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South Carolina Auto Week Starts February 20th

Since BMW moved to the Upstate many years ago, South Carolina has become home to a large and growing automotive cluster.  To celebrate the importance of this industry to our state, former SC governor Nikki Haley proclaimed February 20th through 25th as SC Auto Week which is kicked off each year with the South Carolina Automotive Summit, a three-day industry conference that draws hundreds of automotive executives from around the world.

Mike Switzer interviews Catherine Hayes, executive director of the South Carolina Automotive Council in Greenville, SC.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.