Crain's Detroit Business, October 02, 2023

State’s EV future will hinge on strike’s result

Competitiveness for Detroit 3, suppliers at stake in talks

By Kurt Nagl and John Pletz

As the United Auto Workers strike continues, Detroit’s three major automakers have more to fear than the immediate nancial pain of plants going down. e worry also runs deep for states reliant on the Detroit 3 and the drive toward electric vehicles.

e deals that Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV eventually make with the union will go a long way toward determining their electric futures, according to industry experts. e UAW wants a raise and boost to bene ts re ecting record pro ts they have helped the automakers earn in recent years. e companies want a deal that doesn’t chain them to labor costs that cripple their competitiveness with electric vehicle maker Tesla, transplant automakers and fast-rising EV startups such as Rivian.

e two sides continue to feud as the strike moves beyond the two-week mark.

“ is is a de ning period for

Where the jobs are

Detroit and the future of the auto industry as we rmly believe that if GM, Ford, Stellantis accept anything close to the deal on the table the future will be very bleak for the U.S. auto industry,” Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, said Wednesday in a research note to clients. Hiking wages, ending tiers and restoring cost of living bene ts are sticking points that spurred the strike, but the overall stakes are much higher than that. e wrong deal could sink the automakers, and as the automotive industry goes, so goes the Rust Belt.

See EVS on Page 33

The Midwest still dominates auto manufacturing in jobs. These are the top 10 states by employment in 2022.

United Auto Workers members picket outside the Stellantis NV Toledo Assembly Complex in Toldeo. | BLOOMBERG

Michigan’s 3rd IMAX theater coming to MJR

By Jay Davis

Michigan is getting its third IMAX movie theater.

MJR eatres on Tuesday announced plans for construction of a new IMAX auditorium at MJR Southgate Cinema.

e Southgate IMAX auditorium would be the third in the state, following IMAX locations at the Michigan Science Center in Detroit and Celebration Cinema North in Grand Rapids.

e new IMAX auditorium will open in November, according to a post on the theater's Facebook page. e new theater will be equipped with IMAX Laser projection, which MJR said o ers "crystal clear, lifelike images and immersive precision audio." e IMAX auditorium will also feature a 4K laser projection system with a new optical engine, custom designed lenses, increased resolution, deeper contrast, and the widest range of colors exclusively to IMAX screens.

MJR's partnership with IMAX is the next step in the theater company's goal of providing guests with the best possible movie experience, MJR Vice President of Operations Joel Kincaid said in a news release.

“While IMAX has been expanding across the globe it’s been well over a decade since an IMAX has opened in Metro-Detroit,” Kin-

caid said in the release. “MJR is proud to bring IMAX to our downriver communities and provide the only IMAX tted with recliners in Metro Detroit.”

e introduction of IMAX at the Southgate MJR is part of an overall planned investment aimed at ensuring MJR eatres remains at the forefront of moviegoing. MJR said it plans to debut other locations in the near future, but did not disclose where.

e cost of an IMAX theater can range between $2 million and $10 million.

MJR o cials did not immediately respond to a Crain’s request for more details.

Southgate Mayor Joseph Kuspa said the addition of the IMAX auditorium to his city will have

far-reaching bene ts.

“ e MJR eater has been a valued member of our business community for 25 years,” Kuspa said in the release. “ is new experience will certainly enhance the entertainment o erings for our residents and those throughout our region.”

e allure of seeing a lm in an IMAX theater was clear this summer as some moviegoers drove hours to see the Christopher Nolan WWII epic "Oppenheimer" in its intended 70mm IMAX lm format.

e blockbuster was featured in IMAX 70mm on just 19 screens in the U.S. across 11 states, including two in Michigan.

MJR eatres has 10 Michigan locations and more than 160 screens.

THE TRANSFORMATION BEGINS HERE

Brewery closes new site after 2 years

By Jay Davis

A popular Detroit brewery and restaurant has closed its newest location a little more than two years after it opened.

Motor City Brewing Works on Sept. 24 closed its Avenue of Fashion location at 19350 Livernois Ave, according to a social media post.

e location opened in July 2021.

“We are saddened to say Motor City Brewing Works will cease operations at our Livernois Taproom as of end of business day, Sunday, September 24, 2023,” the post reads. “Sta ng challenges and increased workloads for existing employees have prevented us from fully delivering the (Motor City Brewing Works) experience we were hoping to contribute to the Avenue of Fashion.”

e Livernois location, Motor City Brewing Works' second after its Midtown location, opened about ve years after it was announced.

