Crain's Detroit Business, August 14, 2023

STATE’S POWER PLAY

Michigan dangles $150M toward restarting nuclear plant. What else would it take? | By David

LANSING — Despite pushback from watchdog groups, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and lawmakers have committed $150 million in state funding in an attempt to do the unprecedented: restart a nuclear power plant that is — at least for now — permanently closed.

As pro- and anti-nuclear advocates take sides over the reactor’s future, it presents challenges as one of the oldest in the U.S. — one with some known issues to be addressed.

e earmark is half of what the owner of the Palisades Nuclear

Rocket, UWM see bounceback

Companies eager for drop in interest rates

By Nick Manes

Recent earnings reports from the nation’s top two mortgage lenders indicate the industry may have turned a corner after 18 months of struggles, while also showing resiliency in the overall housing market.

Metro Detroit mortgage titans United Wholesale Mortgage and

Rocket Companies Inc. each reported second-quarter earnings this month with the reports putting the companies back in the black after two consecutive quarters of losses. In addition to both companies returning to pro tability, each reported quarter-over-quarter growth in loan originations, highlighting that demand for houses remains strong even while interest rates remain elevated from years past.

Plant, Holtec International, had sought to again generate electricity at the facility near South Haven, which was shut down by previous owner Entergy in May 2022 after operating more than 50 years. Fuel was removed from the reactor in June 2022.

e funds in the budget Whitmer signed last month are contingent on “conditional commitments” from the U.S. Department of Energy, from which Florida-based Holtec is requesting a $1 billion loan.

e company went that route

Eggert

after the department, headed by former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, rejected its application for $1.2 billion in credits through a new program created under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

See POWER on Page 21

CEOs aim regionally on workforce

Group looks to expand Detroit’s one-stop shop

By Sherri Welch

e Detroit Regional CEO

Group plans to launch a regional workforce development agency by year’s end, building on the success of the public-private approach in Detroit that has brought major employers, support for job training and tens of thousands of jobs to the city.

Yet to be named, the regional

group is modeled on the Detroit workforce-development e ort; similar, corporate-led e orts around the country; and the regional economic development nonpro t formed by the CEO group in 2019.

Workforce development and economic development go hand in hand, said David Meador, executive director of the CEO group and co-chair of the Mayor’s Workforce Development Board in Detroit.

See CEO GROUP on Page 22

The Palisades Nuclear Plant operated for more than 50 years before its May 2022 shutdown.. ALAMY

Treat Dreams expanding with new shop, offerings

By Jay Davis

Treat Dreams is spreading its wings with yet another location and adding new vendors in its large Ferndale space.

Scott Moloney, the owner of the Ferndale-based homemade ice cream business, said he plans to open a Treat Dreams shop at 21012 Mack Ave. in Grosse Pointe Woods before the Labor Day holiday. e new location will be the fourth, following stores in Ferndale, Midtown Detroit and a recently opened Madison Heights location. Treat Dreams also operates two food trucks.

In Madison Heights, Treat Dreams took over a 500-squarefoot former Dairy Freeze stand June 30. Moloney, also co-owner of Woodpile BBQ Shack in Clawson, was approached about taking over the business by the owner, who Moloney declined to name. Moloney said he may purchase the building next spring.

Moloney sees the Grosse Pointe Woods community as a natural t for Treat Dreams. He purchased the Mack Avenue building in April 2022 for an undisclosed price.

“We’ve been working on it since then. It looks great. It’s going to be fantastic,” he said. “It’s close enough for us to manage it (from

Ferndale) and it’s only 20 minutes away in terms of deliveries. We’ve got good name recognition. We’ve done a number of events in Grosse Pointe. We’ve got a good clientele there. ey love our ice cream.”

e Grosse Pointe Woods location — an 1,100-square-foot space that previously housed a Bubble Tea Parlour — will have a sta of six or seven employees. Moloney will run the new store while the sta is lled out.

He estimates the new Treat Dreams shop will bring in about $400,000 in annual sales. e Ferndale and Midtown locations plus the food trucks combined average around $1 million annually, the owner said.

e new Grosse Pointe Woods ice cream shop isn’t the only proj-

ect Moloney is brewing up.

On Aug. 13, a new co ee concept was to launch inside the Ferndale Treat Dreams location at 22965 Woodward Ave. Meillie Coffee, owned and operated by Jocelyn Chen, takes up about 200 square feet of the 4,000-squarefoot space.

Meillie Co ee o ers 25 varieties of co ee and tea from around the world, along with a small menu of sandwiches. Meillie touts itself as a sustainable co ee producer, using eco-friendly packaging, sustainably handmade co ee brewing equipment and the composting of co ee grounds and tea leaves.

Chen said she’s excited to showcase her o erings in downtown Ferndale.

“We’re excited to bring the di-

verse avors of world co ee and tea traditions to the vibrant Ferndale community,” Chen said. “More than that, we’re committed to creating a positive impact on both our local community and the world at large.”

In addition, deli food truck Hero or Villain, established in 2014 by Richard Zemola, will start what Moloney called a “residency” in October in the Ferndale space.

Chen and Zemola will sublease their spaces, Moloney said.

“ e Ferndale space is just too big for us now,” he said. “We’ve got a big footprint in the city. We used to make ice cream here, do events here. We don’t want to lose the locations, so I found two other subtenants to come in. ey’re very complementary. ey do savory,

we do sweet. We did co ee but we didn’t do it very well because we hire a lot of high school kids and it’d be a lot of work training them to use an espresso machine.”

Moloney established Treat Dreams in 2010 in Ferndale and over the years has made more than 1,200 unique ice cream avors, including Pistachio Wasabi, Kooky Monster Brownie and many vegan options. e ice cream is now produced in a leased space on Woodward Heights in Ferndale. e 900-square-foot Midtown Detroit store was added in 2015. In 2019, Moloney expanded his Ferndale shop and took on D’Vine Cookies owner Rebecca Abel Buick as a business partner to feature oversize desserts such as a 5-pound ice cream sandwich.

D’Vine Cookies left the space early in the COVID-19 pandemic during an in-person dining pause. D’Vine Cookies now operates out of a manufacturing facility in Taylor.

Now Moloney is looking to slow down unless the right opportunity comes along.

“We’ll take six months to stabilize things. ere’s a lot going on,” he said. “I’ll still maybe plug something into Midtown, kind of like what we’re doing in Ferndale. I don’t see anything popping up soon. But I didn’t see Madison Heights popping up, either.”

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Treat Dreams has made some 1,200 unique avors of ice cream since opening in 2010. | TREAT DREAMS

Patient portal answers may soon cost you

Providers start to charge for online answers

Patients are exponentially seeking more communication with their health care providers — digitally. A medical expert is but a click away via the provider’s patient portal.

But, increasingly, those providers are charging fees for responding to those patient messages.

At least 18 major health systems across the U.S., including Ann Arbor’s Michigan Medicine, charge to respond to at least some patient portal questions.

Buddy’s hires new CEO and COO, eyes growth

Leadership team hopes to scale pizza chain

Farmington Hills-based Buddy’s Pizza last week announced some major moves at the top of its corporate structure.

Chris Tussing took over as Buddy’s CEO in May, according to a news release. Tussing joined Buddy’s after more than two years as chief marketing o cer of Toledo-based Marco’s Pizza, which last year topped $1 billion in annual sales.

Tussing, 53, said he took the position knowing the reputation Buddy’s has built and hopes to maintain.

“I knew coming in that Buddy’s had a rich heritage rooted in high-quality food and hospitality,” he said in the release. “What became apparent soon after joining was how deep of an emotional bond there is between the

| By Jay Davis

Michigan Medicine, the health care system at the University of Michigan, uses MyChart, the country’s dominant medical record software platform owned by Epic Systems Corp. and used by more than 150 million patients in the U.S.

Providers are charging for responses in MyChart because they can — the federal government authorized such charges in 2020 — and it could generate cash ow, but also charges are also used to make up for, at least partially, the higher rate of physician burnout due to the load of messages now coming through the portal.

tiple involved questions requiring more than a typical response, spending more time to understand what’s truly happening with the patient that would have normally occurred during an in-person visit.”

e time involved in a physician or nurse responding to a patient question via MyChart is critical to billing.

e American Medical Association updated the Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT codes, on Jan. 1, 2020, to allow providers to bill for patient portal messages. Providers can bill responses that take just ve minutes or more, but only if done so within seven days of

brand and our team members and guests. I love hearing the pride in team members’ voices when they tell me they’ve been (with Buddy’s) 30-plus years, 20

years or 17 years. ere’s a passion here not found in many brands.”

“ e direction, post-COVID, has been a huge uptick in the volume of messages providers are receiving from their patients,” said Nikki Feucht, senior director of the health care business for Chicago-based advisory rm Huron Consulting Group.

“Providers have also seen an uptick in the breadth of the questions coming in from patients. Instead of one question, it’s mul-

the patient inquiry, according to the AMA. If the provider bills for that response, even if other codes cover the work, such as reviewing a patient’s medical record or development of a management plan, it can bill only for the response. Which may make the billing not worth it for some systems, depending on how it’s using MyChart.

e charge to the patient or the patient’s insurer varies. Johns Hopkins Medicine began charging patients for portal responses in July and charges anywhere from $3 for Medicare bene ciaries to $50 for an uninsured patient, according to a report published in Becker’s Hospital Review.

Automation Alley hits $2B trade missions milestone

Nearly 500 companies have participated over 22 years and 50 trips

Automation Alley has facilitated more than $2 billion in global sales for small Michigan manufacturers through two decades of trade missions responsible for creating and retaining 10,000 jobs, according to the organization.

Automation Alley hit the milestone after 22 years and 50 trade trips to Mexico, China, ailand, India, Vietnam and other countries, the Troy-based nonpro t industry association announced

Tuesday.

Nearly 500 companies have participated in the trade missions, which focus on opening revenue streams for small suppliers primarily in automotive and aerospace, said Tom Kelly, president and CEO of the association.

“ ese are your meat and potatoes, ma and pa manufacturers that are doing old-school manufacturing, and we’re literally just helping them get orders,” Kelly told Crain’s.

Automation Alley, which also

administers the Project Diamond 3D printing project, considers the long-running trade missions core to its mission of keeping suppliers humming. Suppliers further up the tiers have had a rough go in recent years of supply chain volatility and the industry’s EV shakeup.

“It’s the best thing we do, the trade mission, because it really results in tangible jobs and tangible contracts for small (manufacturers),” Kelly said.

Kurt Nagl

New Buddy’s CEO Chris Tussing, left, and new Buddy’s COO Joe Dominiak. | PHOTOS BY BUDDY’S PIZZA

Dustin Walsh

Participants pose for a photo at a recent trade mission to India facilitated by Automation Alley. | AUTOMATION ALLEY

Buddy’s Pizza was founded in 1946 in Detroit and is widely recognized as the originator of Detroit-style rectangular pizza.

“The direction, post-COVID, has been a huge uptick in the volume of messages...”

Nikki Feucht, senior director, Huron Consulting Group.

See BUDDY’S on Page 21

See DOCTOR on Page 22

A GM sign has been removed from the RenCen. No worries.

A source recently sent me a message noting that something was going on with the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.

But before I get to it: Don’t freak out. Just ... don’t freak out.

In particular, the source pointed out that one of the signs that displays the General Motors Co. logo north into downtown — a glowing xture atop Detroit’s (and the state’s) tallest building — had been removed. Remember, don’t freak out.

Here’s why:

Per Tara Stewart Kuhnen, director of corporate news for GM, which owns the majority of the iconic complex but not all of it, the signs are being replaced one by one in a routine maintenance measure, with the project wrapping up around wintertime.

ere are two other such signs on the 727-foot tower, the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center: One facing east, the other facing west. Stewart Kuhnen declined to disclose the contractor doing the work on the project.

