Allegacy Financial Center for Leadership & Character Article Archives

Liv Murphy, a senior Accountancy major, attended the US Air Force National Character and Leadership Symposium, bringing back lessons that she will apply as an athlete here at Wake Forest, in her future career, and in life in general. “It was a huge honor to be given the opportunity to learn from such well-spoken and…

Juan Figueroa, a junior BEM major, attended the US Air Force Academy National  Character and Leadership Symposium. The theme of the conference was Warrior Ethos. Juan learned that warrior ethos means “being tough-minded and resilient, with the ability to stay motivated,” characteristics he feels are essential to leadership. Dr. Justin Stoddard’s session on resiliency was…

The Allegacy Center for Leadership and Character sponsored Senior BEM major Matthew Facchine to attend the 2025 US Naval Academy Leadership Conference. Matthew brought home a number of key takeaways about being an authentic leader. “I came to learn that authentic leadership didn’t just mean being who you are as a leader, but also helping…

It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Cathy Pace as an Executive Affiliate with the Allegacy Center for Leadership and Character at the School of Business. With a remarkable 46-year journey at  Allegacy Federal Credit Union, Cathy recently retired as its CEO and President. She rose through the executive leadership ranks,…

Allie Shmidt, a junior Psychology major and member of the Wake Forest Field Hockey team, was sponsored by the ACLC to attend the 2025 US Naval Academy Leadership Conference. Allie noted that she was honored to attend the conference and took away invaluable lessons that she will bring into her personal life and career path…

School of Business Teaching Professor, Douglas C. Johnson, attended the 2025 US Naval Academy Leadership Conference along with students Allie Schmidt and Matthew Facchine. The theme of the conference was Authentic Leadership. “It was refreshing to attend a conference that was student organized and student led where over 300 delegates from 13 countries and over…

A national poll of 613 C-Suite to entry level business and nonprofit leaders reveals a significant gap in meeting the leadership needs of Gen Z (27 years old or younger) and younger Millennial (28-34 year old) leaders across diverse fields and industries. Over half of these younger leaders expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership in their…

ACLC’s Sean Hannah and John Sumanth, and School of Business faculty Sherry Moss, contributed to an article in the Harvard Business Review: Leaders Can’t Make Up for Bad Behavior by Being Nice Later. “Ultimately, leadership is not a balancing act between right and wrong – it’s about building trust through unwavering consistency. Read the Harvard…

ACLC Senior Research Associate Sean T. Hannah (Chair in Business Ethics, Professor of Management, Wake Forest University School of Business) and ACLC Research Associate John Sumanth (James Farr Fellow & Associate Professor of Management, Wake Forest University) together with Haoying Xu (Assistant Professor of Business at Stevens Institute of Technology)  and Sherry Moss (Associate Dean…

On a beautiful fall day, School of Business faculty, staff and students were joined on the Farrell Hall terrace by staff from Allegacy Federal Credit Union to build 24 beds for families in need in our community, serving the nonprofit organization A Bed and A Book. In addition to serving children in Forsyth County who…

ACLC scholars gathered with ACLC Executive Director Pat Sweeney, ACLC Executive in Residence Jeff Triplette, and  ACLC Affiliate Adam Holtzschue to kick off the program with teambuilding activities at Graylyn Conference Center.  This is the program’s inaugural cohort. After introductions and an icebreaker, the team developed their unique definition of leadership: enabling, developing and inspiring…

The ACLC is very pleased to share that the Wake Forest University Board of Trustees just approved the promotion of Dr. John Sumanth to Associate Professor with tenure.  John serves as Center Research Associate with broad areas of research interest and expertise in leadership, upward communication, trust and the role of power and status in…

To close out our sixth successful year of the Service Academy Leadership Conference program, the ACLC hosted a luncheon on April 12 to honor our 2019 student representatives.  Dr. Pat Sweeney (Professor of the Practice of Management & Director, ACLC), Dr. Mark Evans (Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Program, Associate Professor of Accountancy) and Dr. Pat Dickson…

Stetson University hosted the Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition where 20 schools from across country participated on February 21-22, 2019.  Wake Forest students, Rory Britt (’21) and Indy Cousin (’21) placed first in the Competition with Pennsylvania State University taking second place, Clemson University coming in third and Elon University securing fourth place. The top four teams received…

Saturday, April 6, 2019, in Farrell Hall, Dr. Patrick Sweeney, Professor of the Practice of Management and Executive Director, Allegacy Center for Leadership and Character, will deliver a session on “Developing a Leadership Philosophy” during the School of Business inaugural Alumni Weekend. During the session, Dr. Sweeney will lead alumni through a deep-dive process of…

Congratulations to Professor Sean Hannah (Professor of Management & Tylee Wilson Chair of Business Ethics Senior Research Associate) for being selected as a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) (https://www.siop.org/). SIOP is a professional body of the 7000 plus members who do work in organizations/applied psychology. Most all leadership and organizational behavior…

Congratulations  to Center Fellows Sean Hannah(J. Tylee Wilson Chair in Business Ethics; Professor of Management; Senior Research Associate, ACLC)andJohn Sumanth(Assistant Professor of Management & Organizational Behavior; Center Associate, ACLC; James Farr Fellow) who were recognized for their work throughout the 2017-2018 academic year in the areas of Teaching and Research. Sean Hannah | Research High Impact Scholarship…

To close out our fifth successful year of the Service Academy Leadership Conference program, the ACLC hosted a luncheon on April 19 to honor our 2018 student representatives.  Dr. Pat Sweeney (Professor of the Practice of Management & Director, ACLC), Dr. Michelle Roehm (Vice Dean of Faculty, Peter C. Brockway Chair of Strategic Management, Professor…

On Friday, April 20th, 2018, the Allegacy Center for Leadership and Character hosted U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, Virginia Foxx and her staff at Wake Forest School of Business for a yearly team retreat and leadership workshop. Foxx is a member of the Republican party and served as Secretary of the House…

On Wednesday, April 18th, 2018, the Allegacy Center for Leadership and Character hosted a lunch with Governor Bob Ehrlich for Wake Forest School of Business students including Ethics and Leadership Team members and recent and previous attendees sponsored by the Allegacy Center for Leadership and Character to attend the Service Academy Leadership Conferences. Governor Ehrlich…