“My dad wouldn’t want a somber mourning of his death, he’d want a big party to celebrate his life,” said Bob’s son, Larry Mark.

Come to share your memories of Bob during the celebration. The event is informal, snacks will be provided, and guests should feel comfortable coming and going.

To keep the memory of Bob alive, the Elevator Pitch Competition, that Bob designed and successfully implemented, will now be known as the Bob Mark Memorial Elevator Pitch Competition.  Donations to maintain this competition can be sent to the Michigan Tech Fund, specifying the Bob Mark Memorial Elevator Pitch Competition (account # 3239).

Nathan Sturos
Cody Renard
Eli Karttunen
Danielle Boettger
Caitlin Pionke
Danielle Linna
Ian Gaffney
Asel Otunchieva

Bob Mark awards Dustin Denkins the 1st place prize in the 1st Michigan Tech Business Plan Competition in Spring of 2010.

Bob Mark, professor of practice in the School of Business and Economics, died Monday, May 23, 2011, after a recent stroke. He was 62 years old.

“Bob made teaching and learning fun by presenting concepts in a way that you couldn’t forget them,” said Michigan Technological University President Glenn Mroz. “He was a natural with students.”

Bob was awarded the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008, only two years after joining the faculty. He was famous for using magic tricks in his classes and for his involvement with students outside the classroom.

“Bob had a great impact on our School, through his teaching, his work with the Institute for Leadership and Innovation and his direct involvement with students with dreams of being entrepreneurs,” said Darrell Radson, dean of the School of Business and Economics.

Bob was the driving force behind the Elevator Pitch Competition and the Business Plan Competition, both of which challenged students to present their best ideas for new, real businesses to a panel of judges. In fact, he had just announced the merger of the Business Plan Competition with Central Michigan University for next year, greatly increasing its prize monies and stature. He was also instrumental in bringing the Extreme Entrepreneur Tour to the Michigan Tech campus.

“Incredible teacher, respected colleague and generous person,” is how Mari Buche, associate professor in the School of Business and Economics, will remember Bob. “He was such a force. Everything he was involved in, he gave 100 percent. He could take a good idea and turn it into an experience.”

Bob’s students agreed. “This is a huge shock and very hard to hear,” ” said Jessica Tompkins, whose company, Two Bows, which designs hunting clothing for women, won last fall’s Elevator Pitch Competition and placed second in the recent Business Plan Competition.  ’Bob was one of my greatest supporters in the development of Two Bows, in addition to the great professor and all around guy I knew him to be. If it wasn’t for Bob I never would have known about the Business Plan Competition or the Elevator Pitch Competition. Michigan Tech and its students are going be missing an amazing instructor and entrepreneur!’

Bob’s specialties also included commercializing University research projects, and he had presented continuing education business seminars to engineers. He even worked on commercializing a Senior Design project, an improved hospital bed mattress, with which his son, Larry, was involved.

Locally, he was president of the Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance. “Bob had been a pillar in promoting entrepreneurship at Michigan Tech and in the business community,” said Carlton Carothers, CEO of the Michigan Tech Enterprise Corporation SmartZone. “I can’t think of anyone else with such ‘can-do’ and ‘get-it-done’ attitude. Our community has lost a strong advocate of business and entrepreneurship. We will also miss his uncanny humor.”

Jonathan Leinonen, also with the SmartZone, agreed.

“Bob was an exemplar for entrepreneurs, a role model for students and a leader in the community,” he said. “Bob was a great inspiration to me personally, and I learned a lot from him through his tireless efforts to help students start businesses, to find funding for projects and to start the new Entrepreneurship Experiences capstone course. But what I really admired about Bob was that he had a heart for students, whether that was celebrating someone’s birthday with ice cream cones, cheering them on at athletic events, helping them move into the dorms, or in one case I know of, carrying furniture out of a second-story apartment after a student graduated and landed a new job. Bob will be sorely missed by everyone who got to know him.”

“Bob also developed the Introduction to Business course, an important part of our undergraduate curriculum,” Radson added. “He will be greatly missed. Please keep his wife, Nancy, daughter, Jacqualine, and sons, Phil and Larry, in your thoughts and prayers.”

Bob earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Michigan Tech and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Utah.

A Funeral Mass will be held 11 a.m. Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at St. Robert Catholic Church, 310 N. Cherry St., Flushing. Fr. Roy Horning will officiate. Burial will follow at Bendle Cemetery. Visitation will be 1-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Sunday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. Monday at Rossell Funeral Home and 10 a.m. until time of the Mass Tuesday at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association.

