She had planned to be a feature writer or layout artist, and therefore obtained a BA in journalism from Indiana University – which she completed in only 2 ½  years.

She also obtained her teaching certificate on her parents' advice – a good move, for jobs in journalism were scarce. Teaching became her career. Yet while she enjoyed sponsoring the yearbook and the newspaper and teaching journalism and English at her old high school, the meager pay was disheartening. "I really wasn't making enough money to support any savings," she says. " I was living at home with my parents, and I wanted to be self-sufficient."

She entered the Krannert master's program through the Business Opportunity Program, hoping that a business degree would lead to financial independence. While she studied, she focused on where to head after graduation. She had visited Detroit to see relatives and knew the city shared her love for automobiles. At age 13, she had fallen in love with her dad's 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado. "It was just very different from any car that had been produced," she says of the long, sleek muscle car with hidden headlamps and front-wheel drive. (She later owned three different model years.)

After earning her MSM, she spent a year at General Motors before being recruited by AT&T. However, over the next nine years as she moved up in AT&T's ranks, she continued working both with GM and other automotive clients as well.

One day after beginning a new job working for a Detroit urban planning company, McCune van de Velde met a Frenchman on an airplane. Gregoire van de Velde was establishing a branch office of his firm in Detroit. Eighteen months later, the two began dating. Within a year, they were married.

Now McCune van de Velde divides her time between Automotive Strategies, Metro Ventures 9an airport retail business in which she serves as a partner), volunteer work with organizations such as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and her eight-year-old twin boys. The family also maintains a home in France. Through her current roles are far different from her early one as a teacher, she is delighted  with her life's path. "My decision to go into business was a very practical decision," she says. "and one that has paid off many times over."

– Angie Roberts

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