Dianne Kepley joined the SBTDC’s Hickory office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this summer. Dianne is an experienced business development professional with a background in retail, technology, media and healthcare software, and non-profits. She has experience in impact and innovation initiatives, customer relationship management, vendor management, and leadership. Dianne owned a data storage company, DataBank Co., for 14 years, selling the company in 2004.
Business Resiliency Counselors
Our team of Business Resiliency Counselors are available to work with business owners recovering from the impacts of COVID-19 on cash flow and financing, exploring new marketing opportunities, stabilizing operations, safely welcoming back customers, digital marketing, and more. Scroll down to view bios as well as the statewide Business Resiliency Counselor map.
| Hickory |
Dianne Kepley Dianne Kepley×Dianne Kepley joined the SBTDC’s Hickory office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this summer. Dianne is an experienced business development professional with a background in retail, technology, media and healthcare software, and non-profits. She has experience in impact and innovation initiatives, customer relationship management, vendor management, and leadership. Dianne owned a data storage company, DataBank Co., for 14 years, selling the company in 2004.
|
|||
| Raleigh |
Jacqueline Roth Jacqueline Roth× Jacqueline Roth joined the SBTDC’s Raleigh office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this summer. Jacqueline has experience in exit strategy planning, business sale, and acquisition transactions as a Certified Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor (CM&AA) and Certified Business Intermediary (CBI). She has owned and operated multiple small businesses and has served on the Board of Directors of several industry associations.
|
Gene Holland Gene Holland× Gene Holland joined the SBTDC’s Raleigh office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this fall. Gene brings experience in financial analysis and businesses credit underwriting after spending nearly five years as a Commercial Banker and Business Credit Instructor at BB&T (now Truist). He co-founded CORK & TEE, a boutique travel company specializing in customized experiences, and helped grow it into a profitable, $4 million business.
|
Kevin Wright Kevin Wright× Kevin Wright serves as a Busines Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Raleigh. Kevin has over 30 years of industry experience at GE and IBM and over 10 years of academic experience as an Adjunct Professor at Duke and NC State. He has a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University, a Master’s in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Lehigh University, and an MBA from Duke University.
|
|
| Chapel Hill |
Patricia Breen Patricia Breen× Patricia Breen serves as a Business Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Chapel Hill. Patricia has 20 years of experience as a CEO, marketing and communication specialist, business consultant, and executive development and leadership coach. She founded Rapidnet, a company that worked to build and manage the infrastructure to help bring the Internet to South Dakota, in 1994, as well as her own consulting business in 2001.
|
Jonathan Collins Jonathan Collins× Jonathan Collins joined the SBTDC’s Chapel Hill office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this fall. Jonathan has extensive experience in restaurants and the food and beverage retail market. He bought his first restaurant, The Bagel Bar, in 2012 and built a second location in Durham in 2016 from the ground up. Jonathan currently serves as a mentor at the 1789 Venture Lab in Chapel Hill and The Helius Foundation in Durham.
|
||
| Greenville |
Mark Everett Mark Everett× Mark Everett serves as a Business Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Greenville. Mark spent 10 years as a commercial lender and 21 years in commercial real estate, brokerage, leasing, and development prior to joining the SBTDC. A native of Washington, N.C., Mark currently serves as the chairman of the Washington Housing Authority board. He has a Bachelor’s in Accounting from NC State University.
|
Robert Bower Robert Bower× Robert Bower serves as a Business Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Greenville. Robert has over 20 years of experience in product marketing in the defense, consumer products, and automotive manufacturing industries. He spent the last five years as a Business Counselor at the Maryland SBDC, where he helped clients with launching their business, financing, and sustainability. Additionally, Robert has owned and operated his own small technology company.
|
||
| Charlotte |
Alisa McDonald Alisa McDonald× Alisa McDonald serves as a Business Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Charlotte. Alisa has experience as an executive leader at several Fortune 100 companies, holding leadership roles in integrated marketing solutions, IT, information security and cybersecurity, business continuity, supply chain, project development, change management, and mergers & acquisitions. She has a Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Computer Science from UNC Chapel Hill and an M.B.A. from UNC Charlotte.
