Yousif Ghafari is the living embodiment of the American immigrant success story. He was born in Lebanon, earned multiple college degrees in the U.S., and spent decades building a business from scratch. The result has been wealth, community status, political connections, and a reputation for philanthropy. Needless to say, Ghafari has some strong opinions about the role of immigrants in our region's success. Dennis Archambault gets the story.

Sean Simpson isn't just the co-founder of a lean, mean start-up, he lives his life like his start-up. As one of the brains behind Autobike, a company working to make a smarter, more intuitive gear shifter, Simpson chucked the 9-5 grind of corporate engineering to enter the burn-the-candle-from-both-ends world of entrepreneurship. He couldn't be happier.

Mike is president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK. A passionate advocate for the transformation of Michigan's high-tech economy he also managed the MEDC’s $1 billion Michigan Life Sciences Corridor initiative between 2000 and 2002. Mike will be wriing about who's making a difference in the Michigan and why.