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President Darwin Brewster called the meeting to order at 12:30 and Kurt Guter led the assembled Rotarians in an invocation inspired by Bob Corwin. An acapella rendition of God Bless America ensued, followed by introductions of the visiting Rotarians and guests, facilitated by Hari Kern. Deb Mikula shared the health of the club is well; Sue Mills gave an update on Judge Michael G. Harrison, who has been moved to St. Lawrence and cannot have visitors at this time. Kevin Schumacher teased the crowd with a few more hints before giving up and announcing Jeff Crippen as the mystery Rotarian. President Darwin recognized Jack Davis for the article featuring him in the Business Monthly, the son of Irv Nichols (Taylor) for his part in the upcoming movie Chappaquiddick, and Ken Beachler, for being awarded the Arthur R. Luedders Circle Award, given annually to a member of the Wharton Center Inner Circle in recognition of extraordinary volunteer service and impact on Wharton Center. Ken has been a charter member of Inner Circle since the inception of the volunteer group in 1982. Nick Heriford provided more information on the Rotary Park Project, which has been getting media coverage as of late. The project was first introduced to the Rotary Foundation in late 2017 and after 6 months of due diligence (talking with LEAP, etc.), it was decided to support this place-making initiative. The park will be a place to attract our community, and will provide a permanent naming opportunity to highlight our club. The Community Foundation will match our Rotary Club commitment of $400,000, which we are able to fulfill over the next 10 years. This gift will NOT impact our regular grant process of supporting local and international projects. Illustrations of the plans were shown; a large model of the project will be brought to a future Rotary meeting. Chair of the Month & Day, Mark Hooper, introduced our speaker for the day, David Washburn, Executive Director of the MSU Foundation, to talk about the Startup Engine at MSU. Dave, who has quite a background in business, technology and the start-up ventures, began his talk by noting that the MSU Foundation doesn’t do any fundraising, rather, it manages a $475M investment portfolio (created with royalties from the invention of a cancer blockbuster drug developed by Barney Rosenberg* in the 1970s) and grants the proceeds of the portfolio back into MSU programs that drive research and economic development initiatives.  *Editor’s Note: A resident of Holt, Mich., Barnett Rosenberg was an MSU professor of chemistry when he and colleagues developed the anti-cancer drug cisplatin which continues to be one of the most widely used and successful treatments for cancer. Cisplatin has a cure rate of nearly 100 percent for testicular cancers, and significantly lowers the rates of lung cancers, head and neck cancers, bone cancers and early stage ovarian cancers. Dr. Rosenberg died August 8, 2009 at the age of 82. Mr. Washburn serves as the President and board member of all MSU Foundation subsidiary companies, supporting students and faculty who “invent things”, which he shared a bit about, including: - Spartan Innovations: Small team that includes our own Rotarian Paul Jacques, and includes initiatives such as MSU Hatch, Greenlight Michigan and Conquer Accelerator.
- Red Cedar Ventures: Venture Fund, they recently hired Jeff Wesley.
- University Corporate Research Park: Real-estate practice. 130 acres of property they manage and lease/rent to like-minded companies/initiatives and partners.
- MBI International
They have invested 2.7M into 30+ companies and have helped generate $50M+ in funding for ideas that lead to job creation, diversification of the economy, and more. They deploy the early funding to help ideas take flight; ideas like SteriDev, which is a sterile case for cell phones, Avidcor, which is helping with affordable cardiac monitory, ROSH impact-sensing headgear to help evaluate concussion risk, and more. Interestingly, if you are a student or faculty person at MSU, whatever you ‘create’ is intellectual property of MSU. A robust Q&A session ensued. President Brewster thanked our speaker and a Rotary coin with the 4-way test was presented. In lieu of a speaker’s gift, we will donate money to the Bio Sand Filter project to help provide pure water to developing countries. Next week we will meet at the Country Club of Lansing to hear from Dr. Doug Edema, VP, Sparrow Medical Group. There will be NO meeting on Friday, May 25, due to the Memorial Holiday. |
Dr. Doug Edema has been with Sparrow for 4.5 years. He is a family physician who has been in medical group and health system leadership roles his entire career. He started a group practice in Grand Rapids which ultimately became the employed physician network of Mercy Health, providing the leadership role in the 80’s and 90’s.
Research Services conducted a similar survey in 2009. The survey will enable us to track member satisfaction and will be instrumental for Lansing Rotary Club Foundation strategic planning. Of course, your individual responses will remain anonymous: we are looking for composite viewpoints only. Thank you for your cooperation.