PROFESSIONAL MBA

e Livernois brewery, in the former Hunter Supper Club building, was originally slated to open in 2019. e COVID-19 pandemic, a streetscape project and issues with some contractors caused the delay, President John Linardos said just prior to the 2021 opening.

It is unclear how the closure will a ect the agship Can eld Street location, which opened in 1994. e building that housed the 5,000-square-foot brewery is more than 100 years old. In 2018, Linardos purchased the building for $300,000. Prior to the brewery opening, Linardos told Crain’s he’d invested between $550,000 and $600,000 into the business. He earned a $75,000 cash grant from Motor City Match to help with the project.

“We sincerely thank everyone for their support and patronage since the inception of the project,” the social media post reads. “Please stay tuned for further information on the historical next chapter of 19350 Livernois Avenue.”

Detroit Artists Market names new executive director

By Sherri Welch

Former BasBlue executive Miah Davis has joined the nonpro t Detroit Artists Market as its new executive director.

Davis succeeds Matt Fry, who left the organization in February after nine years to join Global Detroit, where he serves as director of communications.

Miah Davis

Davis’s “commitment to Detroit’s arts community and her skills, connections, and enthusiasm bring new energy to the organization,” DAMS’s board president, Kate Baker said in a release.

“Her unique artistic passion, nonpro t experience, and dedication to nurturing talent align perfectly with our values and mission.”

Davis, 34, joins DAM from BasBlue, where she has served the past two years, most recently as engagement and philanthropy manager.

Before BasBlue, she was a development coordinator for the College for Creative Studies and held a variety of roles at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and Wayne State University. Davis holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Wayne State.

She received a Marjorie S. Fisher Fellowship from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Greater Detroit Chapter in 2021. DAM reported $246,278 in total revenue for scal 2022 — down from about $385,000 the year before — and an operating loss of just over $65,000.

The MJR Southgate Cinema in November will add an IMAX auditorium. | MJR SOUTHGATE CINEMA

Motor City Brewing Works on Tuesday announced the closure of its newest location at 19350 Livernois Ave. The brewery opened in July 2021. MOTOR CITY BREWING WORKS

AI in banking brings risks and potential reward

Big change is a certainty, UM expert says

Arti cial intelligence is changing the world of banking and nance, whether the industry likes it or not.

AI has already successfully integrated into the nancial sector in the form of chatbots, cybersecurity, fraud detection and more. But some experts are warning against going too far with the technology.

Ronald McDonald House Detroit looks to expand

Organizations looks to help families at more hospitals beyond Children’s

Sherri Welch

Ronald McDonald House Charities Detroit, a xture at DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan for the past 44 years, is expanding its services to the families of children in treatment at other hospitals in the region.

e nonpro t is now inviting families from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak and Ascension St. John Hospital Health Center in Grosse Pointe to stay for free at its Detroit “house,” a 25-bed facility on the second oor of the Kresge Eye Institute connected to DMC Hutzel Women's Hospital in Midtown and shuttling them back and forth to the hospitals.

At the same time, it’s exploring

with stakeholders at other hospitals the possibility of creating Ronald McDonald House Charities branded-and-licensed respite spaces in additional hospitals to give parents, grandparents and other caregivers a place to rest for a while, watch TV, work, do laundry, grab something to eat and relax when they are at the hospital, said Jen Litomisky, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities Detroit.

DMC Hutzel Women's Hospital is actively looking for space to establish a Ronald McDonald House family room, Jacqlyn Smith, chief strategy o cer of Children’s Hospital and strategy lead for women’s and children’s services for DMC, said.

Other hospitals declined to comment on any talks taking place about establishing Ronald Mc-

Donald House family respite room spaces.

e house provides a place for families to stay overnight, but also o ers the peace of mind of not having to try to a ord a place to stay while their child is being treated at the hospital, Litomisky said. For example, one family stayed at the house for 379 nights, she said. at likely would have been cost-prohibitive if they had to nd their own lodging for that long.

“I was told by social workers at Beaumont that people are sleeping in lobby chairs and next to their children’s beds. e more hospitals expand their pediatric departments, the more they are going to need family rooms and respite areas,” she said.

