Snyder: Relentless clearing of the air? - Crain's Detroit Business

An old-school request for some show-and-tell — which led to a 14-year-old boy con-trolling a motorized Lego car with his mind — has led to a commitment of at least $285,000 from a prominent national angel investor group in Neurable Inc., a University of Michigan spinoff that has quickly become the most-talked-about startup on the local tech scene.

In April, Neurable won $50,000 by finishing second at the prestigious Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston. The company has created a patent-pend-ing, noninvasive brain-computer in-terface that, thanks to artificial intelli-gence software developed by founder,

President and CEO Ramses Alcaide at UM’s Direct Brain Interface Lab, al-lows people to control software and objects with their brain activity.

With just a few minutes of coach-

ing, they can operate com-puter games, wheelchairs and, for a demonstration on the Discovery TV network, even a full-sized car in real time.

Soon after the Rice event, company officials spent two days in Boston meeting with venture capitalists.

“We had two stacked days of VC meetings, and the re-sponse was overwhelmingly positive,” said Alcaide.

The company has also been to Silicon Valley to meet with would-be investors and has had a series of meetings with

Detroit and Ann Arbor venture capi-talists.

Alcaide said he is “in deep discus-sions” with manufacturers he de-clined to name about incorporating Neurable’s technology in gaming and virtual reality devices.

The company’s business plan calls for it to market its technology to the computer gaming industry first, generating revenue to fund other market applications, includ-ing helping people with disabilities control their computer, medical and mobility devices.

One planned project is to

JUNE 6-12, 2016

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MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN MICHIGAN100

Special 45-page report begins on Page M17.

Gilbert projects spread the wealth regionally

Millennial MBAs: Colleges alter approach to give millennials the experience they crave. Page M63

Private 200: The biggest privately held companies. Pages M75-M82

MACKINAC ISLAND — Gov. Rick Snyder is trying to hit the refresh button on his political capital.

In his opening remarks at last week’s Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference, Snyder told the business crowd that he was focused on finding solutions to the state’s challenges — namely, lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint and a long-running legislative battle over the proposed debt re-structuring of Detroit Public Schools.

During his first appearance at Mackinac, he compared talking to the media to talking to Eeyore, the forlorn donkey from Winnie the Pooh. The context? Chatter over the prospects for his political career and even whether he would leave office before the end of his term.

“The reports of my demise are well over-blown,” he told the crowd. Some people later commented he sounded defensive.

“I probably cleared the air on the first day,” Snyder told Crain’s in an interview Friday on Mackinac Island. “The tone was not good on ourselves.

“I viewed the second day as, ‘OK, now that the air’s been cleared, let’s talk about that future.’”

Snyder’s message is focused on Michigan’s future, but, simultaneously, he has to navigate his own. With two years left in his second term, the Republican governor is dealing with chal-lenges in Flint and Detroit that threaten to overshadow his efforts to reduce unemploy-ment, boost skilled-trades employment and address crumbling infrastructure.

“He knows that he is being … seen as some-one who has lost his political capital, is politi-cally impudent, and he’s trying really hard to push back on that,” said Ron Fournier, a De-troit native and senior political columnist for the National Journal who presented at the conference.

Snyder: Relentless clearing of the air?

Tech startup’s mind games excite investorsUM spino�’s AI so�ware shows broad potential in early trials

Rick Snyder: Rest of second term hangs in balance.

TOM HENDERSONNeurable CEO Ramses Alcaide controls a small vehicle with his brainwaves using the device on his head.

Dan Gilbert’s downtown redevelopment has spread contracts throughout metro Detroit. Of more than 130 largest contractors and subcontractors the renovations have spread work among, they break down geographically like this:

By Tom [email protected]

SEE NEURABLE, PAGE 13

Story, Page M8 and online at crainsdetroit.com/contractors

Livingston:

2

Washtenaw:

2Wayne

(outside Detroit):

24

Oakland:

43Macomb:

25Detroit:

37

By Lindsay VanHulle and Kirk PinhoCrain's Detroit Business/Bridge Magazine

SEE SNYDER, PAGE 12

SPECIAL ISSUE

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THIS ISSUEBANKRUPTCIES ................................13CLASSIFIED ADS .............................. 10DEALS & DETAILS .............................. 8KEITH CRAIN....................................... 6MARY KRAMER .................................. 6OPINION .............................................. 6PEOPLE ................................................ 9RUMBLINGS .......................................15WEEK ON THE WEB ..........................15

COMPANY INDEX:SEE PAGE 14

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Dow Chemical completes takeover of Dow CorningWith Dow Chemical Co. last week

assuming full control of Dow Corning Corp., the latter’s employees and communities were left pondering the future. Officials at Mid-land-based Dow have not said how the acquisition will affect jobs at Dow Corning, MLive.com reported.

Silicone company Dow Corning had been a 73-year joint venture of Dow and Corning Inc. Its transition June 1 is part of an impending merger between chemical giant Dow Chemi-cal and Delaware-based DuPont into DowDuPont, which will be separated into three independent, publicly traded companies, one of which is to remain based in Midland as Dow.

Union leadership representing Dow Corning employees said last week they had yet to meet with Dow Chemical leadership following the takeover. John Mendyk, president of United Steel Workers Local 12934, which represents 665 Dow Corning hourly workers, said there are too many unknowns right now follow-ing the takeover to say how the re-structuring will affect workers.

“The general mood of the employ-ees is that nobody knows what’s go-ing to happen. There are a lot of ru-mors, but all rumors are speculation,” said Mendyk, who added he expects to meet with Dow leadership within a couple of weeks. USW Local 12934 negotiated a four-year contract in March 2015 that expires in 2019, ac-cording to the organization.

Community and business lead-ers were talking about their inten-tions to retain the region’s talent. “Dow Chemical’s move to become the sole owner of Dow Corning po-sitions the company for long-term growth,” said JoAnn Crary, president of Saginaw Future Inc.

Twice the price for Flint water pipe replacement?Replacing pipes due to the

lead-tainted water crisis in Flint could be at least twice the price of previous estimates, according to a report ob-tained by the Detroit Free Press.

Engineering company Rowe Pro-fessional Services told the state the average cost for replacing a service water line through a completed pi-lot project was $7,500. The Michigan

Department of Environmental Quality previously estimated it would cost $4,000, the Free Press reported.

The company’s report said costs could be higher if average permit fees of $2,400 per site are factored in. The largest share of that is $2,200, which includes replacing the pavement. A spokesman for Gov. Rick Snyder said Flint is charging “very large fees,” while Flint Mayor Karen Weaver has said Flint needs more money from the state for replacing pipes.

In other news, the water in Flint has improved significantly and is safe for bathing and showering, al-though people should continue fil-tering it before drinking it, scientists said last week. Marc Edwards, a Vir-ginia Tech engineering professor whose testing last summer con-firmed lead contamination of the city’s water, said sampling in recent months has found that lead levels are steadily declining, AP reported.

MICH-CELLANEOUS

n Beer production still makes for a heady brew in Michigan, where more than 250 producers of craft beer, including companies licensed as breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs, were active last year. Statewide beer production reached 519,896 barrels in 2015, a spike of 27.4 percent compared to 2014, ac-cording to an MiBiz analysis of Mich-igan Liquor Control Commission data. Nationwide, more than 4,200 brew-eries were in operation last year, the

Correctionsn The Troy-based Kresge Foundation is not providing financial sup-

port for the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan yes-vote tax campaign that will begin later this year and be led and financed by the Michigan Regional Chamber Foundation. Kresge provided funding for the RTA’s informational campaign. A story on Page 1 of the May 30 edition incorrectly characterized Kresge’s funding role.n In the supplement in this issue on the 100 Most Influential Women

in Michigan, the age for Beaumont Health COO Carolyn Wilson was mis-stated. She is 54.

most for any year since Prohibition, said the Brewers Association, a Colo-rado-based trade group.n Michigan will close the Pugsley

Correctional Facility in Kingsley, south of Traverse City, in September to save $22 million in the next budget, a move the state’s correction chief said last week is possible because of reductions in the prison population and fewer people being incarcerated, AP reported. Michigan’s prison popu-lation, which peaked in 2007 at 51,554, is now below 42,000 for the first time in nearly two decades.n The Gerald R. Ford Presidential

Museum in Grand Rapids will re-open June 7 after months of renova-tions. The updates include a simula-tion of a 1944 typhoon that threatened the aircraft carrier on which Ford served during World War II and the chance to stand be-hind the 38th president’s desk in a replica of the Oval Office, the Grand Rapids Press reported. The museum has been closed since last fall.n Escanaba won a key ruling in a

legal dispute over how to value big-box stores for tax purposes, AP re-ported. The Upper Peninsula city successfully argued that the Michi-gan Tax Tribunal used the wrong standard to determine the value of a Menards store. Value has been a hot issue in Michigan, especially in the U.P. where communities have been forced to give refunds based on de-cisions by the tax tribunal.

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 6 3

Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc. is beating its auto supplier peers.

Shares of the Novi-based supplier of sealing and fluid handling sys-tems are up more than 10 percent on the year with no sign of slumping. Coo-per-Standard’s offerings aren’t as sexy as the tech-nology that dominates front pages — autono-mous-driving systems, in-dash interfaces or electrifi-cation — but it sells, and Wall Street is taking notice.

Cooper-Standard Hold-ings Inc., the parent compa-ny, posted first-quarter net income of $30.6 million, a 46 percent rise driven by an acquisi-tion and revenue of $862.5 million.

North American sales rose 7.7 percent in the quarter, but the com-pany’s expansion in Asia continues

to bolster its bottom line. Coo-per-Standard saw a 48.3 percent spike in Asian sales in the quarter, driven in part by its acquisition of Chinese joint venture Huayu-Cooper Standard Sealing Systems Co.

Je�rey Edwards, chair-man and CEO, aimed to diversify the supplier’s geo-graphical footprint and in-crease research and devel-opment when he came to Cooper-Standard from Johnson Controls Inc. in 2012.

Crain’s Senior Reporter Dustin Walsh sat down with Edwards to discuss the com-pany’s growth and how it plans to continue it.

Q: What were the prob-lems that needed solving when you ar-rived at Cooper-Standard?

We had some footprint challeng-es in China, Europe and India. We

Little Caesars Arena takes shape as new trusses give the building shape and surrounding work ramps up. CrainsDetroit.com/arena

MUST READ OF THE WEEK

Michelle Singson (le�) and Ashley McGowan are two of about 1,000 members at Shut Up and Box Inc., with locations in Warren (pictured) and Royal Oak.

Hitting a mark

Urgent care centers, clinics continue surge

Cooper-Standard CEO seeks more growth amid tech changes

Boxing �tness gyms, franchises build millions in business muscle

The fitness industry is on a boxing kick.

Local gyms, clubs and studios that let people get their exercise while burning off their aggres-sions are adding locations in a Southeast Michigan boxing mar-ket that’s already worth more than $5 million a year.

Women over 30 remain the core customers for cardio and strength training that draws on classical boxing or some blend with martial arts. But that is changing, local gym owners said, as men are catching on and local businesses are tapping new mar-kets.

Birmingham-based Jabs Gym LLC opened a second location in Eastern Market last December af-ter three years in business to ac-commodate growth and a new demand for dance-themed box-ing classes with nightclub music and a strobe light party atmo-sphere.

Co-owner and middleweight fighter Willie Fortune, alias For-tune 500 (22-2), estimates that

women getting shape or trying to stay in shape account for at least 225 of the more than 300 regular monthly Jabs customers.

“It’s been almost like pulling teeth to get some men to come. And we do get some women who

... are really motivated to take care of themselves,” he said. “But it didn’t make sense that you couldn’t make a boxing workout widely available here, when this is a historic boxing town, like a box-ing mecca, if you could in L.A. where a few celebrities were do-ing it. So we wanted to make that happen.”

But, he said, men are catching on, and some offerings like free weight training and heavy lifting give the gym a broader appeal. Fortune and co-owner and certi-fied yoga instructor David Tessler opened the Birmingham Jabs lo-cation in early 2013, and they co-own the Eastern Market location along with Andrus McDonald, owner of nightclub Envy on Larned Street and is a host of 3Fif-ty Terrace on the rooftop of Music Hall Center. It’s McDonald who helped develop some of the club ambience the Eastern Market gym offers in its kickboxing and boot camp classes, Fortune said.

Also on the grow is Royal Oak-based Shut Up and Box Inc., which opened a second gym in Warren

Several new urgent care and pri-mary care centers are opening in Southeast Michigan, con-tinuing a trend the past de-cade that is shifting care to outpatient community set-tings and accommodating thousands of newly in-sured Medicaid and pri-vately insured patients un-der Obamacare.

Patients and employers are also looking for lower-cost and more convenient care options to the tra-ditional doctor office or hospital emergency department visit. Health insurers are also offering lower co-payments for certain services in outpatient settings.

Mohammed Arsiwala, M.D., president and medical director of Michigan Urgent Care and Occupa-tional Health, is opening his 10th

center in Wyandotte, at 375 Eureka Road, the site of the renovated former Johnny Mac’s in the down-town area.

Like many of Arsiwala’s urgent care centers, 2,000-square-foot Wyan-dotte Urgent Care is open 8

a.m. to 8 p.m. every day and offers a variety of exam, trauma, procedure and occupational medicine rooms. Services include primary care, mi-nor emergency services, drug and alcohol testing, vision and hearing tests and digital X-ray services.

PHOTOS BY LARRY PEPLIN

Je�rey Edwards: Setting a path for global growth

New DMC Children’s Hospital in Troy o� to quick start, Page 4.

Shut Up and Box Inc. owner Al Irish said the company is on pace to make about $700,000 in revenue this year.

By Jay [email protected]

By Dustin [email protected]

SEE EDWARDS, PAGE 11

SEE URGENT, PAGE 10

By Chad [email protected]

SEE BOXING, PAGE 9


DMC Children’s Hospital Troy outpatient center o to strong start

By Jay [email protected]

A big unknown when Detroit Med-ical Center opened its Troy children’s specialty outpatient center was whether it might drain patients from the main campus of Children’s Hospital of Michigan or that nearby competitors such as Beaumont Health or St. John Providence Health System hospitals would pick up the suburban slack.

The reverse has happened, DMC Children’s Hospital executives said.

More patients are seeking care this year in Detroit at Children’s Hos-pital of Michigan than ever before, said Luanne Thomas Ewald, interim CEO of the children’s hospital. And the Troy center has exceeded expec-tations for patient volume in its first four months of operation, she said.

At the same time, Children’s Hos-pital in Detroit also has increased outpatient volume 2.5 percent with about 43,000 clinic visits, Ewald said. And Detroit Children’s Hospital emergency department visits are up 11 percent through April to 30,476.

Meanwhile at Children’s Hospital of Michigan-Troy, ER visits are signifi-cantly higher than originally pro-jected, and outpatient clinic visits are steadily growing, said Lisa Hutchings, Children’s CFO.

At 7:15 a.m. on Feb. 1, when the Troy center officially opened, the first ER pediatric patient was treat-ed, Ewald said.

“Our volumes are stronger than we expected in the ER,” Ewald said. “We are getting a little bit of everything — bumps and bruises, respiratory viruses” and some se-rious injuries.

Children’s Troy ER visits through April totaled more than 3,000, or21 percent over budget. Clinic visits are up 23 percent from less than 900 per month in February to more than 1,000 per month in May.

Other outpatient visits, like labo-ratory tests, imaging and physical therapy, have tripled from the first month the center opened.

Ewald said clinic visits have consis-tently increased as the more than 30 physicians who regularly see patients at the center ramp up appointments and as more specialty clinics open. More than 300 physicians are on the Children’s Hospital medical staff.

Specialty clinic volume for Troy increased 60 percent during the first quarter of 2016, compared with the same period in 2015, when the Troy outpatient center was temporarily located in Bloomfield Hills.

Ewald said about two-thirds of the patients coming to the Troy lo-cation are considered new patients and about one-third have visited the downtown campus at one time.

“We worked with schools, sports clubs, soccer clubs, pediatricians, lo-cal businesses like Huntington Bankand Somerset (Collection) to let them know what is there,” Ewald said. “It helped with opening volumes.”

The three-story, $42 million cen-ter is across from the Detroit Marriott Troy at 350 W. Big Beaver Road. The 63,000-square-foot center includes an emergency department, operat-ing rooms, clinics and a variety of outpatient services, including cardi-

ology, endocrinology, gastroenterol-ogy, nephrology, neurology, oncolo-gy and surgery.

Besides the main Children’s Hos-pital of Michigan on the DMCcampus in downtown Detroit, DMC

JAY GREENEThe new Children’s Hospital of Michigan-Troy saw its �rst emergency room pediatric patient at 7:15 a.m. on Feb. 1, the day it opened.

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operates specialty pediatric centers in Canton Township, Clinton Town-ship, Dearborn and Southfield as well as the Novi Rehabilitation Center.More clinic locations may be in the offing, executives said.

The switch from diminishing in-patient services to growing outpa-tient services for pediatrics mirrors the trend for adults, said Joe Spalli-na, a principal with Ann Ar-bor-based Arvina Group.

Over the years, most of the nation’s 220 children’s hospitals — including the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor and Spectrum Health’s Helen DeVos Chil-dren’s Hospital in Grand Rapids — have added outpatient centers in a regional strategy to expand access.

However, Spallina said, Southeast Michigan is different than many markets nationally because of the aggressive competition for pediatric services and DMC’s construction of outpatient centers. “I am not really seeing much growth in pediatrics in other markets” because birth rates have dropped, he said.

Spallina said time will tell wheth-er DMC adds pediatric market share at the expense of others with the new Troy center and other smaller outpatient clinics. “People don’t like to go downtown” for health care needs unless they have to, he said.

At Beaumont Health, pediatri-cian Brian Berman said pediatric volume at the system’s eight hospi-tals and outpatient centers also has been growing the past three years.

Overall, pediatrics are flat in Michigan, said Berman, Beau-mont’s chairman of pediatrics. “If we are going to grow, and we are, it is at the expense at others.”

Berman said he is seeing hospi-tals consolidate pediatric services in joint ventures with others and locat-ing inpatient pediatrics in centers of excellence. But Berman said pediat-ric volume at Beaumont has grown 10 percent this year over 2015.

“We really haven’t seen visible ef-fects (of DMC Troy opening) based on our volumes,” said Berman, noting that pediatric emergency visits are up 10 percent and neonatal intensive care admissions are up 30 percent, as are outpatient specialty visits.

Overall, DMC Children’s hospital and centers have experienced a2 percent increase in ambulatory clinic volumes during the first quar-ter of this year compared with 2015, Hutchings said.

“Surgery is ramping up,” said Hutchings. “We have two ORs now with shelf space for two more. The clinics feed the surgery center.”

DMC projects about 1,500 sur-geries during the first year.

Expected to open later this year, the $170 million, 185,000-square-foot Children’s Hospital of Michigan pediatric critical care patient tower is the largest of the 15 specified cap-ital projects required to be built when DMC was sold in 2011 to Van-guard Health Systems. All are expect-ed to be completed next year.

DMC is owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. Tenet acquired Vanguard in 2013.

Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325Twitter: @jaybgreene

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE


T here was a undercurrent to the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference: How politically wounded is Gov. Rick Snyder and

how will the next two-and-a-half years of his tenure play out? As serious as the Flint water crisis is, the state can’t afford a permanent state of policy paralysis for the rest of his term.

Detroit’s bankruptcy was the catalyst to get a region to rally around initiatives to make the city more sustainable and successful. Now, though, that urgency has dissipated, and more wrangling ensues.

Lacking a single, definable crisis, how can Michigan’s disparate political agendas — particularly in the state House —pull cohesively together?

The “relentless positive action” mantra Snyder built his first term upon hasn’t sounded the same since Flint. The governor should use the executive power he has to butt a few heads or play more of a hardball game, particularly with members of his own party.

There’s one issue that most everyone could agree on: the need to invest in more infrastructure. As Lindsay Van-Hulle reports on Page M3, our state ranks dead last among

50 states for infrastructure investments. We have too many needs and not enough money. So if

there ever was a time for a “nerd” with a finance back-ground to think creatively about how to pay for big-ticket infrastructure investments, it’s now. Flint’s water prob-lems are the tip of the iceberg.

Infrastructure used to be an “eye-glaze” kind of topic, but a Michigan State University survey that tracks the sub-ject says Michiganders now rank it as a top public policy priority — beating jobs and the economy. That’s a first. It’s also the top of a list in a survey of Crain’s readers.

That kind of public recognition is a great opportunity to build support for creative financing approaches — but first the infrastructure needs should be prioritized. And solutions are likely regional.

Solving Flint is important, but the governor also needs to focus on another legacy: Fixing Detroit schools, sup-porting a regional approach that helps Detroit remain sustainable and figuring out how Michigan can invest in itself to grow again.

Snyder must use his power to unite

OPINION Regional transit is going to be a very hard sell

Last week, a millage campaign was launched to ask voters on Nov. 8 to approve a tax that would raise

nearly $3 billion over 20 years for a very comprehensive transit system for four counties in Southeast Michigan. It is a very ambitious project, to say the least. Sadly, I

fear, it will have a rough road to success.

There is no doubt that Detroit and the rest of Southeast Michigan need a modern transit system serving businesses and people. But

given the mood of the voters these days, getting any new tax increase, particularly a substantial one like this, seems to have a slim chance of passing.

I think the economic benefit of a comprehensive transit system is without question. But I would caution the backers of such a system to rethink the proposal.

It probably would have a bigger chance of success if they offered it in smaller bites. If three or four proposals were offered over time, it would be easier to get support from those people and areas affected rather than for a huge proposal. And, although this proposal favors bus rapid transit, the plan should shy away — at all costs — from fixed rail, even using existing tracks. It's expensive and impossible to change as commuting patterns change. Buses give planners the option to change routes as population changes. And they can be shifted not just for population changes but for any special event that might pop up on the schedule.

Better transit will give city residents a chance to commute to new jobs in suburban communities. But it could also mean some city jobs will shift, too.

Southeast Michigan needs a modern mass transit system. But project planners must be cautious and, above all, realistic. To put all the eggs in one basket would be a huge risk, and one that we should not be forced to take.

KEITH CRAINEditor in chief

TALK ON THE WEB

RTA millage: On-ramp or o�? A tough sell, but it’s

needed hereI am bullish on the RTA millage this November. Yes, it

will be tough to persuade many voters who don’t use public transit to agree to a tax of maybe a hundred bucks a year (depending on the taxable value of their home) to pay for it, but I’ve seen bus rapid transit in

action in Cleveland and Grand Rapids. We need it here.

The Regional Transit Authority will create a system of “trains on tires” service — buses traveling in dedicated lanes, able to turn traffic

signals “green” to move more quickly along main artery routes like Woodward, Gratiot and Michigan avenues. In Cleveland and Grand Rapids, the bus rapid transit has created new ridership and allowed parking-starved major employers better options for capital investment than creating more asphalt surface lots and decks.

The new system will coordinate with existing bus systems in Detroit and many suburbs, with service that can free up those services to focus on short-haul services. Bus rapid transit is also an opportunity for Detroiters to land jobs in the suburbs. How many people have lost job opportunities because they could not check the box marked “reliable transportation”? Have we forgotten the saga of James Robertson, the guy who walked 21 miles a day to his job in Rochester Hills, a community that had opted out of regular SMART bus service?

The icing on the cake for many — millennials and sports fans — just might be the daily rail service between Ann Arbor and Detroit. It will have huge economic benefits — not just for commuters but for connecting companies and the two major research universities in neighboring counties. And yes, there are football Saturdays in Ann Arbor and sporting events in downtown Detroit that will draw fans from neighbor-ing counties.

Keith Crain is right that this could be a hard sell. But it’s up to transit supporters to make the case, and I think they will. The voters will have the final say.

MARY KRAMERPublisher

Re: RTA will seek $2.9B millage for buses, rail

Sorry, it’s a no for us. We are not voting for any transit tax until our roads are repaired. We are paying out the nose for registration, insur-ance and car repairs.

Trexinmichigan

Advocates of this need to human-ize this so that stories of real people who could get to/from work using this (if implemented) are told.

DC Red Wing

Economically, it already makes a lot of sense, and it’s rather embar-rassing that Detroit is only major city without an RTA (especially in comparison to Chicago; Washing-ton, D.C.; or New York).

Steve F

While it would be great to have, I doubt the voters will approve it. Also, there would be other taxes (income or sales) to operate the system.

239401

Re: Chase gives $4M grant to help Detroit students

Let’s hope those families/stu-dents receiving this “gift” realize what an opportunity they’ve been given and take great advantage of it.

Sonniell

Re: Detroit suburbs to pay 4.3% more for water

The money goes down the drain as the Great Lakes Water Authority has the same management that ran the Detroit Water and Sewerage Depart-ment into the ground. You need technical experts at the helm to make money from operations, rath-er than enriching favorite contrac-tors.

sauliussimoliunas

Re: Ford to launch pilot program to employ adults with autism

Devil’s in the details. While I’m al-ways happy to see better employ-

ment opportunities for our disabled adults, the program makes Ford sound like a champ when in fact there’s no skin off their noses. The Autism Alliance is funding the train-ing program, not Ford. After 30 days, Ford can decide whether or not to keep these individuals. What isn’t stated, is how much these adults are being paid. Is it a living wage that would give them the ability to rent safe, affordable housing in the neighborhoods of their choice?

20autismmom10

Re: Midsize employers adjust to reduce health cost increases

Looking for the lowest cost pro-vider is always the answer for ev-ery business cost issue. Pay care-ful attention to the other solution, cost shi�ing. Both of these options are fully in play, and as health care costs continue to rise annu-ally, health care benefits will de-crease and employee costs will increase.

Bill Martin

Re: Mich. education system falls further behind other statesThis is exactly why attempting to run education like a business in Michigan is such a bad idea — it simply doesn’t work — and in fact, it destroys the very goals of our public education system. I am embarrassed that business leaders in Michigan are so blind to the fact that lack of support, lack of resources to fix our historic school buildings, and constant attacks against teachers and unions have harmed hundreds of thousands of children all over Michigan. ... Detroit could collectively gain $20 billion or more in property value for a billion-dollar Marshall Plan to fix and reopen Detroit schools. We may as well light taxpayer dollars on fire, for all the good that corporate tax breaks are doing us.

BrewPubNate

Re: Detroit suburbs to pay 4.3% more for water

What happened to the study that showed 75 percent of the current water department employees were not needed? How is this reflected in our water rates? We have an abundant supply of fresh water, yet we pay more per gallon than a customer in San Diego. Raising prices is easy; becoming more efficient takes work

Wallace Smith

Re: Chase gives $4M grant to help Detroit students

Thanks to Chase bank for showing interest in Detroit Public Schools students.

Kathy


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MEDC: We respond to Dow, all other business opportunities for stateEditor:

Dow Chemical has been a vitally important business in Midland for more than a century. I have no doubt that, like many other large employ-ers known for producing quality products in Michigan, the company has been courted by other states.

That happens every day in Michi-gan. Our state’s economic develop-ment leaders check outside our bor-ders, too, as we tell the Michigan story around the country and around the world, making companies aware of the opportunities we offer.

Gov. Rick Snyder, working in partnership with the Legislature, has created an environment for companies to grow and thrive, making it known that Michigan is a great place to do business. We also work closely with our busi-ness leaders on a variety of ways to help them retain jobs and add new ones. We want to ensure

Michigan’s economy remains strong for decades to come.

That’s why I was surprised by the May 23 editorial stating that Michi-gan has adopted a “no response” ap-proach to Dow or to any other com-pany that is a target of another state’s economic hunting (“State must re-spond to possible Dow exit”).

Michigan Economic Develop-ment Corp. team members have conversations with Dow and other employers on a regular basis. It would be inappropriate to discuss details of those talks. We’ve had a long, strong relationship with Dow.

We will continue to support the company in any way we can.

We know the challenges of the 21st century economy, which re-quires a flexible and timely ap-proach to attracting and retaining businesses and creating jobs. We’ve collaborated with the private sector and other pub-lic-sector entities in creating in-centive packages that further build the state’s foundational in-dustries, foster growth among small businesses and inspire en-trepreneurship while leading to better personal incomes, lower

unemployment and a more favor-able business environment.

Since 2011, Michigan has fol-lowed an approach that moved away from tax credits while focus-ing on performance-based incen-tives. The impact is measurable — and impressive — by any stan-dard, from the 175,000 manufac-turing jobs that have been created in seven years to the dramatic de-cline in unemployment, from 14.9 percent to 4.8 percent, which is below the national average.

And we know that there is more we can do. We are always searching

for innovative, fiscally responsible ways to help our businesses thrive, creating more and better and boost-ing Michigan’s economy.

We’re proud of the many compa-nies that call Michigan home, pro-duce quality goods known around the globe and provide good jobs for our families.

The MEDC and our state will continue to be partners in those ef-forts to bring more and better jobs to Michigan so our families can prosper.Steve ArwoodCEO, Michigan Economic Development Corp.

Detroit needs more companies

like ComericaEditor:

In response to your recent edito-rial about Comerica (“A bit of karma for Comerica,” May 9), I hope we re-member not to lose sight of the tre-mendous work they do for our com-munities ... especially Detroit.

Comerica has a long history (165 years) of commitment to communi-ty and supporting programs that re-vitalize neighborhoods and improve the lives of individuals. Even after its headquarters moved to Texas, Co-merica has been committed to maintaining a strong presence in Detroit.

Let’s not forget that Comerica was among the first businesses to support Detroit’s “Grand Bargain” with a $1 million commitment that helped the city get out of bankrupt-cy, provided for the city’s pensioners and supported the DIA. Comerica continues to invest in Detroit through renovations of its Michigan headquarters downtown, and more recently with its sponsorship of the Red Wings arena in Midtown.

As one of the largest bank em-ployers in Southeast Michigan, Co-merica continues to have as a prior-ity maintaining a diverse workforce because it understands that work-ing with and supporting multi-cul-tural communities helps communi-ties and Comerica grow stronger.

Its support of small businesses through its Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest, its charitable contribu-tions, and the volunteer efforts of its employees to assist community and nonprofit organizations, like SER Metro, are commendable. Co-merica is a committed corporate citizen that gives back. Detroit needs more like it. Eva DewaelschePresident and CEO, SER Metro-Detroit

LETTERS


DEALS & DETAILS

CONTRACTSNSF International Inc., Ann Arbor, an organization that writes standards and tests and certifies products for the food, water, health sciences and consumer goods industries, and ISMS Solutions, Linthicum Heights, Md., announced they will offer ISMS’ Conformance Works software and NSF’s experienced auditors to help companies transition from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015 certification. Websites: ismssolutions.com, nsf.org.

Altair Partner Alliance, Troy, announced that Hyperlean s.r.l., Ancona, Italy, has added its software LeanCost for cost estimation of products, processes, single components and assemblies based on automatic feature recognition from 3-D models. Websites: altair.com, hyperlean.eu.

Geometric Results Inc., Detroit, a managed services provider, has announced that Oracle, Redwood Shores, Calif., a cloud services company, is rolling out a new program that will allow the company to more efficiently and effectively manage nonemployee resources. Websites: oracle.com, geometricresultsinc.com.

Endra Inc., Ann Arbor, dba Endra Life Sciences, has signed an agreement with GE Healthcare, Little Chalfont, U.K., to develop Endra’s thermo acoustic enhanced ultrasound that will enable existing ultrasound systems to visualize tissue function, composition and monitor a variety therapeutic interventions at point of care. Websites: endrainc.com, gehealthcare.com.

EXPANSIONSzipLogix LLC, Fraser, a real estate technology company, has added the Darien Board of Realtors, Darien, Conn.; North Carolina Regional Multiple Listing Service; West Branch Valley Board of Realtors, Williamsport, Pa.; and the Greater Erie Board of Realtors, Erie, Pa., to its zipForm Mobile member benefits. It has added the Massachusetts Association of Realtors to its Digital Ink as a member benefit. Website: ziplogix.com.

Diversi�ed Members Credit Union, Detroit, has opened a branch at 25880 Novi Road, Novi. Phone: (248) 277-3628. Website: dmcu.com.

Henniges Automotive Holdings Inc., Auburn Hills, a supplier of engineered sealing and anti-vibration systems for the automotive market, expanded with Burkool S.A., Buenos Aires, Argentina, a sealing and solutions

manufacturer, into Porto Alegre, Brazil. Websites: burkool.com.ar, hennigesautomotive.com,

Computing Source, Madison Heights, a digital evidence and legal-support firm, has opened a new office in Indianapolis. Website: computingsource.com.

NEW PRODUCTSHella KGaA Hueck & Co., Plymouth, part of the Hella Group, developed an electronically driven vacuum pump for vehicle brake systems that improves performance, durability, power efficiency and packaging. Website: hella.com.

Ziebart International Corp., Troy, has introduced Nano Ceramic Performance Film window tint technology. Website: ziebart.com.

Reverie, Bloomfield Hills, a sleep technology company, launched OSO, a direct-to-consumer mattress brand featuring a customizable, dual-comfort mattress that offers softer or firmer levels of support by rotating the mattress 180 degrees. Websites: reverie.com, ososleep.com.

Healthmark Industries, Fraser, a surgical instruments and lifesaving devices company, and Nelson Laboratories, Salt Lake City, announced the Endoscope Sampling Kit for the random testing of duodenoscopes in compliance with CDC guidelines. Websites: hmark.com, nelsonlabs.com.

XanEdu Inc., Ann Arbor, a provider of customized course materials for higher education, introduced the next generation of Nimble, its mobile learning platform for the corporate learning and development market. Website: xanedu.com.

NEW SERVICESMedical Advantage Group, Lansing, launched the Consortium of Independent Physician Associationsin Ohio. Website: medadvgrp.com.

Technology Li� & Shi�, Novi, a technology moving company and a new subsidiary of iMiH Group, provides moving services for all technology from desktop to the cloud. Website: technologylift.com.

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State of disrepairLANSING — In the summer of 2003, a

massive power outage brought a swath of the eastern United States and Canada — including Detroit and other parts of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula — to a stand-still.

The blackout, which started when a single electrical wire touched a tree in Ohio, left roughly 50 million people in the dark for days and exposed the vulnerabil-ity of the electric grid.

In August 2007, an eight-lane bridge on I- 35W in Minneapolis collapsed, plung-ing vehicles into the Mississippi River and killing 13 people. Work was being done on the bridge shortly before it buckled, though federal investigators determined the likely cause was a design fl aw that left the bridge unable to handle an increased load.

On a single day in August 2014, metro Detroit was deluged with 5 to 6 inches of rain. The storm swamped drain pipes,

which in turn fl ooded freeways and backed up sewage into basements across the region.

All of these were major infrastructure breakdowns. Often, though, problems with infrastructure stay out of sight and out of mind un-til something goes wrong — like underground lead pipes, so long as drinking water is properly treated for corrosion; like aging bridge supports; combined storm and wastewater sewers; and rural counties without access to broad-band internet.

But that lack of attention is costing us.Just 57 percent of the nation’s estimat-

ed $3.3 trillion in necessary infrastructure repairs by 2025 are funded, according to a new report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, a professional organiza-tion based in Reston, Va. The report didn’t break out state-by-state estimates.

Delaying needed infrastructure repairs for surface transportation, water systems,

electricity, airports and sea-ports could result in nearly $4 trillion less in U.S. GDP by 2025 — a fi gure that could balloon to more than $14 trillion by 2040 if left un-checked, the report shows.

By 2025, it said, poor in-frastructure conditions could cost U.S. businesses more than $7 trillion in sales and 2.5 million jobs.

Michigan has had the dishonor of having the worst infrastruc-ture of all 50 states: It earned a D grade in the ASCE’s last state infrastructure report card, in 2009. An updated state report is due next year.

“We can’t function as a high-function-ing, well-oiled economy if we’re not fund-ing infrastructure appropriately,” said Bri-an Pallasch, the society’s managing director of government relations and in-

frastructure initiatives.Whether it’s importing foreign goods

into American ports or exporting vehicles from Detroit, he said, “our infrastructure is the backbone of that economy. If you have frequent power outages, businesses can’t continue to do the manufacturing they need to do to make the economy work.”

Infrastructure is now the top public policy priority among Michiganians — beating even jobs and the economy — for the fi rst time in the history of a Michigan State University survey that tracks the subject. The topic also topped the list in a recent survey of Crain’s subscribers (See related story, Page M5).

Organizers of this year’s Detroit Region-al Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference ex-pect infrastructure to be a prominent dis-cussion topic.

Sandy Baruah, the chamber’s president and CEO, told reporters this month that Michigan’s business community believes

Roads, water and more: Michigan seeks infrastructure solution

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL LEWIS II

By Lindsay VanHulleCrain's Detroit Business/Bridge Magazine

Michigan rated as having the worst infrastructure of all 50 states in a 2009 survey, and not much has improved since then.

More coverage Transit agency seeks millage amid unpredictable election year, Page M5 Survey says leaders prioritize infrastructure, Page M6

SEE DISREPAIR, PAGE M4

M3

M4 C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 6

the state has underinvested in infra-structure for years — a problem that could affect companies’ ability to grow and recruit talent.

Yet in some ways, the newfound attention speaks to our tendency to-ward reactivity rather than proactiv-ity, according to economists, engi-neers and other industry professionals.

When infrastructure fails, it can fail in such dramatic form that it dominates headlines, prompts in-vestigations — and sometimes re-forms — and raises the level of pub-lic consciousness to the problem. That was the case after the 2003 blackout and again in Minneapolis.

Nowhere is that happening more today than in Flint, where Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration and city leaders are trying to contain a public health emergency caused by lead-contaminated drinking water.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed since a state-appointed emergency manager switched the city’s drinking water source from Detroit’s system to the Flint River in 2014. State and fed-eral agencies are investigating. Em-ployees tasked with ensuring safe drinking water have been criminally charged. And city and state leaders still are working to make the water safe enough to drink.

Snyder has convened a task force to study all of the state’s infrastructure systems, their interconnectedness and which repairs should take priori-ty. He asked the Legislature for $165 million in seed money for a new state-wide infrastructure fund, though the amount likely will be less because the state expects it will take in less reve-nue this year.

Our renewed interest in infrastruc-ture, engineers and economists sug-gest, points to a deeper problem. Weaknesses in the system are increas-ingly noticeable because conditions are getting worse. They’re getting worse because states, including Michigan, don’t invest enough into ongoing maintenance.

Because infrastructure isn’t sexy, politicians don’t always champion the cause as strongly as competing bud-get priorities. Tea Party conservatives have brought anti-tax pledges to statehouses, and lawmakers are en-couraged to sign.

Michigan legislators last fall ap-proved a $1.2 billion road funding package after years of work and stale-mates, largely over how much new revenue should be included. Some industry experts now look to exam-ples of innovative solutions being tried in other states, such as fees tied to vehicle miles traveled and high-oc-cupancy toll lanes, which can reduce traffic and wear and tear on roads.

“We had to let our roads literally crumble before we were willing to ad-dress some sort of funding increase,” said Mike Nystrom, executive vice president of the Michigan Infrastruc-ture and Transportation Association, which represents road and under-ground contractors, and a member of Snyder’s task force.

“It takes a Flint situation before folks are willing to wake up and talk about really making the investment

necessary to improve our infra-structure because they don’t want it to happen to them,” he added. “That’s been that way for a long time, where no one likes taxes, and they’re only willing to accept them once we’ve … dissolved all other possibilities.”

The problemIn 2009, the Michigan section of

the ASCE released its first infra-structure report. The volunteer team, made up of professional engi-neers in both the private and public sectors, reviewed the state’s aviation program; dams; drinking water, storm and wastewater systems; en-ergy; harbors and locks; roads and bridges; and transit.

The state’s infrastructure systems were ranked mediocre to poor, with an overall letter grade of D. The data are now 7 years old, though they il-lustrate numerous challenges:nAviation: Michigan will need to

come up with more than $1.3 billion over five years to meet airport infra-structure needs.n Dams: More than nine in 10 of

Michigan’s 2,581 dams will meet their 50-year design life by 2020.n Harbors and locks: The U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers in 2008 pro-jected funding needs of more than $16 million for Michigan’s harbors, $35 million for annual river mainte-nance and nearly $2.5 million per year for upkeep of the Soo Locks.n Stormwater systems. No state-

wide management or inventory of Michigan stormwater systems ex-ists, though the state and counties manage roughly 18,000 county drains. Systems without pumps or other mechanical operating devices often receive little attention, the group said, adding: “Consequently, in an operational sense, much of the storm drainage system is ignored until it fails.”

Michigan has improved slightly since then, said Chuck Hookham, a professional engineer who has sat on ASCE’s board of directors and helped write the 2009 report.

The society’s 2017 update should include more recommended solu-tions, Hookham said. The state has new challenges to contend with, he added, including development of an-other bridge to Canada, the existence of an Enbridge Inc.-owned pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac and needed upgrades to the Soo Locks.

“You can call something a D for-ever and if nothing happens, that’s, I don’t think, beneficial to anyone,” Hookham said. “If we can show how we can change grades, I think that’s more appropriate.”

Michigan’s ability to improve its standing will depend in large part on how it addresses two major infra-structure systems — roads and bridges, and drinking water.

In an April 2015 report, The Road Information Program, or TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization that focuses on surface transportation, cited data from the Michigan Transportation Asset Man-agement Council showing that more Michigan roads are in poor condi-tion — 38 percent in 2014, up from 23 percent in 2006.

That figure is expected to climb to 53 percent by 2025 if funding lev-

els stay the same, the report showed.Bridge conditions aren’t much

better, the TRIP report said. A full 12 percent of local- and state-main-tained bridges were structurally de-ficient in 2014, meaning a bridge has major deterioration of the deck or structures. Another 16 percent are functionally obsolete and don’t meet current design standards.

If funding doesn’t change, 14 per-cent of Michigan’s bridges will be considered structurally deficient by 2023, according to TRIP.

The road funding package Snyder signed last fall includes roughly $600 million in new revenue from higher gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, with the other half to be diverted from existing spending. The package in-cludes the first fuel tax hike since 1997 and links it to inflation, but was criti-cized in some circles because it won’t be fully phased in until 2021.

The package included a new Roads Innovation Fund, a lockbox of sorts that would set aside $100 million of the new roads revenue per year until the Legislature votes to release it. The Michigan Depart-ment of Transportation is required to look for new materials or processes to build roads that could cut in half the cost of building to a 50-year life span — even if those materials and processes cost more up front — and have no roads in poor condition within 10 years.

MDOT typically builds roads that

can last at least 30 years with routine maintenance, though many roads outlive that life expectancy, spokes-man Jeff Cranson said.

The department estimated it would cost the state between$11 billion and $14 billion more per year for a decade to build roads that could last for 50 to 75 years, depend-ing on the life span desired. The ca-veat: Spending $11 billion more an-nually on roads that last for 50 years would require a fuel tax of $1.70 per gallon, MDOT said.

And in April, the Michigan Infra-structure and Transportation Asso-ciation released a report by Lan-sing-based Public Sector Consultants Inc. that showed an average of $447 million per year was spent on the state’s drinking water systems from 2004 to 2013.

The report suggests that to meet federal drinking water standards and ensure water is clean and safe, Michigan will need to spend be-tween $731 million and $1 billion annually through 2030. The figures don’t reflect the Flint crisis.

“Flint isn’t the only place with ag-ing water infrastructure and sewer infrastructure,” said Charles Ballard, an economist at Michigan State.

“It’s a long-term challenge,” Bal-lard said. “I think the public under-stands that it’s a priority. But we saw from the roads situation last year that just because people want to do something, (it) doesn’t mean that

we have the political will to do very much.”

Political will?For 20 years, the fraction of re-

spondents who believed infrastruc-ture was the state’s most urgent pol-icy priority hovered around zero in MSU’s State of the State surveys. This year, 32.5 percent of survey re-spondents chose infrastructure. Only in the past few years did infra-structure become a separate survey choice, rather than being lumped into the “other” category.

Ballard attributes part of that to Flint.

“Whether that will translate into better policies is not at all clear,” he said. “We didn’t ask, ‘OK, if that’s your top priority, are you willing to devote tax revenues to it?’ And I sus-pect at least some folks say that it’s a high priority, but that would not translate into spending money on it. And if you don’t spend money on it, it won’t get fixed.”

It’s difficult to get a specific dollar figure for how much Michigan spends in total on infrastructure.

Ballard, however, has calculated state and local taxes in Michigan as a share of personal income dating back to 1972. His analysis, citing census and other federal data, shows that Michigan residents paid about 9.5 percent of their personal income in taxes in 2012, down from more than 13 percent in the 1970s.

That’s not entirely due to tax rate cuts, he said, adding that the decline also is the result of erosion of the lo-cal and state tax base. The impact is magnified when combined with Michigan’s flat fuel tax, which has lost buying power over time, and property tax limits that don’t allow assessments to rise faster than infla-tion or 5 percent, whichever is less, and thus restrict how much revenue municipalities can bring in.

Michigan’s new road funding laws raise the state’s 19-cent regular gasoline and 15-cent diesel fuel tax-es to 26.3 cents per gallon starting in 2017, then link them to inflation.

But that increase won’t immediate-ly erase years of tax cuts, Ballard said — a problem he believes has wors-ened since the introduction of the “no-tax pledges” pitched to lawmak-ers.

“As long as we continue to send folks like that to the Legislature, that makes it challenging to deal with is-sues like this, because I just don’t see how we can fix the roads and the sewers and the water system for free,” Ballard said.

“What was important was cutting taxes, not dealing with those issues.”

Lawmakers also have cut statuto-ry revenue sharing to Michigan cit-ies, which exacerbated local budget challenges particularly during the recession. A report released last week by Eaton Rapids-based Great Lakes Economic Consulting LLC — run by Mitch Bean, a former direc-tor of the state’s House Fiscal Agency, and former state Treasurer Robert Kleine — estimated municipalities cumulatively have lost more than $5.5 billion since 1998.

Aside from roads, “we've been able to increase local revenue shar-ing over each of the past five years,

DISREPAIRFROM PAGE M3

LANSING — A commission appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder has start-ed its review of Michigan's infrastructure systems, though it likely will have less state funding at hand to assign to various priorities.

The 21st Century Infrastructure Commission, which Snyder proposed in his State of the State address in January, met for the first time in late April. The 27-member group consists of engineers and executives with public utilities, telecommunications companies, municipalities and state government.

Its chairman is S. Evan Weiner, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Detroit-based Edw. C. Levy Co., a construction materials conglomerate that specializes in such areas as steel mill services and road construction.

The task force will study infrastructure in its myriad forms — water, sewer, wastewater, transportation, telecommunications, energy, transit and rail. Its members will study best practices from other places in the nation and world and submit recommendations. The team’s report is due Nov. 30.

“We don’t have a template to go by,” Weiner said. “We have to create a vision of what a world-class infrastructure future looks like for our state, and we need to be innovative in this because it really hasn’t been done before.”

Snyder also proposed a $165 million statewide infrastructure fund that would support the task force's recommendations, though the amount actually budgeted could be as little as $5 million due to low-er-than-anticipated state revenue.

Top Republican lawmakers recently told The Associated Press that given revenue constraints, the fund could be addressed next year once the task force finalizes its list of infrastructure priorities.

"There's not one silver bullet. The $165 (million) is a starting point," said Mike Nystrom, executive vice president of the Michigan Infrastruc-ture and Transportation Association and a commission member.

“Can I say with confidence that (lawmakers will) take up every rec-ommendation? That’s very doubtful," Nystrom added. "If we give them a menu that’s wide enough and long enough, I think they’ll be able to find a way to start making improvements."

Part of the group’s challenge, Weiner said, will be to uncover informa-tion about infrastructure systems that are 100 years old and have not shown up on inventories in the past. Commission members also will have to navigate a fragmented system that includes state, municipal and private ownership.

“We need to establish the facts first. And once you establish the facts, then you can establish what you don’t know,” Weiner said. “We’re going to make an attempt to do it. We aren’t going to get it all right. … It’ll be a start.”

Lindsay VanHulle

Snyder-named infrastructure panel begins workwhich goes a long way to help many of those issues,” said Gideon D’As-sandro, a spokesman for House Speaker Kevin Cotter.

D’Assandro would not comment directly on how Cotter views the state’s role in funding infrastructure repairs, including Cotter’s thoughts about Snyder’s proposed statewide infrastructure fund, other than to say the Legislature continues to work on it during budget talks.

Less money in the coffers leads to difficult decisions about services. For instance, the desire to cut costs is one factor in the Flint water emergency.

“The amount of money that was saved by … switching over to the Flint River looks to be tiny compared to what it will cost in terms of litigation and remediation,” Ballard said.

SolutionsSeveral engineers and industry ex-

perts said user fees would be one way to solve Michigan’s underfunding problem. They could take the form of higher water rates, local millage re-quests or fuel tax increases.

Postponing maintenance cor-relates with higher repair costs later. TRIP, in its report, estimated that preventive road maintenance to keep roads in good condition would cost $85,000 per lane mile, com-pared with $1.6 million per lane mile for roads in poor condition that need rebuilding.

Updating all of Michigan’s roads to good condition would cost the state $14.1 billion, TRIP estimated.

The ballooning impact of delayed maintenance isn’t limited to roads. In 2009, ASCE recommended a 3-cent increase to Michigan’s current 3-cent-per-gallon aviation fuel tax, which hasn’t gone up since 1929, and en-couraged the creation of a dam repair fund seeded with at least $50 million.

MDOT engineers are looking at ways to build longer-lasting roads. And the department will install the state’s first high-occupancy vehicle lanes when it rebuilds I-75 in metro Detroit, which are intended to re-duce congestion by allowing vehi-cles with two or more passengers to use dedicated travel lanes during peak hours.

Motorists won’t have to pay tolls to use the lanes, though, and MDOT couldn’t charge them without first changing state law.

Pallasch, of ASCE, said both high-occupancy toll lanes and fees charged per vehicle mile traveled — which has been piloted in Oregon — would shift costs to road users.

“We’re not setting aside enough resources to do it,” he said. “States and local governments and the fed-eral government, frankly, they triage stuff. They do the best they can and they’re spending the limited re-sources they have in the best man-ner possible. And that means that not everything’s going to get done to the way the engineer or the (Depart-ment of Public Works) or the state (Department of Transportation) would like it to be done.

“Elected officials need to under-stand,” he added, “that not investing is really not an option.”

Lindsay VanHulle: (517) 657-2204Twitter: @LindsayVanHulleSEE NEXT PAGE

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 6 M5we have the political will to do very much.”

Political will?For 20 years, the fraction of re-

spondents who believed infrastruc-ture was the state’s most urgent pol-icy priority hovered around zero in MSU’s State of the State surveys. This year, 32.5 percent of survey re-spondents chose infrastructure. Only in the past few years did infra-structure become a separate survey choice, rather than being lumped into the “other” category.

Ballard attributes part of that to Flint.

“Whether that will translate into better policies is not at all clear,” he said. “We didn’t ask, ‘OK, if that’s your top priority, are you willing to devote tax revenues to it?’ And I sus-pect at least some folks say that it’s a high priority, but that would not translate into spending money on it. And if you don’t spend money on it, it won’t get fixed.”

It’s difficult to get a specific dollar figure for how much Michigan spends in total on infrastructure.

Ballard, however, has calculated state and local taxes in Michigan as a share of personal income dating back to 1972. His analysis, citing census and other federal data, shows that Michigan residents paid about 9.5 percent of their personal income in taxes in 2012, down from more than 13 percent in the 1970s.

That’s not entirely due to tax rate cuts, he said, adding that the decline also is the result of erosion of the lo-cal and state tax base. The impact is magnified when combined with Michigan’s flat fuel tax, which has lost buying power over time, and property tax limits that don’t allow assessments to rise faster than infla-tion or 5 percent, whichever is less, and thus restrict how much revenue municipalities can bring in.

Michigan’s new road funding laws raise the state’s 19-cent regular gasoline and 15-cent diesel fuel tax-es to 26.3 cents per gallon starting in 2017, then link them to inflation.

But that increase won’t immediate-ly erase years of tax cuts, Ballard said — a problem he believes has wors-ened since the introduction of the “no-tax pledges” pitched to lawmak-ers.

“As long as we continue to send folks like that to the Legislature, that makes it challenging to deal with is-sues like this, because I just don’t see how we can fix the roads and the sewers and the water system for free,” Ballard said.

“What was important was cutting taxes, not dealing with those issues.”

Lawmakers also have cut statuto-ry revenue sharing to Michigan cit-ies, which exacerbated local budget challenges particularly during the recession. A report released last week by Eaton Rapids-based Great Lakes Economic Consulting LLC — run by Mitch Bean, a former direc-tor of the state’s House Fiscal Agency, and former state Treasurer Robert Kleine — estimated municipalities cumulatively have lost more than $5.5 billion since 1998.

Aside from roads, “we've been able to increase local revenue shar-ing over each of the past five years,

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Transit backers: No worries over busy fall ballotBy Bill [email protected]

Backers of a $2.9 billion regional mass transit tax for metro Detroit ar-en’t worried about their millage be-ing on the same ballot as a presiden-tial election that has already become known for its unpredictability.

The Nov. 8 ballot that also will ask voters in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties to OK a 1.2-mill property tax increase to fund the Regional Transit Authority of South-east Michigan’s master plan of bus rapid transit and commuter rail that was unveiled May 31.

But whatever hijinks real estate developer and reality TV star Don-ald Trump and the eventual Demo-cratic nominee get up to over the next six months don’t trouble the RTA tax proponents in charge of getting out the yes vote.

“We don’t expect the crazy as-pects of the candidates at the top of tickets will impact our strategy. The strategy and tactics really don’t change at all. The messaging and delivery are quite consistent,” said Kelly Rossman-McKinney, CEO and principal at Lansing-based po-litical public relations firm Truscott Rossman. The firm is handling the yes vote advocacy campaign that will launch in late summer.

In fact, a large turnout on Nov. 8 could benefit the RTA ballot issue.

“In some respects, it’s easier to target because you have such a large pool of likely voters on both sides of the aisle,” Rossman-McK-inney said. “That’s the beauty of transit — it’s not a partisan issue.”

Because the RTA is prohibited by law from advocating for ballot is-sues, a group called A Coalition for Transit was organized to campaign for the millage. Its multimedia ef-fort, created and financed by the pro-transit Detroit Regional Chamber Foundation, is expected to begin a month or two before the Nov. 8 vote.

A Coalition for Transit is paying Truscott Rossman to work on the RTA ballot campaign.

The transit tax messaging will come amid what could be a flurry of presidential ads, and certainly a bliz-zard of media coverage on the White House campaigns. That’s not a bad thing, Rossman-McKinney said.

“There is a lot of election noise. All of that is heightened aware-ness. That will be good for us. This is a local issue people can do something about,” she said.

The chamber echoed that senti-ment.

“What we’ve learned watching the primary process, voters are sending a message about govern-ment not solving problems,” said Brad Williams, the chamber’s gov-ernment relations vice president. “This will be a problem solved by their vote. It’s hard to bust through that cynicism as a candidate, but as a ballot issue this solves an issue voters have said for decades that they’ve wanted solved.”

The specifics of the campaign will be finessed after the RTA board approves everything in July.

“You’ll see all the same tactics just like any strategic communication campaign,” Rossman-McKinney said. That will include TV and radio spots, print ads, social media ele-ments and getting media attention. “There will be an advertising strategy designed to get out the yes vote, but that won’t happen until much closer to the election. You’ll see much more aggressive messaging.”

