fund manager, trader and founder of Moore Capital Management (Raleigh) Maria Beasley (1836–1913), entrepreneur and inventor Caleb Bradham (1866–1934), inventor of Pepsi-Cola (New Bern) James Edgar Broyhill (1892–1988), industrialist, founder of Broyhill Furniture Industries, Inc. (Wilkes County) Charles Albert Cannon (1892–1971), textile executive, president of Cannon Mills (Concord) Benjamin Newton Duke (1855–1929), tobacco and electric power industrialist, co-founder of Duke Energy (Durham) James Buchanan Duke (1856–1925), tobacco and electric power industrialist, founder of American Tobacco Company, co-founder of Duke Energy (Durham) Richard Jordan Gatling (1818–1903), inventor of the Gatling gun (Hertford County) James Goodnight (born 1943), software developer, CEO of SAS Institute (Wilmington) William B. Harrison Jr. (born 1943), former CEO of JPMorgan Chase (Rocky Mount) E. Lee Hennessee (1952–2016), pioneer hedge fund manager (Raleigh) Chris Hughes (born 1983), co-founder of Facebook (Hickory) Richard Jenrette (1929–2018), co-founder of investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (Raleigh) Ralph Ketner (1920–2016), founder of Food Lion (Salisbury) Kelly King (born 1948), Chairman and CEO of BB&T (Raleigh) Herman Lay (1909–1982), businessman, founder of Lay's potato chips (Charlotte) Debra L. Lee (born 1954), CEO of BET (Greensboro) Leon Levine (born 1937), businessman and philanthropist, founder of Family Dollar (Wadesboro) Ann Livermore (born 1958), former Executive Vice President at Hewlett-Packard (Greensboro) Vince McMahon (born 1945), Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (Pinehurst) Dalton L. McMichael (1914–2001), textile executive (Wentworth) John Merrick (1859–1919), businessman, founder of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (Clinton) Ricky Moore, chef and restaurant owner James Owens (born 1946), former Chairman and CEO of Caterpillar Inc. (Elizabeth City) Ronald Perelman (born 1943), businessman, investor, CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes (Greensboro) John Henry Phelan (1877–1957), oil producer and philanthropist (Charlotte) R. J. Reynolds (1850–1918), founder of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (Winston-Salem) Julian Robertson (born 1932), hedge fund manager (Salisbury) Charles Clinton Spaulding (1874–1952), served as president of NC Mutual Life Insurance Company (Columbus County) Stanley Tanger (1923–2010), founder of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (Greensboro) David S. Taylor (born 1958), Chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble (Charlotte) Entertainers A–L Sidney Blackmer (1895–1973), actor (Salisbury) Randy Boone (born 1942), actor and singer (Fayetteville) Alicia Bridges (born 1953), singer-songwriter ("I Love the Nightlife") (Charlotte) Doug Brochu (born 1990), actor (Fayetteville) Ben Browder (born 1962), actor (Charlotte) Cliff Cash (born 1981), stand-up comedian (Gastonia) Jim David, stand-up comedian, actor (Asheville) Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959), film director and producer (Washington) Tom DiCillo (born 1953), film director (Camp