Chatter with BNC

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people. Today's episode features an interview with Sharon Bryson, who retired Jan. 31 after leading the 12,500-member N.C. Association of CPAs since 2016. The graduate of UNC Chapel Hill worked for the CPA group for 39 years as its staff and membership more than tripled. She is a past president of the Association Executives of North Carolina. https://www.ncacpa.org/about/staff-directory/staff-member/sharon-bryson/

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with Skip Smart, Partner at Parker Poe. Smart leads Parker Poe's business law department. He provides transactional advice and corporate counseling to both private and public companies. He has an extensive mergers and acquisitions practice, and he regularly advises clients in auction-type acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, leveraged acquisitions and related financings, and roll-up and build-up strategies, including techniques for the efficient and cost-effective completion of serial industry-specific acquisitions.

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with Stafford L. Thompson, Jr. As Senior Vice President of Life and Executive Benefits Business Management, Stafford drives the continued expansion, diversification and enhancement of Lincoln's industry-leading portfolio of Life Insurance products to meet the needs of new clients in Lincoln's core and emerging markets. His key responsibilities include product development and management for Lincoln's individual Life Insurance and Executive Benefit products, Life business development, and New Business and Inforce Operations for Executive Benefits. Before joining Lincoln in 2018, Stafford held the position of Vice President, Marketing Actuary at SCOR Global Life Americas.

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with Erin Spencer, the Founder & CEO of EdgeBrook Lane Consulting. Erin started EdgeBrook Lane to assist organizations with fractional human resource expertise—whether a small business without a formal infrastructure or an organization whose human resource team needed additional expertise. She focuses on operations, business development, and organizational culture at EdgeBrook Lane.

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with Shaylah Nunn Jones, the North Carolina government and public affairs principal at Novo Nordisk. They talk about her professional journey so far, what's new at Nova Nordisk, what the increase in manufacturing in NC, especially in pharmaceuticals, means for the state, and more.

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with Dan Sargent. Dan Sargent has been with Rebuilding Together of the Triangle since 2008. Under his leadership, the budget has grown from $25,000 to $2.8 million. Dan is a licensed general contractor and has an MPA from the School of Government at UNC-CH. He lives in Chatham County with his wife Lyndee and their three daughters.

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with Miller Yoho, the director of communications and marketing at the Charlotte Sports Foundation. Albeit difficult years for its NFL and NBA teams, Charlotte has emerged as a major sports town, aided by the foundation's work in organizing major college football games and other events. Yoho describes how key business leaders have raised the profile of sports in the Queen City, making a big impact on the tourism and hospitality industries.

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with Scott Ralls. Scott Ralls is the fourth president of Wake Technical Community College, North Carolina's largest community college. Wake Tech is recognized for its "laddering" strategies to connect workforce and education opportunities and is ranked as a national leader in online education. From 2015 to 2019, Ralls served as president of Northern Virginia Community College, or NOVA as it is commonly known, the second largest multi-campus community college in the nation. During his NOVA tenure, he developed a unique partnership with Amazon Web Services that catalyzed a Virginia statewide initiative to create seamless cloud computing degrees between community colleges and universities that was named 2019 Education Partnership of the Year by Education Dive.

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with David Phillips, Founder & Innovation Provocateur at Faster Glass. He founded Faster Glass in 2010 as a way to combine his passion for sharing the principles of innovation and design, his impatience with blindly accepting the status quo, and his love of meeting and learning from others. Equal parts educator, facilitator, and instigator, David has devoted his professional life to helping people make things better.

Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people.

Today's episode features an interview with Amgad Saad, the Co-owner and President of Garner Appliance & Mattress, which is about to open the largest appliance store in the region at 13,500 square feet. Amgad Saad started in the family business in 1982 while in high school. He joined full-time in 1988 from ECU. His father Mones Saad started the business as a TV and electronics repair business. It now has three locations, 31 employees, and 1,000 deliveries/month. Amgad's sister is co-owner/treasurer Rita Hines. Her two sons work in the warehouse, as does Amgad's son, Simon.