Last summer, GM CEO Mary

Barra told the Associated Press that GM’s headquarters is going to remain in the RenCen. Still, there has long been speculation about the RenCen’s future, even before the COVID-19 global pandemic topsy-turvied the way companies use o ce space (there had been talks that the RenCen would be sold during GM’s bankruptcy, and Dan Gilbert at one point had conversations about buying it that went nowhere, for example). Even just a few years ago, a couple of the towers — including one of the ones that GM does not own — were less than two-thirds leased.

Questions continued in the pandemic, particularly as GM, whose workspace policy was referred to as “Work Appropriately,” went back and forth on its return to the o ce rollout. (Stewart Kuhnen said its RTO policy remains unchanged, and the occupancy in the property varies on a daily basis.)

But at least for the time being, it seems as though it’s mostly business as usual in the towers on the Detroit riverfront — minus the sign replacement.

Lafayette Place for sale

Pontiac-based developer Kyle Westberg has listed the mixeduse Lafayette Place multifamily and retail project he redeveloped downtown for sale for an unlisted price.

e development, in the 80,000-square-foot former Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store, cost $20 million and opened in late 2012. It has 46 apartments

and had a market, which closed during the pandemic, as well as an Anytime Fitness, which remains open under new ownership, Westberg said.

“Our intention when we did that project 10 years ago was to kind of be a catalyst to get downtown Pontiac moving forward with development and businesses and kind of start a heartbeat in downtown, and I think we were very successful in doing that, especially with the new announcements of the mayor and the work that’s coming in,” Westberg said. “We felt it was time for us to kind of step out of the way and let the next people come in and build upon that heartbeat that we started.”

Westberg also said there are “a couple other development opportunities” his company is pursuing, and unloading the Lafayette Place project would help free up his team to work on those.

Marcus & Millichap Inc., a California-based real estate real estate rm with a local o ce in South eld, has the listing.

Bosch’s e-bikes segment passes $1 billion in sales

Bosch Group’s e-bikes segment has risen from a rounding error on income statements to $1 billion in annual revenue and the global market share leader.

Paul omas, soon-to-be president of Bosch Mobility Americas, said the revenue turnover is nice, but the success of the bike business isn’t necessarily measured in dollars. For the German tech and auto behemoth with $100 billion in sales annually, bike motors are ancillary to car parts, appliances and software.

e company’s e-bikes unit represents the ability to diversify, omas said, and at a time when the automotive industry is being pulled in all di erent directions — ICE to EV to hydrogen — diversication is the ticket to survival in the supply world. Recently passing the $1 billion sales mark was a milestone and innovation proof

point, omas said.

“It’s important because I think it shows that Bosch is able to work in multiple areas of mobility and to take products that might not have had their beginnings in bikes but were generated based upon our know-how, and to see a need in a market that maybe no one saw before us,” omas told Crain’s in an interview earlier this month at the Center for Automotive Research Management Business Seminars in Traverse City.

Housed within Bosch’s mobility division based in Farmington Hills, the e-bike business supplies electric motors, batteries and displays to some of the largest bike brands in the world, including its largest customer, Trek.

e company expects major growth as the popularity of e-bikes explodes around the world. As with the car business, connectivity is the next frontier for e-bikes. e company is developing new software for di erent services on the bikes, which it expects to be another growth driver.

e bikes have also helped increase brand awareness, omas said, demonstrating how the company is “able to scale something to a very high level, and we’re able to deliver quality.”

In addition to e-bikes, omas highlighted big bets on hydrogen and semiconductors. Bosch is planning to invest about $2.75 billion on hydrogen tech through

2026, and it has converted internal combustion-focused plants in Germany and South Carolina to hydrogen. In the same timeframe, the company said it will plow $3 billion into its semiconductor business.

Detroit Smart Parking Lab

Among the splashy investments and bold visions, omas also tucked in a mention of the Detroit Smart Parking Lab, a venture between Bosch, Ford Motor Co. and Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock real estate company. e American Center for Mobility, tapped to operate the Detroit facility when it was announced in 2021, opted out after the rst year.

omas said Bosch, Ford and Bedrock have committed to continuing the project, which aims to develop mobility and urban parking solutions, such as automated valet parking and wireless charging.

Automated valet parking developed at the lab has been deployed for commercial use in California and Europe. e lab also invites startups to tinker with their own technology. Stellantis was introduced to HEVO’s wireless charging tech at the lab before the automaker signed the startup to a contract.

e lab is not a revenue-generating operation for the founding companies, omas said. e value is in brand awareness and engagement with the city and startup.

“It’s basically opportunity-generating for our company,” omas said. “We love Detroit, so we said, ‘how could we get a real presence in the city that deals with problems that the city may see?’”

e venture appears to be working well for Bosch, because it is planning another mobility project in the city of Detroit akin to the parking lab. e company is keeping mum on details, though, at least for another few weeks.

Kirk Pinho

The signage atop the Renaissance Center downtown is being replaced as part of routine maintenance. | KIRK PINHO/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

The Lafayette Place redevelopment in downtown Pontiac has been listed for sale by the local of ce of Marcus & Millichap Inc. | COSTAR GROUP INC.

Last summer, GM CEO Mary Barra said that GM’s headquarters is going to remain in the RenCen.

Kurt

Nagl

Paul Thomas, who will ascend to president of Bosch Mobility Americas next year. | CENTER FOR AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH

Developers unveil ambitious housing plan in Lansing

By Nick Manes

In a downtown Lansing battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of metro Detroit and Lansing developers plans an ambitious mixed-use project near Michigan’s Capitol that would include the city’s tallest building.

Planned across three buildings — two new and one existing — the $215 million development proposed by New Vision Lansing LLC would have as many as 450 apartments with a mix of market and “workforce” rents in what the project’s developers say would amount to the largest private development project in downtown Lansing history.

e project’s development team consists of the father-son team of Paul and John Gentilozzi of Lansing-based Gentilozzi Real Estate Inc., along with JFK Investment Co., owned by the Kosik family of Bloom eld Hills and led by Joseph Kosik. e principals view the project with an “if you build it they will come” mentality, acknowledging the long-held perception about downtown Lansing being an area known for being largely empty outside of core business hours.

e two developer families have partnered on various projects in the past, but the proposed Lansing project “holds the most promise for a transformative impact on Michigan’s capital city and we look forward to the vision for Lansing becoming a reality,” Kosik said in a statement.

Lansing’s central business district has long been buoyed by the deluge of thousands of state employees who would ock to downtown in the morning and leave at 5 p.m., but that changed in March 2020 when the pandemic sent workers home, mostly for good. In turn, the state has shed tens of thousands of square feet of o ce space, leading to many downtown businesses struggling or going out of business altogether.

While nearly all American cities with central business districts have been damaged to some degree by the pandemic and the rise of work-from-home, Lansing has been particularly hurt by its lack of residential base, said Paul Gentilozzi.

e New Vision Lansing project seeks to address that.

“We didn’t have the residential base that Kalamazoo has, or certainly Grand Rapids has,” Paul Gentilozzi told Crain’s. “As we walk the streets, both John and I really took it to heart that if we didn’t do something — if the group of developers in our com-

munity didn’t do something — Lansing was going to be damaged for the long term.”

e Gentilozzis have developed and managed several o ce buildings in Lansing’s central business district, while the Kosiks have been more focused on Oakland County’s o ce sector.

All told, the developers plan the following:

◗ A new-build, 25-story apartment tower at 215 S. Grand Ave., three blocks east of the state Capitol building. e project’s signature component would include up to 308 apartment units with a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units as well as market and below-market rents, parking for 350 cars and a host of amenities including a tness center, pool and work-from-home spaces.

◗ An o ce-to-residential conversion of a century-old 10-story building at the southeast corner of South Washington Square and West Michigan Avenue, one block east of the state Capitol. e building would have up to 75 apartments with the majority charging below-market rents, 12-foot ceilings, a rooftop terrace, adjacent parking for 100 cars and retail space on Washington Square, downtown Lansing’s primary retail corridor.

◗ e new-construction, 10-story Capitol Tower at the corner of West Ottawa and North Walnut immediately to the northwest of the state Capitol building would have seven oors consisting of up to 80 apartments, a mix of market and below-market rents, as well as three oors with about 35,000 square feet of o ce space. e ofce space has already been leased by undisclosed tenants, according to the developers.

Lansing-based e Christman Co. has been tapped as the construction manager for the project, while Hobbs+Black, headquartered in Ann Arbor, is the architect.

e overall goal, said John Gentilozzi, is to bring a predominantly residential project to the market that will bring some stability to the downtown Lansing area by providing an infusion of residents.

“If you don’t build it, no one will come,” he said.

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor concurred.

“Lansing needs workforce housing, and this incredible investment will bring hundreds of new residents to our downtown,” Schor said in a statement. “More people living downtown means more vibrancy through walkable tra c, especially nights and weekends.”

‘In a hurry’

e projects will be done in a

phased approach, but all construction is expected to be underway next year, according to Paul Gentilozzi. e existing building on Washington Square is expected to have a construction timeline of 9-12 months, 18-24 months for the 25-story tower and 24-30 months for the Capitol Tower.

“We’re in a hurry, but being in a hurry, it’s going to take some time,” Paul Gentilozzi said. e project’s developers say they’re cognizant of some inherent risk with the ambitious project, particularly in Lansing where there has been some, albeit limited, residential development in the central business district in recent years.

It’s expected that the project will go before the Lansing City Council in the coming weeks for various

approvals, which the developers said include some demolition work that’s needed for construction to move forward, adding that the project as planned meets the city’s zoning regulations. e state has already lent its support. Included in the state’s new $60 billion scal year budget is a $40 million appropriation for the project.

‘A workforce town’

e exact breakdown of market-rate units to those priced below market rate is still being worked out, according to the developers, but the goal is to have more than half of the apartment units priced at between 80% and 120% of the area median income. at means units priced below

market rate for two people would be reserved for those making between $60,000 and $90,000, according to gures from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

Potential residents could include state employees, legislative sta ers as well as police o cers, re ghters and school teachers, according to the developers.

Ultimately, Lansing makes for a “workforce town,” Paul Gentilozzi said.

Market-rate rents, meanwhile, would likely start around $2.25 per square foot and some units on higher oors of the new high-rise buildings could be in the range of $3 per square foot.

Final unit sizes have not been determined as of yet, according to the developers.

A rendering of the Tower on Grand planned for downtown Lansing. | NEW VISION LANSING

“More people living downtown means more vibrancy...”

Andy Schor, mayor, Lansing

Want to cut red tape? Listen to businesses

Anew directive from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer directing state regulators to get permits and licenses done in a timely fashion seems on its face to be good news for businesses.

We are cautiously optimistic, although we’re quick to note that this move comes in the wake of Whitmer signing bills that would allow more stringent regulations than the federal government on certain issues. Promising speedy review of permits won’t change much if we create more and more regulatory hoops to jump through.

Much of the success of the governor’s latest directive about speeding up permitting will depend on the details — and, as with all matters bureaucratic, there are a lot of details.

e new directive aims to provide an incentive for state agencies to move expeditiously, promising to refund fees for permits or licenses that aren’t reviewed in a prescribed timetable. e governor mandated each agency to conduct a review of each kind of permit it does and recommend a reasonable time that would constitute a timely review.

e governor’s directive also aims to create some incentives by promising a refund of application fees to businesses when the review takes longer than “budgeted.” Whose budget those refunds come

COMMENTARY

from will be a key detail in how well that incentive works.

