Speaker

For the past thirteen years, Ned Staebler has served as Vice President for Economic Development at Wayne State University, a federally designated Minority Serving Institution in the City of Detroit. In 2015, he also became President and CEO of TechTown, Detroit’s most established business incubator and accelerator that has helped more than 6000 business that have raised $400 million in startup and growth capital. Currently, he leads both organizations’ efforts to strengthen the Detroit region’s neighborhoods, businesses, and leaders, overseeing a range of activities around innovation and entrepreneurship, business development and attraction, talent retention, transit and mobility, and placemaking. Staebler previously served as the Vice President for Entrepreneurial and Capital Services at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. In this role, he was responsible for the oversight of the Michigan Strategic Fund Board and the 21st Century Jobs Fund, a $2 billion, 10-year initiative to transform Michigan's economy through technology based economic development. Prior to that, Staebler spent nearly a decade in the private sector, working in both startup and Fortune 150 environments in the U.S. and London. He has served on numerous local, state, and federal advisory boards and commissions in healthcare, medical technologies, banking and finance, early-stage company funding, business acceleration and incubation, economic development, urban resiliency, etc. He graduated with honors from Harvard university and the London School of Economics and Political Science.