Finding this year’s Who’s Who winners was up to nominators from the public and a panel of volunteer judges from the community. It was no easy task. They looked for people who make an economic impact on the Upstate and also go above and beyond their professional roles or calls of duty.
Not shying away from known names, the goal was for a strong class that met the criteria and would set an example for our future leaders.
1. Community Panel selection: An independent panel of five community leaders was chosen to review nominations and select this years Who’s Who class.
2. Nominations: Nominations were open to the public from Sept. 20 to Dec. 16 2013 via downloadable forms and online submissions. A total of 127 nominations were received.
3. Selection: Each Community Panel member chose 10 nominees to discuss at a deliberation meeting, which yielded 36 names due to overlapping selections. Each of the 36 was discussed for two minutes before each judge rated the nominee on a scale of 1-5 by the following criteria:
–What did they contribute in 2013?
–What have they done to date?
–What are they doing to move this business community forward?
The eight highest scores became the inaugural Who’s Who class.
4. Who’s Who event: On Thursday Feb. 20, winners were acknowledged at a private event in front of a who’s who audience of Greenville’s business executives.
5. Who’s Who special issue: The UBJ issue you are reading now was created to call attention to the activities and accomplishments of these eight individuals.