How much the campaign will cost hasn’t been disclosed.

Michael Ford, the RTA’s CEO, said his organization will continue through the election with the edu-cational campaigning that it’s per-mitted to do. He acknowledged that the presidential campaign could exhaust voters, but he’s opti-mistic. Two years ago, he was suc-cessful in getting a tax increase passed for Ann Arbor’s bus system when he was in charge of it.

“When you have a presidential year, there are a lot of challenges. You have to cut through the noise,” Ford said. “With the right messag-ing, we can be successful. We’ll be focused on education and outreach about what the plan is.”

A more likely potential obstacle with voters than presidential elec-tion politics could be taxpayer fa-tigue over transportation funding in general. The state earlier this year unveiled a $1 billion plan to widen I-75 in Oakland County over the next 20 years, and the Legisla-ture has struggled — critics say bungled — with ongoing road maintenance and repair funding.

“Those are concerns. Clarity of message and articulating what peo-ple are going to get is important,” Ford said. “We’ve got to make the case with voters, and political, civic and business leaders. We’re overdue for good public transportation.”

There was a hiccup in April when the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) complained to the chamber that early RTA TV ads were too critical of the current bus systems. Two spots were pulled, and replaced with two others that already were planned for broadcast, the chamber said.

Now, all ruffled feathers have been smoothed, Williams said.

“We’re all on the same page,” he said.

One of the region’s longtime mass transit advocates has praise for the master plan. Megan Owens, executive director of Detroit-based Transportation Riders United, which pushes for improved transporta-tion access and mobility, is vice chairman of the RTA’s citizens’ ad-visory committee.

“I feel that the plan does a good job of addressing the varied needs of this region,” she said. “The RTA heard people’s outcry for more ways to get around our broad region more reli-ably. For people trying to get to jobs, this would extend transit into key job centers like Livonia, Novi and Roch-ester. For people sick of paying through the nose to get to the airport, this plan includes several airport ex-press routes.”

The proposed tax would raise

money to build bus rapid transit (BRT) lines on the Woodward, Michi-gan and Gratiot avenue corridors (and on Washtenaw Avenue between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti), create the long-discussed commuter rail ser-vice between Detroit and Ann Arbor, and cover their annual operating costs.

If voters approve the transit tax, all property owners in the four counties would pay it — there would be no opt-out provision, unlike the subur-ban bus tax. The RTA millage would be atop the other transit taxes already in place in the Ann Arbor area and Detroit suburbs.

Under a BRT system, buses op-erate much like a rail line, with spe-cialized train-like wheeled vehicles with dedicated lanes, priority traf-fic signaling and higher speeds.

The RTA tax would be the local money required to access match-ing federal funding to build and op-erate bus rapid transit and train systems. The RTA would have to apply for such funding from the federal government, and the pro-cess is vigorously competitive and often lengthy.

The millage also is expected to fund new traditional Detroit Depart-ment of Transportation and SMART bus service, a universal fare card for the region, and an express service across the region from the airport, Ford said. The tax also could pay for other transit infrastructure capital costs.

Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626Twitter: @Bill_Shea19

which goes a long way to help many of those issues,” said Gideon D’As-sandro, a spokesman for House Speaker Kevin Cotter.

D’Assandro would not comment directly on how Cotter views the state’s role in funding infrastructure repairs, including Cotter’s thoughts about Snyder’s proposed statewide infrastructure fund, other than to say the Legislature continues to work on it during budget talks.

Less money in the coffers leads to difficult decisions about services. For instance, the desire to cut costs is one factor in the Flint water emergency.

“The amount of money that was saved by … switching over to the Flint River looks to be tiny compared to what it will cost in terms of litigation and remediation,” Ballard said.

SolutionsSeveral engineers and industry ex-

perts said user fees would be one way to solve Michigan’s underfunding problem. They could take the form of higher water rates, local millage re-quests or fuel tax increases.

Postponing maintenance cor-relates with higher repair costs later. TRIP, in its report, estimated that preventive road maintenance to keep roads in good condition would cost $85,000 per lane mile, com-pared with $1.6 million per lane mile for roads in poor condition that need rebuilding.

Updating all of Michigan’s roads to good condition would cost the state $14.1 billion, TRIP estimated.

The ballooning impact of delayed maintenance isn’t limited to roads. In 2009, ASCE recommended a 3-cent increase to Michigan’s current 3-cent-per-gallon aviation fuel tax, which hasn’t gone up since 1929, and en-couraged the creation of a dam repair fund seeded with at least $50 million.

MDOT engineers are looking at ways to build longer-lasting roads. And the department will install the state’s first high-occupancy vehicle lanes when it rebuilds I-75 in metro Detroit, which are intended to re-duce congestion by allowing vehi-cles with two or more passengers to use dedicated travel lanes during peak hours.

Motorists won’t have to pay tolls to use the lanes, though, and MDOT couldn’t charge them without first changing state law.

Pallasch, of ASCE, said both high-occupancy toll lanes and fees charged per vehicle mile traveled — which has been piloted in Oregon — would shift costs to road users.

“We’re not setting aside enough resources to do it,” he said. “States and local governments and the fed-eral government, frankly, they triage stuff. They do the best they can and they’re spending the limited re-sources they have in the best man-ner possible. And that means that not everything’s going to get done to the way the engineer or the (Depart-ment of Public Works) or the state (Department of Transportation) would like it to be done.

“Elected officials need to under-stand,” he added, “that not investing is really not an option.”

Lindsay VanHulle: (517) 657-2204Twitter: @LindsayVanHulleSEE NEXT PAGE

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE


Business weighs inPolling � rm Epic-MRA questioned a sample of 300 business owners, operators, o� cers or managers from May 9-12 for a survey sponsored by Crain’s and the law � rm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP. Margin of error is 5.7 percent.

How would you characterize the economy of the state as a whole?

13% Getting weaker 30% Staying about the same 56% Getting stronger 1% Undecided/refused

What are your hiring plans for the next 12 months?

3% May have to lay o� employees 55% Will maintain number of employees

39% Plan to hire more employees 0% Will lay o� employees

3% Undecided/refused

What are your plans for employee wages in the coming year?

46% Leave wages unchanged 46% Increase wages

0% Reduce wages 8% Undecided/refused

Which one policy or issue area of the following do you believe should be a top priority for the next president to pursue in order to better help your business?

1. Launching a comprehensive program to rebuild the country’s infrastructure, including federal roadways and bridges, as well as aging water and sewer systems in metropolitan areas: 35%2. Taking the lead in restructuring and � nancing the delivery of public education in urban centers: 14%

Undecided/refused, 4%

3. Streamlining federal regulations a� ecting business operations, such as environmental quality compliance rules and worker health and safety standards: 13%4. Making access to capital easier and cheaper: 11%5. Establishing a workable policy addressing immigration and the status of undocumented workers: 10%

6. Helping in the development of new technologies such as internet-connected vehicles and alternative energy generation: 6%

7. Making sure foreign trade partners are held accountable to the minimum worker safety, wage and bene� t provisions contained in our trade agreements: 5%

8. Addressing civil unrest and racial tension: 2%

How would you characterize your opinion of these political � gures? Undecided/ refused

Barack Obama 28% very 7% 20% very

Rick Snyder 14% very 10% 20% very

Hillary Clinton

35% very 7% 9% very

Donald Trump

35% very 12% 10% very

Bernie Sanders

27% very 10% 7% very

If the election were held today and the candidates were Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, whom would you vote for?

31% vote for Hillary Clinton

5% lean toward Hillary Clinton

35% vote for Donald Trump

6% lean toward Donald Trump

23% Undecided/refused 23% Undecided/refused

Negative Positive

48% 45%

31% 59%

61% 32%

55% 33%

51% 39%

3% May have to lay o� employees 55% Will maintain number of employees

46% Leave wages unchanged 46% Increase wages

1. Launching a 3. Streamlining federal 6. Helping in the

Barack Obama


14% very 10% 20% very

Hillary Clinton

35% very 7% 9% very

Donald Trump

35% very 12% 10% very

Bernie Sanders


13% Getting weaker 30% Staying about the same

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

JEFF JOHNSTON

LANSING — Metro Detroit busi-ness owners and managers believe aging infrastructure is the most pressing national policy issue with economic implications awaiting the next American president, according to a Crain’s survey.

Roads, bridges, local streets and drinking water systems require im-mediate attention, they say. Public transit, the electric grid and sewer systems all should be considered high-priority items.

And yet, more than a quarter also believe that state and local taxes should be restructured so business and individual taxpayers receive a net tax cut.

A recent survey of 300 business owners and managers commis-sioned by Crain’s Detroit Businessand law fi rm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP underscores the tension facing policymakers try-ing to grapple with aging and, in many cases, failing infrastructure in Michigan and beyond: How to pay for it. (See story, Page M3.)

The polling was conducted by Lansing-based Epic-MRA.

A clear plurality of respondents — 35 percent — consider infra-structure the most serious problem that, if addressed, could help Michi-gan’s economy. It’s followed by re-structuring urban public education

(14 percent); streamlining business regulations, including federal envi-ronmental compliance and worker safety rules (13 percent); and in-creasing access to capital (11 per-cent).

Nearly half — 46 percent — would favor raising Michigan’s 6 percent sales tax by a penny and dedicating the funding to infra-structure repairs.

Respondents didn’t show a clear preference when it came to other funding options: Cutting existing state spending, including public schools and universities, prisons and human services (17 percent); restoring some of the $1.5 billion in business tax cuts since 2013 (15 per-cent); and boosting the state’s in-come tax rate from 4.25 percent to 4.35 percent (14 percent).

“I’m kind of a sales tax fan in gen-eral,” said Mike Lijewski, a survey respondent and owner of Aristocrat Services Ltd. in Livonia, a small commercial cleaning business that counts mostly suburban apartment buildings as its largest clients.

Lijewski said infrastructure is the country’s biggest policy challenge.

He said he would prefer to elimi-nate the state’s income tax and raise the sales tax — the amount by which would have to be determined, he added — while continuing to ex-empt some items, such as food and prescriptions.

“It’s a lot less complicated than an income tax,” Lijewski said. “The part I like about sales tax is everybody pays.”

The question of how to pay to fi x our infrastructure systems is emerg-ing as the issue gains a higher state-wide profi le. The Flint drinking wa-ter crisis has elevated the condition of Michigan’s infrastructure to pri-ority status, along with crumbling conditions at Detroit Public Schoolsbuildings and fresh potholes that pop up with each freeze-and-thaw cycle.

Business taxesAt the same time state and local

policymakers try to address these and other infrastructure issues — everything from storm sewers to transit — a majority of company ex-ecutives say Michigan’s business taxes need to be lowered.

Twenty-seven percent of survey respondents believe a restructured tax code should be the top state pol-icy emphasis. They edged out a quarter of respondents who would rather see policymakers address the cost of providing health care cover-age to employees.

Other priority areas include nar-rowing the skills gap (14 percent) and increasing funding for commu-nity colleges to offer career-related

Poll of biz leaders: Infrastructure top issue, split on how to pay

By Lindsay VanHulleCrain’s Detroit Business/Bridge Magazine

SEE SURVEY, PAGE M12

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Contractors feast on Gilbert’s real estate portfolio, reap $600 million while reviving properties

Dan Gilbert’s companies have paid contractors more than $600 million to build, renovate and reha-bilitate properties in his downtown Detroit real estate portfolio since 2011.

Building permit data and inter-views with officials at Gilbert’s Bed-

rock Detroit for the first time help define the scope of the bil-lionaire’s real es-tate invest-ments, which have revitalized downtown. The data also illus-trate the eco-nomic impact for more than 400 contractors who have helped trans-form Gil-

bert-controlled buildings into restaurants, offices and retail shops that are luring entrepreneurs and bolstering Detroit’s tax base.

The data show Gilbert’s proper-ties are producing a pipeline of cash for contractors — roughly the same amount of money being spent building Little Caesars Arena. In Southeast Michigan, the pipeline flows as far west as Ann Arbor, as far east as Algonac and to contractors throughout Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

Contractors, including 74 compa-nies either based in Detroit or mi-nority-owned, have hired dozens of employees to keep pace with Gil-bert’s plans for rehabilitating down-town properties and opened offices downtown. Since 2011, Bedrock has lured 160 office and retail tenants downtown as its property empire has expanded to more than 95 prop-erties and 15 million square feet.

“Gilbert’s creating so much op-portunity, a gigantic tsunami that is creating nice waves for people to go surfing on,” said Todd Sachse, founder and CEO of Detroit-based Sachse Construction.

In all, Bedrock Detroit and its af-filiates have invested nearly $2.2 bil-lion in acquiring, renovating and developing properties downtown.

The list of contractors working on those properties includes firms both small and large, black- and white-owned. While the contractors span the breadth of metro Detroit, two of the highest-paid — Sachse and Turner Construction — are either based in Detroit or have offices downtown.

Usually, Bedrock solicits con-struction manager proposals and places a premium on firms being located in Detroit.

“If it’s a typical office building, we’ll go to contractors that are ones we’ve had a good experience with or feel comfortable that they are going to be ethical and timely and build a quality product for us,” Bedrock

co-founder and CEO Jim Ketai told Crain’s. “We always go to a Detroit contractor first and try to get them as much business as we possibly can.”

Sachse and Turner Construction, a New York City-headquartered company with an office in down-town Detroit, have worked on more than a dozen projects involving tenant improvements at buildings controlled by Gilbert.

That list includes the 66,000-square-foot Quicken Loans Technology Center in Corktown; the former Compuware Building, now known as One Campus Martius; the Federal Reserve Building; and the De-troit Media Partnership building, which formerly housed The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.

In many cases, the money spent rehabilitating buildings dwarfed the amount Gilbert paid for the proper-ties. A Gilbert-related firm paid $5 million for the former Detroit

Media Partnership building at 615 W. Lafayette Blvd., a parking garage and a related property in downtown Detroit in 2014. Two years later, Gil-bert had spent more than $40 mil-lion on renovations to the building and garage, according to city data.

Molina Healthcare of Michigan is leasing almost 30,000 square feet for 125 service representatives, case managers, community health care workers and others at the centu-ry-old historic building, which was designed by Albert Kahn. In this century, Bedrock hired Albert Kahn & Associates to design the new space. Gilbert’s Quicken Loans Inc. also has a training center on the third floor.

In the case of the former Detroit Media Partnership building and several Gilbert-controlled proper-ties, much of the work involved pre-serving and restoring architectural flourishes — wood paneling, mar-ble floors, arched ceilings — and blending those elements with a modern workspace.

“From what we’ve learned, they want things done quick and they want it done right,” said Bob Bowen, project executive for Turner Con-struction. “When they figure out what they need or desire for a par-ticular project, it’s, ‘Go make it hap-pen.’ ”

Turner, which has about 65 em-

ployees working out of its Detroit office, started working for Bedrock in early 2012, renovating three floors of the former Dime Building down-town. The project expanded to 12 floors and led to Turner working on projects at about four other Bedrock properties, including the Quicken Loans Technology Center.

Gilbert’s property buying spree in recent years — and likelihood of ad-ditional acquisitions — is a reassur-ing sign, Bowen said.

“Obviously, we have to meet their expectations, but there is a comfort level there of there always being po-tentially a project to pursue and an opportunity to keep some people busy,” he said.

The impact on construction managers and subcontractors can-not be overstated, said Charles Bal-lard, a Michigan State University eco-nomics professor.

“It’s been a huge shot in the arm for Detroit and for the area,” Ballard said. “This is putting money into the pockets of pipefitters and electri-cians and laborers, and most of them are going to spend locally. The total juice to the metro Detroit economy is likely to be substantially higher than the amount Gilbert put in.

“With so much of the city vacant, I’m glad to see development hap-pening not all in one place,” Ballard added. “I think that ultimately will be more beneficial to the city.”

Bedrock’s buildings are luring en-trepreneurs to Detroit and being used as exhibits in Ketai’s recruiting pitches.

“I always say, ‘I’ll find you space, even if I have to buy a building,’” Ketai said in an interview ahead of the 2016 Mackinac Policy Conference, which is focusing on entrepreneur-ship and ensuring future invest-ment in Michigan.

“One of the first things I say to people, anywhere I go, whether I’m talking to a law firm or accountant or window-cleaning vendor, I al-ways say, ‘Come open a space, we think it’s really important to have an office in Detroit. Come share in its growth.’ ”

Ketai points to chocolatier Bon Bon Bon as an example of an entre-preneurial company that has moved into one of Bedrock’s spaces.

Bon Bon Bon opened a retail shop inside Chrysler House, at 719 Griswold St., in April 2015 and also is an example of the type of small en-trepreneur with the potential for growing into a chain that is being targeted by Bedrock.

“We are creating an environment where an entrepreneur can flour-ish,” Ketai said, pointing to Bed-rock’s high-tech corridor anchored by the Madison Building at 1555

Broadway.That’s the space filled by firms in-

cluding Twitter, Microso� Ventures and cloud company iRule.

“Instead of getting in a car and driving 20 minutes to another suburb and having a meeting with a tech-re-lated business, they are now able to walk out their door and get services and meetings within blocks of each other,” Ketai said. “I think that collab-orative environment causes every-thing to magnify and accelerate, and they’re able to grow their businesses so much quicker being in that energy of an urban environment.”

For contractors helping create that energy, working for Bedrock is competitive, lucrative and demand-ing. That was the case in summer 2010, when Gilbert pushed for rapid renovations to the Compuware Building so he could move 1,700 employees from Quicken Loans and five related companies.

“‘Butts in Seats’ was the buzz-word,” Sachse said. “They wanted butts in seats, and we really learned how to do things at an exceptionally fast rate.”

Since 2010, Sachse has been one of Bedrock’s top construction man-agers. The relationship has been transformative.

Coming out of the recession in 2010, Sachse’s revenue was approxi-mately $30 million. Last year, five years into Sachse’s tenure working on Bedrock projects, the construc-tion company’s revenue had risen to $172.2 million, according to Crain’s Private 200 list (see Page M75).

“That’s not just because of Bed-rock, but a lot of that is indirectly because of what they’re doing downtown,” Sachse said. “They’ve spurred so many other developers and institutions to do things.”

During that time, Sachse’s staff has almost tripled, from 45 to 130. In 2013, Sachse moved into the Bed-rock-owned Arts League of Michigan Building at 1528 Woodward Ave.

About 60 employees work down-town and earn, on average, $80,000 a year, and pay city income tax.

Bedrock has also been a repeat client for Detroit-based MiG Con-struction. The minority-owned con-struction firm started working for Bedrock three years ago and has added a handful of staffers in the ensuing years.

MiG has worked on several Gil-bert-related properties, including the recent interior renovation of Greektown Casino-Hotel. MiG also managed construction of the House of Pure Vin, a retail wine shop that opened last year on the first floor of a Lo�s at Merchants Row building on Woodward Avenue downtown.

“It definitely is exciting to be in-volved with commercial renovation in the inner core of the city,” MiG Vice President Brian Deming said. “It’s exciting to work close to home, and we are finding a steady stream of work.”

Robert Snell: (313) 446-1654Twitter: @robertsnellnews

By Robert [email protected]

SPINOFF EFFECTS

CHRIS EHRMANNBedrock Detroit hired Albert Kahn & Associates to design the former Detroit Media Partnership building at 615 W. Lafayette Blvd. Much of the work involved preserving and restoring architectural �ourishes like the arched ceiling in the lobby.

More onlinen An interactive look at some of Bedrock Detroit’s most frequently used contractors, where they’ve worked and where they’re based.

n An interview with Todd Sachse about the pace of work by Bedrock — “like nothing we’ve ever done.” CrainsDetroit.com/contractors

“One of the �rst things I say to people, anywhere I go ... I always say, ‘Come open a space, we think it’s really important to have an o�ce in Detroit. Come share in its growth.’” Jim Ketai, Bedrock Detroit

Dan Gilbert: His real estate investments have produced pipeline of cash and jobs.

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 6 M9

MACKINAC ISLAND — Propo-nents of a nearly $720 million debt restructuring plan for Detroit Public Schools and lobbyists for Michigan’s charter schools agree that the city’s schools need to be more account-able when it comes to performance.

But they disagree over whether the proposed Detroit Education Com-mission, a citywide task force that would have oversight of all public and charter schools in Detroit, is the vehicle to do it.

The proposed commission was the topic of a panel debate at this week’s Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island. Panelists included John Rakolta Jr., chairman and CEO of Walbridge Aldinger Co. and a co-chairman of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren; and Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, which lobbies on behalf of charter schools. Crain’s Detroit Business Publisher Mary Kramer was the moderator.

The governance issue remains one of the biggest sticking points in the Legislature’s efforts to reduce the school district’s estimated $515 million in operating debt.

A plan the Senate approved in March — the one favored by Gov. Rick Snyder, Rakolta and the Detroit schools' coalition and Detroit May-or Mike Duggan, among them — would give Detroit’s mayor authori-ty to appoint a commission with the power to decide where to open and close schools.

The Senate’s plan also would split

DPS into two districts. The existing district would exist until the debt is repaid, while a new Detroit Commu-nity School District would be created to handle teaching and all other op-erations.

The House, meanwhile, ap-proved a separate package that does not include the commission. It also includes tougher language aimed at stopping teacher sickouts that have made headlines in recent months.

House Speaker Kevin Cotter has said he worries the commission would restrict charter schools. The House stayed in session in Lansing this week to work on issues includ-ing DPS and the 2017 fiscal year budget.

Cotter spokesman Gideon D’As-sandro said via email that lawmak-ers are close to an agreement on the DPS legislation, and that Cotter’s stance on the DEC hasn’t changed. He would not disclose details of the talks.

Quisenberry said charter autho-rizers’ opposition stems almost en-tirely from the commission con-cept, which he called an expansion

of city authority into public school management.

“It’s additional governance, not new governance,” Quisenberry told an audience during the Wednesday morning session, hosted by the De-troit-based Skillman Foundation.

Afterward, he told Crain’s in an interview: “What I have confidence in is it will interject a different level of politics” into K-12 education, giv-en that its members will be political-ly appointed and the fact that its merits are being argued.

Michigan already has a state school reform office to close schools, he said, and that office could work with charter authorizers — commonly public universities — to open new ones.

Yet concern about the DEC is misplaced, Rakolta said, given the fact that the Senate bill also limits it to a five-year time frame with the possibility of a five-year extension.

“It’s basically an experiment,” said Rakolta, who believes the com-mission is necessary to improve ac-ademic outcomes for all students, regardless of whether they attend a public or charter school.

Rakolta said no one has offered a viable alternative that could reach the same school performance re-sults without the commission in place. He prefers the Senate legisla-tion, introduced by Sen. Goeff Han-sen, R-Hart.

If it doesn’t pass, Rakolta said he predicts “enormous student loss this October” and policymakers will continue to be debating Detroit schools’ restructuring next year.

“This is just a delay tactic,” he said. “We need to fix this, and we need to fix it now.”

Hansen, who offered closing re-marks, said the commission’s real purpose is to create a master plan that can make sure K-12 schools ex-ist in Detroit neighborhoods that need them into the future.

He urged policymakers to come to a consensus.

“We need good schools. We need opportunity, and we need to get this debt out of the way so that every-body can be successful,” Hansen said. “This is not about charters. This is not about DPS. And we need to quit having these adult argu-ments” and make sure kids get the education they need.

Lindsay VanHulle: (517) 657-2204Twitter: @LindsayVanHulle

Detroit school reform stance alters Rakolta’s party roleJohn Rakolta Jr. has been a longtime Republican politico — as a fund-

raiser for local, state and national candidates. But his passion for school reform in Detroit prompted him to “divorce” himself from those roles in the party, he told a full house at the Mackinac Policy Conference focused on the rift be-tween charter school lobbyists and the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren.

“I used to be” an activist and fundraiser, he said. He wanted to separate himself from those roles to focus on school reform. Rakolta added that he disagreed with the charter lobby and Republican majority in the state House blocking formation of a new “education commission” to help ration education resources in the city.

The Wednesday morning forum was sponsored by the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation and pitted Rakolta, the chairman and CEO of De-troit-based Walbridge Aldinger Co., opposite Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter group.

State Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart, sponsored the bill that passed the Senate with the education commission intact. Hart told the group that the package of bills — the Senate version — is part of fixing education in De-troit and is “the most important thing we can do for the state of Michigan.”

LINDSAY VANHULLECAPITOL [email protected] Twitter: @LindsayVanHulle

Leaders make Mackinac pitch for transit taxMACKINAC ISLAND — A little

more than a year after the Michigan electorate overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to raise nearly $1.3 bil-lion for road repairs, supporters of the newly proposed $2.9 billion tax increase for regional transit made their pitch at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Wednesday.

Their hope? That a simpler trans-portation proposal will trump voter reticence of tax hikes. (For more, see Page M5.)

It's one aspect of a two-pronged marketing campaign intended to sway Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw county voters to support the proposed 1.2-mill property tax in-crease that includes an education and information phase that is currently underway, and then a vote-yes phase later in the election cycle.

In all, the campaign is expected to cost $5 million or $6 million, said Paul Hillegonds, chair of the Region-al Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan, which on Tuesday un-veiled its master plan that includes a bus rapid transit system and a com-muter rail line between Detroit and Ann Arbor, among other improve-ments to the region’s fractured tran-sit system.

Total cost of the RTA’s master plan,

with federal and state funding the au-thority plans to eventually seek, is es-timated at $4.6 billion through 2036. The RTA hopes to ask Wayne, Oak-land, Macomb and Washtenaw coun-ty voters for their approval Nov. 8.

But while the proposal is sub-stantially simpler than last year’s Proposal 1, which would have raised the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent, among other things, backers of the RTA’s plan still face the difficult task of convincing sub-urban voters to pay more for a ser-vice that many don’t want or need, said Joe DiSano, owner of Lan-sing-based DiSano Strategies LLC, a political consulting firm.

“It's a tough sell in some parts of Oakland and Macomb,” he said, adding that he would be “the first person to vote for it.”

Hillegonds said that the market-ing campaign will be expansive, ranging from television commer-cials to social media.

“I don't think anyone will be left out of the messaging,” he said Wednesday.

“These guys are pros,” DiSano said. “They will have learned from Prop 1’s mistakes.”

The Detroit Regional Chamber is the fiduciary for the campaign, Hille-gonds said. The RTA is forbidden by state law from advocating a yes vote.

Firms and consultants working on the education and information campaign are The Glengari� Group Inc., with offices in Sodus, Mich., and Chicago; Lansing-based public relations and nonpartisan political consulting firm Truscott Rossman LLC; Howard Edelson, president of The Edelson Group Inc.; and Ham-burg, N.Y.-based Joe Slade White & Co.

A multimedia vote-yes cam-paign, financed largely by the pro-transit Detroit Regional Chamber Foundation, is expected to begin a month or two before the vote.

Matt Cullen, CEO of Rock Ven-tures LLC and Jack Entertainment LLC, said the marketing campaign for the proposal will include adver-tisements and voter education ini-tiatives to showcase “the general need for transit” and also discuss the specifics of the proposal.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said Wednesday that while he believes improvement to the re-gion’s mass transit system is needed, the RTA faces an uphill battle gain-ing support of the county’s regis-tered voters.

Hillegonds said Wednesday that 90 percent of jobs in the region ar-en’t accessible in less than 60 min-utes through the current public transit system.

By Kirk Pinho and Bill SheaCrain’s Detroit Business

Rakolta

Education commission a continued sticking point in DPS reform talks


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State unveils ‘Planet M’ mobility marketing campaign

MACKINAC ISLAND — Gov. Rick Snyder last week announced a new marketing campaign to boost Michi-gan’s standing as the hub for mobility.

Unveiled at the Mackinac Policy Conference, the initiative — called Planet M — is designed to align all of

Michigan’s as-sets, particularly focused on au-tonomous and connected vehi-cle technology, under one ban-ner for promot-ing more eco-n o m i c development and growth in the state.

“ M i c h i g a n has always been a leader in the automotive in-

dustry, and we need to be ahead of the curve on mobility as the trans-portation industry evolves in order to continue our success,” Snyder said in an emailed statement to Crain’s. “Connected and autono-mous vehicles are the future of the automotive industry, and we are po-sitioning Michigan to be the global

leader in this innovation.”The campaign’s tagline will be

“Michigan. Where big ideas in mo-bility are born.”

Steve Arwood, CEO of the Michi-gan Economic Development Corp., said during an interview with Crain’sand Bridge Magazine he believes Michigan’s auto industry is ap-proaching the most “disruptive” peri-od in its more than 100-year history.

“We know how to build the car,” Arwood told Crain’s on Wednesday during the Mackinac conference.

And, he added, Michigan has the brainpower to make the connect-ed-car technology.

As such, the MEDC’s plan is to make Michigan, through the Planet M branding campaign, a national leader in the burgeoning mobility industry.

Planet M presents a consortium of public, private, non-government agencies and academic institutions, including the Michigan Economic Development Corp., Michigan De-partment of Transportation, Business

Leaders for Michigan, MichAuto and the University Research Corridor.

The state hopes the moniker will resonate at consumer electronics and technology trade shows and en-compass everything mobility could bring — from on-demand fleets of driverless cars to using autonomous vehicles to deliver medicine in re-mote areas, Arwood said.

McCann Erickson’s Birmingham office worked on the Planet M cam-paign, Arwood said. The firm has the state’s Pure Michigan marketing account.

Arwood said one of the goals is to make Planet M, and mobility, as syn-onymous with Michigan as the state’s tourism campaign, Pure Michigan.

“Pure Michigan represents a de-cade of consistency, something we haven’t had in the automotive and mobility space yet,” Arwood said. “We’re now looking for that same type of cohesion and branding pow-er with this.

“There are so many opportuni-ties for us in mobility, and Planet M

is going to present the best of that industry to the entire world.”

Planet M will use Michigan’s ex-isting assets to lure more invest-ment, such as the fact that Michigan is home to the largest concentration of engineers in the U.S., has the larg-est deployment of vehicle-to-infra-structure technology on its high-ways and surface streets in the U.S., specialized education programs at its universities and community col-leges, etc.

Mcity, a 32-acre autonomous and connected vehicle test site in Ann Arbor, and the impending 335-acre American Center for Mobility in Ypsi-lanti Township, will also be key points in the state’s push to grow the industry, the MEDC said in a news release.

And Google Inc.’s announcement last month that it plans to open a 53,000-square-foot development center for its self-driving car unit in Novi is further proof that autono-mous vehicle developers need southeast Michigan, Arwood said.

By Dustin Walsh [email protected]

and Lindsay VanHulleCrain's Detroit Business/Bridge Magazine

FILE PHOTOThe new campaign will aim to tout Michigan’s mobility assets, such as the Mcity autonomous and connected vehicle test site in Ann Arbor.Steve Arwood:

Says Michigan has brainpower to boost connected car technology.

The campaign will come with the tagline: “Michigan. Where big ideas in mobility are born.”

SHIFTINGGEARSWITH DUSTIN WALSH

TWEET@DUSTINPWALSH

Dustin covers the business of law, auto

suppliers, manufacturingand steel.

Crainsdetroit.com/blogsTWEET @Crainsdetroit


U.S. manufacturing jobs are nev-er coming back.

This is a reality too painful to rec-ognize, but too true to ignore. Mich-igan, while still the world’s largest automotive epicenter, is changing, and the state’s leaders, business and political, must make way for an in-dustry with shrinking labor needs and greater emphasis on talent and technology.

On Wednesday, at the Mackinac Policy Conference, those same stakeholders unveiled Planet M — a clunky name for a meaningful shift in the way this state thinks about it-self and its industry.

The initiative is designed to co-alesce the state’s mobility assets, such as self-driving and connect-ed-car testing facilities, research centers and automotive and tech companies.

“Mobility runs the gamut, from defense to our highway system to our test beds,” Steve Arwood, CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. “This is an effort to bring all that together, to say, ‘Let’s brand all we have for business attraction, re-tention and talking about our large number of mobility assets in Michi-gan.’ ”

Those assets include 375 auto-motive research and development centers, 61 of the top 100 auto sup-plier headquarters, the University Research Corridor, the largest num-ber of auto engineers and patents, the Mcity connected car test site in Ann Arbor and the planned Ameri-can Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti Township.

Michigan is still home to 25 per-cent of all U.S. assembly plants.

But that’s a fleeting reality. More and more production is leaving the U.S. Global economics — strong U.S. dollar, cheap labor in places like Mexico, and floundering growth in China and Europe — have put downward pressure on manufac-turing employment since rocketing out of the Great Recession in 2010.

Couple that with the rapid expan-sion of free trade — a good thing for the global economy, less than good locally — and we’ve been bled of jobs. Since former President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2004, the U.S. has lost 4.5 million manufactur-ing jobs, with a healthy portion in Michigan contributing to that total.

Leaders, national and local, have pulled out all the stops to prevent the avalanche, and it’s not working. Note that President Barack Obama promised to create 1 million manu-facturing jobs during his second term. He’s about 690,000 jobs short of that goal.

Economies are intrinsically linked and intercontinental, but there are winners and losers.

Mexico continues to claim its share of manufacturing might. The country now produces nearly 20 percent of all North American auto-motive production, according to data from Southfield-based IHS Au-tomotive Inc. By 2025, that figure will rise to more than 25 percent, while

the U.S. will continue its slide from more than 72 percent of North American production in 2000 to 66 percent by 2020.

Furthermore, Mexico beat out Michigan, and the rest of the U.S., by claiming 10 of the 12 new assembly plants built or to be built since 2011.

Sure, Michigan gets a manufac-turing win here or there — includ-ing the May 24 announcement that Flex-N-Gate Corp. would build a $95 million plant in the city of Detroit.

But that’s just one step forward for every two steps back. Any econ-omist will tell you: Chasing manu-facturing jobs is a losing, and fool-ish, battle.

That isn’t to say economic devel-opment agencies should abandon all attraction efforts for traditional manufacturing. But it must be tem-pered. The massive debt caused by the unchecked and loose rules of the Michigan Economic Growth Au-thority tax credits from the Engler and Granholm eras still plague the state’s bottom line.

Van Buren Township is still in a legal battle with its largest corporate resident Visteon Corp. over looming bond shortfalls to build the auto supplier’s headquarters.

Economic development has a price.

So let us ensure that the use of tax dollars for economic development are firmly cemented in the future, not holding on to nostalgia of jobs gone by.

Instead, we, as a state, must focus our efforts on building what’s next, the specialized automotive manu-facturing, research and develop-ment and innovation that’s growing. We must define it. We must own it. Advanced automotive must be part of Michigan’s story — the one that’s being written right now.

“We’re at a pivotal time where the change is happening so fast,” Ar-wood said. “The next 10 years are going to be some of the most dis-ruptive, in a good way, that we’ve ever seen. We have a chance to unify and lead and show the world this is where it’s happening and where it needs to happen.”

The state is off to a great start. Mcity, in Ann Arbor and operated by the University of Michigan, is gaining momentum. The planned Ameri-can Center for Mobility is also gain-ing steam, according to Arwood, as it is looking to raise the necessary $80 million to get it operational in the next few years.

The Michigan Department of Trans-portation is including vehicle-to-in-frastructure communication tech-

nology across most of its road projects, including the work being done on I-275 this summer.

MDOT is in the midst of installing sensors along 125 miles of roads throughout Southeast Michigan, from I-96 near General Motors Co.’s Milford Proving Grounds, I-94 from Ann Arbor to metro Detroit, U.S. 23 from Ann Arbor to Brighton, etc.

The effort may raise eyebrows among those against extraneous government spending. Normally, I’d agree. But ensuring a strong auto-motive foothold is paramount — for all of us.

“This is poignant,” said Kirk Steu-dle, director of MDOT. “I was born and raised here. I like to root for the home team, and when I look out my front door, 75 percent of my neigh-bors, and yours, have a connection to the industry. They are accoun-tants, engineers, or lawyers. We can’t afford to lose these people. So we can either help (automotive) or watch them leave. That’s not going to happen.”

Before the rest of the power bro-kers arrived on Mackinac Island, auto executives, educators and eco-nomic development teams were al-ready convening there.

MichAuto, one of the key organi-zations behind rallying the state around the future of automotive, hosted closed-door discussions to build upon the game plan.

“We have a unique opportunity and challenge in Michigan: Satisfy the demand of the current sales and production of today’s industry and adapt and change to lead in the new world of connected mobility,” said Glenn Stevens, executive director of MichAuto. “In other words, protect and retain our leadership as the global epicenter of the automotive world, and grow by leading in the innovation, testing and develop-ment of next generation mobility for the planet.”

The industry transformation is going to be a tough pill to swallow. It will mean fewer and fewer laborers. Those jobs will continue to dissi-pate, and wage pressure will contin-ue. Michigan will never again be the state of Walter Reuther and Rosie the Riveter and all the other blue-collar men and women who defined what it is to be a Michigan-der and an autoworker.

Instead, as we move to a new world order of mobility organized under the banner of Planet M, polit-ical leaders, industry executives and taxpayers are forced to consider an-other way to rebuild Michigan’s middle class by creating program-mers, electrical engineers, intellec-

tual-property lawyers, and support-ing the companies that create them.

Whatever you think of its virtues as a brand name, Planet M is Michi-gan. Planet M is mobility. Planet M is our sixth step of grieving for the way things were and moving on to the way the world will be.

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Planet M aims to shi� Michigan’s orbit from manufacturing to mobility

DUSTIN WALSHSenior [email protected] Twitter: @DustinPWalsh

A plan is taking shape to transform the former Ford Motor Co. B-24 bomber plant at Willow Run in Ypsilanti Township to create the nation’s �rst full-scale connected and autonomous vehicle testing site.

n


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courses and expanding public transportation (tied for 11 percent).

Lijewski is a proponent of more transit options in Southeast Michi-gan. He employs 14 people at a starting wage of $9 an hour, and said the biggest challenge affecting his business is a lack of adequate trans-portation that prevents employees from easily getting to work.

He said he personally drives three employees to his company’s Livonia office, where they then are dis-patched to various apartment buildings for work during the day.

“They can’t get to their jobs, al-

most no matter where it is. Bus ser-vice is unreliable at best,” Lijewski said. “They don’t have cars because insurance is outrageous in the city.”

The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan plans to float a millage in November that could help the agency address transit across Detroit and its suburbs. Con-struction is ongoing for the new M-1 Rail streetcar line, to be called QLineafter Dan Gilbert’s Quicken Loans Inc.bought the naming rights.

“There is a real recognition of the need for infrastructure improve-ments,” said Donald Kunz, chair-man of Honigman’s corporate and securities department. “As we look around at what’s going on with M-1 Rail and all of the things that are go-

ing on with the city, it’s clear that a need for more available dollars for infrastructure improvements here would go a long way.”

Yet Alan Kroll, a survey respon-dent and president of Space Care In-teriors, a commercial design and furnishings company based in Berkley, said he would prefer infra-structure funding to come from di-verting existing budget dollars.

Fixing Michigan’s aging infra-structure should be policymakers’ most important priority, said Kroll, whose business employs 10-12 peo-ple with average annual revenue of $15 million. Not only do infrastruc-ture projects create jobs themselves, he added, but roads and water sys-tems need to work properly if Mich-

igan wants to attract companies.Lawmakers should be able to cut

the state budget elsewhere, includ-ing in corrections, Kroll said.

“I’m a Republican. I don’t like tax-es. I know what’s in my own busi-ness. I can always find places to do things without charging my cus-tomers more,” he said.

Question of educationInfrastructure certainly isn’t

Michigan’s only policy problem. Re-structuring public education in cit-ies, including how they’re funded, ranked second in importance among Crain’s survey respondents.

Bob MacKenzie, a survey respon-dent and a real estate agent with Real Estate One in St. Clair Shores,

said he thinks K-12 schools should teach higher academic standards to help Michigan graduates better compete in the workforce.

Michigan schools have adopted the Common Core standards used to write curricula in participating states; Common Core replaced the previous state-by-state standards with a single national framework.

MacKenzie also believes the state should invest more resources into narrowing the skills gap in order to help more employers find talent.

“Anyone that wants a reasonably paying job, they need to have an edu-cation to get it. Even some of these high-tech manufacturing jobs, they require a fair amount of schooling,” he said, adding that his perception is that when companies look to relo-cate, Michigan is “not on the top of anyone’s list.”

The state could improve in the eyes of corporate recruiters if it of-fered more financial assistance to companies, said Cindy Ciura, prin-cipal of CC Consulting, a Bloomfield Hills-based commercial real estate and retail consulting firm.

Ciura said access to capital is the most important policy issue that could improve Michigan’s business climate. In her line of work, she said, she hears frequently that lack of fi-nancing is one of the biggest con-straints for developers in the state.

At a recent retail conference in Las Vegas, she said, she heard more than once from brokers and retailers who believed that all of Michigan’s busi-ness aid has been diverted to Flint. In reality, Gov. Rick Snyder’s administra-tion had eliminated many Michigan business tax incentives before the state began budgeting for Flint.

Still, she said, the perception re-mains.

“It’s really on the backs now of the developers to really finance entire projects, and sometimes without a lot of assistance from the state or lo-cal (governments). And not all states are like that,” Ciura said.

Opinions on candidatesIn general, business owners and

managers in metro Detroit believe the state and national economies are improving. More than half of re-spondents, 55 percent, say they will maintain current staffing levels in the next year, while 39 percent said they plan to hire.

Southeast Michigan business ex-ecutives prefer Snyder to President Obama and any of the three re-maining presidential candidates — Democrats Hillary Clinton and Ber-nie Sanders and Republican businessman Donald Trump.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion of Snyder. Obama earned a favorable rating from 45 percent of those polled.

Among presidential candidates, Clinton is the most unpopular. She received support from 32 percent of respondents, edged by Trump’s 33 percent favorable rating and Sand-ers’ 39 percent.

If the presidential election hap-pened today, 41 percent of respon-dents would vote for Trump com-pared with 36 percent for Clinton.

Lindsay VanHulle: (517) 657-2204Twitter: @LindsayVanHulle

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Brian David Johnson, who in Janu-ary left his post as engineer and fu-turist at Intel Corp. to become futur-ist-in-residence for the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizo-na State University, gave one of the keynote addresses at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

He is also a futurist and fellow with the consulting firm of Frost & Sulli-van. Johnson, 44, holds 30 patents, including one with the arcane title of Apparatus, System and Method for Context and Language Specific Data Entry, which was granted for some-thing we see routinely on our smart-

phones: When you add a person to your contacts and tap on the field to enter the phone number and a number pad pops up? That’s his baby.

In the mid-1990s, Johnson told a tech con-ference in Port-

land, Ore., that one day we’d be us-ing the internet to watch movies. He says people hooted him down and

told him he was crazy. His 2010 book, Screen Future: The

Future of Entertainment, Comput-ing and the Devices We Love, pre-dicted that by 2015 we’d see what he called the screenification of tech-nology, where information and en-tertainment would be delivered seamlessly to a wide variety of screens, from those on our phones to those on our walls at home to those on our desks, something that has already become mundane.

Johnson talked with Crain’s re-porter Tom Henderson about his job, the future and what he planned to

tell business leaders at Mackinac.

Q: I’m sure you get this all the time, but I’ll ask it anyway. A futurist? That sounds like a cool job. What do you do?

My job is to work with organiza-tions to help them make decisions today about things that may not play out for 10 or 12 or 15 years. I work with startups, with large com-panies, with trade organizations and universities, and I teach at West Point and the Naval Academy. What are negative futures? What are posi-tive futures, and what do you have to do to get those futures? I’m an engi-

neer by trade, so I’m extremely prag-matic about figuring these things out.

Q: If you only listened to political rhetoric, I'm sure you'd be a very de-pressed futurist. ‘The next generation of Americans will be the �rst one that’s worse o� than its parents.’ ‘America is no longer great.’ ‘Things are bleak.’ So, what's the future you see?

I’m a declared optimist. One of the most radical things I’ve done as a fu-turist is declare my optimism. If I wanted to be more popular, I proba-bly should say everything is going to hell in six months and keep saying it. People are drawn to that, but I won't. The future is not fixed. It is built by the actions of people. We all build our own future and we can build the fu-ture we want, not just by having a vi-sion for tomorrow but asking what are the futures we want to avoid.

Q: You are giving the opening key-note at Mackinac. What’s your mes-sage?

That you have to give yourself time to think about the future. We need more people thinking about it, be-cause we have so much to overcome. What is the future we want, and what is the future we want to avoid? I’m a technologist, so I’ll also talk about where tech is heading in the next five to 10 years, and how will that affect Michigan and its cities and towns? And I’ll wrap it up by telling people how they can actively change the fu-ture.

Q: The future here will certainly in-volve autonomous vehicles, and there’s a lot of buzz around the Inter-net of Things. I remember 15 years ago writing about the red hot �eld of MEMS, microeletromechanical sys-tems, which was all about how sensors were going to connect us. No one called it the Internet of Things then, but there was all this talk of hock-ey-stick growth curves that never ma-terialized. Is talk of the Internet of Things overblown now?

It’s getting there. But it is funny. I hear people talk about how we’re go-ing to be surrounded by everything smart. And I tell them, ‘I’m not sure I want to be surrounded by smart. My home is where I want to be gloriously inefficient.’ Yes, you can turn every-thing into a computer, but what you have to ask is: What are all these things going to do for us? How will this make our life better?

Q: Do I really need a smart refrigera-tor texting me when I’m out to dinner that the milk is starting to go bad and I should stop and get some?

When I was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and walked around the Internet of Things floor, I saw things that were quirky and odd and, quite frankly, stupid. But the most heartwrench-ingly beautiful thing I saw at CES was a connected spoon. Why would anyone need a smart spoon, you might ask. Well, when you have late-stage Parkinson’s, a spoon that knows where it is in space and who is holding it is life-changing.

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Johnson: Former futurist for Intel.

n

When Crain’s wrote a profile story about Lisa Payne’s “retirement” as vice chair and CFO of Taubman Centers Inc., Payne made it clear she was looking for “another challenge – specifically, to be the top leader of another organization.” It was equally clear to Anthony Soave and his team that Soave Enterprises had the perfect “challenge” for Payne: Chairwoman of the Board of Soave Enterprises and President of the Soave Real Estate Group. Little did Crain’s know it was the corporate matchmaker that helped Lisa Payne crack yet another glass ceiling in Michigan. Payne already serves on the boards of three publicly held companies – Masco Corporation, Rockwell Automation and JC Penney – so glass shards from shattered ceilings are becoming second nature to her. Congratulations, Lisa, on being one of Crain’s Detroit Business’ 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan. We’re proud to have you on our team!

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TO L E A R N MOR E, C ON T A C T : David Lochner, President, FirstMerit Michigan,at 248-228-1620 or [email protected].

What will that number be tomorrow?

Nearly one-third of all businesses are owned by women.

FirstMerit is proud to support women in business in every industry, at every level of leadership.



Tonya Allen, The Skillman Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Jennifer Baird, Accio Energy Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Christine Barman, FCA North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Mary Barra, General Motors Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Laurie Beard, Old National Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Stacie Behler, Meijer Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Birgit Behrendt, Ford Motor Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Jocelyn Benson, Wayne State University Law School . . . . . . . 55

Fay Beydoun, America Arab Chamber of Commerce . . . . . . . . .21

Lori Blaker, Technical Training Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Rosalynn Bliss, City of Grand Rapids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Alicia Boler-Davis, General Motors Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Denise Brooks-Williams, Henry Ford Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Judy Brown, Perrigo Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Jackie Buchanan, Genisys Credit Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Joan Budden, Priority Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Mary Campbell, EDF Ventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Carolyn Cassin, Michigan Women’s Foundation . . . . . . . . . . .21

Melanca Clark, Hudson-Webber Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Cathy Clegg, General Motors Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Francoise Colpron, Valeo North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Shery Cotton, Meridian Health Plan Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Laura Czelada, Delta Dental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Betsy DeVos, American Federation for Children . . . . . . . . . . 28

Cindy Estrada, UAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Eva Feldman, MD, University of Michigan Medical School . . . . . 39

Martha Firestone Ford, Detroit Lions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Stacy Fox, The Roxbury Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Julie Fream, Original Equipment Suppliers Association . . . . . . 46

Christina Freese-Decker, Spectrum Health Hospital Group . . . . 36

Mindi Fynke, Employee Health Insurance Management . . . . . . 38

Jan Gar� nkle, Arboretum Ventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Melany Gavulic, Hurley Medical Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Jennifer Guarino, Shinola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Elizabeth Haar, AF Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Jocelyn Hagerman, The Hagerman Foundation . . . . . . . . . . .21

Colleen Haley, Yazaki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Kouhaila Hammer, Ghafari Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Jeneanne Hanley, Lear Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, Hurley Medical Center . . . . . . . . . 35

Linglong He, Quicken Loans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Jayne Homco, Kroger Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Marina Houghton, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP . . . . . . . . . .31

Marybeth Howe, Wells Fargo-Great Lakes Division. . . . . . . . . 32

Donna Inch, Ford Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Gilda Jacobs, Michigan League for Public Policy . . . . . . . . . . 23

Joyce Jenereaux, Detroit Free Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Christine Johns, Utica Community Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Tricia Keith, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . 35

Janet Kelley, Meijer Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Marcy Klevorn, Ford Motor Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Birgit Klohs, The Right Place Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Pamela Lewis, New Economy Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Lynn Liddle, Domino’s Pizza Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Katy Locker, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation . . . . . 24

Marjorie Loeb, FCA US LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Lisa Lunsford, Global Strategic Supply Solutions . . . . . . . . . 47

Gwen MacKenzie, Ascension Health Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Kathleen Mahoney, SpartanNash.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Tonya Matthews, Michigan Science Center . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Kathleen McCann, United Road Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Rebecca McLaughlan, Marsh & McLennan Agency . . . . . . . . 58

Barbara McQuade, Eastern District of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . 56

Jean Meyer, St. John Providence Health System . . . . . . . . . . 36

Juanita Moore, The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Kary Moss, ACLU of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Faye Alexander Nelson, DTE Energy Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Beth Niblock, City of Detroit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Donna Niester, Acheson Ventures LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Heather Paquette, KPMG LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Francine Parker, UAW Retiree Medical Bene� ts Trust . . . . . . . 40

Anne Parsons, Detroit Symphony Orchestra. . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Linda Paullin-Hebden, Warner Norcross & Judd . . . . . . . . . . 30

Lisa Payne, Soave Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Gretchen Perkins, Huron Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Mary Petrovich, AxleTech International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Sandy Pierce, FirstMerit Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Michelle Pluskota, Comcast Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Patti Poppe, CMS Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Marge Byington Potter, Delray LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Michelle Sourie Robinson, Michigan Minority

Supplier Development Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Andra Rush, Rush Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Marilyn Schlack, Kalamazoo Valley Community College . . . . . . 55

Nancy Schlichting, Henry Ford Health System. . . . . . . . . . . 40

Suzanne Shank, Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC. . . . . . . . 32

Diana Sieger, Grand Rapids Community Foundation . . . . . . . . 23

Rebekah Smith, Lake Huron Medical Center . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Mina Sooch, Gemphire Therapeutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Maximiliane Straub, Robert Bosch LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Ronda Stryker, Stryker Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Renee Tabben, Bank of America Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

La June Montgomery Tabron, W.K. Kellogg Foundation . . . . . . 18

Marianne Udow-Phillips, Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Gretchen Valade, Philanthropist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Jody Vanderwel, Grand Angels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Jenee Velasquez, Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation . . . . 24

Kathleen Vogelsang, Van Andel Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Carolyn Wilson, Beaumont Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Kate Pew Wolters, Grand Valley State University, Steelcase Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Kym Worthy, Wayne County. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Most Influential

WOMENWOMEN

Nominations for the 100 Most Infl uential Women in Michigan came from readers, from our reporters and editors, from a formal scan of our own news stories involving wom-en-led companies and initiatives, from key players and partners as well as nominations from past honorees. (Our 100 Most Infl uential Women features have been published in 1997, 2002 and 2007.)

Selections were determined in-house by top editors and the publisher. We looked for: impact (women who manage big budgets, big teams or big civic initiatives); diversity (ethnicity/race/age, industry and geography); proven leadership, from business, academia

and from civic, nonprofi t and public policy organizations. We have shied away from elected political leaders, for the most part, with a couple of exceptions for truly above-and-be-yond service or measurable results that are truly groundbreaking.

In addition, honorees from previous iterations of this report were largely not included unless they had a signifi cant job change or leadership development milestone. The emphasis was on a new statewide report of mostly names not honored previously.

Please send your feedback on this report to Editor Jennette Smith, [email protected]. Enjoy reading about this year's honorees.

About this reportCrain’s will honor the 2016 Most In¢ uential Women in Michigan at a June 21 event at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.

The program runs 6-9 p.m. and will include a strolling dinner. Registration is open at crainsdetroit.com/events. Tickets are $125 each; $115 each for groups of 10 or more; and $115 for Most In¢ uential Women alumni. Walk-in registration, if available, will be $150. Questions? Contact Kacey Anderson, [email protected], (313) 446-0300.

For out-of-town attendees, a block of hotel rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Place Detroit Novi. They can be reserved at novi.place.hyatt.com or by calling (800) 233-1234.

Event to honor Most In� uential Women

ILLUSTRATION FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS BY MICHAEL HOGUE


Career ladder: A musician since fourth grade when she took up the flute, Parsons, 58, earned a bachelor’s degree from Smith Col-lege in Massachusetts. Prior to becoming president of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2004 and president and CEO in 2010, she was general manager of the New York City Ballet, general manager of the Hollywood Bowl in Los An-geles, orchestra manager of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and held several posts with the Na-tional Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Recently, she completed a McGregor Fund Eu-gene A. Miller Fellowship, which

allowed her to take a sabbatical, travel and re-charge.

Power metrics: The DSO and the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Mu-sic Center host 335 events per year, including 58 classical concerts, 80 Detroit Public Theatre concerts, 50 church services, 28 neighborhood and seven summer concerts. It has a $27.83 million budget and em-ploys 149 full-time and 87 part-time employees.

Special skill: “I value relation-ships. People are what make any organization sing.”

Big win: Parsons led the orches-tra through a turbulent strike in 2011 and is proud of the new “out-ward thinking and outward behav-ing culture” that developed after the strike was settled. “We’ve been able to serve people through music in more and new incredible ways.”

Power lesson: “Question what you do and how you do it. ... If we’re constantly questioning ourselves, we will stay ahead. ... There’s no time in your life to be complacent.”

Surprising fact: “My husband and I got married in our jeans with red sneakers on and white T-shirts with about 10 to 12 people in up-state New York, in a cabin which has been the only constant in my life. I’ve lived a lot of places and traveled

all over the world, but the place where I am most happy is at that cabin, when I’ve got my feet in the sand or on the grass looking out at the lake, looking for the loons and looking for the stars at night.”

Best gi� ever: The sabbatical made possible by the fellowship. “It gave me a chance to think about my life and what makes me happy and what makes me tick, and what’s next in terms of how I can better serve the organization.”

Boards/community activities: Board member, Cultural Alliance of Southeast Michigan; Midtown De-troit Inc.; New Detroit; and Friends of the Detroit School of the Arts. Na-tional boards: League of American Orchestras, advisory board for the Sphinx Organization, and board for the Curtis Institute of Music.

