History

The Office of Economic Development (OED) was founded in 1998 by Dr. Michael I. Luger to serve as a university-wide applied research and policy center.

The mission of OED was; "to bring the considerable resources of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to bear on critical problems of economic development in North Carolina."

Since then, the Center has grown and gained a national reputation, conducting work in several states and nearly every county in North Carolina.

The accomplishments of the organization led the university to grant the OED the status of "Center". Accordingly, a new name was constructed to reflect the new scope of the organization.

The new name: The Carolina Center for Competitive Economies (C3E), reflects the history and mission of the new organization.