The BB&T Center for
Free Enterprise Education

The BB&T Center for Free Enterprise Education was established in 2009 through a generous grant from the BB&T Foundation. The Center’s mission is to promote a better knowledge of, and appreciation for, an economic system based on free enterprise. Activities of the Center include a major speaker’s program, workshops for teachers in economics, and other opportunities that involve Barton students and the Wilson community in examining economic issues.

Our lecture series brings nationally prominent leaders in free enterprise economics to the region for a public lecture each year. Past lecturers include James Maynard, CEO of Golden Corral; Robert A. Ingram, retired chairman and CEO of GlaxoSmithKline; and John A. Allison IV, former chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation.

In conjunction with course offerings, the Center sponsors student-led debate on the moral dimensions of capitalism. The debates are open to the public.

The Center oversees the implementation of the course “Capitalism: Implications and Applications,” which incorporates a variety of viewpoints on comparative economic systems.