'A visionary and a catalyst for business growth'

LAKE NORMAN, N.C. — What Western Reserve graduate Kevin Mahl is doing in the business world is not going unnoticed. His latest venture, First Turn Innovations, helped him win the prestigious Robert T. Cashion Business Person of the Year Award at the Lake Norman (N.C.) Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting in late April. The president and CEO of Champion Tire and Wheel and Hyde Park Storage, Mahl accepted the award in front of 240 business and community leaders at the Venues at Langtree in Mooresville, N.C. "I am humbled and honored that my name will be forever enshrined next to previous recipients of this award," he told the crowd. "Those people are the business leaders and pioneers who have shaped the Lake Norman region and have made it the special place it has become. "Although my name is on the award, it would not be possible without a legion of folks that have helped me along the way, most of all, my wife, Shelley, the CEO of our enterprises. Mahl touched briefly on his new venture, First Turn Innovations, describing it as the means to provide the resources to nurture new ideas with the hope of inspiring and then propelling the next generation of entrepreneurs forward. It was 25 years ago when Mahl's initial business venture, Champion Tire and Wheel, based in Cornelius, N.C., was started. It was NASCAR Hall of Fame member Robert Yates who convinced NASCAR that trucking firms were needed to haul spent wheels back to Charlotte, N.C., so he did not have to put them in his show-piece race hauler. He saw hauling them as wear and tear on his hauler and said it was well worth someone else to haul them. Among the six firms that jumped at the chance was Mahl. It was a perfect fit for Mahl and his business partner, both of who were former Goodyear employees. Although it would take a huge amount of money to buy new Peterbilt tractors and custom trailers to accommodate the teams, Mahl soon learned that having the engineering and technical experience gained from being a Goodyear employee was key. He offered a lot more than just muscling wheels and tires to and from tracks. When racing teams asked haulers to make room not only for tires but other items that dwarfed the size of tires and rims, Mahl accepted the challenge, one that probably separated him from other haulers. Then when NASCAR asked him to also haul their cumbersome track driers, Mahl was again receptive. The end result was Champion Tire and Wheel now has 35 tractors and custom-built trailers that travel almost 2 million miles each year employing 65 full-time employees and half that many part-timers. Mahl's first business venture in May of 2001 was called Hyde Park Storage Suites. It was an upscale storage complex for RVs, cars and boats. Hyde Park has grown to a 450,000-square foot complex, one that has branched out to a facility in Daytona Beach, Fla., in the shadow of the speedway. The investment is over $30 million. Lake Norman (N.C.) Chamber of Commerce Board Chair Erika Erienbach's said it best at this year's event when she stated, "Kevin Mahl is an entrepreneur, a visionary and a catalyst for business growth. "