Michigan Governor-elect Rick Snyder has chosen Ann Arbor SPARK CEO Michael Finney to lead the economic strategy for his transition team. AnnArbor.com is reporting on speculation that Finney might also become the next head of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC). Ann Arbor SPARK is a regional economic development group and company incubator. Snyder is a former acting CEO of Gateway computer who also launched two technology-oriented venture capital groups in Ann Arbor, Avalon and Ardesta. Snyder has worked with Finney since their days together at the MEDC in the early 2000s when Snyder was head of the state economic group. Finney became SPARK’s first CEO in 2005.
Author: Howard Lovy
Howard Lovy is a veteran journalist who has focused primarily on technology, science and innovation during the past decade.
In 2001, he helped launch Small Times Magazine, a nanotech publication based in Ann Arbor, MI, where he built the freelance team and worked closely with writers to set the tone and style for an emerging sector that had never before been covered from a business perspective. Lovy's work at Small Times, and on one of the first nanotechnology-themed blogs, helped him earn a reputation for making complex subjects understandable, interesting, and even entertaining for a broad audience. It also earned him the 2004 Prize in Communication from the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank.
In his freelance work, Lovy covers nanotechnology in addition to technological innovation in Michigan with an emphasis on efforts to survive and retool in the state's post-automotive age. Lovy's work has appeared in many publications, including Wired News, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, The Scientist, the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, Michigan Messenger, and the Ann Arbor Chronicle.
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