Cassandra Spratling

Career ladder: After studying business at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Tabron earned an accounting degree from the Univer-sity of Michigan and an MBA from Northwest-ern University. She joined Plante & Moran in Southfield as a staff auditor and became a cer-tified public accountant in 1986. Tabron, now 53, became controller for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 1987; a series of promotions led to CFO and ultimately was named president and CEO in October 2013.

Power metrics: Kellogg Foundation has $8.5 billion in assets and distributed $374 million for charitable activities in 2014-2015. The Battle Creek-based foundation has nearly 200 em-ployees.

Super power: “As the ninth of 10 children, negotiation and relationship-building skills were key to my survival and are part of my DNA. ... The special sauce in my recipe is a big dose of humility; a consistent and direct voice of reason and honesty, given with utmost di-plomacy; and a quiet, unwavering and pur-poseful force toward an outcome greater than myself. ... My secret power is actually to relin-quish power to those around you. It may sound counterintuitive, but I believe the ability to be humble and leverage others is the greatest strength of a leader.”

Big win: Recently led redesign of the founda-tion’s governance structure so the board of direc-tors no longer reviews grants or engages in daily operations. The board agreed with her vision of how the staff could be free to do their best work if they were not micromanaged.

Board/community connections: Director, Kellogg Co.; director, Southwest Michigan First; numerous civic and philanthropic association boards.

Power lesson: “Power amassed through ti-tles, force, knowledge or information is tempo-rary. If you work on who you are and how you

show up, this will follow you forever, positively or negatively. Therefore, consistency is key. ... I have been able to maintain a quiet force that for the most part remains under the radar until the task is complete. Results speak for them-selves.”

Surprising facts: Tabron came from a musi-cal family and is the drummer in the family band. Her husband recently bought her a por-table drum pad that she takes on the road. And, “I just love dancing, period.”

How you assist other women: “I am a strong proponent of continuous learning. I coach ev-eryone to seek advanced degrees and other op-portunities for growth and development. When I was the lead of the Finance department at WKKF, and had earned my MBA, I coached eight other people to do the same, five of them wom-en. I always tell women, ‘don’t allow yourself to be disqualified based on factors that are under your control.’ If you want to grow in your career, show determination and ownership by pursu-ing continuous learning and development.”

Changes you have seen in how women wield power: “I have seen a significant change in women in power — a shift from trying to be a better version of a man to demonstrating and leveraging the strengths of a woman. … Wom-en are also more comfortable in demanding work/life balance. More women are no longer afraid of showing affection toward their family and children while balancing a demanding job.”

Vickie Elmer

Crain’s roster of state’s Most In�uential Women also includes ongoing ‘legacy list’ of past honorees

Promotes continuous learningLa June Montgomery TabronPresident and CEO, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: NONPROFIT/PHILANTHROPY

Career ladder: Moss received her master’s degree in international af-fairs from Columbia University in 1980 and a juris doctor from CUNY Law School at Queen’s College in 1987. She started her career as a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1987 and was named the executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan in 1998. She helped form the Michigan Competitive Work-force Coalition, which aims to up-date Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976 to include equal protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. Moss, now 58, hired an investigative reporter, Curt Gayette, who is credited for break-ing the Flint water crisis news.

Power metrics: Detroit-based ACLU of Michigan has a budget of $3.5 million funded by donations, foundation grants and attorney fees from winning cases. It has six staff attorneys. Its docket includes 30 or more cases at once; volunteer law-yers donate about $2 million a year.

Super power: Her ability to get in front of issues and innovate, espe-cially putting into place resources and talent to accomplish a goal.

Why did you join the ACLU? “I was acutely aware growing up of the Holocaust and this country’s legacy of slavery. I learned about the im-portance of human dignity as the necessary and fundamental under-pinning of all systems of govern-ment.”

Career advice: “Own your mis-takes openly. And don’t feel bad about making them. Just try not to make the same ones twice.”

Rachelle Damico

Kary MossExecutive director, American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, Detroit

Anne ParsonsPresident and CEO, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit

Florine Mark. Terry Barclay. Deb-bie Dingell. Cindy Pasky.

These are all unquestionably in-fluential women, too, and are among the notable names included in previous versions of this report.

We view these important women as part of a select group that remain in positions of power and remain part of the ongoing “legacy list” of women in leadership tracked by Crain’s.

This year’s report on the Most In-fluential Women in Michigan con-tinues a tradition kicked off in 1997. About every five years, Crain’s De-troit Business has honored women leading the way in metro Detroit business. In other years, Crain’s has honored smaller groups of women

in features like “Women to Watch.” Consistent coverage of top women leaders is an editorial priority for Crain’s, and this report is meant to add to an ongoing honor roll.

Visit crainsdetroit.com/women for links to past awards features and a soon-to-be-launched searchable database to read about past honor-ees, such as Mark, Inforum President and CEO Barclay, U.S. Rep. Dingell and Strategic Sta�ng Solutions Inc.President and CEO Pasky.

We view all of our honorees over the years as part of this “legacy list,” some of whom should be consid-ered as prospects for corporate and nonprofit board service. (See Mary Kramer’s column, Page M20.)

Jennette Smith

Weight Watchers Group operates through-out Southeast Michigan and Ontario. The company holds nearly 1,000 meetings each week in those areas, serving about 20,000 members. The $20 million company, based in Farmington Hills, employs about 600 full- and part-time employees.

Career ladder: Mark’s business grew from her own quest to lose weight. A yo-yo dieter, she’d lose and regain weight for years until she was introduced to the Weight Watchers pro-gram by its founders in New York City. After following the program, she lost 40 pounds in four months, gradually lost her final 10 and has kept it off. She brought the program back to Michigan in 1966, starting with a single class made up of mostly of family members and friends. She eventually owned franchises in 14 states and in Mexico. She sold most of them in 2003, but maintains her operations in

Michigan and parts of Canada. Your super power: “I walk the talk. I’m no dif-

ferent from anyone else. I’m human; I have good and bad days. We people who have a weight problem, we eat because we’re stressed, unhappy, bored, miserable or what-ever. When those things happen, I know I have to do something about it so I go to my classes to hold myself accountable. ... (And) it’s ex-tremely important to believe in your product and love it.”

Power lesson: “Ask questions. Women espe-cially, we’re sitting in a room full of men, and we’re afraid to ask questions. By asking ques-tions I’ve learned so much.”

What’s your next big goal? “To continue doing what I’m doing, and to travel.”

Advice: “Take one day at a time and just try. If something doesn’t work out, it’s no big deal to fail. Keep asking questions and keep going.”

Florine Mark: Crain’s caught up with the legacy list honoree to hear about what she’s up to as Weight Watchers Group Inc. president and CEO.

It’s openOpen doors, open minds, and openness. For more than two decades, Deloitte has been leading the way with our inclusive culture.

With new programs, such as our Board-Ready Women Program, we continue our commitment to inclusion by helping to prepare talented women for board service. Deloitte is a proud sponsor of Crain’s Most Influential Women and we congratulate this year’s honorees for their exceptional leadership and commitment to our community.

Copyright © 2016 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

For more ng the

eady tment to omen for

t his year’s and



Twenty-nine publicly traded com-panies in Michigan had no women on their boards of directors when re-searchers at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business re-viewed data for Inforum in a report released in November 2015.

The push for gender diversity at the very top of public companies is an is-sue that has gained steam in Europe — where some countries have man-dated a specific percentage — and in the U.S. where investors like Warren Buffett have signed onto the volun-tary 30% Club, a group that pushes for 30 percent as a minimum for

women in a company’s board seats.Many of Michigan’s largest compa-

nies have hit that mark. In fact, after General Motors Co.’s annual meeting this month, half of the directors will be female if Jane Mendillo, who re-cently retired as manager of Harvard’s endowment, wins election to the board.

But with nearly 30 companies with no women at all, it drags the overall percentage down to 12 per-cent overall among the top 100 pub-lic companies in Michigan.

Why the imbalance? My guess is that some of the smaller public com-

panies think about “fit” and exper-tise and look to their own networks to find connections to new directors. And some of those networks just don’t have many women. Some

companies also may not want to front the fees that hiring a search firm would entail.

That’s why Crain’s Detroit Business has joined with the Michigan Women’s Commission and Deloitte, among oth-ers, to create a path to help more companies find talent for their boards. The Michigan Women’s Direc-tory will formally launch on June 21, when we salute the 100 women in this week’s issue at a special evening reception in Novi (See Page M17).

We’re inviting the 100 — and near-ly 400 other women we’ve profiled on similar lists since 1997 — to sub-

mit more detailed information about themselves in a new confidential da-tabase called The Michigan Women’s Directory. A critical component of the online form would be references — high-level references of corpo-rate/business leaders who know the skills and character of a candidate.

Our assessment tool will identify levels of expertise, from operating and budget responsibility to technical ex-pertise in fields that are “hot” in cor-porate governance today — including audit, compliance and cybersecurity.

Crain’s will promote the service to publicly held and privately held com-panies as well as private equity firms, venture capital firms, and nonprofit foundations and large nonprofit or-ganizations. A search professional will be the matchmaker, interviewing in-terested companies about the skills they seek and finding the right fits among the women in the database. Companies will pay small fees, based on their annual revenue.

Actually, this is a revival of an idea we first launched in 1997, with our first list of “100 Most Influential Wom-en.” That effort was funded by a cou-ple of Michigan foundations, and we licensed our data to them so they could hire Kathy Sinclair, Executive Re-cruiters International, to perform the searches. Over a handful of years, Sin-clair placed 20 women on the boards of Michigan companies and large nonprofits.

In addition to professional search expertise, we’ve tapped some lead-ing business executives from across the state to serve as advisers to this effort. Mark Davidoff, Michigan mar-ket leader for Deloitte, is among them. Davidoff pushed to have his firm bring its invitation-only “board-ready” program for women to Mich-igan. Some women from the new database will be eligible for the train-ing, which will lay the groundwork for placements on boards.

Another partner is the Michigan Women’s Commission, whose mem-bers are appointed by the governor from across the state. After the com-mission adopted gender diversity of company boards as an advocacy pri-ority, it looked for partners and set-tled on Crain’s. “Crain’s had prior ex-perience and success in establishing protocols and actually worked to help more women be appointed to corporate board positions,” said Susy Avery, executive director of the com-mission. “It was an easy call for the Michigan Women's Commission to establish a truly unique and success-ful partnership with Crain’s.”

The Wall Street Journal has report-ed that the toughest slots to fill can be in audit committees — not just be-cause of financial literacy but the new regulatory requirements, including legal risks of those positions. But that might mean companies are willing to look outside the box to candidates who are not the typical retired CEO or CFO candidates. Our directory will have some terrific candidates.

We hope the June launch will help support companies whose nominat-ing committees are looking ahead to their annual meeting season in 2017.

MICHELLE C., DELORES M.

CONGRATULATIONS TOMICHIGAN’S MOST INFLUENTIAL

WOMEN HONOREES

SHINOLA.COM

TIARA T.

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN

MARY KRAMERPublisher

Michigan Women’s Directory aims to match more women to company boards


Career ladder: After spending the early part of her career coordinating HUD programs, she led the Arab American Institute as Michigan direc-tor. In 2003, she was asked to help organize the U.S.-Arab American Forum as vice president of operations. Beydoun managed fundraising and connected with oil company CEOs and more. She helped develop forums in Detroit, Houston and Washington, D.C. She joined the American Arab Chamber in 2008, the same year she be-came COO of Tejara and Tejara Global Business Development Center, an incubator for minori-ty- and immigrant-owned businesses. Now 52, she helped to create the Council of Ethnic Chambers of Commerce, which shares best practices. She serves as its executive co-chair.

Power metrics: The American Arab Chamber has a budget of $500,000 and around 1,200 members, up from 650 in 2011. Beydoun had a key role in the U.S.-Arab Economic Forums; and she has raised $10 million for various non-profits and business organizations.

Super power: “I multitask really well. … What helps is always looking at the bigger picture."

Big win: Working on three U.S.-Arab Eco-nomic Forums. “We had every CEO from every major oil company, CEOs of major auto compa-nies, seven of the top 10 Fortune companies represented. It was a very big international event.”

Surprising fact: She adores accessories, ear-rings or a fashionable purse. And she uses them

to convey her professional image. “It’s my ar-mor — my mental preparation for the day.”

Involvements and boards: Many boards of-ten focused on international and ethnic businesses and exporting, so they comple-ment each other. Among them are New De-troit, East Michigan Export Council, Global Detroit. Co-founded the U.S. Arab Women’s Business Council. Third vice chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.

Best mentor: “My father. He gave me the confidence to not allow the fact that I am a woman stop me from doing anything that I wanted. Even if it meant being the only female in a room.”

How do you help other women succeed? She’s mentored young women, primarily young pro-fessional Arab American women, for 20 years. “By mentoring young women professionals, discussing with them career and life challenges and sharing experiences. By setting an example for young women who operate in male-domi-nated endeavors and how to be considered an equal.”

Quote: “Someone once told me: ‘The smart-est person around the table is the quietest one. Not the one who’s creating the most noise. Sit back and observe.’”

Vickie Elmer


Tonya AllenPresident and CEO, The Skillman Foundation, Detroit

Career ladder: Allen, 43, earned master’s degrees in health behavior and education and social work from the University of Michigan. She worked for Warren-Conner Devel-opment for three years as director of rebuilding communities, became a Thompson-McCully Foundation program officer and joined the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation from 2000 to 2001. Allen founded Detroit Parent Network in 2001 and served as its first executive director of the parenting support and train-

ing organization. In 2004, she joined the Skillman Foundation and be-came its president and CEO in 2013.

Power metrics: Allen helped the Skillman Foundation, which works on improving Detroit graduation rates, youth development, neigh-borhoods and more, create the $100 million Good Neighborhoods initia-tive and drew attention to educa-tional reform proposals as co-chair of the Coalition for the Future of De-troit Schoolchildren. Skillman has assets of $470 million, gave grants of $16.5 million in 2014, and gives 430 to 500 grants annually, mostly fo-cused on Detroit.

Super power: “My super power is connectivity. I connect people, ideas and disparate worlds together."

New skill: “This may sound crazy: I’m learning to think like a conser-vative.” Allen wants to understand people whose world view is very dif-ferent than hers. So she accepted a conservative fellowship at the American Enterprise Institute Lead-ership Network that will stretch and help her create bridges to positive

outcomes that work for all.Board/community connections:

Allen serves on more than a dozen boards, including these: Campaign for Black Male Achievement, board chairwoman; Council on Founda-tions; Detroit Children’s Fund; De-troit Promise Zone Authority; Edu-cation Cities; Executives Alliance, co-chair; LISC, Local Advisory Board, chairwoman; Michigan Fu-ture Inc., United Way for Southeast-ern Michigan.

Power lesson: “Unapologetically, I spend my day to mobilize and build power to improve the lives of De-troit children and our beloved city. My best advice is to understand power; don’t be afraid to covet or de-ploy power, and always use it with integrity and love.”

Surprising fact: Attended eight schools within Detroit Public Schools while growing up: Newberry, Fitzger-ald, Wilkins, Von Steuben, Butzel, Munger, Burbank and Cass Tech.

Best mentor: Carol Goss, former Skillman Foundation president, who “modeled for me how to lead

with love and grace.”How you assist women in your

company, in your community, in the world? “As the mother of three daughters, my purpose is to raise three powerful women. My aspira-tions for my daughters are the same aspiration I have for all girls and women. I practice this by organizing leadership conferences and teach-ing financial literacy to middle and high school girls as a volunteer” at her church and at Alternatives for Girls, a Detroit nonprofit organiza-tion. “I mentor and sponsor young women. ... I do all this with one pur-pose — to build powerful women.”

Advice for women who want to be-come in�uential: “Never let anyone out work you. I really believe it. That’s the one thing you can control.”

Quote: “I actually think that women are more connected to each other and supportive of each other over the last 10 years. We are more attuned to who we are as leaders. And we don’t apologize that we’re not men.”

Vickie Elmer

Carolyn Cassin President and CEO, Michigan Women’s Foundation, Detroit; general partner, Belle Michigan LP, Grosse Pointe

Career ladder: Cassin, 64, joined Hospice of Southeastern Michi-gan, forerunner of Hospice of Michigan, in 1988. She was re-cruited to Phoenix-based Vista-Care as COO in 1998, according to Bloomberg.com. Cassin has served as president of the Nation-al Hospice and Palliative Care Or-ganization and on its board.

Power metrics: The Michigan Women’s Foundation has a $2 mil-lion budget and has invested nearly $1 million in 69 women entrepre-neurs. Cassin helped start Belle Michigan, Michigan’s first angel fund that invests in women-owned

or -led businesses. Belle Michigan has made 15 investments in 10 companies, and 29 limited partners have joined the fund.

Special skill: “I approach every new task as I learned to do at the bedside of a dying patient: I ask, ‘What can I do to help you?’ ”

On joining a nonpro�t founda-tion: “Thousands of girls have be-come young women leaders as a re-sult of our programs,” Cassin said. She also notes that the Michigan Women’s Foundation’s Enough SAID (Sexual Assault in Detroit) campaign has helped test 10,000 rape evidence kits in the Detroit Po-

lice Department’s backlog and helped put 41 assailants in prison.

Advice for success: “Never un-derestimate yourself or your power to make a difference. What looks im-possible usually isn’t. Take risks. Be unafraid. I assure you, when you are at the end of your life, you’ll never regret what you did nearly as much as what you didn’t do.

“It’s about the relationships you’ve built and cherished; it’s about family and the legacy of what you have contributed to others. It’s not about the jobs you’ve held or the ti-tles or awards you’ve gained.”

Maureen McDonald

Fay BeydounExecutive director, American Arab Chamber of Commerce, Dearborn

“Nobody likes someone to just come in and totally shake things up.”

Jocelyn HagermanCEO, The Hagerman Foundation, Flint;president, Skypoint Ventures LLC, Flint; Founder, #FlintFwd

Career ladder: Hagerman earned a bachelor of applied arts degree from Central Michigan University in 1993. She joined Diplomat Pharmacy as a sales-person in the 1990s; the company was owned by the family of Phil Hagerman, whom she eventually married. Now, Hagerman, 45, and her husband are Diplomat’s primary owners. In 2014, she be-came CEO of The Hagerman Foundation and president of Sky-Point Ventures, a real estate in-vestment company.

Power metrics: Over the past two years, The Hagerman Foun-dation granted more than $8.5 million. The foundation has committed $1 million to sup-port education, health and well-ness for families amid the Flint water crisis. It also provided scholarships for the Devel-op(her) program, which works with Grand Circus as a coding boot camp, and Girls Court. Ha-german’s Skypoint Ventures LLC has invested $35 million in pri-vate equity, startup and real es-tate projects. These include the Dryden Building in Flint and Bean Co. in Fenton, both histor-ic buildings. Last year, she and her husband spent $2 million to found the Hagerman Center for Entrepreneurship and Innova-tion at the University of Michi-gan-Flint. In response to the Flint water crisis, in January she founded #FlintFwd, a grassroots effort to help the people of Flint.

Special skill: “I’m definitely a go-getter. My husband always says that I have a good way of seeing the bigger picture, under-standing that picture, and then moving forward.”

Biggest challenge: Trying to balance her many jobs with rais-ing her children.

Advice for women when it comes to success: “Nobody likes someone to just come in and totally shake things up. You need to be inclusive, but also to be assertive.”

Bruce Mason

Seeing big picture helps


Career ladder: Clark holds a law degree from Harvard University and an A.B. from Brown University. She worked at leading public policy and civil rights organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Edu-cation Fund. She served as the White House Public Policy Council’s senior policy adviser focused on criminal and juvenile justice reform and civil legal aid. Most recently, she worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as chief of staff of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS. This summer, Clark, 41, will join the Detroit-based Hudson-Webber Foundation. “The common thread is that social justice piece,” she said.

Power metrics: The Hudson-Web-ber Foundation had $175.2 million in assets in 2015 and gave almost$7.6 million in grants last year. Since it was founded in 1939, the founda-tion has contributed more than $193 million in metro Detroit. The DOJ’s COPS programs administered nearly $1 billion in grants.

Secret weapon: “I don’t need much sleep.”

Big career success: Helping to lead a Justice Department team of 20 to complete the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing in

only 90 days. It was completed after the riots in Ferguson, Mo., and in-cluded listening sessions around the country, witnesses and more than 100 people giving written state-ments. (Plus, she had a 4-month-old son who wasn’t sleeping through the night during the project.) She is proud of the team effort and the re-port’s “ripple effects” on police de-partments across the U.S.

Surprising fact: Her father, Ed Clark, an abstract expressionist painter, has ties to Detroit through a long-standing relationship with a De-troit gallery, which brought her to the city many times. The Detroit Institute of Arts displays an oil and mixed me-dia piece of Ed Clark’s titled “Maple Red.” She helps manage his creative career. Her husband, Moddie Turay, was hired as executive vice president of real estate/finance for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. in 2015.

Career advice: “Take the risk and say yes,” even if you have a very young child or are expecting the next one.

Vickie Elmer

“WHO HAS BEEN A POSITIVELEADER FOR WOMEN ANDMICHIGAN COMMUNITIES?”

DTE Energy is proud to announce that Faye Nelson has been named

one of Crain’s 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan. Her professional

achievement and hard work within the community makes her a role

model we all try to emulate. DTE is proud that she is a part of our team,

and looks forward to her many future accomplishments.

Congratulations, Faye.


Melanca ClarkIncoming president and CEO, Hudson-Webber Foundation, Detroit

Birgit KlohsPresident and CEO, The Right Place Inc., Grand Rapids

Career ladder: Klohs graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in finance. Her eco-nomic development career began with the Economic Development Corp. of Berrien County and contin-ued with the Michigan Department of Commerce. She was the assistant director for economic development for Grand Valley State University. Klohs, 64, also spent time with Prince Corp. in Holland, Mich., as a marketing executive before becom-ing Right Place CEO in 1987.

Power metrics: The Right Place Inc. was founded in 1985 as an inno-vative private-public partnership for economic development. It is self-funded, 80 percent from private investors and 20 percent from mu-nicipalities and foundations. Since its inception, the organization has grown from four employees to 28. The Right Place has had a hand in more than $4 billion in new invest-ment and more than 40,000 new jobs. Klohs has been at the helm for all but two of the years since its founding.

Super power: “I don’t have any; I’m not superman or superwoman. ... I am a very passionate and compas-sionate woman who loves what she does, loves to come to work every day and really cares about the peo-ple of the state and my region.

“And when I drive home at night, I know that there are people work-

ing today because of the work we did.”

Big win: According to Klohs, her first big win was attracting the first German company to the Grand Rapids area in 1989. “Today, we have nearly 50 German firms in the area and over 130 foreign firms.

“From a financial investment standpoint, the largest investment we have attracted to date is Switch, a large data center which is currently in the process of locating here.” Klohs was instrumental in attract-ing the $5 billion data center to Michigan — including getting state legislators to make tax law changes to accommodate the planned move.

Surprising fact: Klohs came to the economic development profession by sheer accident when she worked for a summer during college at the Berrien County EDC for Manpower, was intrigued and stayed on.

“It has been incredibly rewarding to work in Grand Rapids and West Michigan. It’s not a ‘job’ but a pas-sion.”

Quote: “Leading a team is: ‘If I succeed or you succeed, we all suc-ceed.’ ”

Lauren Shields


Career ladder: A degree in so-ciology and a master’s in social work from Western Michigan Uni-versity combined with a passion for social justice led to leadership posts at the American Red Cross, the state of Michigan and the Unit-ed Way of Kent County. Sieger, 64, has been president of the Grand Rapids Community Foundationfor 29 years.

Power metrics: Under her lead-ership, the foundation’s assets have grown from $35 million to $330 million. By end of this fiscal year in June, the foundation, which employs nearly 30, will have dis-tributed about $12 million in cur-rent year grants and scholarships.

Super power: “Being able to ar-ticulate a vision and not give up.”

Big win: Helping start Challenge Scholars, which provides intensive

academic and support services to children in an economically de-prived section of Grand Rapids, in 2011.

The foundation has raised more than $33 million for the program. The first class of Challenge Schol-ars graduates from high school in 2020.

Board/community connec-tions: Former board and execu-tive committee member, Council on Foundations; past board chair-man and member, community foundations committee for Coun-cil of Michigan Foundations; exec-utive committee, Kent County Family & Children’s Coordinating Council; board member, Office of Foundation Liaison for the Gover-nor’s Office; board of directors, KConnect; board of directors, Kent School Services Network; Down-town Development Authority for the City of Grand Rapids.

Power lesson: Develop great re-lationships with people, even those who disagree with you.

Surprising fact: “The influence of growing up in Detroit, I was not the kid listening to the Beach Boys; I was listening to the Four Tops. I’m like the teenager at the traffic light who pulls up and you hear the car,

that would be this woman. But that’s how I decompress at the end of the day.”

Best mentor: The late Sue Blanchard, who was a strong civic leader and a very good role model in not giving up and having her voice heard.

How you assist other women: Work with a group of younger women at the foundation on prop-erly conducting themselves at business meetings and career planning. Meet one-on-one with women seeking guidance and with a high school group of both boys and girls.

Changes you have seen in how women wield power: “I’m seeing a lot of young women who are com-ing up who are very talented and really somewhat fearless. So I have great hope that we’ll continue to be key leaders in business, indus-try, public bodies and around a lot of community tables.”

Advice she’d give to her young-er self: “Don’t be so afraid. Just keep moving forward. I was very shy as a kid.”

Next goal: “I want to transform this organization into being even greater than it is today.”

Cassandra Spratling


Gilda JacobsPresident and CEO, Michigan League for Public Policy, Lansing

Career ladder: Jacobs, 67, started her career as a special education teacher. She served as development director for JARC, a nonprofit provid-ing residential care for persons with developmental disabilities. She was the first woman elected to the Hun-tington Woods City Commission, in 1981. Elected, in order, to the Oak-land County Commission, the Mich-igan House of Representatives and the state Senate, she was named CEO of the Michigan League for Pub-lic Policy in 2011.

Power metrics: The league was founded more than 100 years ago to reduce poverty and advocate public policy to benefit children and econom-ically vulnerable families. With 18 em-ployees, the league has grown its influ-ence under Jacobs as well as its research, which helped drive state law-makers’ decision in 2013 to expand

preschool programs by $130 million.Big win: During the league's cen-

tennial in 2012, the Nokomis Founda-tion challenged it to raise $250,000 and offered a 4-to-1 match. "We did, and now we have an endowment of over $2.5 million when before we only had a $25,000 endowment. It helped us bring in many new donors.” She also counts among her big wins being elected by the Democratic caucus as the first woman floor leader in the House or Senate. “That paved the way for other women."

Super power: Listening and making friends.

I recently learned: “How much in-ner strength I have,” after daughter Rachel Jacobs, 39, died in an Amtrak derailment in 2015.

Best mentor: Joyce Keller, her for-mer boss at JARC. She demonstrated the ability to straddle the line of warm caring boss and professional with high standards. Sometimes, “you need to put your friendship aside and have a professional relationship.’’

Surprising fact: Her mother, Lillian Zalenko, sold industrial wiping cloths, a business dominated by men. “She was a very driven woman who loved being successful. ... My sister and I saw this and learned that women could be as successful, and many times, more successful than men by working hard and learning how to compete.”

Vickie Elmer

Diana SiegerPresident, Grand Rapids Community Foundation

“Don’t be so afraid. Just keep moving forward.”



Being authentic is her success

Katy LockerProgram director/Detroit, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Detroit

Career ladder: Locker, 42, graduated from Cornell University in 1997 with bach-elor’s and master’s degrees in public ad-ministration. After working as a policy ana-lyst for the Judicial Council of California for three years, Locker graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 2002 and practiced law in California. She re-turned to Michigan in 2004 to work for Community Legal Resources, then for the Coalition for a Detroit Land Bank. In 2008, Locker was hired as VP of programs for the Hudson-Webber Foundation. In Septem-ber 2013, she joined the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as pro-gram director for Detroit.

Power metrics: Locker works with local leaders and others to find and invest in op-portunities to improve the city. The Knight Foundation has an endowment of $2.4 bil-lion and provides grants of approximately $150 million each year; its beneficiaries in-clude the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, Global Detroit and Knight Arts Challenge Detroit.

Biggest win: Her tenure at Hudson-Web-ber, which prepared her to run her own lo-cal program at the Knight Foundation.

Board/community connections: Chair-man, board of directors, Gleaners Commu-nity Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan.

Next big goal: Contributing to the con-tinued renewal of the city of Detroit.

Quote: “My success is driven by my con-cern for the community.”

Paul Vachon

Juanita MoorePresident and CEO, The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit

Career ladder: After graduating from North Carolina Central University in Durham, S.C., with a bachelor’s and mas-ter’s in history, Moore, 64, started her career at the Ohio Historical Society, where she served as its first African-American curator. She helped plan and open the National Afri-can American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio, served as executive di-rector of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., and the American Jazz Museum and Gem Theater in Kansas City, Mo. She joined the Charles H. Wright Muse-um of African American History in 2006.

Power metrics: Moore led the teams that opened the National African American Mu-seum and Cultural Center, the National Civil Rights Museum and the American Jazz Mu-seum. At the Wright museum, Moore manag-es a $6.6 million budget.

Since starting, she has been working on a funding sustainability plan and attracting more individual donors. Under her direction, museum profit increased to $172,000 from a $1.08 million deficit and revenue rose nearly $1.2 million to $5.48 million from fiscal 2013 to 2014.

Board and community involvement: Board member, CultureSource, ICOM-US, Mid-town Detroit Inc.; Detroit Riverfront Con-servancy Public Art committee co-chair.

Next big goal: Moore and her team plan to open “the definitive exhibit on Detroit music” after about three years of research, planning and fundraising.

Vickie Elmer

Jenee VelasquezExecutive director, Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, Midland

Career ladder: Velasquez, 48, received a bachelor’s in business administration from Kansas State University and an MBA from Michigan State University. She also com-pleted an executive education course at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She was the first co-ordinator of Midland’s Downtown Devel-opment Authority, starting in 1992. She then moved to Midland Tomorrow and be-came CEO of the countywide economic de-velopment corporation in 1997. In 2005, she became director of the Dow Foundation.

Power metrics: Velasquez runs the foun-dation, a $470 million private nonprofit that focuses on the educational, religious, economic, health and cultural sectors in Michigan. The foundation made $25.7 mil-lion in grants in 2015. In 2011, Gov. Rick Snyder appointed her to the Saginaw Val-ley State University board. Her many civic and volunteer commitments include serv-ing on the advisory boards of Chemical Bank Midland and the Community Bank. She has served as a member of the MI-Tech+ board, Mid-Michigan Innovation Center board and the Michigan Nonprofit Association board. She is also on the board for the Michigan Baseball Foundation.

Biggest setback: “Growing up poor. Pov-erty can obscure the possibilities. You can still get where you need to go, but it takes longer.”

Super power: “Everyone has a story, and I am inspired by hearing about the journey of others.”

Kevin Polzin

Tonya MatthewsPresident and CEO, Michigan Science Center, Detroit

Career ladder: Matthews, 42, graduated from Duke University in 1996, earning a bachelor's degree in biomedical and electri-cal engineering. She went on to earn a doc-torate in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University. As a graduate student, she volunteered at Maryland Science Center in 2005 before hiring in as a manager in the museum’s biotech department for two years. She served as a biomedical engineer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She was vice president of museums at the Cincinnati Museum Center before becoming president and CEO of the Michigan Science Center in Detroit in 2013.

Power metrics: Three and a half years af-ter reopening as the Michigan Science Cen-ter, the organization and its 91 employees are providing programs in 36 counties across the state. Under Matthews’ leader-ship, the center has taken STEM programs into the community, hosting games and sci-ence experiments at places near, like Punch

Bowl Social, and far, like Michigan’s Adven-ture theme park in Muskegon. Since its De-cember 2012 reopening under a new name, Michigan Science Center has provided pro-grams to 908,265 people, 269,582 of them in fiscal 2015. Matthews is projecting $5.26 million in revenue this year, up more than $1 million from last year, as the Science Center brings on new grant-funded pro-grams and recovers from a paid attendance dip last year.

To help offset a 2015 operating loss, the nonprofit is working with Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAP-CEP) to bring 1,100 11th-grade Detroit Pub-lic Schools students to the center for a ca-reer exploration fair; launching adult programming; and offering innovative pro-fessional development for teachers.

The center has launched programs to help prepare students for the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress and to spur STEM in-terest among fourth- through eighth-grade girls. It hosted the inaugural STEM Visions Awards on May 19 to recognize student and adult leaders and innovators in STEM. New programs on tap include a biology program for

all 3,500 seventh-graders in the DPS system and a workshop for all seventh-grade teachers in the district, with funding from the Bosch Community Fund.

Super power: Being both left- and right-brained. “I’m an engineer who uses meta-phors. I’m very type A and like things orga-nized; but I’m also a poet ... good at vision, talking about the emotion and the ‘why’ of the situation.”

Big win: Developing an awards program for unsung heroes who work with children in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Museum Center was suffering from a reputation of being elit-ist and not diverse and of not caring about the community it served. The awards program helped improve museum relationships with the community, which translated to a major fundraiser that brought in $30,000-$40,000 annually during Matthews’ tenure.

Surprising fact: She’s a published poet, with two books of poetry and her work in a number of poetry journals.

On women in executive leadership posi-tions: “My success is probably leaned true as opposed to leaned in. I think there is a lot of pressure for strong female leaders to behave

as strong male leaders would. But that mini-mizes what we bring to the table in terms of diverse styles of leadership.

“I have found for me, being as authentic as possible has been my success. I think certain traits like ‘EQ,’ emotional quotient, which has now come into fashion, the idea that team leaders should be nurturing and overcom-municative, is coming in.

“And while there are no hard and fast rules, I think many women bring that to the table naturally because we use it in different parts of lives.”

Sherri Welch

Pamela LewisExecutive director, New Economy Initiative, Detroit

Career ladder: Lewis, 51, has a bachelor’s degree in systems science from Michigan State University and an MBA from Spring Ar-bor University. She worked at DTE Energy Co. for roughly 16 years, holding positions such as analyst and continuous improve-ment director, before joining NextEnergy in Detroit as a senior program manager work-ing on entrepreneurial programs. That led to a consulting role with the Detroit team of the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation. In 2011, she joined the Detroit-based New Economy Initiative as a senior program offi-cer. She was named director in January 2016.

Power metrics: Formed in 2007, NEI was created by a consortium of foundations to increase economic activity in metro Detroit through building an entrepreneurial infra-structure. Housed at the Community Foun-dation for Southeast Michigan, it’s one of the largest economic development initia-tives of its kind. NEI has made nearly $100 million in grants.

Special skill: Being a “connector of peo-ple” and helping to move visions and con-cepts into actionable plans.

What’s next: “The big goal for the upcom-ing year is to secure an additional tranche of funds to continue to work through 2020. And what’s happening is we’ve seen so much good progress in terms of the numbers of startups that are happening within the region, how the culture has changed in terms of embracing entrepreneurship as a path to wealth creation and how it’s changed for all people.

Audrey LaForest

LEADING WITH PURPOSEWOMEN OF CONSUMERS ENERGY— SUPPORTING MICHIGAN’S FUTURE

5561-C

PATTI POPPEPresident and CEO-Elect

WE CONGRATULATE PATTI POPPE, who was named one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan by Crain’s Detroit Business. Patti will become president and CEO of Consumers Energy in July.

Consumers Energy has provided safe, reliable, affordable energy to power Michigan’s progress for 130 years. As we look to our next 130, we celebrate our growing team of female leaders who work daily to encourage innovation and earn our customers’ business 24/7.



MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: REAL ESTATE

Stacy FoxPrincipal and co-founder, The Roxbury Group, Detroit; senior vice president and general counsel, DuPont

Career ladder: Fox, 62, has 30 years’ experience as a corporate and restructuring attorney and execu-tive adviser to CEOs and boards. She joined DuPont in October 2014. Previously, she was deputy emer-gency manager of the city of Detroit, helping to guide the city through the largest municipal bank-ruptcy in U.S. history. She served under Kevyn Orr, her classmate at the University of Michigan law school. One of the few women developers in South-east Michigan, Fox is co-founder of Detroit-based real estate development firm The Roxbury Group. Fox also has worked as general counsel for Sunoco Inc., Johnson Controls Inc. and Visteon Corp.

Power metrics: Projects for The Roxbury Group, which Fox co-founded in 2005, include the $94.5-million renovation of the David Whitney Building and the $12.8-million redevelopment of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Outdoor Adventure Center. DuPont is a $25 billion international corporation. Fox leads its legal and corporate communications divisions, with 350 em-ployees. In December, Delaware-based DuPont and Midland-based Dow Chemical Co. announced they would merge in a more than $130 billion deal.

Board/community connections: Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Fox to the Detroit Financial Review Com-mission, part of the city’s exit from bankruptcy for fi-nancial oversight in the “grand bargain” legislation. She is a member of the Downtown Detroit Partnership’s executive committee and the founder and donor ad-viser of the Detroit of Tomorrow Fund, which provides grants to nonprofits aimed at bettering Detroit.

Super power: “Really being able to envision an outcome that isn’t readily apparent, as well as the

path for getting there.” One example: Redeveloping the Whitney building, purchased in 2010 after it sat vacant for more than a decade.

Big win: “There are a few, but I would say in my role as deputy emergency manager helping Kevyn Orr bring the city through bankruptcy was the high-light.”

I recently learned to: “Love bourbon. I didn’t like it. ... But my business partners love bourbon, so I tried it again and now really enjoy it.”

Power lesson: “‘It’s amazing how much you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit,’ a quote from Harry Truman. If you share the power and don’t care about collecting it, holding on to it or maintaining it, you can accomplish great things.”

Best mentor: Fox’s Roxbury co-founder David Di Rita served as a mentor in her real estate development career. “I hired David 20 years ago as an attorney at Johnson Controls. I was his mentor for 10 years in the corporate legal world. Then we left to start Roxbury Group and he sort of became my mentor. ...”

Changes in how women wield power: “From my personal perspective and experience, the fact that I have reported to two female CEOs in the last 10 years as general counsel at two Fortune 100 companies certainly indicates there’s something good going on.”

Ann Tappan

Lisa PayneChairman of the board, Soave Enterprises; incoming president, Soave Real Estate Group, Detroit

Career ladder: Payne, 57, received an MBA from Duke University in 1982. Her first job was as a commer-cial banker with Chemical Bank in New York City. In 1987, she moved to Goldman Sachs as an investment banker focused on real estate. In 1997, she became CFO for Taubman Co. and moved to Michigan. She be-came vice chairman in 2003 while continuing as CFO. Payne serves on the boards of Masco Corp., Rockwell Automation and J.C. Penney.

Power metrics: Detroit-based Soave Enterprises, with operations in metal recycling, residential real

estate and auto retailing, has 1,623 employees and annual revenue of $1.5 billion to $2 billion. Real estate projects are expected to generate approximately $4 billion over 7 to 10 years. Payne’s goal is to help founder Tony Soave transition his company to ensure stability, continuity and success, and become more involved in transforming Detroit.

On leaving Taubman: She had a great job and a great boss and a strong track record of delivering 15 percent returns to shareholders. Yet Payne knew that to grow, she needed a new job or organization.

Advice for women on success:“This career is a marathon, not a sprint,” so be willing to run through the peaks and valleys. For women who want to join a corporate board, she advises starting with a mid-range company to build credibility.

Best mentors: A. Alfred Taub-man, “who was a significant posi-tive contributor and a person of in-fluence every day of his life.” And Steve Andrews, who founded Kens-ington Church, for his “faith, trust and boldness.”

Vickie Elmer

Progress.At the heart of West Michigan’s economic development, Lakers are a vital force. Throughout the region and state, Lakers live, work, and lead, helping create solutions that drive growth forward. As a major university, Grand Valley’s economic impact is substantial. As a talent resource, Lakers are uniquely prepared to meet the challenges of a changing world. That’s the Laker E�ect.

gvsu.edu

Donna Inch Chairman and CEO, Ford Land, Dearborn

Career ladder: Inch, 60, earned a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1978 and an MBA in finance in 1984 from Eastern Michigan University. Start-ing her career with Ford Motor Co. in 1978 as an industrial relations analyst, she has held a variety of fi-nance roles for the Dearborn-based automaker, including global com-mercial vans, global compact pick-up trucks, engineering analysis, business planning, parts pricing and others. More recently, she was manager of worldwide revenue and manager of North American truck pricing from 1998 to 2000; control-ler of Ford marketing and sales from 2000 to 2004; and finance di-rector for the Ford Customer Ser-vice Division from 2004 to 2010. In

January 2010, Ford appointed her chairman and CEO of Ford Land.

Power metrics: Inch leads Ford Land, which owns 71 buildings to-taling about 13.1 million square feet in and around Dearborn and Allen Park. She also heads the automak-er’s $1 billion-plus plan over the next 10 years to modernize its 63-year-old research and engineer-ing hub in Dearborn.

The plans are as grand as they are expensive. Autonomous vehicles, on-demand shuttles and eBikes will be tested on the site, which is also planned to include a new 700,000 square-foot-plus design center with new studios and an outdoor design courtyard. Phase two includes re-working about 1.3 million square feet of the Ford World Headquarters building. Those plans include con-necting Ford Motor Credit Co. to the headquarters; improved con-nectivity, walkways, covered park-ing decks and recreation areas.

Also planned: A Sustainability Showcase building to produce more energy than it uses. This over-haul requires moving 30,000 em-ployees from 70 buildings and into the Silicon Valley-like campus loca-tions Ford Land is currently in the beginning stages of construction, largely revolving around infrastruc-

ture and things like parking lots. “We have to get the vehicles off, va-cate a lot of this massive surface parking we have in order to start the first construction. It’s a really tricky sequencing thing.”

Secret weapon: Empathy. “I un-derstand where people are coming from. The more you understand that, the more you can develop strategies or proposals that they would buy into or be agreeable to.”

What de�nes a powerful or in�u-ential woman: “In order to develop a situation where you have influence, for me it’s always been a couple things: One, I learn everything I can about the business and what I’m in-volved in because knowledge is power. The other piece is being in a position to develop good relation-ships and trust with your colleagues, and it takes some time to develop those kind of trust relationships.”

Career advice: Work hard and learn everything you need to learn. “Success doesn’t come from just showing up,” she said. “I always liked that quote by Henry Ford: ‘Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.’ If you think you can do it, you can. You just have to plot out how you get there.”

Kirk Pinho

Form a vision, chart a course


The W.K. Kellogg Foundation congratulates La June Montgomery Tabron, our president and CEO, on being named one of Crain’s 2016 Most Influential Women

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: REAL ESTATEJanet KelleySenior vice president, general counsel, Meijer Inc., Grand Rapids

Career ladder: Kelley, 63, was senior counsel at The Limited Inc., a retailer that includes Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret, be-fore joining Kmart Corp. in Troy in 2001 as ex-ecutive vice president and general counsel, and she handled the company’s bankruptcy reorganization. She went on to be SVP, general counsel and secretary of Charlotte, N.C.-based Family Dollar Stores Inc. before joining Meijer in 2009.

Power metrics: Family-owned Meijer is the 19th-largest U.S. private company, with reve-nue of nearly $16 billion, according to Forbes.com. Kelley oversees management of Meijer’s legal, public affairs, communications, compliance and quality assurance functions.

Secret weapon: She considers that to be an ability to stay calm in crises situations, and to stay focused on essential tasks.

Big wins: Kelley considers effectively man-aging through each crisis at various compa-nies, such as Kmart’s bankruptcy, to be her biggest accomplishment.

What career advice do you have for women?“Hurt your head — think about what you are doing and how to make things better, not just maintain the status quo.”

Bill Shea

Donna NiesterPresident, Acheson Ventures LLC, Port Huron

Career ladder: Trained as a CPA, Niester, 59, was a partner in an accounting firm be-fore joining the Acheson entities in 1999. She attended Northwood University, where she earned an associate degree in advertis-ing and earned a bachelor’s degree in ac-counting at Walsh College. In 2000, she was tapped as CEO of Acheson Ventures by de-veloper/philanthropist Jim Acheson. She is president of 14 Acheson entities.

Power metrics: On Acheson’s behalf, Ni-ester has led investments and donations to redevelop 2 miles of waterfront property in Port Huron, transforming the area from aged industrial to mixed-used and recre-ational, including the Blue Water River Walk and Seaway Terminal, allowing visitors to better enjoy the St. Clair River and environs. Total investment: more than $150 million.

Super power: Sharing credit and showing kindness. “Make sure you give credit to other people and give them a chance to shine.”

Big win: Port Huron’s waterfront redevel-opment. It began in 1998, when Jim Acheson and his family sold Acheson Industries, a chemical company dating back to 1908. He used his share of the proceeds to invest in Port Huron’s rundown industrial south side,

particularly the waterfront. Niester became president of what would eventually be 14 different entities that sprouted up to sup-port the work, from for-profit property in-vestments to charitable donations. She has been the lead executive on Acheson’s pur-chase of a cement company, scrap yard and rail yard — covering 80 acres — so the indus-trial structures could be removed from the waterfront in downtown Port Huron. Adja-cent properties were eventually folded into the project, and 2 miles of waterfront were bought in all.

Acheson gave a narrow, mile-long strip of shoreline to the Community Foundation of St. Clair County, which then raised $7 million to develop it into the river walk. Niester took on the additional role of foundation chair-woman. The for-profit side of the Acheson enterprise turned its attention to commer-cial development of land adjacent to the riv-er walk and other sites, including construc-tion of an office center that retained an employer in the area, Semco Energy Inc. The entire project revived an area written off as dead and turned it into a scenic destination.

I recently learned to: Fuse glass for art proj-ects, at Studio 1219, a project under the Acheson umbrella to support area artists.

Board / community connections: First chairwoman in the history of the Communi-ty Foundation of St. Clair County; chair, au-dit committee, McLaren Port Huron Hospi-tal; board member, Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County.

What’s your next big goal? “To see Port Hu-ron become the gem she can be.”

Gary Anglebrandt

Marge Byington PotterChairwoman, Delray LLC and Fort Jefferson Commerce Park

Career ladder: Byinton Potter, 74, has de-grees from University of Michigan and Ferris State University; first chairwoman of the Kent County Board of Commissioners; chief deputy director, Michigan Department of Commerce under Gov. John Engler; eco-nomic aide to then-Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer. Bought — and sold — a rail tunnel linking Detroit and Windsor.

Power metrics: The dream of building a new rail tunnel linking Detroit-Windsor hasn’t materialized. But she’s busy chairing two development partnerships in Southwest Detroit: Delray LLC and Fort Jefferson Com-merce Park, which included a $40 million project to build industrial space for Arvin-Meritor, Bridgewater and Visteon.

Secret weapon: “Tenacity. Get up every morning and do what you have to do to make the project that you’re working on successful. ... Some days you’re really successful, some days aren’t as successful, but if every day you think. ‘I moved it forward,’ whether it’s an inch or a mile, it’s moved forward.”

Why did you decide to get into the transpor-tation area? “Centers of community are al-ways based on transportation.”

Michelle Wilson


Career ladder: Ford assumed ownership of the National Football League franchise Detroit Lions when her husband, William Clay Ford Sr., died in March 2014. He was a grandson of Henry Ford and bought the team in November 1963 for $4.5 million. Today it’s valued by Forbes.com at $1.44 billion.

Power metrics: Martha Ford is one of just four female team NFL owners or co-owners. Last year, she fired and replaced the Lions’ top ex-ecutives, and appointed her three daughters as vice chairmen along

with son William Clay Ford Jr. She has become a distinct presence around the football team. Martha Ford, 90, is believed to have inherit-ed some of her husband’s signifi-cant share of Ford Motor Co.’s pow-erful Class B family stock.

Life wisdom: “Our family legacy is what truly inspires and motivates me.”

Power lesson: “We obviously want and expect the Lions to be exempla-ry on and off the field, and our fam-ily is driven to make that a reality.”

Surprising facts: Ford is the granddaughter of Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. founder Harvey Fires-tone, and married William Clay Ford in June 1947. As a young girl, she re-portedly saw the Lions when they played in the early 1930s as the Portsmouth Spartans in Ohio.

Next big goal: “My goal is to pre-serve and protect the Ford family name while also making a most positive and lasting impact in our community through the Detroit Li-ons organization and our many family charity initiatives.”

Marti Benedetti

Career ladder: DeVos has a bache-lor’s degree in business administra-tion and political science from Cal-vin College. In 1989, she and her husband, Dick, founded Windquest Group and the Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation. Her political achievements include being elected Republican National Committee-woman for Michigan, from 1992-97, and serving as Michigan Republican Party chairwoman, from 1996-2000 and 2003-2005. DeVos, 58, was a Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts board member from 2004-2010 and is on the board of the DeVos In-

stitute for Arts Management.Power metrics: Windquest Group

is a private enterprise and invest-ment management group focused on technology, manufacturing, clean technology, hospitality and nonprofits. Meanwhile, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, with $15.1 million in income in 2014, fo-cuses on education, community, arts, justice and leadership.

The American Federation for Children and Alliance for School Choice is a national organization with $9.5 billion in 2014 income that advocates for school vouchers and scholarship tax credit pro-grams.

DeVos served in the 1990s on the boards of Children First America and the American Education Re-form Council, which sought to ex-pand school choice through vouch-ers and tax credits. She and her husband worked to pass Michigan’s charter school bill in 1993 and backed a failed 2000 effort to amend Michigan's constitution to allow tax-credit scholarships or vouchers. She and her husband then formed the Great Lakes Education Project, a political action committee cham-pioning charter schools.

Betsy DeVos is also involved in other political organizations that

back schools of choice issues, in-cluding the All Children Matter PAC.

Super power: “The ability to look really long term, to be ‘big picture’ or visionary. I find really great peo-ple to partner with.”

Biggest setback: The failed 2000 campaign to “bring education choices” through a ballot initiative “really did send me on a different trajectory,” leading to strategic and tactical changes.

What prompted you to become in-volved in philanthropy: “It was very much a personal and iterative pro-cess. Dick and I chose the best edu-cation for our children, realizing at the same time that there were many parents and children — there still are — who didn’t have the same opportunity. And I didn’t think that was fair. I still don’t think it’s fair.”

Advice for success in general: “Male or female, enjoy and be pas-sionate about what you do.”

“A-ha” moment: “There was a moment in the early 1990s when I decided I really needed to run for (Republican) party committee-woman. I still enjoy politics, and I knew I could use those skills to ad-vance choices for kids in educa-tion.”

Kevin Polzin

Gretchen ValadeBusiness mogul, philanthropist, jazz festival, Grosse Pointe Farms business district

Career ladder: “I have been involved in Carhartt since the 1960s. (Her grandfather Hamilton Carhartt founded the company and her son, Mark, is president and chair-man.) I started my involvement with Mack Avenue Records before my husband, Robert, died in 1998. I was a traditional mother to my children, but as the main stockholder at Carhartt, I was always involved in major de-cision-making there.” She is 90.

Power metrics: “After founding Mack Ave-nue Records, I wanted to feature some of the Mack Avenue artists. In 2003, Mack Avenue

participated in the Detroit Jazz Festival. After a few years of working with the Detroit Jazz Festival producer, Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, I decided in 2006 I wanted to start a foundation, the Gretchen C. Valade Endowment for the Arts, to support the festi-val. I am chair of the organization.”

In 2015, she donated $7.5 million to Wayne State University to create the Gretchen Va-lade Jazz Center, which will operate out of Hilberry Theatre. She received the Max M. Fisher award for outstanding philanthropist in 2007 and donated $15 million to the De-troit Jazz Festival endowment. “When the jazz festival was about to fail, I didn’t want Detroit to get another black eye.”

Valade recently purchased a block on Ker-cheval Avenue in Grosse Pointe Farms’ Hill

neighborhood as a real estate investment, and is the owner of the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe and Morning Glory Coffee & Pastries.

Super power: “I’m a good listener and I have vision (when it comes to starting things). All of my entities have the same model. I believe in elevating the artist and respecting them and making sure they get paid.”

Board/community connections: The Parade Co. and Music Hall boards. Former chair-man of the Carhartt board, now a member; Mack Avenue Records, chairman; also sup-ports the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation in Florida, and St. John Provi-dence Hospital in Detroit.

Power lesson: “I’m most passionate about jazz artists. I still think about the way they were treated for years; they could play their

hearts out, but they couldn’t get a room...”Surprising fact: “My love for dogs. I have

three; two are rescue. The name of my jazz club reflects my love for dogs.”

Marti Benedetti

Good listener with vision

Betsy DeVosChairman, Windquest Group, Grand Rapids; Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, Grand Rapids; and American Federation for Children, Washington, D.C.

Kate Pew WoltersPhilanthropist, Grand Valley State University; board member, Steelcase Inc., Grand Rapids

Career ladder: Wolters, 57, has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Aquinas College and a master’s de-gree in social work from Michigan State University. A longtime com-munity volunteer, philanthropist and adviser, Wolters first went to work at the family business, Steelcase Inc., in 1982 as a social worker. Two years later, she became director of Hope Network’s Center for Independent Living. She re-turned to Steelcase in 1986 as direc-

tor of the Steelcase Foundation and serves as foundation chairman. Wolt-ers also created the Kate and Richard Wolters Foundation.

Power metrics: Publicly traded Grand Rapids-based office furniture maker Steelcase has about 11,000 employees and approximately $3.1 billion in annual revenue. Grand Val-ley State University has 25,000 stu-dents. The Steelcase Foundation had assets of $97.8 million in 2014 and made more than $3.7 million in grants to nonprofit organizations with an emphasis in the arts, educa-tion and human services. Wolters is a Grand Valley State University trustee.

Special skill: Good listener. Di-rect. Clear on where she stands.

How she got into higher education and philanthropy: “I would say that they chose me.” Deciding with her late husband to start the family foundation was her most deliberate move. Wolters, who has disabilities, was managing a small disability ad-vocacy organization when the call to return to Steelcase came in.

Kevin Polzin

Martha Firestone Ford Owner and chairman of the board, Detroit Lions

Ronda StrykerPhilanthropist and board member, Stryker Corp., Kalamazoo

Career ladder: Stryker earned a bachelor’s degree from the Univer-sity of Northern Colorado and mas-ter’s from Western Michigan Uni-versity, then became a special education teacher for Kalamazoo Public Schools. In 1984, she joined the board of directors of Kalama-zoo-based Stryker Corp., the com-

pany founded by her grandfather in 1946. She and her husband, Bill Johnston, gifted $100 million to WMU in 2011 to create the WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Med-icine, named after her grandfather.

The couple are also rumored to be among the major donors of the Kalamazoo Promise, an organiza-tion that pays up to 100 percent of tuition costs at any Michigan col-lege for graduates of Kalamazoo’s public schools. Stryker, 62, is also vice chairwoman and a director of Kalamazoo-based wealth manage-ment firm Greenleaf Trust, a trustee at Kalamazoo College, vice chair-woman at Atlanta-based Spelman College and member of the Har-vard Medical School Board of Fel-lows. Stryker, along with other members of her family, is also an active political campaign donor to Democratic candidates and causes.

Power metrics: She owns 7 per-cent of the Stryker company, cur-rently worth near $3 billion, ac-cording to Forbes. Stryker Corp., which employs roughly 25,000, reported a net income of $1.43 billion on revenue of $9.9 billion in 2015. In February, the compa-ny struck a deal to buy Sage Prod-ucts, a surgical equipment maker, for $2.8 billion.

