YPSILANTI – Long-time entrepreneur Paula Sorrell, who for

the past four years has served as Vice President of Entrepreneurship,

Innovation and Venture Capital for the Michigan Venture Capital Association, is

leaving the state agency May 31 to return to her previous life as a business consultant.

Sorrell, interviewed at the Michigan Growth Capital

Symposium on Tuesday, said she already has a couple of projects lined up, and

some other opportunities that have come a knocking. Now she’s trying to decide

which ones make the most strategic sense.

“I will partner with others,” Sorrell said. “I have a former

partner in New York and another in San Francisco. My goal is not to spend all

my time on the plane like I did before. I want to spend more time in Michigan.”

Sorrell last year purchased a home in Ann Arbor and has

since remodeled it.

Who will replace her at the MEDC, or even if she will be

replaced, has yet to be decided, Sorrell said.

“There’s lots of transition at the MEDC and at the state

going on right now,” she said. “That needs to be figured out first. I don’t

think replacing me is a top agenda item.”

But she said if her position is filled, she hopes it will be

with someone from a similar  entrepreneurial background who knows what it is like to

raise money for startups, hire people when you don’t have enough money, and how

to launch a product that does not yet exist.

Sorrell worked for the MEDC for four years. She said she only

expected her term to be two years. But she noted

that during her watch Michigan came a long ways towards creating a more

entrepreneur friendly ecosystem. She said she was glad she played a role in that transformation.

“I think the impact that the state’s investment in entrepreneurship has been significant,”

Sorrell said. “The ripple it has created to diversify the Michigan economy has been

huge. It’s an important part of what we do as a state and we should continue to

keep our foot on the gas. We’ve gotten smarter about it, more efficient about

it. We’ve built a machine and we need to keep that machine running.”