WRAL Sports Fan

Hurricanes

Canes add more investors

Feb 28, 2013

Raleigh, N.C. — The founder of a gaming company and a trucking executive are among four new investors in the Carolina Hurricanes, team owner Peter Karmanos Jr. announced Thursday.

Mark Rein, co-founder and vice president of Cary-based Epic Games, and his wife, Tara Rein, and Chuck Hammel, president and owner of PITT OHIO, a Pittsburgh-based trucking company, are among the new investors. Two other investors declined to publicize their ownership stakes in the team, Karmanos said.

“The continuing growth of our ownership group strengthens the Carolina Hurricanes’ position on the Triangle landscape and will help the team be competitive on the ice,” Karmanos said in a statement.

He has been whittling down his stake in the team for the past two years, trying to build up a base of control in the Triangle.

The Reins are originally from Toronto, but they moved to the Triangle when Epic Games shifted its headquarters to the area. The company is known for its Unreal Engine technology, which powered the Unreal series of first-person shooters, the Infinity Blade series for mobile platforms and the Gears of War series for Xbox 360.

Hammel's company operates 21 trucking terminals in 10 states, and he also serves on the Board of Directors for the Pittsburgh Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Riverlife and the Board of Trustees for the Sen. John Heinz History Center.

• Web Editor: Matthew Burns