The TRC Nexus Annual Holiday Piece Roundup

Good morning!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year at TRC Nexus! Next week, we’ll begin publishing our annual holiday pieces that look back on 2025 and look forward to 2026. 

As we do each year during the holiday break, we pause our normal, daily Morning Updates to post a series of reflective and future-looking columns to close out the year. Frankly, these pieces are always some of our best content, and that’s especially true in 2025. This year, we’ve teed up our biggest, most comprehensive holiday slate to date.  

Beginning next Wednesday (12/24), Nexus will operate on the following schedule: 

• Wednesday, Dec. 24th – The Results Company CEO Chuck Fuller offers a leadership-focused perspective on Christmas
• Thursday, Dec. 25th – OFF
• Friday, Dec. 26th – Round-up of our NC business leader “Passion Project” pieces
• Saturday, Dec. 27th – Review of our top-performing Saturday pieces from 2025
• Sunday, Dec. 28th – OFF
• Monday, Dec. 29th – Reflection on 2025 in North Carolina – the biggest stories, themes, and trends at the intersection of business, politics, and policy
• Tuesday, Dec. 30th – A look-back at our column on restoring civil discourse in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination 
• Wednesday, Dec 31st – Preview of North Carolina politics in 2026 
• Thursday, Jan. 1st, 2026 – Chuck Fuller prompts us to consider the importance of 2026: the 250th anniversary of the United States of America
• Friday, Jan 2nd – 2026 national political preview 

As the Christmas holiday approaches, we encourage you to take time to enjoy meaningful moments with family and friends during this season of reflection, gratitude, and rest. That said, we are excited to share our holiday content and hope you’ll find it both engaging and worth passing along to colleagues or others who may benefit from Nexus.

Today, in place of our typical Saturday edition, we’re revisiting a selection of holiday columns from last year. You can read the brief excerpts below or click through to explore each piece in full.

Overview of North Carolina’s exploding biotech industry 
12/23/24
Thank you for joining us this Monday morning. This is the first piece in our end of year content that will review and preview leading topics that impact North Carolina’s business community.

The holidays are filled with cheerful celebrations with friends and family, but they also offer an opportunity to reflect on those no longer with us. One person who comes to mind this holiday season is a good friend of The Results Company, Bob Ingram – one of the most important leaders in the North Carolina life science industry and a former CEO of GlaxoWellcome. 

Bob was a pillar of the biotech industry here in North Carolina and leaves a legacy. He played a key role in efforts to land the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh. Throughout his leadership in the business world, he helped put North Carolina on the map as a hub for life sciences and pharmaceutical companies. Finally, Bob led efforts to start NCInnovation, which is poised to boost innovations at universities across the Tar Heel State. Read more

TRC CEO Chuck Fuller – The Gift of Unity and Freedom 
12/24/24
In December 1971, at age 13, I sat in a circle with my peers inside Ridgecrest Conference Center in Black Mountain, NC, for the Aversboro Road Baptist Church annual youth retreat, my first.

Like most 13-year-olds, I was unsure of myself, trying to navigate a world that seemed to grow bigger by the day. But I felt a strange, overpowering presence as I sat in the circle that night, like a spotlight was on me. I was exactly where I was meant to be, doing precisely what I was supposed to do. It was an entirely unknown feeling for this introverted teenager. 

I would lie in bed at night in the days and weeks to follow, dreaming about how to share what I had experienced. It may sound odd or even dissonant today, when there seems to be so much cultural focus on the “self” and less on the greater good, but I truly wanted to positively impact other people’s lives. Perhaps that meant leading when necessary or following when prudent. But leaving a positive impact would be my north star – that was my realization at that retreat. Read more

Attracting Top Employers and Paving the Way for Future Success
12/26/24
The past decade has seen North Carolina redouble its persistence in the game of interstate economic competition. The state’s business and political leaders are relentlessly forward-looking, and that’s part of the reason North Carolina has enjoyed so much success.

But from time to time it’s worthwhile to look behind us and see what the road we’ve built looks like.

Just a few years ago, North Carolina was awash in megasites – 1,000+ acres of contiguous property that can accommodate a large employer. Other states had worked harder and faster over previous decades to prepare and market their megasites, so we were behind as our neighbors recruited automakers and other major industries. Read more

2025: The year of recovery for Western North Carolina 
01/02/2025
Western North Carolina faces a disaster recovery unlike any in our state before. It will require unique solutions and long-term planning to fully rebuild in the often remote, mountainous region of our state. Unfortunately, federally funded disaster recovery is not known for “unique solutions” or “long-term planning.”

The most recent estimates from the Office of State Budget and Management tally Helene’s damage at $58 billion. The storm caused a staggering 2,000 reported landslides that harmed countless acres of farmland and mountain landscape, and damaged 6,000 miles of roads key to the state’s infrastructure. Those figures fail to capture the human cost – 103 North Carolinians died due to Helene’s direct impacts, three remain missing. 

Today, TRC Nexus will try to put the recovery process in perspective, clarifying what the government is doing and identifying ways for the business community to engage in the colossal task. Read more