As business editor of The News & Observer, Dan Gearino wrote a weekly column, but one annoyed the executive editor so much that he pulled the plug. “I’ll stipulate the charge: My columns were notably short on reverence,” concedes Dan, who channeled some of the creative energy that went into writing the column to his first novel — What the Deaf-Mute Heard — which Simon & Schuster published. It would win the state’s top fiction prize and be turned into the highest-rated TV movie of the decade.

Keith West stood 6-4 and weighed about 260. Nearly 40, the ex-Marine had gone soft around the waist, but his arms still looked as hard as tree trunks. His size served him well in his business. He had left the Smithfield Police Department in 2001 to start West-Tek Inc., his private police force, which within five years had more than 100 employees. He rarely took vacations, spending much of his time away from the office boning up on security practices and networking.

As managing editor of The Charlotte Observer, a job he held 13 years, Frank Barrows ran a newsroom 250 people strong. As Business North Carolina’s new executive editor, he supervises three editors — four, once we fill a vacancy — and tries to keep an editor in chief at least somewhat focused and on task. Small in number we might be, but we’ve spent a combined 161 years in journalism, probably one of the most experienced staffs of ink-stained wretches you’ll find working anywhere.

A panel of pros compete in predicting whose picks will produce the most profit in the year to come.

Frank Jolley is trying to play it cool. He says he doesn’t take Business North Carolina’s annual stock-picking competition seriously. Yet last year’s champ, who’s president of Jolley Asset Management in Rocky Mount, knew before the official numbers were crunched this year that someone else had captured his crown.