MP Business 2018

www.MPBusinessMag.com | www.BestOfMP.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com MPB A ccording to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition, my personal favorite when I need to know the spelling or definition of a word, an entrepreneur is “a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of the profit.” That’s accurate, of course, but pretty basic in my mind. I like to think of an entrepreneur as someone with the prescience, vision, perseverance and moxie to come up with a business-related idea and then study, nurture, define and refine it and then open up the faucet full-blast and see if the public is in a buying mood. To me, you’re not an entrepreneur unless you risk financial ruin or something like it to bring your baby into the marketplace. If your business succeeds, you probably will make a lot of money. If it fails, you must have the class and determination to pick up the pieces, put your finances back in order, and, if you have truly been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, come up with another idea and try to climb that mountain once again. Or, in the case of Noah Leask, you come up with a great idea and through hard work, innate talent and maybe a little bit of luck, your business becomes wildly successful and you move on to other business enterprises. I had the opportunity to interview Leask and another local entrepreneur for this issue of Mount Pleasant Business . Aric Southworth, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and Jiaxin Qu, a native of China, combined their experience, talent and business acumen to create the Super Commander International program. Now in their third year, they train Chinese youngsters from affluent families to excel in a variety of military activities – most importantly to lead. They hope to someday expand the program to American and Australian teenagers. Leask, meanwhile, started a company in 2006 that contracts with the federal government to handle cyber-intelligence projects too secret to speak about. After serving as chief executive officer of ISHPI for 10 years, he became chairman and moved on to other business enterprises, including APC Data Analytics and Bublish. Now, seeking additional technological worlds to conquer, he’s ready to tackle artificial intelligence – machines that can think. Both Leask and Southworth fit my definition of entrepreneurs. They took a risk and they made a profit, and the business world is a better place because they did. BRIAN SHERMAN Editor • MP Business 2018-19 FROM THE EDITOR 2018-19 Publisher/Editorial Director BILL MACCHIO Publisher@MountPleasantMagazine.com Editor BRIAN SHERMAN Managing Editor HELEN HARRIS Art Director DANA COLEMAN Advertising Director KIM HALL Production Manager CRISTINA YOUNG Webmaster GEORGE CONKLIN Internet SHERMAN PAGGI Writers STACY DOMINGO BILL FARLEY COLIN MCCANDLESS KALEEN MCCORT ALLI STEINKE JOHN TORSIELLO Photographers THOMAS RUNION JENNIFER CADY RICK WALO JESS WOOD Sales manager CULLEN MURRAY-KEMP CULLEN@MOUNTPLEASANTMAGAZINE.COM Independent Media Consultants MARGARET BURNS MARGARET@MOUNTPLEASANTMAGAZINE.COM STEPHANIE BULLOCK STEPHANIE@MOUNTPLEASANTMAGAZINE.COM ANDY BIMONTE ANDY@MOUNTPLEASANTMAGAZINE.COM MATT PROSSER MATTHEW@MOUNTPLEASANTMAGAZINE.COM KIRSTEN LINDSEY KIRSTEN@MOUNTPLEASANTMAGAZINE.COM Administration & Bookkeeping DIANE PAULDINE • GINGER SOTTILE Distribution U.S. POST OFFICE • HARRIS TEETER • PUBLIX • CVS MountPleasantBusiness is published locally by a team of independent contractors who reside in East Cooper. Mount Pleasant Business is published by Media Services, Inc. 1013 Chuck Dawley Blvd., Mount Pleasant, S.C. 29464 Copyright © Media Services 2018. All rights reserved. Reproduction electronically or in print format without expressed written consent of the publisher is prohibited and a violation of U.S. copyright laws. Inquiries to: Mount Pleasant Business P.O. Box 22617, Charleston, S.C. 29413 843-881-1481 Info@MountPleasantMagazine.com