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GREENSBORO - The Center for Creative Leadership has eliminated 140 positions, or 25 percent of its worldwide workforce, through a process of attrition, buyouts and layoffs, a spokesman said Friday.

About half those cuts came in Greensboro, the headquarters for the renowned executive training institute.

Stephen Martin, the center's global public relation's manager, said layoffs totaled 40 people worldwide, with most of those being local.

However, he could not provide the specific number of layoffs in Greensboro.

Martin said spending in the executive training market has declined about 10 percent as the global economy has experienced a prolonged recession.

"We've been affected by that as have a lot of the companies in our industry," Martin said. "Resorting to layoffs was the last step we wanted to take."

The cuts leave the center, which was founded in 1970, with 465 employees at five offices worldwide, including 300 in Greensboro.

"The reductions we are experiencing are to streamline our operation and position us to grow when the recovery finally comes," Martin said. " ... Right now, we are staffed at the level we need to meet the demand we have."

Martin said the center offered employees voluntary buyouts at the beginning of the year, with the understanding that layoffs might be necessary if enough workers didn't leave on their own.

"It was unfortunate that we needed to have some," Martin said.

The layoffs were effective last week; the buyouts will be completed by the end of the month.

The various cuts included administration, faculty and research positions.

Martin said the downturn in the economy has impacted the center's bottom line.

He said revenues for the 2007-08 fiscal year, which began last April 1, totaled $88 million, with a 10 percent growth target in 2008-09.

Instead, revenues will be flat to up only slightly this year.

"We've had to lower expectations," he said, adding that the center will be offering fewer programs in the coming fiscal year.

Annually, more than 20,000 individuals, including business executives, military officers and university presidents, enroll in one of the center's programs worldwide.

The training ranges from assessments of personal leadership styles and coaching to teaching executives how to head teams and corporations.

As the economy has slumped, Martin said, some clients have opted to delay their training rather than cancel outright.

"Companies still say this work is important to them," he said. "They want to do it; they just need to (wait) until their own revenue picture improves."

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com.