DisruptED

“You belong here.” That simple message is guiding how the University of Michigan Center for Innovation is taking shape in Detroit, from the programs it develops to the people it welcomes.

In the third episode of Michigan at the Center: The Innovator at the Center of UMCI, DisruptED host Ron J. Stefanski continues his conversation with Scott Shireman, executive director of UMCI in Detroit. Following their discussion of the city’s innovation ecosystem, they explore the distinctive educational opportunities being designed with Detroit’s residents, businesses, and community partners.

Shireman outlines plans for interdisciplinary graduate programs, gateway career certificates, and K–12 experiences that connect young people with higher education. From robotics and applied AI to event management and youth entrepreneurship, the conversation examines how UMCI can connect learning with local opportunities while making the university more accessible.

That approach starts with listening. Employers help shape the skills programs will teach, and Detroiters identify the challenges they want those programs to address. Shireman shares how a youth focus group surfaced an unexpected learning need, why mentorship and an accessible admissions office matter, and how innovations developed in Detroit could influence education across the university. It’s a vision for building pathways to opportunity with the community’s expertise at the center.

What will it take to make Detroit a place where talented people come to build their futures and stay?

In the second episode of Michigan at the Center: The Innovator at the Center of UMCI, DisruptED host Ron J. Stefanski reconnects with Scott Shireman, executive director of the University of Michigan Center for Innovation in Detroit. Picking up where their first conversation left off, Shireman shares how his experience at Coursera and a visit to Detroit convinced him to join the city’s next chapter.

Their conversation explores the vision behind UMCI’s $250 million investment, including Stephen Ross’s $100 million contribution, and why the university’s future is closely connected to Detroit’s success. At the heart of that vision is a persistent challenge: talented graduates leave to find jobs, while companies hesitate to move in without an established talent base.

Shireman explains why solving that problem requires collaboration across universities, employers, and organizations such as Michigan Central, Newlab, and TechTown. With UMCI preparing to welcome students in 2027, the goal is to serve current Detroiters, attract future Detroiters, and help build a community where education, innovation, and career opportunities grow together.

What does it take to build a career at the forefront of higher education innovation? In the first installment of Michigan at the Center, host Ron J. Stefanski sits down with Scott Shireman, Director of the University of Michigan Center for Innovation (UMCI), to explore the unconventional path that brought him to one of the University of Michigan’s most ambitious initiatives.

Shireman traces his journey from growing up on an Indiana farm and becoming a first-generation college student at Northwestern University to discovering a career in technology and higher education almost by accident. He shares how his work at Northwestern and UC Berkeley shaped his thinking about online learning, continuing education, workforce development, and the need for universities to continually reinvent themselves as the market changes. Along the way, Shireman reflects on the value of following curiosity, developing unexpected skills, and pursuing work that creates meaningful impact, even when the next step does not fit a traditional career path.

In this episode of DisruptED, host Ron J. Stefanski sits down with Julie Young, former CEO of Florida Virtual School, and Kay Johnson, Director of Strategic Communications at ASU Preparatory Academy, to reflect on more than 25 years of transformation in online education. At the center of the conversation is Young’s remarkable journey from elementary educator and administrator to one of the pioneers of K-12 virtual learning. What began as an opportunity to solve specific challenges for students became a career spent rethinking how education could be designed around the learner rather than the limitations of a traditional classroom.

Young and Johnson revisit the early days of Florida Virtual School, when dial-up internet, restrictive funding models, and education policy had yet to catch up with their ambitions for personalized learning. They explore how virtual education evolved from filling gaps such as credit recovery, advanced placement, and foreign language access into a model capable of serving a far broader range of students. The conversation also examines lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for education systems that can adapt quickly during disruption, and the possibilities AI now creates for the kind of deeply personalized learning educators imagined decades ago. Young also offers a preview of her upcoming book, Say Yes: How Virtual Became Reality, a personal account of the opportunities, risks, leadership decisions, team culture, and perseverance behind her career in educational innovation.

Detroit’s comeback is not being measured only in restored facades or reopened landmarks. It is being measured in whether the city can turn once-abandoned spaces into places where people work, learn, gather, move, and build long-term opportunity. Few projects capture that shift more clearly than Michigan Central, the former train station that stood for decades as a symbol of Detroit’s decline and now anchors a growing innovation district tied to commercial development, youth programming, hospitality, and future transit connectivity. Its revival comes at a pivotal moment: after decades of population loss, Detroit recently recorded its first Census-recognized population increase since 1957, giving new urgency to the question of how the city’s next chapter will be built.

