Furman University, consistently recognized among the nation’s most innovative universities, made a decisive move in 2023 by launching the Center for Innovative Leadership (CIL). Building on Furman’s mission to build lifelong learners who lead lives of meaning and consequence, its reputation for producing high-potential leaders and the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s success in integrating Furman into the Upstate’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, the CIL is a bold reimagining of the impact Furman can have on the State of South Carolina.
Created to expand Furman’s impact by offering corporate learning, professional education and innovation support to South Carolina, the CIL builds on the university’s tradition of transformational engaged learning. By delivering impactful experiences to professional audiences across the region, the CIL serves as a hub for education across an entire career, not just at the start of it.
Furman’s Center for Innovative Leadership equips organizations and professionals with the skills, insights and strategies needed to lead in a rapidly evolving world. Through leadership development, innovation support and skill-based credentials in emerging technologies, the CIL provides solutions to unlock talent, spark creativity and drive measurable impact. Rather than focusing solely on theory, these experiences create opportunities for transformation in action. Participants bring real challenges into the classroom and develop actionable solutions to them. Through applied learning, a network of global experts and a focus on impact in South Carolina, learners apply leadership and innovation to business, public-sector and civic contexts. The CIL’s commitment to corporate and public leaders builds on Furman’s reputation for educational excellence—and goes further by co-creating innovative solutions aligned with South Carolina’s economic future.
The Furman Innovation Lab
The Furman Innovation Lab at Flywheel Greenville’s coworking hub brings this vision to life. Opened in Fall 2024, this immersive environment is designed to fuse startup energy, corporate experimentation and social impact initiatives that fuel a collaborative innovation ecosystem. For student founders, the Innovation Lab provides mentorship, coworking space and rapid prototyping frameworks that move ideas into the market with real-world velocity. Furman’s Hill Institute supports both local entrepreneurs and Furman’s students in building early-stage ventures and plugs them into Greenville’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, so they have a better runway for success.
Early-stage startups receive the support and community they need. Corporate partners gain powerful innovation channels where companies work alongside Furman to create unique solutions to business challenges. Community leaders get access to cutting-edge research, tools and strategies to create real solutions to our biggest challenges.
Social innovation remains central to Furman’s mission. Rooted in the university’s commitment to the Upstate, the Innovation Lab facilitates programming that addresses pressing social issues such as health, sustainability and economic mobility. Through these efforts, Furman is building a community of problem-solvers to uplift quality of life across South Carolina.
For corporate and public leaders, Furman’s Center for Innovative Leadership and the Innovation Lab offer a unique opportunity:
- A trusted innovation partner delivering leadership, innovation and talent upskilling.
- Agile workforce development through courses and certificates in emerging high-value skills like AI, data analytics and design thinking.
- Place-based impact, anchored in Greenville and built to serve South Carolina.
- Ecosystem synergy: Academic, business, civic and student stakeholders collaborating toward shared outcomes.
By bridging theory and practice, Furman’s Center for Innovative Leadership is redefining the role of higher education in public life. As we build bridges from academia to community, Furman is transforming into an active agent of growth and innovation.
For corporate partners, this means co-developing solutions that span from executive development to applied research. For public leaders, it offers a scalable blueprint for civic engagement, skills development and economic inclusion. Furman stands ready to convene, catalyze and scale change across sectors and across South Carolina.
This is higher education reimagined. It is leadership in motion, not talked about. It is futures prototyped, rather than predicted. With Furman working in tandem with our partners, South Carolina’s next era of innovation isn’t just on the horizon—it’s already underway.
