Marc Hunter says that this is not only a new chapter in his life, it is a whole new book.
Hunter, 30, is about to become a father for the first time and is opening a new business within the next few months. In addition, he has just returned from UCLA where he attended and graduated from the Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities, better known as EBV. The program provides free training to vets in entrepreneurship and small business management.
A Flagstaff resident, Hunter, who graduated from the program on July 19, is excited about his prospects for the future. The new business is called Elevated Geographic Information Systems, and will provide computer-based mapping and spatial analytics for public land and resource management agencies.
“A big part of it is an efficient way to look at a big area. We are finalizing our first contract and hope to open up shop at the end of summer,” he said. “Our focus will be land and resource management for public agencies.
He says Flagstaff is surrounded by forests managed by public agencies that could use a more efficient way to do just that. His services can also be used in the private sector. “Someone might want to see a special area,” he said. “You can calculate different patterns or isolate a certain area.”
Hunter uses the example of a client needing a map of the United States and wanting to look at every state that had a voter turnout above 30 percent and see how those people voted.
Another example is perhaps a potential homebuyer who could look at the distance of nearby schools and information on standard test scores. A homebuyer could see the sales prices of the homes around him, so he can calculate what the home he is looking at is really worth.
Hunter got his undergraduate degree in secondary education in Minnesota, where he met his wife. But instead of teaching, he joined the Marines and was deployed twice, once to Al Anbar, Iran, the other to Helmand Province, Afghanistan where he was a motor transport platoon commander.
He said he was “blown up a few times,” from IED hits, which left him with thunderclap headaches and chronic tinnitus. After returning to civilian life, he went back to school and got his master’s degree in Applied Geospatial Sciences this past spring.
“It’s a mouthful,” he said with a chuckle.
When he heard about the UCLA program specifically for disabled veterans, he applied and was accepted. He was chosen from about 200 other applicants.
“It’s an impressive program. You work for a month online before they take you out to the campus for nine days.”
He says the program consists of lectures, guest speakers and ongoing work to develop a veteran’s own business. “More than anything, it was networking with people you are there with.”
His classmates ranged from people who had only an idea for a business to those who are already in business and need help to take it to the next level.
And, he says, they all plan to keep in touch.
While the program originated out of Syracuse University in 2007, additional schools joined the consortium, which now includes eight schools across the United States. The UCLA Anderson Management School program is the only one on the West Coast.
EBV Executive Director Elaine Hagan says this is the school’s seventh year to host the program that gives former military personnel “a new mission” that provides income for themselves and their families.
She says the reason the first portion of the program is done online is that it puts participants in the mindset of going to school, doing homework, reading and getting used to the terminology associated with business, finance, marketing and management.
“When they come here, we push them about a business concept and have them lay out an action plan to follow,” said Hagan.
Hunter is one of 18 veterans from across the country who attended the annual event at the Los Angeles campus.
By Patty McCormac, Flagstaff Business News