Big fish, small pond: New CEO of small-business lender favors hometown over Manhattan.

• Position: NCtrend: THE NAMES AND NUMBERS DRIVING COMMERCE IN THE TAR HEEL STATE - Interview

On the day in November 2004 that Michael Painter, right, left his job with a New York investment fund after only six months, he had lunch with Bob Anders at a Madison Avenue deli. Anders was looking for a gig after taking early retirement from Rocky Mount-based Centura Banks Inc., which Royal Bank of Canada acquired in 2001. (Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc bought RBC's U.S. bank in Raleigh in 2011.) Within minutes, Painter and Anders had agreed to form a small-business investment company similar to Centura Capital, where they had worked together from 1999 to 2001. The duo joined former Centura colleagues Mike Becker, Robert Gefaell and Kel Landis to launch Charlotte-based Plexus Capital LLC, which has raised $235 million from banks, institutions and private investors and a similar amount from the U.S. Small Business Administration in three funds over the last decade. The 18-employee company has issued more than $400 million of loans to 65 businesses with annual revenue less than $50 million. Last year, Painter, 41, succeeded Anders, 64, as CEO at the company, which the SBA named its Small Business Investment Company of the Year in 2013. Painter's office in Raleigh, his hometown, and Anders' in Charlotte both bear photos of their favorite New York deli. Their comments were edited for brevity and clarity.

What happened with the New York investment fund?

Painter: I took the job for all the wrong reasons. My role was to go out and find opportunities for the fund. It was exciting, and it stroked my ego in all of the wrong ways. I had this idea that I could live in Raleigh and commute to New York five days a week. That really was a big life experience for me. That is just not what life is all about.

Did you get fired?

Painter: I don't have a tape of the conversation. All I know is, I was smiling and told my wife, Molly, "I'm not sure if I got fired or I quit, but I know I'm coming home." It was a big ego hit.

How did you two meet?

Anders: Centura CEO Cecil Sewell had a program where he'd hire one top student each year out of UNC Chapel Hill's business school to work for him at the headquarters for a year and then pick a job anywhere he wanted at the bank. We had a merchant-banking group called Centura Capital that was considered sexy, so we were lucky enough to land those top students three years in a row, including Michael.

Thirty-five banks, most of them in North Carolina, have invested in Plexus. What's in it for them?

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