Ohio GOP senate candidate doesn’t hold an MBA —  but bio and application claimed he does

The claim that car dealer and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno held an MBA from the University of Michigan has appeared in both a car dealership application and in a short biography of Moreno when he joined the board of the Cleveland Foundation. However, a spokeswoman for the university on Monday said all Moreno has is a bachelor’s degree in business that was awarded in 1989.

Moreno’s campaign on Tuesday afternoon blamed the first instance on “a staffer who made a mistake.” It said it didn’t know how the claimed credential made its way into the Cleveland Foundation bio.

Moreno is in the middle of what is expected to be a close race against incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown for a pivotal U.S. Senate seat.

The first appearance of the claim Moreno held an MBA from Michigan came as part of a Nov. 25, 2011 application to open an Infiniti car dealership in Coral Gables, Florida. The document was entered into evidence as part of a Florida lawsuit and provided to the Capital Journal.

It lists the now-57-year-old Moreno’s birthdate, his Westlake, Ohio address, his Social Security and driver’s license numbers, and it lists his academic credentials. It says that in 1985 he graduated from Pinecrest Academy in Florida, and that he received a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Michigan in 1988.

Then it says, “Graduate Degree, 88-91, Univ. of Michigan, MBA, Business.”

However, when asked what credentials Moreno had earned from the school, the University of Michigan Office of Public Affairs on Monday said Moreno held only a bachelor’s degree in business that was awarded with “High Distinction” on April 28, 1989.

Moreno’s campaign responded by pointing to a separate document filed on April 23, 2010. It didn’t list a post-graduate degree and Moreno’s campaign said, “The first (2010) application to Infiniti was produced by Bernie.”

But the claimed credential did appear on the document filed more than a year later that the Moreno campaign says was “prepared by a staffer who made a mistake.”

The campaign provided a quote from Rob Kistler, whom it said was Moreno’s chief financial officer at the time.

“This was a clerical mistake on the subsequent form not made by Bernie,” it said.

In another instance, the Moreno campaign said it didn’t know how a University of Michigan MBA was attributed to Moreno in 2014, when he joined the Cleveland Foundation Board of Directors. His bio said, “Moreno launched his career in the automotive industry after earning his Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.”

Screenshot from the Cleveland Foundation Fall/Winter 2024 “Gift of Giving” donors magazine.

Moreno “never told the foundation that he held an MBA. I’m not sure why they listed that, you’d have to ask them,” campaign spokeswoman Reagan McCarthy said in an email.

She didn’t respond to a question asking whether Moreno took any steps to correct the claim.

A 2018 biography of Moreno while he chaired the Cleveland State University Board of Trustees said he held multiple degrees from Michigan. His bio at the time said, “Mr. Moreno holds a business degree and a liberal arts degree from the University of Michigan.”

That bio is no longer on the university’s website. What remains is one describing Moreno as founder of Cleveland State’s Center for Sales Excellence. That bio doesn’t claim multiple degrees from the University of Michigan.

“After graduating from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, (Moreno) began his career in the automotive industry with the Saturn Corporation,” it says.

Cleveland State on Tuesday said it removed Moreno’s earlier bio when he left the board of trustees in 2018.

Moreno also appears to have claimed multiple degrees from the University of Michigan in an archived bio that appeared on the website of Mercedes Benz of North Olmstead.

His campaign said, however, that when Moreno was an undergraduate, U of M business students first spent two years earning an associate’s degree in liberal arts before spending the next two getting a bachelor’s in business.

“There is not a single example you can point to in which Bernie himself claims to have an MBA,” McCarthy said, notwithstanding the fact that the Infiniti dealership application making the claim went out over his signature. “Any example you cited is from another individual or entity.”

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.