PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

To place your listing, visit crainsdetroit.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

ADVERTISING / PR / MARKETING

Truscott Rossman

Truscott Rossman welcomes director of public affairs, John Whetstone. A gifted storyteller and advocate with more than 25 years of experience working with Republican lawmakers in the Michigan House, John created and implemented effective communications plans for groundbreaking state public policy. With keen insight, he delivers sound strategic counsel and messaging and effectively communicates with stakeholders to help clients reach goals. TR: Michigan roots, national reach, winning results.

Financial Services

Northstar Bank

Jim Phelps has joined Northstar Bank, an independent community bank headquartered in Michigan, as 1st Vice President and Commercial Lender. He will focus on generating business lending opportunities while building banking relationships. With over 25 years of experience, he brings a strong background in com mercial lending and relationship banking. Jim earned his bachelor’s degree from Albion College. He resides in Saline. Contact Jim at jim.phelps@northstarathome.com.

NONPROFIT American Cancer Society

As the leading cancer- ghting organization, American Cancer Society (ACS) announces the promotion of Jenni Beamer to Senior Executive Director of Michigan. With 21 years of experience at ACS, Jenni is a proven leader in connecting teams, building strategy, empowering leaders, and driving mission impact through revenue, partnerships, and collaboration. Jenni earned her degree from Michigan State University. Leaders across Michigan are encouraged to join the ghtJennifer.Beamer@cancer.org

Host Utica

From Page 8

Coming soon

Financial Services

Flexible Plan Investments, Ltd.

Jeffrey Ingalsbe has been promoted to senior vice president. In addition to his role leading information and technology (IT) efforts and all cybersecurity policies, he is tasked with overseeing the company’s executive committee initiatives and directives. Before joining FPI, he was an assistant professor at the University of Detroit Mercy; director of the Center for Cyber Security and Intelligence Studies; and worked at Ford Motor Company, where he held various IT and security-related positions.

INSURANCE / FINANCIAL NFP

Dana Kopka brings many years of bene ts and HR experience to NFP, alongside a passion for building lasting relationships with clients and working with people to make a positive impact on individuals and organizations. Dana works to remove burdens for clients through support and education in the ever-evolving world of employee bene ts. Her duties include acting as a trusted advisor, serving as a subject matter expert and supporting clients directly with ongoing compliance and strategy reviews.

Nonprofit Econ Development

Detroit Economic Growth Corporation

The DEGC has appointed Kenyetta Hairston-Bridges, Executive Vice President, as the organization’s Chief Operating Of cer, working closely with CEO Kevin Johnson and senior leadership to shape and deliver on the organization’s strategic imperatives. As the new COO, she will be responsible for overseeing the agency’s operations, including strategic planning, program development, and day-to-day management to drive growth and innovation and position Detroit as an ideal landing spot for companies.

“We’ve got a lot going on here. We put a lot into this and we want it to work — for us and the people kind of getting their feet wet here.”

Ivkov projects Host will bring in about $3 million in revenue this year.

Business decision

Along with running Host, Ivkov is a Realtor with eXp Realty in Troy. To get Host up and running, Ivkov convinced his partners Kevin Kostka and Jeremy Galli to buy the Auburn Road building for about $790,000. An additional $500,000 went toward renovating the space.

“ is building is in a great spot. It’s got a great layout, so I convinced my partners to invest,” Ivkov said. “ ey own the building and I pay them rent every month.”

Ivkov did not disclose terms of the agreement, saying only that it’s a long-term deal.

Here are some of the visiting chefs who will run the Host Utica kitchen in the coming months: to launch his own place in due time.

Michael Murabito, through June 3: specializing in Mediterranean cuisine. Break’n Cornbread, June 5-July 15: Chefs Shanel DeWalt and Brandon Johnson specializing in comfort food. Chef Steven Kling, Aug. 1-Sept. 30: specializing in modern French cuisine. Chef Layla Outita, Oct. 3-Dec. 2: specializing in Moroccan food.

“I’ve got an LLC. I have a business plan,” Murabito said. “Being able to be here, do interviews and hire my own sta is a really big part of it, too. I’ve never felt like this in a kitchen. It’s surreal that it’s my menu out there that people are enjoying. People aren’t shy. ey send things back. I haven’t had that happen yet. It’s actually a bit surprising to me how comfortable I feel in this role.”

Financial Services

Hilco Performance Solutions

Continuing its expansion with hands-on experienced process improvement experts, Susan Stanley has been named Associate Director of Hilco Performance Solutions (HPS), a management consulting rm that consists of operational and nancial experts in the areas of Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sales & Customer Experience, Organizational Design, and M&A. An operating company of Hilco Global, HPS helps clients simplify and streamline business processes and improve operational ef ciencies.

