CEI Raleigh Luncheon

Please join the Competitive Enterprise Institute for lunch with Raleigh locals: CEI Board Member David Stover and CaptiveAire Founder and President Bob Luddy. As North Carolina emerges as one of the nation’s top states for business, the organization is growing its presence in the state. This past summer, CEI hosted its annual policy summit at the Biltmore Estate, featuring local entrepreneurs sharing the regulatory hurdles they are battling. An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bob is skilled at overcoming these constraints. As David will attest, CEI works on the front lines at the federal level to advance policies that reduce unnecessary regulation and foster an environment where businesses can grow, innovate, and create jobs. In conversation with CEI President Kent Lassman, Bob and David will explore how this approach is taking shape in North Carolina and the progress being made through meaningful deregulation.

When: ​​​​​​12:00 – 2:00 pm
Thursday, October 1, 2026

Where: Carolina Country Club
2500 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27608

This is a private event.
Questions: [email protected] or 202.331.2764

Robert L. Luddy is a business and educational entrepreneur. He founded and leads CaptiveAire Systems and serves as founder and chairman of Franklin Academy, St. Thomas More Academy, Thales Academy, and Thales College. Since 1981, CaptiveAire Systems has been a leading manufacturer of commercial kitchen ventilation systems in North America. Today, CaptiveAire employs over 2000 employees, with 120 sales offices nationwide and sales over $1 billion in 2024. A successful school choice advocate, the Luddy Schools are quickly growing, with nearly 6,500 students enrolled throughout the Raleigh area and Thales Academy campuses in three states. In 2007, Luddy was awarded the Ludwig von Mises Entrepreneurship Award for “entrepreneurial success and devotion to the free-market ideal.”

Kent Lassman is president and CEO of the feisty and principled Competitive Enterprise Institute. Reforming broken regulatory institutions and removing the unnecessary burdens they produce has taken him across America, to more than a dozen countries, and deep into the dysfunction of the federal government. An optimist by nature, he is a Virginian by choice and is outdoors at every opportunity.

David M. Stover is a board member of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Variety Wholesalers. Previously, he was senior marketing representative for Xerox Corporation, assistant secretary at the N.C. Department of Commerce, and served on the Governor’s Small Business Council and on the N.C. Economic Future Commission. In 2016, he was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. Stover received his B.S. in business administration from the University of Richmond and his M.B.A. from the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University.