Elected officials traditionally make the job announcements after the economic developers across the Tar Heel State have done the heavy lifting. They collaborate with consultants, companies, property owners and local governments to deliver investments and jobs to communities. In addition to the number of potential jobs, they consider how much workers can earn as they strive to improve the quality of life for North Carolina residents with increasingly better opportunities.
These seven men and women worked behind the scenes to bring about some of the state’s biggest job announcements in the past year.
DEAL OF THE YEAR
SMALL MARKET
NATRON ENERGY – OPPIE JORDAN
In 28 years as Edgecombe County’s economic developer, Oppie Jordan had seen her share of near-misses for the eastern North Carolina county of about 49,000 residents. “I used to tell everybody, I’m tired of being the bridesmaid, I want to be the bride.”
So when the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina approached Edgecombe officials in October 2023 about “Project Neptune” for its Kingsboro megasite, Jordan and other leaders were primed.
“We were very prepared because we’d only been working on this Kingsboro site for about 15 years,” she says. That included advocating for infrastructure investment across the 2,100-acre site, which attracted a Chinese tire manufacturing plant that never materialized.
In August, Santa Clara, California-based Natron Energy announced it would invest $1.4 billion to build the first sodium-ion gigafactory in the United States about nine miles east of downtown Rocky Mount. Its batteries can reduce dependence on rival lithium-ion products, which typically rely on foreign sourcing, officials say.
Natron projects it will employ 1,062 people at the site, with an average wage of $64,071, a 48% increase over Edgecombe’s average of $43,183. “This will have a big draw to bring people to eastern North Carolina, but also for the young people that are graduating from high school or community college, they’ll now have a place that they feel like they can come back to and have a job with great pay that will offer them a better quality of life,” she says.
Jordan retired in September as vice president of the Carolinas Gateway Partnership. She has bought a home in the coastal town of Beaufort, the county seat of Carteret County, and now does consulting work for Rocky Mount-based Appian Consulting Engineers.
She grew up in Fayetteville, and lived in Raleigh while working in Edgecombe, making the approximately 60-mile, one-way commute daily. People in eastern North Carolina believe in themselves and have always been ready to pick themselves up, even from natural disasters like Hurricanes Fran and Floyd, she says.
“I loved working with a company and telling them all about eastern North Carolina and helping make a difference in the rural part of North Carolina, which I love dearly.”
DEAL OF THE YEAR
MIDSIZE MARKET
JOHNSON & JOHNSON – JENNIFER LANTZ
Jennifer Lantz can keep a secret. A consultant she’s known for 30 years told her a company was considering a $2 billion investment in Wilson, promising 420 jobs that would pay more than twice the county’s current average wage.
“We didn’t know it was Johnson & Johnson until almost the end, but we worked on it for almost three years to bring it to fruition,” says Lantz, the executive director of Wilson Economic Development Council since 1989. “People who work in economic development are so used to not saying anything. We’re probably the most reticent people around.”
In October, Johnson & Johnson announced its subsidiary, Janssen Biotech, would build a pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in Wilson. The average annual wage is $108,823, more than double Wilson’s average private-sector wage of $52,619.
It’s the biggest win of Lantz’s 36-plus-year career in the county, capping off Wilson’s best year in industrial recruitment. In September, Reckitt announced it would invest $146 million and create 289 jobs to make the cold medicine Mucinex in Wilson. In July, IDEXX Laboratories said it would invest $147 million and create 275 jobs to produce veterinary diagnostics products.
Average annual wages at those companies are $80,182 and $65,873, respectively. The average wage for North Carolina is $67,474. “It’s not enough to go get jobs, you have to get jobs that raise people up. Jobs that pay a living wage,” says Lantz.
Wilson’s success is a team effort, she says.It took elected officials, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, NC BioTech, Wilson Community College and others to land Johnson & Johnson. The company will receive $15.2 million from the state, and $54.2 million in local incentives paid over the next 12 years if it hits investment and job creation targets.
Lantz grew up in Richmond, Virginia, where her father located industrial plants around the world for several large companies. Dinner table conversations often included those doing business with her father. “He didn’t have a son, so he took me along,” she says.
She considers herself fortunate. “Some people have a job. I get to go out and do something I love every single day. It’s a breeze.”
DEAL OF THE YEAR
LARGE MARKET
FEDUP FOODS – JOSH HALLINGSE
FedUp Foods decision to expand in Wilmington last year is an example of the entrepreneurial spirit existing in North Carolina, says Hallingse, who helped guide the Asheville-based manufacturer of kombucha, cold brew coffee and other products from the mountains to the coast.
“I’m amazed every day that you can do business with about anything here,” says Hallingse, who came to Wilmington in 2021 after previous economic development positions in Henderson and Transylvania counties. “I really like working with small business owners because you get to work with smart, talented people who are really passionate about something.”
