Though I lived and worked just a few miles from where this hidden giant of science lived and worked; though his nephew was my professor and thesis advisor at University of Michigan; though we frequented the same barbershop, for Christ’s sake; I never met Walter S. McAfee. I didn’t even know who he was until after he died. I now know that he could have, as much as anyone, claimed to be a founder of The Space Age.
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.
Nine years ago (May 2011), just after Aaron’s graduation from University of Michigan School of Business, he and I took a father/son trip to Africa. Aaron and I learned and experienced a lot on this trip. Now, in the midst of the Covid-19 timeout, I have finally found the time to share a bit of our adventure.
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
This morning, in the aftermath of a national election that was both disappointing and encouraging, I am reminded of the power of persistence and faith. Twenty-two years ago, in 1996, I had just sold the company that I and my two co-founders spent twelve years building. Ours was a journey that required tremendous persistence, faith, […]
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 […]
This summer, while on vacation in Europe, I received some bad news from my friend and U-M classmate Earl Howard. Earl told me that a dear classmate of ours, Les McDermott, had died. The thing is, he hadn’t died within the past few days, he’d left this earth months earlier, in April. After hearing the […]