Michael Wellman, professor and chair of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan whose research focuses on the use of arti cial intelligence in the banking andnance industry, was invited to speak to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban A airs last week regarding the implications of AI.

Wellman said that the biggest risk with arti cial intelligence is what we don’t know about it.

“People should be concerned about any kind of big changes like (AI),” Wellman said. “I don't think it's necessarily constructive to panic about this, but to take concern seriously and for the government and other entities to take actions that could protect our systems, make them more robust, would be very prudent.”

First introduced in the 1950s, arti cial intelligence has been gaining traction since the debut of the model-based chatbot ChatGPT by San Francisco-based AI research laboratory OpenAI in November 2022.

Concerns surrounding AI in banking have focused on the technology’s susceptibility toward bias, which stems from human, systemic and computational biases, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. AI can also determine whether a person is approved for a bank loan based on their race or simply the neighborhood they grew up in.

In 2019, Apple and Goldman Sachs were investigated for gender discrimination after it was alleged that their algorithm o ered women lower limits on the Apple Card than men. In 2021, New York State Department of Financial Services found no evidence of these claims.

Core concerns

Arti cial intelligence can impact people’s lives in a variety of ways and some are less obvious than others. Wellman said he warned the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban A airs about three areas where the U.S. government should be wary about AI: its ability to manipulate the market, to inject or extract information from language and concentrations of control of information.

Clean energy bills make their way through Lansing

Push for renewables, carbon-free power could change utilities’ plans

By David Eggert

LANSING — A push to drastically increase the use of renewable energy to power the grid could take a signi cant step forward this week, when Michigan lawmakers may take an initial vote on major energy legislation backed by environmental advocates and opposed by businesses.

e bills would require 100% "carbon-free" electricity in 2040 — up from a 15% renewable power standard today — with "o -ramps" if that target and others are too ambitious. e Democratic-led Senate Energy and Environment

Committee could vote during a week in which a youth-led climate rally is planned at the Capitol.

e main measure, Senate Bill 271, has been changed several times in recent months and is likely to be revised further amid a urry of lobbying from interest groups.

Backers say setting a 100% clean energy standard is the most powerful tool the state has to confront the climate crisis and to take advantage of economic opportunities and federal funding during the transition away from fossil fuels. Critics caution that moving too quickly and imposing new man-

dates would create unintended consequences, making electricity too expensive and unreliable. Here is a look at some issues at play:

Mandates

Democrats propose requiring power providers to get to 25% renewables in 2026, 50% renewables in 2030, 60% renewables in 2033 — and then a broader 80% carbon-free electricity standard in 2035 and a 100% carbon-free target in 2040.

Michael Wellman

Anna Fifelski

“I don’t think it’s necessarily constructive to panic, but to take concern seriously.”

Michael Wellman, University of Michigan

Ronald McDonald House Charities in Detroit CEO Jennifer J. Litomisky in the organization’s boardroom. | QUINN BANKS

Archdiocese razing church behind DSO building

By Kirk Pinho

e Archdiocese of Detroit has started tearing down a historic nearly century-old churchin Midtown behind the Detroit Symphony Orchestra building.

e archdiocese in a statement last week said the St. Patrick's Church property on Parsons Street is under contract to be sold this month to an unidenti ed buyer, and the demolition is required as part of the sale. e South eld o ce of CBRE Inc. has the property listing.

Holly Fournier, associate director of communications for the archdiocese, said "quite a few developers"

Lululemon sets up temporary location

By Kirk Pinho

Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica is moving its downtown Detroit store to a new Woodward Avenue location while it renovates its store front.

e maker of yoga and athletic apparel has not responded to repeated emails about the move since Sept. 18, and its landlord, Dan Gilbert's Detroit-based Bedrock LLC, deferred questions to Lululemon.

e retailer's current location is 3,000 square feet at 1459 Woodward Ave., and it is temporarily taking over at least a portion of the former Under Armour Brand House space, which clocked in at about 17,000 square feet before shuttering in January 2022.

e 1459 Woodward Ave. location has a sign that says the renovations will be complete Fall 2023, while signage has been installed at 1201 Woodward.

Lululemon opened downtown in September 2017.

e store is located in a spot that has seen a lot of ux lately. at part of Woodward has seen store closures like Moosejaw (closing in February), Détroit is the New Black, Under Armour, Madewell, John Varvatos (replaced by Greyson), Cornerstone Barrel House and others; openings like the pending Savage X Fenty and Gucci stores and Chipotle restaurant; and the relocation of Le Labo.

have examined the church, built in 1926, in recent years as a potential renovation project but all determined such projects "would have been cost prohibitive."

