DETROIT – TechTown Executive Director Randal Charlton has begun writing a blog called Randal’s Detroit blog: Notes from the front lines of the recession. The blog will be updated weekly and will feature commentary on the country’s recession and advice from the trenches on weathering it.
“The country went into a recession this year, but Detroit’s been struggling through one for many years now,” Charlton said. “I�??ve learned a thing or two about how to deal with tough economic times, and I�??d like to share what I�??ve learned with the rest of America.”
Charlton has a long and varied career as an entrepreneur. He’s started businesses dedicated to commercializing research in animal, plant and human technology in several different countries including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
In 2000 Charlton co-founded Asterand, a supplier of human tissues for drug discovery and development, which became TechTown�??s anchor tenant. In seven years, with an investment of less than $11.6 million, Asterand has established a global repository containing many thousands of samples from cooperating hospitals on four continents. Asterand revenues have grown from $100,000 in 2001 to $18 million in 2007.
Charlton was elected Wayne State University’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Special Assistant to the President for Economic Development in 2007, and the New Entreprise Forum named him Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008.
Entrepreneurial experience aside, Charlton is an experienced journalist who won national awards for his reporting in the United Kingdom. He’s written three books and retains an interest in writing and broadcasting as a way of introducing new technology to wider audiences. His commentary on the current economic crisis was published recently in Crain’s Detroit and the Detroit News.
Charlton’s blog can be read here: TechTownWSU.Org/Randalsblog
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