The Lake Forest Center for Leadership will keep running its executive training programs from 100 South Saunders Road after the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management shut its doors June 30. The center announced July 28 that it has joined Excelsior University, an online nonprofit institution based in Albany, New York.

The location stays the same. So does the curriculum.

For the corporate partners that send employees through the center's noncredit leadership courses, the transition preserves a practitioner-led model that has operated for more than 35 years. Companies listed on the center's website include Wintrust Financial, Rust-Oleum, CDW, AbbVie, US Foods, Ace Hardware and Astellas.

The grad school, a for-profit institution that operated for nearly 80 years, cited declining enrollment as the reason its MBA program was no longer sustainable. Excelsior served as the preferred teach-out partner for students still working toward their MBAs; other transfer options include Benedictine University, Northern Illinois University and Elmhurst University.

"We had been talking with the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management for several years about potential partnerships," Excelsior University President David Schejbal told the Chicago Tribune. "The timing seemed right at this point."

Schejbal said Excelsior already has relationships with 400 companies, government agencies and NGOs across the country, and the center's programs expand what the university can offer those employer partners. The partnership also gives Center for Leadership participants a pathway from noncredit training into Excelsior's degree programs, which number more than 45 at the associate through doctoral level.

The deal adds in-person and hybrid programming to Excelsior's primarily online model and strengthens the university's presence in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor, according to the official announcement.

For Lake Forest workers and executives enrolled in the center's Leadership Pathways tracks, including Leadership Essentials, Leading with Intention, Leading Leaders and HeadPoint, programs continue under the same practitioner-led faculty of experienced executives rather than traditional academics.

Former LFGSM President Carrie Buchwald said in the July 28 announcement that the center joined Excelsior "to focus on practical, timely leadership development and continue serving individuals and organizations."

Alumni degrees from the now-closed grad school remain valid, with the State of Illinois serving as permanent custodian of academic records. Excelsior plans to launch a doctorate of business administration in January, adding another option for professionals in the center's corporate network.