TOP SHELF: OUR TAKE ON THE VISIONARIES WHOSE FORTUNES SOARED IN CONCERT WITH NORTH CAROLINA'S RAPID GROWTH.

• Author: Mildenberg, David
• Position: UPFRONT

It's an understatement to say 2017 was an excellent year for our state: Lowest unemployment rate in 17 years and a record number of people with jobs. More than 400,000 fewer people receiving food stamps than a year earlier. Home of the NCAA men's basketball champions. But aside from Roy Williams, who had a distinctive year in North Carolina business? Here are a few ideas:

DOUC LEBDA--CEO of LendingTree. Its stock jumped more than 200% in the last year, and investors valued the Charlotte-based company at more than $4 billion. Lebda controls 20%.

DEVELOPER STEPHEN HILL AND RESTAURATEUR VIVIAN HOWARD--Innovations by these Kinston civic leaders attracted surprising publicity and a lot of foodies to Lenoir County.

COLIN SHANNON--CEO of PRA Health Sciences, a Raleigh-based drug-trials company. Its stock has jumped more than fourfold since its IPO three years ago. The company was valued at more than $5.6 billion in mid-December.

DAVID ROUTH, ROBERT SHEPARD AND MARK PETERSEN--Lead fundraisers at UNC Chapel Hill, Duke and Wake Forest universities, respectively. These colleges and others are raking in historic amounts of money.

JIM MELVIN AND SAM SIMPSON--While many contributed, the head of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation and the Triad real-estate executive led the effort to assemble land for an auto-manufacturing plant--hopefully Toyota-Mazda--at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite.

KEN THOMPSON--The former Wachovia CEO-turned private-equity investor helped arrange the $1.9 billion sale of High Point-based BNC Bancorp to Nashville-based Pinnacle Financial Partners. He also got a board seat at LendingTree.

MICHAEL SMITH, ZACH MATHENY AND JASON THIEL--Leaders of downtown booster groups in Charlotte, Greensboro and Winston-Salem, respectively, and their peers are benefiting from robust demand to live and work in central business zones.

SMOKY BISSELL--The Charlotte...