In an email, Fournier said St. Patrick's held its last service in May 2015 and it was deconsecrated last year, which means "it is no longer considered a sacred place of worship."

" is is a required step before demolition can occur at any former Catholic church building," she wrote. "As part of that process, sacred items were removed and distributed to other churches.

"While it is never easy to say

goodbye to a church building, St. Patrick has been vacant and unused for many years," Fournier's email continued. "As a result of this sale, a vacant structure will be removed from the neighborhood, the property will be put to use once again, and the Archdiocese of Detroit can remain focused on its mission to unleash the Gospel."

e church building was designed by Donaldson & Meier and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was originally named the Chapel of St. eresa of the Little Flower, the Detroit Free Press reported in 2015, at the time of the church's last service.

An Axios Detroit reporter rst posted about the demolition on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Detroit-based Adamo Group is identi ed as the demolition contractor in a document submitted to the state called a noti cation of intent to renovate/demolish. ose are processed by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and state Department of Licensing and Regulatory A airs.

e document says St. Patrick's is about 12,000 square feet. City property records say the site is 0.314 acres.

442 S Old Woodward Birmingham, MI 48009 AN INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED FRANCHISE.

Lululemon signage has been installed at the Dan Gilbert-owned building at 1201 Woodward Ave. downtown. | KIRK PINHO

The former St. Patrick’s Church behind the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is being torn down as a condition of a pending sale to an unknown buyer, the Archdiocese of Detroit says. KIRK PINHO

Tucker, MSU both best served by moving on quickly

We get it: Mel Tucker is a ghter. We don’t doubt that he believes he did nothing wrong.

To hear his lawyer’s version of events, the Michigan State University football coach was well within his rights to engage in phone sex with another consenting adult.

e problem is that other adult was a vendor paid by Tucker’s employer to provide a service to his football team. And she strongly disputes that Tucker’s conduct — masturbating during a late-night call with her — was consensual.

e bottom line is the sooner Tucker and MSU can come to a settlement so we can all move on from this unfortunate public episode, the better.

Certainly, MSU doesn’t need another distraction, after years of leadership upheaval in the wake of the Nassar scandal. And for Tucker, each time his lawyer puts out another sharply worded statement, his conduct is highlighted again, harming potential future employment prospects.

MSU on Wednesday sent Tucker a letter ring him for cause, which would absolve the university from paying out more than $80 million left on his 10-year, $95 million contract.

e university says the contractual justi cation is that Tucker violated the “moral turpitude” clause in the contract, which includes subjecting the university to public ridicule. at ridicule certainly has happened.

COMMENTARY

But we all know where this is headed: Tucker is now likely to sue, and MSU will end up paying him something to make him go away. e question is how much.

Clearly, it’s in the university’s interest to move on as quickly as possible. We would argue that moving on quickly is also in Tucker’s best interest.

He is only 51 years old. He easily has another 10 years, likely more, of potential coaching years ahead of him, although it would likely take time to work back to this level given the notoriety of this situation.

Michigan State hired Tucker from Colorado in early 2020. His rst season, during the Covid pandemic, was a wash. But in his second year, 2021, the Spartans went 11-2, Tucker was named Big Ten Coach of the Year and he was awarded his current, highly lucrative contract to keep him in East Lansing.

Jackpot. Unfortunately, Tucker blew it.

He brought in rape survivor and sexual-assault advocate Brenda Tracy to speak to his student-athletes. ey clearly struck up some sort of friendship, the details of which remain in dispute. Regardless, Tucker crossed a line.

His lawyer argues MSU moved to re him only after the institution became embarrassed by the public disclosure in USA Today about the case.

ere may be fair questions to be sorted out about the timing of when MSU chose to take action against Tucker.

Make no mistake, at the end of the day, this controversy starts and ends with Mel Tucker’s conduct. Clearly, his coaching days at MSU are over.

But there are costs to both the university and to Tucker himself for keeping this story in the headlines, so the sooner it can be put in the rearview mirror, the better for everyone.

Literacy crisis must be xed for businesses to compete

Michigan’s third-grade reading scores have fallen once again, perpetuating a rolling disaster with grave consequences for businesses’ ability to compete — and for a generation of our children.

e question is: Will we treat this as the wakeup call it is, with a bold response to one of the most signi cant challenges of our time?

