Truist Will Close Its Leadership Institute Campus in Greensboro

Truist will stop running its Leadership Institute campus in Greensboro before the end of the year. The lodge-style retreat sits in the woods near Piedmont Triad International Airport, and over the past eight years it has become one of the Triad's best-known corporate landmarks. Business North Carolina broke the news on Oct. 20, citing a company spokesperson and an internal memo to employees. On Oct. 22, the Triad Business Journal reported that the Charlotte-based bank will end operations on the campus by year-end, with classes continuing through mid-December.

What Truist has said

In a statement to Business North Carolina, a Truist spokesperson said: "In the fourth quarter, we'll discontinue operations at the Truist Leadership Institute facility in Greensboro." The bank has not announced what kind of leadership training will replace the campus programs. The internal memo, as quoted by the magazine, says only that the company is "still shaping what leadership development will look like, including programs, resources, locations, and virtual learning."

The magazine reports that more than two dozen professional staff work at the institute, most with advanced degrees. They will be considered for other jobs at Truist or will receive severance and job-search help. Business North Carolina also reports that the 112-room facility will reportedly be sold. Truist has not named a buyer or a price, and has not said what the property might become.

A BB&T idea, built in the Triad

The institute's roots go back much further than the campus. In a March 2017 announcement, BB&T, then based in Winston-Salem, said it had been investing in leadership development for its own employees since 1971. The bank became a client of the consulting firm Farr Associates in the early 1980s and bought the firm in 1994. At the time of that announcement the institute operated out of High Point. Truist's 2024 expansion release traces the institute's history back more than 65 years.

The 2017 plans described a 58,000-square-foot, three-level building costing about $34 million. It would have 48 guest rooms and a rustic lodge design with lots of glass. The site was 11 heavily wooded acres next to BB&T's Triad corporate center on Airport Center Drive, bordering a 7-acre pond. Local firms did the work: CJMW Architecture of Winston-Salem designed it, Frank L. Blum Construction of Winston-Salem built it, and Surface 678 of Durham handled the landscape design.

The building opened in June 2018. Business North Carolina reported that BB&T CEO Kelly King and about 150 bank and community officials attended the celebration. King, the project's leading champion, told the magazine at the time that "no one has ever become a really effective leader until they've become in touch with themselves." In 2019 BB&T's board named the campus the Kelly S. King Center in his honor. Later that year BB&T merged with SunTrust to form Truist, and the institute took the new bank's name.

Teachers and principals, too

The institute trained more than bank managers. The 2017 announcement described a free, four-week program for public school administrators that combined in-person and virtual sessions. Part of the reason for overnight rooms on campus was to save educators the cost of hotels. At the 2018 opening, King explained the focus on schools by comparing a principal's job to running a small business, noting that most principals had never had leadership training. The institute also served corporate executives, business owners and BB&T clients. Its flagship course, Mastering Leadership Dynamics, is still on the campus website.

The 2024 expansion

Six years after the first building opened, Truist more than doubled the campus. In September 2024 it announced a new North building, certified LEED Gold. CJMW and Blum Construction returned for the project. According to CJMW and Blum, the addition covers 86,000 square feet, with a three-story conference wing, a four-story wing of 64 guest rooms, a restaurant and bar, and porches with fireplaces on each level. A three-story sculpture made of hundreds of metal butterflies hangs through the center of a circular glass stair. CJMW lists several honors for the building, including an AIA North Carolina Merit Award, NAIOP Carolinas Project of the Year, and the Triad Business Journal's Commercial Real Estate Project of the Year.

With both buildings, Truist described a campus of 148,000 square feet with more than 25 learning spaces, 112 executive guest rooms and two fitness centers. The bank said it served more than 6,000 Truist leaders, corporate clients and community partners. The Triad Business Journal describes the property as a 62-acre campus.

Why it matters locally

The closing is another reminder of how the Triad's banking landscape changed after BB&T, a bank that grew up in Wilson and Winston-Salem, merged into Charlotte-based Truist. The Leadership Institute was one of the most visible pieces of BB&T's legacy still operating here. It brought thousands of visitors a year to a corner of Guilford County near the airport. With classes running into December, the bigger local question is what happens to the property itself: a modern conference and lodging campus a short drive from PTI. Truist has not said.

Key facts

• What: Truist Leadership Institute (the Kelly S. King Center), a leadership-training campus with lodging, run by Truist
• Where: Greensboro, in the woods near Piedmont Triad International Airport (Airport Center Drive area, per BB&T's 2017 announcement)
• When: Classes continue through mid-December. Truist plans to end operations at the campus by year-end.
• Staff: More than two dozen professional staff, according to Business North Carolina. Truist says they will be considered for other roles or offered severance and job-search help.
• Online: truistleadershipinstitute.com. The site had posted no closing notice as of Oct. 22.

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