Wayne State, Ford Partner In Entrepreneur Fellowship

Wayne State University School of Business Administration is announcing a new global partner for its Adams Entrepreneurship Fellowship Program.

Ford Global Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company that manages all aspects of intellectual property for Ford and its brands, will partner with Wayne State University. This opportunity offers a highly entrepreneurial experience for one Wayne State MBA student or alumnus and is supported by a grant from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

“The fellowship recipient will work closely with Ford Global Technologies to discover untapped opportunities to commercialize and license intellectual property,” said Terry Cross, WSU School of Business Administration executive-in-residence and administrator of the Adams Fellowship Program. “The fellow will also work closely with an experienced entrepreneur to explore the possibility of creating a firm to produce, market and sell a product using a select FGTL technology.”

The fellow, chosen from students or alumni of the Wayne State MBA program, will earn a generous salary and benefits during his or her year in the program.

The Technology Commercialization Team of Ford Global Technologies, LLC markets and licenses select patented and non-patented technologies and other forms of intellectual property rights to other companies for use both inside and outside of the automotive industry.
                                                              
“We start by leading efforts within and across all organizations of Ford and its brands to strategically identify, then develop business cases, and build a number of "One Ford" Teams to assist in ultimately licensing, leveraging, and commercializing various forms of Ford developed intellectual property,” said Chris Danowski, director of technology commercialization at FGTL. “Then, this office works closely, not only with other Automotive OEMs and their suppliers, but also with corporate executives and their management teams at various Fortune 500 firms around the globe, and even with various governmental agencies and capital venture firms, to commercialize, license, and generate incremental royalty revenue streams on the diverse types of innovative technologies and other forms of intellectual property that Ford and its brands have developed."   

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan awarded the Adams Fund grant to the WSU School of Business Administration in support of the Adams Entrepreneurship Fellowship Program. The program has already facilitated the creation of two new businesses: Monarch Antenna in Ann Arbor and SpaceForm in Wayne State University’s TechTown. More information can be found at www.business.wayne.edu.