Daughter joins father in S.C. Business Hall of Fame

By Cindy Landrum  

APRIL 12, 2012 1:27 p.m. (0)

When Minor Mickel Shaw was chosen this year for the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame, she became part of the first father and daughter team to receive the honor.

But the paths they took to get there have been very different.

Buck Mickel helped build Daniel Construction, a Greenville company started by his uncle, Charlie Daniel, into one of the world’s largest construction and engineering companies after it merged with Fluor Corp.

Minor Mickel Shaw runs Micco LLC, a private investment and real estate development company, and Mickel Investment Group, a family-owned investment firm, but is known more for her civic leadership.

“I’m a very unusual choice,” she said of her induction. “I think it’s more about the other types of business and economic development in which I’ve been involved.”

Shaw is only the second chair of the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission in the airport’s 50-year history.

She is also chair of the Daniel-Mickel Foundation, which has contributed millions of dollars to philanthropic causes, and a trustee of the Duke Endowment.

In addition, she’s a trustee of the Hollingworth Funds and the Belle Baruch Foundation and is on the boards of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Piedmont Natural Gas, Columbia Nations Funds and the Palmetto Institute.

“I believe strongly in connecting people and leveraging resources,” said the former college history major. “History teaches you to look at the big picture, to see how things connect. You look at how did you get here and what led up to that point.”

She thinks her biggest contribution to the area was her participation in bringing Southwest Airlines to the Upstate, which was key to helping economic development in the Upstate and improving life for its residents.

“My picture has been in the paper a lot lately and I’m embarrassed about that,” she said. “I like to be in a leadership position, but I’d rather not be the one to get the attention. It takes a team. When really good things happen, it’s because there’s a team of people working to make them happen.”

Shaw said work by the Greenville Housing Fund to increase affordable workforce housing is vital, and the organization is moving to become more regional. She said a benefit bank that helps people access benefits they would otherwise not know they qualify for is helping to improve the community.

“That’s community development, but to me, that’s economic development as well,” she said.

It is that kind of work she has focused on, Shaw said.

“Hopefully, I have had an impact on things that help economic development in a different way,” she said.

The work is keeping the mother of three and grandmother of seven, soon to be eight, busier than ever.

Shaw, who enjoys fly-fishing and hunting, said she still keeps her calendar on paper. She already has meetings scheduled through 2014.

The South Carolina Business Hall of Fame was established in 1985 by Junior Achievement and The State newspaper to honor the champions of free enterprise and to present role models in business to youth.

Induction into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame is a lifetime achievement award for individuals who have made a major impact on South Carolina as visionary business leaders.

Shaw and this year’s other laureates – Bill L. Amick, real estate developer and former CEO of Amick Farms Inc.; and the late Jerry Zucker, founder of The InterTech Group, one of the largest privately held companies in the United States – will be inducted on May 24.

Junior Achievement of the Upstate plans to charter a bus for Upstate residents who want to see Shaw inducted, said Connie Lanzl, president.

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