Special skill: A commitment to bettering her community. The YWCA, which awarded Stryker with a lifetime achievement award in 2013, said a “passion for the causes she cares about has contributed to the many successes of the organiza-tions” she has served.

Surprising fact: She is No. 435 on the current Forbes World’s Billion-aires list, worth $3.9 billion. Stryker declined an interview for this report.

Marti Benedetti

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: FAMILY ICONS


SUPPORTINGTHE DENTAL

HEALTHPROFESSION

ORAL HEALTH EDUCATION

PROVIDINGDENTAL CARE

TO THOSE IN NEED

IMPROVINGCHILDREN’S ORAL

HEALTH AND SCHOOL SUCCESS

ENGAGINGOUR

EMPLOYEES

We do dental. Better.

Learn more about Delta Dental of Michigan’s

eorts to improve oral and overall health and

wellness in Michigan through our Brighter Futures

initiative at deltadentalmi.com/bfreport.

DELTA DENTAL APPLAUDS ALL OF THE BUSINESS LEADERS MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN MICHIGAN!

At Delta Dental, our commitment to the communities we serve defines

who we are as an organization. And that commitment starts at the very top with our CEO, Laura Czelada, who has been selected as one of

Crain’s 100 Most Influential Women.

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: FAMILY ICONS

Shery CottonCo-founder and former COO, Meridian Health Plan Inc., Detroit

Career ladder: Cotton, 65, stud-ied early childhood development at La Sierra University in River-side, Calif., and San Bernardino City College. She co-founded Me-ridian Health Plan with her hus-band, Dr. David Cotton, in 1997. The group of health plans and re-lated companies has expanded to at least 10 lines of business. Shery Cotton retired in 2013 as COO.

Power metrics: During Cotton's tenure, Meridian became the larg-est Medicaid Health Plan in Michi-gan, Iowa and Illinois. The compa-ny, which increased to 1,000 employees from seven, has more than 700,000 members and 45,000 providers in Michigan, Iowa, Illi-nois, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Active in the community, Cotton

also helped mobilize support for improvements at the Detroit Zoo, where she sits on the board of di-rectors. Her family most recently funded development of a wetlands boardwalk and the creation of the Cotton Family Wolf Wilderness.

Cotton also helped organize the Grosse Pointe Housing Founda-tion, founded in 2011 to attract students to rental properties in Grosse Pointe Park through incen-tives, and serves on its board of directors. In 2014, she helped open Red Crown restaurant, a converted gas station in the Park.

Board membership/community connections: Board of directors of the Detroit Zoo, Caidan Enterpris-es and the Lake House (a St. Clair Shores nonprofit offering support to those touched by cancer), Grosse Pointe Park Foundation. Former board member at Hutzel Hospital and the Belle Isle Con-servancy.

Lesson learned about power:“Learn how to negotiate.”

How you assist other women:She worked with young women at Meridian to help them reach their potential, including mentoring a onetime MBA student who is now a director at the health plan at age 30.

Chad Halcom

A new Grand Valley State University study of public company boards in Michigan supports a link between board diversity and healthier bot-tom lines.

That, coupled with the number of longtime, retirement-age direc-tors on the boards of Michigan’s 17 Fortune 500 companies, points to a big opportunity to increase board diversity, said the study’s co-author Sonia Dalmia, a professor of eco-nomics at GVSU and assessment director for the Seidman College of Business.

According to the study, profit margins were the highest when 25 percent of a company’s directors were women, Dalmia said. On aver-age, that would be about three fe-male directors. The link to profit-ability was equally evident in companies with 25 percent of their boards composed of racial or ethnic minorities.

“The more diversity you have, the more different ways of thinking you have at the table,” Dalmia said.

Michigan companies may have opportunities for increasing diversi-ty as their current directors age, she said. Fifteen percent — or 30 direc-tors — of the 17 Fortune 500 boards in Michigan are over 70 years old. She and Claudia Smith Kelly, associ-

ate professor of economics, re-searched the study, “Representation of Women and Racial Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards,” with student assistants. They plan to make it bi-ennial. While all of the Fortune 500 nationally were studied, the total number of companies included in the sample was 461, as board infor-mation was not fully available, Dal-mia said.

National and international re-search studies from New York-based Catalyst Inc. and McKinsey & Co. and dozens of universities have shown the same correlation between the number of women on boards and financial performance, said Terry Barclay, a Crain’s Most Influential Women alumna and president and CEO of the Detroit-based profes-sional organization Inforum.

Inforum has commissioned the Michigan Women’s Leadership In-dex biennially since 2003 to mea-sure the presence of female execu-tives at the top 100 public companies based in Michigan.

According to the Catalyst studies, the companies with the most wom-en board directors consistently out-performed those with the least, es-pecially when taking a long-term view.

“Although correlation is not causation, it makes sense to us that companies (that) consider the en-tire pool of available talent are likely

to build stronger boards and leader-ship teams,” Barclay said.

According to the GVSU study, Michigan’s Fortune 500 companies outpaced their peers nationally by a slim margin in the percentage of fe-male directors. In 2015, 22.3 percent of the board members of the Michi-gan Fortune 500 were female, com-pared to 20 percent for the larger group of Fortune 500 companies.

Battle Creek-based Kellogg Co. led the Michigan pack with six women directors among its 14 board mem-bers; followed by Detroit-based Gen-eral Motors Co. with five on its 12-member board; and Troy-based Kelly Services Inc., Jackson-based CMS Energy, Detroit-based Ally Financial and Byron Center-based Spartan-Nash with three each on their 11-member boards.

Only one of the Michigan compa-nies on the list, GM, has a female chairman and CEO.

Mary Barra, honored in this 2016 Most Influential Women report, shattered stereotypes when she was named the first female CEO of the automaker late in 2013. A utility company management change next month will add to the diversity statistics for Michigan public com-panies: CMS Energy SVP Patti Poppe becomes president and CEO and a board member July 1.

Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694Twitter: @SherriWelch

By Sherri [email protected]

Study: More women on boards may boost bottom lines


duffeypetrosky

GWEN MACKENZIESenior Vice PresidentAscension Health and

Michigan Market Executive

JEAN MEYERPresident and CEOSt. John Providence

Ascension Michigan Influencing the future of health care

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: IT/LAW

Linda Paullin-HebdenExecutive partner, South�eld o�ce, Warner Norcross & Judd

Career ladder: Paullin-Hebden has a bachelor’s from Alma College and a law degree from Wayne State University. After stints at two firms, she joined Warner Norcross & Judd in 2006, focusing on mergers and acqui-sitions, venture capital, investment adviser compliance and general cor-porate matters. Paullin-Hebden, 55, became executive partner in Warner’s Southfield office in April.

Power metrics: She leads Warner Norcross’ second-largest office, with 31 attorneys and more than 50 em-ployees. She was named to “Best Law-yers in America” in 2014-15.

Super power: “Problem solving, whether it’s within the firm or for a cli-ent, requires understanding the is-sues and the desired outcomes, then thinking out of the box to come up with wins for all stakeholders.”

Board/community connections: Detroit Historical Society, board of di-rectors; Skyline Club, board of gover-nors; member of Michigan Women’s Foundation and Inforum, 2003 class.

Biggest setback: “I was a partner in a firm that imploded. That was per-sonally and professionally challeng-ing and difficult. But it was also a great learning experience, and I’ve been able to use what I learned in advising clients, making management and strategic business decisions, and even making personal decisions.”

Advice to help women succeed: Have goals. “Believe in yourself. Don’t listen to anyone who starts sentences with ‘you can’t.’ Accept failure and move on. Have no re-grets and be fearless.”

Kevin Polzin

Linglong HeChief information o�cer, Quicken Loans, Detroit

Career ladder: With two degrees from Chinese universities, she moved to the United States in 1991, earned a master’s in software engineering and began her career as a programmer at First Bank in Minnesota. He, 51, joined Quicken in 1996 and served in several roles before being named chief information officer in 2010.

Power metrics: She worked on the overall vision and scope of launch-

ing the new Rocket Mortgage prod-uct. “We have such a talented group of technologists who have spent the last several years totally rebuilding our mortgage process to make it easier and simpler. ... Rocket Mort-gage was actually the public face of a larger internal initiative.”

Super power: “One of the philoso-phies I try to instill in all of our team members, regardless of their position, is to have the mindset to ‘lead one lev-el up, and reach two levels down.’ This means that team members should place themselves in the roles of others when executing on initiatives.”

Biggest setback: Not recognizing the importance of communication as she moved up the job ladder was a mistake, she said. In her early roles, she focused on technology versus communication. “You don’t build technology for the sake of technology; you build technology … for the impact to your business.”

Audrey LaForest

Beth NiblockChief information o�cer, city of Detroit

Career ladder: Niblock, 55, was a social worker who shifted to informa-tion technology in Louisville, Ky. In 2013, she was part of a White House-approved IT task force evalu-ating Detroit’s systems, and Mayor Mike Duggan recruited her.

Power metrics: Since 2014, she has replaced the city’s email system, in-stalled mobile apps that allow resi-dents to report service problems, and posted police, fire, demolition and other city data online. Her Depart-ment of Innovation and Technology has grown from 60 workers to 130 since the city exited bankruptcy.

Super power: “If there’s some ob-stacle, I always find a way to either take it down or go around it. It’s prob-ably my Scottish stubbornness.”

Biggest setback: As a social work-er in the 1980s, she found she couldn’t solve problems of families in the court system. “As much as I think I can bull-doze my way through everything, that was something I couldn’t do.” That led her to her passion for computers.

What pitch are you using to recruit new IT workers to Detroit? “This is a time that we can radically change how people within government and our customers do business, do their job and make sure they have what they need.”

What special projects are you working on? “I have a small innova-tion team and we might potentially do something surrounding air qual-ity ... (or) what if we could do some-thing with technology, put it on a (city) car with a sensor and regularly update our road conditions?”

Robert Snell


Marina Houghton

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: FINANCE

Career ladder: Houghton, 52, grew up in an east side Detroit suburb. “My dad was an entrepreneur, and I worked with him a lot at his Detroit businesses. I went to Wayne State University in the evenings and got a degree in accounting. I also got a CPA designation. I have been in love with the accounting profession my whole life.” She started her own CPA firm in 1991. “Ten months ago, Baker Tilly offered me this job.”

Power metrics: Manages 130 employees in Michigan, with reve-nue of $27 million a year. She is the first woman state managing partner for Baker Tilly.

What I recently learned: The dif-ference between working as an en-trepreneur and working in a corpo-ration. “I’ve learned to look at all the avenues of my decisions because it impacts so many more people.”

Board and community connec-tions: Children’s Hospital of Michi-gan Foundation, audit committee; Detroit Zoological Society, board and audit committee member; WSU Business School and Grosse Pointe Foundation for Public Edu-cation, board member.

Surprising fact: “My mother passed away from a heart attack when I was 12, and I arrived home from school to find her. I was the sixth of seven children, and my fa-ther raised all of us.”

Best mentor: Amy Wallman, first female partner at the Ernst and Young Detroit office.

How you assist other women:Role model to her daughter, who is a CPA. “At Baker Tilly, we have the GROW (Growth and Retention of Women) program.”

Next big goal: “Be on a paid board when I retire.”

Marti Benedetti

Michigan managing partner, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, South�eld

Laurie BeardRegion president, Old National Bank, Grand Rapids

Career ladder: As a teenager, Beard began keeping the books at her dad’s drugstore in central Illi-nois. After earning an MBA from Grand Valley State University, she became a stockbroker. She later helped start Founders Bank, which opened in Grand Rapids in 1991. She headed its trust department, then became bank president in 2001. When Old National Bank ac-quired Founders Bank in 2015, she became region president.

Power metrics: Evansville, Ind.-based Old National Bank has 34 branches in Michigan. Beard, 65, presides over its four branches in the Grand Rapids area. Those branches have about $340 million in assets and serve 11,000 customers.

Big win: Customer service. “We believe (customers) will be loyal and send referrals all day long when you take the time to get to know who they are, what they really need and make that special connection.”

Board/community connections:Board chair, Grand Rapids Commu-nity Foundation; board member: Grand Valley University Founda-tion, Michigan Gift of Life Founda-tion, Economic Club of Grand Rap-ids, West Michigan Policy Forum; advisory boards at Grand Valley State University and others. Nation-al: ABA Community Bankers Coun-cil member and Transplant Games of America-Board of Directors.

Cause: Working to increase aware-ness and funding for organ trans-plants. One of her sons, Paul, died in a car accident 11 years ago at age 27. “Five different people have been able to live because of Paul,” she said.

Next big step? She’s retiring this summer and plans to spend more time with her family, including her 4-year-old granddaughter, Stella.

Cassandra Spratling

Heather PaquetteMichigan managing partner, KPMG LLP, Detroit

Career ladder: Paquette, 44, spent four years in the U.S. Air Force as a computer op-erator. She worked for KPMG in St. Louis and Chicago in college. She was named partner in 2003 and managing partner of Michigan offices in 2012. She made many connections in Detroit, and joined many organizations. “I don’t have a lot of down time,” she said.

Power metrics: Audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG has 373 employees in Grand Rapids and Detroit. U.S. revenue last year was $7.9 bil-lion. Paquette led local integration work fol-

lowing KPMG’s buyout of Southfield-based advisory firm BBK Ltd. in 2014.

Surprising fact: She’s a member of the De-troit Derby Girls home team, playing for two years despite the occasional black eye or bruise worn to the office. “You focus and don’t worry about everything else” during games, she said.

Super power: Observation. She also calls herself a tremendous planner in family life and business.

Big win: Becoming managing partner of the Detroit office, and working with Beth Chappell, president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Club, to launch United Way for Southeastern Michigan’s Women United ef-fort to address early childhood learning.

Community connections: Board member, Detroit Economic Club, Detroit Regional Chamber, United Way for Southeastern Michigan and Inforum Center for Leader-ship, among others.

Advice for women on success: “Do what you say you’re going to. Be a visible leader in thought and in action. Help others accom-plish their goals.”

Next big goal: Working with KPMG to do-nate more than 10,000 books to Detroit chil-dren as part of the office's 100th anniversary celebration. Paquette’s three sons have expe-rienced reading challenges, and she believes in the power of literacy.

Vickie Elmer

Jackie BuchananPresident and CEO, Genisys Credit Union, Auburn Hills

Career ladder: Buchanan, 49, re-ceived her bachelor’s degree in ac-counting from Walsh College and a master’s in information systems from Lawrence Technological Uni-versity. She started her credit union career in 1986 as an accounts pay-able clerk for Parda Federal Credit Union in Rochester. After a stint at Cornerstone Community Financial in Centerline, she joined Auburn Hills-based Genisys Credit Union (formerly T&C Federal Union) in 1991 as an accounting manager. She became vice president of IT in 1998 and EVP and CIO in 2008. Less than two years later, she became presi-dent and CEO.

Power metrics: Genisys is one of the largest credit unions in the state, with 450 employees, 180,000 mem-bers and $2 billion in 2015 assets.

Secret weapon: Buchanan’s tech-nology background pushes innova-tion across the credit union.

Biggest setback: Early in her ca-reer, Buchanan says, she was shy — which was sometimes perceived by peers and employees as aloof and unapproachable. A Dale Carnegie course helped, and she also joined an industry advisory board.

What drew you to this field? “I al-ways loved accounting in high school, and I was always good with numbers. I joined and stayed with credit unions because I love the philosophy of peo-ple helping people.”

What advice do you have for other young women trying to get into this field? “If you don’t speak up, people will assume you have nothing to say.”

What advice do you have for wom-en when it comes to success? “Show appreciation to everyone who helps you along the way. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and it’s so easy to say thank you.”

Kevin Polzin

Elizabeth HaarCEO, AF Group; EVP/president, emerging markets, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Lansing

Career ladder: Haar earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Michi-gan-Dearborn in 1987 and then be-gan her career as an actuary at Michigan Millers Mutual Insurance Co. In 1997, she became director of actuarial services with Accident Fund Insurance Co. of America and was named president and CEO in 2005. Haar helped launch parent or-ganization Accident Fund Holdings, which was renamed AF Group in March. Haar, 50, is also employed with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mich-igan as EVP/president, emerging markets.

Power metrics: Lansing-based AF Group writes workers’ compensa-tion policies in all 50 states. It sup-ports four brands that covered 2.1 million employees and 2,407 com-panies in 2015. AF Group had $1.14 billion in direct written premiums for 2015. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, parent company of AF Group, serves 4.5 million people.

Special skill: She’s a strategic vi-sionary who knows how to assemble a team.

Why the insurance �eld? “The workers’ compensation industry of-ten gets a bad rap. At its core, its mis-sion is to help people, which is why I am here.”

Advice for young women trying to get into this �eld: Seek intern-ships or entry-level jobs in the in-dustry, or join a rotational training program that allows you to experi-ment in different areas of the indus-try before settling on your niche.

Advice when it comes to success in general: “If you focus on adding value and satisfying the customer rather than your own promotion, you will be successful.”

Bruce Mason

‘Be a visible leader’

Jan Gar�nkle Founder and managing director, Arboretum Ventures, Ann Arbor

Career ladder: Garfinkle, 58, has served as Arboretum Ventures founder and managing director since 2002. Previously, she held a number of marketing roles in bio-tech and research. Garfinkle earned her B.S. in bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Power metrics: With 11 full-time employees, Arboretum manages $450 million in four funds. The ven-ture capital firm has invested in 35 portfolio companies that employ 1,800 people, and that have impact-ed more than 3 million patients. Its most recent big headline came last fall, when the firm announced it had finished raising the largest VC fund in state history, closing Arbore-tum Ventures IV LP at $220 million. Garfinkle targets promising medical device and diagnostic technologies.

Secret weapon: Her three col-lege-age daughters “because they are always challenging and testing my hypothesis about the world.”

Big win: Starting Arboretum Ven-tures in 2002 with the goal of reduc-ing health care costs while main-taining great clinical care.

I recently learned to: Sing! Her daughters gave her singing lessons as a birthday present.

Board/community connections: On boards of portfolio companies Car-diac Dimensions, Cereve, Neu-MoDx, NxThera, Strata Oncology; also on board of directors and execu-tive committee for National Venture Capital Association; former chair of Michigan Venture Capital Associa-tion; member, University of Michi-gan Health Systems Advisory Board.

Best mentors: Her father, then Tim Petersen and Paul McCreadie, her partners at Arboretum.

Vickie Elmer



Marybeth Howe

Career ladder: Howe, 59, earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Michigan in 1978. In 1980, she received her MBA from Ohio State University, and one year later, she joined Na-tional City Bank in Cleveland. She moved to Detroit in 1988 when she was promoted to vice president. She rose to executive vice president and manager of middle market banking in 2002 and became part of the senior management team of National City Bank of Michigan/Il-linois. In 2009, Howe moved to Wells Fargo to manage commercial banking operations and was pro-moted to executive vice president

and division manager of the Great Lakes division.

Power metrics: Wells Fargo is the third-largest bank in the coun-try with assets of $1.9 trillion. There are 1,500 Wells Fargo employees in the state of Michigan and 270,000 employees worldwide. “We have approximately 2,000 wholesale cli-ents in Michigan with over $6 bil-lion in committed capital.” Howe is responsible for middle market banking operations of 10 Wells Far-go offices in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio that offer services including credit, treasury management, glob-al banking and investment bank-ing.

Why the banking industry?“When I was in grad school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do and so I thought, ‘Well, banking would be a great opportunity to learn a lot about a lot of different industries and figure out what I liked.’ ... I thought being a generalist and learning a lot about a lot of things in a very compact time frame would give me more direction. What I found was I really liked the variety of banking — the fact that we deal with all sorts of industries across various-sized spectrums. Every day

is different and every day is a chal-lenge, but it’s certainly not boring.”

How she helps other women: Howe co-chairs the bank’s national Women in Leadership Committee and is a member of the Middle Mar-ket Diversity and Inclusion Com-mittee.

Most rewarding aspects of your job: “Really seeing companies grow

and being able to expand our team. So success, you know, really moti-vates future success, and it’s neat to see companies that we were bank-ing when they were relatively small grow. Maybe they had 50 employ-ees and now they have 250.”

Big win: Being promoted to her current role and being part of the senior leadership team for all of commercial banking nationally.

Surprising fact: She worked out of her home from 1988 to 1998 while managing National City’s large corporate portfolio in Michi-gan. At one point, all four of her children were younger than 4 years old. “This was groundbreaking at the time and the lack of technology, etc., made it even more challeng-ing, but it kept me in the game and allowed me to stay engaged so I could take on leadership roles when the time was right."

Power lesson: “You could be the most talented person in the world, but if you don’t surround yourself with team members who have a shared vision in what you’re trying to accomplish, you’re never going to be satisfied with where you can go and reach your full potential.”

Lauren Shields

Executive vice president, Wells Fargo-Great Lakes Division, South�eld

Suzanne ShankChairman and CEO, Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC, Detroit

Career ladder: For nearly 20 years, Shank, 54, has been CEO of Detroit-based Siebert Brandford Shank & Co., which underwrites municipal bonds and other financial instru-ments. She helped launch a firm with famed Wall Street pioneer Muriel Siebert and took over its leadership after Siebert’s death in 2013. Shank worked on Wall Street for eight years before that. Her first job after graduat-ing from Georgia Tech was as an engineer with General Dynamics’ electric boat divi-sion. Shank has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Power metrics: Shank has participated in more than $1.2 trillion in principal amount of municipal bond transactions and $800 bil-lion in corporate bond and equity transac-tions since her company’s inception.

Super power: Hiring and retaining top tal-ented professionals nationally. She recently added as partners Henry Cisneros, former Department of Housing and Urban Devel-opment secretary; and William Thompson, former comptroller of New York City; and others. “We were looking for what to do in the next phase. They approached me,” she said. (Shank was also listed as metro Detroit’s eighth-most-connected person in Crain’sOctober 2015 report.)

Big win: “Thirteen years after founding the firm, we were faced with the financial crisis. We made the strategic decision to take ad-vantage of the turmoil … by hiring several experienced bankers who were displaced or unhappy. This move precipitated the dou-bling in the size of the firm and dramatic growth.” It also allowed her firm to break into the top 10 municipal bond underwriters in 2010 “and were the first minority- or wom-an-owned firm to do so.”

Recently learned: That truly great leaders find a way to harmonize the different parts of their lives and that this harmony has a syner-gistic effect. She discovered this by reading Stewart Friedman’s book Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life.

Best mentor: Siebert, who was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Siebert’s big message: “Taking risks is sometimes what we have to do to ad-vance our career.”

Quote: “I think that’s critical for me to be an effective CEO to anticipate anything com-ing down the road for the firm” by volunteer-ing on college and other boards.

Advice: “Be an expert at something rather than a generalist at everything. If you’re viewed as the expert, you’re the go-to person, and that’s very important.” Also, education is crucial for all and “can change the trajectory on one’s life.”

Vickie Elmer

‘Be an expert at something’

Mary CampbellCo-founder, managing director, EDF Ventures, Ann Arbor

Career ladder: After getting a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan, Camp-bell taught school in Fairfield, Conn., working on an MBA from UM’s School of Business and a mas-ter’s in special education from Fair-

field University. She then worked at the mortgage banking subsidiary of U.S. Steel, and at Michigan Capital & Service, the venture capital arm of NBD Bancorp, the last five years as president. In 1987, she co-founded EDF Ventures, now the state’s oldest venture capital firm. Campbell, 71, and her husband, Brian, who helped Taylor-based Masco Corp.acquire a portfolio of companies, were given lifetime achievement awards in 2011 by Crain’s and the Detroit chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.

Power metrics: EDF has invested in some 70 companies over the years, and its house on North Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor has served as home to various early stage entrepreneurs, most note-worthy of whom were Kalyan

Handique and Sundaresh Brahma-sandra, who founded HandyLab Inc. in a spare room there and who sold it nine years later for $275 mil-lion. Campbell also claims six initial public offerings of portfolio com-panies and the sale of Greenplum Inc. for more than $300 million.

Surprising facts: Campbell ran her 30th marathon in Boston in April; her first came in Chicago in 2002. In 2014, she did what is called the B2B challenge, running the Bos-ton Marathon and six days later running the Big Sur Marathon in California. Next up: 26.2 miles of the New York Marathon in November.

Super power: Campbell says her success was driven by “my passion for people and for learning.” She also credits her ability and desire to hold concurrent positions of com-

munity and business leadership.Community involvement: Board

of directors, Greenhills School, Ann Arbor; board of trustees, Northern Michigan University; adviser to the Ross School of Business at UM and the Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University; active with the Ann Arbor Art Center, the Lamaze Association, UM’s Life Sciences In-stitute and UM’s Cardiology Center.

Biggest setback: “To paraphrase a colleague, ‘If you don’t want to deal with financial setbacks, don’t join the venture capital business.’ Investing in early stage companies by definition means you will have failures, as the majority don’t suc-ceed. Best case: Wins will be large as losses likely will occur more fre-quently.”

Tom Henderson

Gretchen PerkinsPartner, Huron Capital, Detroit

Career ladder: Perkins, 52, re-ceived a bachelor’s degree in busi-ness administration from the Uni-versity of Michigan in 1986. Her experience includes 14 years in commercial lending and 14 years in private equity, including eight at Detroit-based private equity firm Huron Capital.

Power metrics: Perkins last year held more than 1,000 meetings build-ing her network and seeking deals. She became the first woman named M&A Mid-Market Dealmaker of the Year by Mergers & Acquisitions when the trade publication named her for 2014 and put her on its cover. Huron Capital has 29 employees and $1 bil-lion raised in four funds.

Super power: “My network, fol-lowed closely by the ability to fall asleep within 60 seconds of closing my eyes. (Not kidding!)” Perkins said she also meditates once or twice a day to control stress and achieve focus.

Big win: She was the first woman to be named partner at Huron Capital, in an industry where the business de-velopment track seldom leads there.

Best mentor: “My mother. She al-ways demonstrated being involved and connected, providing the ex-ample for my super power.”

Advice for women on success: Join a committee of your industry trade organization and work on projects with others in your field. “Be un-apologetic about your family. … It’s part of what defines you.”

Quote: “A lot of people can do our jobs, but no one else has your network, and you have to actively build it.”

Vickie Elmer

“You could be the most talented person in the world, but if you don’t surround yourself with team members who have a shared vision ... you’re never going to be satis�ed with where you can go.”



Renee TabbenMarket executive, West Central Michigan, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and market president, Grand Rapids market, Bank of America Corp.

Career ladder: Tabben earned an MBA from Northwestern Universi-ty’s J. L. Kellogg School of Manage-ment. Financial career began after working as a musical theater per-former, with temp work before join-ing Dean Witter Reynolds in 1997 and Morgan Stanley in 2000. She joined Merrill Lynch in 2008. Tab-ben, who is 44, rose to Merrill Lynch Wealth Management market execu-tive for West Central Michigan be-fore adding the role of president for Bank of America’s Grand Rapids market in March.

Power metrics: Bank of America is the nation’s second-largest full-service bank, with $1.6 billion in assets, 220,000 employees and 4,700 branches as of Dec. 31, 2015. On the personal wealth side, she leads more than 130 financial advisers in

the Grand Rapids, Portage, Muskeg-on, Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Sagi-naw and Traverse City offices.

Super power: Her continuous optimism, which is rooted in her mother’s decision to enroll her in the Optimist International Oratori-cal group. “Call it naiveté or Mid-western attitude, each day I believe it’s going to get better,” Tabben said.

Biggest setback: Tabben landed what she thought was her dream job in her late 20s, only to have it eliminated after nine months. “That experience taught me a very valu-able lesson: Change is constant and you need to be ready for it.”

Why did you get into the nancial services eld? “The importance of financial security and being fluent with fundamental building blocks of wealth wasn’t important to me until my sister suffered a dramatic car accident in California. I was working in Ohio at the time and for the first time in my life, the financial situation of my family prevented me and my parents from being able to immediately be with my sister.“

Advice for women seeking suc-cess: “Be brave and embrace change. Don’t wait for someone to show you the path to success. De-fine what success looks like and de-sign a plan to get there. To quote Steven Sondheim, ‘Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.’ Be sure to be ready to seize the opportunity when she shows up!”

Kevin Polzin

Jody VanderwelPresident, Grand Angels, Holland

Career ladder: Vanderwel earned a bachelor’s degree from the Universi-ty of Colorado and a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She was an attorney in pri-vate practice and joined Grand An-gels in 2005 after more than 12 years at Zeeland-based office furniture maker Herman Miller Inc.; Vander-wel is the daughter of former Her-man Miller Chairman and CEO Max De Pree. At Herman Miller, she served first as corporate counsel and later as vice president for cor-porate giving. Vanderwel, 66, is also on the investment committee for Grand Angels’ second fund, GA Ven-ture Fund II, launched in 2015.

Power metrics: Holland-based Grand Angels, which is focused on life sciences, business-to-business technology, advanced manufactur-ing and advanced agriculture com-panies, has invested nearly $20 mil-lion in 35 Michigan early-stage companies since its creation in 2004. In 2015, the Angel Resource

Institute named Grand Angels a “Top 3 Angel Group in the Great Lakes Region” based on its 2010-15 deal flow.

Big win: “I just completed 14 years on the Priority Health board, with four years as chairman. It was a great board when I got there, but I left it a better board. Not that I take all the credit — we did it together — and I think we will continue to build a stronger and a better board.”

Board/community connections: Board member: Baker Publishing Group, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, Calif.), Michigan Strate-gic Fund, Michigan Venture Capital Association, and advisory boards for the Michigan Accelerator Fund I and Northern Trust West Michigan.

Power lesson: “Leadership is the op-portunity to work with a group of people to achieve the purpose, goal or mission of an organization and, in that context, to help the people you work with achieve their potential and their own professional goals. I’ve al-ways worked with people on my work teams to help them understand where they want to go in their careers and what they need to do to get there, and then help prepare them for the next steps to take, while they’re on my team and beyond. People have done that for me, so I’ve tried to do what’s been modeled for me.”

Surprising fact: “I really knew ab-solutely nothing about angel invest-ing when I was approached to join Grand Angels. When I took the job, it

was a real learning curve and as Grand Angels grew, I grew. The big-gest surprise was just how risky it is — when you write off that first failed investment, you realize this is not a sport for the faint of heart.”

Best mentor: “My dad was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and my mom (Ethel De Pree) was really in many ways his partner, his support and the source of a lot of wisdom. They gave me two very different and effective models of leadership man-agement and organization. It shaped who I am and what I am in a very positive way.”

Changes you have seen in how women wield power in Michigan or in your indus-try over the last 10 years: “I’ve seen a real increase in the number of wom-en who are in the venture capital space as a venture partner, an entre-preneur or providing services and coaching entrepreneurs helping them be successful. The increase has changed the tenor of the com-munity in a positive way. I’m also very encouraged to see the growing number of young women in entre-preneurial programs in our colleges and universities. Entrepreneurship is reshaping Michigan’s economy and angel investing is crucial for companies looking to break into these high-risk, high-reward fields.”

Next big goal: “To work hard to have a successful fund so we estab-lish the platform for raising fund III.”

Ann Tappan

Mina SoochPresident/CEO, Gemphire Therapeutics, Northville; co-founder and managing director, Apjohn Ventures, Kalamazoo

Career ladder: India-born Sooch, 48, earned her MBA from Harvard University in 1993 and shortly afterward be-came global account manager, strategy consultant for Monitor Group in Cambridge, Mass., and Chicago. She was an entrepreneur in residence at Ann Arbor-based North Coast Technology Investors LP in 2001 and 2002 and became co-founder and managing partner of Kalam-azoo-based Apjohn Ventures in 2003, where she still serves as a managing director.

She co-founded Plymouth Township-based ProNAi Therapeutics in 2004, which produced a drug for patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Sooch served as its CEO from 2011 until it launched a $158 million IPO in April 2014. After ProNai, Sooch became CEO of Northville-based Gemphire Therapeutics Inc., an early-stage cardiovascular drug development company, which went public in a $60 million offering in April.

Power metrics: Gemphire, which has eight employees, has so far raised $15 million in equity capital. The compa-ny is developing a cardiovascular drug called gemcabene to lower levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol, and of triglycerides, which is fat in the blood. Gemcabene is taken orally once a day.

Super powers: Persistence and passion. She follows the see-an-obstacle, show-a-solution approach. “(I) remap a new plan if there’s a challenge.”

Big win: Over a decade, she nurtured ProNAi through a lot of ups and downs, “dark days and great days.” In April 2014, ProNAi set the record for the largest venture capital round in state history, $59.5 million. Last July, ProNAi had an IPO of $158.4 million. She’s gratified to see its drug in clinics treating cancer patients.

Vickie Elmer

Sandra (Sandy) PierceVice chairman, FirstMerit Corp.;chairman/CEO, FirstMerit Michigan, South eld

Career ladder: Pierce started her career in 1978 as a bank teller at National Bank of Detroit while attending Wayne State University. After graduating, she held roles in marketing, com-mercial banking, retail banking and wealth management at NBD and its successor organizations FirstChicago NBD, Bank One and J.P. Morgan Chase. After 27 years, Pierce joined Royal Bank of Scotland to manage its Charter One subsidiary in the Midwest from 2005 to 2012. She came to First Merit in 2013 upon its acquisition of Citizens Republic Bank.

Power metrics: As vice chairman of FirstMerit Corp., Pierce, 58, has direct responsibility for retail branches, the mortgage company, bank cards, facilities, wealth management and mar-keting. She also is chairman and CEO of FirstMerit Michigan and accountable for all FirstMerit activities in the state. For 2015, the company, which is being acquired by Huntington Bank, had 4,500 employees and assets of $25.4 billion.

Big win: “When I realized my professional success was be-cause of my background not despite it, which eradicated my fear of failure and allowed me to chart my own path.”

I recently learned: “To use my 17-year-old son’s Hoverboard (which, believe me, is not easy, and I don’t go fast).”

Board and community connections: Board chairman, Hen-ry Ford Health System; chairman, Detroit financial advisory board, 2012 through 2014; vice chairman, Business Leaders for Michigan; board member and past chairman of the Detroit Re-gional Chamber of Commerce; board member at Detroit Eco-nomic Club; board member, Downtown Detroit Partnership, College for Creative Studies, Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and United Way, Southeast Michigan.

Surprising fact: “I grew up on Chene Street in Detroit in the flat above my parents’ bar. I’m the youngest of 10 children and the only one to go to college.”

Marti Benedetti

Mary PetrovichExecutive chairman, AxleTech International; senior operating executive, The Carlyle Group, Troy

Career ladder: Petrovich, 53, started her career in manufac-turing at General Motors after earning an engineering degree at the University of Michigan. After getting an MBA from Har-vard University, she worked in finance at Chrysler and later at AlliedSignal Inc. She ran other manufacturers before landing in the private equity industry in 2002.

Power metrics: She works for the global private equity giant Carlyle’s industrial group, which owns businesses with sales from $1 billion to $10 billion. Petrovich is now chairman of Carlyle’s recently reacquired AxleTech International, which has 600 employees with operations in Troy; Chicago; Oshkosh, Wis.; Osasco, Brazil; St. Etienne, France; and China and India.

Special skill: She relishes taking battered businesses and re-pairing them. “I am highly sought and highly regarded by men. They don’t hire me to meet quotas; they hire me because I’m the best.”

Big win: Spinning off AxleTech International from Meritor in 2002. AxleTech had no profits and $100 million in revenue. Carlyle bought it for $5 million. In five years, Carlyle grew it to $600 million in revenue and $120 million in profits. Carlyle sold the business for $300 million, but recently reacquired it.

Board connections: Executive chairwoman of AxleTech In-ternational, which is owned by The Carlyle Group, and mem-ber of the WabCo audit committee and chairman of the Woodward compensation committee.

Surprising fact: Has played in three straight U.S. National Amateur (Golf) Championships.

Quote: “I speak a lot to women’s groups. I hear women who are competing with men ask, ‘How can I be the best woman in the industry?’ I say, ‘You need to think of being the best — pe-riod.’ Women should shoot to be the best, regardless of race or sex.”

Marti Benedetti

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MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: HEALTH CARE

Career ladder: Wilson, 44, an RN, started at Blodgett Hospital, now Spectrum, in Grand Rapids in a va-riety of nurse and nurse leadership roles. From 1998-2011, she worked at University of Chicago Medical Center in multiple roles that in-cluded COO and associate dean. Most recently, she was executive vice president and COO of Fair-view Health Services in Minneapo-lis. She was recruited by Beaumont Health System’s CEO John Fox to be part of the newly merged sys-tem.

Power metrics: Not-for-profit Beaumont Health is Michigan’s largest health care system in inpa-tient admissions and net patient revenue. It has eight hospitals, 168

outpatient sites, nearly 5,000 phy-sicians and 35,000 employees. Net revenue in 2015 was $4.1 billion.

Super power: Focus on “true north” — doing right combined with passion for her job.

Career success: In 2008, Wilson was in a senior role at the Universi-ty of Chicago Medical Center when six other area hospitals closed. Her diplomacy helped navigate the politics of transferring a large in-flux of patients, including large numbers of uninsured patients, to a nearby community hospital. The influx of overall patients helped the other hospital during the re-cession, and over time the two de-veloped other joint programs. “It was a huge win all the way around,” Wilson said.

Advice to women seeking success:“Work hard in things that are your passion.”

Next big goal: “Knit together these eight hospitals at Beaumont as they function as one integrated system.”

Quote: “I have had great pride in being a nurse. I think that it has heavily influenced my ability to be an effective leader in health care. … Being a servant leader is innate to being a nurse.”

Vickie Elmer

Career ladder: Hanna-Attisha, 39, has Michi-gan’s top research universities well-covered — she earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Michigan, a medical degree at Michigan State University, and did her resi-dency and chief residency at Wayne State Uni-versity. She earned a master’s in public health from UM and was on the faculty of Wayne State.

Power metrics: She is now well known as the person who sounded the alarm over lead in Flint’s drinking water. Her work, well above the call of duty, helped the 100,000 people who live in Flint and exposed the truth that 8,000 to 10,000 kids under the age of 6 in Flint — “all of whom deserve the best from us” — had been exposed to lead.

Secret weapon: Describes herself as “stub-born and loud.”

Big win: Hanna-Attisha’s campaign brought the Flint lead issue to global attention. She has been honored about a dozen times, including Time magazine’s 2016 list of the world’s 100 most-influential people.

Before all that, when no one had heard of her, she braved the world by tossing a daring

accusation into it and bracing for what might come back. When the blowback did come, she told CNN in January, she became “physically ill. I think my heart rate went up to 200.”

But Hanna-Attisha, who describes herself as “just a regular mom and a regular person,” was confident about her research numbers on lead exposure when she released them last Sep-tember. “I felt good for maybe two hours, and then right away I was attacked,” she said.

“When the entire state body of experts, when they tell you you’re wrong very publicly, it’s hard not to just want to hide under a cover. My heart rate shot up, I put my hand out and could feel it shaking. But you can’t have cour-age with fear. Things don’t come easy — you have that tachycardia, you have that anxiety.”

That lasted until the state conceded she was right. “For me, it lasted only a week. For the

people of Flint, it lasted 18 months.”I recently learned to: “Give commencement

speeches.” She’s been asked to do eight since the Flint crisis; she's done five.

Board/community connections: Board mem-ber, Michigan Chapter of the American Acade-my of Pediatrics.

Power lesson: “Speaking up is important. Speaking up with data makes change.”

Surprising fact: Her father is a retired metal-lurgist for General Motors, with dozens of pat-ents. He worked at GM’s tech center in Warren, and his specialty was working with zinc.

The irony of this close connection to metals doesn’t escape her. An even greater irony, she said, is that she was born in Sheffield, England, a city with a deep history in metalworking. One of the grim pieces of history she’s learned since the Flint crisis unfolded is that Sheffield was the subject of lead water disasters in the 1890s. That led to miscarriages in Sheffield, and that in turn led some to invent an early abortion pill that was filled with lead.

Best mentor: Her mother was a “strong fe-male figure” who encouraged Hanna-Attisha to do what she wanted, whether it was what was expected of girls or not.

How do you assist other women in your compa-ny? She has doubled the number of women faculty in the pediatric residency program at Hurley to eight, provides flexible work sched-ules and has built new lactation rooms on-site.

What’s your next big goal? Hanna-Attisha wants to raise $100 million for flintkids.org, a program under the Community Foundation of Greater Flint to help with the subsequent needs of the children exposed to lead. These cover the impact of exposure, education and nutrition to manage the effects of lead expo-sure.

She's also working on an initiative with MSU and Hurley to monitor the children for 20 years.

Gary Anglebrandt

Career ladder: Before coming to the center in 2007, Udow-Phillips served as director of the Michigan Department of Human Services under then-Gov. Jennifer Gran-holm. She held various positions at Blue Cross from 1978-1983 and 1988-2004, including senior vice president of health care products and provider services. She also was a senior executive with Mercy Alternative and Care Choices. Udow-Phillips, 62, holds a mas-ter’s degree in health services ad-ministration from the UM School of Public Health, where she now lectures.

Power metrics: The center is a partnership of the University of Michigan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, with 25 em-ployees and an annual budget of $2.5 million.

Big win: Working with the state of Michigan and writing the winning grant, she was able to help bring a five-year, $110 million Michigan Primary Care Transformation demonstration project home. With thousands of physicians involved, MiPCT is proving that patient-cen-tered medical homes can improve quality and reduce costs.

Board/community connections: A trustee on 10 nonprofit boards, in-cluding the HighScope Educational Research Foundation, the Early Childhood Investment Corp., Free-dom from Hunger, Arbor Research, UM School of Public Health dean’s advisory committee and the UM Depression Center National Advi-sory Board.

Power lesson: “Partnerships are essential to success and whenever you help others, you are also help-ing your own organization.”

Surprising fact: She knows all the moves to “Stop in the Name of Love.” The former New Yorker also has all her funeral songs picked out, including “I Heard it through the Grapevine” from her college days and Jay-Z and Alicia’s Keys’ “Empire State of Mind.”

How she assists other women: She is an investor with Belle Capital LP, an angel investment group that fo-cuses on woman-owned or wom-an-led early stage companies.

Next big goal: To help demon-strate how the state of Michigan’s innovation model grant can impact population health by coordinating care between medical, behavioral and social services.

Jay Greene

Lesson: ‘Speaking up is important’Mona Hanna-Attisha, M.D.Director of the pediatric residency program, Hurley Medical Center, Flint;assistant professor of pediatrics and human development, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Marianne Udow-PhillipsDirector, Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation, Ann Arbor

Carolyn WilsonCOO, Beaumont Health, Royal Oak

Tricia KeithExecutive vice president, chief of sta� and corporate secretary, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Detroit

Career ladder: Keith, 45, has a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University and an MBA from Michigan State University. She was director of business oper-ations with the state House of Rep-resentatives and a vice president of community relations at the Michi-gan Economic Development Corp. before joining Detroit-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in 2006 to support newly appointed CEO Daniel Loepp.

Power metrics: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has more than 7,000 employees and annual reve-nue of approximately $24 billion. Along with supporting Loepp and the board, Keith oversees 300 em-ployees and a $110 million budget,

which covers such corporate ser-vices as real estate, procurement, security, community responsibility and diversity and inclusion.

Super power: “I believe that great things can happen when self-in-terests align, working together with community or corporate partners to help identify how we can harness the mutual power to help each other to accomplish even better things together.”

Big win: Her role is leading BLUnite, the 2010 consolidation of 7,000 employees in a seven-build-ing, three-block urban campus in downtown Detroit. She also coor-dinated the transition of BCBSM to a nonprofit mutual company.

Board/community connections:Chairman, Detroit Business Im-provement Zone; vice chairman, Central Michigan University board of trustees; board member, The Pa-rade Co., MEDC Foundation and New Detroit.

Surprising fact: Climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

How you assist other women in your company, in your community, in the world: Keith served as co-chair-man of the Michigan Women’s Foundation annual dinners, rais-ing more than $1.2 million in 2015 and 2016.

Power lesson: “The world is run by those who show up.”

Lauren Shields“Being a servant leader is innate to being a nurse.”


Lead: What Diana Sieger does.Grow: What everything around her does.Congratulations Diana Sieger, Grand Rapids Community Foundation President for 28 years, on being named one of the Most Influential Women in Michigan by Crain’s Detroit.

G R F O U N D A T I O N . O R G

Career ladder: Freese-Decker earned a bach-elor’s degree in finance from Iowa State Uni-versity. In 2002, she received a master’s of health administration and a master’s in health management and industrial engineering from the University of Iowa. She started her fast-ris-ing career at Spectrum Health as an adminis-trative fellow in 2002 and was promoted to di-rector of planning and strategic development in 2003. Three years later, she became vice president of system strategic planning and de-velopment. In 2011, she was named president of Spectrum Health United and Kelsey Hospi-tals, and in 2013 she was named senior vice president and chief strategy officer. Fre-

ese-Decker, 38, moved into the president’s job leading the hospital group in 2014.

Power metrics: Spectrum Health consists of 12 hospitals and more than 3,400 physicians and advanced practice providers. It has more than 23,000 employees.

Secret weapon: Her curiosity. Throughout her career in health care, she has asked ques-tions that help her learn and help her team find winning solutions.

Advice for young women seeking a health care career: “You have to have a passion for it; you have to be excited about your job every day. So if you want to get in this field, especially in health care, you have to be all in. Commit yourself.”

Advice for women seeking success: “Be pres-ent, be engaged, sit at the table and also share your opinion. Don’t be afraid to put your opin-ion out there. And even though some may dis-

agree with you, you support it and believe in it. Believe in yourself.”

Julie Angell

Advice for success: ‘Be engaged; believe in yourself’Christina Freese-DeckerPresident, Spectrum Health Hospital Group, Grand Rapids

Melany Gavulic

Career ladder: MacKenzie, 61, spent 27 years at the Detroit Medi-cal Center, including stints as presi-dent at several DMC hospitals be-fore moving to the Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Health Care System. In 2014, Ascension Health recruited her to return as Michigan market leader, responsible for the adminis-trative direction, strategic position-ing and operations of the system’s 13 hospitals. Her health career be-gan as an oncology nurse practi-tioner.

Power metrics: Ascension’s Michi-gan hospitals have 5,000 physicians and more than 25,000 associates, with $3.7 billion in assets and a $1.4 billion payroll.

Secret weapon: “Being a clinician and able to relate to physicians adds

credibility because they don’t ex-pect it. They expect me to be a CPA or CFO. I can be a calm person, but I’m also a skilled negotiator.”

Big win: “Our acquisition of Crit-tenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester Hills last August, and bringing all the institutions we own into an integrated ministry.”

Surprising fact: “I used to play hockey.”

Quote: “Teamwork in leadership today is critical because the power or title can change, but the team-work does not change.”

Marti Benedetti

President and CEO, Hurley Medical Center, Flint

Career ladder: Gavulic, 47, has a bachelor’s degree from Kettering University, a nursing degree from Mott Community College and an MBA from Baker College’s Center for Graduate Studies. She started at Hurley Medical Center in Flint in 1994 in nurse adminstration and was promoted several times before becoming president and CEO in April 2012. With the excep-tion of six months at a Grand Rap-ids health plan, Gavulic has built her career at Hurley.

Power metrics: Hurley is a pub-lic, 443-bed nonprofit teaching hospital with nearly 2,700 employ-ees. Owned by the city of Flint but operating independently and re-ceiving no money from the city, Hurley had revenue of $418.8 mil-lion in fiscal 2015.

Secret skill: “Approachability. No matter what leadership role you are in … you have to be willing to make it comfortable for people to tell you anything.”

Why she got into health care: As a health career volunteer at Hurley, she noticed nurses felt misunder-stood by administrators. “I knew that if I was going to take an ad-ministrative route, I was going to have to come up with a way to also pursue a clinical degree so that I could have a better understanding of what it truly was like at the bed-side.”

Kevin Polzin

Gwen MacKenzieSenior vice president, Michigan market executive, Ascension Health Michigan, Novi


Career ladder: Meyer, 55, has bachelor’s degrees in public health education and nursing; she earned a master’s degree in advanced practice nursing from Loyola Uni-versity Chicago. She started her nursing career as an oncology nurse in Glenview, Ill. She became COO of Providence Park Hospital in Novi in 2008 and was promoted to president. In 2013, she was named president and CEO of St. John Providence.

Power metrics: St. John Provi-dence is a five-hospital system with 2,000 in-patient beds, 16,000 em-ployees and $2 billion in revenue.

Special skill: Her experience as an oncology nurse gives her credi-bility among physicians and other clinicians. She says it also helped her become a compassionate lis-tener and communicator.

Biggest setback: The economic downturn in 2008 that forced her to make difficult cost-cutting deci-sions.

Why she went into the medical �eld: “I recognized as a young woman that caregiving and healing were for me, as was teaching. I liked the idea of providing care and educat-ing others, and I liked challenging myself to learn not just the art of nursing, but also the science.”

Advice for others: “My advice is for both men and women. Men can make great nurses, and wom-en can make great administrators.”

Lauren Shields

Jean Meyer President and CEO, St. John Providence Health System, Warren

Denise Brooks-WilliamsPresident and CEO, Henry Ford Hospital, Wyandotte

Career ladder: Brooks-Williams was headed toward a career in clin-ical psychology when she was in-troduced to hospital administra-tion through an internship program between her junior and senior years at the University of Michigan. It led to an ongoing appreciation for the importance of hospital administra-tion in impacting health care. After she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in health care administra-tion from UM, she began her career as a fellow at Mercy Hospital in De-troit. That led to top executive posi-tions at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland. She was president and CEO of Bronson Health Care System in Bat-tle Creek before taking that same role at Henry Ford Wyandotte in 2013. She is 48.

Power metrics: The 401-bed acute care hospital in Wyanotte serves the Downriver region and surrounding communities of southeast Michigan with approxi-mately 2,400 employees, 600 medi-cal staff members, including Henry Ford Health Center-Brownstown outpatient facility and physician practices.

Super power: “My ability to influ-ence people toward a goal or activ-ity. I’m fairly compelling, and I spend a lot of time thinking about how to motivate and influence people to accomplish what we

need to accomplish.” Big win: Leading a team that has

established quality and safety as hallmarks of service at Henry Ford Wyandotte. She believes that helped the hospital be named one of the 100 best in the country by Healthgrades for the second year in a row.

Recently learned: “I’m learning my capacity. ... You can only do so much. Historically, I’ve been a per-son who said, ‘I can do it all.’ ... But I’m learning to create some bal-ance.”

Cassandra Spratling

“I spend a lot of time thinking about how to motivate and inuence people to accomplish what we need to accomplish.”

We’re privileged to be on a first-name basis with three of the Most Influential Women in Michigan. Your contributions help us go further every day, congratulations:

Marcy Klevorn, VP and CIO, Ford; Donna Inch, Chairman and CEO, Ford Land; Birgit Behrendt, VP, Global Programs and Purchasing Operations, Ford



Career ladder: After earning a bachelor’s degree in ac-counting from Michigan State University in 1989, Cze-lada became an auditor for KPMG Peat Marwick and then a CPA. In 1992, she joined Delta Dental as the su-pervisor of compliance au-diting; she has progressed through a number of roles, including CFO and CIO, be-fore becoming president and CEO of Delta Dental of Mich-igan, Ohio and Indiana in 2012.

Czelada, 56, also heads the audit committee for C3 Jian, a biotech company.

Power metrics: In Czelada’s first year, Delta Dental of Michigan reported a 7.5 per-cent increase in revenue, net-ting $1.407 billion. Under her leadership, the Healthy Kids Dental program expanded into all 83 of Michigan's counties.

It became available to Medicaid-eligible children, to age 12, in Kent, Wayne and Oakland counties in June

2015. Delta Dental has affili-ates in seven states and serves more than 73 mil-lion Americans with dental insurance.

In fiscal year 2014, Delta Dental posted $19.5 billion in premium revenue.

Special skill: “I am a firm believer in the value of team-work.”

Why she got into the �eld:She became familiar with her client Delta Dental when she worked for KPMG.

“I was impressed with its strong values — the way it operated as well as its mis-sion to improve oral health and support the communi-ties where it does business.”

Advice for women seeking success: “Find something you’re passionate about and pursue it. Stay open to new experiences. Never stop learning.”

Bruce Mason

Career ladder: Vogelsang, 56, started as a paralegal out of high school. After getting married and having two daughters, she “took a liking to investments” and went to college studying finance.

She earned her MBA from Grand Valley State Universi-ty and worked as investment manager for JVA Enterpris-es, the family office of Am-way Corp. co-founder Jay Van Andel and his wife, Bet-ty. She joined Fifth Third Bank, where she rose to vice president/senior portfolio manager for the wealth man-agement group. She came to the Van Andel Institute, a bio-medical research and educa-tional facility, in 2005 — in time to set up the institute’s investment program.

Power metrics: She is re-sponsible for managing the $1.5 billion in Van Andel In-stitute endowment. Income from the endowment covers the institute’s overhead, in-cluding 350 scientists, educa-

tors and staff who focus on the origins of cancer to re-search in Parkinson’s disease. She works with three invest-ment professionals at the in-stitute and 40 external man-agers worldwide to manage funds invested in real estate, commodities, public shares and emerging markets, such as Nigeria and Colombia.

Big win: Setting up the VAI investment office from the ground up. She’s the second woman to earn the chartered financial analyst designation in West Michigan.

Board connections: Vice chairwoman, Michigan Women’s Commission; board member, Meijer Gar-dens, among others. Active at alma mater GVSU.

Surprising fact: She used to sing in a rock band — a ga-rage band. Today, she sings in her church choir.

Vickie Elmer


Laura CzeladaPresident and CEO, Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, Okemos

Kathleen VogelsangChief investment o cer, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids

Mindi FynkePresident and CEO, Employee Health Insurance Management Inc., South�eld

Career ladder: Fynke, 62, has been working for nearly 30 years at Employee Health In-surance Management Inc., the company she founded in 1987. Before that, she worked in oncology and OB-GYN fields, where she says she “saw first-hand the frustration, confusion, and stress people experienced trying to under-stand health insurance.”

Power metrics: EHIM manages pharmacy benefit programs and employs 130 people. Fynke’s company had $131 million in 2015 revenue.

Secret weapon: “In my ca-reer, my ability to think ab-stractly has given me an edge. When everyone else says no, I can usually figure out a way to say yes.”

Board and community con-nections: Chair, American Diabetes Association’s Southeast Michigan Chap-ter; treasurer, Jewish Voca-tional Services; board mem-ber, Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit, Detroit Eco-nomic Club and Wayne

State; member of the Nation-al Association of Women Business Owners, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, Committee of 200 and Michigan Women’s Foundation’s Power of 100 program.

Surprising fact about your-self: “I’ve had four holes-in-one!”

How you assist other wom-en: She assists through groups like the Committee of 200. “We exchange our suc-cess stories and our battle wounds and we learn so much from one another.” She also mentors younger women, saying “there’s noth-ing more rewarding than en-couraging them to find their passion and watching them evolve as they follow it.”

Next big goal: Fynke seeks an albatross — that is, a dou-ble eagle on the golf course.

Gary Anglebrandt


duffeypetrosky

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Congratulations toLinda Paullin-Hebdenfor being recognized as one of the Most Influential

Women in 2016 as a result of her leadership

and impact on those around her. All of us

at Warner Norcross & Judd are extremely

proud of Linda and this high honor.

