Venture capitalist to present business college talk

KALAMAZOO—The leader of a billion-dollar company will be featured in the next Distinguished Speaker Series talk sponsored by Western Michigan University's Haworth College of Business.

Sam Valenti, chairman of the board of TriMas Corp., will present "Total Success: Why WMU is the Greatest Thing That Ever Happened to You" at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in 2000 Schneider Hall. The talk will be followed by a question-and-answer period.

Sam Valenti

TriMas, headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is a publicly traded billion-dollar manufacturer of highly engineered precision products for a variety of industrial, commercial and consumer-end markets worldwide. In addition to his role with that company, Valenti serves as chairman and CEO of Valenti Capital and World Capital Partners, investment firms located in Bloomfield Hills.

He also is the former president of Masco Capital Corp.; a 40-year veteran of Masco Corp., a Fortune 500 manufacturer of home-building and home-improvement products; and a past chairman of the investment advisory board of Michigan's $50 billion retirement system. During his nearly 20-year participation with the advisory board, Valenti spearheaded the state's initial investments in venture capital as well as a broad range of alternative investments.

The two-time WMU alumnus serves on advisory bodies for the Harvard Business School, University of Notre Dame and University of Michigan Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. He is a member of Business Leaders for Michigan and chairman of its Renaissance Venture Capital Fund. Valenti received the 2010 "Spirit of Michigan" award presented at the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition and was selected by Crain's Detroit Business as its 2007 Newsmaker of the Year and its 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award in its Mergers and Acquisitions Awards program.

For more information or to register, contact WMU's Cyntia Reeves at cyntia.reeves@wmich.edu or (269) 387-5069.