Two Great Leaders Make Career Moves!

Tony Earley, Executive Chairman of DTE Energy, announced this week he would take the help as PG&E's new CEO next month in San Francisco.  We congratulate Tony on his new job, but are sad to lose him from the community.  While Tony says he's coming back in a few years to retire in metro Detroit, we'll miss his steady leadership for a state that needs all the good leadership it can get.  Tony was a former chair of Detroit Renaissance, our predecessor organization, and led several major initiatives to build out downtown Detroit's public spaces and improve the schools.

The good news in this story though is that Gerry Anderson steps up to add the Chairman's title to his President & CEO role at DTE Energy.  Gerry is an active BLM board member and chairs our Accelerate Michigan initiative - a partnership between BLM and the University Research Corridor designed to increase university-business engagement.  We congratulate Gerry on his promotion!

Accelerate Michigan: Looking for the best ideas to grow Michigan’s economy!

If you are sitting on an idea for the “Next Big Thing,” you can now compete to win the financial support necessary to launch your idea or grow your company to the next stage.  The best and brightest business thinkers are invited to sharpen their pencils and enter their business plans in the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition.  With over $1 million in cash awards and in-kind contributions of services, staffing, and software, the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is the nation’s largest monetary prize contest and offers serious support for winning business concepts. 

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Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition Announced

Accelerate Michigan’s first major initiative, a statewide innovation competition, launched last month. The new competition was created by the Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan with seed funding from the New Economy Initiative.  The Accelerate Michigan partnership, for which the competition is named, is the lead sponsor providing underwriting support, sponsorships of sector competitions, judges and other in-kind support. 

The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is one of the nation’s largest innovation competitions, targeting early-stage businesses with proven technology and potential to generate an immediate impact on Michigan’s economy as well as student concepts with longer-term business viability. The press release announcing the competition can be found here.  The deadline for the company competition is October 6, 2010.

Accelerate Michigan Launched: Business Leaders for Michigan Partners with The University Research Corridor

Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM) and the University Research Corridor (URC) has announced the formation of a new partnership called Accelerate Michigan.  The partnership will leverage the strengths of our research universities in collaboration with the business community to spur innovation and economic development for Michigan in a way that has not been done before. 

Based on benchmarking performed by McKinsey & Company, the partnership will become one of the largest of its kind between a state’s largest businesses and research universities.  The alliance will help support efforts to make Michigan a “top ten” state for economic growth by addressing three major pillars: Fostering Entrepreneurship, Growing Capacity to Scale Ideas and Catalyzing Clusters of Innovation. 

The partnership’s work plan includes sponsorship of a statewide innovation competition, and creation of university commercialization and venture capital funds. In addition, the partnership will focus on specific areas of innovation with great potential for business growth that align federal research spending plans, university research strengths, business needs and the state’s strengths. Visit www.AccelerateMichigan.com for more information.