Wake Forest University Schools of Business Center for Retail Innovation Officially Opens
The Wake Forest University Schools of Business Center for Retail Innovation celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday, prior to the kick off for the 22nd Annual Marketing Summit.
The Center for Retail Innovation is a unique alliance of manufacturers, channel partners and retailers combined with faculty and students at the Wake Forest University Schools of Business. The Center’s goal is to generate a powerful return on investment through three outcomes: innovation, education, and collaboration.
The Center for Retail Innovation will use data analytics to help achieve these three outcomes. The 2012 Marketing Summit is the first event to fall under the Center’s purview.
“The Wake Forest Center for Retail Innovation is a collaboration between the market place and the University to create an environment where innovation can prosper, where new ideas can be brought to the marketplace, and where the experience of the retail industry can be brought to our students,” said Steve Reinemund, Dean of Business and retired Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.
“This would not have happened without leaders who were willing to take a risk, and I want to thank those who have been instrumental in making the Center become a reality,” he said.
Reinemund introduced David Mounts, CEO of Inmar who said, “This is an idea whose time has really come.”
“This is an exciting moment for so many reasons. The Center’s focus of innovation, education and collbaoration put it really at a nexus of opportunity,” said Mounts.
Reinemund and Mounts joined Robert Tomei, President, Consumer and Shopper Marketing, SymphonyIRI Group; John Sessions, CEO of Bellomy Research; Sheri Bridges, faculty director of the Center for Retail Innovation; and Roger Beahm, executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation, in cutting the ribbon to officially launch the new Center.
For more information, please visit the Center for Retail Innovation website (cri.business.wfu.edu).