Whitmer’s directive also exempted a list of state agencies that sought exemptions from the review, including the Department of Insurance and Financial Services, and many business areas regulated by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory

A airs, the Cannabis Regulatory Agency and the Gaming Control Board. ose exceptions encompass a substantial number of businesses.

e agencies themselves sought the exceptions because they say what they do requires more time, with some waiting periods written into law. at may be true.

But a top-to-bottom evaluation of what reasonable wait times should be, with an eye toward cutting red tape and modernizing processes is the right thing to do. Sensibly culling regulatory hurdles and creating incentives for speedy action will help make Michigan more competitive.

One thing that should be done in conjunction with reviewing permitting times is consulting with the private businesses that seek these permits on what acceptable waits should be and what pain points they encounter. Taking the agencies’ word on what’s reasonable isn’t enough.

Part of the backdrop here is Whitmer’s signing in late July of bills that would allow the state to impose more stringent regulations than the federal government in areas where the feds prescribe regulations. ere is a growing sentiment among some economists that the U.S. has regulated itself into an inability to get projects done in any kind of reasonable timeline. is has had consequences for our infrastructure, our housing supply and our global competitiveness.

A proper review of regulations and permitting in Michigan — that brings in strong input from private businesses on where the red tape needs to be cut — can make the state a leader on this issue. And show that we’re a state that can do big things.

Celebrating and learning from our human resources professionals

The workplace has received more attention in the past three-plus years than at any time I can remember.

Much of it sounds all-too familiar: the pandemic, the great resignation, quiet quitting. e challenges and stresses workers face has been the primary focus, and understandably so.

But there’s another group of professionals who are often in the background working diligently to ensure that businesses and other employers keep serving their customers, despite the internal challenges. ey are our human resources professionals.

Often they are the unsung heroes who are recruiting to ll the gaps, striving to keep up morale and ensuring existing sta have the training they need to thrive.

Earlier this month, we honored a large group of them at the annual Crain’s HR Summit. roughout a morning lled with great energy and conversations, we handed out our annual Excellence in HR Awards to recognize professionals who are doing exceptional things during these extraordinary times. We also heard top HR executives from across Southeast Michigan discuss how they are navigating today’s challenges.

Whether they’re attempting to curb absenteeism on Mondays with special activities and free popcorn or using new technology to recruit younger workers, it became clear pretty quickly that these are the folks who are constantly striving to keep the team whole so the work can get done.

Add on top of that the increased attention mental health in the workplace has received since the pandemic. Certainly, mental health issues have long been with us but the increased awareness, not to mention stress, highlighted by the pandemic has added a layer of complexity in the workplace.

According to a study released this spring by the Society for Human Resource Management, one-third of U.S. workers say their job has negatively impacted their mental health in the past six months. And there’s a generational divide with higher percentages of millennials and Gen Z workers reporting that their jobs cause them stress.

It is within this dynamic environment that HR professionals must navigate.

As someone who is newer to Crain’s, another aspect of the HR Summit that I appreciated was the sense of community at the event. To see a group of dedicated profes-

sionals who, dare I say, at times may feel underappreciated, come together for a few hours to learn and celebrate was ful lling.

I witnessed another sense of community earlier this year at our Women Who Mean Business Power Breakfasts that were held in both Detroit and Grand Rapids. While those were not industry-speci c events, the collection of professionals who gathered to lift up each other was truly inspiring.

Now, the HR Summit has me really looking forward to our Grand Rapids Pow-

er Breakfast in September where the topic will be mental health in the workplace. It’s a weighty but important topic. (In Detroit, our next Power Breakfast will focus on electric vehicles, which will be timely and interesting in its own right).

Events like these can help us all stay better connected as people and professionals. And, in the case of the HR Summit, shine a light on essential professionals who often serve in the background yet deserve our thanks for all they do to keep our workplaces on track for success.

Mickey Ciokajlo is executive editor of Crain’s Detroit Business and Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.

GETTY IMAGES

Gotion aims for nonunion plant as hiring begins

By Kurt Nagl

Gotion Inc. is gearing up to make its rst hires around Big Rapids for a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery parts plant that executives hope will remain nonunionized.

e project is moving forward following the Chinese company’s acquisition of 270 acres of land for the factory in Green Township and approval from company Chairman Li Zhen, who toured the site a few weeks ago with board members and expressed concerns over pushback to the plant.

“Certainly they had some questions,” said Chuck elen, the executive at Gotion tasked with moving the plant in Michigan forward. “When it gets to national news, it even makes its way back to Germany and China. So, they were a little concerned.”

Gotion, whose largest shareholders are Volkswagen and Zhen, a Chinese national, has been at the center of controversy, from locals concerned over environmental pollution to politicians raising red ags over national security.

elen said he answered the questions from the board members, who ultimately signed o on the project. “I explained where the pushback was coming from, and I

outlined the overwhelming support we have from the people who are actually in o ce,” he said.

While the land acquisition solidi ed the company’s commitment to the controversial project, there are still hurdles to be cleared, including nal contracts with the township, state and utility companies, as well as environmental permits.

Still, elen hopes business will be a little smoother sailing from here on out. He said he aimed to start recruiting employees last week, rst within a 25-mile radius of the site before expanding it to the rest of the state.

elen said the company will likely have 40-50 employees by year’s end in engineering, IT and other positions essential for initial operations. A workforce training partnership with nearby Ferris State University is a key piece of its labor sourcing strategy.

e plan also includes bringing four short-term employees from China to help set up the plant. A general contractor and architect are expected to be named soon.

Wages and suppliers

In total, Gotion promises 2,350 new direct jobs. e average hourly wage is $24.50, plus bene ts.

UM threatens jobs of striking grad students

e University of Michigan said striking graduate student instructors would likely lose their jobs if they don’t return to work for the fall term.

It is the latest salvo in a labor dispute that’s been ongoing since a strike by the Graduate Employees’ Organization began in March, near the end of spring term. e union negotiates on behalf of more than 2,000 members, though not all walked o the job.

Fall classes begin Aug. 28.

Graduate students still striking will “likely be removed from the system as a course instructor,”

Provost Laurie McCauley said in an email last week.

“When instructors choose not to ful ll their teaching responsibilities, it disrupts students’ education, damages the quality of instruction, and can cause other harm,” McCauley said.

Union spokesman Amir Fleishmann called it an “underhanded” tactic.

“We feel con dent that it is not going to work,” he told e Detroit News. “Our members are not going to be scared by these threats the university continues to make.”

e university said it recently o ered annual raises of 8%, 6% and 6% over three years, plus a $1,000 bonus.

— Associated Press

e total compensation package is $62,000 to $65,000 when factoring in the full bene ts package, as the company did when applying for incentives from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

“ e kicko is not intended to be union,” elen said of workers in the plant. “If the workers are unhappy and they wish to unionize, obviously we respect the right to do so. But our preference is that we make our workers so happy that they feel they don’t need a union, and that’s the way you should collaborate with your workforce.”

e median household income in Mecosta County from 2017-21 was $48,440, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. e median wage for a production worker in Michigan is about $19 per hour, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In Marshall, Ford Motor Co.’s new EV battery plant is expected to pay an average yearly wage of $45,136, which equates to roughly $22 per hour, according to a breakdown obtained by Crain’s. e UAW said in a statement earlier this year that it “will be able to organize this new facility using a card check to prove majority interest.”

e new jobs being created by LG Energy Solution’s expansion in Holland are expected to pay $65,000 annually, or about $31.25 per hour.

Gotion has yet to disclose names of customers outside the Gotion umbrella, but elen said they include automakers and energy storage companies in Michigan. e plant, which will be capable of supporting 100 gigawatt hours of battery production, will also supply a Gotion battery pack

plant in the U.S. Its location has not yet been announced, but elen said it will not be in Michigan.

Also yet to be announced are the suppliers of the battery parts plant in Michigan. e company is seeking contracts with companies for materials including graphite, coke and lithium iron carbonate. To the extent possible, they will tap local suppliers, according to elen. “ e materials that we use will be targeted for local production,” he said.

e project was recently pushed back a year due to various delays, including a reworked footprint cutting out a neighboring site in Big Rapids Township. Gotion has indicated that the township board’s opposition to the project was the primary reason why, but height restrictions of structures near Roben-Hood Airport were also a factor.

Members of the Graduate Employees’ Organization AFT Local 3550 rally on the diag on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus after going on strike March 29. AMIR FLEISCHMANN

Gotion is moving forward with its battery manufacturing plant after acquiring 270 acres in Green Township near Big Rapids. | KURT NAGL

CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS: FLINT

100K Ideas incubator gets a lot bigger

New version of program moves from Ferris Wheel to Dryden Building

Tom Henderson

e second iteration of the 100K Ideas program had its grand opening in the Dryden Building in downtown Flint on July 18, one door down from its previous home in the Ferris Wheel Building.

at was just about the time the Dryden’s owner, Phil Hagerman, sold the building, but Hagerman said the sale would have no a ect on 100K Ideas, which has a three-year lease and an option for two more years.

e nonpro t program helps vet ideas and develop business models for would-be entrepreneurs and then helps those deemed worthy line up a wide variety of support services, mentors and funding.

e new version of the nonpro t program occupies all the ground oor and mezzanine in the Dryden Building with a total

of 14,000 square feet, compared with the 2,000 it had at the end of its stay in the Ferris Wheel.

Brandee Cooke-Brown, the incubator’s executive director, said the plan is over the next year or two to take over the basement, too.

She said 100K Ideas has vetted more than 1,000 ideas since it launched in 2018, eventually leading to the creation of about 100 companies, of which about 50 are still in existence.

She said she doesn’t have current metrics for the numbers of jobs created.

Cooke-Brown said the second iteration of 100K Ideas has been accompanied by a resource center for microbusinesses called e Center.

“ e idea behind the space is to provide resources that are needed by early-stage businesses as they work to scale but likely do not have the funding to invest,”

said Cooke-Brown. “ ese resources include computers, media and photo equipment, a packaging station, meeting space and more.”

She said the plan is to have professional service providers such as lenders, attorneys and accountants maintain a regular schedule at e Center, not full time but on regular schedules participants can count on.

Partners in e Center operations include Huntington Bank; Chase Bank; Flint SOUP, a startup supporter in Flint; Metro Community Development of Flint; the regional Small Business Development Center based at Kettering University; the city of Flint O ce of Economic Development; and Best Practices Consulting Services LLC of Flint.

Cooke-Brown said she also has about 40 volunteers with a wide range of expertise supporting clients and their projects.

Brandee Cooke-Brown speaks during the 100K Ideas grand opening in July. 100K IDEAS

Shops on Saginaw redux

e second iteration of 100K Ideas also meant the revival of the Shops on Saginaw, a space on the ground oor of the Dryden for budding entrepreneurs to show and sell their wares with a minimum of rent despite the location in the heart of downtown, with large, oorto-ceiling windows allowing passersby to see what is on o er inside.

e shops also had their grand reopening July 18.

Cooke-Brown said tenants will pay no rent or up-front fees but will pay a commission of 15 percent on sales. She said she had 16 tenants for the opening with room for a few more.

One tenant is Jason Bey, whose Flint-based My Best Nest LLC makes and sells honey.

Others include Clothed Boutique, Good Boy, Rootless Coffee, Kitty’s Kloset, the Lynette Rose Boutique and Elations Health.

e Shops on Saginaw launched in 2018 when 100K Ideas started up next door. ey were shut down last year when Hagerman began trying to sell the building.

e Dryden opened in 2015 after a $6.8 million remodeling by Hagerman.

Last year, Hagerman sold the Ferris Wheel to Dave Forystek, the CEO of Premier Security Solutions, a fast-growing security rm that had outgrown its third- oor headquarters in the Dryden Building. Forystek’s rm was itself a graduate of 100K Ideas.

e Ferris Wheel building opened in 2017 after a $7.5 million buildout. For the previous 30 years, its only tenants had been pigeons. Built in 1930, the art-deco building previously had housed Gainey Furniture and Ferris Brothers Furs.

