Oral history interview with Walt Ulmer, November 20, 1998

Walter F. Ulmer, Jr., served as the president of the Center for Creative Leadership, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, from 1985 to 1994. Ulmer begins the interview with a very brief discussion of his family background and his career in the military. By the time Ulmer became the president of the Center, he had reached the rank of Lieutenant General in the United States Army and had retired with more than thirty years of service. The remainder of the interview is devoted to a detailed discussion of Ulmer's role as the president of the Center, and the major changes the organization underwent under his leadership. During the late 1980s, Ulmer oversaw the major reorganization and significant growth of the Center, which expanded not only administratively but also geographically: first opened in 1970 by the Smith Richardson Foundation in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Center had branches in Colorado Springs, San Diego, and Brussels, Belgium, by the mid-1990s. The growth of the Center helped to situate the growth and role of enterprise in the South during these years. Ulmer discusses leadership turnover within the Center; some of the various endeavors of the Center in the areas of training, academics, and research; and the Center's efforts to diversify its professional staff by trying to draw in more women and minority executives.