DAVID MIELKE:
 
ALEX BURKULAS




 
 
 
 
 
Dean, College of Business, Eastern Michigan University (EMU) in Ypsilanti. After working as an investment banker and a corporate treasurer for six years, Mielke joined academia in 1980. During part of his 19 years at Marquette University in Milwaukee, he served as dean and started an international business program. He then served as dean of the College of Business at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) until 2004, when he moved to EMU. Mielke has been involved in energy projects, economic development, and international partnerships since the mid-1980s. He developed and funded the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center in Muskegon, the first gold “LEED” building in Michigan and the nation’s first to integrate a fuel cell, photovoltaics, and a nickel metal hydride battery storage system. While at GVSU, he brought the federal Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Center state headquarters there. After reorganizing the state system, he successfully led Michigan’s effort to become the second state in the country designated as a Small Business and Technology Development Center network. In the past two years, he has signed 10 partnership agreements with universities in Korea, China, India, Pakistan, and Yemen to bring students to EMU supported by scholarship programs. Under his leadership, the College of Business has also started the first human resources graduate degree in China. In addition, EMU has launched an undergraduate degree in international business, a supply chain management undergraduate major and minor, the first online integrated marketing communication graduate program at any business school in the country, new entrepreneurship programs, the first “Ethos Week” and “Ethos Honor Society” in the country to promote ethics education, and the first partnership with Google to offer an Adwords academic program that has now developed campaigns for more than 25 nonprofits in Michigan. He serves on the executive board of Ann Arbor SPARK, an economic development organization; the business attraction committee for the Aerotropolis; and the board of the Washtenaw Economic Club. Mielke has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Lawrence University, an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago, and a doctorate in accounting from the University of Wisconsin.


WHERE BORN: "Milwaukee."

MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS: "From the business world, Don Wissink. He was really impactful because he mentored me in the strategies of acquisition and consolidating businesses. Also, Don Lubbers, who was the president at GVSU for 30 years. He was an absolute model of academic entrepreneurship."

LAST BOOK READ: "Life Principles by Bruce Weinstein.”

WORDS THAT DESCRIBE ME: "Committed, motivated, entrepreneur, hard working."

WHERE MY FIELD/INDUSTRY IS HEADED: "Academia is facing some major challenges. We really have to change the way we have traditionally looked at education. That is, we have to start to focus more on assessing learning outcomes. That’s a real change in perspective and has already been occurring. We have to figure it out as a public institution and be more involved in the community. And as a business school, to help in economic development."

FAVORITE TECHNOLOGICAL GADGET: "I really like GPS systems. The Garmins and those types of things are a lot of fun to play with, in addition to being vital for someone who has to travel all over and who is not from Michigan."

FAVORITE PLACE: "The older you get, the longer the list gets. One that is inspiring to me is the Great Wall of China. It is a beautiful countryside and a great example of what people can accomplish, providing not only a sense of history but of human struggle."

FAVORITE HOBBIES: "Hunting, fishing, and gardening."

FAVORITE FOOD: "I’m a meat and potatoes guy. German food."

MY HIDDEN TALENT: "I’m pretty handy and can fix a lot of different things.”

HOW I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED: "In part by my students and the students I’ve had contact with over a long period of time in academia as someone who made a difference in their lives.”


Grant Thornton Website At the annual awards reception in April 2014, one Leader & Innovator from the previous 12 months will be selected as the Grant Thornton Leader & Innovator of the Year.