Duke University Names Executive Director of Center for Consulting Excellence
May 20, 2010
DURHAM, N.C. - Lauren Whitehurst has been appointed Executive Director of the new Center for Consulting Excellence at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard announced Monday.
"Lauren has the professional background and industry credibility needed to help conceptualize, craft and execute the strategy for our new Center for Consulting Excellence," said Sheppard. "The Center will engage leading thinkers in the consulting industry in a way that benefits those firms, our students and our faculty. She's exactly the person we need to get the center off the ground and moving."
Whitehurst spent nearly 15 years with the Boston Consulting Group, serving both as a client service practitioner and as a practice manager in the areas of e-commerce and operations. She has also worked at Goldman Sachs and Turner Entertainment Group.
She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1995 and her bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1991.
"I welcome the opportunity to work with Fuqua's leadership to create a strong Center for Consulting Excellence here," Whitehurst said. "The concept of centers that focus on industry verticals is innovative and differentiating for Fuqua. I believe the right set of activities here can make a real difference for both the school and for the firms that recruit out students. Now that I am a part of the overall global and center strategy for Fuqua, I am very excited to be actively involved in what is in the truest sense an academic start-up."
The creation of Fuqua's new Center for Consulting Excellence furthers the school's effort to bring leading figures in key industries into the education process, enhancing student contact with key firms.