Michigan’s employers already struggle to nd skilled and educated talent. Given our dwindling and aging population, the schoolchildren of today represent the best hope for a more prosperous tomorrow, when employers have the talent they need, and individuals thrive in their careers. But those hopes will be out of reach if we fail to provide students with the fundamental skill of reading.

Unfortunately, our responses so far have failed to produce results. TalentFirst documented this recently with publication of its statewide dashboard of building-level reading scores, showing persistent underperformance at every economic level.

Despite signi cant state investments —

increases TalentFirst endorsed — the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress scores for 2022-23 showed third-grade reading pro ciency at its lowest since the M-STEP was adopted in 2015. Just 40.9% of third-graders scored pro cient or advanced — meaning nearly 60% of our kids entered fourth grade this year unable to read at the level they need to succeed.

It will be tempting to argue this is another casualty of the pandemic, with its shuttered schools, illness, and an ongoing absenteeism crisis. We will stipulate COVID was devastating. Pervasive learning loss was why the federal government poured relief funding into education — including more than $6 billion for Michigan districts.

But the causes are irrelevant to the children we are leaving woefully unprepared for life. Children who read poorly are more likely to drop out of school and face lives of unemployment, poverty and crime.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2022, Michigan ranked 43rd among the states for fourthgrade reading, down 11 places from the

already poor showing in 2019. is has dire implications for our talent needs — but our children are paying the greatest price for this race to the bottom.

It is time for an urgent response. e good news is that many other states know what works.

ey have enacted reforms that emphasize scienti cally based curricula and practices. Mississippi, which ranked 49th for NAEP fourth-grade reading scores before reforms a decade ago, climbed to 21st by 2022.

By comparison, Michigan allows a patchwork of curricula and practices, many now discredited. In a 2022 EPIC survey, Michigan K-5 teachers reported using 464 di erent English Language Arts curriculum resources; 48% used materials not aligned with the research on literacy instruction.

We are encouraged by the state’s recent investment in LETRS training for teachers and other strategies. But we must do more.

Before publishing our dashboard, we engaged with researchers, parents, school board members, superintendents, principals, literacy coaches and teachers. As a result, we learned:

• Schools should evaluate reading cur-

ricula and replace it with evidence-based curricula if not already present

• Teachers should be supported in selecting evidence-based curricula.

• School leaders should provide teachers with high-quality coaching and ongoing professional development aligned to research-supported literacy instructional practices.

K-12 leaders tell us literacy does not appear to be a priority in communities. Few parents show up to parent/teacher conferences to discuss their child’s academic progress or school board meetings asking about literacy scores. Not enough academic support is provided at home.

at must change, and that’s why we

published this information. Schools can’t solve this alone. We all must be informed advocates so Michigan can reclaim its status as a model for literacy.

If we can’t manage this, the failing grade will be assigned where it truly belongs: on all of us.

Kevin Stotts is president of TalentFirst, an alliance of West Michigan CEOs focused on solutions to complex talent challenges.

It is time for an urgent response. The good news is that many other states know what works.

Mel Tucker GETTY IMAGES

Michigan retailers report lowest sales month since spring 2020

Jay Davis

August retail sales in Michigan hit a low not seen since the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

e Michigan Retailers Association today reported that retail sales in August dropped for a second straight month, hitting a 32.4 on the 100-point MRA Retail Index. e August 2023 gure is nearly 20 points lower than the 49.3 reported in August 2022. e number is a steep decline from July’s 45.3, which was then the lowest total since December 2022.

e August gure represents the lowest index total since May 2020, according to a news release. e May 2020 index came in at 30.0.

About 56% of the 41 retailers surveyed said their August sales decreased from July. Around 29% noted an increase, and 15% reported no change.

e MRA in the release cited the ongoing UAW strikes as a reason for the dip.

MRA President and CEO Bill Hallan in a statement noted that families are tightening their spending.

“Michigan’s small businesses are feeling the squeeze of the UAW strike and the resulting loss of spending power by families impacted,” Hallan said. “Small businesses may feel the impacts of this strike for months, even after the strike ends. We encourage shoppers to consider the importance of shopping with local businesses — keeping their dollars in their community will make all the di erence.”

Optimism about future prospects is down too.

