EY US Honors Alexa Lowe & Joe Huber as East Central 2025 Entrepreneur Of The Year® Winners

Celebrating the bold leaders shaping the future through two of the industry’s most ground-breaking companies: Verti CRE and Huber Equity Group.

COLUMBUS, OH, UNITED STATES, June 20, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) announced that Alexa Lowe and Joe Huber of Verti CRE and Huber Equity Group were named Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 East Central Award winners. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the preeminent competitive awards program for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. For 40 years, EY US has celebrated ambitious entrepreneurs who are transforming industries, impacting communities and creating long-term value.

Alexa Lowe and Joe Huber were chosen by an independent panel of past winners, top CEOs and business leaders. Judges assessed candidates on long-term value creation, entrepreneurial spirit, purpose-driven commitment and significant growth and impact.

“Seven years ago, we started with a crazy idea and a spare bedroom,” said Alexa Lowe and Joe Huber, co-founders of Verti CRE and Huber Equity Group. “What we’ve built since, two companies rooted in grit, generosity, and vision, still feels surreal. Being named winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year^® program is more than an honor; it’s a moment to pause and reflect on the journey, the purpose, and the people who carried us here. This recognition isn’t just ours. It belongs to our spouses who held steady through the chaos, to our team who lives out the mission every day, and to the mentors who reminded us to keep going when things felt impossible. We’re proud of the work we’ve done, grateful for the impact it’s made, and excited to keep building together.”

What began in a spare bedroom has grown into two thriving companies: Huber Equity Group (HEG) and Verti Commercial Real Estate (Verti CRE). Since co-founding HEG, Huber and Lowe have closed over $210 million in transactions, acquired more than 1,700 units across 22 states, and improved housing for over 7,000 residents, all while staying true to a mission rooted in community reinvestment and opportunity.

In 2024, they partnered with Chris Homan to launch Verti Commercial Real Estate in response to the speed and scale of their off-market deal sourcing. Verti’s proprietary Direct-to-Seller System™ generates over 150,000 owner touch points annually, resulting in the identification of 8,600+ units and an $880 million pipeline within just six months. The firm is projected to generate $35 million in revenue within its first two years.

Together, HEG and Verti CRE operate as a vertically integrated platform focused on scaling with intention—mentoring first-time investors, offering equity opportunities to brokers, and reinvesting 20% of profits back into the communities they serve.

As East Central award winner, Alexa and Joe are now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 National Awards. The National Award winners, including the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced in November at the Strategic Growth Forum^®, one of the nation’s most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies. The Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in June 2026.

Entrepreneur Of The Year recognizes many different types of business leaders for their ingenuity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit. The program celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or who raised outside capital to grow their company; transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory; and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future.

The Entrepreneur Of The Year program has recognized the leadership of entrepreneurs such as:
• Sheila Mikhail of AskBio
• Caryn Seidman Becker and Ken Cornick of CLEAR
• James Park of Fitbit
• Arthur Blank of The Home Depot
• Kendra Scott of Kendra Scott LLC
• Reed Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn
• Saiju Jeong of Noom
• Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee Company
• Jodi Berg of Vitamix
• Michael Happe of Winnebago Industries
• Eric Yuan of Zoom

Sponsors: Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards include presenting sponsors PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh USA, and SAP. In East Central, sponsors also include regional Platinum sponsors, DFIN (Donnelly Financial Solutions) and VRC (Valuation Research Corporation).

About Entrepreneur Of The Year: Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 60 countries globally.

The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum^® in November where National finalists and award winners are announced. The overall National winner represents the US at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About EY: EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society and the planet, while building trust in capital markets.
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Jessica Dunkley, Associate Director of Marketing & Operation
Verti Commercial Real Estate
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