South Carolina Business Review

Grad students training for industry careers

By Mike Switzer

Published April 16, 2025 at 6:30 AM EDT

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Marieke Van Puymbroeck

Marieke Van Puymbroeck, associate dean of the Graduate School at Clemson University

Oftentimes, graduate students are trained primarily for academic work, but our next guest’s university is preparing one of their cohorts for a completely different career path. And it involves partnering with industry in our state. Mike Switzer interviews Marieke Van Puymbroeck, associate dean of the Graduate School at Clemson University.

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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.

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