Stephen Williams and Thomas Cook: Delaware River and Bay Authority
Wilmington Airport’s commercial flights are in full swing, largely in thanks to these two men.
The Delaware River and Bay Authority, owner and operator of the Wilmington Airport, has seen historic commercial success over the past year. After Avelo Airlines signed a five-year service agreement out of ILG, the long history of rotating airline providers in Wilmington seemed to be a distant memory.
Stephen Williams, director of airports and deputy executive for the DRBA, and Thomas Cook, executive director for the DRBA, have seen business boom out of the airport after they secured commercial flights to Wilmington. In the past year, the airline has completed over 2,100 flights out of ILG and nearly 286,000 customers, a record number for the small airport.
DRBA is working to finalize terminal design improvements to continue the airport’s expansion and also has acquired ownership of the hotel adjacent to the airport to provide parking to keep up with its increased demand.
Aside from the Wilmington Airport, the DRBA plans on opening an 80,000-square-foot sports complex at the Cape May Airport.
Jennifer Brooks: GOLO, owner
Jennifer Brooks, president and co-founder of the national GOLO weight loss company, is ensuring that it remains a Delaware entity.
GOLO’s weight loss method focuses on reversing the “crash diet” trends by increasing the amount of natural insulin the body receives with dietary supplements and frozen foods.
Brooks has operated GOLO out of Newark since 2009. She upgraded its office space since the company’s customer base boomed after the pandemic, reaching over 4 million customers globally last year.
In October, GOLO opened an 80,000-square-foot warehouse on Heald Street in Wilmington to serve as its East Coast distribution center, specializing in creating and distributing their dietary products.
Equipped with a culinary arts degree and a board certification in holistic nutrition, Brooks involves herself in all aspects of the company’s operation, including product development and marketing.
In just the past year, GOLO has donated over $68,000 and pledged to donate an additional 100,000 frozen meals to organizations around Delaware. Because of the expanded warehouse space, Brooks plans on growing the donation effort to reach other areas of Delaware and the Delmarva region.
Brett Saddler: Claymont Renaissance Development Corporation, executive director
The Claymont area is seeing the beginning of a makeover, and Brett Saddler has been the one leading the charge since 2006.
As executive director of the Claymont Renaissance Development Corporation, Saddler has overseen dozens of projects designed to strategically guide Claymont from into a revitalized destination for locals.
2023 saw the long-awaited opening of the $90 million Claymont Transportation Center, off Philadelphia Pike to replace the previous station, which had been old and deteriorating making service trips to and from Philadelphia.
The train station is just the start of Saddler’s vision for a 3.3 million square-foot development called First State Crossing, featuring office and retail buildings, anywhere from 80 to 100 homes and potentially a riverfront park. This is just one among over a dozen planned projects around the Claymont area, all aimed at bringing more people to the area Saddler calls home.
“There could be up to 5,000 residents living on the doorstep of us. There could be 5,000-plus new residents. … That’s quite an accomplishment,” Saddler said. “What this [train station] does? It helps secure that accomplishment.”
Claire van de Broek and Ryan Eanes: Huxley & Hiro bookstore, owners
Claire van de Broek and Ryan Eanes want to bring community spaces back to Wilmington.
Saddened by the closing of the beloved Ninth Street Book Shop, the best friends and business partners decided to team up and open Huxley & Hiro bookstore at 419 N. Market St in Wilmington.
Van de Broek, an adjunct professor for Southern New Hampshire University and a linguist for some big-time clients like the FBI and Department of Defense, also manages the store’s daily operations, as well as community outreach and events. Eanes, a professor of advertising at Temple University, works on the store’s marketing and outreach strategies.
The partners want to give the Wilmington community a break from looking at screens and a chance to interact with their neighbors. Events are held weekly, ranging from book clubs and open mics to sewing events.
It’s not just about ensuring their own business’s success; They also work to empower other small businesses in Wilmington. Listed on their website are the restaurants, shops and tourist destinations within a walking distance to their bright blue storefront.
“Wilmington’s economic success for much of our history was tied to large corporations,” Wilmington Mayor Purzycki said at the store’s ribbon cutting in October. “What’s changed is that the economic activity in our city now is of the small entrepreneurs, the risk takers.”
Jeffrey Gosnear: Grotto Pizza, president
A familiar name got a new face last year (sort of). In November, Jeffrey Gosnear was named just the second president of Grotto Pizza in the chain’s 60-plus years of operations.
Gosnear has worked for the chain for decades, and the move to make him president was no surprise. He has not only been behind the curtain of some of Grotto’s major expansion moves, but will oversee a potential expansion into the former Dolle’s on the Rehoboth boardwalk.
Its Rehoboth boardwalk opening will be a feat of its own. In collaboration with Onix Group, Grottos plans on being the ground floor face of a four-story hotel that would stretch the entire beachfront property from Rehoboth Avenue to Baltimore Avenue.
Gosnear has stated that the chain wants to elevate its status from beachside pizza joint to a dining experience around the Delmarva area. Over the next decade, the company’s goal is to open a total of 40 locations and renovate existing locations.
Chris Schell: Schell Brothers home builders, CEO
Founded in 2003 in Rehoboth Beach, Schell Brothers has expanded to Virginia and Tennessee and is now in the national spotlight.
Already honored as 2023 Builder of the Year by the Home Builders Association of Delaware, Schell Brothers was named Builder of the Year by PRO BUILDER magazine and ranked in the top 75 in the nation in revenue on the magazine’s Housing Giants list.
Chief executive officer Chris Schell said his company’s success is built on happiness.
“My leadership philosophy is pretty simple: sincerely make happiness the highest priority and everything else just seems to fall into place,” Schell said.
