About

Since the university’s inception, leadership has been central to East Carolina’s purpose. The first president, Robert S. Wright, explained the motto “Servire” to mean leveraging leadership through integrity and determination to influence positive change.

In 1982, the BB&T Leadership Center was established through private donations to serve students in ECU’s College of Business. The university’s increased investment and move of the (now called) Truist Leadership Center to the Provost’s Office in 1990 created a university-wide support center that increased opportunities for leadership-specific training across all academic programs.

At the turn of the century, Chancellor-elect Steve Ballard called on ECU to prioritize leadership training and to become “The Leadership University.” In 2005, ECU created a university-wide definition of leadership as “a relational process of inspiring, empowering, and influencing positive change,” catalyzing the growth of new leadership programs and curricular advances.

ECU’s Truist Leadership Center builds lifelong leaders who empower current and future generations to be successful. The Center also supports leadership development projects that foster campus-wide collaboration that positively impact the East Carolina community. This aligns harmoniously with Truist’s purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. Staffing includes one full-time director and business coordinator.

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