Wilmington businessman and entrepreneur Mike Duncan, 55, died Tuesday after the electric bike he was riding collided with a deer in rural Watauga County, northeast of Boone.
A Wilmington native and alumnus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Duncan founded local digital marketing agency Sage Island in 1997.
He sold the business in 2021 and has since served as the vice president and general manager of OneWater Marine and Revver Digital, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was also the founder and CEO of Warehouse Skateboards.
Dave Lewis purchased Sage Island from Duncan in August 2021 and now serves as the company’s president. In a statement on Thursday, Lewis remembered Duncan’s impact on the company and the larger business community.
“Nearly 30 years ago, Mike’s vision and entrepreneurial spirit established a full-service marketing agency that was ahead of its time,” Lewis wrote. “Mike’s influence can still be felt today in the work he created and the foundation he built for Sage Island and the Wilmington business community. Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time.”
The N.C. State Highway Patrol responded to and investigated a fatal collision involving Duncan around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday on North Pine Run Road near Moses Spring Road in Watauga County, according to a news release.
“A motorized electric bike traveling south with a group of riders on North Pine Run Road struck a deer, which was part of a herd that had entered the roadway,” the release stated.
Duncan was ejected from his bike and transported to an area hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. The initial investigation indicates speed and alcohol were not contributing factors in the collision, according to the release.
Employees remember Duncan as a positive and supportive boss who lived life to the fullest.
Kim Lannou, now a digital product manager at Revver Digital, met Duncan in 2008 when she moved to Wilmington, newly married and fresh out of college. Lannou was looking for a job in marketing, and Duncan was the CEO and creative director of Sage Island.
“Our paths crossed,” Lannou said. “That was the beginning, and I have since worked with Mike up to this day.”
Lannou said Duncan was like a “big brother” who always had his employees' backs.
“We were treated like family, and that meant picking on you like a family, but also loving you like a family. His agency was a small, little boutique agency, and we were tight,” she said. “We were a tight group of people, and he led it that way, too.”
After the sale of Sage Island, Lannou and several other employees, including Brandon Rowlett, followed Duncan to work at OneWater Marine and Revver Digital.
Rowlett, a software operations specialist with OneWater Marine, said Duncan was a “great friend and a great person to work for.” Rowlett began working for Duncan 19 years ago, in September 2006, at Sage Island.
“He was always looking in the right direction, not trying to shut anybody down,” Rowlett said. “If there was an idea that he just didn’t see, he was like, ‘I think we should go in a different direction, how about this?’ And he would always support the entire way. He was never a ‘no’ person.”
Lannou remembers Duncan as a boss who celebrated his employees and valued a balance between work and play. “Anyone who knows Mike knows he had a big personality,” Lannou said, “and he loved life, big time.”
That meant dressing up for Halloween, celebrating holidays and marking milestones, both professional and personal, for his employees, she said. Outside of the office, Rowlett said he and Duncan were friends.
“Not only was he my boss, but we were really good friends,” he said. “We hung out; we did things together; we went to concerts together.”
Lannou said Duncan played a role in launching careers for his employees in the Wilmington area and beyond.
“Everyone should know that he touched so many lives here, and he paved the way for so many of us,” she said. “For a lot of us, it was our first job, or we were new to the industry, and he provided so much nurturing and growth and opportunity.”
As of press time, memorial service details were not yet available online.
