Prof wants to jump start world trade.

• Position: Economics professor Anthony Negbenebor co-founds World Trade Resource Center at Gardner-Webb University

Anthony Negbenebor has made a few leaps as a former Olympic triple jumper. Now the associate economics professor spends his time helping local companies jump into foreign markets as cofounder and director of the World Trade Resource Center at Gardner-Webb University.

"It's a different game, with different rules," Nigerian-born Negbenebor says of exports. "There are so many crooks out there. We try to let companies know what they might come up against, who they are playing with."

Negbenebor, 39, formed the trade center in 1991 with five other faculty members. It has worked with more than 50 companies, most of them manufacturers from western North Carolina. He and other foreign faculty use their contacts to check out potential trading partners. He doesn't always tell companies what they want to hear. "Some, really, have no idea about what they're doing. I have to tell them I don't think they are quite ready."

The center helped I.R.I.S. International Co. market eyeglasses in Japan and is working with a Gastonia textile maker to target the Far East. The consulting is free ... sort of. "Ideally, they'll remember us one day and donate some money."

Negbenebor landed in North America as part of the Nigerian track team in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. He withdrew...