WMSTI's Cook brings energy to MAREC's business incubator

MUSKEGON, Mich. — With the rapidly growing interest in developing alternative and renewable energy technologies, Grand Valley State University's Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center is bringing some additional talent to Muskegon to assist with the development of its business incubator and related entrepreneurial and business development program.

Rich Cook, venture center director at the West Michigan Science and Technology Initiative, will be spending two days a week at MAREC beginning in June.

“Our goal is to take the MAREC incubator and related entrepreneurial consulting program to the next level. Rich will really be able to help with those services,” said Arnold Boezaart, interim director of MAREC. “With his work at WMSTI and his extensive professional credentials, he has expertise with business incubators and new product commercialization coaching in the region.”

In his role at WMSTI, Cook works directly with clients and tenants by laying out commercialization roadmaps and business development plans. The MAREC facility presently houses the Smart Vision Lights company. Incubator tenants who have recently left following successful completion of their start-up activities include wind turbine developer EarthTronics and agricultural biodigester developer Reynolds, Inc.

“I am looking forward to working with MAREC and helping it grow its client base. Working together, Arn and I will be able to put together a plan of action to help make incubation services at MAREC an even more valuable resource for development of alternative and renewable energy in the region,” Cook said.

Cook is the former CEO of X-Rite, Inc. He joined the WMSTI in 2007.  Prior to that, he worked in diverse markets including instrumentation, software, office furniture, transportation, aerospace, displays, computer peripherals, business machinery and solid waste disposal.  He has also taught at Hope College and Grand Valley State University.

Grand Valley’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center in Muskegon is a business incubator and research and development center for alternative and renewable energy technologies. It also serves as a major demonstration project of those technologies. MAREC is an example of a distributed system using renewable energy sources. The center is equipped with a fuel cell that turns natural gas into electricity, photovoltaic cells to capture the sun's energy, an extremely efficient natural gas microturbine and a nickel metal hydride battery to store excess energy from peak times for use later. It is thought to be the first building of its kind to use all of those technologies to become completely self-sufficient.

In 2008, MAREC opened a $2.7 million manure-to-electricity plant at a dairy farm in Ravenna and helped launch a partnership between contractor Reynolds Inc., and the Austrian firm Entec Biogas GmbH, which developed the technology for the biodigester plant. The companies launched a new division, based at MAREC, that hopes to build more of these plants in the U.S. Also developed at MAREC was a small, inexpensive wind turbine that could revolutionize home and commercial power generation. Measuring 36 inches in diameter and with a retail cost of around $2,000, the device will be sold at home improvement stores and generate up to 20 percent of the average home’s electricity.

The West Michigan Science and Technology Initiative was formed in 2003 as a partnership between the Right Place, Inc., Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Valley State University, the City of Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids Community College. The partnership now also includes Spectrum Health, Saint Mary's Health Care and Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital.  

MAREC and WMSTI are two of the original 11 SmartZones created by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. in 2001 as part of an effort to promote and attract high technology business development in the state. Grand Valley was the only university in the state to be granted two SmartZones. There are now 15 designated SmartZones in Michigan.