The Spirit of Michi­gan Award is given each year to a suc­cess­ful Michi­gan busi­ness per­son who:

• epit­o­mizes the entre­pre­neur­ial spirit
• is a sig­nif­i­cant indi­vid­ual con­trib­u­tor to the eco­nomic recov­ery in Michigan
• has built a busi­ness that employs a solid work­force in Michigan
• has been actively involved in the entre­pre­neur­ial com­mu­nity either as a men­tor, an angel

Our 2011 Win­ner of the Spirit of Michi­gan Award is Mike Jan­der­noa, Founder of Jan­der­noa Invest­ment Group, LLC.

Invest­ment

Mr. Michael J. Jan­der­noa is the Founder of Jan­der­noa Invest­ment Group, LLC. Pre­vi­ously, he was a Gen­eral Part­ner at Bridge Street Cap­i­tal Part­ners, LLC and also co-founded the firm. Mr. Jan­der­noa also co-founded Grand Angels.

Cor­po­rate

He served as the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer at Per­rigo Co. from Feb­ru­ary 1988 to April 2000. Mr. Jan­der­noa also served as Perrigo’s Pres­i­dent from Jan­u­ary 1983 to Feb­ru­ary 1986, from April 1988 to Octo­ber 1991, from Sep­tem­ber 1995 to Novem­ber 1998 and from Novem­ber 1999 to April 2000. Prior to Jan­u­ary 1983, he served in var­i­ous exec­u­tive capac­i­ties at Per­rigo since 1979. Dur­ing his 20 years at Per­rigo, he led two man­age­ment buy­outs in 1981 and 1988 and an ini­tial pub­lic offer­ing in 1991. Mike took the com­pany from a pri­vately held $30 mil­lion com­pany to a $2.5 bil­lion pub­licly traded firm that dom­i­nates the over-the-counter drug business.

Boards and Community

Mr. Jan­der­noa is a Direc­tor of Fifth Third Bank. He also serves on the Board of Direc­tors of Cas­cade Engi­neer­ing, ADAC Plas­tics, the Strate­gic Eco­nomic Invest­ment and Com­mer­cial­iza­tion Board the Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan Busi­ness School Vis­it­ing Com­mit­tee, and Grand Val­ley Uni­ver­sity Foun­da­tion. Mr. Jan­der­noa also serves on the Board of Advi­sors of the National Asso­ci­a­tion of Chain Drug Stores and on the Boards of the Michi­gan Life Sci­ence Cor­ri­dor and the Michi­gan Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion. He is a Mem­ber of Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of Bridge Street Cap­i­tal Part­ners, LLC and a Direc­tor of Busi­ness Lead­ers for Michi­gan. Mr. Jan­der­noa is a Board mem­ber of Hopen Life Sci­ence Ven­tures. He has been a Direc­tor of Steel­case Inc. since 2002 and Per­rigo Co. since Jan­u­ary 1981. Mr. Jan­der­noa has been a Direc­tor of Van Andel Insti­tute since 2008. He also serves/chairs on numer­ous reli­gious and com­mu­nity boards and com­mit­tees as well. He was a Mem­ber of the Board of Direc­tors of Bio­sciences Research and Com­mer­cial­iza­tion Cen­ter. Mr. Jan­der­noa served as the Chair­man of the Board at Per­rigo Co., from Octo­ber 1991 to August 11, 2003. He also served as a Direc­tor of Old Kent Finan­cial Cor­po­ra­tion since 1993. In addi­tion, Mr. Jan­der­noa served as a Direc­tor of Old Kent Bank from 1987 until his appoint­ment to the Old Kent Board in 1993. He was a Mem­ber of the Young Pres­i­dents’ Organization.