ANN ARBOR – More than $60,000 in cash will be awarded to Michigan’s top technology start ups on June 12 when Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest hosts its Grand Prize Award ceremony at the James B. Henry Center at Michigan State University.

Co sponsors include Automation Alley, NextEnergy, and Southwest Michigan First.

GLEQ First Place teams from the Emerging Company and new Business Idea paths will be recognized with cash awards of $25,000 and $5,000, respectively. Runner-up teams in each path will be recognized with cash awards of $5,000 and $1,000 respectively.

Automation Alley and NextEnergy will present Innovation Awards to GLEQ participants. Automation Alley will present their Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Award to the top company in that category.

�??The GLEQ program inspires and trains entrepreneurs to be strong contributors to Michigan�??s economy,�?� said Tom Anderson, Automation Alley Senior Director. �??Their program helps keep these companies in Michigan by networking them to statewide resources like our pre-seed fund�??we�??re delighted to sponsor the award for Advanced Manufacturing.�?�

NextEnergy is sponsoring an Innovation Award for the top company in the Alternative Energy field. The two Innovation Awards will provide investments of up to $12,500 each.

The top five teams competing for the GLEQ Grand Prize will pitch their plans to a panel of investment judges headed by Jack Ahrens, partner at TGap Ventures. Presentation scores will be added to the companies�?? scores for their written business plans to determine the overall winners. Past GLEQ prize winners include Rapid BioSense, SpiritShop, Adaptive Materials, Sensigen, TJ Pulse and Velcura Therapeutics.

The keynote address will be presented by Michael W. Long, Ph.D., President/CEO, Velcura Therapeutics.

Long was named the third-annual Grant Thornton Leader and Innovator of the Year on May 1 and was the GLEQ Grand Prize winner in 2001. The �??Leader & Innovator�?� award recognizes and rewards leaders and innovators in the state of Michigan who have demonstrated or created unique ideas, products or abilities that generate a better quality of life in our communities.

Long�??s keynote will focus on the foundations of innovation in Michigan: the environment needed to make innovations flourish; the role of entrepreneurs and leaders in translating innovation to commercial reality, and the intellectual and human resources needed to sustain innovation into the future.

Long is a former professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. He led the development of 15 patents at U-M, as well as three recent patents from Velcura. In 2003, Dr. Long left the university to lead Velcura.

During his career, Long has served on multiple national grant review committees at the National Institutes of Health and other national organizations. He has been a reviewer for Science, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, and some 25 other scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences and author of over 70 published articles.

Long received his undergrad degree in biology and master�??s and doctoral degrees in human physiology from Wayne State University�??s School of Medicine. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center and sabbatical training at one of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute laboratories.

Today, his company, Velcura Therapeutics, is developing highly differentiated therapies for bone diseases. Bone diseases worldwide strike over 250 million individuals. These diseases have an overall 18.5 percent growth rate and the market for their treatment is expected to reach $65 billion by 2030.

The GLEQ awards event at 4:30 p.m. is preceded by the GLEQ Entrepreneur Golf Outing at noon. The golf event will be held at the Forest Akers West Golf course on the Michigan State University campus. The awards event will be held at the adjacent James B. Henry Center on the MSU campus. The awards event kicks off at 4:30 p.m. with a presentation and panel discussion, followed by a Welcome Reception, both hosted by MIT Enterprise Forum. Dinner will begin at 6 p.m. and will feature the keynote presentation by Michael W. Long, President and CEO, Velcura Therapeutics.

Event sponsors providing supporting services include Michigan Small Business Technology Development Centers (MI-SBTDC), the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM), MichBio and TechTown.

All are invited to participate in the golf outing and the awards event and can register for either at GLEQ.Org

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