CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 26, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Community leaders joined hundreds of Wake Forest students, faculty, staff and alumni on Jan. 26 to celebrate the grand opening of the Wake Forest University Charlotte Center in Uptown. Events included a leadership breakfast, ribbon cutting, tours and an alumni reception.
The Wake Forest University Charlotte Center is located at 200 N. College Street and houses nationally ranked Evening and Saturday MBA degree programs for working professionals as well as executive and continuing education programs. The Uptown campus also provides much needed space for the more than 6,000 Wake Forest alumni in the area to congregate.
Wake Forest University President Nathan O. Hatch said, "Charlotte has the largest concentration of our alumni in the country. The Uptown location will be a natural gathering place – somewhere our alumni can call a second home."
Steve Reinemund, Wake Forest Dean of Business and retired chairman and CEO of PepsiCo added, "We are committed to providing nothing less than the highest quality of education, and the programs and services offered here are designed specifically to develop the ethical, engaged and visionary leaders that will keep Charlotte thriving."
"Wake Forest University Charlotte Center is yet another example of stellar higher education institutions choosing to move to Charlotte," said Bob Morgan, Charlotte Chamber President. "The business community appreciates not only the educational needs this campus will provide to our citizens and workforce, but also the many jobs it will bring over time to our economy."
Charlotte City Council Member Patsy Kinsey read from a proclamation declaring the day as "Wake Forest Day" in the city, lauding the new Uptown location as being "designed with the Charlotte community in mind, offering state-of-the-art communication and learning technology…"
The Wake Forest University Charlotte Center in Uptown features 30,000 square feet of collaborative and innovative space equipped with state-of-the-art technology such as SMART® Boards, LCD screens and web enabled video cameras inside the classrooms. The boardroom features two-way video conferencing, and silent Skyfold® walls add versatility to a multipurpose room.
Wake Forest began offering classes in Charlotte in the Morrocroft Center in the SouthPark Neighborhood in 1995 with 30 students in one MBA program. Today, there are two Charlotte-based MBA programs with more than 200 students. The Wake Forest program is the top ranked program of its kind in North Carolina and is ranked in the top 10% nationally by US News and World Report.
About Wake Forest University Schools of Business (www.business.wfu.edu)">business.wfu.edu)
The Wake Forest University Schools of Business offer undergraduate programs in finance, accounting, mathematical business, and business and enterprise management, and graduate programs including a Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Accountancy and Master of Arts in Management. Campuses are located in Winston-Salem and Charlotte, North Carolina. Our programs are consistently ranked among the world's best in surveys by U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, the Economist, Forbes, and the Financial Times. Wake Forest MBAs who sat for a Six Sigma certification exam in 2011 had a 100% pass rate. Wake Forest accountancy graduates have earned the highest passing rate in the nation on the CPA exam for six of the past seven years.
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