Piedmont Business Capital has named a new executive director with decades of experience in economic and community development, small business advocacy, and social entrepreneurship for diverse populations and distressed communities across North Carolina.
George Jones has been selected to lead PBC, a Greensboro-based community development financial institution that serves the entire Triad.
He starts today as the replacement for Wilson Lester, who left the organization earlier this year to become managing partner of Partners in Equity (PIE), a statewide venture he founded last year with Durham-based entrepreneurs Napoleon Wallace and Talib Graves-Manns to serve minority entrepreneurs across the state of North Carolina.
"George is the person that can takes us to the next level," said Karl Robinson, chair of the PBC board of directors.
"Winston took us a long way ... I think our stakeholders are very pleased with what Piedmont has done over the past year, especially during the pandemic when we were able to help so many small business," said Robinson, who is president and CEO of R&R Transportation in Greensboro. "But we're entering a new chapter, and I think George is the one to lead us through that transition. I believe he'll hit the grand running. I'm really impressed with him, and I know the board is, too."
Jones served five years (2008-13) as the project director for the Small Business Transportation Resource Center of the South Atlantic Region, a partnership between N.C. A&T State University and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
After that, he spent five years as the project director of N.C. Department of Transportation's Office of Civil Rights-Small Business Enhancement Program, working out of Hendersonville.
In 2018, he was named senior conservation manager of the Triangle Land Conservatory, where he worked for two years before becoming executive director of Farmer Foodshare in the Raleigh-Durham area. He left that job in January and founded Inheritage Farms, a BIPOC cooperative focused on "the advancement of regenerative farming and sustainability practices" for underrepresented communities and farmers.
While he is a Triangle native who has spent a good chunk of his career working in the range, Jones has deep family and business ties to the Triad.
"I feel like the region is the bedrock of the North Carolina industrial sector," Jones said. "It's an amazing community and I want to make sure Piedmont Business Capital is a partner in connecting" the groups working to improve the Triad's infrastructure and business environment.
"I see a great opportunity for PBC to became an indispensable cog in the Triad region."
Lester, who spent five years as Piedmont Capital's executive director, has joined the PBC board.
"That will add some continuity during our transition," Robinson said. "He'll be there to offer advice from all he has learned"
Jones has known Lester for years, going to back when he worked with his mother at N.C. A&T.
"I'm proud of Wilson and what he has accomplished, and I look forward to building on the foundation he's established," Jones said.
