44 | AUGUST 12 • 2021
Dr. Joel M. Cohen, Ph.D.,
recently retired from
Oakland Community
College after 52 years of
teaching Introduction to
Psychology, Psychology
of Organizational Behavior, Child
Development, Abnormal Psychology
and Marriage and Family in Modern
Society.
He graduated from Wayne State
University in 1960 with a B.S. in psy-
chology, M.A. in psychology in 1962
and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1965.
Dr. Cohen has helped thousands
of students graduate over the past
five decades. He does not seek
accolades as he is very modest. He
is well respected and loved by many
of his students.
Dr. Cohen has been a licensed
practicing psychologist since 1965,
specializing in treating children,
adolescents and families. He is a
certified gambling counselor and
licensed family and marriage coun-
selor with an approach which is both
pragmatic and interpersonal. His
practice helps many individuals who
are struggling with both work and
family stress.
Joel has been married to Betsy
Cohen for 60 years and has a proud
son, Matthew Cohen; daughter,
Leslie Chudnow; and he is the proud
grandfather of five amazing grand-
children, Jacob, Zachary, Nathan,
Josh and Stefani.
A
Jewish son and father, born and
raised in Metro Detroit, have
reinvigorated a once-struggling
business.
Tom Berman and his father, Ron Berman,
are breathing new life into Nano Magic,
which specializes in nanotechnology-pow-
ered solutions with a focus on liquid indus-
trial and consumer products to apply to sur-
faces such as glass, porcelain and ceramic.
Tom Berman, Nano Magic’s president
and CEO, is an attorney by trade who also
served a term as an Oakland County com-
missioner. Ron Berman helped start Rock
Financial with business mogul Dan Gilbert
in 1985 and has decades of business experi-
ence in Metro Detroit.
Nano Magic was originally two differ-
ent companies that merged, one based in
Cleveland, NanoFilm Ltd., and one based in
Austin, Texas, Applied Nanotech Inc.
The merger occurred in 2014, and
through 2018, they were never able to inte-
grate well. On top of that, the business was
on the brink of bankruptcy.
Ron Berman was on the board of direc-
tors of Applied Nanotech Inc. and survived
the merger. He remained on the board but
would just be on quarterly board calls. It
wasn’t until the summer of 2018 that he
heard about the challenges the company
was experiencing, and he was surprised to
hear it. At that time, he saw an opportunity
to help turn around a once-strong company.
“My dad actually approached me,
” Tom
Berman said. “I had just left a company I
helped build and grow, and it was fun to
help parent their child, but it was time for
me to start my own thing. I was working on
a startup at the time, and my dad, knowing
that, asked me if I would be interested in
partnering with him in helping turn around
this venture.
”
The company was in rough shape and
had significant debt, but seeing a diamond
in the rough, they decided to take a stab at
it.
“We put in some of our own personal
money, we raised a few dollars from some
family and friends and initial investors, and
we negotiated an offering with the then-ma-
jority owner of the business to issue new
stock and give us operational and financial
control of the company,
” Tom Berman said.
He said they’ve faced a lot of challenges
but have clawed their way out of the grave.
Nano Magic is now debt-free, according to
Tom, helped by fundraising as well as the
coronavirus pandemic leading more con-
sumers to purchase cleaning and anti-fog
products.
“We’ve made significant progress, we’ve
continued to have a few fundraising rounds
and we have a lot of support and great
investors, the majority of them from the
Detroit Metro area, many of them Jewish,
”
Tom said.
MOVING TO THE MOTOR CITY
After taking control, the Bermans felt they
needed to move the company to Detroit
here’s to
business SPOTlight
brought to you in partnership with
B I R M I N G H A M
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NANO MAGIC
The warehouse in
Madison Heights
Building a
Household Name
Father-and-son duo want to take Nano Magic global.
Father-and-son duo want to take Nano Magic global.
DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER