(Detroit) May 3, 2006—As the second anniversary of Detroit’s only research and technology park approaches, TechTown has added a valuable business-building tool to its cache. Managing Director Marlo Jenkins has become Detroit’s first certified provider of FastTrac, a comprehensive entrepreneurship educational program.

“Our job at TechTown is to provide people who want to start businesses with as many high quality resources as possible,” says TechTown Executive Director Howard Bell. “Marlo is certainly fulfilling that goal by providing local entrepreneurs with an extraordinary opportunity to learn to become efficient and effective business owners. FastTrac has a stellar reputation and its graduates produce extraordinary results.”

FastTrac is a program of Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the country’s leading philanthropic organization focused on entrepreneurship. Jenkins successfully completed FastTrac Administrator Orientation and Certification at the Entrepreneurial Education Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri, last week.

She was also trained as a facilitator for FastTrac TechVenture, designed to support life science or technology entrepreneurs. This program guides entrepreneurs as they develop a business concept and learn how to obtain the funding necessary to launch or grow their venture. It targets the unique needs of technology entrepreneurs by covering intellectual property and other relevant topics.

Expert business consultants and staff at TechTown, Detroit’s only research and technology park, have already been helping entrepreneurs launch and grow companies for more than a year. TechTown will soon schedule FastTrac workshops, providing local business owners with new entrepreneurial education opportunities.

More than 165,000 participants have completed FastTrac classes in the United States alone. Today, FastTrac programs are being provided by 300 partner organizations in 49 states domestically, as well as in Canada, Australia and Russia. FastTrac was first offered 20 years ago in Los Angeles by the University of Southern California’s Entrepreneurship Program. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation became a major supporter and funder in 1993.

TechTown empowers entrepreneurs to build successful technology businesses that improve the quality of life for people across the country and around the world. At TechTown, we provide the support and access to capital needed to build high tech companies in Detroit.