Name: Richard Chang
Title: CEO, NewFoundry
How long has your company been a member of the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber?
Four years
What is a typical day like for you?
I’ve actually been out of NewFoundry’s day-to-day operations for about 2 years. My other two partners, our wonderful leadership team, and our staff keep NewFoundry running and delivering the outcomes that we hope exceed our clients’ expectations.
My days are primarily spent on business development initiatives for NewFoundry and also trying to give back to the community which we have been fortunate to be a part of. The latter is typically achieved by being a part of various non-profit boards (such as the A2Y Chamber of which I’m the Chair for 2019, United Way, Michigan Works Southeast, and Intermitten), volunteering via other organization committees, and also doing speaking engagements. My favorite speaking engagements have been when I get to be in front of students at Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor school districts.
What do you enjoy most about the A2Y Chamber?
The A2Y Chamber has a lot going for it that separates it from other Chambers: (1) the diversity of companies that are members, (2) the diversity of the members in our board of directors, (3) the great content programming and diversity of participants at our events, (4) our Public Policy committee is one-of-a-kind and absolutely amazing, and (5) the A2Y Chamber staff is wonderful!
What’s your favorite tip for someone in your industry?
Diversity is the word by which we all should live and also run our businesses: diversity of team members, diversity of clients, diversity of income sources, diversity of thought and approaches to solutions… the list goes on and on! Nothing but good can come about when living by that one word.
What is a surprising fact about your business?
Visitors to our studio are always surprised when we tell them that our building once housed a medical practice. Our open teamwork area was once segmented into individual physician’s exam rooms and our large conference room was the waiting room. We completely opened up the space when we bought it, but you can still see the niche where an aquarium once stood; we now use it for our trophy case!
If you would like to be featured in our Member Spotlight, contact us.