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Business
South Carolina Business Review

USC Support Aerospace Research

By Mike Switzer
Published April 29, 2016 at 5:20 AM EDT
Michel van Tooren
Mike Switzer/SC Public Radio

  When Boeing made their groundbreaking announcement of building one of its Dreamliner plants in our state, business leaders knew that the company and its suppliers would need support from our research universities. That's why several successful South Carolina business people made a few significant donations that funded our next guest's organization in 2011.

Mike Switzer interviews Michel van Tooren, deputy director of the McNair Center at the University of South Carolina 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