LOADING
LOADING
A significant achievement this year was the official launch of our collaboration with Fifth Third Bank, Empowering American Cities, exploring the drivers of regional economic growth. A key component of this initiative involved a five-city tour, starting in Charlotte, to disseminate our economic forecasts and regional insights.
Furthermore, with the generous support of the North Carolina Collaboratory, we are actively working to harness our expertise in both economic forecasting and translational research to directly benefit the state of North Carolina.
At the same time, we investigated the factors that contribute to business resilience as part of our 2024 Grand Challenge. We were honored to have business leaders, policymakers and preeminent scholars from across the nation join our effort, which culminated in our Frontiers of Business Conference in October. We cheered for our graduating Luther Hodges Scholars, whose remarkable accomplishments to date serve as a testament to their potential and a source of enduring pride for the institute. And we can't forget all the great work that NCGrowth has done over the past year supporting economically distressed communities.
The work of the institute showcases the impact of collaborative efforts spanning academia, industry and the public sector. We play an important role translating scholarly business research for a wider audience while simultaneously providing a valuable platform for business academics to engage in dialogue and learn from leaders in the private and public sectors. By fostering the exchange of knowledge across a spectrum of thought leaders, we strive to not only enhance economic prosperity but also address critical societal challenges.
I invite you to delve into our 2024 Year in Review, which highlights some of our key initiatives. We thank you for your support and hope you continue to turn to the Kenan Institute for translational and nonpartisan research in an increasingly divided and complex world. We look forward to working with you in 2025!
The Kenan Institute's annual Grand Challenge marks a concerted, yearlong effort to examine – and drive solutions to – the most complex and timely issues facing business and the economy today.
Our 2024 Grand Challenge focused on the extreme uncertainty that businesses must manage and how they survive and thrive in an environment marked by geopolitical tensions, regulatory shifts, game-changing technological developments, and countless other issues and accompanying risks. We examined the issues through written insights and commentaries, culminating with our Frontiers of Business Conference. Our Distinguished Fellows supported the effort through their expertise.
The Frontiers of Business Conference: Building Business Resilience convened 255 corporate executives, top researchers and policy leaders to explore resilience and how organizations can develop the agility and adaptability needed to navigate the many risks they face in today's business environment.
The Kenan Institute's Distinguished Fellows comprise an exemplary set of global scholars appointed on an annual basis to leverage their individual expertise, thought leadership, research and networks on behalf of the institute's grand challenge. The 2024 Distinguished Fellows have worked to support the institute's exploration of business resilience.
Thank you to Bruce Van Saun, Citizens Financial Group Inc. chairman and CEO, and his wife, Kathleen (Katie) Van Saun, for their support of the Kenan Institute's annual grand challenge.
The difference between the skills that workers possess and those that employers require is the skills gap, and by most accounts it is growing wider. Trends such as the increasing pace of technological innovation, the aging of the workforce, and cultural shifts in the needs and demands of workers are driving this change, but how can we turn the tide? The Grand Challenge will explore options such as skills-based training through apprenticeships and nondegree education, on-the-job training for existing workers, bringing more people into the labor force and other potential solutions that could help bridge the gap.
In 2024, the Kenan Institute and Fifth Third Bank launched Empowering American Cities, a collaboration developed to bring deep and regionally specific insights to Fifth Third's markets throughout the United States. In this project, Fifth Third Bank's community-based banking teams work with Kenan Institute researchers to uncover specialized growth factors for 30 selected regions within the bank's footprint. We have analyzed precise drivers of growth and are developing indicators for labor supply, consumer demand and other key economic characteristics in these areas.
Built on the novel indices and analysis of the American Growth Project, Empowering American Cities leverages the institute's proprietary models and the bank's knowledge of local economies to deliver real-time insights to economic leaders and stakeholders.
Since launching in April, the institute and Fifth Third Bank have established a robust program of publications, data dashboards and dynamic content that can be found on EmpoweringAmericanCities.com. The project's economists delivered their analysis at five in-person events, starting in June in Charlotte and continuing through November in Chicago.
As the project moves into 2025, we look forward to adding to the collaboration's body of translational research, updating our Regional Economic Snapshots and incorporating thought leadership from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School faculty experts into new reports and the seven events now planned for this year. We hope you'll join us in person or online as Empowering American Cities delivers vital information for decision makers across the country.
For the last three years, Kenan Institute Chief Economist Gerald Cohen has called out his five hot topics to watch for the coming 12 months. He is back with his predictions of the most challenging economic issues facing business leaders and policymakers in 2025.
The Kenan Institute produces cutting-edge, rigorous thought leadership that is accessible and actionable for a broad audience of nonacademic decision-makers in the private and public sectors. Our platforms allow our thought leaders to leverage their expertise in new and increasingly meaningful ways, providing solutions-oriented applications of both published and emerging findings by our global network of researchers.
Efforts to reduce wealth inequality have generally been on the policy side, but market-based actions can also increase economic prosperity for people in the lower half of the wealth distribution. The business sector has innovated and found profitable opportunities to serve lower-income or lower-wealth communities that create opportunities for members of those communities to improve their well-being, including their finances.
To shed light on what the business sector has done so far and could do in the future to spur inclusive economic growth, as well as on the challenges brought forth by these market-based endeavors, researchers at the Kenan Institute and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School hosted the second annual Conference on Market-Based Solutions for Reducing Wealth Inequality over two days in June 2024 to bring some of the top academics who work on related topics together with representatives from the private sector.
NCGrowth is a national center building an economy with opportunities for all to prosper. NCGrowth provides a wide range of technical assistance to small and medium-size businesses in economically distressed communities. We help governments create vibrant, equitable economies. And we host workshops, field trips, seminars and major conferences to bring communities and resources together.
If 2023 was a year of transformation for the program, renamed and strengthened through a generous gift from the Hodges family, then 2024 was a year of refinement. Over fall break, the program launched its newest program initiative, Explorations, providing current scholars the opportunity to explore how business impacts society through site visits with organizations working to address today's toughest challenges. The inaugural Explorations trip took scholars to Washington, DC, to engage with cross-sector leaders, including Luther Hodges Scholars alumni in the area, at locations such as the Department of Commerce, the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, and Google DC.
Throughout the year, we streamlined and updated our efforts, with a focus on increasing participation in our events and activities to ultimately improve the scholar experience. They include Caffeinated Connections meetups, which provide scholars with an additional informal opportunity to connect with program staff and one another over a cup of coffee or tea. You can learn more about these refinements in the program's 2023-2024 Annual Review.
We were excited to welcome a new class of scholars, the Class of 2027, and to bid goodbye to Kenan-Flagler's latest alumni, the Class of 2024. The occasions are bittersweet, but there is renewal and new energy in return.
Please join us in our efforts to develop future business leaders committed to changing the world for the better. Serve as a guest speaker, mentor or financial supporter of one of our high-impact hands-on experiences. Our goal is to make a difference that will last a lifetime.
Hosted in partnership with Mary Margaret Frank, dean of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Dean's Speaker Series brings preeminent private and public sector leaders to the school. These nationally recognized experts offer students and the broader community insights and perspective across a broad range of timely issues, while sharing the highlights, challenges and turning points of their individual career paths.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
Stay tuned for information on more events to come on our events page!
