Charlotte Area Working Professionals Earn Wake Forest MBA Degrees

CHARLOTTE — Forty-six working professionals earned their MBA degrees from Wake Forest University this month after completing a two-year evening program at the Wake Forest Charlotte Center. They were honored during a graduation celebration on Friday, Sept. 22 at the Mint Museum in Uptown Charlotte.

“These students should be commended for balancing careers, families and community service while completing the rigorous course work. Many have already received well-deserved promotions and pay increases as a direct result of their MBA studies,” said Melenie Lankau, Senior Associate Dean of MBA Programs and Diversity, Wake Forest University Schools of Business.

The Charlotte Evening MBA Class of 2012 honored economics professor Adam Hyde with the Outstanding Educator Award. Student James Ferguson received the Class Leadership Award. Ferguson, Jennifer Kichler, Mona Baset, Jorge Francke and Heather Harper earned Academic Distinction Awards.

The graduates include: Scott L. Arnold, Joshua Michael Barone, Mona Abdel Baset, (Keith) Alan Christopher Burney, Harry Albert Byrd, Jeffery Bostic Byrum, Christina Anne Carper, Benjamin Christopher Clark, Colin Gosnell Clark, Timothy David Dillon, James Buchanan Ferguson, Jeffrey Joseph Fisher, Jason Michael Fowler, Jorge Antonio Francke, Keenan Charles Gradoville, Rachel Alison Hallmark, Heather Lynn Harper, (Mack) Johnjas McKindley Hedrick, Lilia Gianina Hink, Matthew Thomas Howard, Michael Christian Howe, Georgine Maria Jeffries, Robert Glenn Kandell, Kristin Noelle Kenyon, Jennifer Marie Kichler, Cheryl Kulesz Lanni, Carlton Akari Ligon, Joshua Paul Mason, Craig A. McAdams, Kevin Michael McCoy, Kelly Mahan Meany, Travis Dale Nauman, Nadia Noorani, Tracey Winslett Phillips, Lara Jennifer Richardson, Meghan Scanlon Ruschmann, Katie Suzanne Spearman, William Bryan Sprayberry, Carlton Brant Stewart, Jonathan Michael Stout, Patrick Michael Sullivan, Robert Bray Taylor, Jennifer Leigh Walts, William Shane Walts, Benjamin Yam and Glenn Sperling Young.

The graduates come from a wide variety of career disciplines and represent the following companies: AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry; Alfred Williams and Company; Balfour Beatty Construction; Bank of America; BASF; Centimark Roof Systems; Childress Klein Properties; Duke Energy Corporation; Erosion Control Services, Inc.; Fifth Third Bank; Fluor Corporation; Goodrich Corporation; HRG North America; IMO Pump; Ingersoll Rand Company; Liberty AV Solutions; Lowe’s Companies, Inc.; Mechanical Systems and Services, Inc; Milliken & Company-Magnolia Finishing Plant; National Children’s Oral Health Foundation; Octagon Marketing North America; Odyssey Logistics and Technology; Patient Care Technology Systems; PepsiCo, Inc.; Pratt & Miller Engineering; Prospect Mortgage LLC; Siemens; Southern Community Bank and Trust; Synthes Spine; The Hartford; United States Air Force; Waterstone Asset Management; Wells Fargo and YMCA of Greater Charlotte.

U.S. News and World Report has ranked Wake Forest’s MBA program for working professionals as the number one program of its kind in North Carolina. Working professionals have the option of taking Saturday or evening classes at the Wake Forest University Charlotte Center or evening classes at the Winston-Salem campus.