Several Wilmington-area business leaders were selected as Ernst & Young’s 2021 Entrepreneurs of the Year for the Southeast region, according to a news release.

Local awardees include James "Chip" Mahan, chairman and CEO of Live Oak Bank, who was EY’s Lifetime Achievement Honoree, according to the awards website.

Mahan founded Live Oak Bank, a subsidiary of Live Oak Bancshares, in 2008 in Wilmington. He is also co-founder of another Wilmington-based company, cloud banking firm nCino.

This summer, Mahan reported during Live Oak Bank’s second-quarter earnings report that the locally headquartered company had its best quarter along with other highs for the year.

Two leaders with Wilmington-headquartered Atlantic Packaging were also recognized on the list: Atlantic Packaging’s CEO Rusty Carter (right), and his son, Wes Carter, who is president of the company.

The business has been in the Carter family for generations, first founded as a weekly newspaper in Columbus County in 1946.

It later branched into the packaging business, a move overseen by Rusty Carter.

The growth has continued with Wes Carter (left) in leadership. He joined the company full-time in 2002.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Southeast is in its 35th year. The honors recognize "the most ambitious leaders who are building and sustaining successful, dynamic businesses around the world,” states the website.  

The awards were celebrated during a virtual ceremony July 29.

The website states that the award winners “comprise a global network of like-minded visionaries, each on a transformational journey to create, innovate, grow, learn and build a better world."

Those recognized become lifetime members of a multi-industry community of entrepreneurs with access to experience, insight and wisdom of program alumni and other members in nearly 60 countries who are supported by EY resources, states the website.