Ivan Blackman

City of Wilson

The City of Wilson, NC is a vibrant community of nearly 50,000, driven by innovation and the arts. The city provides electric, natural gas, water and sewer, and/or broadband utilities to 35,000 households and businesses. Gig East is our collective effort to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, our co-working space, the Gig East Exchange, located in the heart of Historic Downtown Wilson. Wilson's agricultural roots date back to our days as the world's largest brightleaf tobacco market. These days, Wilson is home to a thriving economy with leadership in sectors including agribusiness, manufacturing, finance, life sciences, next generation networking, and the arts. Wilson's emerging focus on innovation is driven by our strong history of investing in the infrastructure that supports what comes next. In 2008, we built Greenlight, the state's first fully-deployed fiber to the home network, and we've offered community-wide Gigabit service since 2013.