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Q: North Carolina sees biotech and service companies as a key to its future. Is that the right path? Should we be giving incentives to attract them here?

A: We're having such a growth in our state. We need to improve our educational system and our workforce development. We need to find ways to attract business in areas of our state like the eastern part where we do a lot of our businesses. We need to attract businesses that don't usually come to historical agricultural sections or the rural parts of the state. It's very very hard. As a state we have a lot to offer, but having said that, we do need to have some limited use of incentives because our states in the southeastern United States use them very effectively. We can't just take that off the table. It's a tool that we should use, but we should use it wisely. I don't think we're abusing it by any means, that's not my impression.

Q: What's the biggest change in business today compared to when you started?

A: You think about your business on a global scale which you certainly didn't even 15 years ago. How things are impacted by what happens in China or India, whether it's commodity prices or whatever it may be. The communication that's available to you to know what's happening around the world is something that contributes to that. The impact again of the fuel prices, environmental regulations, rapid growth, things like, seem to be accelerating. Utilities even 20 years ago was a pretty sleepy little business. You'd get a little growth every year, you'd serve your customers, you may build a power plant now and then, but they just weren't big things. Now the business is just much more complex.

Q: Why should an investor invest in your stock today?

A: Our profile to investors is pretty well understood. And that is that we are a company that's located in areas of good solid growth with reasonable regulation. We have a modest risk in our business, partly by how we're regulated and partly because of how we manage that business. We pay a strong dividend, which is a very important part of our profile. We've increased the dividend for 18 straight years, and 30 out of the last 31 years. The dividend is on an annualized basis $2.42 cents and the yield is about 5 1/2 percent. So you're not going to lose your money, and if you hold us for the long run, you'll get about a 10 to 12 percent total shareholder return year-to-year, pretty consistently. So that's the type of people we attract. If you're in for a fast buck or if you wanna hit something you think is going to skyrocket up, you're not buying our stock. Over 50 percent of our investors are mutual funds. American Fund is our largest shareholder. They attract people who are putting away retirement money. About 10 percent of our stock almost is held by employees. That leaves about 40 percent. ... A considerable number of them are retirees who want a steady income from the dividend and the appreciation.

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