Several program participants and faculty gather at the completion of the successful training program in Peru.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The country of Peru has taken a giant leap toward improving its economy as 300 small to medium-sized business owners, managers and leaders have successfully completed a five-month entrepreneurship training session led by faculty of Regent University’s School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship (GLE) and local experts in Lima, Peru.

According to Dr. Sergio Matviuk, GLE assistant professor, “This is a milestone in business development programs offered in Peru. Not only is this model of instruction the first of its kind offered by Regent University in Peru, but it’s also the first of its kind offered by an American university.”

Participants, representing a variety of industries and services such as construction, hospitality, education and real estate, were nominated by members of Peru’s congress and local Peruvian pastors in late 2007 to begin the intense entrepreneurial training program.

Comprised of six weekend sessions held between March and July, the entrepreneurial training program was a joint effort between Regent’s School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, the office of Peruvian Congresswoman Mirtha Lazo de Hornung and the San Ignacio de Loyola University's Center of Entrepreneurship.

According to Dr. Marcela Chaván-Matviuk, GLE international programs specialist, “The role of a leader, in general, and the business leader, in particular, is crucial in times such as the one Peru faces now, not only with the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with the U.S., but also as a member of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). The current global market creates demand for better regulations and competition policies, and good governance, all of which require visionary, solid leadership. That is what the training program was about.”

In spite of achieving important advances in the economic field in the last years, Peru is still a country with a high poverty index and inequality among Peruvian citizens. For this reason, “GLE’s training emphasized the social responsibility of business as being agents of not only economic growth, but also of social transformation,” Chaván-Matviuk pointed out.

GLE will continue its comprehensive business and entrepreneurship development project in Peru by conducting another large entrepreneurship development program aimed at training young Peruvian entrepreneurs. The new program is scheduled to launch at the end of August.

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About the School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship

The School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship (GLE) is one of seven graduate schools within Regent University and is located in Virginia Beach, Va. Offering fully-accredited master's and doctoral degrees in a flexible online format, GLE provides rigorous, yet innovative academic programs that can accommodate even the busiest professionals. For more information, visit www.regent.edu/global.