|
Bianca Capo Bianca Capo× Bianca Capo joined the SBTDC’s Charlotte office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this fall. Bianca spent 20 years as a Chartered Financial Consultant and Wealth Advisor prior to starting her own business to advise, coach, and develop leaders. She is an experienced facilitator, trainer, leadership coach, and has provided organizational development consulting to CEOs, executives, and business owners to create strengths-based performance-driven cultures.
|
Jason Boudrie Jason Boudrie× Jason Boudrie serves as a Business Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Charlotte. Jason has over 25 years of experience in the fitness, wellness, and sports industries. He has built dozens of fitness and sports facilities and a nationally recognized corporate wellness consulting company. Jason has a background in finance and economics, an NYU Certification in Global Sports Management, and a passion for athletics and youth development.
|
|
| Triad |
Shad Smith Shadrach Smith× Shad Smith joined the SBTDC’s Greensboro office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this winter. Shad has more than 10 years of experience in the banking industry with tenures at Regions Bank and First Horizon Bank. He founded ARDA Trade and Export, LLC, an export management company with a focus on the West African regional market, in 2015. Shad has a wide range of experience in global enterprise, business development and modeling, process improvement, and financial system conversion.
|
George Stearns George Stearns× George Stearns serves as a Business Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Winston-Salem. George has a diverse corporate and consulting background, including experience in the travel, marketing, economic development, and IT industries. He currently serves on the Executive Advisory Board at the Phillips Schools of Business at High Point University. George is a graduate of NC State University and the University of Virginia’s MBA program.
|
Jill Atherton |
|
| Elizabeth City |
Paige Griffin |
|||
| Asheville |
Matthew Godfrey Matthew Godfrey× Matthew Godfrey serves as a Business Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Asheville. Matthew has been a leader, consultant, business course facilitator, and chief encourager for Western North Carolina organizations and entrepreneurs for more than 20 years. He serves as the board chair for the Outdoor Gear Builders of WNC and is a member of the Growing Outdoors Partnership Advisory Committee.
|
Ashley Swanger Ashley Swanger× Ashley Swanger joined the SBTDC’s Asheville office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this fall. Ashley is a native of Western North Carolina with a passion for putting her business operations and strategy experience to work developing people and supporting local businesses. She has an MBA and BS in Business Law, along with over 20 years of experience in strategic supply chain and business operations in industries ranging from medical device manufacturing to craft brewing.
|
||
| Wilmington |
Cheryl Young Cheryl Young× Cheryl Young serves as a Business Resiliency Counselor at the SBTDC’s office in Wilmington. Cheryl spent 13 years as a business consultant with the Pennsylvania SBDC at Shippensburg University where she assisted small businesses with business plans, financial analysis, marketing plans, and start-up guidance. During her time in Pennsylvania, Cheryl and her husband owned and operated three restaurants. She has a Bachelor’s in Business/Marketing from Penn State University.
|
Cynthia DeVita-Cochrane Cynthia Devita-Cochrane× Dr. Cynthia DeVita-Cochrane joined the SBTDC’s Wilmington office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this fall. Cynthia is a mediator, business coach, entrepreneur, and organizational psychologist with over 20 years of organizational development behavior consulting experience. After several years as the founding director of a start-up mediation center, she began a consulting and training firm to help not-for-profit start-ups in 1997.
|
||
| Pembroke |
Joseph James Joseph James× Joseph James joined the SBTDC’s Pembroke office as a Business Resiliency Counselor this fall. Joseph has more than 10 years of experience helping small and large organizations reach their potential by applying industrial organizational psychology and business strategies to help strengthen performance. He founded his own consulting business, Higher Up Consulting, LLC, in 2018. Joseph has a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
|
|||