What does it take to transform a building once seen as a symbol of decline into a platform for Detroit’s next chapter of work, learning, mobility, and community growth?

On this episode of DisruptED, host Ron J. Stefanski sits down with Beth Kmetz-Armitage, Director of Commercial Development at Michigan Central, to discuss how the historic campus is helping reshape Detroit’s future. Their conversation explores the redevelopment of Michigan Central Station, the broader commercial development strategy behind Detroit’s comeback, the role of public-private collaboration, and how transit, housing, youth programming, and neighborhood investment all connect inside a larger vision for the city.

Key highlights from the conversation…

• Michigan Central is evolving from a restored landmark into a full innovation district, with Ford offices, retail and hospitality development, a forthcoming NoMad Hotel under the Hilton banner, and youth-focused programming through the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan.
• Beth explains how Detroit’s land inventory, once seen as a burden, became a strategic asset for housing, commercial development, and neighborhood revitalization, helping the city attract developers and rebuild density.
• The episode highlights Detroit’s next major challenge: becoming a destination city again through stronger connectivity, including multimodal transit plans at Michigan Central, Amtrak service, intercity buses, regional SMART service, and links to Ann Arbor.

Beth Kmetz-Armitage is the Director of Commercial Development at Michigan Central, where she develops the organization’s real estate portfolio to support mobility innovation and economic development in Detroit. She previously held senior real estate and public-private partnership roles with the City of Detroit, leading strategy for surplus commercial and industrial properties and connecting developers with public financing, entitlements, and publicly owned land for mixed-use and mixed-income housing projects. Her broader commercial real estate career spans asset management, property management, leasing, construction, contract negotiation, historic renovation, and portfolio oversight across major organizations including Broder & Sachse, Hines, and Equity Office Properties Trust.

Cybersecurity has moved from a technical safeguard to a core business risk, shaping how organizations protect operations, customers and public trust. As companies rely more heavily on cloud platforms, SaaS tools, mobile systems and AI-enabled workflows, the number of possible entry points for attackers continues to expand. The stakes are no longer limited to data loss or system downtime; cyberattacks can disrupt hospitals, financial institutions, telecommunications networks and the everyday infrastructure people depend on. At the same time, the industry faces a major workforce gap, with hundreds of thousands of cybersecurity roles still unfilled in the United States alone and an even larger shortage globally.

That gap raises an urgent question for employers, educators and workers alike: how can we build a cybersecurity workforce quickly enough, and with the skills and adaptability needed, to defend organizations in a world where cyber threats are accelerating?

This question sits at the heart of the latest episode of DisruptED. Host Ron J. Stefanski speaks with James Faxon, Managing Director of nuKudo, about the changing nature of cybersecurity threats, the talent shortage facing the industry and why traditional education models may not be moving quickly enough. Their conversation explores the growing role of AI, the importance of deep technical and risk-management skills, and nuKudo’s paid-training model for preparing cyber professionals who are ready to contribute from day one.

What you’ll learn…

• Cyber threats are becoming more disruptive as businesses rely on interconnected cloud, SaaS and telecommunications systems, making attacks capable of affecting hospitals, banks, communications networks and everyday life.
• Faxon argues that the cybersecurity talent shortage is not only about headcount; it is also about finding people with the technical depth, risk-management mindset and professional skills to operate effectively in high-pressure environments.
• NuKudo’s model focuses on identifying candidates with the aptitude to learn quickly, hiring them as employees, paying them during training, certifying them and placing them with partner organizations prepared for real cybersecurity work.

James Faxon is a cybersecurity and technology executive with more than 20 years of experience leading security strategy, risk governance and technology transformation across energy, retail, aerospace, defense, mining and manufacturing. He has led major enterprise security programs, including $50M+ transformation initiatives, M&A cybersecurity due diligence for transactions up to $10B and teams spanning IT, OT, security and operations. He now works as a fractional CISO, CIO and operating partner, advising leadership teams on cybersecurity strategy, AI governance, operational risk and security program maturity.

Cybersecurity has no shortage of urgency, but it does have a shortage of people who are ready for the work as it actually happens. ISC2, a global cybersecurity professional association, estimates in its 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Study that 5.5 million professionals are working in cyber worldwide, yet the field still needs 4.8 million more to meet demand. That gap is not just a hiring problem; it is a training and mindset problem, especially when organizations need local talent that can think critically, adapt quickly, and respond to sophisticated threats in real time.

