DETROIT – TechTown, a research and technology park at Wayne State University, has selected four new board members, including two from outside Michigan.
The new TechTown board members, who attended their first board meeting April 20, include:
Entrepreneur Michael Klass, co-founder of MD Synergy, a California-based healthcare information technology company that focuses on integrating providers and payers through the Internet. Klass is also an investment manager with Second Southern Corporation and Ginarra Partners in Los Angeles.
Mitchell Wonboy, executive director of Global Fixed Income Derivatives for Union Bank of Switzerland. He works out of the investment bank?s office in Stamford, Connecticut. Prior to that position, Wonboy was a vice president at JP Morgan Securities in New York.
Kwame Kenyatta, a Detroit City Council member elected in November 2005. From 2003 to 2005, he served as a Seventh District Wayne County Commissioner. He has also held the position of vice president of the Detroit Board of Education.
Doug Rothwell, president of Detroit Renaissance, a private, nonprofit organization promoting regional economic development led by local corporate executives. Previously, Rothwell served as executive director of Worldwide Real Estate for General Motors and president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
?The key is taking this organization to a national level,? says Richard Bernstein, a TechTown board member. ?Our new members idealize the ingenuity found within TechTown. They are bringing in spirit, energy, enthusiasm and vitality, which is not only going to help transform TechTown, but the entire region.?
TechTown Executive Director Howard Bell said the R&D center is seeing more national interest in and support for TechTown?s job creation, industry diversification and neighborhood development efforts. ?Our expanded board will undoubtedly spur tremendous momentum,? Bell said.
