Charlotte – Page 4

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CROIXSTONE ANNOUNCES NEW PRACTICE AND LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENT

Emily Lopez Joins as Division Director to Lead Croixstone Solutions

Charlotte, NC (June 10, 2019) – Croixstone Consulting (Croixstone) announced today that Emily Lopez, MA, has joined the organization in the newly-created role of Division Director. Lopez leads the management consulting firm’s new human capital services practice, Croixstone Solutions.

“We are thrilled to welcome Emily to our team as we launch our new human capital practice,” said Patti Weber, Croixstone Consulting’s Chief Executive Officer. “With unemployment rates at a 50-year low, businesses and organizations are exceptionally challenged today at meeting their human capital needs. As a workforce transformation expert with more than 20 years experience in talent acquisition, retention and culture-building, Emily is uniquely positioned to address these challenges.”

A multi-industry professional who has fueled start-ups and has engineered turnarounds, Lopez has expertise in preparing, equipping and supporting organizations and individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes. Her background includes key leadership roles in the nonprofit, public education and leadership training sectors. An active leader in the Charlotte community, Lopez currently serves on the board as secretary with Youth Development Initiatives (YDI, Inc.) and as School Leadership Chairperson for Oakhurst STEAM Academy (a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools magnet school). Additionally, she is a 2018 graduate of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte’s Bernstein Leadership Group.

Lopez holds a masters degree in Organizational Leadership from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont.

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About Croixstone Consulting

Croixstone Consulting is a boutique consulting firm known for connecting the brightest minds in business and community. The firm serves the greater Charlotte region with two practices – Croixstone Consulting and Croixstone Solutions. Croixstone Consulting provides project MBAs to help companies reduce costs, improve efficiencies, reduce complexity and increase customer satisfaction. Croixstone Solutions provides a suite of curated services, anchored by SEARCH, that delivers a competitive talent advantage to propel organizations into the future. For more information, visit www.croixstone.consulting, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/CroixstoneCLT, visit our blog at www.croixstone.consulting/blog or find us on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/croixstone-consulting.

Media Contact

For further information, images and interviews, please contact:

Mark Weber, Managing Partner – Croixstone Consulting | (980) 263-0234 | mweber@www.croixstone.consulting

From Bank Town to Auto Town?

You may know that the U.S. automotive manufacturing industry has shifted to the southeastern USA. But did you know that the Charlotte region is benefiting greatly from this trend? According to research from the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, more than 63,000 people work in automotive sectors in our region (more than Greenville, SC and more than most of Charlotte’s peer cities). Over the past two years, 20 automotive-related companies have announced plans to locate or expand in the region, adding a total of nearly 1,300 jobs. Learn more here.

Charlotte Regional Job and Population Growth Remain on the Rise

The boom continues! The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance has released its Q1, 2019 “Growth Report” and the numbers continue to show economic strength across the region. Among the first quarter highlights featured in the latest report:

Net New Jobs in Q1: 8,065
Announced Expansion or Relocation Projects: 25
Announced New Capital Investment: $93.6M
Industry Sector with Highest Growth Rate in Hiring: Transportation & Logistics

Read the full report here.

Is the Business Card Dead?

Let’s say you are preparing to participate in a professional networking meeting in Charlotte this week. Your elevator pitch has been perfected, and you are feeling on top of your game. But then a nagging question arises that throws you off base. Should I, or should I not, present my business card to new contacts? Has the rise of LinkedIn (and other tools) rendered the business card obsolete?

Our strong belief? The business card still matters.

Following a meeting with a local business executive, the Croixstone team engaged in spirited discussion last week about the merit of the business card. While some people feel strongly that this longstanding business communication tool is passé, we are resolute in our belief that the business card absolutely still matters.

Yes, LinkedIn serves an incredibly valuable purpose. And, yes, many millennials are quick to say that the business card is pointless. We would offer that the business card is an essential tool in your personal branding tool chest. Like any tool, you simply need to know when the card is appropriate to present.

Know your audience and the environment. If you are attending a networking event at the Duke Mansion with people from traditional, conservative professional groups or companies, you can be assured that your business card matters. Attending a hip tech gathering at Camp North End the following evening? You might be best to leave your business card tucked safely in your pocket.

Also remember that your business card, when designed with care and intentionality, is a powerful tool to represent, and differentiate, your personal brand.

Read more opinions on the value of the business card from 16 public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising leaders who serve on the Forbes Agency Council.

German Investment in Charlotte

According to research from the former Charlotte Regional Partnership, there are 194 German-owned firms in the greater Charlotte region; making Germany the most largely represented foreign country in the region. Learn more about Germany’s investment in Charlotte and why so many German firms have chosen to conduct business in our region.

100 Events That Shaped the Queen City

The great city that Croixstone Consulting calls home just celebrated its 250th anniversary. Founded in honor of Her Majesty Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg on December 3, 1768, Charlotte has grown to be the second-largest banking center in the US, a title it regained in early November 2018.

Charlotte Magazine recently published a list of the 100 events (ranging from the 1700s to the 2000s) that transformed our city into what it is today. A “must read” regardless of how long you have lived or worked in the greater Charlotte region!

Spotlight on Disruption

Coworking office spaces represent a fundamental shift in the way people work, and the coworking industry is disrupting the commercial real estate industry in a very BIG way. The future of work is a huge topic of discussion every week at Croixstone, and the shift in how people work is what incentivized us to relocate our offices from our business loft in South End to Industrious in Uptown Charlotte nearly one year ago. Learn why companies like Spotify, Lyft, Hyatt and Chipotle have joined Croixstone in calling Industrious home across the United States. Click here.

Professional Development Opportunity!

Our friends at Wily—a design agency based at Camp North End in Charlotte—are running a Design Sprint Bootcamp on September 11-12. Jake Knapp—creator of Design Sprints and author of NYT bestseller “Sprint“—will lead Day 1 of the two day training. Jake perfected Design Sprints while at GV/Google Ventures helping companies like AirBnB, Slack, Nest, Flatiron Health, and 23andMe solve big challenges. Jeff Grant will be leading Day 2 to cover prototyping and testing. Jeff innovates the retail security experience as head of product and innovation at InVue, has created satellite hardware for NASA, and was former co-founder and director of IDEO’s toy business line where he helped invent new products. Jake and Jeff will walk you step-by-step through the training and will be spilling all of their design and prototyping secrets.

Details are at wilysprints.com and a nice Harvard Business Review article about sprints can be found here.

Charlotte Region By the Numbers

In June, the Charlotte Regional Partnership announced that it was launching a new quarterly economic activity report to capture an overarching look at capital investment, job growth and other important business data across the 16-county Charlotte region. We read the published report and learned that the vast majority of companies that located or expanded in the region are manufacturers. The report also reinforced that financial services is not the largest employer among the region’s industry sectors (it is healthcare by a large margin). Read the new report here.

July 2018 Workforce Report

LinkedIn publishes a monthly analysis of employment trends in the USA workforce. The report is divided into two sections: a National section that provides insights into hiring, skills gaps, and migration trends across the country, and a City section that provides insights into localized employment trends in 20 of the largest USA metro areas. In its newly-published July report, LinkedIn shared that Charlotte ranked among the top 10 cities in two different categories. Learn more here.

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