CAMPUS NEWS Study Shows NGU’s Annual Economic Impact Exceeds $100 Million


A new economic shows NGU made a total impact of $101,851,206 on the region’s economy in 2022. That impact includes funding of 888 jobs through the institution and its business partners.


The fiscal footprint of the university will generate nearly $14.6 million in tax revenue for the year.


Those findings are part of a 2022 economic impact study completed by Lilly Consulting Group, LLC, in November. The analysis by the Sylva, North Carolina-based firm included multiplied economic impact of five factors: operations expenditures, labor expenditures, student spending, visitor spending, and capital expenditures.


“We, as a long-standing Upstate educational enterprise, are blessed to learn that providing a distinctive Christ- centered educational environment is also providing a distinctive catalyst for economic strength in our region,” said


An FBI informant’s role in exposing an international price fixing scheme, and a businessman’s work which led to the end of slavery in Nepal highlighted North Greenville University’s Faith at Work Business Symposium in the spring of 2023. Students and guests from across the area gathered in Tigerville for the symposium which focused on Ministry in the Marketplace.


The event featured presentations from Mark Whitacre, Vice President of Culture and Care at Coca-Cola Consolidated and Executive Director of the company’s


MARIAN NORONHA


t-factor program; and Marian Noronha,


President and Founder of TURBOCAM International.


Famous for being the highest-ranked executive of any Fortune 500 company to


18 | NGU.EDU


NGU President Dr. Gene C. Fant, Jr. “This institution was started to meet a critical need for education in the late 1800s. To be thriving in producing graduates and to be a significant economic engine in our area nearly 130 years later is a testament to God’s provision as we seek to follow a clear, biblically faithful mission.”


With an overall enrollment of nearly 2,250, NGU operates its main campus for undergraduate students in Tigerville, with graduate and online programs operated through its Tim Brashier Campus in Greer. The university’s fall 2022 enrollment included students from 41 states and 25 other countries.


A total of 43 recent improvement projects on NGU’s campuses in Tigerville and Greer was part of the capital expenditures segment of the study. University officials said NGU anticipates being in “capital improvement mode” for years to come.


The economic impact study drew information from NGU’s 2020-21 Annual Report, financial statements spanning 2019-21, and information on capital projects, as well as data from questionnaires developed for students and visitors. Lilly Consulting Group worked with the university’s Economic Impact Study Steering Committee. The seven-person committee, which included faculty, administrators and staff representatives, was chaired by NGU Executive Vice President Rich Grimm.


“The university’s impact on the region’s economy, as demonstrated in the Lilly Consulting Group study, is noteworthy and underscores the vital role NGU plays in the area,” said Grimm, the institution’s chief operating officer. “As we produce transformational leaders for church and society, we also are contributing significantly to the economic wellbeing of the Upstate, for which we give thanks.”


Faith at Work Symposium Explores Ministry in the Marketplace


become a whistleblower, Whitacre helped the FBI uncover one of the largest price fixing cases in U.S. history. These events in the early 1990s were the basis for the 2009 film, The Informant!, which starred Matt Damon as Whitacre.


Achieving success early in his career, Whitacre was hired by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in 1989, becoming the company’s youngest Divisional President at the age of 32.


Whitacre’s rapid ascent up the corporate ranks landed him in a precarious position when he learned that the company had been making a large percentage of its revenue from a price fixing scheme. Unsure of how to proceed, Whitacre told his wife, who encouraged him to go to the FBI. Over the next three years, Whitacre wore a wire to help the FBI with its investigation.


During the course of the investigation, authorities learned of Whitacre’s own fraud and tax evasion, and he was eventually sentenced to eight and half years in prison.


Upon his release, Whitacre vowed to use his time and skills to bring his faith to work.


“God gave me a second chance,” Whitacre said. “For 20 years now, I’ve been working in a faith-at-work environment, and there’s no better place.”


Marian Noronha is the founder of TURBOCAM, which has manufacturing operations in the US, the UK, Romania, and India, and sales offices in the Netherlands.


He led the company from a start-up in 1985 to 1,000 employees worldwide, and sales in the $150-200 million range.


In 1999-2000, Noronha redeemed 42 slave families in Nepal – by paying their debts to the slaveholders – and established villages for their settlement. His efforts helped spark the abolishment of slavery in Nepal in 2000. After abolition, Noronha continued to work with Nepali churches to establish and support six schools that educate more than 1,100 children.


“The mission is not money. This mission is the people,” Noronha said.


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