University of Michigan's Ross School of Business Partners with Michigan State University's Broad College of Business to Launch Michigan Entrepreneurship Education Leaders Forum

University Entrepreneurial Programs from Across Michigan Join Forces to Foster a Culture of Entrepreneurship Among Students, Regional Business Community

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business has joined forces with Michigan State University's Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Broad College of Business to create the Michigan Entrepreneurship Education Leaders Forum. The forum brings entrepreneurial educators from the top MBA programs across the state together to identify opportunities for improvement and collaboration, with the ultimate goal of advancing entrepreneurship among students and alumni in Michigan.

"Today's college graduates are facing a marketplace that expects them to be armed with an entrepreneurial skill set and the ready-application of those skills," said Managing Director of the Zell Lurie Institute Tim Faley. "Bringing our region's top entrepreneurial educators together is the best way to ensure we maximize every opportunity for students throughout Michigan to create meaningful entrepreneurial ventures, impact start-up development, or innovate within a corporate environment."

Friday's inaugural Michigan Entrepreneurship Education Leaders meeting addressed how entrepreneurship programs can—individually and collaboratively—provide students with the critical entrepreneurial skills needed and the best, most effective practices for doing this. Discussion topics included teaching and funding models as well as the scaling of more intensive student experiences.

At the University of Michigan, the Forum represents another way the Zell Lurie Institute, a part of Michigan Ross, is delivering on the long term vision of Sam Zell, who founded the Institute in 1999 with Ann Lurie through a $10 million endowment. Zell envisioned the Institute as a catalyst for entrepreneurship within the business school, then extending across the University of Michigan's campus, the greater Michigan region and the entire country. The creation of the Forum comes on the heels of entrepreneurial centers being formed at the College of Engineering, Law School and Medical School all with the help of the Institute.

The forum held its first meeting yesterday, with representatives from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, as well as Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Grand Valley, Wayne State and Western Michigan Universities. Tim Palmer from Western Michigan stated that he knew of no other discipline in any state where the heads got together with the intent of improving everyone's ability to educate their students. The group will next meet in May.

"The Entrepreneurship Leadership Forum provides a valuable platform for sharing ideas and best practices for inculcating entrepreneurial principles and an entrepreneurial mindset in our students and for identifying promising avenues of collaboration among our institutes and centers to engender entrepreneurial activity in the state of Michigan," said Shawnee K. Vickery, Demmer Legacy Fellow from the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Michigan State University. "It was inspiring to be able to discuss common challenges and to share solutions for effectively addressing them."

About the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
The Institute and its Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance bring together a potent mix of knowledge, experience and opportunities from the front lines of entrepreneurship and alternative investments.  The student learning experience is further enhanced through internships, entrepreneurial clubs and events that serve to provide viable networks and engage the business community.  The School's three student-led investment funds, with over $5M under management, immerse students in the business assessment and investment process.  Founding Board Members include Samuel Zell, Chairman of Equity Group Investments and Eugene Applebaum, Founder of Arbor Drugs, Inc. For more information, visit the Institute at www.zli.bus.umich.edu.

SOURCE The Zell Lurie Institute