Sarah Mullins and Jeannine Buscher founded FedUp Foods in 2008. They began home-brewing kombucha, a fermented tea, at home in five-gallon jars. They are now the largest U.S. private label manufacturer of fermented beverages. Costco is among the retailers selling their products under private labels.
FedUp outgrew its manufacturing facility in the Madison County town of Marshall, and opened a second site near Johnson City, Tennessee, in 2023. They announced a $34 million investment in Wilmington in May 2024 with a plan to hire 104 workers.
Their New Hanover County site is at a former brewery located in a distressed neighborhood known for its public housing and social services entities like the Good Shepherd homeless shelter and Nourish regional food bank. Wilmington has a mix of large employers such as Corning, GE Aerospace and nCino, and smaller companies like FedUp, says Hallingse.
FedUp held an opening at its Wilmington site in April and already has more than 70 employees there.
“Wilmington is one of the best places to start a business or scale a business,” he says. “The city has figured out a way to be innovative and entrepreneurial.”
The attraction of coastal living brings smart and talented people to Wilmington, while it helps to have all four modes of transportation nearby. The Port of Wilmington was key to landing FedUp, says Hallingse, as was the recent opening of a cold-storage facility by RL Cold.
“It’s great to work with people who have awesome ideas who are willing to bet on themselves,” says Hallingse.
EMERGING LEADER OF THE YEAR
TREY CASH
Trey Cash remembers sitting down with his Greene Central High yearbook (Class of ‘08) when he took the job as director of economic development in his home county. He wanted to see which classmates were still around after 15 years. After one page, he found it easier to see who had left. There were doctors, lawyers and nurses, most of them living elsewhere.
That memory is now part of his motivation.
“I have a 4-year-old little girl, raised right here in Snow Hill in Greene County, and I want her when she grows up to say, ‘There’s opportunity for me here,’” says Cash. “We’re trying to shift this perspective that kids, when they graduate, say, ‘There’s no job opportunity for me here.’”
Cash grew up on a 100-acre farm, but jokes he prefers air conditioning. At 16, he joined the local fire department and went to Wilson Community College with dreams of becoming a firefighter. He started working for Greene County in 2012 as a fire inspector and after about six years, joined the N.C. Department of Public Safety. In 2018, he became Greene County’s elections director, moving to economic development in 2022. He filled in as interim economic development director for neighboring Lenoir County, and added that to his job duties in 2023.
He does the job, he says, because he loves Greene and Lenoir counties and all of eastern North Carolina. He was Snow Hill’s firefighter of the year in 2024, and an elder at Snow Hill Presbyterian Church. Since 2023, he and Stanly County Economic Development Director Elizabeth Underwood Kazimer have done a podcast geared toward young people in industrial recruitment.
Successes include having both Greene and Lenoir counties form public-private economic development groups, securing a five-year land option on 630 acres of land in Greene County and securing a $2.3 million, zero-interest rural economic development loan for Lenoir County to construct a shell building.
He describes his job as being a “chief relationship officer” and “driving around making buddies.”
He also keeps two numbers on his walls — $39,698 and $48,863, representing the average
private sector annual wage for the two counties, respectively. The state average is $67,474.
“Every year, I put those numbers on my wall and every year my goal is to raise that number because if we raise that number we’re putting more money in people’s pockets right here in our rural area so people can spend it in a small business, they can spend it on educating their children or buy a new car or buy a bigger house.”
ECONOMIC DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR
CRYSTAL GETTYS
Since starting work as a business recruitment director for Randolph County Economic Development almost six years ago, Crystal Gettys has helped the rural county secure about $530 million in investments expected to create more than 1,300 jobs.
The numbers tell only part of the story, says Kevin Franklin, president of the county’s economic development group.
“Crystal’s approach to economic development has always gone beyond numbers,” says Franklin. “She’s prioritized improving the quality of life through job creation, business diversification, and community inclusion.”
Gettys’ peers in the N.C. Economic Development Association chose her as the economic developer of the year.
“It’s an honor to be recognized,” says Gettys. “I just did what I thought I was supposed to be doing. I just did my job.”
Gettys says she enjoys the behind-the-scenes work it takes to build relationships between consultants, companies, property owners and local governments before a big job announcement is made.
Gettys efforts paid off in May 2024 when California-based Ross Dress for Less announced it would invest more than $450 million to build a 1.7 million-square-foot distribution center in Randlemen that’s expected to create 852 jobs. As that deal moved forward, Gettys had to work with six additional property owners to secure the 330 acres needed for the project.
A woman and her two sons at first said they weren’t interested in selling the land where they had lived for decades, she says. They changed their minds as discussions progressed with the company.
