I am honored to participate on the AT&T Black Innovators Panel on Feb. 9. I especially want to highlight two Bell Labs contemporaries on the panel. My friend Dr. Marian Croak pioneered voice-over-IP technology and holds more than 100 patents in the field. Dr. James West is the inventor of the electret transducer microphone that […]
The Fall 2020 edition of the Urban Entrepreneurship course is a wrap! In the course, students learn what it takes to build an “urban-focused” business, i.e., an enterprise that addresses an important urban community need. The Covid-19 pandemic presented unique challenges, but thanks to great entrepreneur partners and hard-working students, we turned those challenges into opportunities.
My urban entrepreneurship course prepares students to deliver game changing business innovation and solutions for urban communities. The course pairs teams of talented students with entrepreneurs who have developed or are developing an urban-focused business. Urban Entrepreneur Partners benefit by having enthusiastic, talented U-M students helping to document, evaluate and improve their business model.
The Fall 2018 edition of my University of Michigan course, ENTR 490.012 Urban Entrepreneurship, is now complete!
I recently returned from a trip to Shanghai, China. The main purpose was to visit my daughter Stacy, who is working there as an executive with Nike Inc. While there, I visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University to explore the Joint Institute they share with University of Michigan, to talk to the
In July of 2017, I began serving at Wayne State University in the role of Senior Counselor to the Provost for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The brief for this position was to help the Provost and the VP of Economic Development develop and begin to execute the University’s vision for an updated and invigorated approach to […]
The Fall 2018 edition of my Urban Entrepreneurship course at University of Michigan is underway, and I’m excited by the participation of students and Detroit entrepreneurs in this newly updated course. This semester, we have six teams of five students each working with six different urban-focused entrepreneurial ventures in the Detroit area. By the end […]
I had the distinct privilege of speaking at the Wayne State University Social Entrepreneurship Conference this morning. My topic? “Urban Entrepreneurship and the Holy Grail.” We had a really engaged group of participants, and we could have easily gone on for hours. Hopefully, armed with the knowledge of how to “sketch” their business ideas, the […]
Last night was the final session for U-M ENTR490.012 Urban Entrepreneurship, Fall 2017 edition. Students presented the business models they developed to a distinguished panel of judges. Really interesting business proposals, great presentations, insightful and probing questions from the judges. Thanks to the students for the privilege of being their instructor and facilitator this semester. […]
Students in my U-M Urban Entrepreneurship class hard at work developing solutions. Our guest lecturer for this session was Charlie Michaels of the U-M Center for Socially Engaged Design. Did a really good job helping the students with idea generation.