Alumni

When Reagan May was nine years old, she went to a bowling alley with her family in her native DePere Wis. What happened next changed the course of her life, and it had nothing to do with strikes and spares. "Someone was there with a go-cart," the fourth-year mechanical engineering student at Michigan Technological University says. "I sat in, and I knew right away that's what I wanted to do." Like a scene from a movie . . .

Karl LaPeer is currently a partner at Peninsula Capital Partners, LLC, a Detroit-based $1.9 billion private equity firm.  From 1998-2009 he was Senior Vice President & Principal, and from 1996-1998 he was an Investment Manager. He and his partners at Peninsula Capital began with $20 million in capital back in 1995, and they have since invested over $1.5 billion, in more than 140 small and mid-sized companies with operations . . .

Bob Pratt joined Dow Chemical after earning a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1942. He enjoyed a 39-year career with Dow in various engineering capacities, retiring in 1981 as Manager of Nuclear Projects for the company. In retirement, Michigan Tech called on Pratt to coordinate a design team for the Process Simulation and Control Center (PSCC). The team includes faculty and staff, active design engineers from industry . . .

Margaret Cobb recently retired from Microsoft Corporation and established The Cobb Foundation, Northwest, a self-funded foundation dedicated to helping low-income students. As president of the Foundation, her mission is to provide students with access to educational opportunities not provided by public schools through funding music lessons, book clubs, athletic lessons and robotic workshops. The Cobb Foundation is dedicated . . .