Ned Staebler

Ned Staebler, Washtenaw County Representative

Ned Staebler serves as Vice President for Economic Development at Wayne State University and as President and CEO of TechTown, Detroit’s most established business incubator and accelerator. He leads both organizations’ efforts to strengthen the Detroit region’s neighborhoods, businesses and leaders, overseeing a range of activities around innovation and entrepreneurship, business development and attraction, talent retention, transit and mobility, and placemaking.

Ned previously served as the Vice President for Entrepreneurial and Capital Services at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. In this role, he was responsible for the oversight of the Michigan Strategic Fund Board and the 21st Century Jobs Fund, a $2 billion, 10-year initiative to transform Michigan's economy. As part of these efforts, Ned led the investment and management of $600 million of state funds into entrepreneurial companies, venture capital and private equity funds, and strategic service providers.

Ned also spent nearly a decade in the private sector, working in both startup and Fortune 150 environments. He served on the management team of the Helios Group, a technology-based, startup financial services firm that he helped grow from 30 to 130 employees. After Helios was acquired in 2000 by Bear Stearns, Ned spent the next three years in the company’s London, England office as an Associate Director. He serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Advisory Council on Agriculture, Small Business, and Labor, is a commissioner of the Mayor of the City of Detroit’s Sustainability Commission and is on the Board of Directors for the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan. He also serves on various local boards, including NextEnergy, Midtown Detroit, Inc., and the Detroit Historical Society.

A Detroit native, Ned is a graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Harvard, and he received a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.