Women in Leadership Honors Judges, Legislator at Leading Women Event

Vertiv Expands North American Production Capacity with New Infrastructure Solutions Manufacturing Facility

Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, announced a major expansion of its North American manufacturing operations with a new facility in Pelzer, South Carolina.

Officials said the Vertiv Pelzer facility adds 215,000 square feet (about 20,000 square meters) of manufacturing space and is projected to create up to 300 additional skilled job opportunities at this location.

The Vertiv Pelzer facility will produce a variety of infrastructure solutions, including integrated modular solutions, modular power systems, and other integrated systems leveraging Vertiv’s portfolio of power, cooling, and IT infrastructure technologies for data centers.

The officials said these prefabricated and pre-engineered solutions are fully factory pre-tested as a system, significantly reducing site labor requirements and overall data center time to market.

“Our global infrastructure solutions business is strong and growing, as the demand for AI accelerates and our customers see the value of an integrated approach to support faster compute deployment,” said Vertiv CEO Giordano (Gio) Albertazzi. 

Albertazzi added, "Increasing manufacturing capacity is critical to meeting the needs of our customers, and the Vertiv Pelzer operations are central to that mission for our Americas and global operations.”

In addition to the new Pelzer facility, Vertiv has a switchgear and busbar manufacturing facility in nearby Anderson, South Carolina.

Vertiv has increased capacity of its infrastructure solutions, switchgear and busbar businesses through increased utilization and footprint expansion in the United States, Mexico, Slovakia, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.

Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, USA, Vertiv does business in more than 130 countries.

United Homes Group Announces Executive Leadership Changes

Columbia, South Carolina-based United Homes Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: UHG), announced that on Oct. 1, 2024, Michael Nieri, the company’s founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, will transition to executive chairman of the company.

Officials said that as executive chairman, Nieri will shift his leadership time and energies to focus primarily on the company’s strategic future.

Concurrently with Nieri’s transition to executive chairman, Jamie Pirrello, currently a member of the company’s board of directors and a consultant to the company, was named interim chief executive officer of the company.

Officials said the company’s board of directors intends to undertake a search to identify the company’s next permanent CEO and will consider internal and external candidates.

During his tenure with the company, Nieri has overseen the growth and transformation of the company from the founding of Great Southern Homes in 2004 through its transition to becoming a public company in 2023.

Nieri also headed the company through its completion of three homebuilder acquisitions since becoming a public company, and the company’s recent designation as 2024’s Builder of the Year by Builder Magazine.

As executive chairman, “I will stay engaged with the company’s strategic initiatives but also explore other things that are important to me, including philanthropic activities and spending more time with my family and my grandchildren,” he said.

Pirrello served as a regional president for Century Communities, Inc. (NYSE: CCS) from 2018 through February 2023, overseeing the Southeast, Texas, and Florida regions.

After leaving Century Communities, Pirrello has been the managing partner of Berkeley-Columbia Consulting Group, a consultancy firm focused on the homebuilding industry.

He also was CFO of Interior Logic Group (“ILG”), one of the nation’s largest flooring and finishes contractors to homebuilders, multifamily builders, and big box home supply stores.

During his tenure at ILG, in early 2018, he guided the company through its merger with Interior Specialists, ILG’s largest competitor.

From 2016 to 2017, Pirrello was the CFO of UCP, Inc. (NYSE: UCP), a land developer and homebuilder that was acquired by Century Communities in 2017.

Before UCP, Pirrello spent most of his 30 years in homebuilding with large public and private builders, including PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM), NVR, Inc. (NYSE: NVR), First Homebuilders of Florida, and BCB Homes, in markets throughout the United States.

He has raised billions of dollars in capital, both public and private, and including debt and equity. Pirrello has extensive experience in M&A transactions and homebuilding operations.

Pirrello earned two MBAs, from Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree in education from The George Washington University, and his undergraduate degree in accounting from Juniata College.

UHG is a publicly traded residential builder that focuses on southeastern markets with 59 active communities in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Duke Energy Gears Up for Helene's Carolinas Arrival, Encourages Customers To Be Prepared

Duke Energy is asking its customers in the Carolinas to ready themselves and their family members for Tropical Storm Helene, which is likely to impact the region late Thursday and into Friday.

This includes preparing for potential power outages.

"Helene is a large and fast-moving storm that has the potential to deliver torrential rain and tropical-storm-force gusts to the western half of the Carolinas," said Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy's storm director in the Carolinas.

Hollifield added, "We're closely monitoring the projected path of the storm and strategically moving people and equipment to ensure we're ready to respond to power outages."

Prior to Tropical Storm Helene arriving in the Carolinas, Duke Energy will have more than 10,000 workers – including line workers, tree trimmers, damage assessors and support personnel – staged and ready to respond as soon as conditions are safe.

Customers should go to duke-energy.com/StormTips for storm safety information ahead of Tropical Storm Helene.

In addition, Duke Energy recommends customers review these preparedness tips:

* Create or update an emergency supply kit that includes everything an individual or family would need – especially medicines, water, nonperishable foods and other supplies that might be hard to find after a storm hits.

* Keep a portable radio or TV or a NOAA weather radio on hand to monitor weather forecasts and vital information from state and local officials.

* Charge cellphones, computers and other electronic devices in advance of storms to stay connected to important safety and response information. Consider purchasing and charging portable battery chargers.

* Maintain a plan to move family members – especially those with special needs – to safe, alternative locations in case extended power outages occur or evacuation is required.

*Pet owners should arrange to stay at evacuation shelters that accept pets, friends' or family members' homes or pet-friendly hotels.

* Customers are encouraged to enroll in Outage Alerts to get information about area outages and restoration efforts via text message, voice message or email. In addition, customers can report power outages via the Duke Energy app or website, by texting OUT to 57801 or by calling 800.POWERON (800.769.3766).

* Customers can also download the enhanced American Red Cross Emergency app for weather safety. The latest version of the app, sponsored by the Duke Energy Foundation, is free, available in both English and Spanish and offers a variety of features including emergency checklists, interactive maps of open shelters and the ability to monitor multiple locations for weather alerts.

* Everyone should always stay away from power lines that have fallen or are sagging – and consider all lines energized, as well as trees, limbs, fences or anything in contact with lines. Downed lines are hard to see in the rain and standing water. Anyone who encounters large pools of standing water should stop, back up and choose another path.

Meanwhile, Duke Energy officials say they continue to strengthen its power grid in the Carolinas to make it more resistant to outages from severe weather.

The officials say the company is also creating a more resilient grid that enables power to be restored faster for customers.

Some of these improvements include upgrading thousands of poles and wires to increase reliability and better withstand storms; strategically placing outage-prone power lines underground; managing trees and vegetation; and installing smart, self-healing technology that can automatically detect power outages and quickly restore power when an outage occurs.

Duke officials say this self-healing technology helped prevent nearly 100,000 customer outages – totaling approximately 360,000 hours – in August when Tropical Storm Debby passed through the Carolinas.

Duke Energy serves more than 4.5 million customers in the Carolinas, including approximately 3.7 million in North Carolina and 835,500 in South Carolina.

Allow us to tell your company's Business Narrative. Send your press release to David Dykes or for more information email [email protected]