58 | SEPTEMBER 19 • 2019 THEJEWISHNEWS.COM
business SPOTlight
both the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra and the Michigan
Israel Business Accelerator, as
well as on the boards of the
United Way for Southeastern
Michigan, Business Leaders
for Michigan and the Detroit
Economic Club.
“His unique experience
brings a strong pedigree and
personal values to his new
position that will preserve and
accelerate the legacy established
by our founders,” said Jane F
.
Sherman, board member of the
Fisher Group.
Fellow board member Phillip
Wm. Fisher added, “It has been
my privilege serving with Mark
on a variety of boards over the
past three decades, and I look
forward to partnering with him
to evolve solutions addressing
the family’
s needs.”
“Davidoff” from page 57
“Training Entrepreneurs” from page 57
within the businesses we run,
but also in the communities
we touch. In my current job, I
work to not only build a busi-
ness for self-driving cars, but to
make sure we solve transporta-
tion problems for the elderly,
for single parents and for the
broader community.”
Abbie Spector, project
manager at Rocket Fiber, a
technology start-up providing
internet services to
Detroit residents
and businesses, is
a 2017 fellow who
learned about VFA
from a classmate
at Middlebury
College in
Vermont.
“VFA’
s social and profes-
sional network afforded me the
opportunity to move to a city
I otherwise would have over-
looked, and provided the perfect
avenue to combine my passion
for urban geography and com-
munity development with my
desire to work in a fast-paced,
entrepreneurial setting,” Spector
said. “VFA is at once a training
program, a social network and
a career jump starter. Through
VFA, I’
ve been fortunate to
learn from experienced entre-
preneurs, grow into my project
management role, connect with
talented leaders in and around
Detroit, and build lasting
friendships.”
Lauren Hoffman, who works
at Rock Ventures in Detroit,
the holding company for Dan
Gilbert’
s portfolio of compa-
nies, investments and real estate
holdings, agreed. “VFA has a
transformative impact on its
fellows. It’
s almost
a surrogate for
business school, in
the level of training
and excellence of
the network one
builds through
the experience.
It makes starting
companies feel accessible. Some
of the most valuable business
competencies I’
ve learned are
to expect it will be hard, and to
grind through uncertainty and
deeply unsexy grunt work to do
anything interesting and execute
your best ideas, and to ask ques-
tions of the brilliant people who
have built similar products, ser-
vices or companies because they
can and will generously want to
share valuable advice.”
VFA has become her passion,
Rubin said. “I get such joy from
helping these fellows and their
ventures.
“I want nothing more than
to see these young people suc-
ceed. When I take friends or
business associates to training
camp challenges, they are blown
away by the talent. You can’
t
revitalize New York, but you can
help reinvent Detroit. This is a
huge pull for these young entre-
preneurs. They want to create
products and services that create
change, and that’
s what Detroit
is all about!”
Abbie Spector
Lauren
Hoffman
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