Press Release
Contact: Robert Albright |
Phone: 919-549-7500 ext.123 |
CEOs Billy Prim and Christy Shaffer to Keynote Entrepreneur '04
CED Also Announces Initial Panel Details for Oct. 30 Conference
September 1, 2004, Research Triangle Park, NC – The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) today announced that chief executives from two of North Carolina's most promising publicly-traded companies will keynote CED's Entrepreneur '04 Conference: Billy D. Prim, founder and CEO of Winston-Salem's Blue Rhino Corporation, and Christy Shaffer, Ph.D., CEO of Durham's Inspire Pharmaceuticals. CED is presenting Entrepreneur '04 in partnership with and at The Fuqua School at Duke University on Oct. 30 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Billy Prim and his company's rise to success will appeal to the Entrepreneur '04 audience. Prim founded Blue Rhino in 1994 and has since grown the company into a staple of background grilling. The company is now the nation's leading provider of branded propane cylinder exchange and complementary propane-fueled appliances. Blue Rhino's cylinder exchange is offered at home center/hardware, mass merchants, grocery and convenience stores, with branded cylinder displays at more than 27,000 retail locations across the country. The company has enjoyed a nine-fold increase in revenue over the past five years, with sales exceeding $200 million. In 2003 Prim was named a recipient of The Carolinas' 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Christy Shaffer is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive and Ph.D. scientist with extensive experience in directing complex drug development processes for innovative products. She has been part of Inspire Pharmaceuticals since the company began operations in 1995, based on licensing exclusive technology from UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Medicine. She joined Inspire from Burroughs Wellcome in 1995 as Director of Clinical and was appointed rapidly to VP of Development, Chief Operating Officer and, in 1998, President and Chief Executive Officer and Board member. Under Dr. Shaffer's tenure, Inspire became a publicly traded company in 2000 raising $78 million and completed two successful follow-on offerings raising an additional $160 million. In June 2003, Inspire filed its first New Drug Application (NDA) for a novel dry eye product with the FDA and received an approvable letter from the FDA in December 2003.
In addition to offering two featured speakers, Entrepreneur '04 will also feature concurrent panel sessions with successful entrepreneurs and other experts. These interactive panels will be grouped into specific tracks such as finance and legal, management and HR, and marketing and sales. Panel topics and speakers include the following (partial list):
- Growing your company's infrastructure: Marketing, Accounting & HR
- Ben Feldman, Joint Owner, RapiData
- Alicia Paladin, Founder, NutraSage
- Mary Lou Drake, President, Drake & Associates
- Building a Great Entrepreneurial Team -- It's a Lot Like the NFL Draft
- Rich West
- Gary Roberts, Partner, Cabot
- Chris Price, CEO, Nobex
- Marketing vs. Selling: Knowing Your Target Audience
- Howard Rockett, Chairman & CEO, Rockett, Burkhead & Winslow
- Noreen Allen, Vice President of Marketing, SpectraSite
- Lessons Learned: Start-up Screw-ups
- Steve Clark, CEO, SpectraSite
- Chris Hegele, Partner, Intersouth
- Joe Forbes, CEO, America Connect
- EVERYTHING is Negotiable
- Sheila Mikhail, Member, Life Sciences Law, PLLC
- David Spencer, COO, Biolex
- Alison Arter, President, Apted, Baer & Clark, Inc.
“Entrepreneur '04 offers a unique chance to hear from seasoned entrepreneurial executives, and gain key tools for starting and growing a business,” said conference co-chair Doug Riddle, senior vice president at Wachovia. “Anyone considering a new business venture, or anyone in the early stages of growing their company, will find tremendous value in attending Entrepreneur '04.”
Additional details on Entrepreneur '04 - including the agenda, confirmed speakers, panel session topics, sponsorship opportunities and online registration - are available at www.cednc.org/entrepreneur.
About CED: The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, located in Research Triangle Park, NC, is a private, non-profit organization formed in 1984 to stimulate the creation and growth of high-impact companies in the greater Research Triangle region. CED provides education, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, seminars, workshops and monthly programs on entrepreneurial management and finance. CED, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2004, is the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 3,500 members representing 1,000 entrepreneurial companies, financiers and professional firms. www.cednc.org
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