companies and offers them two to three day printing and next day delivery of their orders. Currently Eagle Press has 150 customers and processes 17,000 - 20,000 orders per month.
Dan Crocker grew up in Selma and is a graduate of Davidson College and the UNC School of Medicine. In 1975 Dan Crocker moved his family to Rocky Mount and practiced hematology and oncology at Boice-Willis until 2000 when he launched the Eastern North Carolina Medical Group in Rocky Mount
The Eastern NC Medical Group offers in-patient and out-patient healthcare services. Its specialties include Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Hematology, Oncology, Pulmonary/ Critical Care and Pediatrics. From its original staff, the Eastern North Carolina Medical Group has grown to 81 employees working in offices located in Louisburg, Mill Branch, Nashville and Zebulon.
The Eastern NC Medical Group has been innovative in the way it offers patient care. In addition to the doctors, both physician assistants and nurses are used to provide office and hospital care. By having a team of highly skilled and dedicated physician's assistants and nurses, the doctors have more time to provide individualized care for their patients.
As fate would have it, on the morning of September 11, 2001 Stephen Ribustello and Inez Holderness were not at the Windows on the World Restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center where they both worked. Shortly after 9/11 the couple chose to marry and to make restaurants and wine their profession.
To gain more experience, the couple lived in France for three months. In 2002 they purchased and renovated a restaurant on St. James Street in Tarboro. When On The Square Restaurant featuring "Good Food - Fine Wine" opened, it was unique in Eastern North Carolina. The Ribustellos offered a menu that changed weekly, a wine and beer program that was coupled with comfortable yet elegant ambience and a staff trained to offer friendly and fast service.
Recently the Ribustellos opened the 4th Street Wine Store in Greenville that features eclectic but classical wines specially selected by Inez Ribustello, who also serves as a wine consultant for the chic Borgata Casino in Atlantic City as well as for The Crazy Vine Restaurant in Raleigh and W.S. Prime in Winston-Salem.
While Woody Riddick was working as an accountant preparing tax returns, he knew he wanted to build a better boat, a flat bottom skiff. Riddick convinced Ronnie Eason to join him in 2004 to build boats. Their first step was to design a skiff boat unlike any other on the market. It was constructed using a custom designed fiberglass hull and outfitted with the features that attracted broad appeal.
Premium fiberglass materials are used to construct the Riddick BayRunners at the company's plant on Brake Road on the Edgecombe side of Rocky Mount. Molds are the key to successful fiberglass construction. Riddick BayRunner has its molds in constant operation. Since production was initially limited to the manufacture of two boats per week and demand for the BayRunner has been so high, the company has been limited to one dealer in Morehead City to sell its boats.
Because of new production techniques including having the boat builders work two shifts, Riddick is now able to produce up to five boats per week and has recruited another boat dealer in Wilmington. The improvement of the manufacturing process will allow Riddick BayRunner to build approximately 150 boats in 2006.
Watson Electrical Construction Company was a highly successful corporation operating 11 offices in the Carolinas and Virginia when its parent company went into bankruptcy in November 2002. With the bankruptcy, one of Wilson's largest and most successful companies was suddenly struggling financially.
Craig Myers, the head of Watson Electric and the other Watson managers developed a plan to protect the livelihoods of the company's workers. Myers led an effort with 20 Watson Electric managers and eight other investors to to buy back the firm.
Today Watson Electrical Construction Company is the largest electrical contracting business in the State of North Carolina with a staff of 750. It provides services for commercial, residential, institutional and industrial customers. Because of its capabilities, the company was recognized by the Associated Builders & Contractors of the Carolinas as its 2005 Subcontractor of the Year.
"NEER's goal is to foster a strong spirit of entrepreneurship in our region of North Carolina," noted Boddie. "I think everyone will agree that our five finalists for 2006 exemplify the finest attributes of an entrepreneur. I encourage everyone interested in their own business success to attend NEER's annual banquet this year to find out the stories behind these truly innovative and successful entrepreneurs."
Those interested in attending NEER's Twelfth Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Banquet on Wednesday, April 5 at the Rose Hill Conference Center can contact Sherry Johnson at the Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce at 252-973-1212.