Around 46% of retailers surveyed believe their sales will increase through November, that’s down from last month’s 55%. About 37% of those surveyed think their sales will decline and 17% anticipate no change. at puts the prediction Index rating at 54.0, down from 70.9 last month.

e 100-point index provides a snapshot of the state's overall retail industry. Index values above 50 generally indicate positive activity; the higher the number, the stronger the activity. e seasonally adjusted performance index is conducted by Michigan Retailers Association in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Detroit branch.

Rachel Lutz, owner of Fisher Building-based women’s clothing store e Peacock Room, said uncertainty plays a role in the steep drop in retail shopping.

“Even when people have money to spend, they’re cautious about how they spend it,” said Lutz, whose business opened in 2011. “ ere are a lot of questions at the national level, and a lot at the local level with the strike.

“We’ve found that there’s always a market for the remarkable. I think retailers need to nd the energy they had to overcome

the pandemic when that rst hit.

I think there needs to be some revisiting of those strategies to bring the numbers back up.”

Lutz, a MRA member, said she’s working on ways to bring in more customers. at includes pop-up events later this year at the Detroit Athletic Club, the Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, and at the 2023 Oct. 4-6 International Women’s Forum World Leadership Conference.

Lutz has also hired a full-time social media manager to increase

visibility on that platform. Lutz with e Peacock Room has used Facebook Live as a way to highlight merchandise. She said her business brought more than $100,000 in 2022 through Facebook Live sales.

“I think retail mirrors the restaurant industry in a sense that we’re working a lot harder for the same revenue,” Lutz said. “We’re looking at di erent ways to increase brand awareness because foot tra c has not fully recovered to a pre-pandemic level.”

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Retail sales took a hit in the runup to the United Auto Workers’ strike against the Detroit 3 automakers as consumers’ wallets continue to get squeezed. Small retailers say that’s made them have to work harder to keep revenue owing. | BLOOMBERG

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS 2023 UNDER

Darnell Adams, 37

Director of Detroit Community Initiatives, Gilbert Family Foundation

As a kid growing up Detroit’s east side, Darnell Adams was into Hot Wheel City toys and SimCity, a computer simulation game where the player or “mayor” builds a city through budget management and urban planning.

Adams built residential zones and schools, created jobs and monitored crime as he played the game. When he came back to reality, he faced a neighborhood that was falling apart around him.

“I just couldn’t understand why my neighborhood looked like that,” he said.

After graduating from Michigan State University, Adams landed a job at Warren Conner Development Coalition (now Eastside Community Network). He joined the Detroit Land Bank Authority in 2014 and shortly afterward became director of inventory, where he created a disposition or holding status for over 99,000 properties in the city. He has also worked as vice president of neighborhoods for Invest Detroit, which included making Strategic Neighborhood Fund grants to support new housing, restaurants, bars and work spaces.

Now he’s leading the strategy at the Gilbert Family Foundation to deploy $500 million aimed at dismantling systemic barriers in housing and entrepreneurship, strengthening workforce development and creating wealth-building opportunities.

“When we get the data that tells us there’s a problem, we’re willing to get out there and break past systems and rebuild a better system,” Adams said.

He also manages the foundation’s Detroit Community Initiatives portfolio and has taken on management of the economic mobility portfolio itself.

Among other things, Adams was instrumental in launching the Gilbert Foundation’s eviction defense program, home repair program, tax relief program and housing network — free programs to help more than 20,000 underprivileged residents annually.

“Looking back at my Hot Wheels City, this is exactly where I’m supposed to be,” Adams said.

— Sherri Welch

This year’s class of professionals younger than 40 (as of Sept. 18) are at or near the top of their game and still rising. They are CEOs, presidents, franchisors, creators, developers, founders, judges and community leaders. Each was nominated by colleagues or peers and selected through a rigorous review process by Crain’s editors and reporters. Join us Nov. 9 at the Gem Theatre in Detroit to salute them. Details at crainsdetroit.com/events.

Photography by Nic Antaya

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “Either leading a national or local foundation or serving as the mayor of Detroit.”

First job: “I was 14 working at the only Kroger that was in the city of Detroit, at Seven Mile and Gratiot, as a bagger.”

FROM THE SPARK OF AN IDEA TO FULLY CHARGED. ALL IN ONE STATE.