Linda Paullin-Hebdenhttp://wnj.com/Linda_Paullin-Hebden

Career ladder: Brown, 47, has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Illinois, an MBA from the University of Chi-cago and is a graduate of the ex-ecutive education program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. She joined Ernst & Young in 1990, be-came financial planning and analysis director for Benton Har-bor-based Whirlpool Corp.’s Eu-ropean operations in 1998 and was named global product de-velopment director for Whirl-pool in 2001. Brown joined Perri-go Co. in 2004 as corporate controller, was named executive vice president and CFO in 2006 and became executive vice presi-dent of business operations and CFO in April. She also is member of St. Louis-based Belden Inc.’s board of directors.

Power metrics: Perrigo, based in Allegan but incorporated in Ireland, is a global health care supplier with more than $4 bil-lion in revenue in 2015 and 10,220 employees. It is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of generic and private-label phar-maceuticals, supplements and infant formula. Perrigo fended off a $26 billion hostile takeover attempt last year by Mylan NV.

Special skill: Ability to quickly handle complexity and prioritize.

Biggest setback: Brown doesn’t view anything in her career as a setback, even though she isn’t thrilled with things like poor quarterly earnings reports. “I’ve always tried to look forward and say, ‘What did I learn this week?’ ”

Why she got into the pharma-ceutical �eld: Brown prefers com-panies that make physical prod-ucts. She also pointed to her “adaptable financial skills” and the industry’s long-term growth: “People always need health care.”

Best mentor: She draws her philosophy from sources includ-ing Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.

Kevin Polzin


Judy BrownExecutive vice president and CFO, Perrigo Co., Allegan

Eva Feldman, M.D.Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology, University of Michigan Medical School; director of A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute and director of UM’s ALS clinic, Ann Arbor

Career ladder: One of the nation’s top ALS researchers, Feldman, 64, holds undergraduate degrees in bi-ology and chemistry from Earlham College in Indiana, a master’s in zo-ology from the University of Notre Dame, and a Ph.D in neuroscience and M.D. from the University of Michigan. UM named her director of Neurology Research and Discov-ery in 2000, Russell N. DeJong Pro-fessor and director of ALS research in 2004, and director of the Taub-man institute in 2008.

Power metrics: Feldman’s research team is overseeing Phase 2 U.S. Food and Drug Administration tri-als treating ALS patients with injec-tions of embryonic human stem cells. She’s also seeking funding for trials for Alzheimer’s patients. In tri-als with mice, scans of the brain af-ter treatment show near disappear-ance of the plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Secret weapon: Working with “several truly exceptional col-leagues. It is having these amazing individuals as part of my laboratory team and along my career path that have made all the difference.”

Cool miracle: Results on trials with mice with Alzheimer's have been dramatic, Feldman said. Mice with inherited genes for Alzheimer’s dis-ease who were in full dementia were injected with 50,000 stem cells. When normal mice are given two identical objects in their cage one day, they will sniff them out. The next day, if one of those objects is put back in with a new object, the mice spend most of their time in-vestigating the new object. The Alz-heimer’s mice spend just as much time with the old object because they don't remember it. After get-ting stem cells, they ignored the old object and focused on the new one.

Most recent honor: In March, Feld-man was one of three U.S. physi-cians honored for clinical excel-lence at the 11th annual Castle Connolly National Physician of the Year Awards in New York. Of the 900,000 licensed physicians in the U.S., only 47,000 make Castle Con-nelly Medical Ltd.’s directories for best doctors. Of those, only three are honored annually with the peer-nominated and -reviewed clinical excellence awards.

Tom Henderson

“People always need health care.”


Career ladder: Budden, 54, start-ed her career as a dental hygienist. After a year, she joined Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan, where she worked in a number of strategic planning positions. She joined Priority Health in 2009 and was named president and CEO in January.

Power metrics: Oversees $3 bil-lion and 1,200 employees state-wide for Priority Health, which covers 725,000 members across Michigan.

Special skill: “I’m good at strate-gic planning and knowing and un-derstanding markets. I’m consum-er focused.”

Big win: Priority Health’s success in attracting new members. “Fif-ty-four percent of all seniors in Michigan who selected a new Medicare advantage plan for 2016 chose Priority Health. When peo-ple have a choice, they chose us, and every month it is repeating it-self. We are doubling our member-ship.”

Recently learned: “The value of having a high-performing team. It allows you to achieve more and

have more fun doing it.”Board/community connections:

Board chair, Michigan Women’s Foundation; board member, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park; board member; Experience Grand Rapids; vice chair, Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce; board member, Inde-pendent Bank Corp.; board mem-ber; YMCA for Grand Rapids; board member, The Children’s Center in Detroit.

Power lesson: “On a day-to-day basis, I like to treat others as if I don’t have any power. But, on the other hand, power gives you a platform to speak openly for the causes you believe in.”

Surprising fact: “I love to sweat in hot yoga.”

Best mentor: Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (see Page M35). Also Terry Merritt, group vice pres-ident at Walbridge.

How she helps other women: “I like to work with two or three peo-ple early in their career and give them feedback — positive and negative.”

Changes in how women wield power: “We are more likely to help each other be more successful. It used to be such a struggle that not every woman would be willing to help other women. Additionally, just networking with women is not enough; we need to network with women and men.”

Next big goal: Giving consumers good choices in health care throughout all stages of life.

Guilty pleasure: Milk chocolate.Marti Benedetti

Career ladder: Parker, 61, started at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and joined Health Alliance Plan, or HAP, in 1979 as one of 14 original employees. She worked her way up to when, in 2004, she was named president and CEO of HAP and senior vice president for Henry Ford Health System. She retired in 2008, but she, in her words, “flunked retirement” and came on as a con-sultant and then executive director to the UAW medical benefits trust, which she launched and built, allowing retirees to gain benefits rather than lose them.

Power metrics: The UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust provides access to health care coverage for nearly 720,000 retirees and their dependents from GM, Chrysler and Ford, making it the largest nongovernmental pur-chaser of U.S. retiree health care. It has ap-proximately $60 billion in assets and spends $4.2 billion on health care annually.

Super power: “I am highly organized, ana-lytical and decisive. I use data to make deci-sions. ... I am a clear thinker and can get to the heart of a matter quickly. Importantly, I have a good eye for good people, for devel-oping sometimes raw talent.”

Big wins: Following HAP’s acquisition of SelectCare in 2001, Parker and her leader-ship team led the integration of the two businesses into one.

“This was a huge learning experience for all involved. Little did I know then that my acquisition and integration experience at HAP would inform my second ‘win’ — lead-ing a team to build the UAW trust’s opera-tions literally from the ground up. We had to build the infrastructure — from benefit de-velopment to carrier contracting, to phar-macy network contracting, etc. — to serve members in all 50 states. When we hit the go-live button at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2010, 850,000 retiree members were looking to the trust to manage their health care benefits. We were ready.”

I recently learned to: Influence health poli-

cy at the national level. After years in mostly operations roles, “it was surprising to me how much I enjoy advocating for and edu-cating others on health care issues.”

Board/community connections: Member of the board of trustees of Dana VEBA, Bosch VEBA and ACC VEBA; board member of Sie-na Heights University; past chairman, board of regents, and a former regent for Eastern Michigan University; chairman of the board of the Greater Detroit Area Health Council; board member of the Alliance for Health Re-form.

Surprising fact: “I can operate in an extro-vert world. … Actually, I am an introvert.”

Best mentor: Her mother, Angelina Parker, 86 years old. “She is strong-willed, indepen-

dent and determined. Widowed with four daughters, she was resilient, organized and giving. She worked for Detroit Public Schools as a paraprofessional. She invented the word ‘multitask.’ She is my inspiration.”

How she assists other women: “At the na-tional and state level, one of the UAW trust’s major corporate governance initiatives is advocating for gender and cultural diversity on governing boards of publicly traded com-panies where the trust is an investor.”

This initiative has resulted in 14 female directors elected to 12 company boards since 2012.

Next big goal: Parker wants to keep build-ing the trust and how it delivers health care to retirees. “The trust is at the forefront of re-shaping how policymakers, payers and pro-viders approach health care for retirees. It is a completely different demographic. I could not be in a more exciting point in my career. At the trust, we are still writing the script.”

Advice for young professionals: “I would encourage people to get involved — to get involved in organizations, in nonprofits. ... The more people you’re exposed to, you can learn from those people. Pick up what works: How do they connect? How do they lead? How do they manage? ... Maintain your friendships and relationships over the years. And just because you have a relationship doesn’t mean you’re not a tough negotiator and you stand up.”

Vickie Elmer

Career ladder: Schlichting, 61, graduated from Duke University in 1976 with a major in public policy studies. She started her health care career in entry-level jobs — nurse’s aide, unit secretary, switchboard operator — in three hospitals. She earned an MBA from Cornell Uni-versity in 1979. In 1983, at age 28, she became the COO of 650-bed Akron City Hospital in Ohio. De-spite being outed as gay in an anon-ymous letter to the hospital’s board in an attempt to block her promo-tion, she later became COO and CEO at hospitals in Columbus and Akron. She joined Henry Ford Health System as SVP and chief ad-ministrative officer in 1998 before becoming COO in 1999, president and CEO of Henry Ford Hospital in 2001, and system CEO two years later. She retires in December.

Power metrics: In 2015, Henry Ford Health System had $5 billion in revenue with 27,000 employees. Since merging in 2016 with Alle-giance Health in Jackson and ac-quiring HealthPlus in Flint, the company will approach $5.5 bil-lion this year. Henry Ford Health has six hospitals and nearly 100 ambulatory sites.

Big win: When the hospital sys-tem won the coveted 2011 Mal-colm Baldrige National Quality Award, “everybody won the award, and that is what makes it so mean-ingful and important.”

Super power: Her focus on peo-ple. “My fundamental job as a CEO is to create a great environment for people to do great work and to reach their potential.”

What sacri�ces have you had to make? Schlichting works 70-80 hours a week, so she would consid-er time to be the largest sacrifice. According to Schlichting, though, she has never sacrificed time with her family; she has sacrificed time for hobbies such as golf, swimming, and playing the violin.

Surprising fact: She played golf at the Augusta National Golf Club.

I recently learned to: Do book signings. In October 2015, her book Unconventional Leadership: What Henry Ford and Detroit Taught Me About Reinvention and Diversity was published.

Board/community connections: Board member, Walgreen Co., Kresge Foundation, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago-Detroit Branch, Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Board of Visitors, De-troit Economic Club, Detroit Re-gional Chamber, Downtown De-troit Partnership.

You’re retiring this year. Will you continue to be active in the commu-nity? “I will be joining some addi-tional public boards after I retire,” wrote Schlichting. “My spouse, Pam, and I will be staying in the Detroit area after I retire, and look forward to being active in the com-munity.” Detroit children are an area of interest.

Lauren Shields

Has a good eye for good peopleFrancine ParkerExecutive director, UAW Retiree Medical Bene�ts Trust, Detroit


Joan BuddenPresident and CEO, Priority Health, Grand Rapids

Nancy SchlichtingCEO, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit

Rebekah SmithPresident/CEO, Lake Huron Medical Center, previously St. Joseph Mercy Port Huron

Career ladder: Smith worked as a staff nurse and later joined the ICU of the hospital. After being promoted to ICU director, she moved into administration in 2012, and was then promoted to CEO. Smith, 57, earned a bache-lor’s in nursing from Siena Heights University and a master’s in health care administration from Central Michigan University.

Power metrics: A 144-bed hos-pital with 800 employees and 2015 revenue of $85 million.

Big win: Led the hospital through ownership shift from nonprofit St. Joseph Mercy to for-profit Prime Healthcare.

Board and community connec-tions: Chairman of United Way for St. Clair County’s 2016-2017 cam-paign; board member, Blue Water YMCA, and the Economic Devel-opment Alliance for St. Clair County; alumni board, St. Clair County Community College.

Power lesson: “Power must be used honestly and with humility in order to be effective.”

Surprising fact: She was born at the hospital.

Paul Vachon

PROUD TO BE LED BY ONE OF MICHIGAN’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN



Career ladder: She has a bache-lor’s degree in mechanical engineer-ing from Purdue University, a mas-ter’s in mechanical engineering from Oakland University and an MBA from the University of Michi-gan. Started at FCA in 1994 and was promoted frequently. In 2014, she became vice president of systems and component engineering for FCA North America. In February,

Barman, 44, was appointed to her current role.

Power metrics: Barman is respon-sible for electrical and electronic system and component design, de-velopment, validation and quality performance for FCA North Ameri-ca’s vehicle lineup. This includes technologies such as body electron-ics, wiring, passive safety electron-ics, infotainment, driver assistance, autonomy, and cybersecurity. FCA U.S. has 37 manufacturing facilities, and shipped 2.7 million vehicles in 2015.

Special skill: “To listen and ob-serve. Just taking the time to not only listen but observe body lan-guage, you can gain a lot of insight in the situation.”

Surprising fact: “I am only 5-foot 2 but I was the starting point guard on my high school basketball team in Crown Point, Ind.”

Community connections: Board of directors for the Michigan Sci-ence Center. Involved in Inforum.

Leslie Green

Career ladder: Clegg joined Gener-al Motors in 1983 as a manufacturing engineer at the Cadillac Motor Car Division’s Clark Street Plant. She pro-gressed through manufacturing as-signments in stamping and assem-bly plants, and in 2011 became vice president of labor relations and suc-cessfully led GM’s negotiations for the UAW-GM national agreement. She moved up to North American manufacturing VP in 2014 and add-ed labor relations in 2015. Clegg is 56.

Power metrics: Clegg leads more

than 74,000 employees with respon-sibility for 55 facilities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Secret weapon: “Relationships. It is easy to direct people to do some-thing, but the secret to success is be-ing able to facilitate relation-ship-building.”

Big win: “My biggest accomplish-ment is my husband and I raising two wonderful daughters. One just finished graduate school and is an assistant principal in Oklahoma, and the other is working at GM.”

I recently learned to: “Stand-up paddle board in the ocean.”

Power lesson: “I am a servant first to those I lead.” Inspiring and clear communication is key.

Board/community connections: Board member of Building America’s Tomorrow, a nonprofit that promotes advanced manufacturing to youth.

What's your next big goal? “I want to be part of developing the next gen-eration to understand and appreciate manufacturing and the opportunity that is there for people who choose manufacturing as a path.”

Ann Tappan

Career ladder: Colpron earned a civil law degree from the Universite de Montreal in 1992 and worked for a Montreal law firm and as legal director in Hong Kong for a company that specialized in natural re-sources, forestry and construction materials. She joined auto supplier Valeo in 1998 as its legal director in Paris. In 2005, she moved to the U.S. as general counsel of Valeo North America Inc. in Troy. Colpron, now 45, be-came president in 2008.

Power metrics: Valeo North America gen-erated revenue of $3.3 billion in 2015 and employs more than 12,000 in the U.S., Mexi-co and Canada. The business makes up 24

percent of Valeo’s global sales. Under Col-pron, the company has had double-digit revenue increases annually, created a Silicon Valley presence, and expanded the engi-neering and technical workforce for new technologies in fuel economy, lighting and cockpit controls.

Secret weapon: “My very diverse cultural experience. I am half-Canadian, half-Peruvi-an. I’ve lived in North America, South Amer-ica, Europe, Asia and Africa. I really value what every team member has to bring to the table, a diverse background and culture.”

Biggest career lesson: “At one point, I de-cided to prioritize a personal decision over a career evolution. I decided to come to the U.S. from Paris, following my husband back to his country. I went from being a director in Paris, a legal director, to be based here in the

U.S. to start a family. I thought it was going to really set my career back, but, truthfully, it opened doors. I ended up becoming the GC (general counsel) for Valeo, eventually be-coming president. I guess this is more of a lesson that sometimes you think you’re tak-ing a lateral move or a smaller position be-cause other aspects are more important. But it doesn’t mean it’s a dead end.”

How do you approach getting more women leaders in automotive?

“A lot of women put on their own glass ceiling. We interviewed women internally and found surprising results. One woman didn’t want a promotion because she want-ed to start a family. You can have both. Then it’s the organization. We have to have the person at the top that believes in this, then it creates an inclusive environment. You also

need to bring in the men through the spon-soring or mentoring. They need to see the business case. It’s not just a nice thing to do ... 80 percent of car buying decisions are in-fluenced by women. You have to have peo-ple that represent the consumer.”

Dustin Walsh

You’ve always been our most in uential woman! Thanks for all you do for the Roxbury Group and for our City.

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: AUTOMOTIVE

Francoise ColpronPresident, Valeo North America Inc., Troy

Christine (Chris) BarmanHead of electrical and electronics engineering, FCA North America, Auburn Hills

Cathy CleggVice president, North America manufacturing and labor relations, General Motors, Detroit

Break your glass ceiling

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To our President + CEO, Kouhaila Hammer, and all of the female business leaders

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our congratulations for your recognition as one of Crain’s Most Influential Women!

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Inspiring our company.Impacting our community.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Care Network and AF Group congratulate

two outstanding executives — Tricia Keith and Elizabeth Haar — on being named

to Crain’s 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan. Your proven leadership extends

beyond your office doors and has created a lasting impact on our community.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofi t corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Tricia Keith Elizabeth Haar



Career ladder: Barra, 54, earned a bache-lor’s degree in electrical engineering from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in Flint in 1985, then an MBA from Stanford University in 1990. Barra worked as a co-op student while at GMI be-fore becoming an engineer. She later be-came the plant manager for GM’s De-troit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, was promoted to vice president of global engi-neering in 2008, then vice president of hu-man resources in 2009. GM named Barra vice president of global product develop-ment in 2011, adding global purchasing and supply chain in 2013. She assumed the CEO role in January 2014 and later became chair-man of its board in January 2016. She also serves on the boards of aerospace/defense contractor General Dynamics, chairing the finance and benefits committee, and Stan-ford University.

Power metrics: Barra is the only woman to lead one of the eight largest automakers in the world. General Motors is the third-larg-est automaker, with revenue of $153 billion in 2015 and with more than 215,000 employ-ees worldwide.

Super power: Barra considers her ability to build strong teams and facilitate collabo-ration within GM as fundamental to her success.

Biggest setback: “Setbacks — in work and in your personal life — are inevitable. What’s

important is how you deal with them. What I’ve learned is if you don’t address problems head on and right away, they get bigger. Ig-noring the issue and hoping the problem will solve itself are not strategies. It’s much better to get the right people together, address the challenge and keep moving forward.”

What de�nes a powerful or in�uential woman in today’s business world, particular-ly in Detroit? “Successful leaders are typical-ly defined by the work they do and the im-pact they make. If I can help pave the way in the transformation of the automotive in-dustry, bring added value to our customers and create value for our shareholders, I con-sider that influential.”

A lot of discussion has been aimed at whether you were given the “glass cli” a�er replacing former CEO Dan Akerson only weeks ahead of the ignition switch recall issue. What do you make of this concept? “I don’t subscribe to the ‘glass cliff’ phenomenon.”

Are we seeing a sea change in how women can navigate executive positions? “Women are making progress. Look at all the major companies with women CEOs — IBM, Pep-si, YouTube, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin — or government positions, such as Janet Yellen heading the Federal Reserve. You’re seeing more women on boards. Five of the 12 members of the GM board of direc-tors are women, and a sixth has been nomi-nated to replace a retiring board member at

our annual meeting of shareholders in June. If that happens, women will make up half of our board.”

Advice to women in the �eld: “In many in-dustries, including ours, many women re-move themselves from opportunities too early. I urge them to stay in the game. Don’t self-select out of future positions.”

The industry is changing, likely forever, with advancements in mobility. GM invested heavily in Ly�. How do you sell that to the board, knowing car-sharing likely means few-er car sales in the future? “I’m not convinced it means fewer sales. I look at it as an oppor-tunity to parlay our resources, expertise and scale to capitalize on societal trends and new opportunities to move people. It’s about being ambidextrous — managing our core business while redefining our future. We have an opportunity to create a viable and profitable business in the area of urban mobility. Our alliance with Lyft and other companies is helping us create an integrat-ed network of on-demand autonomous ve-hicles. In the meantime, Lyft drivers and customers today have access to our portfo-lio of vehicles and OnStar services, creating a richer ride-sharing experience for drivers and passengers alike. We’re also now a pre-ferred provider of short-term-use vehicles to Lyft drivers through dedicated rental hubs in the U.S.”

What’s the biggest challenge in automo-tive right now? “Fundamentally, the way our customers interact with our vehicles is go-ing to change in a way that hasn’t happened

since the industry was born more than 100 years ago. Some may view this as a disrup-tion, but we see it as a tremendous opportu-nity. With the Lyft alliance, our Maven car-sharing brand and the addition of Cruise (Automation), we have a lot of pieces of the puzzle that will enable us to redefine the future of mobility.”

What still gets you excited to go to work in the morning? “This is a very special compa-ny and business, and a privilege I never take for granted. Vehicles play an important role in people’s lives. For many, it’s the sec-ond-most important purchase they make, behind their homes. That’s why we put our customers at the center of everything we do — whether it’s bold new designs, innovative features or new technologies that add value and make their lives easier. At the same time, we are moving rapidly to redefine the future of personal mobility around the world. That’s very exciting.”

Dustin Walsh

Mary BarraChairman and CEO, General Motors Co., Detroit

Don’t dismiss opportunitiesMOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: AUTOMOTIVE

Alicia Boler-DavisSenior vice president, global connected customer experience, General Motors Co., Detroit

Career ladder: Boler-Davis, 47, earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in 1991. She joined General Motors Co. in 1994 as an engi-neer in Warren before earning a master’s in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic In-stitute in New York in 1998. She then became a plant manager at GM operations in Lansing and Arlington, Texas, and eventually in Orion Township. In June 2012, GM promoted Bol-er-Davis to vice president of global quality and customer experience before moving to her current role in 2014. She earned her MBA from Indiana University in 2015.

Power metrics: GM is the largest U.S. auto-maker. The Detroit-based automaker pro-duces cars in 37 countries under 17 brands, including Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, GMC, Holden, Opel and more. “My current role is global and I try to spend as much time as possible with my global team to better un-derstand cultural differences and how we can best serve our customers in different markets. Even though the U.S. is one of our key markets, I would like to spend more time in our other regions to support growth of our

connectivity business, as well as providing the same level of high-quality customer ex-periences for all of our brands.”

Special skill: “Working with diverse groups of people to solve challenging problems. I am able to collaborate to find win-win solutions by assembling the right group of people and empowering them to make decisions and drive the business.”

Biggest accomplishment: “Concurrently leading a vehicle program and a manufactur-ing facility. At the time, I was the vehicle chief engineer for the Chevrolet Sonic and the plant manager at Orion Assembly, where the Sonic is built.

“It was a very challenging and rewarding experience. I had to take my leadership to a different level to be able to manage two very demanding roles and to ensure a flawless launch of a new product.”

Power lesson: “Having the courage to take calculated risks and to try new areas, even though it might not be the most comfortable thing to do. Pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone is key to both personal and professional growth.”

Why you chose the automotive industry: “Growing up in the Detroit area, I was always fascinated with cars. Working in the industry was a great way for me to learn new things, contribute and have fun at the same time.”

Advice for women in the �eld: “Be bold. Challenge the status quo. Do not be afraid to speak up and express your views. In the meantime, continue to learn and develop your skills. Understand yourself better than anyone else.

“Know what your strengths and weak-nesses are and make a personal commit-ment to improve in the areas where you need to get better.”

Dustin Walsh

Birgit BehrendtVice president, global programs and purchasing operations, Ford Motor Co., Dearborn

Career ladder: Hired into Ford of Germany as a commercial apprentice more than 30 years ago, Behrendt, 56, earned a business de-gree in evening school while working in mate-rial planning and logistics. She advanced through various purchasing roles with increas-ing leadership responsibility in Ford of Europe and the U.S., including vice president, Ford of Europe purchasing. In 2013, she was elected as a company officer and vice president of Ford Motor Co. and named to her current role.

Power metrics: Behrendt has operational re-sponsibility for 2,800 people worldwide at Ford Motor Co. and is tasked with using Ford’s global scale to improve costs and operational efficiency.

Secret weapon: “I was never afraid to ask questions — it is not a sign of weakness. In fact, asking the right questions can be very powerful.”

I recently learned to: “Use virtual reality goggles with my iPhone — fascinating!”

Board/community connections: Behrendt is champion of Ford’s Diversity Council and engaged with the corporation’s supplier diver-sity efforts to support minority-, veteran- and women-owned suppliers. She is a member of the United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society,

the supervisory board of KION AG, Germany, and the board of the Michigan chapter of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, to name a few.

Power lesson: “The term ‘power’ to me is antiquated. It is more about demonstrating leadership in the best possible sense, and that has to do with sharing — sharing knowledge, sharing your perspective, but also making an honest effort to understand where others are coming from to get to a position where every-one will win. Having said that, leadership also implies decisiveness, resilience and the ability to draw a line when necessary.”

Surprising fact: “I started my career as an administrative assistant — I guess I was a late bloomer career-wise.”

How do you assist other women? Behrendt is proud of Ford’s track record in supporting women-owned businesses, including suppli-ers. Last year, Ford paid more than $2.3 billion to women-owned businesses, she said. She also talks to other women about career man-agement, “as most women underestimate the importance of that.”

What changes have you seen in how wom-en wield power? “That is the thing — women don’t ‘wield’ power. Women have stepped for-ward and taken on very challenging roles in our industry, up to our first female CEO at one of the OEMs. That is great to see, and since I am from Germany I can say that I have seen more women in powerful automotive roles in Detroit and Michigan than anywhere else in the world.” But more needs to happen, and she and others at Ford mentor, coach and en-courage women in other parts of the world.

Next big goal: On the professional front, working on projects such as smart mobility.

Guilty pleasure: “Very stereotypical: choco-late and shoes.”

Ann Tappan


Career ladder: Hanley earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical en-gineering in 1994 and an MBA in 2000, both from the University of Michigan. Hanley, 43, has spent her entire professional career at Lear Corp., working her way up from an engineer to VP-sales and marketing of the seating business to global vice president of the trim business. The seating/trim business reported about $14 billion in 2015 revenue.

Special skill: “Something that I have proven to be pretty good at is pairing a business strategy with an organizational strategy. It seems a bit abstract, but it really isn’t. What I really mean is knowing where I want to go with the business I have been asked to lead, then selecting the right organizational structure and talent to make it happen. Too many times, folks focus too much on incrementally making the busi-

ness better, or incrementally man-aging talent.”

Biggest setback: “I think, on a very personal level, when someone else gets a job that you think that you should have gotten, you really have to wrap your brain around how you are going to manage that, and what you are going to do about it. This has happened to me more than once — and I imagine many of us. But you can’t be half in or half out, that won’t serve you or the team … so make deliberate choices, then forge ahead.”

What can the industry do to boost women’s ranks? “Getting women front and center. We do a speaker series at Lear. But I’d like to see more women at panel discussions in auto and beyond. We’ve made progress, but we need to keep pushing and change the unconscious bias we have of seeing men as the auto in-dustry.”

Did you think you’d always be in automotive? “When I started, I didn’t think I was making a lifelong choice. But once I understood this international industry, it’s hard to give up. I’ve been able to work in mechanical engineering, worked on the electronics side of our business, sales and marketing, tech strategy and have sat on the boards of Asian joint ventures. If I was getting bored at some point or wasn’t stretching as far as I could go, I think I would have left. It’s never disappointed.”

Dustin Walsh


Cindy EstradaVice president, UAW, Detroit

Career ladder: Estrada, 47, is the UAW’s highest-ranking female. In 2010, she became the first Latina to serve as a UAW vice president. Four years later, she became the first woman and first Latina to lead the union’s GM Department. She earned a degree in education from the University of Michigan and had planned to become a teacher. Fu-eled by stories she heard from her parents about working conditions, she was drawn to union organizing instead. She helped organize work-ers at Mexican Industries in south-west Detroit in 1995, resulting in one of the UAW’s largest victories among Spanish-speaking manufac-turing workers. A series of promo-tions followed. In addition to the GM Department, she leads the In-dependents, Parts, and Suppliers Department and is director of the UAW’s Women’s Department.

Power metrics: The UAW has more than 400,000 active members; the GM department, for which Es-trada is responsible, has 54,003 ac-tive members.

Super power: “The passion for what I do. I really believe in workers having a seat at the table. I really be-lieve that — and my mom taught me this — we all want the same thing in life and that’s to be able to provide for our families and our children. Whatever you do, whoever you are, we all want the same thing.”

Big win: “Every organizing drive that I’ve won in my career — and re-ally, workers have won — has been a big win because I’ve watched work-ers come together and figure out how to work together to change their lives. Negotiations (with Gen-eral Motors) this last time was a big win. ... It was a win for workers.’’

Board/community connections: Michigan Health Endowment Board (created by contributions by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan); exec-utive committee of AFL-CIO and the UAW Retiree Medical Benefit Trust.

Surprising fact: “I’m a grand-mother. I have six grandkids — from (age) 2 to teenagers.” (Estrada is part of a blended family.)

Best mentor: “My mom and dad. They always taught me ... I belong in the room, whatever room that is, to never forget where I came from, and that no one is better than anyone else, no matter what position you hold or what you do.”

Advice you would give your younger self: “Sometimes when people are coming at you, it’s really not about you. Really accept that sometimes people are going through their own stuff and it’s not always personal.”

Cassandra Spratling

Julie FreamPresident and CEO, Original Equipment Suppliers Association, South�eld

Career ladder: With a chemical engineering de-gree from Michigan Tech and an MBA from Har-vard University, Fream started her 30-year automo-tive career at General Motors Corp. inmanufacturing, sales and engineering, followed by stints at Ford Mo-tor Co., TRW Inc. and Visteon Corp., where she rose from associate director of Ford sales to vice presi-dent of the North America Customer Business Group Strategy. Now 52, she became president and CEO of the Original Equipment Suppliers Associa-tion in 2013.

Power metrics: OESA has more than 800 supplier executives within its council network of more than 430 member companies. Sixteen team members coordinate quarterly meetings, develop events and provide information to members. Revenue was$4.7 million in 2015.

Special skill: “I am able to synthesize information, and develop strategies or plans … and do so quickly. My position plays to my strengths and background — having the perspective of a supplier and an OEM, and being able to foster relationships, build contacts, network and communicate with a broad range of people and companies.”

Big win: Strengthening relationships between manufacturers and suppliers, and ensuring the suppliers’ voice is heard in the press and with gov-ernment. “Suppliers are a tremendous part of the industry, and we need to make sure their impact and their role is well understood in the process of making big decisions.”

Next goals: Attract new technology suppliers, in-

crease government advocacy and improve global relations.

Power lesson: “Listen to your intuition. ... We have to learn to be mindful of our intuition. Pay attention to what is giving you pause. That’s particularly hard to do in this hurry-up world that we live in.”

Best advice: “When you make it, give back. Not just money. Give your time, energy and efforts to help others be able to move forward and have simi-lar opportunities to what you had.”

How you assist other women in your company, in your community and in the world: “We need to break down the stereotypes that exist about science and technology. People wouldn’t look at me and say, ‘She’s an engineer.’ But why not? My hope is to break down the stereotypes for women and minorities and others who wouldn’t consider STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). You can have all kinds of careers with a STEM degree.”

Cassandra Spratling

Colleen HaleySenior executive vice president of global Ford business unit, Yazaki North America Inc., Canton Twp.; chairman, Yazaki Mercosur, Brazil

Career ladder: Haley earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1989 and a master’s in labor and in-dustrial relations in 1990 from Michigan State University. She be-gan her career in human resources at Alcoa Inc. in Pittsburgh, rising to general manager. Haley, 49, joined Yazaki in 2005 as president of its Ford business, becoming the global head of that unit in 2015 and chair-man of its South America opera-tions the same year.

Power metrics: Yazaki North America Inc., the Canton Town-ship-based subsidiary of Ja-pan-based Yazaki Corp., generated $3.8 billion in revenue in 2015 and has 1,700 employees in Michigan,

most in Wayne County. Haley runs the business in South America.

Super power: “I started my career in HR. I’ve been told I have emo-tional intelligence, figuring out how to work with different people in different environments. Know-ing what will work in a given situa-tion. I’ve used that in good effect for a number of years. I don’t make the parts, so every area I work in the business is with other people.”

Biggest setback: “I was put in Brazil on assignment in 2013. They were still on the upswing. The mid-dle class was growing. We had chal-lenges, but they were normal busi-ness challenges. I built a team, and we were working well with the cus-tomers. But since mid-2014, it’s been nothing but setbacks. We put a number of business plans in place, but we didn’t anticipate how far that market would fall. Every plan has to get replaced.”

What’s been your greatest pro-fessional accomplishment? “This business is about really building strong and productive relationships. I came into a position, I won’t say which one, where the relationship with the customer was not good, but myself and the team were able to turn it around. Over time, we’ve turned around our perception. It is a good win for the organization.”

We don't �nd too many auto ex-

ecutives with a psychology degree. How did that happen? “My plan was first to be a psychologist and get a Ph.D. The research side of that field was not what I was interested in. I liked the client work, but not the data crunching. I needed to find a field where I could get a job, and a bachelor’s in psychology is not a lucrative degree. So I found a good MBA program focused on HR and industrial relations and went for it.”

Has the industry changed its per-ception as the “good ol’ boys club”?“I would say it’s changed a lot. It’s changed fairly rapidly since we’ve come out of the downturn. There’s a real recognition that diversity brings better business results. There’s definitely more openness and drive to have more diverse teams, and it’s not just women, but cultural diversity and age diversity. It’s part of the reality of business to-day. Auto has always been a few steps behind, but it’s catching up.”

Have women changed the indus-try? “Too often, when a family wants someone to be at home, it has to be the mom. We made the decision that the parent to raise my boys full time was going to be my husband. It really eliminated and reduced what could be a huge stressor for me.”

Dustin Walsh

Jeneanne HanleyGlobal vice president of trim and cra�smanship, Lear Corp., South�eld

Learn to listen to your intuition


Career ladder: Klevorn, 56, earned a bach-elor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan. She began her career in technical roles at AT&T, always with the Ford corporate account. Ford re-cruited her, and on its third attempt she joined the automaker in 1983. She worked through business units including Ford Cred-it before becoming a consulting program manager in 2003 on Ford’s purchasing sys-tem. Klevorn became IT director for Ford Europe in 2011, director of the CIO office in 2013 and its first female CIO in 2015, in charge of nearly 11,000 employees.

Power metrics: Ford is the world’s fourth-largest automaker, with $150 billion in revenue in 2015 and more than 170,000 employees. Klevorn is a key executive in the center of Ford’s efforts to evolve into more of tech-led mobility/transportation company

in addition to its car-manufacturing roots.Special skill: Connecting with people.

“You can think about technology and assets, but if you can’t find something special in the people that work here, you’re not going to get the job done.”

Biggest setback: “Earlier in my career, I was assigned to a project in purchasing. We were launching a package the technology team didn’t select, and it wasn’t suitable for our use. Bottom line, it took a while to relay that the investment wasn’t going to be real-ized and that it wasn’t going to work. There were 300 to 400 people that worked years on it. It was tough telling them we had to go back to the legacy system.”

Why work in automotive? “It’s been con-tinuous learning. You’re working for a com-pany that is different entities. I’ve been able to move around, learn new businesses and

leverage that network I’ve gotten to know over the years. I’ve built a reputation, and it help us get things done. Plus, I really believe in Ford’s values. Bill Ford (Jr.) talked about sustainabil-ity and urbanization before it was cool.”

What keeps her up at night: “Most people expect me to say cybersecurity, but I have a really great team. We’ve done a lot of work to create a platform of excellence. Competition for the skills we need is fierce, and attracting people to the auto industry in Michigan is challenging. This is really a technology busi-ness, and that’s tough to relay sometimes.”

Greatest accomplishment: “It is important to me that my people feel I am approach-able. ... This is a huge company, but it feels small enough because we’re leveraging com-munications. I’m a firm believer of commu-nicating. It’s the most important thing you can do. Empowerment has never been so

important. I think I’ve done that.”Advice for women in the automotive sec-

tor: “If you worry too much about being a woman in automotive, you end up shooting yourself in the foot. You have to be compe-tent. In the end, that always wins. Just focus on delivering and contributing to the goal.”

Dustin Walsh


Competency, in the end, always winsMarcy KlevornVice president and chief information o�cer, Ford Motor Co., Dearborn

Marjorie LoebSenior vice president-general counsel, FCA US LLC, Auburn Hills

Career ladder: Loeb, 51, earned a bache-lor’s degree in math and economics from Wellesley College, then worked as an intern at McKinsey & Co. She obtained a law degree from Harvard University. Loeb worked for a Boston law firm, then for an investment firm as acting general counsel. She joined Bloom-field Hills-based Miro Weiner & Kramer as principal and then was managing counsel at Delphi Automotive Systems LLC. In 2010, Loeb joined Chrysler Group LLC as assistant general counsel. She was named SVP-gener-al counsel of FCA US LLC in 2013.

Power metrics: Loeb is responsible for worldwide FCA US legal functions such as corporate governance, commercial transac-tions, product litigation, dealer and trade re-lations, regulatory and environmental affairs and intellectual property. FCA US LLC, part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, has more than 81,000 employees.

Super power: “I don’t panic in crisis situa-tions. I tend to just buckle down and focus without losing the bigger picture.”

Power lesson: “At the end of the day, you have nothing but your core principles and your integrity, and you should never be afraid to speak for them.”

How she helps other women: She is an ex-ecutive sponsor at Inforum and gives to the JVS Women to Work program. “I take very se-riously not just the women but all of the peo-ple who work for me to give them opportuni-ties, to coach them and develop them and to help them in their careers.” She has twin daughters who are just graduating from Wellesley and Bates College. “I focus much of my energy on raising my two girls. It’s im-portant that I am a role model for them.”

Leslie Green

Lisa LunsfordCEO, co-founder/majority owner, Global Strategic Supply Solutions; VP, sales and marketing, Deshler Group, Livonia

Career ladder: Lunsford’s career includes 28 years in the auto industry, with 16 years as a business owner. She started with Ford Mo-tor after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C. She began her career in R&D in Ford’s plastics division, moved to manufacturing and then to design. She is 52.

Power metrics: “Establishing and building a successful domestic automotive business in Michigan during a very difficult and un-predictable economic period for the region and the industry.”

GS3 is a tier-one supplier to OEMs and also specializes in providing engineering, stamping, assembly and logistics. Co-founded by Lunsford in 2010, GS3 has grown to more than 100 employees and generated more than $36 million in revenue in 2015. Deshler Group is comprised of sev-en sister companies — including GS3 — that provide manufacturing, assembly, transportation, packaging and IT. Lunsford is involved in the strategic and day-to-day leadership at Deshler, which employs more than 400 worldwide and reported $135 mil-lion in 2015 revenue.

Board/community involvement: Board member, Detroit Area Pre-College Engineer-ing Program. In addition, active in the Mich-igan Minority Supplier Development Coun-cil and the Women in Business Enterprise Council, among others.

What advice do you have for young women trying to get into this �eld? “When you’re liv-ing in the world of manufacturing, remem-ber: everything that ‘blings’ comes from something dirty.”

Ann Tappan

Michelle Sourie Robinson President and CEO, Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, Detroit

Career ladder: An Oklahoma native, Rob-inson got her undergrad degree from Okla-homa State University and a law degree from the University of Kansas. Prior to join-ing the MMSDC, she was the founder of Give & Receive, an nonprofit that acts as a matchmaker, connecting individuals and businesses to various charities. Prior, she was director of supplier diversity at The Home Depot. While there, she created the company’s first supplier diversity depart-ment. Her corporate career also includes being the youngest and first African-Ameri-can attorney at Wal-Mart.

Power metrics: Robinson, 48, manages the organization dedicated to creating and developing successful business relation-ships between minority business enterpris-es and multinational corporations. Accord-ing to an independent study, minority businesses certified by the MMSDC gener-ate more than 169,000 jobs, $944 million in tax revenue and a $26 billion spend between corporations and certified minority-owned businesses over the years.

Super power: “Over the years, one of the greatest blessings is when (employees) reach out to let me know that under my leadership, they accomplished more than they realized was possible. The other is that I have a God-given ability to discern charac-ter. Often people or concepts that others seem to accept give me pause.”

Big win: “On July 27, we are hosting a Mi-nority Business Women’s Conference, the first event of its kind in the nation focused on minority women, who happen to be one of the faster-growing segments of entrepre-neurs, according to the last U.S. Census.”

Marti Benedetti

Maximiliane StraubCFO and executive vice president, Robert Bosch LLC, Farmington Hills

Career ladder: Educated at German univer-sity Industriekauffrau IHK and earned an ad-vanced business degree from the University of Munich, Straub, 51, landed her first auto job at a brakes plant in Blaichach, Germany, in a Bosch Chassis Systems management program. A series of advancements followed. Today, as CFO of Robert Bosch LLC, she is responsible for departments including legal, tax, HR, corpo-rate social responsibility and shared services.

Power metrics: Straub is responsible for Bosch activity in North America, which in-cludes more than 31,000 associates in more than 100 locations with sales of $14 billion in fiscal year 2015.

Special skill: “I have worked a lot with re-structuring, and I am good at it.”

Big win: “I have a tendency to say ‘yes’ to a new challenge and think after what it might entail. This has given me a lot of opportuni-ties.”

Board/community connections: Board of governors, Cranbrook Institute of Science, and boards of Inforum and the Inforum Center for Leadership

Surprising fact: “I’m a dedicated hockey mom. With combined families, my partner and I have four sons.”

How you assist other women: “I have been encouraging girls in middle school to stay in science, and I am an advocate for women in auto and technology.”

Changes have you seen in how women wield power: “A lot of women left the auto industry during the recession and joined other inter-esting industries. The auto industry is not get-ting its fair share. The graduation rate of women in engineering ... is still is not where it needs to be.”

Marti Benedetti

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Career ladder: Liddle, 59, has a bachelor’s degree in business and marketing from Western Michigan University. After a stint as vice presi-dent of communications at Livo-nia-based Valassis Communica-tions Inc., she joined Domino’s Pizza in 2002, recruited by then-CEO Da-vid Brandon, her former boss at Va-lassis. She was part of the team that transitioned privately owned Domi-no’s to a public company. She retired in May.

Power metric: Domino’s has some 12,500 stores in 80 markets across the globe, collectively ac-counting for $9.9 billion in annual retail sales. It’s been Liddle’s job to communicate to investors about

the company’s performance. CEO J. Patrick Doyle said Liddle coordi-nated communications in a mod-ern and savvy way: “All messaging must work for all audiences.”

Special skill: Liddle sees empathy as her secret to success, picturing herself in her employees’ shoes, considering how they would like to be led, and helping to grow their careers.

Big win: Her arrival at Domino’s.Board/community connections:

While at Domino’s, Liddle served on the board of the National Council of

Chain Restaurants and was a found-ing member of the American Pizza Community, trade group.

Power lesson: Liddle sees wom-en’s roles in business evolving: “We no longer need to constantly keep our defenses up. Thirty years ago, women executives were an ex-treme minority, but since we’ve be-come more numerous, the atmo-sphere has changed. Now you’re judged by your accomplishments, not your gender.”

Best mentors: Brandon and Domino’s CEO Patrick Doyle, along with Liddle’s husband, Ned: “A strong support system is a must.”

Next big goal: Liddle and her hus-band plan to sail their boat down the East Coast “at a leisurely pace.” She’s uncertain of future goals for now but is confident an interesting opportu-nity will soon come her way.

Quote: “When I see an opportu-nity, I seize it.”

Paul Vachon

Career ladder: Homco started out sampling products for Kroger cus-tomers in high school but left after graduation. She rejoined Kroger in her junior year at Indiana Universi-ty, where she earned a bachelor's degree in business. In 1985, she was named co-manager of an Indianap-olis store. Now 57, she has held management positions in five Kro-ger divisions across six states. She was vice president of merchandis-ing for Kroger’s Quality Food Cen-ters in Washington and Oregon and then at the company’s Southwest Division before being named presi-dent of the Michigan division in 2013.

Power metrics: With nearly 19,000 Michigan employees, Kroger has 128 stores, 103 in-store pharmacies and 69 fuel centers and operates Michigan Dairy in Livonia. “We would be a Fortune 500 company in and of ourself” if the Michigan Divi-sion were carved out of the total Kroger revenue, Homco said.

Morningstar Inc.’s Ken Perkins estimates the Michigan Division ac-counted for about 5 percent of Kro-ger’s 2015 revenue of $109.8 billion. In April, Kroger announced it would invest $180 million in Michigan stores and hire 1,000 more employ-ees.

Big win: Being promoted to her current position, making her the fourth female divisional president in Kroger.

Board/community connections:Board member, Michigan Chamber of Commerce and Forgotten Har-vest; member, board of advisors, Michigan Business and Professional Association and the Michigan Food

and Beverage Association.Power lesson: “Making sure you’re

investing in the people. ... Success comes from giving credit to the peo-ple on the front lines. Our associates are the ones who should take credit for what happens. They’re going to make our customers want to shop in our stores, make us a better com-munity partner.”

Why she went into the grocery retail industry: “ ‘It’s a people business; we sell groceries on the side.’ That’s our motto... .”

Best mentor: Donna Giordano, then president of Kroger’s Quality Food Centers and Homco’s supervi-sor. “She inspired me. She had busi-ness acumen, along with common sense and merchandising.”

How she assists other women in her company, in her community, in the world: She was a sponsor of a wom-en's affinity group in the Southwest Division, and now the group holds informal and formal events where they invite women to mentor oth-ers. She’s taken groups of women to the Gleaners Power Breakfast and Gleaners Power Hour.

Surprising fact: While in India-napolis in the 1990s, Homco and her husband worked successfully with a greyhound rescue organiza-tion, fostering and placing rescued greyhounds in homes, as part of a larger mission to close the grey-hound racetracks.

Sherri Welch

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: RETAILLynn LiddleExecutive vice president of communications, investor relations and legislative a airs, Domino’s Pizza Inc., Ann Arbor

Kathleen Mahoney EVP and chief legal o�cer, SpartanNash, Byron Center

Career ladder: Mahoney received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Keene State College in New Hampshire, then, in 1979, a J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law. She served as a clerk on the Minnesota Supreme Court and the federal district court before joining the Minnesota attorney general's of-fice in 1983. After working as a trial lawyer and managing partner at two law firms, she joined Nash Finch Co. in 2004. After a series of promotions, she became executive vice presi-dent, general counsel and secretary in 2009. After Michigan-based Spar-tan Stores and Nash Finch merged in 2013, Mahoney became the EVP, general counsel and secretary. Ma-honey, 61, was named chief legal of-ficer of SpartanNash in 2015.

Power metrics: Based in Byron Center, near Grand Rapids, Spartan-Nash is the nation’s fifth-largest food distributor. Mahoney handles legal matters for a company that had 2015 revenue of $7.65 billion and calls itself the largest food dis-tributor serving U.S. military com-

missaries and exchanges. It also op-erates 163 retail stores.

Special skill: Problem solving and strategic thinking. She said she has developed an eye for seeing what can be done to make things better, and who she can help to meet goals.

Career lesson: Working with a new management team after the merger. She came to enjoy her new team-mates, but it was a challenge to lose co-workers. Her attitude of “when things around you change, you’ve gotta adapt” helped.

Advice for women seeking success: “Pick a career for which you have some passion and joy, and some-thing that you want to do and that gives you a great sense of satisfac-tion. Do it in a way that gives honor to who you are and what your values are.”

Julie Angell

Jayne Homco President, Kroger Co. Michigan division, Novi


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Jennifer GuarinoVice president of leather goods, Shinola, Detroit

Career ladder: Guarino earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Oklahoma and studied at the Academy of Art Uni-versity in San Francisco. Early in her career, she focused on fashion illus-tration, creative direction, and product design and development at companies in Los Angeles. In 1998, she moved to business develop-ment as vice president of brand management for The Sak. In 2003, she became co-owner and CEO of J.W. Hulme, a 100-plus-year-old American-made leather goods brand in Minnesota that Guarino restitched and revived from near bankruptcy. In 2013, she joined Shi-nola as vice president of leather goods. Guarino, 54, is also the founding chair of The Makers Coali-tion.

Power metrics: Shinola is the first company in decades to produce watches at scale in America. Shinola had nearly $100 million in sales in 2015, has 14 stores across the U.S. with one abroad in London, En-gland, and employs 530 people (397 in Detroit), with more than 240 of those employees working in manu-facturing. Guarino leads develop-ment for Shinola’s leather goods manufacturing efforts in Detroit.

Special skill: “You have to have a sense of humor about yourself first before you can have a sense of hu-mor about solving things.”

Why you decided to get into the fashion/retail industry: “I started as a fashion illustrator, illustrating for designers, and then I became fasci-nated with the whole process of making something out of nothing and seeing people respond to it in a way that they would actually pay to own it.”

Tips on being a respected leader:“You have to value everybody’s con-tributions. Everybody, no matter what position they hold, wants to be valued. And everybody, no matter what position they hold, wants to matter, and so they need to be treat-ed that way.

“My desk is in (Shinola’s leather) factory for a reason. The people who are working here in the factory mat-ter just as much as our president, and you have to demonstrate that in the way that you treat people every day.”

How to get younger generations in-terested in the skilled trades: “You have to show them the joys of being in manufacturing.” Let people see that there doesn’t have to be a stig-ma to it and that there can be a re-warding career path, Guarino said.

Audrey LaForest

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: RETAIL

Stacie BehlerGroup vice president of public a�airs and communications, Meijer Inc., Walker

Career ladder: Behler, 45, earned her law degree from the University of Illinois in 1995 and joined midsized law firm Smith, Haughey, Rice & Roegge in Grand Rapids. After six years, she joined the legal staff at Mei-jer and handled contract disputes for four years before moving to human resources and communications. In 2013, Behler became group vice pres-ident of public affairs and communi-cations and executive director of the Meijer Foundation.

Power metrics: She oversees public relations, corporate philanthropy, government affairs, internal commu-nications, partnerships and promo-tions for family-run, privately held

Meijer, which has 230 stores and near-ly 70,000 employees. Crain’s ranked it Michigan’s largest family-owned busi-ness, with estimated 2015 revenue of $16.9 billion. The Meijer Foundation gave more than $24 million in grants and gifts in 2014.

Why she went into law: “I love to read and learn and can turn knowl-edge into a passion. Therefore, be-coming an advocate for a person, a company or a cause was something I was able to do well.”

Why she switched to public rela-tions/communications: “The shift from private practice to corporate law, from corporate law to commu-nications, and every shift since then

were opportunities presented to me that I gratefully accepted.”

Advice to women on success: “Be curious and committed. Show up and be ready to do the work. Don’t take things personally, and be ready and thankful for feedback and growth.”

Community roles: Board member, Muskegon Museum of Art, Heart of West Michigan United Way and the Michigan Women’s Foundation.

Why community involvement is im-portant: “Every community can be made better because of good civic leadership, nonprofit agency work and an overall commitment to your neighbors.”

Audrey LaForest

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS HAS NAMED JAYNE HOMCO, PRESIDENT OFTHE KROGER CO. OF MICHIGAN ONE OF THE “100 MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN”.

LEADERSHIPTHAT EXTENDS WAYBEYOND OUR AISLES.

LEADERSHIPTHAT EXTENDS WAYBEYOND OUR AISLES.

For years, Jayne's leadership and dedication have made Kroger not just a great store but also a great neighbor. Her dedication to the community and her

commitment to local farmers, businesses and charitable organizations means you may have felt her infl uence without even setting foot in one of our stores.

Congratulations Jayne. There are 19,000 Kroger associates thatknow this is an honor both well deserved and long overdue.

©2016 The Kroger Co.



Career ladder: Baird, 48, earned a degree in organizational psycholo-gy at the University of Michigan and an MBA at the Kellogg Gradu-ate School of Management at Northwestern University. She start-ed in 1990 as a cash management sales specialist at First National Bank of Chicago before being named vice president of Keane Consulting Group Inc., Boston, in 1994. In 2001, she became vice president of strategic initiatives for Integrated Sensing Systems Inc. in Ypsilanti. Ann Arbor-based Jenuity Consulting LLC named her presi-dent in 2002. In 2003, Baird helped found Ann Arbor-based Sonetics Ultrasound Inc. As president and CEO of Sonetics, she is helping the medical ultrasound equipment manufacturer raise more than $3 million in research funding. In 2004, Baird co-founded Accuri Cy-

tometers Inc., which makes instru-ments for cellular research. She served as president and CEO until 2010. Baird joined Accio Energy as president and CEO in 2010. The Ann Arbor company builds wind-power generation systems that don’t use wind turbines.

Power metrics: Baird has proven herself a whiz at raising angel capi-tal or grant funding for early-stage tech companies and raising ven-ture capital funding as companies mature. She raised $27 million in VC and angel investments to keep Accuri alive over the years before it could start generating revenue and have its big exit. Accuri Cytometers was sold for $205 million in 2011. Shortly after leaving Accuri, she raised a $1.9 million seed round for Accio, then last year raised a bridge round of $750,000 for the company to prepare it to raise a larger VC round. Last November, the U.S. De-partment of Energy awarded Accio Energy $4.5 million to develop large-scale, offshore, wind energy generation systems.

View on setbacks: “There have been many dark moments along the way when failure seemed nearly certain — technical crises, loss of funding, loss of a key person, major conflict with another party — and each one has felt like a setback at the time. However, hard times are often the crucible to new creativity.”

Tom Henderson

Career ladder: Nelson, 62, gradu-ated from the University of Detroit School of Law and worked for eight years as a corporate attorney and then director of international and national government affairs for Kmart Corp. From 1996 to 2003, she was vice president of government and civic affairs for Wayne State University, where she led the devel-opment of TechTown. As CEO of the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy from 2003 to 2014, Nelson super-vised the creation of the RiverWalk. She joined Detroit-based DTE Ener-gy in 2014 as president of its founda-tion, and became foundation chair-man in 2016.

Power metrics: The DTE Energy Foundation in 2014 distributed more than $11.3 million, up from $7.9 million in 2009 and posted rev-enues of $31.2 million. DTE Energy

Co. serves 2.1 million electric cus-tomers in Southeastern Michigan. Nelson oversees DTE’s strategic in-vestments in communities where it has a major presence throughout the country.

Big win: Developing the Detroit riverfront. The conservancy is “one of the most successful public-private partnerships that included founda-tions, corporations, the public sector and the community at large,” Nelson said More than 3.5 miles of water-front features were created during her tenure. These efforts attracted more than 3 million visitors annually and generated more than $1 billion of public and private investment.

Board/community connections:Board member, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Henry Ford Health Sys-tem and Health Network Board, Midtown Detroit Inc. and the Sphinx Organization; former board mem-ber, Compuware Corp.; member, Executive Leadership Council, an association of C-suite African-Amer-ican corporate executives.

Power lesson: Never let others define you. “Had I let that happen, I would not be where I am today. This is especially important for women and people of color to un-derstand.”

Best mentor: Her optimistic hus-band, Albert Taylor Nelson Jr., also an attorney, who always challenges her to bring out the best, she said.