As Premier Security continued to grow and expand into more space in the 50,000-squarefoot building, Hagerman decided it made sense to move 100K into the Dryden. And to allow Cooke-Brown to reopen the Shops on Saginaw.

Food pop-ups

Another addition to the new 100K Ideas is a space in the lobby of the Dryden Building for a series of pop-up restaurants, where budding food entrepreneurs can show their skills and build up a following.

at project will be overseen by Tony Vu, a serial food entrepreneur and the son of Vietnamese immigrants who grew up in Flint.

“It’s very exciting for us, having partners like Tony come in,” said Cooke-Brown. “And it will be nice having good lunches available in the building.”

In 2016 he opened MaMang, a Vietnamese food stall in the Flint Farmers’ Market, and founded the Social Club, what he describes as a support system for women and people of color to carve out niches in a sector dominated by white business owners in a city with a large Black population.

In 2018, he and Soon Hagerty, also a Vietnamese refugee, launched the popular Good Bowl Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Traverse City.

Last September, Vu bought Tom Z’s Coney Island restaurant on West Court Street in downtown Flint, a once iconic city legend, from Athanas (Tom) Zelevarovski, who had run the Coney Island for 25 years before retiring three years earlier.

Zelevarovski was the third in a line of family members from Macedonia who made three Coney Island restaurants into community mainstays. Generations of fans swore allegiance to the Flint Coney and professed it better than Detroit Coneys.

Instead of the chili topping on Detroit Coneys, Flint Coneys had a meatier sauce made with ground beef heart.

Vu declined to disclose the purchase price but said he has lined up funding for the remodeling the Coney needs and hopes to have it reopened as a Coney this winter.

He said he got a loan of $200,000 from Metro Community Development in Flint and a grant of $50,000 from the Community Foundation of Greater Flint for the construction work.

Vu said he is in the permitting process with the city and Flintbased Siwek Construction will do the remodeling when permits are in place.

The origin

100K Ideas grew out of a visit to Marquette in 2015 by Gov. Rick Snyder. He toured an entrepreneurial support center at Northern Michigan called Invent@NMU and later told Hagerman about it.

Would-be beekeeper tapped into resources to build buzz, business

By Tom Henderson

It may not take a village to raise a beehive, but it sure helps, says Jason Bey, owner of a Flint-based honey company called My Bees Nest LLC.

With the aid of a wide range of entrepreneurial support groups in Flint, Bey has made the transition from working in an auto factory to making and selling honey. He has 20 hives in the yard at his house in northern Flint, six on the property of his late father’s house in northern Flint and two hives at Jenny B’s Garden Party Nursery in Clio.

Bey sells his honey at weekend festivals and online and will soon be selling out of a stall in the Shops on Saginaw on the ground oor of the Dryden Building in downtown Flint, when they reopen on Aug. 22 as part of the revamped 100K Ideas incubator program.

In 2017, Bey su ered a back injury on the job at Attentive Industries Inc., a Flint-based tier-one automotive supplier of sheet metal products. He says he needed some time o to heal but was a new hire on provisional status and was laid o .

“ at layo felt like a crushing defeat because I was at a place in my life where I nally felt like things were coming together,” he said. “I had a very decent job, a car, just moved into a house and got a dog.”

Unable to return to the job and trying to gure out what to do next, he came up with an idea that surprised even him and caused his family to wonder if he had lost his mind — raising bees and selling honey. ere is hardly a tradition of beekeeping in the neighborhoods of northern Flint, where Bey lives and most of his hives are now thriving.

“I was always a fan of honey, but didn’t know where it came from. ere was no way anyone in the city could do beekeeping. But my nances were down, I couldn’t do manual labor. I had to reinvent myself,” said Bey.

Honey Farm LLC in Flushing. He went to the farmers market in Flint one day and saw a woman selling honey. “I saw a honeycomb and her honey, and I was amazed,” said Bey.

“‘So, you can be a beekeeper in Michigan?’” he recounted saying to her.

“‘You sure can,’ she said. I was so excited. She gave me a card and said to call her husband. Two weeks later, I gave him a call and

he invited me out and started showing me all the tools I would need,” said Bey. “He was so down to earth. I was so excited.” And the business was o cially launched in his mind.

Bey said he had heard there might be grants or other funding available through the Flint and Genesee Group, the city and county’s chamber of commerce.

See BEEKEEPER on Page 11

Hagerman recruited Dave Ollila, the founder of Invent@ NMU, to come to Flint and start a similar e ort in the new Ferris Wheel Building.

It had a small paid sta and relied on volunteer support, including from business students at Mott Community College and the University of Michigan-Flint and engineering students at Kettering University.

After getting 100K launched and well established, Ollila returned to Marquette to pursue other entrepreneurial e orts.

“Bees and honey just came to mind, and I began researching it. I said, ‘Hey, I can do this.’ Ohmigod! You should have heard my mom, screaming at the top of her lungs. ‘ARE YOU CRAZY?’ I was getting it from everybody. I kept getting laughed at, kept getting scolded. ey tried to discourage me, but I was fascinated by it and laughed back at them.

“Beekeeping kept coming to mind, and it stuck. I was so much more than working in a factory and collecting a check every week.”

Bey said he got by for a bit on workers’ compensation, but by 2019 was serious about bees and making a real business of it and got some crucial feedback and incentive by the owners of the S&L

Jason Bey of My Bees Nest LLC. | TOM HENDERSON

Another addition to the 100K Ideas is a space in the lobby of the Dryden Building for a series of pop-up restaurants.

Redevelopment projects underway, planned in Flint

Includes Masonic Temple, ex-college campus

e construction of a new YMCA in downtown Flint adds to a list of major development projects either underway in the city or in the planning stages.

YMCA’s $40M Flint project aims to go beyond sports

By Tom Henderson

Ground was broken in downtown Flint in May for a new YMCA and cement began being poured in July. e project aims to be much more than a new place to exercise.

e new Y will be part of a $41 million, ve-story, 110,405-squarefoot mixed-use project that will include 50 apartments and 7,500 square feet of o ce space.

Construction is at a 2.7-acre site at the corner of East ird Street and Harrison, just down ird from the current Y. Known as LiveWell on Harrison, the project will also be home to the Hurley Physical erapy Clinic and the Crim Fitness Foundation.

e new YMCA and apartments will be just across Harrison from another apartment complex known as the Marketplace Apartments, a $19.2 million, 92-unit mixed-income apartment that opened in early 2020.

Both it and the LiveWell project were spearheaded by the Uptown Reinvestment Corp., the nonpro t development arm of the Flint and Genesee Group, the chamber of commerce for the city and county.

LiveWell will be owned and managed by HWD Harrison Inc., a Flint nonpro t formed by the URC and the YMCA to oversee the project. Its board members are made up of representatives from both the URC and the Y.

e construction manager is D.W. Lurvey Construction Co. LLC of Flint.

e project is one of several large development projects underway in the city.

Shelly Hilton, the YMCA CEO, said she hopes the new YMCA, which will be on the rst and second oors, will be open to the public by Jan. 1, 2025. e apartments are targeted to be occupied by the fall of 2024.

“ is has been in discussion for

close to 10 years,” she said.

“

e facility we are currently in has served the community in so many ways, but it is nearing the end of its life.”

e project has got $40.7 million in funding, including $16.5 million from the C.S. Mott Foundation; $7.8 million from private donations to the Y’s capital campaign; $2.5 million in federal funding secured by Dan Kildee, the Democratic U.S. congressman from the state’s eighth district, which includes Flint; new-market tax credits of $5 million; $1.9 million from Michigan Community Capital, a nonpro t in Lansing; and $7 million from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

“It was a diverse funding stream,” said Moses Timlin, the development coordinator for the URC. “It was great getting this over the nish line. It was a long project with several iterations, and it’s going to contribute to making downtown denser and more walkable.”

e money for the Y’s capital campaign included $1 million from the Kyle Kuzma Foundation. Kuzma, a star forward with the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association, is a Flint native who was a gym rat at the current Y. e Y’s new fulllength basketball court will be named for him.

At the groundbreaking, Kuzma spoke about what the Y meant to him.

“It was really a safe haven for me,” he said. “It was a place where I didn’t have to worry about the pressures of, you know, being at home or watching my brother and sister. I can be a kid there and I can be safe. at was the most important part.”

He said he used to spend up to eight hours a day at the YMCA.

Hilton said a deal has been made to sell the current YMCA to a local foundation, with the expectation it will be torn down. She said she isn’t yet allowed to name the buyer.

Plans for its space in the new building by the Crim Fitness Foundation include a demonstration kitchen for nutrition and food-systems programming; a yoga room; and space for community meetings and training.

A long history

e YMCA was founded in 1844 in London with the rst American Y opening in 1851.

In Flint, the history is nearly as long. e YMCA of Greater Flint opened in 1879. In 1913, a committee of ve prominent businessmen, led by Charles Stewart Mott, raised more than $100,000 to build a new Y on Kearsley Street.

e current Y was dedicated on Jan. 21, 1962, and included three oors of hotel rooms. Pam Bailey, the Y’s senior director of fundraising and public relations, said that with only 30 percent to 40 percent of the building now being utilized, it had become functionally obsolescent.

She said the new Y will have more exercise studios, free after-school space for kids to wait for parents to get o work, a six-lane swimming pool, compared to the current ve-lane pool, a family splash pad and spa and a running and walking track.

“ e current building was designed for men and was not ADA compliant,” she said, referring to the Americans with Disabilities Act. It also has a lot of wasted space with ve racquetball courts that were once in high demand and now are rarely used.

Four projects are being spearheaded by Flint-based Communities First Inc., a nonpro t property developer founded in 2010 by President and CEO Glenn Wilson whose motto is “Empowering People. Building Communities.”

Its rst development project was completed in 2014, the renovation of the long-closed Oak Elementary School, some parts of which dated to 1898, into 24 low-income senior-housing apartments.

e school was shut down in 1976 and was used by Genesee County Community Mental Health until it was boarded up in 1998. While its focus is Flint, Wilson said, Communities First has projects across Michigan and into Indiana.

He said it is currently in the middle of a $20 million project to convert an old mansion on East Grand Boulevard near Belle Isle into commercial space and 58 apartments.

He said he is fundraising for the project through a mix of grant and equity funding and hopes to have it completed the summer of 2026.

e highest-pro le of the current projects in Flint is a planned $12 million redevelopment of the 40-acre former Baker College campus on West Bristol Road in Flint Township. Baker closed the campus in August 2020 and moved its operations to its Owosso campus.

e site has dorms, classrooms, a library and o ces. In June 2022, Wilson announced plans to turn the site into mixeduse space and housing, thanks in part to a $4 million grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

e project generated big headlines and air time in June this year when it was announced that the Genesee Health System had bought the former undergraduate building and library on the site — about 198,000 square feet in all — and would turn those buildings into its main campus, housing all sta and services currently at the current main campus at 420 W. Fifth St. in Flint.

e Greater Flint Mental Health Facilities Inc., a nonpro t created to provide facilities for the Genesee Health System, owns the buildings and funded the $7.8 million purchase.

Genesee Health System provides services and support for individuals in Genesee County with mental health and/or substance-use disorder treatment, intellectual disabilities, and primary health care needs.

“ e new GHS main campus will greatly enable us to expand health and wellness activities for individuals and sta ,” said Danis Russell, the health system’s CEO.

“ e timing made sense. Our current building has served us well but needs major work — the boiler, the roof, the elevator. We’d have had to put millions into a building where we still wouldn’t be able to stay long term,” he said.

