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