WSSU taps industry expertise to prepare business, entrepreneurship students for career success
Leaders provide insights at summit to help shape future curriculum
Winston-Salem State University’s College of Business and Entrepreneurship brought together more than 40 business and industry leaders from across the country Aug.13 for its Industry Insight Skills Summit.
Held at the Donald J. Reaves Student Activities Center, the event’s purpose was for CBE professors to hear what business leaders are looking for in future employees so they can adequately prepare WSSU students.
Participants representing accounting, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, healthcare management, marketing, management information systems and supply chain held roundtable discussions with 20 WSSU faculty members in the half-day program that included a working lunch.
The summit will ultimately have a direct impact on WSSU students and aligned with “Inspiring Academics,” which is among the four pillars of Chancellor Bonita J. Brown’s strategic plan, “We Are Rising,” unveiled in March.
“It’s been great. The excitement is here, and the enthusiasm for what’s going on at Winston-Salem State is building,” CBE Dean Dr. Michael K. “Kenny” Holt said during the summit. “Our ‘We are Rising’ strategic plan is coming to fruition here in this room. We have people here who had never stepped on the Winston-Salem State campus now telling me they want to be involved. That’s a key win for us already. Our students are going to see different classes and subjects we cover due to what’s happening in this room.”
Representatives from Wells Fargo, Cisco, Charles Schwab, Google, Hanesbrands, Microsoft, Amazon, J.P. Morgan, Volvo Trucks, Whataburger and Reynolds American attended. Several were new to WSSU, coming from as far away as Texas and California, while others were alumni who are now corporate leaders.
There were nine tables of participants. At each, a CBE faculty member facilitated the discussion while another took notes, all of which was captured by Zoom’s AI-powered recording. Summaries were provided from each table. Dr. Suresh Gopalan, chair of CBE’s Curriculum Committee, will lead a detailed analysis of information gathered. The feedback from the industry experts will help guide decisions on updating CBE curriculum.
About 600 WSSU students are enrolled in the College of Business and Entrepreneurship, which was relaunched with an advisory council in summer 2025. Holt said some recommendations from the summit could be incorporated into the curriculum as soon as fall 2027.
“Our primary objective is to ensure that our curriculum is current, relevant and that it prepares our graduates to be successful as they enter the workplace,” Holt said. “It is important that our stakeholders have a voice in how we prepare our students for the roles they will play in 2030 and 2040.”
Jeremiah Erby, a 2006 WSSU graduate who lives in Los Angeles and manages global partnerships for Google, praised the summit as an outstanding way for WSSU to refine its curriculum to real-world needs.
“There’s no better way to know that than to talk to people who are actually in the business world,” Erby said. “Our professors taking interest to do something like this just speaks to their desire to ensure that the education our students are getting is what they need in the world. I think the output and the answers they are getting will be very helpful to the students.”
WSSU graduate Robin Walls, a retired principal project director for Volvo Group, said the discussions also gave business leaders like her insight into what is currently taught to business students. “I’m learning as much as I’m giving,” she said.
Steve Lineberger, a former Sara Lee CEO, president of U.S. stores for Krispy Kreme and president of Winston Starts, a local startup accelerator, said he was impressed by the summit and picked up some AI knowledge.
“Any time I can both learn and contribute in some small way, that’s great,” Lineberger said. “It’s excellent. I think every school should do this.”
Serial entrepreneur Red Maxwell is part of the management team at Winston Starts, a company that “helps entrepreneurs successfully scale their businesses to new heights,” according to its website. He said he sees an opportunity to attract and grow successful businesses in Winston-Salem as the city’s corporate landscape continues to evolve, building on the legacy of companies such as R.J. Reynolds, Krispy Kreme, Wells Fargo and Hanesbrands.
Maxwell helped AvidXchange, a 50-person financial tech company headquartered in Charlotte, grow to 1,500 employees and a $5 billion IPO. He was chief marketing officer for Bigfoot Biomedical, a startup based in Milpitas, California, that was founded in 2015 and acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 2023.
“We just need to tap into the brain trust and entrepreneurial spirit that’s already here,” Maxwell said.