If the cyber workforce gap cannot be solved by resumes alone, how should the industry rethink who gets trained, how they are selected, and what it really takes to prepare them for the job?

In this episode of DisruptED, host Ron J. Stefanski speaks with Dean Gefen, Chief Executive Officer of nuKudo, about a new approach to cybersecurity talent development. The conversation explores why traditional hiring pipelines may be missing capable candidates, how nuKudo recruits from nontraditional talent pools, and why critical thinking, adaptability, and hands-on operational training may matter more than conventional credentials in today’s cyber environment.

Top insights from the talk…

• Gefen explains nuKudo’s paid training model, which allows selected candidates to earn a salary while learning cybersecurity skills, reducing the financial barrier that often keeps talented people out of the field.
• The episode examines why cybersecurity work requires a different mindset from traditional IT roles, with Gefen emphasizing critical thinking, adaptability, and the ability to respond to complex, changing threats.
• Stefanski and Gefen discuss the growing risks facing companies, from state-level attacks to weak identity management, insufficient testing environments, and the need for organizations to better understand their attack surfaces.

Dean Gefen is a cybersecurity executive with more than 13 years of operational experience across cyber training, consulting, research, and organizational leadership. He currently serves as CEO of nuKudo and Group CEO of DART, and has advised governments across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East on building cyber operational units and training programs. His background includes senior roles with Red Alpha Cybersecurity, Israel’s National Cyber Security Authority, AppInsight, and the Israel Defense Forces’ Intelligence Corps, where he developed deep expertise in operational cyber capabilities and workforce development.

For many student-athletes, the discipline learned on the track does not end at the finish line — it can become a foundation for academic ambition, college access, and long-term opportunity. At a moment when young people are navigating rising college costs, uneven access to counseling, and growing uncertainty around higher education, programs that connect athletics, academics, and personal support are taking on new importance. At The Armory Foundation in Washington Heights, that connection is more than a theory: since 2016, Armory College Prep has maintained a 100% four-year college acceptance rate for its seniors. The stakes are clear for first-generation and underserved students, many of whom need not only academic guidance, but also exposure, confidence, and a sense of belonging.

So what happens when a track-and-field institution becomes a launchpad for college access, career exploration, and community transformation?

Welcome to DisruptED. In the latest episode, host Ron J. Stefanski speaks with Rita Finkel, Co-President of The Armory Foundation, and Clayton Harding, Director of College Counseling for Armory College Prep. Their conversation explores how the historic Armory has evolved from a former homeless shelter into a hub for athletics, education, health, and community programming — and how its college prep model helps students translate the discipline of sports into academic persistence and long-term opportunity.

Top insights from the talk…

• Athletics becomes a bridge to academics. Harding explains that student-athletes already understand the value of practice, discipline, and measurable improvement. Armory College Prep helps them apply that same mindset to grades, test preparation, essays, college applications, and persistence through graduation.
• College access requires exposure and trust. The program takes students beyond New York City to visit small liberal arts colleges, private universities, SUNY and CUNY campuses, and other institutions they may not have considered. Finkel and Harding emphasize that seeing a campus firsthand can help students and families overcome “sticker shock” and understand how financial aid can make a private college more affordable than expected.
• The Armory model is high-touch and long-term. With a strong adult-to-student ratio, structured SAT/ACT preparation, essay coaching, alumni mentorship, college visits, and paid summer internship support, the program focuses not only on college admission, but also on college completion and career development.

Rita Finkel serves as Co-President and COO of The Armory Foundation, where she has spent more than 20 years leading operations, strategy, finance, and youth-serving programs. She previously served as Executive Vice President of Strategy and Finance at the Armory and has played a major role in advancing the organization’s athletic, educational, and community impact work. Before joining the Armory, she was Executive Director of Fencers Club, where she oversaw membership development, coach recruitment, and day-to-day operations.

Clayton Harding serves as Director of College Counseling at Armory College Prep, where he has spent more than 12 years guiding students through college admissions, academic planning, financial aid, and long-term success. He has previously served as Interim Director of College Success, supporting alumni with paid internship placement, academic resources, graduate school applications, resume writing, mock interviews, networking, and career readiness. Earlier in his career, he co-owned and led test-prep organizations, including Bell Curves/The ProTesters and PLR Publishing, where he developed K-12 and LSAT preparation programs and co-authored test-prep materials.