Russell said a major consideration is that as part of the deal, Communities First will do some-

A rendering of the $40 million-plus YMCA mixed-use development in Flint. | INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE

YMCA CEO Shelly Hilton

Tom Henderson

Glenn Wilson

thing with the current Genesee headquarters.

“We needed to leave it in good hands for the community,” he said. “Glenn takes old buildings and turns them into housing and something useful.”

Wilson said he has no concrete plans, yet. “We’ve got a couple of ideas. Nothing we’re sharing just yet,” he said.

Russell said part of the move is wanting to serve a broader part of the county and this puts them in that position.

e new location is expected to be fully operational by early 2024, and major renovations are not expected to be needed.

“We’re cleaning and painting, now,” he said. “ e buildings were in excellent condition.”

Wilson said plans for the rest of the former college campus include housing, vocational and technical training and occupancy by other social service organizations.

The Grand on University

Ground broke in July 2022 in Flint’s Carriage Town Neighborhood on a $16.6 million, mixeduse housing development. Of the 48-units of housing planned for the site, 43 will be a ordable housing and ve will be market-rate units.

Construction is supposed to be nished in the fourth quarter this year. ere are four three-story buildings, with more than 3,000 square feet on the ground oors set aside for commercial space.

Wilson said he expects the project to be given the silver certi cation designation by the National Green Building Council.

e architecture rm for this project is Flint-based Sedgewick & Ferweda. e general contractor if Flint-based D.W. Lurvey Construction Co. LLC.

e project is funded by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority; the Federal Home Loan Bank; ELGA Credit Union of Grand Blanc; Cinnaire Corp., a Lansing-based nonprofit community development organization; and Fifth ird Bank.

The Masonic Temple

A $6.6 million renovation of

BEEKEEPER

From Page 9

He was referred to Tracy Joseph, the chamber’s business support manager. She emailed Bey a list of local resources, including pitch events that o er nancial support for startups, possible grants and low- and no-interest loans.

and thrive,” she said. “ e ecosystem for entrepreneurship in Flint is all coming together. We don’t care where you enter the system, we are all working together. We know the resources people need to connect with to continue on their journey. We’ve wiped out the silos.”

During a recent visit to his house and hives, the closer he got to his bees, the more Bey was smiling and talking.

“People ask, ‘Do bees know who you are?’ ey do. ey know their pheromones and they know mine,” he said.

the Masonic Temple in Flint began a year ago and expected to be completed next summer, with the goal to make it a community anchor for culture and arts.

e project was kicked o in November 2021 with a grant of $250,000 from the Consumers Energy Foundation.

Wilson said they have put in new windows, an undertaking made more di cult by the fact that some of them were 15 and 20 feet high. He said the building doesn’t have air conditioning, so a system needs to be installed.

More important, she also sent him a list of area organizations that o er a wide range of support services for entrepreneurs. Some of those Bey followed up with and got help from include Flint SOUP, Factory Two, 100K Ideas, the Small Business Development Center at Kettering University and the small-business development team at the city of Flint.

In addition to eventually getting him space in the Dryden Building to sell his honey, 100K Ideas found him a mentor for counseling, advice and pats on the back in La’Asia Johnson. She came through the 100K Ideas incubator program, herself, as she launched her skincare company, Elle Jae Essentials.

Bey also won $1,000 for nishing third at a pitch event at 100K Ideas in January 2022 and won $1,000 at another event there in February 2022.

“He utilized as many of our resources as he could. Jason is a strong example of how small businesses can take advantages of the opportunities here in Flint,” said Joseph.

Mueller said Flint SOUP referred Bey to the SBDC just before COVID hit. After it hit, the SBDC and Flint SOUP partnered to put Bey through a 12-week training program.

In 2021, Bey ordered his rst two hives, then quickly ordered four more and then seven more. By the end of the year, he and his bees had made 150 gallons of honey.

“I harvested honey twice that year,” said Bey. “ at was so much excitement.”

Mueller also put Bey in contact with the Flint Chamber and the city of Flint’s economic development team.

“Jason is so passionate, he’s amazing. He’s the consummate entrepreneur, undeterred by challenges. He’s one of our fan favorites. … His bees y all over and pollinate community gardens in northern Flint, which helps feed people in his community,” she said.

Factory Two is a maker space in downtown Flint. Chris Bohinsky, an instructor there, began helping Bey with a range of services two years ago.

He had a new hive that seemed to be thriving and he was eager to see if he could nd its new queen and show her o . He pulled some wooden slats out of it. In one of them surrounded by workers, was a bigger, lighter-colored bee than the workers around her.

“ ere she is. Look at her!” he said, holding her and the tray out to be photographed.

“I like his work ethic. I talked to him the other day and he said he’d been up till 4 a.m. the night before harvesting honey,” said Diana Johnson, who does small-business development for the city of Flint.

She hired Bey to do series of four neighborhood workshops this summer. He brings some bees and honey for sale and tells attendees about his business.

“For me, the best part is seeing Jason with the children. He’ll tell them to stick their ngers in the honey on one of his honeycombs and they’re ‘No, I’m not doing that!’ But by the end they’re sticking their ngers in and licking them and saying ‘Wow, it’s so cool!’

He said Lurvey will do some of the work.

e 50,000-square-foot temple was completed in 1911 and added to the state’s registry of historic sites in 1981.

e plan is to take advantage of the building’s unique design, which includes large meeting rooms and event space, potentially seating from 300-400 on each oor.

ere will be an onsite restaurant with catering services and venues for concerts, art shows and festivals, with remodeling to include equitable access for individuals with mobility issues.

Wilson said a restoration committee has met several times to strike a balance between historic renovation and functionality.

The Foodie Commons

e $1 million renovation in the Grand Traverse District Neighborhood at the edge of downtown is expected to be nished next summer.

When complete, it will o er green spaces for folks to exercise and o er family tness classes; landscaped settings like rock gardens; and dedicated space for food trucks and local vendors.

e project involves the rehabbing of a vacant building, the former 4,000-square-foot Anthony’s Flower Shop.

Wilson said they are in the process of getting nal site plan approvals and choosing a builder.

“Tracy explained herself and her job role, and gave me links to other agencies to apply for grants and seek assistance,” said Bey. “Tracy connected me with Adrian and James at Flint SOUP, and I took o from there.”

“Adrian” is Adrian Montague and “James” is James Shuttleworth. e two co-founded Flint SOUP in 2012, patterning it after Detroit SOUP, which was founded in Detroit’s Mexicantown in 2010 as an entrepreneurial support and networking organization.

Flint SOUP holds monthly pitch-event nights. For $5, attendees get soup, salad and bread and then get to vote for the winner of the pitch event, with the winner getting all the proceeds.

(Jerry Weston Jr. won $1,870 at July’s pitch event. He owns Flintbased Jay’s Mobile Collision and Restorations, whose mobile business model delivers automotive service to those who need it.)

Bey did a virtual pitch online in 2020, during COVID. He didn’t win, but as a result of his pitch, he ended up getting a big hydrator from the Flint Food Hub, which allows him to process 80 gallons of honey at a time. He also caught the eye of Factory Two and of Janis Mueller.

Based at Kettering University in Flint, Mueller is regional director of the I-69 Trade Corridor Region for the Michigan Small Business Development Center.

She helped Bey with nancial projections and a formal business plan.

“Our mission statement is we help small businesses start, grow

Bohinsky helped design the labels Bey eventually put on his jars of honey; got him into a wood-working class so he could build better trays for his bees to build their honeycombs on; and got him into a silk-screening class so he could learn to make promotional hoodies and T-shirts.

Bey also learned some graphic design so he could make yers and information packets.

“I just thoroughly enjoyed working with him,” said Bohinsky. “He was always upbeat and willing to put the work in. And I’ve always appreciated the kindness and care he has for his bees, the same kindness he has for people. He’s just an all-round awesome guy.”

“I’ve visited his house a number of times to visit him and his bees and it’s always so much fun.“

“ e Flint entrepreneurial system helped me gain insight of the integral components needed to run a successful business,” said Bey.

“I was able to connect with businesses that were only a phone call away and the advice was free…I was surprised by how many resources were available to me.

Once I found out that certain businesses helped individuals like me get their business started, it was like I had just won a shopping spree to my favorite clothing store, except I had all the time in the world to pick and choose what was the best t for my business.”

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The Grand rendering. COMMUNITIES FIRST

“Our current building has served us well but needs major work...”

Danis Russell, CEO, Genesee Health System

NOTABLE LEADERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The 26 people proled as Notable Leaders in Higher Education are administrators, faculty, researchers, board members and others at Michigan institutions worthy of a shout-out. They are advocating for and implementing changes that diversify their schools and providing safe spaces to students and community members. They are modernizing revenue streams and raising millions, establishing new colleges, improving equity through oneon-one mentoring, and implementing learning opportunities for learners of all ages. Not only that, but these leaders, who are in various stages of their careers, are launching startups, patenting inventions, and closing gaps.

Methodology: The honorees featured in this report were nominated by their peers, companies, friends and family and then selected by Crain’s Detroit Business editors based on their career accomplishments, track record of success and contributions to their elds and communities. Notable Leaders in Higher Education is managed by Special Projects Editor Leslie D. Green, lgreen@crain.com. The pro les, written by Ryan Kelly, are based on the nomination forms submitted.

Next up: Do you know Notable leaders deserving recognition? Crain’s Detroit Business is now accepting nominations for Notable Leaders in Employment & Labor Law and Notable Leaders in DEI. Visit crainsdetroit.com/notablenoms for details.

Richard Bierschbach

Dean and John W. Reed Professor of Law, Wayne State University

Wayne Law School’s national ranking rose to 56th from 100th in six years under Richard Bierschbach’s deanship, “Richard Bierschbach stands out as the most impactful dean in over 50 years,” said Wayne State Law Professor Alan Schenk. “He energized his staff, the faculty and students to achieve the very ambitious goals he set when he arrived.”

Bierschbach launched new partnerships and programs, including a ‘holistic defense partnership’ between the law school and school of social work.

He also created additional revenue sources with a new law department for non-JD programs, like a master of studies in law degree, an undergraduate minor in law and a Bachelor of Arts in law.

Elizabeth Birr Moje

Dean, Marsal Family School of Education, University of Michigan

UM’s School of Education received a $14.7 million gift to build the Eileen Lappin Weiser Learning Sciences Center under Elizabeth Moje’s leadership.

Moje also created the teaching residence portion of the school’s P-20 Partnership, an education program offering pre-kindergarten through graduate school studies on the campus. The initiative, which has enrolled students in its high school and in kindergarten through third-grade classes, aims to help educate historically disenfranchised children.

“She understands that equipping the next generation of educators can not only transform the trajectory of a student’s life opportunities but also lay the fundamental building blocks for long-term community health and stability,” said Rip Rapson, president and CEO of the Kresge Foundation.

Sara Blair

Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs, University of Michigan

Sara Blair started the Michigan Humanities Collaboratory to examine campus strengths, learn from other campus models and train scholars. The $10 million program also awards humanities research and scholarship grants. Blair, whose efforts affect more than 25,000 students, also started a $2.7 million program that uses augmented, virtual and mixed realities to teach humanities. The AVMR courses have drawn students to departments with declining enrollments. She doubled the number of funded workshops at the Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshops, which encourages collaboration among graduate students, faculty and staff. And she helped guide investments in the city of Detroit and the University of Michigan-Flint campus to open access to underserved communities.

Bryan Boyer

Director of Urban Technology, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan

Bryan Boyer directs UM’s new urban technology degree, a new STEM program integrating urbanism and technology instruction that has already attracted more than 80 students. He also developed three experimental Urban Technology Prototype grants and Cities Intensive, a two-month program for students to travel and learn in various cities.

