MFG TMW Podcast
Guest Spotlight
Brandon Cornuke and Alec Simon, MAGNET
Brandon Cornuke, vice president, and Alec Simon, director of Startup Services at the Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET) talk about this year’s mspire pitch
challenge, which has gone virtual this year.
Brandon leads the organization’s efforts to help innovators turn manufactured product ideas into viable businesses. He specializes in strategy development, business model design, and lean innovation. He also teaches MBA students as an Adjunct Professor of Design and Innovation at Case Western’s Weatherhead School of Management. His career includes time as director of Digital Strategy and Innovation at American Greetings, as well as co-founder of his own consumer products company, Joyce Labs. He directed Target’s consumer TV sales strategy and was an IT strategy consultant with Hitachi’s global consulting team. He received his MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Before serving as director and startup advisor at MAGNET, Alec served as a ventures associate at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Cleveland. He has worked as a retail transformation strategy analyst at Key Bank and senior business analyst at Capital One. He earned his MBA at Case Western’s Weatherhead School of Management and his bachelor’s degree in Operations Management at Ohio State.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, startup processes, product development
Manufacturing Tomorrow is a podcast series brought to you by the Ohio Manufacturing Institute at The Ohio State University. Featuring the perspectives of manufacturing leaders, we focus on the advanced manufacturing innovations, solutions and partnerships that exist in our region now and that will propel industry in the future.
Our guests include the unsung heroes of advanced manufacturing, from company C-suite executives and engineers to industry-facing academics, supportive government agencies and regional economic development organizations. Interviews cover the latest topics on products, processes – and groundbreaking relationships –the best manufacturers engage in to infuse entrepreneurialism in their daily operations.
Our mission is threefold: to provide a voice to small and large manufacturers, educate the public on the value of manufacturing innovation to the U.S. economy, and showcase how Ohio’s technology resource support providers (e.g., higher education, technical centers, and MEPs) boost advanced manufacturing solutions. We ask guest speakers about what catalysts are needed to collaborate on new products and processes, how to reduce academic-industry barriers, and the types of technical resources that can truly bolster manufacturing productivity.
