(CHAPEL HILL) The people of North Carolina will have the opportunity to hear the views of all the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate - all except for State Senator Kay Hagan.

Ms. Hagan has ignored the invitation from the League of Women Voters and Public Radio East to participate in the debate at Craven Community College in New Bern on Friday March 28 at 8 p.m. It will be broadcast on public radio stations statewide. The deadline for participating passed this week with no response from Hagan.

Jim Neal, the Chapel Hill businessman running for U.S. Senate, is calling on State Senator Hagan to participate in a series of six debates across the state in Charlotte, the Triangle, the Triad, Asheville, Fayetteville, and New Bern.

“These debates will give voters an opportunity to see who the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate really are and what we believe. It seems Appropriations Chairwoman Hagan thinks this campaign is about calling in favors from high-dollar Capitol insiders to pay for carpet bombing the state with poll-tested political ads, but the people of North Carolina deserve better. They deserve a real discussion of the issues facing our state and our nation,” Neal said.

Hagan’s failure to appear at the New Bern debate is not Hagan’s only rejection of an unscripted exchange before the voters.

Hagan has ignored requests for a debate sponsored by WTVD-TV ABC 11 Eyewitness News Raleigh-Durham.

Hagan, a chair of the state Senate appropriations committee, inexplicably entered the race after publicly announcing she had no interest in challenging Elizabeth Dole for the U.S. Senate. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHaauvJnNLA&feature=related)

Jim Neal, the grandson of a carpenter, public school teacher and two mill workers, was born in Greensboro in 1956, where he attended public school. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978. Following graduation he joined Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst. He returned to school at the University of Chicago, where he earned an MBA and worked a series of part-time jobs to pay his way through school.

As an investment banker at Salomon Brothers, Neal earned a reputation for leadership and innovative strategies while advising Fortune 500 companies on how to play successful roles in a changing global economy. He also worked as a senior investment banker with E.F Hutton and Bear Stearns, serving clients that ranged from Bank of America and American Express to Lincoln National Corporation and Transamerica.

For the past two decades, Neal has focused his career on information technology and healthcare companies, including serving as chief executive officer of RxMarketplace.com, a start-up firm that helped pharmacists offer patients prescription drugs at more affordable prices. Since 2000, Neal has led several private companies prior to founding The Agema Group, a financial advisory firm based in Chapel Hill.

Neal has continued his active involvement in nonprofit groups and political initiatives. A member of the Board of Governors of the New School from 2002 to 2006, he also served as a national finance committee member for Wes Clark for President and the Kerry-Edwards campaigns, as well as acting as a national fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles in 2004.

Neal has served his community as an overnight volunteer at a homeless shelter, a lay minister to mentally ill residents of an assisted-care facility, and a sponsor of a post-war Vietnamese refugee family in alliance with the International Rescue Committee.

Neal lives in Chapel Hill with the younger of his two sons, Winston.

Jim Neal is available for interviews. Please contact Andrew Kain 919-544-1136 x225 at to schedule interviews.