Business Leader of the Year

Business Leader of the Year

Hosted Solutions, the East Coast's premier data center and managed services provider, announced today that founder and chief executive officer Rich Lee was named "Business Leader of the Year" as part of the 2009 Triangle Hall of Fame Awards sponsored by Business Leader magazine.

The Business Leader of the Year awards are given annually to top performing business executives in North Carolina. This year, for the first time, the awards were determined by a public vote. More than 7,000 people visited the Triangle Business Leader website to vote for winners over the last month.

"It's a great honor to be recognized," said Lee. "There are some incredibly talented leaders in this state, representing very impressive businesses. To be named as 'Business Leader of the Year' from such an esteemed group is wonderful. The fact that this award was determined by votes from my peers, customers, partners and others in the community makes it even more special."

This award follows a very strong year for Hosted Solutions. In April, the company was acquired by Boston-based private equity firm ABRY Partners for $144 million. The company has had great momentum since then with significant growth in both customers and employees. New customers included Belk, Atlanta Falcons, UNC Charlotte and Britax Child Safety, who joined a prestigious list of existing blue chip customers like Krispy Kreme, Carolina Panthers, McClatchey Broadcasting, Capitol Broadcasting and Lowe's Motor Speedway. In addition, the employee base doubled since Q4 of 2007.

"Our business continues to prosper even in a tough market because we're offering our customers intelligent IT infrastructure and expertise that allows them to conserve capital, drive growth and improve productivity," Lee added. "IT is tremendous expense for most companies. We can help to alleviate some of that and allow companies to operate more efficiently. For some customers, we serve as their IT department - they outsource all aspects of IT to us. For others, we're an extension of their IT department - providing managed hosting, virtual dedicated hosting or professional services. Customers love it because they can use us as their business ramps up or down, allowing them to remain competitive in a dynamic market. Last year was a great year for us and 2009 is shaping up to be even better."