Nutrition Research Institute advisory board draws big names

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — Former Food Lion executive Tom Smith and a dozen other heavy hitters from North Carolina business and academics have joined an advisory board at the N.C. Research Campus.

Led by former Gov. Jim Martin, the group will increase awareness and raise money for the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis.

The board met with Dr. Holden Thorp, chancellor for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Monday at the Research Campus.

When director Dr. Steven Zeisel pitched the Nutrition Research Institute earlier this year, "it was immediately clear to me that I wanted to be a part of it," said Martin, a former chemistry professor who ran a laboratory at Carolinas Medical Center.

Martin didn't want to pass up the chance to help launch the Kannapolis project, he said. He had missed the launch of the Research Triangle Park 50 years earlier, which opened before he took office.

It took 15 years and IBM's partnership for the Research Triangle Park to earn validation, Martin said.

And the controversial N.C. Global TransPark in Kinston struggled until Spirit AeroSystems recently joined, he said.

But the N.C. Research Campus has been validated since "day one" because it opened with substantial private-sector support from founder David Murdock and his company, Dole Food, Martin said.

Martin and Zeisel recruited an advisory board for the Nutrition Research Institute that reads like a who's who of North Carolina industry and academics. Martin still wants representation from the Carolina Panthers, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, he said.

Every corporation in Charlotte should know about the Nutrition Research Institute, Martin said.

"We want to be world-class, but we can't do it without the support of the community," Zeisel said.

Advisory board members will use their connections to find people and organizations throughout the United States that want to use the Nutrition Research Institute, Food Lion's Smith said.

The success of the N.C. Research Campus will benefit Salisbury and Rowan County by providing jobs, he said.

"Many people who work here will live in Rowan County," Smith said.