STATEWIDE Triangle Region
B-schools post better returns
CARY — New York-based private-equity firm Warburg Pincus will invest up to $100 million in Dude Solutions, which will hire up to 100 sales, marketing and technology workers by year-end. The company provides schools, local government agencies and businesses with cloud-based applications that manage maintenance operations, energy consumption and inventories. It has 220 people on its payroll.
RALEIGH — Norris Tolson, 74, will retire June 30 from the state-funded North Carolina Biotechnology Center, where he has been president and CEO since 2007. A former DuPont executive and two-term Democratic legislator, the Edgecombe County native was secretary of commerce and also transportation under Gov. Jim Hunt and secretary of revenue under Gov. Mike Easley. His successor has not been named.
SOUTHERN PINES — First Bancorp, holding company of First Bank, named Michael G. Mayer president of the community bank, which has 96 branches in the Carolinas and Virginia. He was CEO of Hendersonville-based 1st Financial Services Corp., parent of Mountain 1st Bank & Trust, for four years until Raleigh-based First Citizens Bank acquired it in January. He succeeds Jerry L. Ocheltree, who left last year and became president and CEO of Lincolnton-based Carolina Trust Bank Jan. 1.
DURHAM — Quintiles Transnational posted quarterly revenue of $1 billion for the first time in the fourth quarter. Annual revenue was $3.8 billion. The drug developer employs 2,600 in North Carolina and forecasts revenue this year will exceed $4 billion.
DURHAM — PurThread Technologies is partnering with Rochester, N.Y.-based Eastman Kodak to make antimicrobial products for the health-care industry and the military. Kodak’s antimicrobial technology is incorporated in PurThread fabrics, which are used for hospital privacy curtains, lab coats and medical scrubs. The venture will expand the use of such technology to hard- and soft-surface products.
MORRISVILLE — Herndon, Va.-based ePlus opened a 12,000-square-foot service center next to its office here and will hire as many as 50 people to staff it. The information-technology company, which employs 60 in North Carolina, also has offices in Charlotte and Wilmington.