Executive Director Randal Charlton blogs: "Last week I attended the graduation ceremony of 17 talented executives, all high achievers, all victims of the recent downturn. They had just completed a course called Shifting Gears, at TechTown, sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation…. All heaped praise on the program and the lessons the facilitators had provided to help them regain their confidence, hone their networking skills and reposition themselves for their next career."

Executive Director Randal Charlton muses on business opportunities for up-and-coming generations as he recovers from hip replacement surgery: “I have just had hip surgery and discovered that so has almost everyone else in my age group…. After the hassle of having lumps of metal inserted into your body, I can tell you one thing for sure: we want more than to play bridge and shuffleboard and eat early-bird dinners in God’s waiting room otherwise known as Florida.”

Going from big business to a startup is, in my humble opinion, not all that different from changing a seat on a staid John Deere tractor for one on a bucking bronco…. Today, anyone seeking a career change for whatever reason can get more measured, thoughtful advice from a program we are running at TechTown called Shifting Gears, developed at Ann Arbor SPARK.