Nancy Cappola

Biography: Nancy Cappola VP, Business Development North Star Advisors Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Nancy Cappola is currently a VP, Business Development with North Star Advisors a private equity firm in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and a consultant with The Metis Group of Washington D.C. for real estate advisory projects. Her career has been shaped by scientific study in the life sciences, over twenty years in real estate and banking and for the past seven years in economic development in southeast Michigan with regional government and a university lead business incubator. Prior to joining North Star and Metis in 2011, Cappola was the Chief Development Officer and Director of International Soft Landings for Wayne State University Research and Technology Park (“TechTown”), a university based business incubator. As Director of International Soft Landings, Nancy developed the “soft landings” concept for TechTown, a business initiative to provide key collaborative partnerships, and immediate market access to inbound later stage and mature foreign inbound technology companies. In the first year of the program, she attracted business, government and academics from 22 countries and 89 companies. She targeted foreign direct investment from the life science and energy sectors of Canada, Israel, Mexico and European Union countries and Asia. Nancy was part of an advisory team representing the Michigan Life Science sector at major university and medical centers in Israel. She has worked closely with representatives of the Polish government on developing initiatives to bring technology companies to the U.S. During her tenure at TechTown, she raised over $10 MM in capital through relationship-based funding and tactical grant writing. Earlier, as a Deputy Director of Business Development for Wayne County, Michigan- Department of Economic Development she managed the County’s New Markets Tax Credit program securing $50 MM in tax