A regular discussion on this show involves our state's need for college graduates who are qualified for the workforce our employers need and who themselves want to live and work here. Our next guest is part of a panel of South Carolina’s top business and higher education leaders who are working on just that. Mike Switzer interviews Ken Wingate, the former chair of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, who is now part of the project known as Competing Through Knowledge.
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.