Lane Weatherly Selected as the NEER 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year Award Recipient
During the 2006 NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Banquet on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 at the Rose Hill Conference Center in Nashville, B. Mayo Boddie, Chairman of the organizations Board of Advisors, announced K. Lane Weatherly, CEO of Eagle Press in Rocky Mount as this year's winner.
NEER Chairman Mayo Boddie presents the NEER Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 Award to Lane Weatherly of Eagle Press, Inc.
"Choosing one of the five finalists to be our winner this year was extremely difficult. Everyone of these entrepreneur finalists has already proven themselves as winners based on the success of their companies," commented Boddie.
The four other finalist entrepreneurs included 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.
After graduating from college, Weatherly moved to Rocky Mount in 1986 to join his uncle's 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.
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 organization offers in-patient and out-patient healthcare services. Its specialties include Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Hematology, Oncology, Pulmonary/ Critical Care and Pediatrics. The Eastern North Carolina Medical Group has grown today to a staff of 81employees working in offices in Louisburg, Mill Branch, Nashville, Rocky Mount and Zebulon.
Stephen Ribustello and Inez Holderness met when they both worked at the Windows on the World Restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center in New York City. After 9/11 the couple chose to marry and to make restaurants and wine their professions.
In 2002 they purchased and renovated a restaurant on St. James Street in Tarboro. When On The Square Restaurant opened, it was unique in Eastern North Carolina. The Ribustellos offer a menu that changes weekly, a wine and beer program that is 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 classical wines.
While Woody Riddick was working as an accountant, he knew he decided to form a company to build a better flat bottom skiff. Riddick convinced Ronnie Eason to join him in 2004 and together they designed a skiff boat using a custom designed fiberglass hull and outfitted with the features that attracted broad appeal. The company's improved 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. Craig Myers, the head of Watson Electric and 20 Watson Electric managers and eight other investors developed a plan 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.
"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 Lane Weatherly, Dr. Dan Crocker, Stephen & Inez Ribustello, Woody Riddick and Craig Myers all exemplify the finest attributes of an entrepreneur. I want to congratulate each of them again for turning their dreams and visisions for successful companies into realities."