“Bryan has helped usher in a new wave in higher education that recognizes and acknowledges that technology disruption and startup culture are here to stay,” said Laura Lewis, general counsel at StockX. “Bryan’s accomplishment launching the urban technology degree at the University of Michigan will be a key part in the story of the state’s innovation ecosystem.”

Marlene Brooks Director of Operations, Dymond Designs Beauty School

Marlene Brooks made Dymond Designs Beauty

School

easier to attend for working and underprivileged students.

She got Dymond accredited for hybrid training, which allows stay-at-home and working parents to attend the school, turning it into the rst cosmetology school in Michigan to use accredited, hybrid training.

She also got the school approved for federal FAFSA funds this year so students can receive nancial aid in addition to subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Brooks works with several organizations, including MI Works, to help offset the cost of tuition for lower-income families.

The school, which she founded in 2019, has over 70 students and 16 staff members. It also has a 100% completion, placement and licensure rate.

Amanda Bryant-Friedrich Graduate School Dean, Wayne State University

Amanda Bryant-Friedrich oversees a program that matches underrepresented undergraduates with mentors who help prepare them for graduate school.

“She has developed a culture of inclusive excellence, ensuring that graduate students from all backgrounds succeed,” said Ed Cackett, chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department at Wayne State University.

Bryant-Friedrich also hosts a summer research program that brings students from historically black colleges. Under her leadership, Wayne State doubled participation in its annual research symposium and increased attendance at professional development events by 300%.

She serves on the Imagination Station board.

Rebecca Cunningham

Vice President for Research, University of Michigan

Rebecca Cunningham increased support for research expenditures by $100 million which last year supported the launch of 16 new startups and 433 new inventions.

Cunningham led the creation of the UM Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, Healthy Flint Research Coordinating Center, and the Bold Challenges initiative to increase crossschool collaboration.

She also led Accelerate Blue, which helps attract business leadership, progress university technology startups, and increase venture capital investments.

“As a researcher, educator, administrator and clinician, Dr. Cunningham has made an indelible mark on our society that expands far beyond our campus walls,” said UM president Santa Ono.

Karl Daubmann

Dean and Chief Academic Of cer for the College of Architecture and Design, Lawrence Technological University

Karl Daubmann changed the organizational hierarchies and made nancials more transparent to help LTU move to a “net positive” nancial position and attract new investments. He oversaw changes to recruitment, outreach and admissions that increased educational access to underserved and underrepresented students. He also helped develop the Ballard International robotic fellowship, the start of faculty seed funding and a new approach to alumni engagement that increased alumni fundraising and support.

Daubmann teaches pro bono at LTU and serves on the board of ACE Mentorship of Southeast Michigan.

Ahmad Ezzeddine

Vice president, Academic Student Affairs and Global Engagement, Wayne State University

Ahmad Ezzeddine grew relationships with colleges, governments and businesses that facilitated an increase in international opportunities for Wayne State students.

He created Transfer Pathways, which eases the transfer of credits from community colleges to Wayne and helps the school maintain its status as the leading transfer university in Michigan.

As a promoter of the ‘global learning for all’ philosophy, which maintains that global learning is essential to a college education, Ezzeddine introduced Collaborative Online International Learning that connects students and professors internationally. He also works with the U.S. Department of State to raise WSU’s global status.

“Dr. Ezzeddine has tirelessly advanced the university’s mission with his holistic approach to the student experience from application to graduation to life as an alumni,” said Shirley Stancato, vice chair of WSU’s board of governors.

Tim Flattery

Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs, College for Creative Studies

Tim Flattery, who worked on several lms including “Avengers” and “Wakanda Forever,” revamped the entertainment arts department, developed a new curriculum structure and started a foundations program at the College for Creative Studies.

“Tim’s experience working on over 100 Hollywood lms gives him great insight into the contemporary academic and career needs of our students,” said CCS President Donald Tuski.

“A critical CCS academic leader, Tim has greatly improved the total student experience. His creativity, thoughtfulness, and inclusivity in solving academic problems have made him a wonderful partner.”

Flattery also helped the college reduce its costs, increase its facility use and grow its peer-to-peer learning.

Last year, he organized “Assesstival,” a visual exhibition of CCS’s curriculum that allowed stakeholders to analyze and contribute ideas to the college’s academic programming.

James Forger Dean, College of Music, Michigan State University

James Forger led the campaign to fund the Billman Music Pavilion, a $37 million expansion of Michigan State University’s College of Music. The pavilion increased the school’s rehearsal and practice space by 40%.

He worked with health and diversity advisers to maintain use of the pavilion during the pandemic while transitioning MSU’s classes online.

Forger also established Community Music Schools in East Lansing and Detroit, which provide music programs, classes and music therapy to over 2,500 children and adults weekly.

“Jim’s dedication to students, faculty and staff is remarkable,” said Ann Marie Lindley, senior director of development at the MSU College of Music. “He has tirelessly promoted diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and made outstanding contributions by establishing a highly regarded College of Music and two community music schools that make music accessible to all.”

Lisa Frace Senior Vice President, CFO and Treasurer, Michigan State University

Lisa Frace is modernizing nancial management at MSU with a new budget model and exploring advanced methods to issue bonds through such things as blockchain technology.

“Lisa’s transformative leadership ignited MSU’s nancial management transformation, elevating nancial understanding, strategic thinking, and a uni ed vision supporting long-term success,” said Melissa Woo, executive vice president for administration and chief information of cer.

Frace guided MSU’s $500 million century bond issue last year that provided strategic investment funds and was completed in just 90 days. Frace and her team manage MSU’s $3.2 billion operating budget.

“Her ability to think strategically and foster collaboration across the institution has created a comprehensive understanding of the institution’s overall nancial health which aligns resources with the university’s academic mission,” Woo said.

Domenico Grasso Chancellor, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Domenico Grasso helped increase University of Michigan-Dearborn’s graduate rate with a new nancial aid model and restructured tuition plan that saves students money.

He oversaw a 100% increase in external research funding, a 100% increase in the university’s reserves and a 55% endowment increase that included the second-largest gift in the school’s history.

Grasso appointed the rst chief diversity of cer, started a group aimed to improve campus culture and created the Inclusive Excellence Fellows program that encourages faculty to nd solutions to campus inclusivity.

He also developed the Go BLUEprint for Success, which gives students input on campus decisions.

“Beyond the accomplishments, which are many, in (his) rst term . . . what resonated with me is how (Grasso) made people feel,” said UM President Santa Ono. “We’re inspired by (Grasso), by this campus and by (Grasso’s) leadership.”

Greg Handel Vice President, Education & Talent, Detroit Regional Chamber

“Greg’s leadership and ability to build and manage a cross-sector collaboration created an effective and much needed focus on the importance of higher-education attainment in the Detroit region,” said Oakland University President Ora Pescovitz. “He and his team have brought together educators, business, government and philanthropic partners to begin addressing this critical issue.”

To increase secondary training and education in the region by 60%, Greg Handel established Detroit Drives Degrees, a group dedicated to reducing the racial equity gap of college students.

Handel also oversees Detroit Promise, which provides college scholarships to Detroit high school graduates. He helped start the board, which generates $4 million per year toward the scholarship. The chamber has helped over 6,000 students enter college tuition-free in the last 10 years.

Richard Koubek President, Michigan Technological University

Richard Koubek is leading Michigan Tech’s goal of becoming a top-10 public university for engineering degrees granted to women. Within 25 years, he wants the student population at Michigan Tech to become 40% female.

Koubek also hired the school’s rst vice president for diversity and inclusion and the rst general counsel.

He helped launch the College of Computing in 2019 and recently met with students, faculty, and community members to develop MTU’s goals and priorities.

“Rick sets the highest of standards for himself and his team,” said Linda Kennedy, co-founder of Panagos Kennedy PLLC. “His leadership inspires a drive to exceed those high standards.”

Koubek serves on the Michigan Association of State Universities and InvestUP boards of directors.

to Marlene Brooks and the entire Dymond Designs Beauty School Team for being acknowledged as a Notable Leader in Higher Education. We appreciate the educational services that you provide for the community and surrounding suburbs.

A SPARTAN'S GREATEST STRENGTH IS THE WARRIOR STANDING NEXT TO HIM HER.

A SPARTAN'S GREATEST STRENGTH IS THE WARRIOR STANDING NEXT TO HIM HER.

Spartan Wealth Management congratulates MSU Board of Trustees Chairwoman Dr. Rema Vassar for her selection as Crain's Notable Leader in Higher Education. Her leadership is what MSU needs as we usher in the 22nd President in the university's history. Spartan Wealth Management has over 2 billion reasons to stand with you.

Laurie Lauzon Clabo Dean and Chief Health and Wellness Of cer, College of Nursing, Wayne State University

Laurie Lauzon Clabo led the development of the Campus Health Center and the Taylor Street Primary Care Clinic, two full-service, nurse-managed clinics that provide student training.

Wayne State’s College of Nursing has climbed the national rankings under her leadership. Its bachelor’s degree ranks in the 10th percentile nationally, and its master’s and doctorate degrees rank 2nd in Michigan, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Clabo also created a more “holistic” admissions process and improved the school’s data integrity.

“She has transformed the College of Nursing and helped guide Wayne State through some of its most de ning moments, steering pandemic policies that served as a national model for safety,” said university President M. Roy Wilson. “Our university and community will continue to bene t from her leadership.”

Glenn McIntosh Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Of cer, Oakland University

Glenn McIntosh created a 30-person council to grow diversity, equity and inclusion programming on Oakland University’s campus and helped attract more underrepresented, minority students and faculty members. He also guides OU’s goal of becoming a leading LGBT+ friendly campus.

McIntosh, who oversaw the construction of two residence halls and a recreation facility and the expansion of the student union, is now overseeing the extension of OU’s North Foundation Hall.

During the pandemic, he helped move classes online, change the student union into a community food distribution center and convert residence halls for the use of health care workers.

“Glenn McIntosh has been ... serving as an ally, advocate and mentor to countless students and colleagues during his entire tenure,” said Bobby Schostak, chair of the Oakland University board of trustees.

William Moses Managing Director — Education, The Kresge Foundation

“Bill Moses has provided critical thought leadership and made a series of extremely strategic philanthropic investments over the last 10 years, which have been critical to increasing awareness of the importance of college-going to the economy and to the creation of a robust college-going infrastructure,” said Greg Handel, vice president of education and talent at the Detroit Regional Chamber.

Moses is responsible for the funding of higher education efforts that include the Detroit Drives Degrees and Detroit Promise campaigns.

He also oversaw a grant that led to the creation of a handbook about the bene ts of reduced college costs and a grant to help The Institute for College Access & Success advocate for better safeguards against unaffordable debt from career-training programs.

In addition, Moses was integral to Strong Start to Finish, a program that ensures students pass English and math courses in their rst year of college.

Karen Obsniuk Dean, College of Education and Human Development, Madonna University

Karen Obsniuk expanded Madonna University’s College of Education and Human Development to include more online courses and an education doctoral program and streamline its education requirements. She and her team along with Wayne County RESA advocated for a $1.6 million federal grant to help 40 aspiring teachers, many of them immigrants working as classroom aides, pay for tuition.

“Karen is an inspirational leader who is so involved you may think that she works 24 hours a day,” said Michele Harmala, a graduate program director.

As a representative of Madonna, Obsniuk worked with the state of Michigan to develop a new scoring system for teacher certi cation programs.

She also serves on the boards of Public School Academies of Detroit and the Living and Learning Enrichment Center.