LAW Gallagher Sharp LLP

Gallagher Sharp is pleased to announce that Adam Zwicker has been elected Partner. Adam focuses his practice on defending trucking, railroad, and maritime organizations against personal injury, property damage, and wrongful death claims arising from commercial transportation accidents. He also defends cargo claims brought under the Carmack Amendment. He has a wide range of experience in general civil and appellate litigation. Adam received his law degree from Wayne State University Law School.

Telecommunications

Comcast

Scott Smith has been promoted to vice president of Finance and Business Operations for Comcast’s Heartland Region, which includes Michigan. He manages a team of more than 200 employees and is responsible for leading all nancial aspects of the region, including forecasting and budgeting, as well as overseeing real estate, facilities and supply chain functions. Prior to his promotion, he served as senior director of nance for Comcast’s Heartland Region.

It’s been a good deal thus far. Chef Davante Burnley, who attended the Art Institute of Michigan and worked at hotels and country clubs across the country, was Host’s rst visiting chef. Burnley, who now runs his own business, Chef Squared Private Chef Group, is the executive chef at Host. Other visiting chefs include Flint chef Anthony Guiett.

“We try to bring on chefs that o er a variety of cuisine,” Ivkov said. “(Burnley) does Southern cooking. We’ve got chef Steven Kling coming in this summer, who specializes in French food. (Murabito) specializes in Mediterranean. We really work hard to have something for everybody and showcase a world’s worth of foods.” at’s exactly what Ivkov hoped for when he established the business. He also hopes Host turns downtown Utica into more of a destination for diners, small business owners and anyone else looking for a place to hang out.

Ivkov looked at opening Host in Mount Clemens, but Utica felt like a better spot.

—Michael Ivkov, founder, Host Utica

“We’re closer to Rochester, Troy, some other places,” Ivkov said. “We’ve had people come from as far as Ferndale and Clawson. ose aren’t really that close, so it feels like we have something people are willing to drive for and that’s becoming rare.

Ultimate opportunity

For Murabito, getting his shot to run a kitchen comes at the perfect time.

Murabito, who previously worked under Executive Chef Anthony Lombardo at SheWolf in Detroit’s Midtown, is taking all the necessary steps

“A concept like this feels like something this area really needed. Yeah, we want this to be great for the chefs coming in, but it really means a lot to us to have a place we think can be a destination spot.”

Contact: jason.davis@crain.com

(313) 446-1612; @JayDavis_1981

About $1 million of the EDA funding will go toward a co-op program the state is announcing soon, which will allow convention and visitors’ bureaus to apply for competitive matching grants to put toward increasing accessibility for travelers with disabilities.

Lorenz said the state has an opportunity again this year to bill itself as an option for “staycationers” as well as an a ordable regional destination for travelers in surrounding states who dread the high cost of ying.

“So many people, they think they know Michigan, but the fact is, nobody’s been going anywhere for three years,” he said. “… We’re going to really encourage people to get out there and really get to know their own state. … e other opportunity is, with these high costs, Michigan has always been a great value state for travel (for surrounding states). ings here cost less than they do in many other places.”

He added that with international markets starting to reopen to airlines, Michigan can now re-enter the fray to compete for those travelers.

“Europeans, they can’t wait to get here,” he said. “We’ve continued our presence in our core markets, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the U.K., Ireland, so we continued that all through COVID to some degree, and so we have all these relationships already. … What (those travelers) want right now more than ever, after what we’ve all gone through globally, they want to experience ‘the real America’ more than ever. at’s what we are.”

Southwest Michigan

Lisa Mize is executive director of the Saugatuck-Douglas Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. Her organization markets the area as Michigan’s “Art Coast” and a vacation destination with a large LGBTQ+ community. It also o ers waterfront activities, shopping, dining, fall color tours and wineries, cideries and breweries.

She said the community — which has just about 900 year-round residents — recognized the labor shortage as a major issue, so the CVB convened business owners and residents for a brainstorming session on how to solve it. Out of that came Facebook groups in which job postings are shared as well as a new high school job fair.

e availability of downtown parking was an issue for these high schoolers, so they also had to devise strategies to help them get to work. e Interurban Transit Authority was willing to have students park at the high school and ride together downtown. But even the high school parking lot was lling up, thanks to tourist overow parking, so they added another commuter rideshare lot at an area church.

“ e employers actually said that they would work around the time that the Interurban would drop (the students) o , so that blew my mind,” Mize said. “Instead of eight di erent restaurants saying, ‘I need so-and-so here at this time, I need so-and-so here this time,’ they’re going to say, ‘Ok, if the Interurban is dropping those kids o at 10, I’ll make sure that their shift starts at 10:30.’”

She said that last year restaurants were still operating with shortened hours and fewer days per week, but she hopes this year they’ll be able to get back to normal with more sta . “It remains to be seen,” Mize said.

