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Farley Director Michael Marasco Named to Crain’s “Tech 50 for 2014”

Marasco recognized for Farley Center's entrepreneurial success.

If you care about Chicago tech, then you should know Michael Marasco, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

Michael MarascoMarasco, who serves as director of McCormick’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, was recently named one of Crain’s “Tech 50 for 2014.” The annual list recognizes Chicago’s top established and burgeoning leaders in technology across four categories — connectors, founders, funders, and techies. 

Crain’s recognized Marasco as a connector who “helped Northwestern get back in the startup game with [the] NUvention entrepreneurship program.” NUvention is a suite of interdisciplinary courses offered through the Farley Center that exposes students to the entire innovation and entrepreneurial life cycle and helps them understand how innovations can become viable businesses in the real world. Offered through specialized course tracks like energy and analytics, NUvention has spurred the development of multiple startup companies that have transitioned from the classroom to the corporate world. 

Marasco spent more than 20 years working for companies like Bally Total Fitness and Digitas before joining the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science as a clinical professor in industrial engineering and management sciences. In his time as director of the Farley Center, Marasco has focused on evolving engineering beyond the application of the sciences to the creation of businesses that capitalize on innovations through entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. 

Read the entire list of “Tech 50 for 2014” at Crain’s Chicago Business.