CBEX 2025 Speaker Series: The Entrepreneurial Journey: Struggles to Success

Charlotte Business Exchange (CBEX) Speaker Series

Since 2014 CBEX has presented insightful business topics and developed an impressive group of business leaders who are regular attendees.

We are excited to continue our 2025 theme "The Entrepreneurial Journey: Stories from Struggles to Success".

Thursday, September 18th - Chef Jim Noble's Recipe for Business, People & Purpose

Come join us for an exciting event where you'll hear about Chef Jim Noble's entrepreneurial journey.

CBEX is delighted to have Chef Jim Noble, Winston-Salem native, Charlotte and hospitality icon!

Event Details:

Date: Thursday, September 18th, 2025

Location: Suffolk Punch Brewing South Park 4400 Sharon Rd, Charlotte, NC · (704) 397-3904 (between Dick’s Sporting Goods and The Container Store – back side of Southpark Mall)

Time: Networking - 7:30 AM- 8:00 AM | Event - 8:00 AM- 9:00 AM

PANELIST:

Chef Jim Noble (Noble Food and Pursuits, NF&P) - Chef Noble is a seasoned entrepreneur who is no secret to Charlotte. While Chef Noble has a heart for food, he has a bigger heart for people. Listen in as we hear Chef Noble's entrepreneurial journey, from struggles to success and everything in between. From first opening a cookbook by Julia Childs to a passion for Southern cuisine. You can taste and see his fingerprint all over the city and now we can hear from him on the journey to success.

Moderator:

Randy Mitchell - Randy Mitchell is a Business Intermediary in Charlotte, enabling business owners to sell their company and move on to new chapters in life.

Randy frequently volunteers his time as facilitator of meetings and events. And he has facilitated several CBEX events in recent years.

Cost to Attend: $35.00

Includes Full Breakfast Menu: Smoke bacon, scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, toast with butter and jelly, coffee and juice.

Join us for an engaging and informative session that will leave you motivated and inspired.

Register Now!

HUGE SHOUT OUT TO OUR SPONSOR: Norm Randall with Insperity HR Services

PANELIST: CHEF JIM NOBLE

Chef Jim Noble - Jim Noble went to school to learn how to build things. His father built a prosperous sales pipeline for a successful furniture business and Noble—fresh out of school with an engineering degree—expected to follow suit by earning an engineering degree from NC State University and beginning his career in the furniture industry. But an undiscovered passion led him down a different path, one that brought people together around the most essential piece of furniture to any home: the table.

Noble’s path began to diverge when he cracked open a used copy of Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” purchased with money he earned as a bar owner. Having no formal culinary training, he gleaned what he could from Child before beginning an extensive study of Auguste Escoffier, the first chef to commit the secrets of French cuisine to paper. Over time, he cultivated his vision for a new Southern cuisine, one that seeks to preserve and renew our best traditions by applying the rigorous technique of the Old World masters.

What Noble lacked in formal training he made up for in his commitment to excellence, which in turn was driven by an even greater commitment to serve people. He opened his first restaurant in 1983, J.Basul Noble in his hometown of High Point, N.C., and today operates fourteen restaurants and culinary concepts: Rooster’s (four locations in Charlotte and Winston-Salem), Noble Smoke (two locations in Charlotte), The Jimmy (Charlotte), Bossy Beulah’s Chicken Shack (five locations in Charlotte, Fort Mill, and Winston-Salem plus one more coming soon), Copain Bakery (two locations in Charlotte and Winston-Salem), and Field Pea Catering. An expansion of Copain Bakery with a full brasserie serving dinner and offering private dining will open in Ballantyne in 2026. Additionally, the non-profit organization he and his wife, Karen, founded in 2014, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Dream Center, feeds and nourishes the hungry, homeless, and hopeless through free meals and food markets, community outreach and programming, Bible Study, Street Ministry, and a Discipleship program designed to get people back on their feet with housing, counseling, and job training in the Noble Food & Pursuits restaurants. The Dream Center illustrates Noble’s commitment to nourishing the needs of the community and his belief that service should extend beyond the table

MODERATOR: RANDY MITCHELL

Randy Mitchell - Randy Mitchell is a Business Intermediary in Charlotte, enabling business owners to sell their company and move on to new chapters in life.

Originally from Indiana, and a graduate of Purdue University, Randy and his wife have lived in Matthews for 27 years, where he also serves on the board of a local non-profit childcare center. He is a past recipient of the Matthews Chamber of Commerce’s “Businessperson of the Year” award.

Randy frequently volunteers his time as facilitator of meetings and events. And he has facilitated several CBEX events in recent years.

Also check out other Food & Drink events in Charlotte, Workshops in Charlotte, Arts events in Charlotte.