Mike Hensen

Managing Director

Mike manages the daily operations of the Duke GVC Center. He serves as the principal liaison with other Duke offices and departments and is a lead point of contact for foundations, government agencies, international organizations, industry groups or other potential sponsors of Duke GVC Center research, as well as for students or international scholars interested in working at the Center.

Mike is a native of Burlington, Wisconsin and spent his early years after completing his undergraduate degree in Spanish as a high school teacher and then as Resource Developer in the Hispanic migrant services sector working primarily on workforce training and community advocacy. He subsequently completed graduate work in Spanish and Latin American Studies at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and during this same period worked as Outreach Coordinator for The Center for Latin American Studies and Assistant Director of the Office of International Studies and Programs at UWM. Mike worked subsequently for over 20 years in the world of international business, first as Regional Manager for Latin America and Africa for Jacobsen Division of Textron, and then as the founding Vice President and General Manager of KISCO, the international distribution arm of The Kilpatrick Company based in Boynton Beach, Florida which distributed turf maintenance machinery and irrigation products throughout south Florida, the Caribbean and Central and South America. Mike and his wife, Pauli, moved to Durham in 2006.

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