B. Mayo Boddie Sr., chairman of the NorthEastern Entrepreneur Roundtable announced the names of the four finalists for the 2008 NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

"We received over 20 qualified nominations for this year's Entrepreneur of the Year Award competition. Our selection committee had a difficult time choosing our finalists for this honor, but we believe we have selected four outstanding candidates," commented Boddie.

The four entrepreneur finalists and their companies are Bob Babington, Babington Technologies, Rocky Mount; Frank Edwards, Riverside Printing, Rocky Mount; Patrick Robinette, Harris-Robinette Farms, Pinetops; and TransTech Energy, Rocky Mount.

The winner will be announced at the 14th Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Banquet sponsored by NEER on May 12 at 5:30PM at the Rose Hill Conference Center in Nashville.

Richard Johnson, founder of HotJobs.com will be the keynote speaker. In 1999 Johnson mortgaged his house and all of his assets to borrow $4 million dollars to run a 30-second TV commercial in that year's Super Bowl. The gamble paid off as HotJobs became the sixth-most-recognized Internet brand in the world, went public and raised more than $165 million before that same year ended.

After Bob Babington graduated from Georgia Tech and served two years in the

Air Force, he joined NASA and became the youngest member of the Apollo Lunar Landing management team.

After 12 years in government service, Babington started his own business based on a unique liquid atomization principle that he invented and patented in the basement of his home.

Babington's sprayer device uses a sphere with a hole cut into it. A thin liquid film flows over the surface of the ball, and pressurized air then shoots out of the hole that sprays the liquid into the atmosphere.

Babington's sprayer device solved many previous aerosol spraying problems because it provides constant uniformity of a spray mist. Its first application was as the Solo-Sphere Babington Nebulizer, a medical product that revolutionized inhalers for respiratory illness patients.

Then came the Airtronic Oil Burner. In 1995 the Petroleum Marketers Association recognized and recommended the Babington Airtronic Oil Burner as the most efficient system available to burn oil to heat homes.

Babington has now developed products used in a variety of diversified fields based on the exclusive and patented Babington Atomization and Combustion Technology he invented. In the 1990's Babington Technology began developing advanced cooking and heating appliances for the U.S. military. All manufacturing for this new type of field kitchen equipment takes place at the Babington Technologies plant in Rocky Mount.

Frank Edwards grew up near Spring Hope and began his career working for the print shop of Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1966 he began his purchase of Walker-Ross Printing Co. Edwards then spent 32 years building his company by developing relationships with businesses opening and expanding in the Rocky Mount area. Over the years corporations such as Hardee's, RBC, Boddie-Noell and Lewis Advertising helped fuel the sales growth Walker-Ross Printing needed to continue purchasing the advanced technology printing equipment and to relocate into his plant on Atlantic Avenue.

Edwards sold his company in the mid-1990's so he could spend more time traveling with his wife. However, the Hurricane Floyd flood of 1999 changed his plans. After renovating the 60,000 square feet printing plant and installing all new equipment, the company's overhead was so high it could not make a profit. Walker-Ross Printing went into bankruptcy in 2003.

Edwards then asked 12 investors to join him in starting a new printing business on the site of the old. Riverside Printing was born on September 1, 2003 and it has been successful from the outset.

Today Riverside Printing offers customers traditional commercial printing, direct mail and fulfillment services. It also operates some of the most sophisticated and advanced printing systems available. Part of the company's success has been the result of Edwards' decision to invest in the staff, the equipment and the computer technology his customers demanded for their sophisticated marketing programs. Riverside Printing has 52 staff members working in all phases of its operations and 70 percent of the personnel were people who were hired by Frank Edwards at the old Walker-Ross Printing Co.

Harris-Robinette Farm was originally formed in 2001 as a partnership between Patrick and Amy Robinette and Amy's parents, Larry and Dianne Harris. Patrick and Amy Robinette attended North Carolina State University and were married in 1996 with the dream of one day having a farming operation of their own. After college Patrick worked for cattle operations in both the east and the Midwest.

With funding provided by RAFI-USA and the Golden Leaf Foundation, Patrick and Amy joined Amy's parents in a partnership to raise grass-fed cattle on their farm.

Harris-Robinette Farm uses no grain or grain supplements to fatten its cattle. Instead they are 100 percent grass-fed. The foundation herd has both Senepol and Senepol-crossed cattle selected because of their breed's unique characteristics. From the Virgin Islands originally, the large docile animals are disease and insect resistant, are very heat tolerant and, because their coats have slick hair, are not bothered by flies.

Harris-Robinette Farm follows an intensive grazing pattern that requires movement of the cattle from pasture to pasture for grazing on a variety of grasses throughout the year. The cattle are now slaughtered two days a week at a plant in Robersonville that only processes organically raised cattle, sheep, hogs and goats. While the company sold 225,000 pounds of grass fed beef in the past 12-month period, it cannot supply all of the demand for its product.

his is why the company is actively seeking additional investors. Also, other farmers in East Carolina are being recruited to join the program by converting unused acres or acres previously used for less profitable crops to grass pasture land.

Currently the Harris-Robinette Farm grass fed beef is being marketed as a niche product. Chefs at many of North Carolina's finer restaurants list the Harris-Robinette beef product on their menus and demand premium prices for it. Also the beef was added to the menu at Duke University in 2007 and UNC-Chapel Hill introduced the beef this past winter. Liberty University in Lynchburg will be offering it to its 20,000 plus student body in the near future.

Many of the other major UNC system universities have now approached the company about providing grass fed beef for their foodservice menus. In addition Harris-Robinette Farm grass fed beef is now offering its beef online.

Britt Medley was born to be involved in LP Gas. His father owned Sun Gas and sold LP propane gas to customers in the Rocky Mount area.

By the time Medley was seven years old, he was helping his father and older brothers refinish and repaint used propane tanks. When his father began Transpo Gas in 1981, Medley began traveling with him to sites in a three state area installing propane tanks.

In 1994 he went to work with Suburban LP Gas in Raleigh servicing customers throughout the Triangle. While there he shared an idea for improving LP Gas service operations with two older managers.

The three then formed Metro-Lift Propane in Nashville TN and established 18 locations in markets as diverse as Louisiana, Georgia and Massachusetts. After several years Medley moved for a brief stay to New York before joining United Propane in Annapolis, Maryland.

In January 1998, he returned to Rocky Mount and formed TransTech Energy. The company serves the LP Gas industry by designing, engineering and constructing commercial propane bulk plans and terminals throughout the United States. The company offers a full range of maintenance, service and refurbishing options to companies using propane gas. Because it is a niche company, Trans Tech Energy uses its expertise to keep LPG operations operating at peak efficiency, maximum safety and in full compliance with the federal standards.

Today, TransTech Energy has become one of the fastest growing and most successful companies of its type in the nation. Sales have doubled each year from 1998 to 2006.

The company now offers customers engineering, production, installation and maintenance of propane gas tanks ranging in size from 4,000 to 120,000 gallon capacity. Medley notes that has company has really evolved from the Medley family business started by his father over 50 years ago.

He believes that the values of his family provide him with guidance his company needs for the future.

To keep himself close to his family roots, his headquarters is located in his great grandparents Rocky Mount home, which he has fully restored.

Those interested in attending NEER's 14th Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Banquet on May 12 at 5:30 p.m. at the Rose Hill Conference Center in Nashville can contact Sherry Johnson at the Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce at 973-1212.