Lauren Shields

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MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: ENERGY

Faye Alexander NelsonVice president, DTE Energy Co., Detroit; president and board chairman, DTE Energy Foundation

Jennifer BairdCEO, Accio Energy Inc., Ann Arbor

Patti PoppePresident- and CEO-elect,CMS Energy and Consumers Energy, Jackson

Career ladder: Poppe, 47, earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees in industrial engi-neering at Purdue University be-fore working for GM in a variety of plant management positions. She joined DTE Energy as power plant director and was director of energy optimization. In 2011, Poppe start-ed at Consumers Energy as vice president of customer experience, then became SVP, distribution op-erations, engineering and trans-mission. Now she is CEO- and president-elect. Her new position is effective July 1.

Power metrics: Consumers is Michigan’s largest energy compa-ny by customer numbers and is the principal subsidiary of parent company CMS. It provides natural gas and electricity to 6.7 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. CMS has 7,800 employees.

Super power: “My ability to ask a lot of questions and learn quickly. I’ve had a variety of assignments and moved around a lot, so I can get up to speed quickly.”

Big win: Finding her way to CMS Energy, which is in her hometown of Jackson. “In fact, my father was an engineer for Consumers Energy.”

Recently learned: Poppe learned how to climb a 40-foot-high substation structure in proper fall-and-arrest equipment.

Board/community connections: Michigan Women's Foundation – Power of 100 Women and the De-troit Regional Chamber, Business Leaders for Michigan; advisory boards for the Jackson Symphony Orchestra and Purdue University Society of Women Engineers.

Power lesson: Being effective rather than being right. “I learned there are times I am right, but not effective. More can be achieved by harnessing the power of others.”

Best mentor: Herb Stone, plant manager at GM. “I learned from him that good leaders walk around.”

Changes you have seen in how women wield power in Michigan or in your industry over the last 10 years: “It’s a new dawn for women. At CMS, a third of the board are women and a third of the company officers are women.”

Next big goal: Fulfill the compa-ny's promise to the people of Michigan to deliver energy that is safe, clean, reliable and affordable.

Guilty pleasure: Watching “West Wing” reruns.

Marti Benedetti

Macomb County School Districts Anchor Bay Schools Mount Clemens Community Schools www.anchorbay.misd.net www.mtcps.org Armada Area Schools New Haven Community Schools www.armadaschools.org www.newhaven.misd.net Center Line Public Schools Richmond Community Schools www.clps.org www.richmond.k12.mi.us Chippewa Valley Schools Romeo Community Schools www.chippewavalleyschools.org www.romeo.k12.mi.us Clintondale Community Schools Roseville Community Schools www.clintondale.k12.mi.us www.rcs.misd.net East Detroit Public Schools South Lake Schools www.macomb.k12.mi.us/eastdet/scheast.htm www.solake.org Fitzgerald Public Schools Utica Community Schools Fraser Public Schools Van Dyke Public Schools www.fraser.k12.mi.us www.vdps.net Lake Shore Public Schools Warren Consolidated Schools www.lakeshoreschools.org www.wcskids.net Lakeview Public Schools Warren Woods Public Schools www.lakeview.misd.net www.warrenwoods.misd.net

www.lc-ps.org www.misd.net

Important Facts

Over 60% of Macomb High School graduates report they have earned either Associate or Bachelor

90% of the parents in Macomb County give their

Two High School International Baccalaureate

Early College of Macomb, a partnership with Macomb Community College, enrolls over 700

Macomb County schools provide a continuum of programs and services for 20,000 special education

Macomb High School students participate in over

Over 100 languages are spoken in Macomb County Schools where students and families receive English

Upper Left: Macomb County CTE student. Upper Right: Mark Hackel, Macomb County Executive, visits a summer school literacy classroom sponsored by the

Macomb Intermediate School District. Lower Left: Macomb High School students who participated in a Naturalization Ceremony held at the MISD with Mike DeVault,

Superintendent. Lower Right: Mark Hackel with a student from Keith Bovenschen School in Macomb County.

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“Congratulations to the 100 Most Influential Women”

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: EDUCATION

Jocelyn BensonDean, Wayne State University Law School, Detroit

Career ladder: Benson, 38, earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Wellesley College, a master’s in phi-losophy at Oxford University and her law degree at Harvard. Before earning the law degree, Benson worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center as an investigative journalist. In 2011, she began serv-ing on the board of iCivics, a non-profit founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Con-nor to improve U.S. civics educa-tion. Benson, whose husband was a U.S. Army paratrooper, founded Military Spouses of Michigan in 2012. She joined Wayne State Uni-versity’s law school as an associate professor in 2005. In 2012, she was appointed dean, the youngest woman to lead an accredited law school in U.S. history.

Power metrics: Benson leads Wayne State law school’s 423 stu-dents and 141 employees. There are over 11,000 living alumni. The school has an operational budget of$9.5 million. Benson has increased philanthropic gifts to the law school from $500,000 in 2011-12 to$4.1 million for 2015-16. In two years, she has reconnected two pow-erful alums —New York-based de-veloper Stephen Ross and Dan Gil-bert —to the school.

Super power: Solving problems and making decisions with speed and efficiency. Perseverance.

Biggest setback: “Something that may seem like a setback can be a re-calibration of the path we should be on to have the greatest impact.”

Why did you decide to get into law? The time that Benson spent at the Southern Poverty Law Center taught her a lot about what the law can do to achieve justice and equal-ity for those in need, she said.

What advice do you have for other young women trying to get into law?Benson advises young women to find what she calls a “board of direc-tors” — a group of mentors to offer guidance and insight throughout a career. “Otherwise the trials and tribulations of a legal career or busi-ness career can push you off your intended path.”

What advice do you have for wom-en when it comes to success in gener-al? “One of the mantras that’s really stuck with me is that we set our own limits and barriers. Nothing is im-possible if we don't think it is,” she said. Benson gives her experience in running the Boston Marathon while eight months pregnant as an exam-ple of a time she pushed her limits and accomplished something oth-ers said she couldn’t.

Michelle Wilson

Christine JohnsSuperintendent, Utica Community Schools

Career ladder: Johns, 50, started her career as a math and science teacher, moving up the ladder to a series of management roles until she became deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction in Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland — the nation’s 23rd-larg-est school district. She was named superintendent of Utica Communi-ty Schools in 2006. She has a bache-lor of science degree in elementary education from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s degree in ad-ministration and supervision from Johns Hopkins University, and a master’s and a doctoral degree in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University.

Power metrics: Johns manages Utica Community Schools, Michi-gan’s second-largest school district with an enrollment of 28,100, em-ployee count of 4,000 and an annual budget of $281 million. Its graduation

rate is 92.4 percent and daily atten-dance for 2015-16 is at 96.1 percent.

Secret weapons: Persistence, pas-sion and purpose. “I thrive in situations where I am being underestimated. It motivates me when I sense education is being undervalued or when people argue that the odds against doing the right thing are too high.”

Biggest setback: Johns grew up in western Pennsylvania during a diffi-cult time for the steel industry — one that directly impacted her family and neighbors. “I sat in undergraduate classes with displaced steel and fac-tory workers, as well as women who were attending college for the first time. Many were acquiring new skills to find employment in a new econo-my.” Talking with her fellow students “crystallized the importance of edu-cation” in providing security and a better life flexibility. The experience prepared her for working in Utica as it went through the 2008 recession and auto company bankruptcies. “All stu-dents will need to have some form of post-secondary experience to be ag-ile and adaptable to a changing glob-al world.”

Advice for women in education: Aspire to higher roles. Teaching is made up of 80 percent women, while only 25 percent of executive leader-ship positions are filled by women. “Teachers are natural leaders in their classrooms. We need to take that leadership to the next level.”

Maureen McDonald

Marilyn Schlack President, Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Career ladder: Schlack, 78, is the first female president of Kalamazoo Valley Community College and the first female president of a commu-nity college in Michigan. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan and, in 1960, a master of arts in English and educational administration. After teaching middle school English and social studies, she worked part time at Western Michigan University. Af-ter earning a doctorate in higher ed-ucation and administration from Western in 1974, she became the assistant dean of instruction at Ka-lamazoo Valley. She became dean of instruction in 1976, executive dean in 1981 and president in 1982.

Power metrics: Schlack manages a $68 million general fund budget at a school of about 10,000 students. She led a $20 million capital cam-paign to build Kalamazoo Valley Museum, as part of a downtown Ka-

lamazoo revitalization program she helped to spearhead called Arcadia Commons. This included renovat-ing existing buildings and building new ones at the college’s downtown campus. The downtown campus fo-cuses on health care and ties in with two hospitals located nearby. She also led a coalition that raised $6 million to match a $5 million state grant to build the state’s first techni-cal education center.

Special skill: Her ability to hire people for strength. She said it’s im-portant to surround herself with people who will complement her weaknesses so work gets done.

Advice for women going into edu-cation: “Be yourself. Don’t make apologies for being a woman.”

Advice for women seeking suc-cess: “Don’t take yourself too seri-ously because there is always some-one who is going to tell you why you can’t do it, why you shouldn’t be do-ing this. You have to decide what you are ... and then you work at it. You have to keep telling yourself that this is who I am.”

Tell us about your mentors. “All of my mentors were male. When I came here, I was the only woman administrator. ... Now I have a very balanced group of administrators — women and men and minorities. It’s a very different picture than when I started here 35, 40 years ago. That is something I am very proud of.”

Zack Burgess


Career ladder: A 1991 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, McQuade, 51, spent five years at Butzel Long PC before join-ing the U.S. attorney’s office in De-troit in 1998. She served as unit chief for national security before her ap-pointment to replace Stephen Mur-phy III as U.S. attorney in 2010. Many of her office’s high-profile cases have focused on public corruption. Some have become known in “shorthand” — the Kilpatrick Enterprise, the Un-derwear Bomber, the Fake Cancer Doctor and the Cadaver Couple, to name a few — but the office is also quietly building a cybersecurity team out of its white-collar crime unit.

Power metrics: A top U.S. De-partment of Justice official oversee-ing about 200 employees and a $25 million annual budget for 34 counties in Michigan’s eastern Lower Peninsu-la, McQuade is known for public cor-ruption investigations, but also for

national security cases and a role in national DOJ initiatives, like the Medi-care Fraud Strike Force program.

Big wins: Between that Medicare fraud initiative and McQuade’s own, federal prosecutors in Detroit have cracked down on nearly $1 billion — of the nearly $7 billion tallied na-tionwide — in alleged fraudulent health care billings since 2009. As of late April, 11 current and former De-troit Public Schools employees, in-cluding nine principals, agreed to enter guilty pleas in an alleged$2.7 million bribery and kickback scheme with district vendor Nor-man Shy, owner of Allstate Sales.

Notable setback: Budget cuts due to federal sequestration, a hir-ing freeze and dealing with “signifi-cant disruptions” caused by federal government shutdowns.

How much of a priority will cy-bersecurity be for you? “We’ve been working to make sure we have proper resources and the trust of in-dustry so that local employers can come forward when they feel they’re the victims of a breach. They are of-ten concerned about the impact on earnings or investor worries or pub-lic disclosures, but we are willing to work with them.”

Quote: “I always want to let peo-ple know that we are committed in this office to holding people in pub-lic life accountable, and to make sure they uphold the public trust.”

Chad Halcom

Career ladder: A social worker by profession, she holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and psy-chology from the University of South Alabama and a master’s de-gree in social work from Michigan State University. The mayor's po-sition is part time (“a full-time job with part-time pay”), with a city manager who runs the city depart-ments. Bliss is director of residen-tial services at D.A. Blodgett/St. John’s, a shelter for abused and ne-glected children. She was elected to the city commission in 2005 and elected mayor in 2016. She is 40.

Power metrics: Grand Rapids is Michigan's second-largest city, with 198,000 residents. The city has 1,550 employees and a budget of $430 million.

Special skill: Bliss says she's a hard worker who consults with others and seeks common ground among staff with divergent opin-ions.

Big win: Being elected mayor of Grand Rapids.

Board/community connection: Vice president of the Michigan Municipal League, board member of the Kent County Land Bank Au-thority, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. and the Grand Rapids Down-town Development Authority.

Power lesson: Political power must be shared to be used effec-tively. She notes that only 22 per-cent of U.S. elected officials are women. “We need more women at the table to positively affect policy decisions, and the best way to do that is to learn to be collaborative in sharing power.”

Best mentor: Former Mayor George Heartwell, whom she suc-ceeded.

Next big goal: Overseeing an ambitious effort to restore the Grand River’s natural rapids by re-moving obsolete dams. The proj-ect will include walking paths, pic-nic areas and other amenities, and is expected to become a major tourist draw.

Paul Vachon

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MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: GOVERNMENT

Rosalynn Bliss Mayor of Grand Rapids

“We need more women at the table to positively a�ect policy decisions.”

Barbara McQuadeU.S. attorney, Eastern District of Michigan

Kym Worthy Prosecutor, Wayne County

Career ladder: A 1984 graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School, Worthy started her ca-reer as an assistant county prose-cutor, gaining early fame for ob-taining second-degree murder convictions in 1993 against former Detroit Police Officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers in the beating death of Malice Green. She then served 10 years as a Wayne County Circuit Court judge until her appointment to replace Mike Duggan, after he resigned as prosecutor in 2004 to become CEO of Detroit Medical Center. Worthy, 59, is now serving her fourth term as the elected prosecutor for Wayne County.

Power metrics: The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is the state's largest, with an annual budget of more than $38 million and 265 employees. The depart-ment initiates about 12,000 felony and high court misdemeanor cas-es each year; about 800 of those typically culminate in jury or bench trials.

Secret weapon: Choosing to prosecute cases based on principle or conviction rather than political expediency.

Biggest win: Completing testing on about 10,000 of the original 11,341 untested sexual assault test kits from county investigations — uncovered in 2009 — resulting in 239 new active investigations, 41 convictions and identifying or profiling 750 distinct sex offenders and cases tied to 40 states.

Biggest setback: Worthy’s office lost about $9 million for fiscal 2014 during a round of cuts from then-County Executive Robert Fi-cano, which meant laying off 26 employees and cutting diversion-ary “Change the Culture” programs launched to reduce juvenile crime. She estimates those programs save up to $20 million per year on future prosecution and incarceration costs, and hopes to reinstate many of them in future county appropri-ations or grant funding.

Advice for other young womenor new prosecutors coming toyour o�ce: “One of the biggest things I stress is being unafraid to tackle a major issue regardless of how unpopular it might be or whether the resources are going to be there to do it, if it is the right thing to do. It doesn’t matter to us the challenges that follow. That thinking kind of permeates the policy of this office.”

Chad Halcom


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The Paslin Companyhas been sold to

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MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: MEDIA

Joyce JenereauxMichigan regional president for Gannett, president & publisher of Detroit Free Press, president of Michigan.com, Gannett Co.

Career ladder: Was formerly a CPA with Deloitte (when it was Tou-che Ross). Started with Gannett in Detroit as a financial analyst in 1990 and was promoted to senior vice president in 2005, executive vice president in 2009, president in 2011, and regional president in 2013. Now 62, she announced plans in May to retire this summer.

Power metrics: Responsible for running the largest media organiza-tions in Michigan, including the De-troit Free Press, the business opera-tions of The Detroit News, the Lansing State Journal, Battle Creek Enquirer, Port Huron Times Herald, Livingston Press & Argus and Ob-server & Eccentric.

Super power: “I lead with humili-ty and confidence. I never forget

where I came from. I surround my-self with people who have expertise in areas that complement my skills, then I get out of their way.”

Biggest win: “Landing the top job at the Free Press/Michigan.com. I grew up in Detroit in a family of 10. I was the fifth kid out of eight and graduated from the Detroit Public Schools. To achieve this kind of pro-fessional success in my hometown is a phenomenal accomplishment.”

Surprising fact: “I graduated from college when I was 33 years old. My daughter was 11 and my son was 7, and they attended my gradu-ation ceremony from Eastern Mich-igan University.”

Quote: “The people who are cra-zy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – from Apple Inc.’s Think Different advertising campaign.

Marti Benedetti

“I surround myself with people who have expertise in areas that complement my skills, then I get out of their way.” Michelle Pluskota

Regional vice president of business services, Heartland Region, Comcast Corp., Plymouth

Career ladder: Pluskota, 45, earned a bachelor’s degree in ap-plied science and speech commu-nication from Oregon State Univer-sity in 1995. She worked at a series of sales and marketing roles at tele-com and cable providers, including Nextlink, McLeod USA, Focal Com-munications/Level 3 Communica-tions and IPiphany in Chicago. In 2009, she became Comcast Corp.’s director of enterprise sales in Chi-cago and in 2013 was promoted to her current role. She’s responsible for a 200-person team that helps businesses of all sizes and in all in-dustries with network needs.

Power metrics: She is responsi-ble for building and executing the strategies for small-to-medium business and enterprise sales, busi-

ness services marketing, opera-tions and financial performance for the Business Services team in the Heartland Region, which en-compasses Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky and has about 4,400 em-ployees. In 2015, Michelle was hon-ored with the highest sales award within Comcast Business for per-formance. Comcast has about 1.25 million customers in Michigan. Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp. reported revenue of $74.5 billion in 2015.

Special skill: Hiring, developing and building a strong culture. “The one thing that is key is making sure that you have the buy-in from your people. Get the buy-in, because people don’t do things because they respect you or like you or think you’re inspiring. They do it because they think it’s something in it for them. You have to articulate, here’s what we’re going to go do and why.”

Biggest setback: “There were a lot of promotions I didn’t get, even though I thought I was ready at the time.”

Advice for other women: “It’s still a male-dominated industry. There are more women than there used to be, but men still out-ratio us. My mother raised me to believe that girls could do anything that boys could do. But you have to think be-yond that. You have to know your business better than your male

peers. Be intentional about build-ing really solid relationships. And once you really start showing re-sults, you have to make sure that everyone around you knows what you want. I had to make every one of those big promotions happen myself. I think as women some-times we don’t want to be boastful, but we have to tell our story, be-cause sometimes people just don’t know and you can lose the chance to tell it altogether.”

Mentorship and how it has been a part of your success: “Just having somebody that believes in you can make all the difference in the world. I had that early in my career: A per-son who told me I was awesome even when I didn’t think I was do-ing as well as she said I was. One of my loves is mentoring, especially when I find someone who is going to listen and take the coaching. I’m probably mentoring six or seven people right now.”

Zack Burgess

“It’s still a male-dominated industry. ... But you have to think beyond that.”


One of Michigan’s Most Infl uential Women CONGRATULATIONSChristina Freese-DeckerPresident, Spectrum Health Hospital Group

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: SERVICES

Kouhaila “Ki” Hammer President and CEO, Ghafari Associates, Dearborn

Career ladder: Hammer, 59, was in public accounting with one of the Big Eight for seven years. She joined Ghafari Associates as CFO in 1986 and was named CEO in 2000.

Power metrics: Ghafari Associ-ates has about 500 employees and reported $118 million in revenue in 2015.

Special skill: “My ability to work with a variety of people with vary-ing skill sets.”

Big win: When Ghafari acquired Engineering Services Group in 2001, and not only survived the 2008 meltdown but came out stronger than before.

Board/community connec-tions: Boards of Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan and Rackham Founda-tion, Detroit Regional Chamber

board and executive committee, International Women’s Forum, and past president of the Engi-neering Society of Detroit.

Power lesson: The power of col-laboration and the importance of looking ahead.

Surprising fact: “I am an immi-grant from Lebanon. When I ar-rived in Detroit at age 10, I could not speak a word of English.”

Best mentor: Yousif Ghafari, chairman and founder of Gha-fari.

How you assist other women in your company and communi-ty: “As a member of the Interna-tional Women’s Forum, we sup-port women in a variety offields and take on charitable projects. I try to be a good role model and tell women not to walk around with a chip on theirshoulders.”

Changes you have seen in how women wield power: Greater ac-ceptance of women in engineer-ing professions and acceptance by men in the engineering world. “Overall, I have seen more accep-tance of women in leadership roles.”

Next big goal: “We are working through our strategic plan and are on our way to implementing the plan and rising to the occasion of meeting our goals.”

Marti Benedetti

Rebecca McLaughlanVice president of health and bene�ts, Marsh & McLennan Agency, Troy

Career ladder: McLaughlan, 55, has worked in the employee bene-fit field more than 30 years. She joined the agency in 1999 after serving as senior director of sales and marketing for United Health-Care’s Chicago office. She also worked for The Prudential Insur-ance Co. of America in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois. She now is vice president of health and bene-fits at MMA-Michigan in Troy, where she oversees strategic client and project assignments. She re-ceived her bachelor’s degree in fi-nance from the University of Illi-nois.

Power metrics: Marsh & McLen-nan Agency-Michigan, formerly McGraw Wentworth, employs 95 workers. MMA has revenue of near-ly $1 billion with more than 4,000

U.S. employees. With a team of 80 employees and an annual budget of $25 million, McLaughlan, as head of the health and benefits portion of the business, runs the majority of the Michigan operations.

Super power: “I believe one of my greatest assets is the ability to juggle multiple priorities without losing sight of the big picture.”

Big win: McLaughlan was part of the leadership team that shepherd-ed Marsh & McLennan’s acquisition of McGraw Wentworth in 2012. She led the operations team through the process and is particularly proud that the company has maintained its culture since the buyout.

Board/community connections:McLaughlan serves on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Statewide Agent Advisory Board. “Over the years I have participated in advisory boards established by health insur-ance carriers. Such roles give me the opportunity to learn where the in-dustry is headed as well as be ‘a voice at the table’ for brokers, employers and individuals.” She also volun-teers for her two children’s school and extracurricular activities.

Power lesson: “I strive to live by a lesson I learned many years ago re-garding the importance of open communication and feedback in leading and developing a high-per-forming team. That lesson is that criticism should always leave peo-

ple with the feeling that they have been helped.”

Surprising fact: “I am very inter-ested in the arts. Thanks to my mother, an accomplished artist, and my father, a gourmet chef, I honor and perpetuate this legacy from my parents to this day.”

Best mentor: Tom McGraw, CEO of MMA of Michigan, who has been McLaughlan's manager for 18 years. McLaughlan said he is relentless in his commitment to build strong leaders and an exceptional work en-vironment at MMA Michigan.

How you assist other women in your company and community:With 68 percent women employees and a leadership team that is 73 per-cent women, McLaughlan and oth-er leaders at the company have pro-moted many women into supervisory and executive posi-tions. “A big part of the success of the operation is driven by the strong women in leadership positions at the company,” she said.

What gender changes have you seen in your industry? “The insur-ance industry was considered a male-dominated industry for many years, but this has changed dramat-ically over the past 10 years in all ar-eas of the industry.”

Next big goal: McLaughlan is grooming the next generation of leaders for the company as it grows.

Jay Greene


Career ladder: An Eastern Michi-gan University graduate, McCann, 56, began her career as a CPA for Coopers & Lybrand (now Pricewater-houseCoopers). She spent 20 years in executive positions for Soave En-terprises in Detroit, leading its bever-age distribution, automotive retail-ing and transportation businesses. In 2011, she became president and CEO of United Road Services.

Power metrics: McCann leads ones of the largest car-hauling com-panies in North America. United Road Services hauls 3 million new and used vehicles between the U.S. and Canada annually for Ford, GM, BMW, Chrysler, Hyundai, Honda and others. It has a fleet of 1,800 vehicle haulers and contracts with another 5,000 carriers for intermittent haul-ing. Annual revenue is just over $500 million. The company employs 1,800.

Super power: “It has to be my faith and trust in God. Nothing rat-tles you when you have firm faith. But, also, from a practical stand-point, I’m very detailed.”

Big win: Completing the acquisi-tion and integration of Waggoners Trucking Inc., which nearly doubled the size of United Road, in 2013.

Recently learned to: Play pickle-ball. “You can’t work all the time. You have to be able to have fun and try new things. It’s energizing.”

Board/community connections:

Chair, Archdiocese of Detroit Cath-olic Schools Council; vice chair, Au-tomobile Carriers Conference, a di-vision of the American Truckers Association; board member, Capu-chin Soup Kitchen in Detroit.

Power lesson: “The more real you are, the more trust you build and the more power (others) entrust to you. ... The best kind to have is the power you earn.”

How she assists other women in her company: She looks for women business events and enjoys mentor-ing and coaching — women and men. “We have women at all levels, including executive women and women behind the wheels of our car-hauling rigs.”

Cassandra Spratling

CONGRATULATIONS BECKY McLAUGHLAN one of Crain’s 100 Most Influential Women!

Health & Benefits • 3331 West Big Beaver Road, Suite 200, Troy, Michigan 48084 • Phone 248.822.8000 • Fax 248.822.4131Property & Casualty • 15415 Middlebelt Road, Livonia, Michigan, 48154 • Phone 734.525.0927 • Fax 734.525.0612

World Class. Local Touch.

Congratulations! We commend Becky for her thoughtful leadership, guidance and insight in a rapidly changing industry. She has influenced the growth and direction of our team immensely, helping to firmly establish Marsh & McLennan Agency as Michigan’s trusted benefits and risk management firm.

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MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: SERVICES

Kathleen McCannPresident and CEO, United Road Services Inc., Romulus

Andra Rush Founder, chairman, CEO and president, Rush Group, Wayne

Career ladder: Rush, 55, started her business 32 years ago with a $5,000 loan from her parents, a van, two pickups, and a goal to take care of her parents and grandparents. Her business school internship demon-strated the concept that “all goods touch a truck. That is, they get deliv-ered by a truck to reach their destina-tion.” So she set out to solve delivery issues that plagued her customers. She earned her bachelor’s degree and later an MBA from the University of Michigan. Rush’s companies are cer-tified minority- and women-owned: Rush is part Native American as a de-scendant of the Mohawk Indian tribe.

Power metrics: Rush Group em-ploys nearly 4,000 across three com-panies with total revenue near$2 billion: Rush Trucking Corp., Dakkota Integrated Systems and Detroit Manufacturing Systems LLC — the latter of which are joint ventures with Magna International Inc. and Faurecia SA, respectively.

Big win: “It has been thrilling to create 1,000 jobs in Detroit (Detroit Manufacturing Systems) supported by Ford’s vision and participate in the city’s rebirth. We are now looking at ways to help spur recovery and growth in Flint to support our neigh-bors to the north as they overhaul their infrastructure in the wake of the water crisis. I’m also excited about getting our elected officials, local school districts and other manufac-turers involved in supporting Manu-facturing Day in October, which gets schoolchildren, especially girls, excit-ed about manufacturing as a career choice. If we don’t convince today’s 10-year-olds that manufacturing is an amazing opportunity, we face a serious shortage of skilled workers in nine years, which will threaten our continuing economic prosperity.”

Marti Benedetti

Lori BlakerPresident and CEO, Technical Training Inc., Rochester Hills

Career ladder: Blaker, 58, began in the family business as one of its first full-time employees, initially proof-ing automotive service manuals writ-ten by her father before moving up in that department and then taking on accounting for the company. By the early 1990s, she was a divisional pres-

ident, working with Ford Motor Co. to train automotive electronic control technicians — while holding down a second job as a hostess at the Palace of Auburn Hills’ Palace Grille as her father made her earn her stripes. A year after his death in 1992, her moth-er named her CEO of TTI.

Power metric: The company has grown to about $100 million in reve-nue from $3 million when Blaker took over. At the time, it employed 20 peo-ple at its lone, metro Detroit office. Today, TTI employs close to 2,000, op-erating in 25 or more countries.

Special skill: Blaker said commu-nicating effectively with employees and clients is where she gets her edge. “Understanding where their pain points are, and working togeth-er to help alleviate those are how you develop win-win situations — we want our clients to be heroes.”

What was your biggest profes-sional win? Through a project for Ford, TTI established its first interna-tional office in 1995-96 in China. This became the “springboard for all our international growth (with) many lessons learned, and refined, country after country” afterward, Blaker said.

Surprising fact: She wanted to be either a journalist or a nurse when she was growing up.

What lessons would you say you have learned professionally? Having observed large OEM companies for years now, Blaker is wary of the red tape and slowness that comes with big organizations. “Lack of contract with the troops” can put business leaders out of touch. “Know your people, know what concerns them, treat them fairly, involve them.”

What drives you? “I hate to lose.” Sherri Welch

THANK YOU TO THE WOMAN WHO TAUGHT US TO NEVER SIT STILL.

TO NEVER GIVE UP ON DETROIT. AND TO ALWAYS SPEAK FREELY - UNLESS THE JAZZ WAS PLAYING.

YOUR GRANDFATHER HAMILTON CARHARTT WOULD BE SO PROUD OF THE WAY YOU’VE CARRIED ON HIS FIERY SPIRIT AND LOVE OF DETROIT.

THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU.

CONGRATULATIONS TO GRETCHEN VALADE FROM YOUR FAMILY AT



CRAIN'S LIST: LARGEST MICHIGAN WOMAN-OWNEDBUSINESSES Ranked by 2015 revenue

RankCompanyAddressPhone; website Majority owner(s)

Revenue($000,000)

2015

Revenue($000,000)

2014Percentchange

MichiganemployeesJan. 2016

MichiganemployeesJan. 2015

Percentwoman-owned Type of business

1Detroit Manufacturing Systems LLC12701 Southfield Road, Building A, Detroit 48223(313) 243-0700; dmsna.com

Andra Rushchairman and CEO

$1,022.5 $694.8 47.2% 886 721 55% Automotive component manufacturing, module assemblyand sequencing services

2Dakkota Integrated Systems LLC1875 Holloway Drive, Holt 48842(517) 694-6500; www.dakkotasystems.com

Andra Rushchairman and CEO

845.0 748.0 13.0 758 774 55 Complete assemblies for original equipment manufacturers

3RKA Petroleum Cos. Inc.28340 Wick Road, Romulus 48174(734) 946-2199; www.rkapetroleum.com

Kay Albertieowner

481.6 B 506.9 -5.0 NA NA 100 Petroleum wholesaler, biodiesel, ethanol, E-85, jet A and jetA1 products, compressed natural gas and liquefied naturalgas as well as a hauler of crude oil

4MotorCity Casino Hotel2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit 48201(866) 752-9622; www.motorcitycasino.com

Marian Ilitchowner

464.5 445.0 4.4 1,962 1,935 100 Casino, hotel, dining, spa and theater

5Two Men and a Truck International Inc.3400 Belle Chase Way, Lansing 48911(800) 345-1070; www.twomenandatruck.com

Mary Ellen Sheetsfounder

400.0 350.0 14.3 356 NA 50 Franchised moving company; home and business, local andlong distance moving services, packing and unpackingservices

6Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc.645 Griswold St., Suite 2900, Detroit 48226(313) 596-6900; www.strategicstaff.com

Cynthia Paskypresident and CEO

303.0 264.0 14.8 NA 810 82 Consulting and staff augmentation services, vendormanagement programs, executive search services, callcenter technology and a domestic IT development center

7Buff Whelan Chevrolet40445 Van Dyke Ave., Sterling Heights 48313(586) 939-7300; www.buffwhelan.com

Kerry Whelanpresident

207.9 183.9 13.0 167 138 100 Automobile dealership

8Brazeway Inc.2711 E. Maumee St., Adrian 49221-0749(517) 265-2121; www.brazeway.com

Stephanie HickmanBoysepresident and CEO

200.9 184.5 8.8 54 54 65 Aluminum extruded tubing and heat transfer componentsfor automotive, HVAC and appliance industries

9Vesco Oil Corp.16055 W. 12 Mile Road, Southfield 48076(248) 557-1600; www.vescooil.com

Marjory Epstein,chairmanLillian EpsteinStotland and LenaEpstein, GMs

161.1 155.2 3.8 188 185 60 Distributor of automotive and industrial lubricants,petroleum and aftermarket products and chemicals

10Rush Trucking Corp.35160 E. Michigan Ave., Wayne 48184(800) 526-7874; www.rushtrucking.com

Andra Rushfounder andchairman

140.4 137.7 2.0 298 350 100 Motor carrier

11EHIM Inc.26711 Northwestern Highway, Suite 400, Southfield48033-2154(248) 948-9900; www.ehimrx.com

Mindi Fynkepresident and CEO

131.3 125.1 5.0 127 120 100 EHIM is a full solution health care company offeringpharmacy benefits management services, third-partyadministration and consulting services.

12Mahar Tool Supply Co.112 Williams St., Saginaw 48605(989) 799-5530; mahartool.com

Barb Mahar LincolnCEO

130.7 120.0 8.9 119 86 100 Tool management partner and industrial distribution

13Technical Training Inc. (TTi Global)3903 W. Hamlin Road, Rochester Hills 48309(248) 853-5550; www.tti-global.com

Lori Blakerowner, president andCEO

98.0 110.0 -10.9 200 300 100 Staffing, outsourcing and training

14Wolverine Truck Sales Inc.3550 Wyoming Ave., Dearborn 48120(313) 849-0800; www.wolverinetruckgroup.com

Lynn Terrypresident

80.5 98.2 -18.0 155 124 100 Truck sales, parts and service

15Rodgers Chevrolet Inc.23755 Allen Road, Woodhaven 48183(734) 676-9600; www.rodgerschevrolet.com

Pamela Rodgerspresident

77.6 74.1 4.7 63 NA 100 Automobile dealership

16BlueWater Technologies Group Inc.24050 Northwestern Highway, Southfield 48075(248) 356-4399; www.bluewatertech.com

SuzanneSchoenebergerpresident

70.0 56.9 23.0 190 170 80 Audiovisual consultant. Handles large-scale audiovisualoperations for sporting events, trade shows, corporatefacilities and retail applications

17Motor City Stamping Inc.47783 N. Gratiot Ave., Chesterfield Township 48051(586) 949-8420; www.mcstamp.com

Judith KucwayCEO and CFO

69.0 63.8 8.2 350 330 52 Stamping plant; automotive welding, assembly, dies andprototypes

18Systrand Manufacturing Corp.19050 Allen Road, Brownstown Township 48183(734) 479-8100; www.systrand.com

Sharon Cannarsapresident and CEO

65.0 63.2 2.9 NA NA 100 Precision machining and assembly of automotive products

19Productions Plus - The Talent Shop30600 Telegraph Road, Suite 2156, Bingham Farms48025(248) 644-5566; www.productions-plus.com

Margery KrevskyCEO

58.0 55.9 3.8 NA 45 100 Full-service talent management and event staffing agency

20Millennium Software Inc.2000 Town Center, Suite 300, Southfield 48075(248) 213-1800; www.webmsi.com

Anu Anandpresident

57.5 53.0 8.5 306 352 100 A global staffing and solutions provider to Fortune 500clients

21G-Tech Services Inc.17101 Michigan Ave., Dearborn 48126(313) 441-3600; www.gogtech.com

Mara Kalnins Ghafaricorporate counsel

56.0 59.0 -5.1 NA 485 100 Technical staffing firm specializing in the placement ofengineers, IT, and finance and accounting professionals ona contract and direct-hire basis

22ARC Supply Chain Solutions Inc.13221 Inkster Road, Taylor 48180(877) 272-3523; www.arc-scs.com

Greta Elliottpresident

55.2 53.6 2.8 40 38 75 Third-party logistics service, freight bill audit and payment,freight optimization

23MVC27087 Gratiot Ave, Roseville 48066(586) 491-2602; mvcusa.com

Linda Torakispresident

48.0 47.5 1.1 15 NA 56 Automotive decorative trim components including chromeplating, paint, injection molding, stamping, tool building

24CrossFire Group691 N. Squirrel Road, Suite 118, Auburn Hills 48326(248) 364-0007; www.xfiregroup.com

Deborah Schneiderco-founder and CEO

41.0 31.0 32.3 NA NA 51 Staffing, payroll, executive search and other HR-relatedservices

25Global Strategic Supply Solutions Inc. (GS3 Global)34450 Industrial Road, Livonia 48150(734) 525-9100; gs3global.com

Lisa LunsfordCEO, president, co-founder

36.0 25.1 43.2 100 65 51 An integrator of manufactured parts and global freightmanagement

This list of woman-owned businesses is an approximate compilation of the largest such businesses headquartered in Michigan. Percentage of the company that is woman owned may not besolely held by the leading shareholder. Number of full-time employees may include full-time equivalents. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates arebased on industry analyses and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Actual revenue figures mayvary. NA = not available.

B Crain's estimate.

LIST RESEARCHED BY SONYA D. HILL

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofi t corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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Millennial adjustment SPECIAL REPORT: BUSINESS EDUCATION

GARY ANGLEBRANDTCrain’s Detroit Business

Colleges devise new ways to attract, launch a new generationBy Chad Halcom

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

No, not all millennials are tech-addicted, Snapchatting lay-abouts. Recent studies show they value mentorship, experiential learning, socially responsible missions in the workplace and a customizable education that is more intense than what colleges and universities have offered to past generations, local experts say.

Southeast Michigan business colleges are adapting to that edu-

cational demand with half-se-mester courses that condense classroom time or undergraduate and MBA-level instruction com-bined into a fi ve-year graduate degree program. Also trending in higher education is the offering of new or expanded mentorship programs, entrepreneurial assis-tance, community service proj-ects and more elective course-work to give MBA students more specialization.

More than half of millennials, generally born between the early

1980s and 2000 , are interested in entrepreneurship and about 27 percent are or have been self-em-ployed, according to a 2011 sur-vey by the Young Entrepreneurs Council and Buzz Marketing Group.

Research suggests they orga-nize into groups and collaborate on projects faster than employees of other organizations, local uni-versity program directors said.

But millennials also tend to as-sume what scholars call “low power distance” — i.e., they don’t distinguish between emailing

helpful suggestions to the com-pany CEO versus a peer in the ad-jacent cubicle (a strategy that plays well at a tech startup or arti-sanal bakery, but less so at a ti-er-one auto supplier).

Still, they value input from non-millennials (75 percent want a mentor, and 90 percent want to share ideas with senior company employees, according to a 2012 MTV study), and do not mind more demanding study and work schedules if it means meeting a goal sooner.

At the University of Detroit Mer-cy, about 20 to 25 of the average 125 new MBA students per year enroll in the accelerated fi ve-year BSBA/MBA program the univer-sity began offering in 2009. Joe Eisenhauer, dean of the College of Business Administration, said graduates of that program over-whelmingly place into profes-sional positions just fi ve years af-ter high school, and students increasingly seek an MBA earlier in life.

“Part of that trend is because employer reimbursement for graduate school training pro-grams has diminished some-what,” Eisenhauer said. “Twenty years ago, MBA programs were largely staffed by corporate em-ployees getting reimbursed for the additional training, after may-be fi ve to seven years in the work-place, and that’s not as common anymore. More often people

COURTESY OF WALSH COLLEGEMBA students at Walsh College work the online component of their blended online/in-class instruction model.

Ilitch business school to be vision of activity

For years, the southwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Temple Street was a dead zone. Wayne State University is designing its new Mike Il-itch School of Business at that corner to sharply contrast with this past.

Classrooms facing Temple and Woodward will look outward and have lots of glass so passersby will see plenty of activity. Since most of the school’s students attend evening classes, there also will be plenty of light emanating from the class-rooms.

On the fi rst fl oor right at that cor-ner will be a room that simulates a trading-room fl oor, with a stock ticker and monitors displaying busi-ness news channels.

“Driving down Woodward on the way to a game, you will see a lot of activity and light,” said the dean of the business school, Robert For-sythe.

Mike and Marian Ilitch funded the school with a $40 million gift. The new building is part of the Il-itches’ broader District Detroit plans to reshape that neighborhood, cen-tered around the new Detroit Red Wings arena.

The business school also is de-signing the building with the busi-ness community in mind. Because of the predominance of evening classes, many spaces will be free during the daytime when business-es might be looking for meeting space.

This includes an auditorium. “I’ve talked to automakers, and they’re al-ways looking for places to put about 300 people to demo a product,” For-sythe said. Two classrooms will have doors big enough to drive cars through.

There will be computer labs and training rooms. A fourth-fl oor board room will seat up to 40 people for companies looking to hold off-site meetings. There will be a full-service catering kitchen.

Business meetings can spill into the two-story atrium or outdoor courtyard, allowing for comingling of students with business profes-sionals.

The school has reserved one space, facing Woodward, for pop-up businesses, probably revolving ev-ery month and with the help of Tech Town.

The four-story, 120,000-square-foot building is slated to open in Jan-uary 2018. The school is aiming for a ceremonial groundbreaking in early July, with construction beginning in the weeks afterward.

JEFF JOHNSTON/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

SEE LAUNCH, PAGE M64

Millennial adjustment SPECIAL REPORT: BUSINESS EDUCATION

Colleges devise new ways to attract, launch a new generationBy Chad Halcom

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

No, not all millennials are tech-addicted, Snapchatting lay-abouts. Recent studies show they value mentorship, experiential learning, socially responsible missions in the workplace and a

cational demand with half-se-mester courses that condense classroom time or undergraduate and MBA-level instruction com-bined into a fi ve-year graduate degree program. Also trending in higher education is the offering of new or expanded mentorship

1980s and 2000 , are interested in entrepreneurship and about 27 percent are or have been self-em-ployed, according to a 2011 sur-vey by the Young Entrepreneurs Council and Buzz Marketing Group.

Research suggests they orga-nize into groups and collaborate

helpful suggestions to the com-pany CEO versus a peer in the ad-jacent cubicle (a strategy that plays well at a tech startup or arti-sanal bakery, but less so at a ti-er-one auto supplier).

Still, they value input from non-millennials (75 percent want

JEFF JOHNSTON/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS


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want that degree earlier, in their ca-reers, and we’re going to give that opportunity.”

Toni Somers, associate dean of the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University, said stu-dents are more interested in attend-ing class more days of the week or on weekends to complete their edu-cation sooner.

The school saw MBA program en-rollment plummet from nearly 2,000 to less than 500 in 2012, but it has since recovered to more than 850.

Among the more popular pro-

gram changes, besides offering ac-celerated 11-week semester courses and a four-week training module as an alternative to traditional 15-week courses, is a corporate mentorship program that launched last fall. About 50 students and 50 corporate mentors have participated, she said.

“We find they enjoy teamwork, and they enjoy it when they’re paired with seasoned professionals, and people who bring a wealth of experience,” Somers said. “They’re interested in learning from non-mil-lennials — there’s always been a lit-tle of that in other generations, but it’s changing.”

Terri Washburn, professor of busi-ness information technology at

Walsh College, said the business school began offering a revised MBA program in fall 2014 based in part on research into the habits of millennials. The new model in-cludes two hours of reading and online preparation be-fore two hours of class time, with little repetition or overlap be-tween the two.

“Millennials are very confident and share what is

known as ‘low power distance,’ meaning that they are comfortable approaching authority figures such as professors,” Washburn said. “(So) professors keep office hours (and) some professors offer web-ex style discussions synchronously with their online students.”

Erik Gordon, clinical professor in the MBA and undergraduate busi-ness programs at the University of Michigan, said incoming MBA stu-dents join a yearlong team challenge starting at orientation, managed by the Sanger Leadership Center at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

The Ross Impact Challenge tasks students with creating a profitable venture with a social mission in De-

troit. Social mission and making en-riching tasks are an increasing pri-ority for millennial MBA students, Gordon said.

“We don’t get a lot of robber-bar-on students. We do get students in-terested in making a lot of money, but that usually is coupled with ei-ther a very strong sense of social re-sponsibility or a desire to monetize an activity that’s also personally re-warding,” Gordon said.

“At Ross, we have a big focus on participative management, and that includes this initiative. This is not a tool for people to come to Detroit and think up some big answers, it’s a path to listening and learning to do something important together.”

Glenn Omura, associate dean for MBA and professional masters pro-grams at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State Universi-ty, said half-semester course mod-ules are a popular new option intro-duced in the past four years.

Also new to the MBA program is Extreme Green, a co-curricular cre-ativity training course that instructs graduate students in creativity, chal-lenges with product development and new technology, and innovative entrepreneurship.

More than 200 students have tak-en part in the program since it launched three years ago, though the name is a new addition last year, Omura said. Students have taken part in marketing and product de-velopment exercises with execu-tives at Whirlpool Corp., Jiffy Mix of the Chelsea Milling Co. and New Jer-sey-based Mars Chocolate.

“The value of experiential learn-ing, which the (millennial) genera-tion seems to favor, is that it sticks longer and deeper, and that learning can be accessed more easily when it’s time to apply it,” Omura said.

“These are the kind of experien-tial things that we have our students doing, and we’re doing many more in a variety of courses. It leads to a cementing of concepts in the class-room, and translates into an im-proved quality of graduates we put into the markets.”

Gordon said UM has also focused more on interactive learning experi-ences and made multidisciplinary action projects that place MBA stu-dents within various local employ-ers a standard feature of the full-time MBA program.

In addition to being more experi-ential, millennials are also more di-verse. Only 60 percent are white ver-sus more than 70 percent of those over 30, according to the Pew Re-search Center, and 11 percent are born to at least one immigrant par-ent. So they have an affinity for learning new languages and re-specting other cultures.

“We have always lived in a world where diversity was an aspiration. They live in a world where diversity is a reality,” Gordon said. “Not only of cultures but locations and of pro-fessional backgrounds. Their world is one where you must be able to work together, and ... in the MBA program you get to learn, and get comfortable with, that experience.”

Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796Twitter: @ChadHalcom

SPECIAL REPORT: BUSINESS EDUCATION

LAUNCHFROM PAGE M63

Terri Washburn: Capitalizing on millennials’ con�dence.


There were two characteristics that helped James Smith stand out when he interviewed for the job of president of Eastern Michigan Univer-sity, which he will assume July 1.

“He’s a sitting president, so he un-derstands the challenges asso-ciated with to-day’s students, and he’s a very solid fundraiser, which is critical-ly important,” said Mike Mor-ris, chairman of EMU’s board of regents and a member of the search advisory committee.

As president of Northern State Uni-versity in Aberdeen, S.D., Smith helped land the largest donation in the school’s history — a $15 million gift. Before that, he was vice presi-dent for economic development at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Morris added that he and the board hope Smith, 59, also makes meeting with local and state leaders a top priority. “We want him to be Mr. Outside — visible in Washtenaw County and visible in Lansing so that as the government allocates re-sources, EMU gets its fair share,” Morris said.

Morris pointed out that 90 per-cent of the students graduating from EMU get jobs and the bulk of those jobs are in Southeastern Michigan. “We want to build on that,” he said.

It was Smith’s background in grade school and higher education and his willingness to take on chal-lenges that impressed search com-mittee member Anne Balazs, EMU’s interim assistant vice president and director of graduate studies. He’s “a nice fit for EMU,” she said.

Smith was chosen after an exten-sive national search that began in April 2015. He is the 23rd president since the university was founded in 1849.

EMU has gone through a string of top leaders in recent years. Former President John Fallon was fired in 2007 over secrecy surrounding a student homicide investigation. He was followed by Susan Martin, who was reprimanded in 2012 after an exchange in Washington, D.C., that allegedly lapsed into profanity. Mar-tin left for San Jose State University and interim president Kim Schatzel took over. Schatzel left in January to become president of Towson Univer-sity in Maryland and was replaced by interim President Don Loppnow.

Smith holds a B.S. from Miami Uni-versity in Oxford, Ohio; an M.S. from Xavier University; and a Ph.D. in edu-cational leadership from Miami University. He received the West Tex-as A&M University distinguished teaching award in 1994.

Crain's reporter Marti Benedetti

recently interviewed Smith about his early goals and aspirations for EMU.

Q: How do you feel about moving to Michigan?

My wife and I grew up in Ohio. We know northern Ohio, and I have been to Ypsilanti a number of times in my life. I’m aware of its closeness to Ann Arbor and Detroit.

Q: What will be your top priorities at EMU to start?

A top priority for me will be getting to know folks and the various players at the cabinet level. I want to learn who these people are, the role they play and what their strengths are. The mindset I hold is, how do we get better, improve programs? How do we provide a better experience to un-dergraduate and graduate students? It is going to take three to six months for me to get to know the key players and learn about the programs we may want to tout more loudly.

Q: Tell me about some of your lead-ership initiatives at Northern State University.

We did a lot in seven years. We raised a lot of money. We built new buildings: We broke ground on a new residence hall and remodeled

the fine arts building. We added to the workout facilities. We purchased $1 million in science equipment and built a new greenhouse. We added a Confucius Institute, work-ing with the Chinese government. It is the only one in the Dakotas. I have a talent for fundraising that will transfer to EMU. I’m tenacious. You have to be able to tell the story of the university. People give to things they are passionate about. It has to be the right project for the right person. You have to focus on the impact to students. You need to be able to ex-plain what a gift will do for Student A or Student B.

Q: Will you replicate any of these ini-tiatives at EMU?

I don’t have a specific plan. I know that EMU is the nation’s No. 1 producer of Fulbright U.S. Scholars among master’s institutions. I want to institute more global experiences for students. I am very interested in getting more students to study abroad. At NSU, we have our stu-dents teach English as a second lan-guage in Korea. They get paid, so it makes studying abroad less cost-prohibitive.

Q: There’s been controversy that EMU does not need an NCAA Division I

football team given its lack of success in recent years. What is your view-point?

I have given it a lot of thought. The Mid-American Conference is a great brand for EMU. You have to play football to stay in that confer-ence. So with that thought alone, it is important to stay with the pro-gram. I like to look at all the scenari-os. I think I know and have insights on how things can grow and pros-per in that area. Football and athlet-ics are the best ways to raise money while using less internal dollars. We need to go in that direction.

Q: Does Northern State have a well-performing football team? Did you have much to do with it?

They do. They are in (NCAA) Divi-sion II, (in) the Northern Sun Inter-collegiate Conference. It is a strong division. We did well with fundrais-ing for athletics.

Q: How do you feel about the future of the 11 struggling charter schools EMU authorizes in Michigan?

I don’t know the data on this as well as I should. I have done some initial research. We want to make those schools stronger. How do you do that? I’m an education policy person by training. These schools

were struggling, charter or not, and I want to add my expertise to do bet-ter. We need to take the situation and make it as best as we can.

Q: As a former public school teach-er, what are your plans to reinvigorate EMU’s College of Education?

I was a public school teacher and principal at the fourth- to eighth-grade level. I have a strong back-ground in education. The graduate (education) programs have been strong at EMU. I would like to see that spread through the undergrad College of Education. There’s a his-torical narrative (of a strong educa-tion college) there. It could be stron-ger. We might have to work harder to tell the stories. We need to make it part of our marketing effort. We need to make people aware that there are some really great programs.

Q: Why did the Education Achieve-ment Authority fail so badly? (The EAA, which took over administration of 15 Detroit Public Schools’ low-est-performing schools, met with crit-icism and opposition from the univer-sity’s faculty leaders.)

I don’t know. It is clear the board realized it was failing. We tried and gave our best effort, and it didn’t work. We wished it would have.

WE’RE SHAPING MICHIGAN’SFUTURE BUSINESS LEADERS.

Michigan’s Best Educational ValueBridge Magazine, December 2015, based on US government College Scorecard data

“Best Business School” by Bloomberg Businessweek

“Best Business School” by The Princeton Review for the 7th consecutive year

Learn more at umdearborn.edu/cob

Fundraising success helped new EMU president gain postBy Marti Benedetti

[email protected]


James Smith: Helped land $15 million gi� in previous job.

Since Line 5 is under water,

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Resident, Lewiston

The Great Lakes are an important resource, and that’s why

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the pipe’s condition. And with around-the-clock monitoring, we

keep a constant eye on the Straits crossing. But it’s more than

the technology that keeps the line safe, it’s our team who lives

here and works hard every day protecting the Great Lakes.

> Here are some of the ways we’re monitoring Line 5

under water:

• Internal Monitoring – The inside of the pipeline is

monitored by “smart pigs.” These devices work like MRI

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• Quick response – Monitored 24/7, the Line 5 pipeline can

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“ Whether under ground or under water, Line 5 is monitored 24/7.”

Tom Prew, P.E. Enbridge Senior Engineer Responsible for Line 5, Superior, WI

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Learn more about how we monitor Line 5 at enbridge.com/line5



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In new contract, OCC administration gets greater say in hiring, scheduling

By Chad [email protected]

Oakland Community College has shed only a handful of full-time fac-ulty, by attrition, since a new labor contract signed last fall no longer requires the school to maintain a minimum staff and allows the ad-ministration more influence in hir-ing and academic scheduling.

Chancellor Timothy Meyer said that as of early May, the school was down only about 10 full-time faculty positions since a new two-year pact with the Oakland Community College Faculty Association, which was ad-opted last October, scrappeda provision requiring a minimum 290 faculty positions across its five campuses.

Faced with plummeting head-count and declining property tax revenue — fall semester enrollment was 21,260 compared with nearly 27,000 two years ago, and a county-wide millage collects about $20 mil-lion less per year than 2008-09 levels — OCC is also shedding adjunct fac-ulty to further right-size its course offerings. In the winter semester, 627 adjuncts taught courses, com-pared with 770 a year earlier.

But Meyer said the new contract allows the administration to take an earlier role in new faculty hires and to present an initial proposed list of courses to the faculty early in the ac-ademic scheduling process, rather than starting with an initial course proposal from the faculty to the ad-ministration as in years past.

“We’re doing some pretty active modeling now, to understand what the community needs. We look at employment potential, the ability to transfer credits of the courses we teach, and what the overall commu-nity demand will be in making pro-posals,” he said. “So over time, we can sculpt not only the program-matic offerings we provide to stu-dents, but also enable students to move through their programs more expeditiously.”

Faculty members told Crain’sthey tried to propose a more livable minimum faculty staffing figure in lieu of the former 290, but were told the administration would not bar-gain on that issue.

“We think there’s a certain amount of work that only full-time faculty know how to do, but you also need the full-time faculty to help plan and build the schedule of what colleges need to teach,” said Mary Ston, president of the OCCFA since last fall, about the staffing commit-ment.

“Most colleges rely on that model that only full-time instructors do that.”

Faculty leaders also said course scheduling seems more chaotic so far under the new model, although the 2016-17 year is the first to be scheduled under the contract and the process is still ongoing. Meyer said the school should finish transi-tioning to the new scheduling mod-el in winter 2017 and be more adaptable to student and commu-nity needs.

“I don’t know if there are adjust-ments that need to be made, but as far as a general pattern, administra-tion-initiated scheduling with facul-ty input is a model that’s expected to remain in future contracts,” he said.