This article was reposted from Michigan Tech News.

Bob Mark, our friend, teacher, and colleague, passed away today as a result of a stroke he experienced last week. Bob had a great impact on our School through his teaching, his work with the Institute for Leadership and Innovation (formerly CenTILE), and his direct involvement with students and their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. Bob received the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008. Among his many accomplishments, he developed the Introduction to Business course, an important part of our undergraduate curriculum. He will be greatly missed.

Please keep Nancy Mark and all of Bob’s family in your thoughts and prayers. We will pass on information we receive from his family regarding services and memorials.

Remember Bob Mark with us through photos on facebook.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 in the ATDC conference room (1402 E. Sharon Avenue).

Networking social with light refreshments 5:30 PM
Panel discussion 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

For most startups and early stage technology companies, raising investment capital is the first and most daunting task.  Particularly in bootstrapped start-ups, diversion of management resources to fundraising tasks usually lengthen time to market, which feeds back into a need for even more capital to support the launch.  In the process of increasing the investor “ask,” valuation and terms become more difficult, and investor skepticism about the business can become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Much heartache can be reduced, and the entire process including these time-consuming parts, can be streamlined and accelerated by developing and following a “Capital Fundraising Plan” (CFP).  This panel discussion featuring Don Baker of  Safford and Baker, PLLC, Legal Advisors to Technology Businesses will cover:

1. How to forecast your capital needs and compare those needs to your plan for achieving operational success.
2. Correlate needs to business valuation so that you can build a credible case for the investment proposition being offered to investors.
3. Decide what KIND of financing is needed, what type of financing/investment source is best for you, and what investment terms are reasonable to offer in light of your enterprise needs.
4. Questions and answers raised in developing a CFP.
5. A comprehensive case study of CFP development.

Please join us!

Contact John Diebel ( jfdiebel@mtu.edu ) 487-1082 for more information

After an exhausting week of final exams, we were so excited to go the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder’s meeting in Omaha, Nebraska! Friday night we attended the Cocktail Party for all shareholders at Borsheims, an upscale Jewelry store owned by Berkshire. We had a great time networking with businessmen, longtime shareholders, and a variety of other attendees. We were definitely younger than a majority of the people there, but that enabled us to easily start up conversations and tell others about Michigan Tech’s APMP.

On Saturday we started the morning bright and early at the Qwest Center. The stadium seating itself was overfilled, so we sat in one of a dozen ballrooms with a projector and watched the movie. The movie included excerpts from interviews with Mr. Buffett, new commercials for many of the companies he owns, a specially-made ‘Office’ episode staring Mr. Buffett alongside Steve Carell, and several songs rewritten with lyrics to reflect Berkshire Hathaway. After the movie, the most important part of the day- the actual meeting- began. Mr. Buffett discussed Berkshire’s performance over the past year and major events which affected their results. He also talked about his projections for next year and his opinion of the market in general.

After, we moved into the stadium for the question and answer session, where we sat about 50 yards from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger! So close that we could hear the crunch of the peanut brittle Munger was nibbling all day! There were several hours of open questions for the public to address their issues directly with Buffett and Munger. We really enjoyed this session because it was enlightening to learn about their perspective on everything from different sectors of the market, future investments, and raising children. It was humbling being in the presence of such successful and intelligent individuals. I really gained a lot from this experience by learning from both the successes and failures in Buffett’s and Munger’s personal lives and careers, and I hope I can use this knowledge as I continue to pursue career options and make investment decisions.

Afterward, we explored the exposition of booths of all the companies owned by Berkshire Hathaway. There was a DQ booth where we snacked on ice cream, a Mars booth with candy bars, a BNSF Railroad booth with a big train set, a booth with every color and style of cowboy boots, a booth displaying an electric car, and much more! Overall, it was a fantastic day! We learned so much and
bonded as future teammates and mangers of the APMP portfolio. Now we are so excited to head back to school and use our new knowledge and enthusiasm to create another successful year with APMP.

We are very grateful that we had the opportunity to experience this meeting, and we hope students in the future will also be able to learn as much as we did!

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder’s meeting
Omaha, Nebraska
Thursday, April 28th- Sunday May 1st

Students who attended: Jake Carlson, Mike Harri, Bai Lu, and Anne Dancy