Ravi Pendse

Vice president for Information Technology and Chief Information Of cer, University of Michigan

“Since Ravi joined UM, there has truly been a transformation in how we work with everyone in our community,” said Robert Jones, executive director of support services for information and technology services. “His commitment to creating an inclusive environment is contagious.”

Ravi Pendse introduced NameCoach, which creates audio recordings that help listeners correctly pronounce student and faculty names.

He also launched an arti cial intelligence committee to steer the university’s policies on AI and led the creation of the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility guide to promote equitable participation in technology use.

Moreover, under his direction, UM installed a Wi-Fi 6E network with 16,000 access points across campus, upgraded telephone infrastructure from copper to cloud and moved the campus to UM Zoom during the pandemic.

Peter Provenzano Jr. Chancellor, Oakland Community College

Peter Provenzano Jr. helped stabilize enrollment at Oakland Community College during the pandemic with a new planning process and an increase in online classes.

He implemented a budget and capital improvement plan for infrastructure that included a new science and technology building, relocating the culinary arts program to Royal Oak and consolidating health sciences to Farmington Hills.

Completion rates at OCC increased 23% in the last three years, and Provenzano continues working to double the number of students who graduate.

Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said he looked to leaders like Provenzano for help with the county’s initiative to ensure that 80% of residents earn a college degree by 2035.

David Reed

Vice president for Research, Michigan Technological University

“Dave is an unequivocal statesman in the world of higher education,” said MTU President Richard Koubek. “Having served as vice president for research for 22 years, he offers a breadth of knowledge and wisdom that few possess.”

David Reed helped grow research and business incubation at Michigan Tech, its research centers and the Michigan Tech Enterprise Corporation SmartZone, an Upper Peninsula business incubator.

Under Reed, MTU research awards from NASA, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Transportation and others increased 17%.

Reed also helped start the Great Lakes Research Center and the Marine Autonomy Research Site.

Congratulations President Donald B. Taylor on your selection as a notable leader of higher student education in SE Michigan!

As a first-generation college student, your story and commitment to students serve as inspiring reminders that everyone can achieve big things!

Wayne State Law School Board of Visitors

Congratulates Dean Richard Bierschbach

2023 Crain's Detroit Business Notable Leader in Higher Education

Your ability to transform vision into reality has led the Law School to increase its U.S. News and World Report ranking to No. 56, achieve a 91.1% employment rate in the legal field for 2022 graduates, and successfully develop and launch a Master's program for professionals in human resources and health law

Brian Singleton

President of the Curtis L. Ivery Downtown Campus and Vice Chancellor for Student Services, Wayne County Community College District

Brian Singleton manages a $26 million operating budget and has played an outsized role in student services at WCCCD. He helped the school become the rst in Michigan to gain national status as a designated “leader college” through Achieving the Dream, which promotes equitable education at community colleges.

He set up Wi-Fi hot spots in the campus parking lots during the pandemic to help students without home access connect to classes.

Singleton also mentors male students and provides tutoring services on the weekends. He recently gathered more than 100 students and community members to pack 25,000 meals for Kids Against Hunger.

Nominations Due August 25

He received his doctorate in higher education administration earlier this year.

David Strauss

Dean of students, Wayne State University

David Strauss focuses on meeting the educational and basic needs of students. He helped open the W Food Pantry and Thrift Shop, which provides Wayne State University students in need with supplemental food, clothing and other resources. Strauss kept it open during the pandemic for students to also receive personal protective equipment, class supplies and laptops.

He also added two caseworkers to better support students needing guidance and mental health resources.

In addition, Strauss works to bring diverse groups of students together. Within a week of WSU’s pandemic-related shutdown, he helped launch a series of virtual programs that connected students online with fun activities.

Strauss was integral to the $26.5 million renovation of Wayne State’s Student Center building, which expanded students’ activities and lounge space and added a re ection room.

Donald Taylor President, University of Detroit Mercy

Donald Taylor joined University of Detroit Mercy in 2022 after serving as the president of Cabrini University, where he focused on strengthening Catholic liberal arts education and building partnerships.

During his time there, U.S. News & World Report ranked it as one of the best northern universities. Prior to that, he helped grow Benedictine University from a liberal arts school with 1,000 students to a multi-branch school with 10,000 students.

Now he is working to increase inclusivity and raise the national pro le of UDM. He is also searching for new investment streams for the university and the northwest Detroit community where UDM is located.

“Dr. Donald Taylor ... wants to do everything he can to make students, faculty, staff and our community the best that they can be,” said UDM’s marketing & communications associate vice president Gary Erwin.

Rema Vassar Chair, Board of Trustees, Michigan State University

As a “champion of the underserved,” Rema Vassar supports initiatives that help diverse leaders of education while overseeing Michigan State University’s $3.2 billion budget. She is the rst Black female chair of the MSU board of trustees. Vassar provides monthly, professional development sessions for the African American Student Initiative, a Michigan Department of Education program that serves educators working with young, Black students.

A former K-12 public school teacher and administrator, Vassar also secured funding from the Skillman Foundation to create a wellness project for Black female leaders serving in K-12 schools. Her company, Every Student Learning, developed the “community and everyday settings” portions of guides used by the MiSTEM network and the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Vassar is an editor for multiple education journals.

Karmanos Cancer Institute hires new CEO

By Dustin Walsh

McLaren Health Care has hired Dr. Boris Pasche as president and CEO of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.

Pasche will replace Dr. Joseph Uberti in the role e ective Aug. 28, the health system said last week. Uberti has served as the interim leader of the organization since July last year following the retirement of Dr. Gerold Bepler.

Pasche will also serve as the chair of the department of oncology at Wayne State University School

of Medicine, a position that was also held by Uberti in the interim.

Pasche joins Karmanos and WSU from Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he served as the academic system’s endowed chair of cancer research, director of its comprehensive cancer center and chair of Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s department of cancer biology.

At Wake Forest, Pasche led the system’s research expansion, re-

sulting in a 97% increase in the organization’s National Cancer Institute grant funding. Pasche will be expected to increase grant funding for Karmanos as well.

“To lead an organization recognized throughout the health care industry for its exceptional clinical care and signi cant contributions to advancing cancer research and treatment is an amazing opportunity and a tremendous responsibility,” Pasche said in a press release.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

CONSTRUCTION

AUCH Construction

AUCH Construction

is pleased to promote Tyler Maki to Project Manager from the position of Senior Project Engineer.

Maki

Tyler has a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan and joined AUCH in 2015 as a Project Engineer. Tyler is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

CONSTRUCTION

AUCH Construction

CONSTRUCTION

AUCH Construction

“I thank the leadership of Karmanos, McLaren, and Wayne State for their con dence that together we can continue to provide an exceptional level of clinical care to our patients and support the level of research necessary to bring novel therapies from our laboratories to the patient’s bedside in the ght against this terrible disease.”

Prior to Wake Forest, Pasche was the chief of hematology and oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and deputy director of the university’s comprehensive cancer center. He also founded the

cancer genetics program at Northwestern University.

“Dr. Pasche has demonstrated his pro ciency to deliver and advance cancer care on a level that the physicians, researchers, and, most importantly, patients of Karmanos deserve,” Philip Incarnati, president and CEO of McLaren, said in the press release.

Pasche joins a growing Karmanos. WSU and the Detroit-based cancer institute announced a year ago plans to invest $450 million into a new research and education facility in the city.

Advertising Section

or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

CONSTRUCTION

AUCH Construction

CONSTRUCTION

AUCH Construction

Moelich

AUCH Construction is pleased to announce the promotion of Rob Moelich to Project Manager from the position of Senior Project Engineer. Rob holds a BS in Construction Management and Engineering Technology from Lawrence Technological University. Rob has been in the industry since 2012 and joined AUCH in 2016 as a Project Engineer.

LAW

Honigman LLP

Honigman LLP welcomes back Abby Stover as Chief Talent

Of cer. Abby leads the rm’s attorney talent management, learning and development and legal recruiting functions. Abby earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Wayne State University Law School and her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from Michigan State University. Abby has over a decade of experience representing clients in commercial real estate law, including acquisitions and sales, commercial leasing, loan transactions and tax-credit nancing.

AUCH Construction is pleased to promote Scott Oswald to Senior Project Manager. Scott started as an intern, then joined AUCH in 2001 as a Project Engineer. He is a USBC LEED AP BD+C, a certi ed Construction Contract Administrator, and has a BS in Architectural Engineering and Construction Management from Milwaukee School of Engineering. Scott served as chair on the AGC Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and participated in the AGC Future Construction Leaders of Michigan (FCLM) program.

AUCH Construction has announced the promotion of Jacob Munchiando to Senior Project Manager. Jacob holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Detroit Mercy and joined AUCH in 2011. He is a member of the Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD), a union liaison for AUCH, participates on the Laborers Negotiation Committee with Associated General Contractors of Michigan, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Building Enclosure Council of Greater Detroit (BEC).

AUCH Construction is pleased to promote: Shawn Verlinden to Project Director.

Shawn joined AUCH in 2013 as a Project Engineer. He serves on the AUCH Board of Directors and leads the AUCH Intern Program. He holds a BS in Civil Engineering and a Masters in Engineering – Construction Engineering and Management, both from the University of Michigan.

McKenzie Ozark to Senior Project Engineer from the position of Project Engineer. She has been recognized for her dedication and commitment to her team, clients, architects, and trade contractors. McKenzie joined AUCH in 2019 and started in the industry in 2014.

AUCH Construction is pleased to announce Gerry McClelland’s promotion to Chief Operating Of cer. Joining AUCH in 2001 as a Conceptual Estimator, he assumed roles up to Project Director and Vice President. He has a Building Construction Management degree from Michigan State University, is a Certi ed Professional Estimator, serves on the AUCH Board of Directors, is a US Green Building Council LEED AP BD+C, and past president of the American Society of Professional Estimators, Detroit Chapter.

NONPROFIT

Business Leader of Michigan

Business Leaders for Michigan announces

Haleigh Krombeen as director of government affairs and initiatives.

Haleigh comes to Business Leaders from the Michigan Credit Union League, where as director of state advocacy, she managed the association’s state policy agenda, PAC fundraising efforts and grassroots engagement. She has extensive experience in the advocacy space including lobbying, issue development, research, policy drafting, political action committees, campaign nance, and more.

To place your listing, visit crainsdetroit.com/people-on-the-move

Ozark

Verlinden

Dr. Boris Pasche

CEO GROUP

As the job market rapidly changes with the advent of things like electri cation and arti cial intelligence, “If we are not more organized and at the table, we are going to continue to be in a situation where we don’t have the supply of talent, the way that we need to run our business(es).”

Workforce systems in Southeast Michigan are organized by political boundaries right now, with each county having their own, said Meador, retired vice chairman and chief administrative o cer for DTE Energy Co.

But that’s not how businesses or workers behave.

“It’s a regional workforce. Many people that work in one city or county ... live in a di erent one, and they commute to work” or work virtually for a company in another county, he said.

e CEO group initially is focusing the e ort on Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, bringing workforce development leaders from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to the table with the leaders of companies in industries such as health care and manufacturing to create a regional, collaborative approach to workforce development rather than a competitive one happening county by county, city by city or company by company.

e approach is similar to that of the Detroit Regional Partnership, a nonpro t formed by the CEO group in 2019 to focus on marketing and business attraction e orts for the region as a whole and to provide a one-stop, coordinated, rapid response to requests for regional data such as real estate and infrastructure rather than the fragmented, location-speci c approach in place previously.

“One of the interesting things in lessons learned, and we see it in

benchmarking, is you can have the structural issues, right...(and) the funding. You can have the right people at the table, but if you ask people what the real secret sauce is, it’s collaboration and cohesion and relationships,” Meador said.

“It’s really everybody coming together with one goal, and that’s what we have had in Detroit.”

