Valeria Lynch Lee

North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, Inc. develops, promotes and implements sound economic strategies. It focuses on individuals with low to moderate incomes and communities with limited resources. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Raleigh, NC.

Carolinas Gateway Partnership is a non-profit company that has helped Eastern NC become a thriving food region. The company is based in Rocky Mount, NC. The company has worked with large food processing corporations to create jobs in the area. Robert B. Pike has been the CEO of the company since 2023.

BB&T Corp. engages in the provision of banking and trust services through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Community Banking-Retail; Community Banking-Commercial; Insurance Holdings; and Financial Services and Commercial Finance; Other, Treasury and Corporate. The Community Banking-Retail segment offers a variety of loan and deposit products, payment services, bankcard products, and other financial services. The Community Banking-Commercial segment includes commercial real estate lending, commercial and industrial lending, corporate banking, asset based-lending, dealer inventory financing, tax exempt financing, cash management and treasury services, and commercial deposit products. The Insurance Holdings segment covers property and casualty, employee benefits, and life insurance to businesses and individuals. The Financial Services and Commercial Finance segment consists of personal trust administration, estate planning, investment counseling, wealth management, asset management, corporate retirement services, capital markets and corporate banking services, corporate trust services and specialty finance products to businesses. The Other, Treasury and Corporate segment comprises of the combination of other segment that represents operating entities. The company was was founded by Alpheus Branch in 1872 and is headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC.

The Golden LEAF Foundation is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1999 to receive a portion of funding received from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers. The non-profit company is based in Rocky Mount, NC. The foundation's mission is to promote the economic well-being of North Carolinians and to transform the state's economy by supporting projects related to agriculture, job creation, and workforce preparedness.