South Carolina Business Review

Careers post criminal life

By Mike Switzer

Published March 23, 2023 at 5:30 AM EDT

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We keep hearing about companies having a really hard time finding qualified employees. There simply are lots of job openings all across the country. Our next guest is trying to help with this situation by working with the business community to find careers for former prison inmates. Mike Switzer interviews Bryan Stirling, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections in Columbia.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

See stories by Mike Switzer