“We’re doing some pretty active modeling now, to understand what the community needs.”Timothy Meyer, Oakland Community College

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CRAIN'S LIST: GRAD BIZ DEGREE PROGRAMS Listed alphabetically

Degrees offeredMichigan campuslocations

Types ofprograms

MinimumGPA

MinimumGMAT/

GRE

Cost percredit hour

as of June 2016

Andrews UniversityBerrien Springs 49104-0620; (269) 471-6321

MBA; MSA in church administration; M.A., Ed.S, Ed.D, Ph.D. in leadership,educational leadership and higher education administration; M.S. communityand international development

Berrien Springs On campus, online Varies Varies $1,021(Masters)and $1,188(Doctoral)

Aquinas College1607 Robinson Road S.E., Grand Rapids49506-1799; (616) 632-2924

Master of management with concentrations in organizational leadership,marketing management, sustainable business and health care administration;master of sustainable business

Grand Rapids Part time, full time 2.8 450 $548

Baker College Center for Graduate Studies1116 W. Bristol Road, Flint 48507(800) 469-3165

MBA, M.S. in information systems, industrial/organizational psychology, M.S.educational effectiveness, M.S. in nursing, doctor of business administration

Allen Park, Auburn Hills,Clinton Twp., Port Huron,others

Online, part time Varies 3 years FTwork

$435

Central Michigan University1200 S. Franklin, Mount Pleasant (and otherlocations) 48859(989) 774-4000

M.S. in administration, information systems/SAP; MBA with concentrations inaccounting, business economics, consulting, finance, management, HR,international business, logistics; M.A. in economics and in sportsadministration; master and doctor of health administration; others

Auburn Hills, ClintonTownship, Dearborn,Detroit, Southfield, Troy,Warren, others

FT, PT, evenings,weekends, in person,hybrid, online

Varies Varies Varies,discounted rate

status

Cleary University3750 Cleary Drive, Howell 48843(800) 686-1883

MBA in health care leadership; analytics, technology and innovation; globalleadership and a certificate in financial planning

Ann Arbor, Howell, Flint Online, blended 2.5 NR $600

Concordia University - Ann Arbor4090 Geddes Road, Ann Arbor 48105(734) 995-7300

MBA, with concentrations in corporate communication, finance, health care,HR, international biz, others. M.S. in organizational leadership andadministration; master's in ed. leadership, curriculum, instruction

Ann Arbor Full time, part time,evenings and online

Varies NR $548-662

Cornerstone University, Professional andGraduate Studies1001 E. Beltline Ave. NE, Grand Rapids 49525(616) 222-1448

MBA; MBA concentrations in health care administration, global business,project management, finance; M.S. in management

Lansing, Kalamazoo,Grand Rapids

Full time, evenings,online

2.7 NR $460-$500

Davenport University27650 Dequindre Road, Warren 48092(800) 686-1600

Executive MBA, master of accountancy, M.S. in data analytics, computerscience, technology management, others; MBA with optional graduatecertificates in accounting, finance, health care management, others

Livonia, Warren, GrandRapids, Lansing, Midland,Flint, others

Full time, part time,evenings, weekendsand online

2.75 NR $719

DeVry University Keller Graduate School ofManagement26999 Central Park Blvd., Suite 125,Southfield 48076; (248) 213-1610

On campus: MBA, M.S. in accounting. Online: Master's in accounting andfinancial management, HR management, information systems management,network and communications management, project management, publicadministration

Southfield Full time, part time,online

2.7 Waved at2.7 orbetter

$766

Eastern Michigan University306 Gary Owen Building, Ypsilanti 48197(734) 487-4444

General MBA or MBA with 13 specialization options; M.S. in accounting, HRand organizational development, information systems, integrated marketingcommunications, taxation; 14 graduate certificates

Ypsilanti. MBA andMSHROD courses also inLivonia

FT, PT, evenings. ForMBA and MSHROD,some Saturdays,online

2.75 (3.0for MSAor MST)

450 (500for MSA or

MST)

$607

Ferris State University1201 S. State St., Big Rapids 49307(231) 591-2000

MBA, M.S. in information security and intelligence Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills,Clinton Township, HarperWoods, Warren, others

Online, weekends,campus

2.75 500/upper50th

percentile

$542

Grand Valley State University SeidmanCollege of Business50 Front St., Grand Rapids 49504(616) 331-7400

MBA with optional emphasis in finance, innovation and technologymanagement, health sector management, sustainable enterprise, andinternational business; M.S. in taxation; M.S. in accounting

Grand Rapids, Holland Full time integrated;part time

3.0 500 $608

Kettering University1700 University Ave., Flint 48504(800) 955-4464

MBA with concentrations in leadership, IT, supply chain, and technologymanagement; engineering concentrations in manufacturing, mechanicaldesign, power electronics and machine drives. Additional M.S. offerings.

Flint Online, full time 3.0 NR $857

Lawrence Technological University21000 W. 10 Mile Road, Southfield48075-1058(248) 204-2210

MBA, M.S. in information Technology, dual degrees: MBA/M.S. in informationTechnology, MBA/master of engineering management, MBA/master ofarchitecture

Southfield, Warren,Chrysler Technical Center

Full time, part timeand online

3.0 3.0 orbetter

$1,050

Madonna University36600 Schoolcraft Road, Livonia 48150(734) 432-5667

MBA, 9 certificate options; MSBA in leadership studies, leadership studies incriminal justice, and international business; MS in health servicesadministration

Livonia, Gaylord, ClintonTwp., Detroit

Part time, evenings,weekends and online

3.0 NR $745

Marygrove College8425 W. McNichols, Detroit 48221(313) 927-1513

M.A. in human resources management, educational leadership Detroit, online Part time, full time,online

3.0 NR $672

Michigan State University Broad College ofBusiness632 Bogue St. N520, East Lansing 48824(517) 355-8377

MBAs: full-time and executive. M.S. in accounting; analytics; finance;hospitality business; management, strategy and leadership; marketingresearch; supply chain management. Ph.Ds in accounting, businessinformation systems, finance, logistics, management, marketing, others

East Lansing, Troy Full time, part time,evenings, weekends,and online

Varies Varies Varies

Michigan Technological University Schoolof Business and Economics1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton 49931-1295(906) 487-3055

MBA, accounting and applied natural resource economics Houghton Campus, full time,part time

2.9 550/NR $905

Northern Michigan University1401 Presque Isle Ave., Marquette49855-5301; (906) 227-2900

MBA Marquette Full time, part time,campus

3.0 500/NR $623

Northwood University Richard DeVosGraduate School of Management4000 Whiting Drive, Midland 48640(800) 622-9000

MBA and M.S. in organizational leadership; M.S. in accounting, appliedeconomics, finance and taxation

Troy, Grand Rapids, EastLansing, Midland,Belleville; others

FT, accelerated, PT,evenings, online andexecutive

3.0 NR Varies

Oakland University School of BusinessAdministration238 Elliott Hall, Rochester Hills 48309(248) 370-3287

MBA, executive MBA in health care management, information systemsleadership, M.S. in IT management, accounting; post-master certificates inaccounting, business economics, entrepreneurship, finance, others; andgeneral management geared to non-business master's applicants

Rochester Hills Part time or full time,evenings, someSaturday, online

3.0 GMAT500/ V 153

Q 144

$655

Olivet College320 S. Main St., Olivet 49076(269) 749-7626

MBA in insurance Olivet Online 3.0 500 $725

Saginaw Valley State University7400 Bay Road, 160 Wicks, Saginaw 48710(989) 964-6096

MBA Saginaw Online, hybrid, parttime, evenings

3.0 450 $514

Siena Heights University19675 W. 10 Mile Road, Suite 400, Southfield48075; (248) 799-5490

M.A. in leadership in organization, health care, higher education Southfield, Jackson,Monroe, Adrian, BattleCreek, Benton Harbor,Lansing

Evenings, blendedonline, online

3.0 NR $595

Spring Arbor University Gainey School ofBusiness106 E. Main, Spring Arbor 49283(517) 750-6611

MBA Spring Arbor, Flint, GrandRapids, Jackson, Lansing,metro Detroit, others

Full time, online,hybrid

3.0 NR $633

Information for this list was provided by the schools through surveys or their websites. It is not a complete listing, but the most comprehensive available. NA = not available. NR = not required.

LIST RESEARCHED BY CRAIN'S STAFF CONTINUED ON PAGE M70


FROM PAGE M69

CRAIN'S LIST: GRAD BIZ DEGREE PROGRAMS Listed alphabetically

Degrees offeredMichigan campuslocations

Types ofprograms

MinimumGPA

MinimumGMAT/GRE

Cost percredit houras of June

2016

University of Detroit Mercy4001 W. McNichols, Detroit 48221(313) 993-1203;

MBA; MBA with health care concentration; joint MBA/MHSA; joint JD/MBA;joint MBA/MCIS; graduate certificates in finance, ethical leadership and changemanagement, forensic accounting, and business turnaround management

Detroit, McNichols; Detroit,Riverfront

Part time, full-time,and evenings; BTMavailable online

3.0 Can bewaived withexperience.

$1,537

UM Ross School of Business701 Tappan St., Ann Arbor 48109(734) 763-5796;

MBA, global MBA, master's in accounting, supply chain management,management; over 20 MBA dual degree programs; doctoral study program

Ann Arbor Full time, part time,and executive

Varies NR Varies

UM-Dearborn College of Business19000 Hubbard Drive, Dearborn 48126(313) 593-5460;

MBA in accounting, finance, HR management, international business,investment, management information systems, others. M.S. in accounting,business analytics, finance, information systems, others. Dual degrees in MBA/M.S.-finance, MBA/health services

Dearborn Full time, part time,evenings and online

NR NR $846

UM-Flint School of Management2200 Riverfront Center, 303 E. Kearsley St.,Flint 48502(800) 942-5636;

MBA with concentrations in accounting, computer information systems,finance, health care management, international business, other; M.S. inaccounting; grad certificate in business

Flint Part time, full time,traditional, mixed

3.0 450/150 $530

University of Phoenix26261 Evergreen Road, Suite 135, Southfield48076(248) 675-3704;

MBA concentrations in accounting, management, finance, human capital,marketing, project management, manufacturing

Southfield and downtownDetroit

Evenings and online 2.5 NR $740

University of Windsor Odette School ofBusiness401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4(519) 253-3000;

MBA; MBA/JD dual; master's in management in international accounting andfinance; and manufacturing, logistics, supply chain and HR management

Windsor Full time 2.75 550 Varies

Walsh College3838 Livernois Road, Troy 48083(248) 823-1610;

MBA, M.S. in accountancy, finance, IT, IT leadership, management, marketingand taxation. Dual degrees: MBA/M.S. finance, IT leadership, management, andmarketing

Troy; Novi; at Macomb andSt. Clair County CCs


2.750 NR $710

Wayne State University School of BusinessAdministration5201 Cass Ave., Detroit 48202(313) 577-4501

MBA, MSA., M.S. in taxation; graduate certificate in business; joint J.D./MBA;Ph.D. in business with tracks in finance, management and marketing

Detroit, Farmington Hills,Warren, Livonia


NA GMAT 450Ph.D. 600

$685

Western Michigan University HaworthCollege of Business2100 Schneider Hall, Kalamazoo 49008(269) 387-5133;

MBA in aviation, computer information systems, finance, general business,health care, management, marketing, international business; MBA/J.D., MBA/M.D., M.S. in accountancy

Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo part time, evening 2.5 GMAT 450 orequivalentGRE score

Kalamazoo:$530.31,Grand

Rapids:$590.33

Information for this list was provided by the schools through surveys or their websites. It is not a complete listing, but the most comprehensive available. NA = not available. NR = not required.

LIST RESEARCHED BY CRAIN'S STAFF

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Directory of new college programs SPECIAL REPORT: BUSINESS EDUCATION

SEE NEXT PAGE

This directory of new college pro-grams was compiled from dozens of interviews with academic, admis-sions and marketing executives at the schools. The list is meant to showcase new programs of interest to a Southeast Michigan business readership. If you know of a new program we should add to this di-rectory, please contact Gary Piatek at [email protected].

Baker College

Baker recently began offering As-sociate of Applied Science degrees in advanced manufacturing tech-nology and mechanical technology at its Allen Park campus. Also added was a CNC machinist certificate to prepare graduates to operate in ad-vanced manufacturing facilities; it includes a 120-hour internship.

Central Michigan UniversityCentral is offering a variety of new

online programs this fall. The Master of Health Administration is 51 credit hours and prepares students for health care leadership positions and includes courses on finance, market-ing, economics and planning, among others.

The Master of Science in admin-istration is 36 credit hours and em-phasizes innovative training and personnel development methods, such as instructional technology and social media.

The Master of Arts in special edu-cation is 33 credit hours and gives students the opportunity to pursue an endorsement in either autism spectrum disorder or learning dis-abilities on top of taking core courses.

The doctorate in educational tech-nology is 54 hours and trains profes-sionals how to evaluate educational technology and technology-based training for research purposes.

Finally, an undergraduate certifi-cate in technical and professional writing — offered online and in hy-brid formats — will help students develop proficiency at writing and editing a wide variety of technical and professional documents com-mon in business, industry, nonprof-it and government sectors.

CMU also has a number of on-campus options, ranging from

graduate certificates in actuarial studies and training and develop-ment to an undergraduate certifi-cate in public and social entrepre-neurship.

Cleary UniversityThis fall, Cleary will launch an As-

sociate of Business Administration degree in culinary management. The 15-credit-hour program allows students to work in kitchen labs and receive instruction from executive chefs and hospitality faculty to pre-pare for careers in a variety of indus-tries, including fine dining, hotels, food trucks and catering.

The school also has a new Bache-lor of Business Administration in hospitality management. Students in the program can complete an as-sociate degree in culinary along with their BBA. The 122-credit hour pro-gram combines coursework with practical kitchen experience.

In addition, Cleary also recently began offering an event, sport, and promotion management BBA.

Concordia UniversityAmong the new programs at

Concordia’s business school are a Master of Business Administration in innovation and entrepreneurship and an MBA for health care practi-tioners, open to their health care graduate students.

In the year ahead, the business school plans to begin a paralegal certificate program, available to current students as well as those in-terested in earning the professional legal credential.

Davenport University New this year is a Bachelor of Sci-

ence in computer information sys-tems with the option of co-op work experience, and a B.S. in informa-tion assurance/cyber defense with specializations in information as-surance and health care informa-tion assurance. There is also a new Master of Science in data analytics and a 12-credit post-bachelor’s cer-tificate in data analytics.

An M.S. in computer science pro-gram will begin this fall. The 30-credit hour program will focus on secure software development and cybersecurity, and can be taken in-class or completely online.

Eastern Michigan UniversityThis fall, Eastern will begin offer-

ing a program in fermentation sci-ence open to undergraduates in co-ordination with biology and chemistry degrees. The school will also launch an undergraduate ma-jor in geospatial information sci-ence and technology.

Henry Ford CollegeThe Dearborn-based school re-

cently launched a Bachelor of Sci-

ence in culinary arts. The program is open to students who have com-pleted two semesters in either Hen-ry Ford’s associate degree programs for culinary arts or hotel/restaurant management, and have completed the culinary skills certificate or equivalent.

In addition, HFC has a new one-year recording arts certification that allows nontraditional music stu-dents to obtain experience in the recording industry.

Kettering UniversityKettering is offering three new

fully online graduate certificates in global leadership, operations man-agement and supply chain manage-ment, offering specialized skills to professionals who are currently in — or desire to enter — a manage-ment position. The 12-credit certifi-cates can be taken as self-contained credentials or as part of an online master’s degree in engineering management, operations manage-ment or lean manufacturing.

Macomb Community CollegeMacomb is launching a new

global supply chain associate de-gree program this fall. The program will prepare students for entry-level positions, such as buyer/purchas-ing agent, inventory analyst and lo-gistics analyst. Students in this pro-gram can earn up to 82 credit hours toward a bachelor’s degree in global supply chain management at Wayne State University.

Michigan State UniversityMSU’s College of Osteopathic

Medicine and Broad College of Busi-ness recently began offering a joint Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and Master of Business Administration degree. The MBA side of the degree specializes in management, strategy and leadership, while providing foundational management skills. The joint D.O./MBA program can be completed in five years.

MSU also has a new minor in en-

trepreneurship and innovation open to all students regardless of their major.

Northwood University Northwood has four new Master

of Science degrees in accounting, applied economics, finance, and taxation at its Troy campus. The school also has a new Bachelor of Science in applied management at its Midland campus.

Oakland Community College In April, OCC signed an agree-

ment with Walsh College enabling students to earn an associate degree from OCC while earning credit to-ward a business or information technology degree at Walsh. OCC students are able to transfer up to 82 credit hours to Walsh.

Oakland University Oakland’s School of Business is

expanding into a new area of study involving investment management. This program features managing in-vestment funds, including the es-sentials of portfolio management, stock selection and portfolio evalu-ation. The business school has also expanded the scope of its 21-month Executive MBA program to include midcareer executives across all in-dustries.

In addition, Oakland will offer a Master of Education in internation-al baccalaureate education through its School of Education and Human Services.

Rochester College Rochester College now offers

three degrees fully online: the Bach-elor of Science in leadership with a management track; the B.S. in early childhood studies; and the Associ-ate of Arts degree. Rochester College has also begun offering its Bachelor of Business Administration in man-agement program at Macomb Com-munity College’s Warren campus.

Schoolcra� College Schoolcraft is offering a new culi-

nary and dietary operations man-agement Bachelor of Science de-gree. In addition, it has a number of new certificate programs, including a welding pre-apprenticeship skills certificate, a brewing and distilla-tion technology one-year certifi-cate, a mechatronics skills certifi-cate, and an Associate of Applied Science degree.

University of Detroit Mercy This fall, Detroit Mercy’s College of

Business Administration will offer a new graduate certificate in business fundamentals. The eight-course cer-tificate is targeted at people with nonbusiness undergraduate de-grees, and covers topics such as ac-counting, marketing, economics, fi-nance and management. Up to three

WIKIPEDIAMichigan State University o�ers a joint Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and MBA degree.

COURTESY OF BAKER COLLEGEBaker College o�ers new associate degree programs in Allen Park.


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FROM PREVIOUS PAGE


courses may be waived based on previous coursework or completion of the college’s graduate certificate in business fundamentals.

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor The Ross School of Business’ BBA

program was revamped last year. The revamped program, known as Multidisciplinary Exploration and Rigorous Guided Education, is de-signed to prepare students to com-pete in a global business world. New elements to the program are a focus on the role of business in society, additional study-abroad opportuni-ties and the integration of class-room learning.

This year, a new diversity require-ment was added to the BBA’s curric-ulum, called Identity and Diversity in Organizations. As part of the re-quirement, students must attend an event and write a reflection paper on identity, diversity and organizations.

University of Michigan-Dearborn UM Dearborn has a new 4+1

BBA/Master of Science in account-ing option that allows students to count up to three graduate ac-counting courses toward the BBA accounting major and M.S.-Ac-counting degree at the same time, which will reduce the net cost of

the tuition rates. The 4+1 option is available to BBA students with a declared accounting major who are enrolled at UM-Dearborn.

The school also has a new four-course certificate in entrepreneur-ship, has added concentrations in corporate finance and investments to its Master of Science in finance, and has revised its Master of Science in accounting.

University of Michigan-FlintThis fall, UM Flint’s School of

Management will launch two new undergraduate majors, in supply chain management and organiza-tional behavior and human rela-tions management. The school will also offer a new MBA concentration in organizational leadership. In ad-dition, there will be five new post-master’s certificate programs: accounting, finance, international business, marketing and organiza-tional leadership.

Walsh College New at Walsh this year is a cyber-

security concentration for the Mas-ter of Science in information tech-nology degree program. The school also has a new marketing course in creativity and innovation and a re-vised course in consumer insights. In addition, Walsh opened its $15 million addition and renovation of

the Success Center on its Troy cam-pus, which includes new and updat-ed learning and collaboration spac-es, classrooms and a new Cyber Lab.

Washtenaw Community College Among the new certificate pro-

grams at WCC are introduction to manufacturing processes, iron-workers pre-apprenticeship, weld-ing and fabrication principles, and core business skills. WCC also has new advanced certificate programs in mobile device programming, welding and fabrication advanced applications, and advanced ma-chine tool programming. Washten-aw also has opened a new Entrepre-neurship Center, designed as a meeting place to connect students and the community with resources and professional assistance to bring business ideas to market.

Wayne County Community College District

WCCCD has several new comput-er information systems programs, including an Associate of Applied Science in cybersecurity specialist, as well as a college certificate and three short-term certificates, and college certificates in application de-veloper, database administrator and network administrator. The district also has a new college certificate and short-term certificates in craft brew-

ing, in addition to a paralegal assis-tant certificate.

Wayne State University The Ilitch School of Business has

launched several new programs this year. The accelerated graduate en-rollment program allows highly qualified students to cut substantial time and as much as one-third off the total cost of a WSU graduate business degree program by apply-ing up to 12 credits toward both their undergraduate and MBA de-grees.

In addition, WSU has created a Warriors Business Community, which allows a cohort of up to 70 business students to live, learn and develop professional connections together on their own floor of Wayne State’s Ghafari Hall.

The Corporate Mentor Program matches first-generation business students with a professional cor-porate mentor from the metro De-troit business community. Stu-dents and mentors meet throughout the academic year to help the student develop a profes-sional identity and a clearer vision for their career path and to be-come fully career ready.

The school also established a new agreement with Washtenaw Community College that makes it easi-er for students to earn an associate degree at WCC while earning credit toward a business degree at WSU. WCC students will be allowed to transfer up to 82 credit hours to Wayne State. WSU has similar agree-ments with Macomb Community Col-lege, Oakland Community College and Schoolcra� College.

Programs for business students at Wayne State University include the Warriors Business Community.

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CRAIN'S LIST: PRIVATE 200 Ranked by 2015 revenue

RankCompanyAddressPhone, website Top executive

Revenue($000,000)

2015

Revenue($000,000)

2014Percentchange

Detroitarea

employeesJan. 2016

WorldwideemployeesJan. 2016 Type of business

1 Penske Corp., Bloomfield Hills 48302-0954(248) 648-2000; www.penske.com

Roger Penskechairman

$29,178.0 $26,350.0 10.7% NA 49,902 Retail automotive, truck leasing and logistics, motorsports racing

2 Rock Ventures, Detroit 48226(800) 251-9080

Dan Gilbertchairman and founder

6,100.0 B 5,100.0 B 19.6 14,237 26,114 Umbrella organization managing a portfolio of companies,investments and real estate.

3International Automotive Components, Southfield48034(248) 455-7000; www.iacgroup.com

Robert S. Millerpresident and CEO

5,900.0 5,900.0 0.0 909 32,000 Global supplier of interior automotive components and systemsincluding cockpits and overhead systems and soft trim andacoustics.

4TI Automotive Ltd. C, Auburn Hills 48326(248) 494-5000; www.tiautomotive.com

Bill Kozyrachairman, president andCEO

3,400.0 3,300.0 3.0 430 25,000 Global tier-one supplier of automotive fluid systems technology.

5 Meridian Health Plan Inc., Detroit 48226(313) 324-3700; www.mhplan.com

David Cottonpresident and CEO

3,370.4 1,945.0 73.3 1,500 1,500 Government programs health insurance

6Ilitch companies, Detroit 48201(313) 471-6600; www.ilitchcompanies.com

Christopher Ilitchpresident and CEO

3,300.0 3,300.0 0.0 8,778 22,446 Little Caesars Pizza, Detroit Red Wings, Blue Line FoodserviceDistribution, Champion Foods, Olympia Entertainment, OlympiaDevelopment, MotorCity Casino Hotel, Little Caesars Pizza KitFundraising Program and Ilitch Holdings Inc.

7 Plastipak Holdings Inc., Plymouth 48170(734) 455-3600; www.plastipak.com

William Youngpresident and CEO

2,856.7 D 2,405.8 18.7 840 6,100 Manufacturer of rigid plastic containers for the consumerproducts industry

8Inteva Products LLC, Troy 48084(248) 655-8886; www.intevaproducts.com

Lon Offenbacherpresident, CEO andfounder

2,600.0 2,500.0 4.0 330 15,000 Global tier-one automotive supplier of interior systems, closuresystems, roof systems, and motors and electronics.

9 Moroun family holdings, Warren 48089(586) 939-7000

NA E 2,311.2 B 2,235.1 B 3.4 NA NA Ambassador Bridge and various trucking and logistics companies

10Sherwood Food Distributors LLC, Detroit 48228(313) 659-7300; www.sherwoodfoods.com

Earl Ishbiachairman, president andCEO

2,181.3 1,740.8 25.3 333 1,125 Wholesale food distributor

11Bridgewater Interiors LLC, Detroit 48209(313) 842-3300; www.bridgewater-interiors.com

Ronald Hall Sr.chairmanRonald Hall Jr.president and CEO

2,092.2 2,281.5 -8.3 940 1,928 Automotive seating/interiors

12 The Suburban Collection, Troy 48084(877) 471-7100; www.suburbancollection.com

David Fischerchairman and CEO

2,001.5 1,914.5 4.5 1,856 2,009 Automobile dealerships

13H.W. Kaufman Financial Group/Burns & Wilcox, Farmington Hills 48334(248) 932-9000; www.kaufmanfinancialgroup.com

Alan Jay Kaufmanchairman, president andCEO

1,830.0 1,625.0 12.6 247 1,660 Specialty insurance, reinsurance, premium financing, loss controland premium audits

14Barton Malow Co., Southfield 48034(248) 436-5000; www.bartonmalow.com

Ryan Maibachpresident and CEO

1,780.3 1,498.0 18.8 900 1,670 General contracting, construction management, design/build,engineer-procure-construct, integrated project delivery, self-perform services: civil, concrete, rigging and interiors

15Dura Automotive Systems LLC/Global AutomotiveSystems LLC, Auburn Hills 48326(248) 299-7500; www.duraauto.com

Lynn TiltonCEO

1,600.0 1,750.0 -8.6 1,132 12,000 Control systems (mechatronics, shift-by-wire, electroniccontrollers, HMI interfaces); exterior systems (glass systems,exterior trim systems); structural systems (lightweight bodystructures, door structures)

16 Key Safety Systems Inc. F, Sterling Heights 48314(586) 726-3800; www.keysafetyinc.com

Jason Luopresident and CEO

1,575.0 1,345.0 17.1 300 12,000 Inflators, airbags, seat belts, steering wheels, active safety andelectronics

17 Atlas Oil Co. , Taylor 48180(800) 878-2000; www.atlasoil.com

Sam Simonchairman and CEO

1,465.5 B 1,628.3 -10.0 NA NA Petroleum distribution, total fuel needs

18Walbridge Aldinger Co., Detroit 48226(313) 963-8000; www.walbridge.com

John Rakolta Jr.chairman and CEO

1,432.0 1,550.0 -7.6 310 1,000 Construction: general contracting, design-build, constructionmanagement, engineer/procure/construct, virtual design, digitalmapping.

19 Belfor Holdings Inc., Birmingham 48009(248) 594-1144; www.belfor.com

Sheldon YellenCEO

1,400.2 G 1,453.9 G -3.7 1,790 NA Property restoration

20 Wolverine Packing Co., Detroit 48207(313) 259-7500; www.wolverinepacking.com

Jim Bonahoompresident

1,268.0 1,213.0 4.5 NA NA Wholesale meat packer and processor; wholesale meat, poultryand seafood distributor

21 Soave Enterprises LLC, Detroit 48207(313) 567-7000; www.soave.com

Anthony Soavepresident and CEO

1,232.0 1,970.0 -37.5 591 1,549 Diversified management holding company

22 Victory Automotive Group Inc., Canton Twp. 48188(734) 495-3500; www.victoryautomotivegroup.com

Jeffrey Cappopresident

1,223.7 H 1,033.5 H 18.4 NA NA Automotive dealerships

23 Syncreon Global Holdings Ltd., Auburn Hills 48326(248) 377-4700; www.syncreon.com

Brian EnrightCEO

1,100.0 B 1,100.0 B 0.0 NA 12,000 Global provider of advanced supply chain services that offers a fullrange of third- and fourth-party logistics services

24 The Diez Group, Dearborn 48126(313) 491-1200; www.thediezgroup.com

Gerald DiezCEO

1,079.0 733.0 47.2 418 644 Aluminum and steel sales, processing and warehousingcompanies

25 Piston Automotive LLC, Redford Twp. 48239(313) 541-8674; www.pistongroup.com

Vincent Johnsonchairman

930.8 838.2 11.0 284 563 Automotive supplier

26 Kenwal Steel Corp., Dearborn 48126(313) 739-1000; www.kenwal.com

Kenneth Eisenbergchairman and CEO

910.0 899.2 1.2 NA NA Steel service center

27 Orleans International Inc., Farmington Hills 48334(248) 855-5556; www.orleansintl.com

Earl Tushmanpresident

856.0 758.4 12.9 40 NA Meat importer

This list of privately held companies is an approximate compilation of the largest companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties that do not have stock traded on apublic exchange. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analysis and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources.Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area office. Actualrevenue figures may vary. NA = not available.

B Crain's estimate.

C Acquired by private equity firm Bain Capital LLC in June.

D Estimated revenue includes acquisition of APPE packaging division of LaSeda de Barcelona Group in July 2015.

E There is not a holding company for the Moroun family businesses. Some are public companies controlled by Manuel and/or Matthew Moroun. Others are owned privately by the Moroun family.

F Entered into a definitive agreement announced Feb. 2 to be acquired by public Chinese auto conglomerate Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp.

G In 2015, 88.05 percent of revenue for Belfor, a disaster recovery firm, was from construction management. The figure was 92 percent in 2014.

H Automotive News.

LIST RESEARCHED BY SONYA D. HILL CONTINUED ON PAGE M77

BUILT FOR GOOD FOR 100 YEARS.IT IS ONE THING TO LOOK SKYWARD AND TAKE PRIDE IN A BEAUTIFUL BUILDING. BUT IT IS QUITE ANOTHER TO KNOW UNDERNEATH IT ALL, YOUR WORK IS WHAT IS LIFTING IT UP.

FOR THE PAST 100 YEARS AND SPANNING FOUR CONTINENTS, THE PEOPLE OF WALBRIDGE HAVE BUILT THE ESSENTIAL STRUCTURES OF OUR LIVES. PLACES WHERE WE INVENT, LEARN AND LIFT LIFE UP TO NEW LEVELS. THE BUILDINGS SURVIVE AS A TESTIMONY TO WHAT WE ARE AND WHAT WE ASPIRE TO BE.

NOW IT IS OUR SECOND CENTURY. START YOUR QUEST. SHAPE YOUR LEGACY. MAKE YOUR PROOF.

LET’S BUILD IT TOGETHER.

Walbridge served as construction manager on the award-winning redevelopment of the historic David Whitney Building in Detroit.





Revenue($000,000)

2015

Revenue($000,000)

2014Percentchange

Detroitarea

employeesJan. 2016


28 Henniges Automotive B, Auburn Hills 48326(248) 340-4100; www.hennigesautomotive.com

Douglas DelGrossoCEO

$823.2 $824.8 -0.2% 219 7,435 Weatherstrip seals, glass encapsulation, modular sealing systemsand anti-vibration components

29McNaughton-McKay Electric Co., Madison Heights48071-4134(248) 399-7500; www.mc-mc.com

Donald Slominski Jr.president and CEO

800.0 689.0 16.1 NA 550 Electric/electronics distributor

30LaFontaine Automotive Group, Highland Township48357(248) 887-4747; www.thefamilydeal.com

Michael LaFontaine,owner and chairman;Maureen LaFontaine,owner and president

768.4 663.3 15.9 1,092 1,092 Automobile dealerships

31Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co., Farmington Hills48331(248) 615-9000; www.amerisure.com

Gregory Crabbpresident and CEO

759.7 701.4 8.3 355 718 Property and casualty insurance company

32 U.S. Farathane Corp. C, Auburn Hills 48326(248) 754-7000; www.usfarathane.com

Andrew Greenleepresident and CEO

700.0 500.0 40.0 2,416 3,000 Plastic injection molder, extruder, thermal compression molder

33 Carhartt Inc., Dearborn 48126(313) 271-8460; www.carhartt.com

Mark Valadechairman and CEO

691.0 664.0 4.1 505 5,033 Apparel manufacturer

34Art Van Furniture Inc., Warren 48092(586) 939-0800; www.artvan.com

Archie Van Elslander,chairman;Kim Yost, CEO

650.0 620.0 4.8 1,798 3,622 Retail home furnishings

35 Neapco Holdings LLC, Belleville 48111(734) 447-1372; www.neapco.com

Kenneth Hopkinspresident and CEO

647.0 604.0 7.1 505 2,662 Designs, manufactures and distributes driveline systems andservice parts

36 Lipari Foods LLC, Warren 48089(586) 447-3500; www.liparifoods.com

Thom Liparipresident and CEO

646.0 555.0 16.4 525 1,080 Wholesale food distribution. Lipari Food’s truck fleet delivers to 12states.

37 Continental Structural Plastics, Auburn Hills 48326(248) 237-7800; www.cspplastics.com

Frank Macherchairman and CEO

634.0 510.0 24.3 165 3,300 Body panels and structural components for the light vehicles,heavy trucks, HVAC and construction markets

38 Michigan CAT, Novi 48375(248) 349-4800; www.michigancat.com

Bill Hodgesexecutive vice president

627.0 590.0 6.3 525 1,015 Heavy equipment dealer providing sales of new and usedequipment as well as rental and parts and service

39 ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor 48106(734) 761-4700; www.proquest.com/en-US

Kurt SanfordCEO

591.9 559.0 5.9 577 1,952 Information databases and microform products

40General RV Center Inc., Wixom 48393(248) 349-0900; www.generalrv.com

Robert Baidas, CEO;Loren Baidas, presidentand chairman

582.0 453.0 28.5 597 1,090 Recreational vehicle and trailer dealership

41 Barrick Enterprises Inc., Royal Oak 48073(248) 549-3737; www.barrickent.com

Robert Barrickpresident

551.1 779.7 -29.3 23 NA Petroleum retailer and wholesaler

42 MSX International Inc., Detroit 48226(248) 829-6300; www.msxi.com

Frederick Minturnpresident and CEO

528.0 497.0 6.2 950 5,524 Business process outsourcing, training and human capitalmanaged service provider

43 United Shore Financial Services LLC, Troy 48083(855) 888-8737; www.unitedshore.com

Mat Ishbiapresident and CEO

510.1 355.6 43.5 1,405 1,405 Mortgage banking

44 United Road Services Inc., Romulus 48174(734) 947-7900; unitedroad.com

Kathleen McCannpresident and CEO

500.0 530.2 -5.7 1,700 NA Vehicle logistics for vehicle manufacturers, remarketers, auctions,dealers and internet vehicle transactions nationally

45 PVS Chemicals Inc., Detroit 48213(313) 921-1200; www.pvschemicals.com

James B. Nicholsonpresident and CEO

497.0 518.3 -4.1 NA NA Manufacturer, marketer and distributor of industrial chemicals

46 Southfield Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, Southfield 48034(248) 354-2950; southfieldchrysler.com

Paul Steelpresident

484.5 D 477.4 1.5 NA NA Automobile dealerships

47RKA Petroleum Cos. Inc., Romulus 48174(734) 946-2199; www.rkapetroleum.com

Kay Albertie, managingshareholder;Kari Elliott, CEO

481.6 D 506.9 -5.0 NA NA Wholesale distributor of gasoline, diesel fuel, ethanol, biodiesel,Jet A and Jet A1 products; hauler of crude oil, common carrier

48 Plante Moran PLLC, Southfield 48037(248) 352-2500; www.plantemoran.com

Gordon Kratermanaging partner

465.9 433.1 7.6 1,062 2,195 Accounting and management consulting firm

49 Camaco LLC, Farmington Hills 48331(248) 442-6800; www.camacollc.com

Arvind Pradhanpresident and CEO

450.0 450.0 0.0 42 2,000 Full-service supplier of automotive seat structure assemblies

50Global Automotive Alliance LLC, Detroit 48210(313) 297-6676

William Pickard,chairman and CEO;Sylvester Hester, vicechairman

419.7 539.0 -22.1 248 1,314 Automotive manufacturer, assembler, warehouse sequencer,aerospace warehousing and logistics

51 RevSpring Inc., Wixom 48393(248) 567-7300; www.revspringinc.com

Timothy Schrinerpresident and CEO

416.0 388.0 7.2 152 452 Business process outsourcing, accounts receivable management

52 Aristeo Construction Co., Livonia 48150(734) 427-9111; www.aristeo.com

Joseph Aristeopresident

410.0 315.6 29.9 310 480 General contractor and construction manager

53 ABC Appliance Inc., Pontiac 48343(248) 335-4222; www.abcwarehouse.com

Gordon Hartunianchairman

392.0 394.0 -0.5 NA NA Appliances, electronics and car audio, bedding and furniture

54 Prestige Automotive , St. Clair Shores 48080(586) 773-2369; www.prestigeautomotive.com

Gregory Jacksonchairman and CEO

379.4 E 400.1 -5.2 NA NA Automobile dealerships, real estate and insurance

55 Belle Tire Distributors Inc., Allen Park 48101(313) 271-9400; www.belletire.com

Jack Lawless IIICEO

360.0 360.0 0.0 1,500 NA Retailer of tires and automotive services

56 NYX Inc., Livonia 48150(734) 462-2385; www.nyxinc.com

Chain Sandhuchairman

359.0 340.0 5.6 1,850 NA Automotive interiors and under-hood plastic moldings

57 Hungry Howie's Pizza Inc., Madison Heights 48071(248) 414-3300; www.hungryhowies.com

Steve Jacksonpresident and CEO

342.5 327.0 F 4.7 85 13,500 Pizza franchisor


B Acquired by China’s AVIC Automotive Systems Holding Co. Ltd. in Sept. 2015.

C Acquired by the private equity firm The Gores Group on Dec. 23, 2014.

D Crain's estimate.

E Automotive News.

F Systemwide sales.CONTINUED ON PAGE M78

CONTINUED FROM PAGE M75




Revenue($000,000)

2015

Revenue($000,000)

2014Percentchange

Detroitarea

employeesJan. 2016


58 Stewart Management Group Inc., Harper Woods 48225(313) 432-6200; www.gordonchevrolet.com

Gordon Stewartpresident

$329.7 $342.2 -3.7% 118 399 Automobile dealerships

59Acro Service Corp., Livonia 48152(734) 591-1100; www.acrocorp.com

Ron Shahanipresident and CEO

318.3 260.2 22.3 2,056 5,749 Staff augmentation (IT, engineering, office support), outsourcingand IT and engineering consulting, application development andenablement, relational database design and development, Webdesign and development

60 A123 Systems LLC, Livonia 48152(734) 772-0300; www.a123systems.com

Jason ForcierCEO

311.0 NA NA NA NA Lithium-ion battery manufacturer that globally provides completeenergy storage solutions for the transportation market

61The Bartech Group Inc. B, Southfield 48034(248) 208-4300; www.bartechgroup.com

David Barfieldchairman, president andCEO

305.5 243.3 25.6 NA NA Develops and delivers workforce management solutions

62Altair Engineering Inc., Troy 48083(248) 614-2400; www.altair.com

James Scapachairman and CEO

304.0 300.0 1.3 775 2,300 Global software and technology, engineering simulation,advanced computing, enterprise analytics and productdevelopment

63 Alta Equipment Co., Wixom 48393(248) 449-6700; www.altaequipment.com

Steven GreenawaltCEO

303.2 275.0 10.3 330 703 Heavy construction equipment, material handling equipment,industrial equipment, cranes

64Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc., Detroit 48226(313) 596-6900; www.strategicstaff.com

Cynthia Paskypresident and CEO

303.0 264.0 14.8 NA NA Consulting and staff augmentation services, vendor managementprograms, executive search services, call center technology and adomestic IT development center

65Great Expressions Dental Centers PC C, Southfield48034(248) 203-1100; greatexpressions.com

Rich BeckmanCEO

300.0 276.8 8.4 678 2,640 Dental care, including general and preventive care, cosmetic,orthodontic and specialty dental services

66 Detroit Lions Inc., Allen Park 48101(313) 216-4000; www.detroitlions.com

Martha Fordowner

298.0 D 254.0 D 17.3 NA NA National Football League franchise

67Commercial Contracting Group Inc., Auburn Hills48326(248) 209-0500; www.cccnetwork.com

William Pettibonechairman

291.0 321.0 -9.3 185 NA General contractor, machinery installer, building interiors,concrete

68 Elder Automotive Group, Troy 48083(248) 585-4000; www.elderautogroup.com

Tony Elderpresident

287.1 303.3 -5.3 196 329 Automotive dealerships

69The Ideal Group Inc., Detroit 48209(313) 849-0000; www.weareideal.com

Frank Venegas Jr.chairman and CEO

276.3 239.8 15.2 403 484 General contracting, specialized miscellaneous steelmanufacturing and distribution of protective barrier products,global supply chain management, other

70Motor City Electric Co., Detroit 48213(313) 921-5300; www.mceco.com

Dale Wieczorekchairman, president andCEO

265.6 260.5 2.0 613 817 Electrical contractor

71 Snethkamp Automotive Family, Highland Park 48203(313) 868-3300; www.snethkampauto.com

Mark Snethkamppresident

260.0 235.0 10.6 252 NA Automobile dealerships

72 Cold Heading Co., Warren 48089(586) 497-7000; www.coldheading.com

Derek StevensCEO

253.0 244.0 3.7 NA NA Automotive supplier

73 Contractors Steel Co., Livonia 48150(734) 464-4000; www.contractorssteel.com

Donald Simonpresident and CEO

252.0 272.0 -7.4 NA NA Steel service center

74 Vision Information Technologies Inc., Detroit 48202(877) 768-7222; www.visionit.com

David Segura, CEO;Christine Rice, president

251.0 219.0 14.6 NA NA Mobile application solutions, managed IT services, and talentmanagement solutions

75 John E. Green Co., Highland Park 48203(313) 868-2400; www.johnegreen.com

Peter Greenchairman

250.0 250.0 0.0 NA NA Mechanical and fire protection contractor

76Roncelli Inc., Sterling Heights 48312(586) 264-2060; www.roncelli-inc.com

Gary Roncelli, chairmanand CEO;Thomas Wickersham,president and COO

242.0 247.0 -2.0 220 225 Construction services, program management, constructionmanagement, design and build

77Jim Riehl's Friendly Automotive Group Inc., Warren48093(586) 979-8700; www.jimriehl.com

James Riehl Jr.president and CEO

235.9 231.7 1.8 207 207 Automobile dealership

78 Crain Communications Inc., Detroit 48207(313) 446-6000; www.crain.com

Keith Crainchairman

229.0 230.0 -0.4 270 810 Publisher of business, trade and consumer publications andrelated websites

79 Chase Plastic Services Inc., Clarkston 48346(248) 620-2120; www.chaseplastics.com

Kevin Chase, president;Carole Chase, VP

226.0 218.0 3.7 45 109 Specialty engineering thermoplastics distributor

80 Dykema Gossett PLLC, Detroit 48243(313) 568-6800; www.dykema.com

Peter Kellettchairman and CEO

225.0 178.3 26.2 294 888 Law firm

81SmithGroupJJR Inc., Detroit 48226(313) 983-3600; www.smithgroupjjr.com

Jeffrey Hausman, Detroitoffice directorMichael Medici,president and managingpartner

222.1 197.2 12.6 341 1,017 Architecture, engineering and planning

82 Buff Whelan Chevrolet, Sterling Heights 48313(586) 939-7300; www.buffwhelan.com

Kerry Whelanpresident

207.9 183.9 13.0 167 167 Automotive dealership sales and service

83 AxleTech International E, Troy 48083(877) 877-9717; www.axletech.com

Bill GryzeniaCEO

200.0 F NA NA NA NA Manufacturer and designer of drivetrain solutions for commercialoff-highway and defense vehicles.

84 Royal Oak Ford/Briarwood Ford, Royal Oak 48067(248) 548-4100; www.royaloakford.com

Eddie Hall Jr.president

197.1 157.7 25.0 217 NA Automobile dealership


B Acquired by the U.K. staffing company Impellam Group plc in December 2015.

C Expected to move corporate headquarters to the Onyx Office Plaza in Southfield by summer 2016.

D From Forbes. Net of stadium revenue used for debt payments.

E The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) acquired AxleTech International from General Dynamics Corp. on Jan. 6, 2015.

F Crain's estimate.

LIST RESEARCHED BY SONYA D. HILL CONTINUED ON PAGE M79





Revenue($000,000)

2015

Revenue($000,000)

2014Percentchange

Detroitarea

employeesJan. 2016


85 Dearborn Mid-West Co., Taylor 48180(734) 288-4400; www.dmwcc.com

Jeff Homenikpresident

$183.0 $128.0 43.0% 251 NA Material handling systems, construction, tooling/equipmentinstallation, plant maintenance services, life-cycle improvement

86Urban Science Applications Inc., Detroit 48243(313) 259-9900; www.urbanscience.com

James Andersonpresident, founder andCEO

182.5 180.3 1.2 351 886 Global retail marketing consulting with a scientific approach

87The Macomb Group Inc., Sterling Heights 48312(586) 274-4100; www.macombgroup.com

William McGivern Jr.,CEO; Keith Schatko, VP

180.0 170.5 5.6 142 391 Distributor of pipe, valves, fittings, heating and cooling, controland instrumentation, boilers, pumps repair, steam products,sanitary piping products, hose assemblies, fire protection andAWWA products

88Ghafari Inc., Dearborn 48126(313) 441-3000; www.ghafari.com

Yousif Ghafarichairman

173.9 173.8 0.1 757 1,058 Full-service architecture and engineering organization providingarchitectural engineering, manufacturing engineering, processengineering, 3-D BIM and laser scanning, consulting andprofessional staffing

89 Pat Milliken Ford Inc., Redford Township 48239-1492(313) 255-3100; www.patmillikenford.com

Bruce Godfreychairman


90Sachse Construction and Development Co. LLC, Detroit48226(313) 481-8200; www.sachseconstruction.com

Todd Sachse, CEO andfounder; Steve Berlage,president and COO

172.2 135.2 27.3 120 NA General contracting, construction management, design/build andtenant coordination

91 Vesco Oil Corp., Southfield 48076(248) 557-1600; www.vescooil.com

Marjory Epsteinchairman

161.1 155.2 3.8 130 219 Distributor of auto and industrial lubricants and chemicals, autoaftermarket products

92 Bill Perkins Automotive Group, Eastpointe 48021(586) 775-8300; www.merollischevy.com

Bill Perkinspresident

157.8 146.9 7.5 148 148 Automobile dealerships

93Tweddle Group Inc., Clinton Twp. 48036(586) 307-3700; www.tweddle.com

Paul WilburCEO and president

155.2 150.0 3.5 513 712 Information and communications solutions company focused onhelping customers enhance the ownership experience of theirconsumers

94Humanetics Innovative Solutions Inc., Plymouth 48170(734) 451-7878; www.humaneticsatd.com

Christopher O'Connorpresident and CEO

150.0 130.0 15.4 220 560 Designs and manufactures safety equipment, includingsophisticated crash test dummies, software modeling and relatedtest equipment

95Jeffrey Tamaroff Automotive Family, Southfield48034-1928(248) 353-1300; www.tamaroff.com

Marvin Tamaroff,chairman emeritus;Jeffrey Tamaroff,chairman and CEO


96 Ray Laethem Inc. , Grosse Pointe 48224(313) 886-1700; www.raylaethem.com

Jeff Laethempresident

148.0 134.0 10.4 NA NA Automobile dealership

97Milosch's Palace Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge Inc., Lake Orion48359(248) 393-2222; www.palacecjd.com

Donald Miloschpresident

144.4 B 142.3 1.5 NA NA Automobile dealership

98DeMaria Building Co., Novi 48374-1305(248) 348-8710; www.demariabuild.com

Tony DeMaria,president; JosephDeMaria Jr., CEO

144.2 100.1 44.0 160 160 General contracting, design build, construction management,program management

99 Palace Sports & Entertainment LLC, Auburn Hills 48326(248) 377-0100; www.palacenet.com

Dennis Mannionpresident and CEO

144.0 144.0 C 0.0 NA NA Detroit Pistons, The Palace of Auburn Hills, DTE Energy MusicTheatre

100 Hatch Stamping Co., Chelsea 48118(734) 475-8628; www.hatchstamping.com

Daniel CraigCOO and president

142.6 129.0 10.6 420 755 Manufacturing

101 1st Source Servall Inc., Centerline 48105(586) 754-9952; www.1stservall.com

Kim Adlerpresident

142.0 152.0 -6.6 56 450 Distributor of appliance parts

102Rush Trucking Corp., Wayne 48184(800) 526-7874; www.rushtrucking.com

Andra Rush, chairman;Gregory Humes,president

140.4 137.7 2.0 298 661 Motor carrier, logistics management

103 Clark Hill PLC, Detroit 48226(313) 965-8300; www.clarkhill.com

John HernCEO

139.8 135.0 3.6 260 636 Legal services; law firm

104 James Group International Inc., Detroit 48209(313) 841-0070; www.jamesgroupintl.com

John Jameschairman and CEO

137.0 133.0 3.0 113 NA Global supply chain management providing services in IT, export/import logistics, assembly, consolidation/deconsolidation

105 George W. Auch Co., Pontiac 48341(248) 334-2000; www.auchconstruction.com

Vincent DeLeonardispresident and CEO

136.5 140.3 -2.7 91 NA General contractor and construction manager

106 Deshler Group Inc., Livonia 48150(734) 525-9100; www.deshlergroup.com

Robert Gruschowpresident, CEO

135.1 108.1 25.0 189 424 Industrial manufacturing group, incorporating fabrication, design,assembly, logistics, transport and information technology

107 EHIM Inc., Southfield 48033-2154(248) 948-9900; www.ehimrx.com

Mindi Fynkepresident and CEO

131.3 125.1 5.0 NA NA Pharmacy benefit manager

108 National Business Supply Inc., Troy 48083(248) 823-5400; www.yourNBS.com

Richard Schwabauerpresident

130.0 104.0 25.0 162 NA Commercial furnishing, audiovisual distributor

108Chelsea Milling Co., Chelsea 48118(734) 475-1361; www.jiffymix.com

Howdy Holmeschairman, presidentand CEO

130.0 135.0 -3.7 317 NA Retail, institutional, food service baking mixes

110Avis Ford Inc., Southfield 48034(248) 355-7500; www.avisford.com

Walter Douglas Sr.,chairman; MarkDouglas, president

123.8 125.7 -1.5 115 NA Automobile dealership

111Phillips Service Industries Inc., Livonia 48150(734) 853-5000; www.psi-online.com

W. Scott Phillipspresident and CEO

122.0 122.0 0.0 228 427 Defense systems, homeland security, aircraft components,providers of direct manufacturing technology, welding machines,rugged electronics, wireless networks, automated assemblysystems, repair services, uninterruptable power supplies

112The Christman Co., Detroit 48202-3030(313) 908-6060; www.christmanco.com

Ronald Staley, seniorVP, SoutheastMichigan operations

120.1 61.1 96.7 22 NA Construction management, general contracting, design/build,facilities planning and analysis, program management, real estatedevelopment, self-perform skilled construction trades

113 Danlaw Inc., Novi 48375(248) 476-5571; www.danlawinc.com

Raju Danduchairman and CEO

118.2 90.0 31.3 NA NA Cloud-based, connected-vehicle telematics solutions andembedded electronics to OEMs and tier-one suppliers


B Crain's estimate.

C Forbes estimate.


CONTINUED ON PAGE M80


doeren.com 248.244.3000



Revenue($000,000)

2015

Revenue($000,000)

2014Percentchange

Detroitarea

employeesJan. 2016


114 Gorno Automotive Group, Woodhaven 48183(734) 676-2200; www.gornoford.com

Ed Jolliffepresident

$117.6 $118.5 -0.8% NA 99 Automobile dealership

115 Kar Nut Products Co., Madison Heights 48071(248) 588-1903; www.karsnuts.com

Nick Nicolaypresident and CEO

116.2 105.0 10.7 214 NA Snack food manufacturing and distribution

116 Black & Veatch, Ann Arbor 48105(734) 665-1000; www.bv.com

James Doullsenior vice president

115.0 214.1 -46.3 301 10,000 Engineering and construction contractor

117Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC, Detroit48226-4415(313) 963-6420; www.millercanfield.com

Michael McGeeCEO

112.0 NA NA NA NA Law firm

118Roger Zatkoff Co. (Zatkoff Seals & Packings),Farmington Hills 48335(248) 478-2400; www.zatkoff.com

Gary Zatkoffpresident and CEO

111.4 108.9 2.3 58 166 Distributor of seals and packings; manufacturer of gaskets

119Auburn Pharmaceutical Co., Troy 48083(248) 526-3700; auburngenerics.com

Jeffrey Farberchairman, president andCEO

106.2 92.0 15.4 94 98 Distributor of generic pharmaceuticals

120Proper Group International Inc., Warren 48089(586) 779-8787; www.propergroupintl.com

Geoffrey O'BrienCEO

102.0 81.0 25.9 274 NA Plastic injection molds, injection molded parts and assembly,polyurethane and skin form tooling, microcellular foam tooling,vario-therm tooling, rapid prototyping and web-basedmanagement of tooling and process data

120The Colasanti Cos., Macomb Twp. 48042(586) 598-9700; www.colasantigroup.com

Christopher Colasanti,presidentAngelo Colasanti, CEO

102.0 66.9 52.5 NA NA General contracting and construction management and design/build; self-perform concrete services

122 Roseville Chrysler Jeep Inc., Roseville 48066(586) 859-2500; www.mikeriehls.com

Michael Riehlpresident


123Systems Technology Group (STG), Troy 48084(248) 643-9010; www.stgit.com

Anup Popatchairman and CEO

99.0 95.0 4.2 367 NA Information technology outsourcing; software applicationdevelopment, big data analytics, mobility and software integrationservices

124Technical Training Inc. (TTi Global), Rochester Hills48309(248) 853-5550; www.tti-global.com

Lori Blakerpresident and CEO

98.0 110.0 -10.9 200 2,000 Staffing, outsourcing and training

125 The Crown Group Co., Warren 48091(586) 575-9800; www.thecrowngrp.com

Frank Knothpresident and CEO

97.3 94.5 3.0 307 742 Applies coatings to metal and plastic products; module-assemblywork; sequencing, warehousing

126 National Food Group Inc., Novi 48377-2454(800) 886-6866; www.nationalfoodgroup.com

Sean Zecmanpresident and CEO

96.4 76.4 26.2 65 85 Food distribution, opportunity buys, commodity processing

127BullsEye Telecom Inc., Southfield 48033(248) 784-2500; www.bullseyetelecom.com

William Oberlinchairman and CEO

95.0 85.0 11.8 178 208 Integrated telecom and internet services to small and mediumsingle-location businesses and large Fortune 1000 enterpriseswith multiple locations

127Diversified Computer Supplies Inc., Ann Arbor 48108(800) 766-5400; www.dcsbiz.com

Joseph Hollensheadchairman, president andCEO

95.0 105.0 -9.5 47 99 Distributes imaging/printer supplies, develops IT strategies forclients and supports back-end connectivity with XML feeds, EDIintegration and an e-commerce platform

129 Madison Electric Co., Warren 48093-1047(586) 825-0200; www.madisonelectric.com

Brett Schneiderpresident

93.3 88.0 6.0 160 NA Electrical, electronic and automation distributor

130 Frank Rewold and Son Inc. , Rochester 48307(248) 651-7242; www.frankrewold.com

Frank Rewoldpresident and CEO

91.9 70.1 31.1 59 59 Construction management, general contracting, design/build

131 Link Engineering Co., Plymouth 48170(734) 453-0800; www.linkeng.com

Roy Linkchairman and CEO

91.0 71.0 28.2 319 463 Manufacturer of testing systems and provider of commercialtesting services

132 Guardian Alarm Co., Southfield 48075(248) 423-1000; www.guardianalarm.com

Douglas PierceCEO

90.6 89.7 1.0 1,061 1,177 Security services: alarm installation and service, guard services,medical monitoring

133 Edwards Brothers Malloy Inc., Ann Arbor 48103734-665-6113; www.edwardsbrothersmalloy.com

John Edwardspresident and CEO

90.4 94.0 -3.9 371 638 Book printer and binder

134Load One Transportation & Logistics, Taylor 48180(734) 947-9440; www.load1.com

John ElliottCEO

89.6 91.2 -1.8 574 612 Provides complete time-critical transportation and logisticssolutions. Transportation services include ground expedite, aircharter, air freight, logistics management, truckload, andspecialized curtain-side flatbeds.

