Kannapolis City Manager Selected As A 2019 Most Admired CEO > City of Kannapolis | City of Kannapolis

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With millions of residents and thousands of companies, the Charlotte region is home to business leaders across a wide array of industries. That means you won't necessarily find the area's most influential executives sitting at the top of uptown's gleaming office towers.

CBJ's Most Admired CEO awards program recognizes established local leaders who have a strong vision for their companies, have shown commitment to culture in the workplace and have made significant contributions to the community.

Details will be provided soon on an event to celebrate this year's class.

New for this year, CBJ has selected a Lifetime Achievement honoree. That person is Dan DiMicco, chairman emeritus of Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE).

Though he left his post as CEO of the Charlotte-based steel giant at the end of 2013, its long-running strategy for growth and investment — of which he was a key architect — is paying off in a big way right now. More recently, DiMicco has started a local angel investing fund with his son, Michael, and bought the Charlotte Independence soccer team. He also chairs the Coalition for a Prosperous America trade group, which he helped found, and he sits on the host committee for the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte.

In addition to DiMicco, 35 leaders will be recognized across 18 industry categories.
Those individuals will join the high-profile CEOs of the inaugural 2018 class in receiving this award — think LendingTree's Doug Lebda, Michael Praeger of AvidXchange, Theresa Drew of Deloitte and Jeffrey Brown of Ally Financial. Check out last year's special report here for more about the program.

Nominations for this program were open to the public and came from members of the business community, within the honorees' organizations and externally. The CBJ editorial team selected honorees to recognize within each industry category.

Here are the 2019 honorees, listed in alphabetical order by category:

Accounting
•Malcomb Coley, EY

Banks & Credit Unions

•Phil Jurney, Paragon Bank, a Division of Townebank
•Bill Partin, Sharonview Federal Credit Union

Commercial Real Estate

•Clay Grubb, Grubb Properties
•Harold “Skip” Tuttle, The Tuttle Co.

Education
•Pamela Davies, Queens University of Charlotte
•Philip Dubois, UNC Charlotte

Engineers, Contractors & Architects
•Phil Kuttner, Little
•Eric Laster, Edifice Inc.

Family-Owned Companies
•Trent Haston, The Roby Family of Cos.
•Tom Onsrud, C.R. Onsrud Inc.

Financial Services
•Kevin Brungardt, RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing Corp.
•Timothy Flanagan, MassMutual Carolinas

Health Care
•Susan DeVore, Premier Inc.
•Jag Gill, Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates

Government
•Mike Legg, City of Kannapolis
•John Lewis, Charlotte Area Transit System

Manufacturing & Distribution
•Eddie Edwards, CommScope Inc.
•Stuart Schuette, American Tire Distributors

Marketing & Advertising
•Jennifer Appleby, Wray Ward
•Mike Boykin, Bespoke Sports & Entertainment

Nonprofits
•Laura Belcher, Habitat for Humanity Charlotte
•Sarah Cherne, Junior Achievement of Central Carolinas

Professional Services
•Linda P. Hudson, The Cardea Group
•Stephanie Sadowski, Accenture

Public Companies
•Luke Kissam, Albemarle Corp.
•Marc Michael, SPX Flow Inc.

Residential Real Estate
•Dan Cottingham, Cottingham Chalk
•Abigail Jennings, Lake Norman Realty

Restaurants & Food Service

•Dan Beem, Hissho Sushi
•Patrick Whalen, 5Church Inc.

Sports, Entertainment & Tourism
•Dave Parsons, Carolina Motor Club Inc. (AAA Carolinas)
•Fred Whitfield, Hornets Sports & Entertainment

Technology
•Abhishek Mehta, Tresata
•Jim Sankey, InVue

 




City Manager Mike Legg and Council Member Tom Kincaid Volunteering at
Jiggy with the Piggy