MTU is New IBM Executive Partner

by Jaime Pfeffer

May 6th, 2008 in Houghton / Hancock, Upper Peninsula

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Big congrats goes out to Michigan Technological University, which was recently named to IBM’s Partnership Executive Program for Universities. The recent appointment by IBM formalizes and expands a partnership that has been growing between the University and the IT and services company for nearly a decade.

IBM works with thousands of the world’s leading educational institutions, but very few are chosen for the Partnership Executive Program (PEP). As a PEP university, Michigan Tech will have a senior IBM executive assigned as a partnership executive to develop what Michigan Tech alumnus John Soyring, IBM’s vice president of solutions and software, calls win-win opportunities for the University and IBM. Soyring will be Michigan Tech’s partnership executive at IBM.

“IBM will work with Michigan Tech to develop new curricula and sponsor a hands-on learning program to encourage development of new and vital technological skills,” Soyring said.

IBM is working with Michigan Tech and other universities around the world to develop a services science, management and engineering program. The new curriculum addresses the mushrooming of the services sector of the economy, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics says now represents more than 75 percent of US jobs.

Beyond the classroom, IBM and Michigan Tech are partnering to give students experience using new business strategies and open source technologies in an actual business environment. For example, IT Oxygen, a Michigan Tech Enterprise program, brings together students from several disciplines in a start-up business that manages its own finances and works to solve real problems facing its corporate sponsors, including IBM. They have access to advice from Soyring and other IBM leaders.

One of Detroit's biggest cheerleaders, Jaime Pfeffer moved to the Motor City from suburban Detroit five years ago. She started a blog, Girl in the D, in September 2004 to promote the positive aspects of Detroit and hasn't stopped touting Motown's good side since. Jaime left corporate America in 2007 to pursue her first love, writing.