135 Atwell LLC, Southfield 48076(248) 447-2000; www.atwell-group.com

Brian Wenzelpresident and CEO

86.3 70.8 22.0 111 489 Consulting, engineering, and construction services

136TransNav Technologies Inc., New Baltimore 48047(586) 716-5600; www.transnav.com

Percy Vreekenpresident

85.0 B 85.0 B 0.0 NA NA Trading and manufacturing company specializing in productdesign and development, tooling fabrication, injection moldingand decorating and assembly

136 International Extrusions Inc., Garden City 48135(734) 427-8700; www.extrusion.net

Nicholas Noeckerpresident and CEO

85.0 76.0 11.8 250 NA Manufacturer of aluminum extruded profiles, powder-coatpainting and fabrication facilities

138 Loc Performance Products Inc., Plymouth 48170(734) 453-2300; www.locperformance.com

Louis Burrpresident

84.0 43.0 95.3 250 250 Machining and assembly of driveline, suspension and enginecomponents for military and off-road vehicles

139Advantage Management Group Inc-Advantage LivingCenters, Southfield 48075(248) 569-8400; AdvantageLiving.net

Reginald Hartsfield andKelsey Hastingsowners

83.0 60.0 38.3 1,100 NA Skilled-nursing homes, assisted living

139Marsh Construction (T.H. Marsh), Bloomfield Hills48304(248) 586-4130; www.thmarsh.com

Ryan Marshpresident and CEO

83.0 80.5 3.1 37 NA A construction company providing general contracting,construction management and advisory services.

141Medcart Specialty Pharmacy, Livonia 48150(877) 770-4633; www.medcartpharmacy.com

Eddie Abueida and EdSalehco-CEOs

81.0 73.0 11.0 NA NA Specialty pharmacy services

141 Secure-24 LLC, Southfield 48033(800) 332-0076; secure-24.com

Mike JenningsCEO

81.0 73.0 11.0 500 NA Delivers managed IT operations, application hosting and cloudservices to enterprises worldwide.

143 Wolverine Truck Sales Inc., Dearborn 48120(313) 849-0800; www.wolverinetruckgroup.com

Lynn Terrypresident

80.5 98.2 -18.0 NA NA Truck sales, parts and service


B Plastics News. CONTINUED ON PAGE M81





Revenue($000,000)

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Revenue($000,000)

2014Percentchange

Detroitarea

employeesJan. 2016


144 Ansara Restaurant Group, Inc., Farmington Hills 48331(248) 848-9099; www.ansararestaurantgroup.com

Victor Ansarapresident and CEO

$78.3 $70.1 11.7% 2,050 2,775 Restaurant

145 Rodgers Chevrolet Inc., Woodhaven 48183(734) 676-9600; www.rodgerschevrolet.com

Pamela Rodgerspresident


146 Arrow Uniform-Taylor LLC, Taylor 48180(313) 299-5000; www.arrowuniform.com

Thomas AndrisCEO

76.7 75.1 2.1 451 683 Uniform rental and sales

147 MPS Group Inc., Farmington Hills 48331(313) 841-7588; www.mpsgrp.com

Charlie Williamschairman

76.0 69.0 10.1 163 348 Total waste management and industrial cleaning

148 Gonzalez Design Group, Pontiac 48340(248) 548-6010; www.gonzalez-group.com

Gary GonzalezCEO

75.4 74.0 1.9 460 NA Design engineering, staffing, manufacturing technologies,production systems, other

149 Stevens Van Lines Inc., Saginaw 48601(989) 755-3000; www.stevensworldwide.com

Morrison Stevens, Sr.chairman and CEO

75.0 68.0 10.3 16 158 Moving and storage

150MJC Cos., Macomb Township 48044(586) 263-1203; www.mjccompanies.com

Michael Chircopresident, managingmember, CEO

74.2 65.1 13.9 70 85 Residential, apartment, commercial construction, builder anddeveloper

151 Kasco Inc., Royal Oak 48067(248) 547-1210; www.kascoinc.com

Michael Englevice president

72.0 61.9 16.3 70 NA Construction management, design/build, construction programadministration

152 E.W. Grobbel Sons Inc., Detroit 48207(313) 567-8000; grobbel.com

Jason Grobbelpresident

71.0 63.0 12.7 104 175 Corned beef

153 Market Strategies International, Livonia 48152(734) 542-7600; www.marketstrategies.com

Andrew Morrisonchairman

70.6 70.0 0.7 111 NA Market research consultancy

154 C.E. Gleeson Constructors Inc., Troy 48083(248) 647-5500; www.gleesonconstructors.com

Charles E. Gleeson IIpresident and CEO

70.5 65.9 7.1 30 46 General contractor/construction manager

155BlueWater Technologies Group Inc., Southfield 48075(248) 356-4399; www.bluewatertech.com

SuzanneSchoenebergerpresident

70.0 56.9 23.0 NA 200 Bluewater works with agencies, producers, exhibit houses,architects and consultants to create moving live event and avtechnology experiences for strong brands.

155Altimetrik Corp. B, Southfield 48075(800) 799-9625; www.altimetrik.com

Tim Manneypresident and CFO

70.0 71.1 C -1.5 NA NA Business transformation and technology solution provider. Wecater primarily to global enterprises in the areas digital, connectedsolutions, consumer technologies and enterprise integration

155HelloWorld, Inc., Southfield 48075(248) 543-6800; www.helloworld.com

Peter DeNunzioCEO

70.0 70.0 0.0 302 352 Digital marketing company specializing in building promotionalcampaigns and loyalty programs, with mobile and analyticscapabilities.

158 Motor City Stamping Inc., Chesterfield Township 48051(586) 949-8420; www.mcstamp.com

Judith KucwayCEO and CFO

69.0 63.8 8.2 350 350 Stamping plant, automotive welding, assembly, dies andprototypes

158 Rapid Global Business Solutions Inc., Troy 48083(248) 589-1135; www.rgbsi.com

Nanua Singhchairman and CEO

69.0 72.0 -4.2 405 1,556 Software development, IT and services for staffing, engineering,vendor management, and recruitment process outsourcing

160Pratt & Miller Engineering & Fabrication Inc., NewHudson 48165(248) 446-9800; prattmiller.com

Jim Millerpresident

68.0 50.0 36.0 NA 263 Engineering company providing automotive-based programs andmanufacturing solutions

160 Shaw Electric Co., Southfield 48033(248) 228-2000; www.shawelectric.com

David Kurtzchairman

68.0 42.0 61.9 168 168 Electrical and teledata contractor

162Epitec Inc., Southfield 48033(248) 353-6800; www.epitec.com

Jerome SheppardCEOJosie Sheppardpresident

67.5 66.8 1.0 650 1,500 IT, engineering and professional staffing. Provides professionalservices including custom software applications development

163WorkForce Software LLC, Livonia 48152(877) 493-6723; www.workforcesoftware.com

Mike MoriniCEO

65.9 61.0 8.0 284 500 Complete workforce management platform for large employerswith complex needs such as time and attendance, scheduling,absence and leave management and employee fatigue, along withanalytics to connect the dots

164 Better Made Snack Foods Inc., Detroit 48213(313) 925-4774; www.bettermadesnackfoods.com

Salvatore CiprianoCEO

65.3 65.2 0.2 250 251 Snack foods

165Systrand Manufacturing Corp., Brownstown Township48183(734) 479-8100; www.systrand.com

Sharon Cannarsapresident and CEO

65.0 63.2 2.9 243 287 Precision machining and assembly

166 Buscemi Enterprises Inc., Roseville 48066(586) 296-5560; www.originalbuscemis.com

Anthony Buscemimanager

64.3 62.0 3.6 762 NA Franchisor of party shops

167Harley Ellis Devereaux Corp., Southfield 48033(248) 262-1500; www.hed.design

Michael Cooperpresident andmanaging principal

63.0 56.9 10.7 112 299 Full-service architecture, engineering, planning, interior design,landscape architecture, construction administration, and more

168Devon Industrial Group, Detroit 48226(313) 221-1550; www.devonindustrial.com

David Burnleypresident

62.9 90.8 -30.7 37 NA Provides construction management, general contracting, programmanagement, design build, pre-construction anddecommissioning services

169 Morpace Inc., Farmington Hills 48334(248) 737-5300; www.morpace.com

Duncan LawrenceCEO and president

62.5 58.3 7.2 221 248 Market research and consulting firm

170 Wade Trim, Detroit 48226(313) 961-3650; www.wadetrim.com

Andrew McCunepresident and CEO

62.4 59.6 4.7 133 373 Consulting engineering and planning services

171Sur-Flo Plastics & Engineering Inc., Warren 48089(586) 773-0400; www.sur-flo.com

Mary Graff, presidentand CEO;Kevin Stolzenfeld, VPof operations

62.0 D 52.0 19.2 NA NA Injection molding, assembly

172 Helm Inc., Plymouth 48170(734) 468-3700; www.helm.com

Justin Gusickpresident and CEO

61.4 59.7 2.8 105 111 Multi-channel fulfillment services including warehousing andlogistics

173 Multi-Bank Securities Inc., Southfield 48075(800) 967-9045; www.mbssecurities.com

David MaccagnoneCEO

61.0 43.8 39.4 73 143 Independent, investment firm that specializes in the sales, tradingand underwriting of institutional, fixed-income securities.

173 Kirco Manix , Troy 48084(248) 354-5100; www.kircomanix.com

Douglas Manixpresident

61.0 45.0 35.6 29 NA Design and build, construction management


B Formerly Synova Inc. In Dec. 2013, Timba Software, San Francisco, merged with Synova Inc. to create Altimetrik.

C Company estimate.

D Plastics News.


CONTINUED ON PAGE M82





Revenue($000,000)

2015

Revenue($000,000)

2014Percentchange

Detroitarea

employeesJan. 2016


175Productions Plus - The Talent Shop, Bingham Farms48025(248) 644-5566; www.productions-plus.com

Margery Krevskychief executive officer/owner

$58.0 $55.9 3.8% 40 NA Full service talent management agency

175

Reliable Software Resources Inc., Northville 48167(248) 504-6869; www.rsrit.com

Ravi VallemCEOSridhar KodatiCFOVenkat Gonepresident

58.0 48.0 20.8 58 800 Data and application services including big data, advancedanalytics, business intelligence

175Domestic Linen Supply & Laundry Co., Farmington Hills48334(248) 737-2000; www.domesticuniform.com

Bruce Coltonpresident

58.0 57.0 1.8 100 600 Facility management and textile rental

178W3R Consulting, Southfield 48075(248) 358-1002; www.w3r.com

Eric Hardychairman, presidentand CEO

57.0 42.7 33.5 NA NA IT staffing and consulting, including application development,business intelligence and data analytics

179The Mars Agency, Southfield 48033-7496(248) 936-2200; www.themarsagency.com

Ken Barnettglobal CEO

55.0 B 59.8 -8.1 NA NA Advertising and integrated marketing agency with a focus onconsumer brands and retail

179Evans Distribution Systems Inc., Melvindale 48122(313) 388-3200; www.evansdist.com

John A. Evans,president;John W. Evans,chairman

55.0 52.0 5.8 300 620 Warehousing and distribution, transportation, contract packaging,quality inspection, staffing and other logistics-related services

181Bob Jeannotte Buick GMC Truck Inc., Plymouth 48170(734) 453-2500; www.jeannotte.com

Robert JeannotteCEO


182Glassman Automotive Group Inc., Southfield 48034(248) 354-3300; www.glassmanautogroup.com

George Glassmanpresident


183Andiamo Restaurant Group, Warren 48092(586) 268-3200; andiamoitalia.com

Joe VicariCEO, president

52.5 NA NA NA NA Restaurants

184Arrow Strategies LLC, Southfield 48034(248) 502-2500; www.arrowstrategies.com

Jeff Styersfounder and CEO

50.0 47.5 5.3 NA NA Staffing firm specializing in placement of professionals in theinformation technology, engineering, professional, and health careservices industries

184Lowry Computer Products Inc., Brighton 48116(810) 229-7200; www.lowrycomputer.com

Michael Lowrychairman, presidentand CEO

50.0 42.0 19.0 82 120 IT systems integrator

186Prize Logic LLC, Southfield 48033888-795-6442; www.prizelogic.com

Keith SimmonsCEO

49.9 31.4 58.8 NA NA Online promotion execution for Fortune 100 brands

187Industrial Control Repair Inc., Warren 48092(586) 582-1500; www.icrservices.com

Paul Gutierrezpresident and CEO

49.7 49.5 0.4 130 189 ICR repairs electronic and mechanical industrial equipment aswell as purchasing and selling refurbished industrial electronics,robots, and machinery

188EEI Global Inc., Rochester Hills 48307(248) 601-9900; www.eeiglobal.com

Derek Gentilepresident and CEO

49.2 41.1 19.7 100 100 Experiential marketing company that offers in-house, turnkeyexperiential solutions

189TAG Holdings LLC, Wixom 48393(248) 822-8056; www.taghold.com

Joseph Anderson Jr.chairman and CEO

48.0 56.0 -14.3 50 115 Module and component manufacturing for various industriesincluding aerospace, defense, automotive, sports and recreationvehicles, mining, construction and other heavy vehicles

190Bell Fork Lift Inc., Clinton Township 48035(586) 415-5200; www.bellforklift.com

Wayne Bellpresident and CEO

45.0 43.0 4.7 140 NA Material handling

191Almetals Inc., Wixom 48393(248) 348-7722; www.almetals.com

James Chainpresident

44.0 44.0 0.0 22 26 Metal slitter, distributor, warehouser and processing service center

192GlobalHue, Southfield 48075(248) 223-8900; www.globalhue.com

Donald Colemanchairman and CEO

43.9 C 50.8 C -13.5 NA NA Advertising and marketing

193Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment Inc., Livonia 48150(888) 522-6711; www.ohm-advisors.com

John Hiltzpresident

43.1 34.1 26.5 NA 366 Architects, engineers, and planners committed to advancingcommunities. Client list includes local and state government,school districts, colleges and universities, corporations anddevelopers.

194Oliver/Hatcher Construction and Development Inc.,Novi 48377(248) 374-1100; www.oliverhatcher.com

Paul HatcherpresidentPaul Oliverprincipal

43.0 53.8 -20.0 29 NA Construction manager, general contractor and design/build

195Saturn Electronics Corp., Romulus 48174(734) 941-8100; www.saturnelectronics.com

Nagji Sutariyapresident and QCmanager

42.0 50.0 -16.0 NA NA Printed circuit board manufacturing

196CrossFire Group, Auburn Hills 48326(248) 364-0007; www.xfiregroup.com

Deborah Schneiderco-founder and CEOMartin Rosenauco-founder and COO

41.0 31.0 32.3 NA NA Staffing, payroll, executive search and other HR-related services

197United Meat & Deli, Detroit 48210-0185(313) 894-6300; www.unitedmeatanddeli.com

Sy Ginsbergpresident and ScottMendelsohn

40.8 36.9 10.4 35 NA Meat processing and distribution

198Kyyba Inc., Farmington Hills 48334(248) 813-9665; www.kyyba.com

Tel Ganesanpresident and CEO

39.2 32.7 20.0 NA NA Engineering and IT staffing services, application software, off-shore development and automotive electronics solutions

198Benlee Inc., Romulus 48174(734) 722-8100; www.benlee.com andwww.raleighscrapmetalrecycling.com

Greg Brownpresident and CEO

39.2 62.5 -37.3 24 76 Manufacturer of roll-off trailers and trucks as well a recycler ofscrap metal, electronics and cardboard. Online parts store.

200Contract Direct, Southfield 48075(248) 395-1166 ; www.contractdirect.net

Elizabeth Hammondpresident

37.7 26.1 44.5 60 NA Facility maintenance services company.


B Ad Age Datacenter and Agency Report 2016. AdAge.com/agencyreport2016

C Ad Age Datacenter U.S. revenue estimate.



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Blue Care CEO Klobucar named Blue Cross EVPKevin Klobucar has been

named executive vice president of health care value at Detroit-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, succeeding Joe Hohner, who plans to retire later

this year. Klobucar will continue as CEO of Blue Care Networkuntil a successor is named.

Also, the board of the Accident Fund Group appointed Lisa Corless as president, succeeding Elizabeth Haar, who earlier was promoted to Blue Cross executive vice president for emerging markets. Corless joined Accident Fund in 2013 and served as senior vice president, chief administration officer and chief of staff.

Bressler �rst chief tech o�cer at United Shore Troy-based United Shore

Financial Services LLC has announced Jason Bressler as the first chief technology officer in the company’s 30-year history.

Bressler, a Southfield

native, is a 19-year veteran of the financial services industry. He most recently served as chief information officer at The Federal Savings Bank in Chicago.

Whitman named CEO, chairman at Baker Tilly

Alan Whitman has been named chairman and CEO of

Chicago-based accounting and advisory firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP. Whitman, named CEO-elect last June, will

continue to be based out of Baker Tilly’s Southfield office.

Marina Houghton had replaced Whitman as managing partner for Michigan operations when he was elected CEO. That came soon after her Detroit-based firm, Wolinski & Co. CPA PC, was bought by Baker Tilly. Whitman replaces Tim Christen, who continues as chairman of the American Institute of Certi�ed Public Accountants and on Baker Tilly committees.

Kevin Klobucar

Jason Bressler

Alan Whitman

in mid-2015, and owner Al Irish is looking to launch a third location in Detroit later this year. Current dis-trict manager Rachel Stern also has plans for a Virginia Beach, Va., loca-tion of Shut Up and Box after mov-ing there later this month.

Irish — his real name is Alan Lon-aker, but like a few other owners, he’s better known by his former boxing handle — said the company now has about 1,000 members across its two locations and more than 85 percent of customers are women over 30.

The Royal Oak location that opened in 2011 is still the primary revenue source, even though War-ren is more than four times its size, but Irish said he is building a new base of children and teens in af-ter-school training classes, and middle-aged men who commute to the General Motors Technical Center and western Macomb County auto-motive plants, at the Warren gym.

Together the two locations are on pace to make about $700,000 in rev-enue this year; Fortune estimates Jabs is likely to clear between $350,000 and $500,000, as the East-ern Market location still operates for fewer hours while Detroit business continues to grow. Other local own-ers also generally estimated a single boxing-themed gym location aver-ages about $300,000 in revenue, al-though Ann Arbor-based Title Box-ing Club International pegs single-club revenue closer to $450,000, meaning the local market could be worth well over $5 million so far.

Irish said women appear to re-spond to a diverse training mix of courses and the opportunity to con-nect socially.

“A lot of places where you can go to work out, the people never talk to each other or get acquainted, and even the people who work there ar-en’t that friendly,” he said. “Here, we often go out for drinks and get to-gether for barbecue, and people make friends. I wanted this to be a place where people know each oth-er and are like people — not just act-ing out their routine like robots.”

Title Boxing has opened seven franchise locations in metro Detroit over the past four years, and has 160 clubs open nationwide. Each loca-tion averages about $39,000 a month in revenue, and same store sales are up 11.3 percent in revenue over last year, spokeswoman Juli-anne Kennelly of Fishman PR said in a statement to Crain’s.

Owner Scott Van Almen of the Shelby Township franchise said business has been so good just in its first five months that he was finaliz-ing a new lease last week on a new Macomb Township location, which he hopes to open later this year.

About 65 percent of customers in Shelby were women, he said, and about 700 people have become mem-bers since his doors opened.

“I think the customer mix is what it is, and women have picked up on the trend,” he said. “But the work-outs here are developed for any fit-ness level, any age and any gender.”

Beverly Hills-based Get Some Fit-ness Inc. has seen four years of steady growth on catering to a mostly-female cardio kickboxing clientele, but owner Joel Stempien said he is getting more men. He also estimates revenue has reached about $300,000 after four years in business.

“When I started, it was about 80 percent women here, but now it’s more around 60 percent,” he said. “I’m getting more guys, because at first the guys seemed afraid of the dynamic, or the group setting.”

Irish said Shut Up and Box uses regular Groupon offers to draw in new customers, with $29 for a set of 10 classes, and about half will con-vert into members or register for more sessions. Stempien said he re-lied heavily on Groupon at first but has been shifting to social media and word-of-mouth to recruit.

A boxing gym can typically come with about $50,000 or more in startup costs, including equipment, flooring or facility improvements, insurance and an initial building lease, some owners said. Title Boxing estimates its startup costs for one club are actually well over $200,000, but that also in-cludes franchise fees.

However, marketing and business development can be a trickier cost to calculate, and sometimes career trainers or professional fighters have an advantage with brand recognition.

Unique routines also help — For-tune and Tessler offer BOYO, a boxing and yoga mix, while Irish puts a pro-motion emphasis on Club Intensity, which mixes boxing with some cardio fitness, plyometrics and calisthenics.

Stempien said he has also obtained a certification in CrossFit training and offers some cycle fitness to diversify, but for right now the boxing trend seems a solid focus.

“I would switch it up if I weren’t doing well, and be willing to try something else,” he said. “But right now we’re sticking with what works.”


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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESSPage 10 June 6, 2016

Pharmacy services also are avail-able.

“Our Wyandotte clinic is more spacious, more homey for patients,” Arsiwala said.

At 365 Health Care LLC, Ranajit Mukherjee, M.D., has been expand-ing its three physician office loca-tions in Dearborn, Wyandotte and Wayne. Last November, Mukherjee began offering patients 365-day pri-mary care services at the Wayne lo-cation. This July, he will offer the same mix of primary care services to mostly adults every day in Dearborn and Wyandotte.

As a certified patient-centered medical home provider by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Mukherjee has been providing ex-tended-hours coordinated care with specialists for several years. He also is a user of Beaumont Health’s Epic Corp. electronic medical re-cords system and also has staff priv-ileges through hospitals affiliated with Henry Ford Health System and Trinity Health.

“The country as a whole needs more availability of primary care working alongside specialty care to provide affordable and convenient health care,” said Mukherjee, who has been practicing internal medi-

cine in Southeast Michigan for more than 20 years. “We believe that care delayed is care denied.”

Since the Affordable Care Act was approved in 2010, the number of ur-gent care and other similarly staffed outpatient centers has exploded in Southeast Michigan. Data shows there are more than 340 urgent care or walk-in clinics in Michigan, in-cluding more than 26 within 20 miles of Detroit, according to Urgent Care Locations LLC. Five years ago, surveys showed fewer than 275 cen-ters in Southeast Michigan.

Nationally, urgent care clinics have been increasing the past five years to more than 7,000, said the Urgent Care Association of America. About half are physician-owned, 30 percent are hospital-owned and 20 percent are corporate-owned.

Besides hospital-based systems and physicians that operate urgent clinics or patient-centered medical homes, a number of corpo-rate-owned companies, like Concen-tra, MedExpress and the more re-tail-oriented CVS Minute Clinics, also

provide primary care services to pa-tients.

Because of health insurance ex-pansion and the need to offer lower primary care costs, retail clinics are projected to double over the next five years in the U.S. to 3,000, ac-cording to the Convenient Care Asso-ciation in Philadelphia.

Most health insurers in Southeast Michigan contract with urgent cen-ters because of their lower cost rela-tive to emergency departments, which has further expanded their numbers.

“There are lot of different models happening right now, and the mar-ket of health care is in a flux,” Arsiwa-la said. “A lot of people are changing the urgent care model to family health centers. The idea is to deliver care to family members any day and time. We understand we can do more in urgent care than ever before.”

But Arsiwala said Michigan Ur-gent Care has established solid rela-tionships with primary care practic-es in their neighborhoods.

“We have agreements with many

practices for after-hour and week-end care,” he said. “We are not in competition with physician offices.”

Michigan Urgent Care also oper-ates centers in Ann Arbor, Brighton, Canton Township, Dundee, Fern-dale, Grosse Pointe Woods, Livonia, Novi and Waterford Township.

Employers also like urgent care centers because many centers have occupational medicine programs that offer workers convenient injury care, drug and alcohol testing and pre-employment physicals.

“Urgent care clinics are an essen-tial bridge between patients and needed health care when primary care providers are not available and an emergency room visit is not re-quired,” Arsiwala said.

A firm believer that some pa-tients lack access to primary care services, Mukherjee also is seeking venture capital funds to further ex-pand his 365-day clinic strategy to more locations in Southeast Michi-gan. His longer-term vision is to cre-ate a franchising company to mar-ket his concept nationally.

“Emergency room, urgent care centers and minute clinics are only providing acute outpatient care with no provision for follow-up,” he said. “Most of these visits are chron-ic situations which have had an acute flare-up or an acute presenta-tion of a previously undiagnosed chronic disease.”

Mukherjee also is collaborating with several specialists including heart and vascular specialists, foot specialists, bone and joint special-ists and cancer specialists, and he hopes to add mental health provid-ers to his virtual team.

“We believe patients should have convenience to see different provid-ers in the same location,” Mukher-jee said. “It is a better way to deliver services.”

Arsiwala said there is a great need for access in Southeast Michigan in underserved areas like Detroit. “We are still falling short in some areas for patients with Medicaid,” he said.

But as Michigan’s economy con-tinues to grow and businesses hire, he said, the demand for pre-hire, occupational health and injury ser-vices will increase.

“We are pleased to provide a new and more convenient option for Wyandotte and Downriver busi-nesses, manufacturers and munici-palities,” he said.

Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325Twitter: @jaybgreene

URGENTFROM PAGE 3

“Urgent care clinics are an essential bridge between patients and needed health care when primary care providers are not available and an emergency room visit is not required.”Mohammed Arsiwala, Michigan Urgent Care


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simply had a hole in those regions. We’ve since resolved that, and now we’re positioned like other major ti-er-one suppliers around the world.

Q: China’s growth is slowing. How strategic is it to your growth?

We’re growing at 1.4 to 1.5 times the industry growth rate. China is a major reason. Our (compound an-nual growth rate) in China is 29 per-cent. It was at $200 million in 2013, and we expect to reach $600 million by the end of next year and reach $1 billion by 2021 or so. North Amer-ica is now our third-largest market. We’re naturally hedged against eco-nomic headwinds.

Q: Cooper-Standard makes �uid lines and seals. Those products don’t get much play in an age of self-driv-ing and electric cars. Where does Cooper-Standard �t in?

The products we make go on all of the 88 million units (passenger cars) being produced today. While we’re not directly part of the mega-trends, all those cars require our products. While we may not make the front pages in the news, our technology is in serious demand.

Q: Is R&D as critical for Coo-per-Standard as other suppliers?

Depending on where you are in the industry, risk and requirement to invest go up. I think our risk is less. We’re the material science experts. We control the labs. We never saw ourselves being eliminated from the food chain, but someone can come by and innovate you out quickly. That risk is real. When I came here, we were at 5 percent ROIC (return on in-vested capital). We’re now at 10.4 per-cent ROIC and will far exceed 14 per-cent by 2018. We reinvest strategically.

Q: What’s the result? We’ve set out to transform the au-

tomotive sealing space. We think we’ve done that with Fortrex. It’s still an oil-based sealing system, but it’s 30 percent to 40 percent lighter. It won’t fade and crack with the condi-tions (and) will maintain showroom quality regardless of the environ-ment. Everyone is asking for tech-nology to take out weight. We think we can save 12 pounds to 15 pounds per vehicle in large SUVs.

Q: How do you think that product will perform for the company?

We’ve now entered into 10 devel-opment agreements and four pre-production orders. We believe we’ll quote $250 million with this technology for the 2018-19 model years. We’re targeting global plat-forms with 1 million to 3 million units per order.

Q: You sit on the executive commit-tee for the National Association of Manufacturers. What’s the greatest threat to manufacturing right now?

We want a competitive playing field. Tax reform needs to be ad-dressed. We have a tremendous op-portunity if we can get a competitive (corporate) tax rate, leverage our country’s energy advantage and get STEM education to be on par with other countries. It’s naive to think these areas aren’t causing head-winds for all businesses.

Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

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“He struck me as someone who was, generally speaking, awfully de-termined to put up the façade as

someone who wasn’t in doubt,” said Fournier, who said he sat down with Snyder for 20 minutes on the island. “(He was) really defensive, leaning re-ally hard with his case and his talking points for the progress that has been

made in Flint and Detroit and the suc-cesses that he thinks he’s had and where he hopes to take the state.”

Snyder remains popular among business leaders. He had a 59 percent approval rating in a May survey of Crain’s subscribers conducted by Lansing-based Epic-MRA. More re-spondents favor Snyder than Presi-dent Barack Obama or any of the re-maining candidates vying to replace him. (See page M6.)

Survey respondents overwhelm-ingly believe Snyder should remain in office, with 78 percent in favor of the governor finishing his term.

Among all voters, it’s a different story. A new poll of likely statewide voters found 52 percent disapprove of the job Snyder is doing, The De-troit News reported.

Some business executives say Snyder is wounded but has an op-portunity — if he takes it — to lead not only on Flint and DPS but also on the rest of his agenda.

“You’re in a boxing match. Some-one hits you with a blow across your face. What do you do?” said Ron Boji, president of Lansing-based real estate developer The Boji Group, who attended the conference. “That’s where the strong lead. ...

“While Flint has been an area of significant attention because of the catastrophe that has happened, it has not stopped him from moving our state forward and has not stopped our business leaders,” Boji said. “You multitask.”

During Snyder’s meeting with Crain’s, he often referenced a multi-page handout on Michigan success-es, such as record-low unemploy-ment and a roads funding plan. In addition, action in the state Legisla-ture could mean a Detroit schools funding plan is in the home stretch.

“I don’t think it’s in anyone’s inter-est for the governor to even consider resigning,” said Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Lead-ers for Michigan, the state’s business roundtable. “We need his leader-ship going forward.”

When it comes to Flint, though, Snyder did not use the Mackinac stage to demonstrate that the water crisis is a “wake-up call” to fix the state’s underinvestment in infra-structure, said Kelly Rossman-McK-inney, CEO of Lansing-based public relations firm Truscott Rossman.

“If I were him, I would have said, ‘I’ve got 18 months. That’s it. And I’m asking you to help me.’ He didn’t

do that,” Rossman-McKinney said.The crises with Detroit schools are

another opportunity to prove his mettle, several business leaders said.

His roughly $720 million proposal to restructure DPS — championed in the Senate by Sen. Goeff Hansen, R-Hart — appears at risk of falling short over concerns from House Re-publicans and charter school sup-porters that a proposed education commission would restrict charters by allowing a mayoral-appointed task force to determine where in Detroit schools can open and close.

The House late last week approved legislation that would turn the pro-posed Detroit Education Commis-sion into an advisory board rather than an entity with governing power.

Snyder says he continues to sup-port the DEC, as does the Senate, but he’s also cognizant that a compro-mise needs to get through the Legisla-ture.

Snyder said he doesn’t want to lose sight of the fact that the DPS legislation would include hundreds of millions of dollars to help the dis-trict pay back operating debt and return control to a locally elected school board — both of which he believes would be seen as signifi-cant accomplishments.

John Rakolta Jr., chairman and CEO of Detroit-based Walbridge Al-dinger Co. and co-chairman of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, called Snyder “a stal-wart. He has been unbelievably supportive.”

Regarding Flint, Kevin Hand, managing director of Birming-ham-based consulting firm Conway MacKenzie Inc., and another confer-ence attendee, said Snyder’s admin-istration appears to have somewhat mended fences with Flint city lead-ers, including Mayor Karen Weaver. That is in part due to Lt. Gov. Brian Calley’s work in the city, he added.

Snyder himself will have to be more visible in Flint, Hand said. And progress on DPS, in particular, will have to be made soon to prevent at-tention lingering on the issue during the Legislature’s summer recess and into lame-duck session this fall. If he does, Hand said, “it does give him the opportunity to get back to his agenda.”

The Detroit chamber named in-frastructure to its post-conference “to-do list,” and Snyder has ap-pointed a commission that is study-ing the state’s infrastructure systems with the intention of recommend-ing solutions this fall.

Snyder said he has not stopped working on his other policy priori-ties, including energy, criminal jus-tice reforms, economic develop-ment and skilled trades.

“These have all been operating in parallel. They just haven’t gotten the visibility” Flint and DPS have, he said. “Being a great state is more than the government. It’s about how we can be partners. And you need the public-private partnerships to make that happen, and that’s where the business community has a big-ger role to play still.”

Lindsay VanHulle: (517) 657-2204Twitter: @LindsayVanHulleKirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412

Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

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develop a system to allow children with severe cerebral palsy to take cognitive assessment tests using only their brain waves.

Users will wear headsets embed-ded with sensors that record brain activity, wirelessly transmitting data to a computer loaded with the artifi-cial intelligence software that inter-prets the brain activity and signals devices on how to respond.

Neurable’s business plan calls for it to start generating revenue by the end of next year, and be at $30 mil-lion in 2018 and $90 million in 2020.

“This is one of the most interest-ing early-stage companies I’ve seen in some time,” said Adrian Fortino, manager of the Ann Arbor office of the Houston-based Mercury Fund.

‘I want one for Christmas’

The three-day Rice University event is considered the best student business plan competition in the U.S., with 400 submissions being win-nowed down to 40 presentations.

But the big news for Neurable was that the Houston-based OWL In-vestment Group, made of some 40 angel investors nationwide, including some of the judges at the Rice event, committed to taking a big chunk of a seed round of $2 million the company is raising and is about to commit more, according to Robert Winter, the group’s managing member and a judge at the Rice event.

“It’s sure to be in excess of that,” he said of the $285,000 the group has committed so far.

The same day Neurable began the pitch contest in Houston, it was also in a pitch contest at UM’s Center for Entrepreneurship, the culmination of a semester-long startup competition for student-founded businesses.

Neurable was one of three final-ists, but the $15,000 prize went to Woodside Distributors, a distributor of home improvement, sports, out-door, automotive and other prod-ucts made by large brand names.

Evan Ufer, a partner in the Ann Arbor venture capital firm Plymouth

Management Co., mentored Neurable during the semester.

“From the start, I thought Neurable was really interesting and an exciting brain-computer inter-face technology. Based on cut-ting-edge research, it allows entirely new forms of interaction with the world based on recording and inter-preting brain activity,” Ufer said.

Plymouth Management will not be an investor in Neurable because it in-vests in more mature companies.

“Ramses and the team did a lot of work early on to determine that while there is an obvious and longer-term play in the medical industry, there is likely a faster and more cost-effective path to market in consumer-based augmented reality, virtual reality and gaming markets,” Ufer said.

Alcaide said that while it makes business sense to go after the gam-ing market first, his inspiration for the company is his uncle, Margarito Aguirre, who lost both his legs in a trucking accident.

“For a long time, I’ve wanted to dedicate my life to creating technol-ogies for people with disabilities,” Alcaide said.

Winter is a venture capitalist based in Menlo Park, Calif., and a Rice alum-nus who has been a longtime judge at the business plan competition.

Winter said he saw Neurable present at the first day of the com-petition and was impressed.

Two days later at the finals, where he was a judge, he wanted some-thing more from Neurable than an-other showing of a video the com-pany had made showing a Lego car moving across a tabletop.

“I’m a big believer in show-and-tell,” he told Crain’s. He asked one of his fellow judges and OWL investors, Mitra Roehr, if her 14-year-old son, Jack, who was in the audience, could help with a fresh demonstration.

Alcaide took Jack backstage, hooked him up to his prototype de-vice, spent a few minutes teaching him how to control his thought pro-cess and — voila! — Jack was able to drive a motorized Lego car by think-ing about what he wanted it to do. Alcaide shot a video to show the judges and audience members.

During a Q&A later, as Winter re-

counted to Crain’s: “I said, ‘What do you think, Jack?’

“He said, ‘It’s cool, I want one for Christmas.’

“If this works the way it looks like it could, it’ll be a big hit. A big hit, and that’s what’s attracted us,” said Winter, who, along with two other OWL members, visited Neurable’s headquarters after the Rice event. He said he’s looked at 10,000 deals in his career, and Neurable is right up there among the most exciting.

“It’s too early to know for sure how the company will do, but they have the right ingredients,” Winter said.

Star turn at VC eventNeurable, which employs six, was

also the star of the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium in Ypsilanti on May 17. The event draws about 400 venture capitalists, angel investors and service providers from around the U.S. to hear pitches for equity capital from early- and growth-stage Midwest companies.

Hundreds of would-be investors packed the large meeting room for the presentation by Alcaide, who is finishing up his Ph.D. in neuroscience at UM, and Michael Thompson, the vice president of business develop-ment who is an MBA student at UM’s Ross School of Business.

Alcaide is a native of Mexico who moved to the U.S. at age 5. He got his undergrad degree in electrical engi-neering from the University of Wash-ington, and while in graduate school at UM, he founded and was CEO of Pharo LLC, a software development firm he left to found Neurable last year. He has had grants from the Na-tional Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation and NASA.

Neurable also was the recipient in January of a $50,000 NSF Innovation Corps grant, which helps researchers commercialize their technology. The grant funded about 140 interviews around the U.S., including video gamers, video game executives, clini-cians and those with disabilities to help Alcaide determine potential markets and how to prioritize them.

Thompson got his leadership skills in the U.S. Army following an ROTC scholarship at the University of Richmond. He did one tour of duty in Afghanistan as a first lieutenant in 2010 and left the military as a cap-tain in 2015 to enroll at UM.

The spectators at the symposium filled every seat and stood shoulder to shoulder around the walls. Longtime attendees said it was the biggest crowd they had ever seen for a pitch.

“I don’t recall any company here generating a buzz like this in years,” said Jonathan Murray, a partner in the Ann Arbor office of Pitts-burgh-based Draper Triangle Ven-tures. “It was certainly the biggest buzz in the 10 years I’ve been going to the symposium.”

And when Neurable held an open house later that week, investors flocked to its headquarters in the Ann Arbor Spark Central incubator to get a demonstation.

Gabe Karp, a partner at Detroit Venture Partners, a VC firm co-found-ed by Josh Linkner, Brian Hermelin and Dan Gilbert, was one of those VCs. He’d visited Neurable the week before the symposium, having gotten

a tip from Invest Detroit, a nonprofit that invests in local startups, that this was a company to watch.

“This is groundbreaking stuff,” said Karp. “The ability to move something with your mind? There’s no question this could be world-changing." He said the mood at the growth capital symposium was “ ‘Holy s---. This is amazing.’ ”

With a few minutes of training, Karp was able to use Neurable’s brain cap to drive a motorized Lego car in front of his fellow VCs.

Impressed as he was, he said a potential investment by his firm re-quires more vetting, and that a lot of work needs to be done before the technology is ready for market. The prototype requires the user to have his or her head gelled with a mixture made from salt, water and a thick-ening agent used in shampoos to improve electrical conductivity.

Alcaide said he hopes to use the $2 million seed round he is raising to upgrade his equipment to a dry technology now being developed, which he says is a requirement for market acceptance. “No one is go-ing to want to get their hair gelled just to play a game,” he said.

“I’ve met with them and want to continue to meet with them,” said Karp. “They’re earlier stage than what we’d typically invest in, but it’s so cool.”

Murray, of Draper Triangle Ven-tures, arranged a demonstration of Neurable’s gaming capabilities the week after the open house for other area VCs. Though not a gamer him-self, he was impressed that after donning the Neurable device, he was able to shoot an arrow during a game just by thinking about it.

“Clearly they’ve created something with scientific interest. The question is: Can they create something with market value?” said Murray. “Where does Neurable fit in the gaming world? I don’t know enough about the environment to know the answer. But it’s certainly promising.”

Michael Psarouthakis, a former vice president at the Michigan Eco-nomic Development Corp. who is now assistant director of the Venture Cen-ter at the technology transfer office at UM, has been advising Neurable. He says the company could raise $20 mil-lion now if it wanted.

But he says it needs only $2 million to hit its next development targets, so it makes sense to wait until later, when the company is worth more, before raising a larger round.

“I’m leaving to meet with a big in-vestor now.” he said. “I can’t tell you who it is, but it’s big. I get a call a day from investors wanting to know more. There’s deal heat. There’s excitement. The technology has such a big wow factor, everyone wants to see it.”

Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337Twitter: @tomhenderson2

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Editor-in-Chief Keith E. CrainGroup Publisher Mary Kramer, (313) 446-0399or [email protected] Editor Jennette Smith, (313) 446-1622 or [email protected] Director, Digital Strategy, Audience Development Nancy Hanus, (313) 446-1621 or [email protected] Managing Editor Michael Lee, (313) 446-1630 or [email protected] Managing Editor/Custom and Special Projects Daniel Duggan, (313) 446-0414 or [email protected] Assistant Managing Editor Kristin Bull, (313) 446-1608 or [email protected] News Editor Beth Reeber Valone, (313) 446-5875 or [email protected] Senior Editor Gary Piatek, (313) 446-0357 or [email protected] Research and Data Editor Sonya Hill, (313) 446-0402 or [email protected] Newsroom (313) 446-0329, FAX (313) 446-1687, TIP LINE (313) 446-6766 REPORTERSJay Greene, senior reporter Covers health care, insurance, energy, utilities and the environment. (313) 446-0325 or [email protected] Chad Halcom Covers litigation, the defense industry and education. (313) 446-6796 or [email protected] Henderson Covers banking, �nance, technology and biotechnology. (313) 446-0337 [email protected] Pinho Covers real estate, Oakland and Macomb counties. (313) 446-0412 or [email protected] Shea, enterprise editor Covers media, advertising and marketing, the business of sports, and transportation. (313) 446-1626 or [email protected] Snell, reporter Covers city of Detroit and regional politics. (313) 446-1654 or [email protected] VanHulle, Lansing reporter. (517) 657-2204 or [email protected] Walsh, senior reporter Covers the business of law, auto suppliers, manufacturing and steel. (313) 446-6042 or [email protected] Welch, senior reporter Covers nonpro�ts, services, retail and hospitality. (313) 446-1694 or [email protected] Inquiries (313) 446-6032; FAX (313) 393-0997Advertising Director Matthew LanganSenior Account Manager Katie SullivanAdvertising Sales Gerry Golinske, Catherine Grace,Joe Miller, Diane Owen, Sarah Stachowicz,Classi�ed Sales Manager Angela Schutte,(313) 446-6051Classi�ed Sales Lynn Calcaterra, (313) 446-6086Events Manager Kacey AndersonSenior Art Director Sylvia KolaskiMarketing Coordinator Ariel BlackSpecial Projects Coordinator Keenan CovingtonSales Support Suzanne JanikProduction Manager Wendy KobylarzProduction Supervisor Andrew SpanosCUSTOMER SERVICEMain Number: Call (877) 824-9374or [email protected] $59 one year, $98 two years. Out of state, $79 one year, $138 for two years. Outside U.S.A., add $48 per year to out-of-state rate for surface mail. Call (313) 446-0450 or (877) 824-9374.Single Copies (877) 824-9374Reprints (212) 210-0750; or Krista Bora [email protected] �nd a date a story was published (313) 446-0406 or e-mail [email protected]’s Detroit Business is published byCrain Communications Inc.Chairman Keith E. CrainPresident Rance CrainTreasurer Mary Kay CrainExecutive Vice President/OperationsWilliam A. MorrowExecutive Vice President/Director of Strategic Operations Chris CrainExecutive Vice President/Director of Corporate Operations KC CrainVice President/Production & ManufacturingDave KamisChief Information O�cer Anthony DiPonioG.D. Crain Jr. Founder (1885-1973)Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. Chairman (1911-1996)Editorial & Business O�ces1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit MI 48207-2732; (313) 446-6000Cable address: TWX 248-221-5122 AUTNEW DETCRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS ISSN # 0882-1992 is published weekly, except for a special issue the third week of November, and no issue the third week of December by Crain Communications Inc. at 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit MI 48207-2732. Periodicals postage paid at Detroit, MI and additional mailing o¦ces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS, Circulation Department, P.O. Box 07925, Detroit, MI 48207-9732. GST # 136760444. Printed in U.S.A.Entire contents copyright 2015 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial content in any manner without permission is strictly prohibited.

The following business filed for protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit May 27-June 2. Under Chapter 11, a company files for re-organization. n Snuggle Pets Products LLC,

47044 Denton, Belleville, voluntary Chapter 11. Assets and liabilities not available.

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INDEX TO COMPANIES

These companies have signi�cant men-tion in this week’s Crain’s Detroit Business:

365 Health Care LLC ........................................10Aristocrat Services ........................................ M6Arvina Group .......................................................5Beaumont Health...............................................4Bedrock Detroit .............................................. M8Children’s Hospital of Michigan.......................4Children’s Hospital of Michigan-Troy... ...........4Cooper-Standard ...............................................3Detroit Medical Center......................................4 Detroit Public Schools................................... M9Detroit Regional Chamber............................ M5Eastern Michigan University.......................M65Get Some Fitness...............................................9Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP .. M6Jabs Gym LLC......................................................3MichAuto .........................................................M11Michigan Department of Transportation... M4Michigan Economic Development Corp. .. M10Mich. Infrastructure & Transportation Assoc. M4Michigan State University ......................... M64Mich. Urgent Care and Occupational Health.3MiG Construction........................................... M8Neurable ...............................................................1Oakland Community College...................... M67Oakland Community College Faculty Assoc.. M67Regional Transit Authority of SE Mich. M5, M9Sachse Construction..................................... M8Shut Up and Box.................................................3Space Care Interiors .....................................M12Title Boxing Club International ........................9Truscott Rossman.......................................... M5Turner Construction ...................................... M8University of Detroit Mercy ........................M63University of Michigan................................ M64Wayne State University.................... M63, M64Walsh College............................................... M64


RUMBLINGSWEEK ON THE WEB MAY 28-JUNE 3

Fournier’s homecoming permanent this time

Ron Fournier’s Detroit home-coming is real this time.

Fournier, senior political columnist for the National Journal and a Detroit native (he has also been writing regularly for The Atlantic), said Thursday that he and his wife, both of whom attended the University of Detroit, will move back to the area following the 2016 presidential election. They currently live in the Washington, D.C., area.

It’s mostly personal, but partly professional for Fournier, who has attended the Crain’s-producedDetroit Homecoming event the past two years. He has two daughters in the area, including one who, with her husband, just completed the adoption of a son, and being close to his family is the main driver behind the pending return.

“We’ve always called Detroit home,” Fournier told Crain’s after his keynote speech at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Confer-ence. “We’ve been coming back here every couple months since we left.”

But Fournier is also fed up with the national political scene, saying

The prospect of a Donald Trump presidency became a big focus of attention during

Friday’s final political panel session at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

Dennis Archer Sr., chairman and CEO of Dennis W. Archer PLLC and former Detroit mayor, used the opportunity to stump for Demo-cratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, while other panelists, most notably Walbridge Aldinger Chair-man and CEO John Rakolta Jr., conveyed some deep concerns over Trump’s campaign tactics and blustering persona.

While Trump supporters often talk about the merits of electing a candidate with a businessperson’s sensibilities, Rakolta emphasized some concerns about drawing too many parallels. “Government is different,” he said. “It’s its own breed. It can’t work quite as efficiently as businesses do.”

Rakolta said if given the oppor-tunity, he would look Trump in the eye and ask about “his heart.”

“I wouldn’t want a president who didn’t have the right heart,” he said.

When asked by WDIV-Channel 4anchor Devin Scillian whom he would vote for if the election were today, Rakolta said he “would plead the Fifth Amendment.”

during his keynote speech that “documenting the dysfunction” nationally is something he is no longer interested in doing.

Fournier, author of the book Love That Boy and a regular commentator on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and other shows, said in his keynote speech that he will be at next year’s event as an attendee, not as a speaker.

“Detroit’s best days are ahead of us,” he said as he ended his speech.

Ron Fournier: Returning to the Detroit area.

The Fruehauf Trailer Historical Society will host a three-day reunion event June 10-12 in Detroit for former employees and enthusiasts of the Fruehauf Trailer Corp.

The event kicks off June 10 with a private lunch and tour — for past employees — of the former Fruehauf headquarters, now owned by PVS Chemicals Inc., at 10900 Harper Ave. A group dinner follows at Sindbad’s on the River.

On the following two days, attendees will be given tours of a Fruehauf exhibit at the Detroit Historical Museum; the Ford Motor Co. Piquette Avenue Plant, where the Model T was first produced; and Green�eld Village.

Tours include a presentation by Ruth Fruehauf, author of Singing Wheels: August Fruehauf & the History of the Fruehauf Trailer Company. In 1918, Ruth’s grandfather, August, incorporated Fruehauf to capital-ize on the popularity of August’s creation of the semi-trailer.

The company had more than 1,000 patents and manufactured or introduced truck products such as hydraulic dump trailers.

Tickets for the event range from $42 to $78.50, plus the dinner cost. For more information or to register, go to www.singingwheels.com.

Reunion to celebrate Fruehauf history

Mackinac panelists air concerns over Trump

Ruth Fruehauf: Author to present during tour.

Attendees at the Mackinac Policy Conference raised $126,910 as of 10:30 a.m. Friday for the Flint Child Health & Development Fund, managed by the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

That amount will be matched by the Flint-based C.S. Mott Founda-tion, chamber leaders said.

Top donors included South-field-based Lear Corp., which gave $25,000, and Detroit Manufacturing Systems, which gave $18,500.

Mackinac attendees raise over $126,000 for Flint kids

House narrowly passes schools

restructuring plan

The debt-ridden Detroit school district would receive a $617 million state bailout

under a compromise restructuring plan that appears poised for final legislative votes and the governor’s signature after winning narrow approval in the state House last week, AP reported. The Republi-can-led House voted along party lines to split the district in two in July, without support from Demo-crats, not even those in the city.

The new debt-free district would educate students and qualify for $150 million in transition costs to help it stay afloat over the summer. The old Detroit Public Schoolsdistrict would exist solely to collect taxes, retiring $467 million in debt over about 8½ years, and a school board, to be elected in November, would be given control again while a commission of state appointees would have financial oversight of the new district.

COMPANY NEWSn Two hospitals affiliated with

Flint-based McLaren Healthcare Corp. launched the McLaren Cardiovascular Institute to expand heart services in Southeast Michi-gan. Headquartered at McLaren Macomb in Mount Clemens, the new program includes eight cardiologists who practice at McLaren Macomb and McLaren Oakland in Pontiac. Two others are expected to join later this year.n U.S. National Bank Association

completed its foreclosure of Eastland Center, a year after former owner Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. defaulted on $42.5 million in loans on the Harper Woods mall. New York City-based Ashkenazy could reclaim the asset if it comes up with the money within six months to pay all or enough of the loan to be acceptable to the banks.n The Container Store’s first

Michigan location was set to open in Novi with the Dallas-based company donating 10 percent of its opening weekend sales to Oak Park-based food rescue organiza-tion Forgotten Harvest.n Los Angeles-based contempo-

rary clothing retailer Vince opened its first Michigan location at Somerset Collection in Troy. The retailer is in the 2,700-square-foot space formerly occupied by Ralph Lauren Home.n China’s Ningbo Joyson Electron-

ic Corp. is interested in acquiring embattled Japanese airbag supplier Takata Corp. Joyson is looking to build on its $920 million acquisition of a Takata competitor, Sterling Heights-based Key Safety Systems Inc., Key Safety CEO Jason Lou told Crain’s. Takata’s North American subsidiary, TK Holdings Inc., is based in Auburn Hills.

n Detroit-based consulting firm Gi�els Webster said it has acquired Clearzoning, a planning and zoning consulting firm in Lathrup Village. Cost of the deal was not disclosed.n DSM Engineering Plastics Inc. is

expanding in Troy to create a new engineering and applications development center. The $2.4 million investment is expected to create 33 jobs for the subsidiary of Nether-lands-based Koninklijke DSM N.V.n Detroit-based Ally Financial Inc.

completed the acquisition of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based TradeKing Group Inc., an online wealth management firm, for $275 million. n Royal Oak-based Vectorform, a

digital product and experience inventor, was named as an Endeavor entrepreneur at the Endeavor 64th International Selection Panel in Madrid, Spain. n Bloomfield Hills-based Agree

Realty Corp. announced it has acquired 11 properties leased to national and regional retailers such as Hobby Lobby and Big Lots for $79.5 million, with the majority of the properties near the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets.n PNC Bank announced a

$100,000 commitment to the developing Detroit 67: Looking Back to Move Forward project, a Detroit Historical Museum-led exhibit and project focused on the 1967 riots in the city.

OTHER NEWSn The Hilton Garden Inn-Detroit

Downtown is going up for auction after the borrower missed debt payments the past few months. DHG Associates in Cleveland is listed on Wayne County records as

the owner of the hotel. Initial bids are due June 28, and the final auction date is set for July 14.n Peter Karmanos Jr., co-founder

of Detroit-based Compuware Corp.and owner of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, is being sued by three of his sons in Oakland County Circuit Court. Jason Karmanos, Peter Karmanos III and Nick Karmanos say their father did not repay a $105 million loan he took out in 2013 from a limited partnership he created with them.n Kenyetta Wilbourn-Snapp,

former principal at Denby and Mumford high schools in Detroit, was sentenced to one year in prison in a bribery case related to federal probes of Detroit Public Schools, AP reported. Wilbourn-Snapp also was ordered to pay restitution to the Education Achievement Authoritydistrict and the IRS. n Wayne County tentatively

agreed to sell the state’s sec-ond-largest wastewater treatment facility for $57.5 million, money that will bolster county finances and shift control to 13 suburban communities. After selling the Downriver Sewage Disposal System to the Downriver Utility Wastewater Authority, the county will use the money to fund its pension system and free up cash for other projects and services.n More than 3,000 people are

expected to attend TEDxDetroit when it returns to the Fox Theatreon Oct. 6 for its eighth year. The 2016 schedule for the conference, which is focused on ideas and inno-vation, will be announced in September, organizers said.n The Michigan Economic

Development Corp. formally unveiled an initiative to preserve or build upon the $8 billion of annual military spending on various operations and contracts in Michigan. The plan was launched via a cooperative research and development agreement with officials at the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren.n An international conference

on industrial design hosted by the Industrial Designers Society of America will take place for the first time in Detroit — the first U.S. metropolis to be named a UNESCOCity of Design — Aug. 17-20, officials announced. Meanwhile, the Detroit Creative Corridor Centersaid it will launch its 10-year UNESCO Detroit City of Design initiative on June 28 in Detroit.

OBITUARIESn Darwin Clark, a General Motors

Co. executive who held key senior management positions at Buick and Oldsmobile, died May 31. He was 76.n Ron Hall Sr., founder, chairman

and former CEO of Detroit-based Bridgewater Interiors LLC and former president of the Michigan Minority Supplier Business Development Council, died June 1. He was 72.

A numbers-focused look at last week’s headlines:

$600,000The amount of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant secured by Oakland County to help communities clean up brown�eld sites for economic development.

$1 millionThe amount of a pledge by the Founders Junior Council, a young professionals auxiliary of the Detroit Institute of Arts, to the museum’s operating endowment. The DIA plans to name its Egyptian gallery the Founders Junior Council Gallery in recognition of the gi�.

$4 millionThe amount of a grant by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to expand access to career opportunities for a target of 10,000 Detroit high school students over the next three years. The grant is part of a collaboration with the Skillman Foundation, Ford Motor Co. and the Ford Foundation.

Detroit Digits

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JULY 20 5:30-9 p.m.

Belle Isle in Detroit Detroit Yacht Club

Metro Detroit’s talented entrepreneurs, corporate executives and nonprofi t visionaries

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Snyder: Relentless clearing of the air? - Crain's Detroit Business

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