“That particular lady came up and hugged me at the announcement,” says Gettys. “She was someone I never knew before, and we have become friends.”
Construction on the Ross Stores distribution site, located about 20 miles south of Greensboro, is about at the halfway point. By 2027, workers will start filling the massive building.
“Especially in a rural community, it is gratifying to know you had a small part in helping the community grow and offering residents better opportunities. It’s very satisfying.”
“We got this one,” Gettys adds, “but now let’s get to work on the next one.”
PRESIDENT’S AWARD
STEVE YOST
Steve Yost often likens economic development activities to “God’s work,” says Gary Lanier, president of the Columbus County Economic Development Commission, because it brings jobs and investments to communities.
As this year’s president of the N.C. Economic Development Association, Lanier selects the recipient of the 900-plus member organization’s President’s Award. He chose Yost, who completed his 20th year with North Carolina’s Southeast in April.
“Steve Yost never seeks the spotlight, but is always moving mountains behind the scenes,” says Lanier.
NC Southeast represents a 20-county, mostly rural region of the state that has 1.9 million residents and a labor force of about 124,000. Since 2014, the organization has helped recruit 88 companies and bring more than 11,000 jobs to the region. More than 30 Fortune 500 companies have facilities in the region, while pork, poultry and various other products make it among the top agricultural regions in the nation.
“There’s no place in the world better than southeastern North Carolina,” says Yost. He particularly enjoys driving around the region, showing clients potential sites, or working with the individual counties on development of an industrial site or building.
Yost was talking about his work just two days before Amazon announced it would invest $10 billion in the region. The plan is expected to include 500 jobs at a data center campus in Richmond County, 80 miles southeast of Charlotte. Announcements are a lot of fun, he says, but he prefers to see steel coming out of the ground, followed by a parking lot full of employees’ cars.
“The reward is seeing new jobs created in southeastern North Carolina,” says Yost. “On the back side of each of those new jobs is a citizen that needs one of those jobs.” Yost earned a degree in public administration from Appalachian State University and a master’s in public administration from UNC Chapel Hill before he realized exactly the role of economic development. A Lenoir County internship while earning his master’s degree opened his eyes to the strategic and collaborative nature of business recruitment.
“You have to know the technical stuff like developing industrial sites and building industrial buildings, but all of that also takes money,” he says. “You’ve got to really bring folks to the table and be unified to do that.”
Yost previously was economic development director of Columbus County and an N.C. Department of Commerce staffer before joining North Carolina’s Southeast in 2000. He became president of the five-person staff in 2019.
“We exist to serve the counties. To me, that’s what makes us a strong regional economic development organization,” he says. “We just want our 20 counties to win. If it’s one that wins a project, it’s going to help the whole region. And if we can’t get them in the southeast, then we want to at least keep them in the state of North Carolina.”
INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR
BLAKE MOYER
Creative financing helped the Surry County Economic Development Foundation acquire approximately 30 acres of land last year, which is expected to pay dividends for the small town of Dobson in future commercial or light industrial development.
County property records indicate the sales price at more than $1.3 million, but by using an “equity participation arrangement,” the county’s economic development group was able to complete the deal in December with little public investment.
“Technically, we bought the property for $1 and some closing costs,” says Blake Moyer, president of the county’s Economic Development Partnership since March 2023.
The Foundation acquired the land from The Shelton Companies, a Charlotte-based private investment firm founded by Mount Airy natives Charlie and Ed Shelton. The construction and real estate developers founded the Shelco construction firm, which they sold to a group of employees in 2004. They also founded Shelton Vineyards, helping establish the Yadkin Valley wine industry.
The Sheltons took a long view on the property, putting it in public hands to develop, says Moyer. They won’t see a return until a third party decides to locate there. The property is less than a quarter-mile from an Interstate 77 exit ramp and has utilities, so he doubts the wait will be long.
“They’re putting some trust in us that we’re going to do things that are going to make the property more valuable and in the end, they’re going to make more money off of it than they would have by just selling it,” says Moyer. The Sheltons will get a base selling price and have a percentage stake in its increased value.
Raleigh attorney Ernie Pearson of Maynard Nexsen deserves much of the credit, says Moyer. Pearson, a former N.C. Commerce Department leader, has helped with similar deals across the state. He says he starts off by asking the landowner if they would like to make more money than the land’s current value. “The essence of
any good deal is that it’s a benefit to both parties,” says Pearson.
Dobson is the county seat, but with less than 1,500 residents, it is smaller than Mount Airy or Elkin, which have about 10,000 and 4,500 residents, respectively. Twin Oaks Business Park is Dobson’s first intentional commercial development park.
“We talk a lot about product here, but also I think the spreading the love factor in terms of not all the product being in Mount Airy and Elkin is a big thing in our community,” says Moyer. ■