With 278 employees, Schell said focusing on their happiness determines how customers are treated which leads to a growing business.
He and his team also have made a commitment to improving happiness in their communities with a variety of service projects. The most visible is Schellville Christmas Village, visited by tens of thousands during the holiday season with free admission.
In Project Kudos, employees partner with charities to raise funds and help families in need. During the pandemic, they delivered over 200,000 meals. They’ve also rebuilt homes after fires and improved handicapped accessibility in homes.
Schell Brothers has donated $1.1 million to Sussex Land Trust to preserve land and more than $600,000 to Beebe Hospital, helped Sussex Academy with construction and funding and provided donations and volunteer labor at parks, youth sports facilities and road cleanups.
Diane Laird: Downtown Dover Partnership
Diane Laird has helped coordinate the efforts of business owners, residents and government leaders to revitalize downtown since she was appointed executive director of the Downtown Dover Partnership in 2018. Progress was two steps forward, one step back as stores opened and closed, the pandemic hit, the post office relocated and a fatal fire destroyed a building.
Regrouping, the DDP led the development of a revitalization plan and sought proposals and funding. Investors responded with a plan for a mixed-use building at the former post office, while grants through the DDP helped businesses improve their buildings and boosted funds for new ventures like Rail Haus beer garden.
Then requests for federal and state funds were answered in a big way with $15 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and $10 million in the state bond bill for projects like a six-story building with businesses and apartments, a transportation hub with a parking garage and infrastructure improvements.
“Those visiting and living in downtown will begin to see significant, visible changes,” Laird said.
She emphasized she’s just one team member working on these goals with city, county and state government leaders, business owners and associations, nonprofits, county and regional planning groups and DDP colleagues and leaders including board president Todd Stonesifer.
Terry Murphy: Bayhealth president, CEO
As the president and chief executive officer of Bayhealth, Terry Murphy has been leading a massive expansion of medical services in downstate Delaware with nearly 4,000 employees and a medical staff of more than 450 physicians and 200 clinicians.
“Our commitment to this community and to each other can be felt the moment you walk through our doors,” Murphy said. “It’s a commitment to providing leading-edge medicine to a region and meeting the health and social needs of an entire community — now and for generations to come.”
During his tenure, Bayhealth has opened a hospital at its Sussex Campus in Milford, expanded operations at the Kent Campus in Dover and opened a 24-hour emergency center in Smyrna.
At the Sussex Campus, a partnership with Nemours Children’s Health has brought more pediatric services downstate, and two more buildings are planned: the Bayhealth Childcare Center to support staff members and their families and a rehabilitation hospital in partnership with PAM Health.
Bayhealth is helping to revitalize the former Blue Hen Mall in Dover with offices and plans to add more at what’s now called the Blue Hen Corporate Center.
In 2019, Bayhealth became a teaching hospital, launching graduate medical education in internal medicine and family medicine and expanding to surgery, emergency medicine and hematology/oncology. Now with 73 residents who are doctors training in their specialties, Bayhealth has opened a family medicine clinic in Dover and an internal medicine clinic in Milford. The Kent Campus has a 10,000 square-foot medical training center with high-tech simulations including robotics.
Under Murphy’s leadership, the healthcare provider has expanded its neuroscience offerings and has formed an affiliation with Penn Medicine to offer precision cancer treatment and clinical trials.
Mike Meoli: The Meoli Companies, president
Running a company that includes two hotels, 25 McDonald’s restaurants and employs about 1,500 people, Mike Meoli is also shaping the development of a property that could add multiple businesses near the DE Turf sports complex on Route 1 in Frederica.
At the 22-acre Asbury Square project in Frederica, the SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel opened in August and a liquor store is under construction, with plans for restaurants, a convenience store and other businesses.
As the leader of his company’s McDonald’s restaurants, he’s received the Golden Arch Award, which recognizes the top 1% of owner/operators worldwide.
“An unwavering commitment to providing outstanding customer service is the cornerstone of building enduring relationships,” Meoli said.
Employees are “the heartbeat of our organization,” he said, “and their well-being directly correlates with the quality of service we deliver. By prioritizing employees’ growth, fostering a supportive environment and empowering them to excel, my vision is to cultivate a team that is not only motivated but deeply engaged in our shared mission.”
Meoli is acting chair of the board of directors for Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, a board member and past chairman of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce and a board member for the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. He served as board chairman for the Sussex Family YMCA, donates to multiple health systems and funds scholarships for high school seniors.
Hervé Hoppenot: Incyte, CEO
As the CEO of a biopharmaceutical company that is expanding its footprint in Delaware, Hervé Hoppenot is leading Incyte’s efforts to help patients around the world who previously had limited treatment options, if any.
Founded in 2002 in Wilmington, the company now has more than 2,500 employees including 1,500 in Delaware and a portfolio of treatments for cancer, inflammation and autoimmunity.
Under Hoppenot’s leadership, Incyte’s research has resulted in treatments for cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms, graft-versus-host disease, B-cell lymphoma and Merkel cell carcinoma.
In 2022, the company developed a cream that became the first and only FDA-approved treatment for nonsegmental vitiligo, a disease characterized by depigmentation of the skin, affecting about 3 million people worldwide.
Hoppenot helped establish Incyte’s Global Responsibility Initiative to guide a sustainable business by helping patients, supporting colleagues, giving back to communities, reducing environmental impact and promoting ethical behavior.
The Incyte Cancer Care Assistance Fund provides emergency financial assistance for Delaware cancer patients, caregivers and family members, helping more than 700 people so far. The company’s Charitable Giving Foundation donates to nonprofits with a focus on cancer patient support. Incyte also provides employees with paid time off to volunteer in their communities.
