Centrepolis Advocate Profile: Rochelle Freeman

Rochelle Freeman (“Shelly”) is truly the spirit of Southfield—she is everywhere, knows everyone, and is always doing something that is focused on supporting Southfield’s business community. Shelly helps retain, expand, and attract businesses citywide, emphasizing innovation and entrepneurship, as Southfield becomes a booming business center, and home to the Southfield Centrepolis SmartZone. She cultivates entrepreneurship in Southfield by creating jobs and workforce training opportunities in diversified business sectors for Southfield residents. Her role is to promote Southfield, locally, regionally, nationally and globally, and represent the city as an innovative and advanced place, by reinforcing the strengths of our diverse residential, educational, cultural, and business communities.

What do you like about working in Southfield?

Southfield is home to the best and brightest talent and companies in the world. Our companies develop and produce products that are revolutionizing society, and many times I have an opportunity to see the future before it happens. I’m in awe of the expertise that is housed in our community, including leaders in autonomous vehicles development, artificial reality, harnessing big data and the like. It’s an exciting time!

What is your relationship with Southfield Centrepolis?

The State of Michigan created the Michigan SmartZone network to connect universities, industries, research organizations, government, and other community institutions to stimulate the growth of technology-based businesses and jobs. Southfield has been partnered with the Automation Alley district since its inception in 2003, and initially utilized our funding stream to support the infrastructure needs of the American Centre business park. Today, the American Centre business park with Lawrence Technological University (LTU) is known as Southfield Centrepolis. The City of Southfield and LTU seized an opportunity to create a hub of innovation concurrent to our approval of a 15-year extension from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for the SmartZone designation. I work to continue and support this mission.

Where do you see Southfield Centrepolis in the next 15 years?

Southfield Centrepolis is and will be home to many innovative and hi-tech companies. The LTU Collaboratory and Lawrence Technological University will be the go to place for all Michigan second-stage businesses and intrapreneurs seeking to accelerate their companies to the next level.

What changes would you like to see?

Southfield realizes that we must invest in the physical environment, creating a sense of place, to attract, engage, and retain knowledge and skilled workers. We need to continue to invest in our infrastructure and placemaking to enhance the American Centre business park making it more walkable, with amenities for the businesses. We will work to enhance the area with better signage and reach out to more retail establishments.

How are you supporting the growth and success of startups?

The Southfield SmartZone is built on partnerships. Partnerships include both public and private organizations, which depend upon local business people for leadership. These established partnerships play an important role in the delivery of workforce and economic development activities in the SmartZone. Existing partnerships include the State of Michigan, Oakland County, Lawrence Technological University, and Automation Alley. These partnerships are leveraged to attract new investment, strengthen the existing business environment, and leverage funding opportunities. The LTU Collaboratory is a hands-on, regional resource center at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield fostering business growth and economic vitality. We assist entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and second stage start-ups in growing and launching their ideas through education, resources, networking, mentoring, and connection to funding sources, all in our state-of-the-art collaborative environment for innovation.