Harold Swanner
Chairman of the Board/Chief Financial Officer
Fortune Academy, Inc.
Harold left the corporate world and moved to the Myrtle Beach area from Cleveland
Ohio in 1985. He opened Coastal Business Brokers on the Grand Strand and operated
the company from 1985-1995.
He is a Rotarian and a “Paul Harris Fellowship” member, he graduated
from Leadership Grand Strand in 1991, and has been a SCORE (senior core retired
executives) counselor from 1997 to present.
In 1995, Harold purchased Fortune Real Estate School located in Myrtle Beach
South Carolina. What started as a single classroom, 1 instructor real estate
proprietary school in 1995, has turned into a multi-curriculum institution with
15 locations located throughout South Carolina. Because of the diversity of curriculum,
the company changed its name to Fortune Academy in 2000.
Headquartered in Myrtle Beach in the new Coastal Carolina’s Association
of REALTORS building, Fortune now has over 75 instructors, is in partnership
with 13 State Technical Colleges, and has member schools in Charleston and Columbia,
and partnerships with a number of REALTOR Associations. The school offers licensing
and continuing education programs in real estate, property management, appraisal,
home inspection, insurance, mortgage lending, and continuing legal education.
The school also offers courses in professional development for some of the leading
franchises and firms throughout South Carolina as well as Internet based distant
learning courses.
Fortune Academy has implemented a student loan program with SLM Financial
for all of its locations and has created a Fortune Scholarship program through
Horry-Georgetown Technical College Foundation that provides scholarships to students
who have financial needs.
In 2002-2003, the South Carolina Association of Higher Continuing Education
(SCAHCE) honored the Community Concierge Program developed jointly by Fortune
Academy and Horry/Georgetown Technical College through their partnership arrangement
as “The Outstanding Continuing Education Program of the Year”. This
award is given to recognize the South Carolina institution that provides the
most extraordinary continuing education program, whether given as a credit or
non-credit program, developed and presented in a given academic year by any two-year
or four-year institution of higher learning in South Carolina.
Fortune Academy was also recognized as the “Affiliate of the Year” by
the Coastal Carolina’s Association of REALTORS in 2003. | 
