ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County’s manager and the CEO of Pee Dee Electric are joining the board of directors for North Carolina’s Southeast.
Bryan Land, who has been the county manager since 2017 and worked for the county seven years prior to the promotion, will join Donnie Spivey and eight other new members on the board.
Spivey has been at the helm of Pee Dee Electric — which serves Anson, Richmond, Scotland, Montgomery and Moore counties — since 1999.
According to a press release, N.C.’s Southeast is a public-private partnership based in Elizabethtown that aims to “provide strong economic development leadership in southeastern North Carolina through innovative marketing and collaborative regional initiatives that will support the creation of new jobs, generate capital investment and secure new business locations.”
The counties in the region include: Anson, Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Hoke, Jones, Lenoir, Montgomery, Moore, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland and Wayne.
Other new board members are:
- Chris Isley, regional president for Eastern North Carolina at Truist
- Owen Andrews, president of Printelect in New Bern
- Jeffrey Bourk, director of Wilmington International Airport
- Drew Covert, chairman and CEO of Southern Bank and Trust
- Blake Hall, principal at Timmons Group in Raleigh
- Gary VonCannon, appointee from Moore County Partners in Progress
- Dr. Mark Sorrells, president of Fayetteville Technical Community College
- LeAnn Pierce, vice chair of the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners
“We’re delighted to welcome these new board members to our leadership ranks,” Jeff Etheridge, chairman of NC’s Southeast, said in a statement. “Their business and economic development acumen will expand the already-inviable reservoir of intellectual capital that fuels our organization.”
Pee Dee Electric is one of five companies that have “joined or enhanced their investment with NC’s Southeast.”
“We’ve been contributors to the program for a number of years,” said Spivey in a statement. “We want to grow that relationship, which will be good for our area.”
The others are engineering groups Thomas & Hutton and The Timmons Group, Wilmington International Airport, and Highland Roofing Company.
“Close strategic collaboration with private-sector allies has always been a key ingredient of our region’s economic development success,” said Jeff Etheridge, Chairman of NC’s Southeast. “We appreciate having the generous support of these companies and organizations as we engage our mission and build on the remarkable results of the last few years.”
Land said he is excited about the recent appointment.
“I am eager for Richmond County to be a part of the team,” Land told the RO Friday afternoon. “The increased marketability is a win-win for everyone. We will continue to work hand-in-hand with our regional partners to promote Richmond County as a leader in economic development.”
Note: This story was updated to add a quote from Land. 5:52 p.m. 2-3-23.
