Tech company CEO next up in entrepreneurship series

KALAMAZOO—The CEO of a leading business intelligence company will be the next speaker in the Entrepreneurship Forum at Western Michigan University.

Matt Mace, co-founder of BlueGranite, will speak at 8 a.m. Friday, May 10, in 2150 Schneider Hall. The event is free and open to the public and begins at 7:30 a.m. with breakfast. Reservations are required and can be made by contacting Rachael Bower at (269) 387-5052 or rachael.i.bower@wmich.edu. Free parking is available in the nearby Fetzer Center parking lot.

Blue Granite

Mace laid the foundation for his firm while still an undergraduate at WMU. Today, the company has been recognized by Crain’s as a leader in the "knowledge economy" and has added locations across the country with major offices in Chicago, Detroit and Boston, with team members located at virtual home offices in nine different states.

In 2009, the firm was selected as a Microsoft Worldwide Partner Awards finalist in Business Intelligence. 
In 2011, BlueGranite was named the winner of the Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in Exceptional Sales Management. The firm was noted for excelling in sales management, routinely analyzing wins and losses to extract replicable best practices, and promoting skill development for a competitive edge. BlueGranite is a National System Integrator with Microsoft, a unique designation currently given to only 35 partners in the country.

The company grew 21 percent in 2012 with more than 50 active clients last year and has more than doubled in size since 2008. Growth in 2013 is 33 percent, year-to-date, and the company is adding new solution areas to meet the growing needs of companies wanting to do more with large quantities of data, including unstructured data sources such as social media and predictive and real-time analytics.

Matt Mace

Mace has been identified as one of the Top 40 Business Leaders Under 40 in West Michigan. He is active in the Microsoft partner community, serving on the Microsoft Partner Advisory Council for Business Intelligence. He is one of 20 members of the council that includes partner companies from the U.S. and Canada as well as representatives from Europe, Asia and South America.

Mace received the Business Information Systems Outstanding Alumni Award from WMU in 2011. He serves as chair of the Business Information Systems Department Advisory Council and was a key industry voice in the business analyst initiative in the Computer Information Systems program.

Mace also serves on the Haworth College of Business Advisory Board. He has provided incubator space in his offices for WMU student projects, participated in the Haworth College of Business Professor of the Day program and supported entrepreneurial education initiatives at Western.

The Entrepreneurship Forum is sponsored by Educational Community Credit Union and hosted by the WMU Haworth College of Business.

For more information, visit wmich.edu/business or call (269) 387-5052.