Entrepreneurial leadership center director named

BOWLING GREEN, O.—An Ann Arbor, Mich., business executive has been named the first director of the Dallas-Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and executive in residence at Bowling Green State University.

Milt Baker, a former corporate vice president at Motorola Inc. and current CEO and co-owner of Automotive Communications Systems, will fill the post.

The Dallas-Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership was created by a gift from Bowling Green native and Olympic Gold Medal skater Scott Hamilton and his wife, Tracie, along with 1977 BGSU alumnus and Fox Sports Grill co-founder William Dallas and his wife, Beverly.

The center offers programs and services to enhance entrepreneurial leadership and new enterprise development while simultaneously creating mutually beneficial connections between the business community, BGSU faculty and students.

According to Dr. Rodney Rogers, dean of the BGSU College of Business Administration, Baker brings “a unique combination of academic experience and an extensive, diverse business background in that he has been an entrepreneurial leader in both corporate and start-up organizations.”

Baker holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and a master's degree in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He started his career at General Motors Corp. in Detroit. In 1988 he joined Motorola Automotive, where he moved up the ranks to vice president, director of sales and applications engineering. In that role, he was responsible for the division's global sales, including the first- and second-generation GM OnStar telematics business.

He later served three years as corporate vice president for Motorola Enterprise Business Development Automotive before leaving the Fortune 100 company in 2005 to start Automotive Communications Systems. Based in Ann Arbor, the company develops leading-edge wireless products and services for the broadband mobility industry.

Baker's academic experience includes serving as a guest lecturer at Northwestern University and promoting faculty support and mentoring student diversity for the University of Michigan Minority Engineering Program Office.

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(Posted December 11, 2006)