ANN ARBOR - The Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, Michigan’s venture capital fund-of-funds, announced that CEO Chris Rizik has been named a finalist for its Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 Award in the Michigan and Northwest Ohio Region. The award, which honors leaders for their extraordinary success and commitment, will be announced at a special gala
LANSING - One mid-Michigan entrepreneur wants to fill a need in the rapidly growing market for unmanned aerial vehicles by catering his products to educators and students. Mario Swaidan, a recent graduate of Michigan State University’s neuroscience program and owner of Lansing-based AerBots Inc., plans to market quadcopter drone kits, so named because they are
GRAND RAPIDS - After driving the West Michigan economy for several years, the manufacturing sector has reached a holding pattern of flat growth that has economists on the lookout for the next downturn in the business cycle. In general, economists in the region note that weaker-than-expected sales of passenger vehicles in the automotive industry have
DETROIT - Fiat Chrysler Automobile’s search for new partners may be taking an unexpected turn. After getting rejected by major competitors including General Motors and Ford, FCA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne already has lined up a fledgling alliance with Google to build 100 autonomous vehicle prototypes. A new report suggests the CEO has launched additional
DETROIT – Demand for advanced manufacturing workers is continuing its upward trend as 2015 marked the state’s sixth consecutive year of employment growth in the field with nearly 700,000 workers employed - the highest employment number since 2006 and a nearly 30 percent increase from the middle of the Great Recession in 2009. The new
MASON - Internationally renowned writer, commentator, and political analyst Jack Lessenberry, will headline a wide-ranging program of experts at the Michigan Energy Fair June 24 and 25 at the Ingham County Fairgrounds outside Lansing. As a special guest speaker, Lessenberry will be featured at noon June 25 at the Michigan Energy Fair and the Sustainable
BEIJING, China - Driving in China sucks. Getting anywhere in a city like Beijing means slogging through colossal traffic jams and chaotic, bewildering intersections. Crashes kill 500 people daily, and everyone views the rules of the road as advisory at best. “Many drivers and pedestrians think that traffic signals are just for reference,” says Jing Wang.
LANSING - Michael Rogers, vice president communications for the Small Business Association of Michigan, talks with award-winning innovators honored at Michigan State University’s annual Innovation Celebration. He chats with social entrepreneur Josh York, founder of The York Project; MSU professor William Donohue and the “Maven Quotient” project on social influencers, Jarett Lazare and his package-delivery
SOUTHFIELD - Diva Tech Talk was excited to interview Rhonda St. John Hamborsky, Director of Strategy and Innovation at multinational AT&T Inc. AT&T is the second largest provider of mobile telephones and the largest provider of affixed telephones in the United States; also offers broadband subscription television services; and was named by Fortune Magazine as
ANN ARBOR - University of Michigan cyber risk startup, QuadMetrics, has been purchased by FICO, a Silicon Valley software company. FICO said it bought QuadMetrics to help in its development of FICO Enterprise Security Score, which measures an organization's level of cybersecurity risk. Terms were not announced. QuadMetrics leverages predictive analytics to monitor signals from