AI’s next workforce challenge is not adoption; it is trust, governance and role redesign. Recent PwC research found that most U.S. executives expected AI agents to drastically transform existing roles, even as fewer than half of companies using agents had fundamentally rethought their operating models or redesigned processes around them. For enterprise technology leaders, the stakes are no longer just whether AI can speed up delivery, but whether companies can rebuild work itself around disciplined, secure and human-guided systems.

So if AI can write code, build agents and accelerate delivery, what should tomorrow’s engineers actually be trained to do?

In the final episode of this two-part series on DisruptED, host Ron J. Stefanski speaks with Arun Varadarajan, CCO and co-founder of Ascendion, and Wesley Pullen, CTO, about retooling the workforce for an AI-native era. The conversation explores why Ascendion believes the next phase of software engineering is not simply about coding faster, but about democratizing engineering, rebuilding operating models, and shifting talent development from narrow skills to deeper competencies such as reasoning, design, problem-solving and outcome ownership.

What you’ll learn…

• Why AI changes the engineering job description. Varadarajan argues that as building software becomes easier, the more valuable work becomes deciding what to build, why it matters, who it serves and how it should be designed.
• Why enterprises need a new operating model, not just new tools. The discussion centers on Ascendion’s view that AI transformation requires changes to processes, talent models and platforms, especially in regulated, security-sensitive enterprise environments.
• Why the future may reward deeper thinking. Stefanski frames AI-era engineering as a potential return to critical thinking and liberal arts-style reasoning, while Varadarajan and Pullen emphasize curiosity, structured problem-solving, reasoning and disciplined human judgment over technical fluency alone.

Arun Varadarajan is the co-founder of Ascendion, where he helps lead the company’s growth strategy and its AI-powered engineering platform work. Across more than 30 years in technology and business leadership, he has opened new markets, built high-performing organizations and led transformation work at companies including Cognizant, Oracle, Capgemini and startups. His career has focused on connecting emerging technologies with measurable client outcomes, from enterprise data modernization to AI-enabled engineering.

Wesley Pullen is a senior technology executive and Ascendion’s Global Field CTO, with more than 30 years of experience helping enterprises scale AI-driven software delivery, DevSecOps modernization and platform engineering. He has advised Fortune 1000 leaders on agentic AI, governance, product strategy and go-to-market execution, with prior leadership roles at CloudBees, Electric Cloud, CollabNet, Automic Software and BMC Software. His career highlights include scaling global teams, driving major revenue growth, shaping enterprise software delivery strategy and advising startups and industry boards on emerging technology adoption.

Global finance is being tested by forces that no balance sheet can fully predict: unstable supply chains, geopolitical shocks, tighter credit conditions and the accelerating rise of AI. In trade finance especially, success depends on more than capital; it requires judgment, discipline and the ability to see risk before it becomes disruption. As automation changes how firms process information and manage exposure, the real advantage may belong to leaders who can combine technological speed with human perspective, resilience and restraint.

In a financial world defined by disruption, how do leaders turn hardship into lasting advantage, and what lessons can the next generation take from those who have learned to navigate uncertainty without losing perspective?

Welcome to DisruptED. In the latest episode, host Ron J. Stefanski speaks with Dr. Silver Kung, Founder and Chairman of Siegfried Capital, about his journey from taking on $10 million in family debt to building a multibillion-dollar hedge fund. Their conversation covers Kung’s early life in Taiwan, his reinvention in Hong Kong, the philosophy behind his upcoming book Silver Linings, Siegfried Capital’s supply chain finance model, and the role AI agents are now playing in financial operations.

The episode delves into…

• How being made a co-guarantor on family debt shaped Kung’s humility, discipline and approach to risk.
• How Siegfried Capital’s receivables-based finance model helps smaller Asian vendors access capital while managing exposure to major global buyers.
• Why Kung believes the future belongs to people who can ask better questions, direct AI agents and think like conductors rather than just operators.

Dr. Silver Kung is the Founder and Chairman of Siegfried Capital, where he leads an investment management group focused on investment-grade global trade receivables, managed funds and securitizations. With more than two decades of experience in capital markets, hedge funds, asset management, renewable energy private equity and financial engineering, he has founded and led firms across Hong Kong, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and Europe. Dr. Silver Kung is also a former finance professor, university fund board member and current advisory board member at Wichita State University’s Barton School of Business. His upcoming book, Silver Linings: Finding Wealth, Wisdom, and Redemption on the Hardest Road of All, expands on the personal resilience and financial perspectives that have shaped his career.