Ben Currin

Ben Currin, CEO of Wilmington-based Vantaca, has been named Tech CEO of the Year by NC TECH as part of its 2026 NC TECH Awards program. 

NC TECH announced individual award winners earlier this month for individuals who have made “remarkable contributions” to North Carolina’s tech ecosystem. Other individual winners include State Treasurer Brad Briner, who was named Public Leader of the Year, and Jim Goodnight, CEO and co-founder of SAS, who received the Beacon Award. 

"It's an incredible honor to be named CEO of the Year by NC TECH, but I accept it on behalf of the entire Vantaca team,” said Currin in an email to the Business Journal Thursday. “This recognition belongs to the people whose commitment, creativity and customer focus drive our success every day. We've been fortunate to grow alongside amazing customers who continually challenge us to raise the bar, and I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with both."

Vantaca, an AI-first community association management software company, reached financial unicorn status with a $1.25 billion valuation last year. The company made strides in hiring this year, announcing new executive leadership and rolling out a new artificial intelligence agent suite called HOAi Fleet. 

Dave Sweyer, former owner of Community Association Management Services (CAMS), and David Gunn co-founded the company in 2015 as a software solution for community management firms in the HOA industry. Currin joined Vantaca’s leadership team in 2017, serving in various executive-level strategy and operational roles, and became CEO in 2020. 

Currin spoke about leadership on a panel with Live Oak Bank President BJ Losch during the Business Journal’s Spark ILM event earlier this month. 

“When we got started, it was a team of four of us, so that’s different than 400 (employees),” Currin said. “There’s a million things we’re trying to do and a million priorities. So, I always think about my job as CEO of the company is to make it as simple as possible.”

He added, “Don’t tell people what to do. Tell them why we’re doing it.”

Vantaca serves more than 550 management companies and more than six million households nationwide, according to the company. 

NC TECH’s annual awards ceremony will recognize leaders and companies across three categories, including company performance, core innovation and individual achievement. According to the not-for-profit trade association’s website, the ceremony is its biggest event of the year. 

The awards ceremony will be held on Nov. 16 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel Raleigh-Durham Airport at Research Triangle Park, and several Wilmington-headquartered companies are finalists across various performance categories. 

Find a complete list of winners and nominees for this year’s NC TECH awards program here: https://www.nctech.org/events/event/2026/awards-event.html