WIRE-Net's founding executive director is using a fellowship awarded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States to study European economic strategies and identify ways in which WIRE-Net can help resolve this nation's urban manufacturing and environmental challenges.

Cleveland, Ohio John P. Colm, President and Executive Director of WIRE-Net, has been awarded a Comparative Domestic Policy Fellowship by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). The GMF is nonpartisan American public policy and grant-making institution established in 1972 through a gift from Germany, as a permanent memorial to Marshall Plan assistance, and is dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between North America and Europe.

The $15,000 fellowship will enable Mr. Colm to investigate several European regions with urban and industrial characteristics similar to Northeast Ohio to determine how manufacturing firms and their associations are adapting to the challenges of globalization, shifting environmental policies, and demand for sustainability. Colm's study of “Manufacturing Sustainable Urban Regions” will take him to Valencia, Spain; Bologna, Italy; Stuttgart and Essen, Germany; and Copenhagen and Arhus, Denmark. Through discussions with manufacturing, economic development, and association leaders, Colm will examine how environmental and economic change at the local and regional level is affecting smaller manufacturers, their associations and resource centers. He will identify strategies that have practical application to Northeast Ohio, and other urban industrial regions across the United States.

John is the founding director WIRE-Net. In 2007, WIRE-Net formed the Great Lakes WIND Network(GLWN)™ which today is a global wind supply chain network with 1,400 wind energy related manufacturers and suppliers serving the growing North American wind industry to support important renewable energy goals. Through his study abroad, Mr. Colm hopes to share strategies and learn new ways that will enable an entrepreneurial, innovative industry association like WIRE-Net to convene its members and government leaders to resolve market failures and work together to adapt and compete more effectively while resolving environmental challenges.