FIRST & Fortune's 400 Billionaires

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by josh s

I believe DeVos used to own the Grand Center where the W MI Regional was held until the building was torn down and the regional was moved to GVSU.

No, the Grand Center, formerly called the Civic Auditorium, was/is owned by the City. I didn't realize the WMR was held there - that would have been an awesome venue for watching the competition.

The concert hall built ~24 years ago (I was in the choir for the dedication - am I that old?) is named for DeVos (not the gov candidate, but his father) because of his contributions and fundraising.

Amway does own the hotel ("Amway Grand", duh) across the street, both the old former Pantlind and the "new" tower - new meaning 20+ years.

[Bharat Nain]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

Sounds great. Is anybody from the Western Michigan regional working on DeVos?

I would think that each regional commitee should take a look at this Map and see if they can get their local billionaire to the regional one way or another.

Joe J.

If billionaires like DeVos offer some help in the infrastructure and the overall system of FIRST, we would benefit more than any amount of money they can offer. I read somewhere that Microsoft has created the highest amount of millionaires around the world and Alticore has created the second most. With the growth FIRST is experiencing right now, it is vital for us to seek more help from successful figures.

[Mark Pierce]

Mr. DeVos did come to the West Michigan regional last year. He seemed to enjoy the event and spoke briefly to the crowd. As far as I know that was his first involvement in FIRST. Of course, at the moment he's concentrating more on running for Governor than his roles as businessman and philanthropist.

[Kyle Fenton]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

Dean Knows Steve Jobs, he met him while trying to find inveters for the Segway, I don't know if Jobs has directly supported FIRST but The Woz was a judge in Boston and obviously has ties to Jobs

Apple did donate Filemaker Pro in 2003(?). But other than that, I don't see any other evidence.