SC Native, NPR reporter recognized by USC

By Mike Switzer

Published April 11, 2024 at 6:30 AM EDT

Mike Switzer, host of the SC Business Review

One week from today, the multiple award-winning NPR reporter based in Paris, France, Eleanor Beardsley, will be back in our state to receive one more award. She has been named a University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Distinguished Alumni. She is a Columbia, SC native, graduated from Keenan High School, and received her Masters in International Business degree from USC. And we have her on the phone.

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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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