GRAND RAPIDS – On Wednesday, regional investors, academicians, business and government leaders, and philanthropists will meet to have a conversation, hosted by Grand Angels, about how to address Michigan?s sagging economy.
Creating a Statewide Culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship ? Leveraging Change for Michigan?s Economy will bring more than a hundred regional leaders to the Hope College Maas Center where they?ll explore collaborative and creative options for moving from economic decline to substantial, sustainable growth.
The event is co-sponsored by Comerica Bank and the Council of Michigan Foundations.
Stephen Forrest, the newly named vice-president of research at the University of Michigan, will keynote the Conversation. Heralded as ?a world-class scholar who understands how to resolve what others have described as irresolvable,? he is expected to press audience members to make a commitment to change.
?One goal of the Conversation is to learn how we might better use the incredible assets of Michigan?s colleges and universities in turning around our State?s economy,? said John Jackoboice, Grand Angels board chair and Chairman of Grand Rapids?-based Monarch Hydraulics,
Forrest will launch the day with an 8.15 am address ? open to invited guests and media ? highlighting his assessment of both the challenges and proposed responses. He champions the belief that public higher education, especially the State?s major universities, cannot operate as if they are exempt from, or lack responsibility for, the economic conditions of the State that supports them. And they cannot do this alone.
?The issues in Michigan are coming together to create an ?all hands on deck? situation,? Forrest said last week. ?Every community of interest, including the universities, must adopt a cooperative mode. If we don?t, it won?t change the outcome ? eventually Michigan will succeed ? but we will slow it dramatically. We cannot afford to dither on this effort.?
Forrest oversees a research enterprise exceeding $750 million at the U of M, one of the largest university research programs in the country. He has been awarded more than 150 patents and his research has been instrumental in developing a new class of solar cells. He previously served as distinguished professor at the University of Southern California and Princeton University.
Grand Angel members invest as individuals and not as a group fund. Members have invested more than $3 million in nine Michigan businesses to date. Grand Angels president Jody Vanderwel is an attorney with years of experience in business and investment.
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