Detroit Free Press – Freep.com
• Ann Arbor-based SchoolPictures.com, a provider of school pictures, donated more than $2 million to Michigan schools that have used its portrait services in the four years since its founding. This milestone validates the company's mission to supplement funding for education and improve the academic environment for children while providing pictures.
Partnerships
• Grand Rapids-based Wolverine Building Group, a construction company, hired Michael J. Houseman to lead its Wolverine North America division. Houseman plans to merge his Walker-based company, Houseman Construction, with Wolverine Building Group. Houseman's company will be identified as Wolverine North America, a fourth division of Wolverine Building Group launched in 2005 in response to needs of clients to build outside west Michigan.
• The graphic artists and multimedia developers at Grand Haven-based Media 1 have expanded offerings beyond learning and performance to visual communication projects under the M1 DesignWorks banner. Design services will also include marketing/promotional animation, graphic design, photography and online video production.
• Realcomp, Michigan's largest real estate multiple-listing service headquartered in Farmington Hills, and Point2 Technologies debuted new online home marketing technology services. The new system is designed to enhance online home listings awareness and reach and will be offered free to Realcomp's 11,000 Realtor members.
• The Green Panel, a solar energy company providing turnkey solar planning, engineering and installation for Fortune 500 companies, universities, state and municipal government and nonprofits, and Feyen Zylstra, a knowledge-based electrical services firm supporting commercial, industrial and institutional clients in the Great Lakes region, have come together to provide a one-vendor solar approach called EF&I.
• Cornerstone Advisory Group Inc. and the Virtual Interactive Agency joined the Business Improvement Team, a consortium of independent consulting firms.