Northern Michigan

Whitney Waara is COO of Traverse City Tourism. She travels widely and hears from residents of other states that Michigan’s relative climate stability — not having as many intense weather events like earthquakes, tornadoes and droughts like other states — draws people to Michigan. Also appealing is the water, the state’s natural resources and beauty, and the four seasons.

Visitors to Northern Michigan in particular get a “safe, family-oriented” destination with lots of indoor and outdoor options, she said.

However, in order to sustain the growing tourism economy in the Traverse City area, Waara said more lodging will be needed — both a ordable housing for the workers and hotels or short-term housing for visitors.

“What we need and what we think are appropriately focused on is guring out, how are we doing more housing development in the space where we need it, not necessarily trying to say it’s short-term rentals (that) are the culprit for why we don’t have enough housing,” Waara said.

She said there are apartments and condos going up in the area right now, and Bay Area Transportation Authority is partnering with Gar eld Township on a $100 million transit-oriented development that will include housing.

For the area to keep building up the a ordable housing stock, she said the city and state need to o er the right mix of incentives to developers.

“Developers (may say), ‘I can build a $3 million house or I can build all these a ordable housing units and (the latter) is going to make me a lot more money.’ We have to come up with the equation for that, and it’s a statewide problem,” Waara said.

She pointed to places like downtown Bellaire and Crystal Mountain in ompsonville, which have been building employee housing, as models to emulate.

Amanda Wilkin, executive director of Visit Charlevoix, said that with last year being the city’s best year ever for tourists, even more workers are needed. Her city also has a housing shortage for workers.

“It’s really the chicken or the egg,” she said. “Is it because we have too many short-term rentals that we don’t have enough houses? All of those questions are being thrown around a lot in every resort community.”

Because Charlevoix is a “water-locked” isthmus that has no open land left on which to build, it is making small changes to increase density.

“Our community has done an amazing job with switching zoning or constantly tweaking ordinances and zoning to make changes and allow expansion of … second homes on one lot,” she said. e city also has placed a moratorium on short-term rentals in residential areas, limiting it to 80 total that can operate in those districts and no limits on how many can operate in business districts.

But Charlevoix largely depends on the surrounding municipalities to increase the housing stock.

“ e surrounding townships, there’s a lot of proposals for housing developments that are going to the planning commissions. … I think they’ll get there.”

Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island typically logs about 1 million visitors per year, but last year it saw 1.2 million visitors, said Steph Castelein, who works in events and marketing for the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau. She theorizes this is because the island has a plethora of outdoor activities for travelers, many of whom are still COVID-cautious.

“Mackinac Island was such an attraction, I think for a while to come and do these things — take your time exploring, go to Doud’s, the oldest family-owned grocery store in the U.S., grab a picnic lunch, rent some bikes and go exploring. I think that has shifted and stayed during the pandemic,” Castelein said.

With that surge in tourists, the island struggled to maintain sustainability the past few seasons. Trash bins were full, people were climbing where there are no-climbing signs posted, items were left behind everywhere and sta were unable to keep bathrooms maintained.

“It’s overtourism in that aspect,” Castelein said. “We kind of just took initiative in our visitor guide, on the back of it, we put ‘how to Mackinac’ — how to be a healthy visitor. We’re actually repeating that again this year.” e other big problem is sta ng levels. e island has traditionally been dependent on international workers who stay for the peak season to run the restaurants, shops and hotels, but the number of H-1B visas the U.S. issues has been capped at lower levels than in previous decades, so competition for workers is erce.

As a result, the island is working hard to recruit downstate residents, retirees and other populations looking for a fun, seasonal work experience. But those workers typically don’t want to live in dorms — which is where much of the island’s temporary employee housing is concentrated, Castelein said.

“ ere’s no land to buy. It’s state park and city-owned, and building is really di cult,” she said.

Contact: rachel.watson@crain.com (989) 533-9685; @RachelWatson86

Charles C. Zhang CFP®, MBA, MSFS, ChFC, CLU Founder and President

www.zhang

Assets under custody of LPL Financial, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab

*As reported in Barron’s March 12, 2022. Rankings based on assets under management, revenue generated for the advisors’ rms, quality of practices, and other factors.

**As reported in Forbes April 7, 2022 and August 16, 2021. e rankings, developed by Shook Research, are based on in-person and telephone due diligence meetings and a ranking algorithm for advisors who have a minimum of seven years of experience. Other factors include client retention, industry experience, compliance records, rm nominations, assets under management, revenue generated for their rms, and other factors. See zhang nancial.com/disclosure for full ranking criteria.

Charles is the highest ranked Fee-Only Advisor on Forbes’ list of America’s Top Wealth Advisors** To