Mike Ilitch School of Business Appoints Director of Entrepreneurship, Innovation Programs

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The Detroit-based Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business has appointed veteran faculty member and administrator Jeff Stoltman as its new director for entrepreneurship and innovation programs.

In his new role, Stoltman will direct the development, delivery, and assessment of all entrepreneurship-related curricula at the school. He will also represent the Mike Ilitch School’s entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives with Wayne State’s other schools and colleges, TechTown, and the local community.

“Our program is designed to introduce students to examples of people from all different walks of life who have been successful in taking an idea and running with it,” Stoltman says. “Everyone is capable of taking a good idea and turning it into a business. They just need help finding the path.”

A member of the Wayne State marketing faculty since 1988, Jeff Stoltman is former associate dean for research and graduate programs in the Mike Ilitch School of Business and former interim department chair. He also served as Wayne State’s vice president for marketing and communications from 1997-2001 and again in an interim capacity in 2006-07.

Stoltman, who serves as a member of the Office of Technology Commercialization’s Administrative Patent Committee, teaches in the areas of marketing new ventures, consumer research, retailing, and marketing strategy. He is an active consultant, having worked with over 100 organizations in areas such as strategy development and strategic planning, marketing and customer research, product development, and promotion strategy.

Established in 1946, The Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business was renamed in 2015 in recognition of a $40 million gift from Mike and Marian Ilitch, the largest donation in the university’s history. As part of the investment, a new state-of-the-art building is slated to open in District Detroit in 2018, and entrepreneurial programming and collaboration with city businesses are expanding.

The school is focused on preparing students for careers, advancing the boundaries of scholarly and practitioner knowledge, and enhances the economic vitality of the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan, and beyond.