Success in Detroit

e Mayor’s Workforce Development Board in Detroit worked with the Detroit Employment Solutions and the Detroit at Work network of nonpro ts to develop a corporate-led, public-private approach in Detroit that helped secure economic deals and more than 40,000 jobs for Detroiters over the past eight years with groups including Stellantis, Dakkota, Amazon, JP Morgan Chase, Lear Corp. and LM Manufacturing, Majorel, the District Detroit and Michigan Central Innovation District.

e approach, which brought workforce development, corporate and nonpro t leaders to the table, is focused on talking with companies about the skills they need, screening Detroiters to come up with a quali ed pool, referring those who don’t have the needed skills to other jobs or additional training and helping to break down systemic barriers to employ-

ment around things like transportation and child care.

“We are proud of the exceptional groundwork that was laid in 2015, which paved the way for Detroiters to thrive in the workforce,” said Strategic Sta ng Solutions founder, president and CEO Cindy Pasky, who co-chaired the Detroit workforce board from its founding in 2015 until this past May when she was succeeded by Darienne Hudson, president and CEO of United Way for Southeastern Michigan.

“ e Mayor’s Workforce Development Board’s commitment to breaking barriers and creating real opportunities has been instrumental in turning our city around and enabling Detroit residents to pursue meaningful work,” Pasky said in an emailed statement.

“It’s certainly not to suggest that in Detroit we solved all the problems ... (but) we think there’s lessons learned that could be useful elsewhere,” said Nicole Sherard-Freeman, who served as group executive of jobs, economy and Detroit at Work and executive director of the workforce board until April when she left to become COO of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

Meador and Pasky were careful to be respectful of all of the work that community-based organizations had done for decades in workforce development in Detroit,

governmental health plans now recognize these services as a covered bene t.”

she said.

“ ere was a degree of ... humility about the work and the way to approach the work and the way to show up in the work that really I think enabled a di erent set of partnerships, a di erent way of thinking about the challenges (and) the next evolution of thinking about how do you disaggregate these massive problems into pieces that we can then solve for,” Pasky said.

“I think that’s what created the environment, the conditions that made the kinds of partnerships that you see now” in Detroit.

Helping employers screen for local talent is a di erent type of incentive for a city to o er, said Larry Good, president emeritus and a senior consultant at the Corp. for a Skilled Workforce.

e Hartland-based organization worked with the city of Detroit to revamp its workforce development system and is now consulting on the development of the regional workforce development group.

It is hard to overstate how di erent workforce development is in Detroit today from what it was a decade ago, Good said.

“What was going on in Detroit before was almost random,” with each organization doing its own thing and no critical mass at a system level, he said. It was hard to

see outcomes, systems weren’t as strong as they should be and federal dollars weren’t spent as fast as it should be, which led to lots of questions from the feds in the past.

e Mayor’s Workforce Development Board lined up thinking to make sure they had good research and the right kinds of work to have an impact, he said. JP Morgan Chase, for example, supported the Corp. for a Skilled Workforce to do a study that provided clear information on where Detroiters were in terms of educational attainment and their employment situation, he said.

e board secured a mix of public and private dollars to fund efforts like Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, now one of the largest summer employment programs for youth in the country, Good said.

And agreements that the city through its partner agencies would provide employee screening for new employers like Stellantis and Amazon in exchange for gaining job priority for Detroiters became part of the mix.

“ at was a very di erent kind of incentive, as part of a plant location package, (than) had been done in the past,” Good said.

“ ere is no question Detroit is much more able to help people today on workforce questions than they were 10 years ago.”

e approach of breaking down systemic barriers to employment for Detroiters is something the new regional workforce development group will replicate, Meador said.

“We are now going to bring that up a level to say ... what are the strategies to deal with some of the (workforce) challenges we have at a regional level.”

Child care and transportation will be early focus areas for the regional workforce development group, Meador said. Another body of work will look at regional needs by economic sector and line up training programs on a regional basis vs. a local basis, working, for example, with all of health care vs. one health system.

“It takes a regional solution for a regional problem,” Meador said.

“Virtual options have become a standard part of healthcare. Insurance companies now recognize some MyChart medical advice messages as billable services,” Johns Hopkins Medicine said in a statement on its website. “We want to make sure our clinicians have the time they need to review and respond appropriately to your concerns, just as they would with an in-person or video visit.”

Michigan Medicine did not provide details on its response pricing, but said patients are noti ed in MyChart that an inquiry may lead to a charge.

“Michigan Medicine follows standard codes and payer rules regarding billing for professional services, which includes care provided via the patient portal,” the system said in a statement to Crain’s. “ e online evaluation and management codes became

e ective in January 2020, and we have been billing on-line services that meet the code requirements since that time. is includes responses that require clinical expertise and a physician or qualied health care professional’s time. To ensure that patients know there may be a charge associated with the service, they are informed prior to sending a message to their care team. Most commercial and

A major reason systems are starting to charge, Feucht said, is due to the in ux of messages, which is leading to more labor stress in the health care system. If a patients prefer the portal, providers will support them in it, at a cost.

She said a single client saw a 85% increase in in-person patient volume over the past ve years, but a 650% increase in volume from the patient portal.

“We’re also seeing this increase of MyChart volumes contributing to provider burnout,” Feucht said. e uptick of messages, it’s just another to-do they have to focus on.”

But how providers are using MyChart also varies. Some are using the messages to essentially schedule patients for in-person appointments while others are using the service to provide clinical recommendations.

“Some organizations are using it as a jumping-o point,” Feucht said. “Let’s schedule a visit. But some have a robust response. at de nitely varies by provider and specialty and the relationship the patient has with their provider. Some organizations have moved to a centralized response model. A pool of nurse practitioners that have more of that clinical judgment and even registered nurses responding to all the incoming messages.”

Many of Michigan’s health systems, which usually adopt billing practices ahead of smaller physician groups, have not yet started to bill patients for MyChart responses, though it’s unclear if these providers issue clinical responses or just set up in-person appointments via the portal.

“Trinity Health Michigan does not charge to respond to patients in MyChart, and it’s not something we are seriously considering at the moment,” Bobby Maldonado, spokesperson for Trinity, said in

an emailed statement. e state’s largest system, Corewell Health, is also not charging for MyChart responses.

“How patients, physicians and nurses use MyChart continuously evolves,” the health system said in an emailed statement. “While other health systems engage in this billing practice, we currently do not.”

It’s probably inevitable that most providers will begin to charge for portal communications, Feucht said, but how each system handles the responses remains up in the air.

“Protocols need to be developed,” Feucht said. “MyChart is here to stay, but providers must balance expectations, not just having 1,000 di erent physician expectations (of how to use the patient portal). How do we manage this and how do we provide the right type of patient education, versus calling into the clinic? at’s going continue to be ongoing.”

Detroit’s workforce development operation helped lure Stellantis, then FCA, into making major plant investments in Detroit. STELLANTIS

David Meador

DOCTOR

From Page 3

MyChart is a medical records portal.

Car guy Alan Amici takes tech-driven approach at Center for Automotive Research

Alan Amici’s thirst for automotive knowledge cannot be quenched. So, after four decades in the industry, taking the job as president and CEO of the Ann Arbor-based nonpro t Center for Automotive Research proved to be a tting transition — for Amici and the organization. Since taking the helm last year, Amici has put his tech-heavy ngerprints on the research consultancy and think tank. The center’s stronger emphasis on autonomous vehicles and next generation technology is exhibited by the transition of its marquee annual event, the Management Brie ng Seminars in Traverse City, where the programming is shifting from the here-andnow to studying the future of the industry.

What drew you into the automotive industry?

I grew up here, always enjoyed cars and still enjoy turning wrenches. I like working on cars, I enjoy designing cars and I like talking about cars. I think it’s just a tremendous industry. My career started right out of University of Michigan at Chrysler, and I started engineering in Highland Park, and then in 1992, we moved out to Auburn Hills. Most of my career was in product development in the field, primarily in electrical and electronics.

During that time when the company was called Daimler Chrysler, my wife and I and our two little kids moved to Stuttgart, Germany, and worked for two years in global service and parts. I worked at the Mercedes Technical Center and that was a really interesting experience. I got to understand how a global company really works, and in addition to how Chrysler worked, I gained an understanding of how Mercedes does business. Along the way, you learn about the European market. You understand why cars are smaller or why there’s more manual transmissions and some of the constraints that the market has. There were a few life lessons in terms of learning about German culture, and our little kids were fluent in German by December of that year. It was really remarkable.

I also took an assignment in Torino, Italy, so my wife and now two bigger kids, we moved to Torino, where I was the head of electrical engineering. I was there for about two years as well. Again, that was product development and focusing on the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) portion of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. So again, gaining experience in a different culture, you know, the same sciences, the same laws of physics and same product development process, but with a little bit different culture. So really a great experience for our family. Those experiences really help you get a broader view of the automobile industry. There’s the Detroit view and strict American view, and then the Torino view, and along the way, you get kind of a full view of the global automotive industry.

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Alan Amici is president and CEO, Center

for Automotive Research.

It sounds like you’ve spent your career learning the car business from all angles. How have you seen product development change over the decades?

Well, certainly the rate and pace really accelerated during that time. We got to the point that product development was approaching about 20-24 months for a new vehicle, which was much, much faster, probably two times or maybe even three times versus 20 years ago when they had like fiveyear development timelines.

Also, the use of digital tools.

So, early in my career, we had physical mock-ups of cars or like instrument panels or the under-hood area or even the body where we would physically place wiring or physically place components.

Fast forward to the last, say, 15 years, it’s all been digital mock-up assembly … A digital twin would be maybe a good

description of it. Here’s the entire vehicle in digital format, you can rotate it, you can check out tool clearances, you can ensure you have the proper clearances for other components … So you could go through a number of iterations very rapidly in the digital world.

How did you make the transition from the automotive industry into consulting?

I started working on my Ph.D. in industrial systems engineering at Wayne State. While I was working on that, I received an inquiry from the Center for Automotive Research board of directors that “we’re looking for a new leader” as the existing leader was planning to retire. That process played out, and I joined CAR as the president and CEO this past September.

What made you want to earn a Ph.D.?

Well, I’ve always been interested in this. I have a master’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA, but I’ve always been interested in getting a Ph.D., which would allow me to teach if I wanted to do so. I think it was just that curiosity I had. I was interested in learning more, interested in going a little bit deeper. I was interested in doing some research, and I think Wayne State has a terrific program … It’s been very enriching. It’s been terrific to understand some of the academic research that’s behind the things we put into practice. I’ve been reading about some of the theory of supply chain, which are things that we had been doing at Chrysler for 25 years, but there was the link to say, “OK, this is the theory behind that. Here’s why we did that.”

What approach are you taking at CAR?

So, the primary move was to deepen knowledge here at CAR. We’ve brought in some of my colleagues from Chrysler but some from Ford and some from General Motors as well. And we’ve surrounded ourselves here in CAR with experts in the field, and in some cases these are people that have recently retired and wanted to join to give back to the industry. We have created a really deep resource here at CAR. We have people that have been involved in some of the early strategy and planning discussions on the connected car. We have people that have planned it, developed it, launched it, for example. We offer that kind of depth that you just can’t find in the industry. We’re not just scraping publicly available information and repositioning it. We have people that really understand how it works and why it works and what are some of the shortcomings and how to make it better. So we offer that kind of experience to different companies. This is not just in connected car, these are in areas of advanced driver assist, semiconductors, software and even autonomous vehicles. That was the primary goal, to deepen the bench and deepen our knowledge that we have of the auto industry, and we’ll make that available to our clients and customers.

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“We have people that really understand how it works and why it works and what are some of the shortcomings and how to make it better.”