Entrepreneur Joan Carter to Speak on Role of Business in Creating Prosperity

Free public lecture is Thursday, April 26

WOOSTER, Ohio, April 11, 2012 – Joan Carter, co-founder and president of UM Holdings Ltd., will present the 2012 James R. Wilson Lecture on Thursday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m., in the Wilson Room of the Scot Center, 1267 Beall Ave., at The College of Wooster. Carter will speak on “The Role of Business in Creating Prosperity.” Her talk is free and open to the public.

Carter, a 1965 graduate of the college, and partner John Aglioloro started a clinic to provide cardiac stress testing and rehabilitation in 1973. As the business grew, they branched out into monitoring technology, exercise equipment, dialysis centers, and pharmaceutical research. “We were very entrepreneurial,” Carter says. “We created strategy to explain what we were doing, instead of creating a strategy, then implementing it.”

The company went public in 1981 as United Medical Corporation, returned to private ownership as UM Holdings Ltd. In 1993, and subsequently spun off two subsidiaries: Premier Research Worldwide (now EResearch Technologies) and Trotter Treadmills (now CYBEX International; NASDAQ: CYBI).

Carter is vice chairman of the CYBEX board of directors and also serves on the boards of Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company and The College of Wooster. A former chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, she is the first woman to serve as president of the Union League of Philadelphia in that organization’s 150-year history.

The James R. Wilson Lecture Series in Business Economics brings business and financial leaders to Wooster’s campus to share their insights with students, faculty, and the broader community. The series is supported by the James R. Wilson Fund for Business Economics, established in 2001 by a gift from James R. and Linda R. Wilson. Previous speakers include Craig Barrett, former chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation; Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment; and Katharine Lee Reid, former director of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The College of Wooster is America’s premier college for mentored undergraduate research. By working one-on-one with a faculty adviser to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit, every Wooster student develops independent judgment, analytical ability, creativity, project-management and time-management skills, and strong written and oral communication skills. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 2,000 students.