Quick. Name 100 people you think are just killing it – who are making an impact in our area, who are helping move the needle, who are getting the community to see things in a new light.

Some of you could probably come up with a list pretty easily. Some of you would say 100’s impossible, that there’s more like 250 people in Southeastern North Carolina worth noting.

For us, it fell somewhere in the middle when it came time to decide on our first-ever WilmingtonBiz 100.

While some names were a given, such as our cover models Chip Mahan and Pierre Naudé, who have built their fintech operations from the ground up in Wilmington and moved the local business landscape in a new direction. Or they are managing fast-growing economic drivers, such as Julie Wilsey at the airport or Paul Cozza at the ports. Or they’re raising a potentially once-in-ageneration decision, such as John Gizdic and Chris Coudriet and the future of the hospital.

Others are clearly connecting people to the right resources, such as Cameron School of Business dean Rob Burrus, or working on innovations that could disrupt their industries, such as Lapetus’ Karl Ricanek.

But, of course, there is also a lot of subjectivity in the process.

How do you measure one person’s impact? Is it because of the job they hold over a large organization? Is it because they’re doing work above and beyond what their LinkedIn position says they should be doing?

The Business Journal’s editorial team thought long and hard – and deliberated and debated (and at times negotiated) – over all of those questions.

We took suggestions from readers through a nominations campaign in print, on our emails and through our social media channels. And we added in our own names for consideration, stemming from many years of covering the business community locally.

Another thing we discussed was eligibility. Other business journals that publish power or influencers lists also don’t include politicians and economic developers, and some do. Our thinking is that decisions of major consequence (good or bad) are part of elected officials’ expected roles. Also, how do you separate out which officeholder is more influential than the next in a 3-2 vote, for example, even if that vote is a major one? The same with the primary economic development agencies, which are tasked as part of their roles and contracts with the local governments to be impacting the local economy by attracting new jobs.

The result of these monthslong talks is our inaugural WilmingtonBiz 100.

Disagree? Think a key name was left off?

I would hope that you do. If we only have 100 people total impacting the region’s economy, that doesn’t bode well. Feel free to send feedback to my email below.

This will be an annual project for us. And while this first list takes a more long-term view of what those included have done, future versions will place an emphasis on impacts made during the year.

In the meantime, read more in this year’s section here.

Vicky Janowski, Editor
[email protected]