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Deeana Ahmed, 32

Chief Strategy Of cer, Our Next Energy

Deeana Ahmed had an admittedly “windy path” to Our Next Energy, the Novi-based battery startup founded by her dad, Mujeeb Ijaz. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she earned a master’s of public health and a master’s in nutrition science and policy from Tufts University. She founded a college admissions consulting business, Ivy Admissions. She holds a doctorate in behavioral nutrition and neuroscience from Columbia University, where she researched how breastfeeding and food insecurity a ect early brain function.

While gathered with family after her grandfather’s death in 2021, she o ered to help her dad — a veteran of Apple, A123 Systems and Ford — as he was launching ONE. It wants to double the range of electric vehicles.

“I just started doing random things — helped build our rst website and I wrote a four-month paid maternity leave. I didn’t hesitate because we’ve done a lot of group projects before,” she said, noting the family’s e orts to build a hospital in Guatemala.

She leads fundraising, sustainability, government relations and corporate development and is “really focused on our execution as manufacturers.” She also plans to drive toward gender parity by offering child care bene ts at the company’s rst battery cell plant in Van Buren Township.

Getting a Ph.D., she said, “teaches you how to do something that’s nebulous and put it into structure. at’s what building a company is — you’re taking these ideas and you have to put it into structure.” She is especially proud that ONE raised $300 million in Series B funding.

Her career advice? “A pivot’s OK. … It’s OK to not know what you’re going to do next.”

David Eggert

President and Owner, National Trails Austin Arksey, 36

Austin Arksey, a Saline native, graduated from Ferris State University with a construction management degree but had no prospects as the industry reeled from the Great Recession.

A friend of a friend reached out about an entry-level opening at Trinity Transportation, a charter bus rental company in Wyandotte. His job was to verify trip details after bookings, but he took an interest in sales and used social media to generate new customers, one-upping competitors. He became sales director, helping to double business within three years, and then COO.

When Trinity was bought by international rm National Express, he was promoted to vice president of North American charter. He oversaw 250 locations. Despite achieving 30% growth in the charter division, he was told to slash his team. He complied yet “knew then and there that this was not for me.”

Arksey was familiar with South eld-based National Trails, which operated 10 motor coaches and employed nine sta .

“I damn near emptied my bank account, liened my house, put everything on the line to buy National Trails” in 2019 after meeting with the majority owner. “I saw the opportunity. I knew how to do it based on my time at the previous companies I was at. I was like, ‘If I’m doing this for other people, why can’t I do it for myself?’”

Today, the company has 23 motor coaches, 72 school buses, 200-plus employees at four locations in Southeast Michigan and has grown revenue from $1.6 million to more than $15 million despite the pandemic. His advice?

“‘Hard work works.’ I’m a rm believer in that.” He also thinks riding it out instead of jumping jobs was bene cial because he could focus 100% on gaining industry expertise.

—David Eggert

First job: “I got a job with Mad Science of Detroit. I was an after-school extracurricular science teacher for elementary school. I wore a lab coat. I really love teaching young kids.”

Where she hopes to be in 10 years:

“Broadly speaking, I want to continue to be able to have impact on issues like workforce development, child care and food systems. I want to be able to be solving those big problems. … I do sometimes feel drawn to being in government, but I also really love entrepreneurship.”

First job: “Paper route. On Sunday, the (Ann Arbor News) would come at like 4 o’clock in the morning, and I had to have it delivered by 7. I saved up for a BMX bike.”

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I would envision us being a premier company, respected in Southeast Michigan not only in the transportation industry but as a business as a whole.”

Nichole Baaki, 38

National Head of Business Development, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management

Aveteran of J.P. Morgan since graduating from college, Nichole Baaki is in her “dream job.”

During her 16 years at the New York City-based nancial services giant, Baaki has held both client-facing and managerial roles and was recently promoted into a role heading up business development for the bank’s wealth management division.

Just before beginning this new role, Baaki led the bank’s wealth management teams in 11 states around the Midwest.

All told, her career in the sector has allowed her to see tangible outcomes from her work, particularly when it came time for an early client to retire.

at client “walked into my o ce the next day, and they did all the heavy lifting of course by working and saving all those years,” Baaki said.

“But helping them create a plan and navigatenancial markets and invest prudently, their retirement in some ways was a big win for me too.”

Much of that work will continue in Baaki’s

First job: She worked as a hostess at Firenze Restaurant & Pizzeria in Warren, which offered plentiful free pasta.

Where she hopes to be in 10 years: Baaki said that growing up “working class,” her move into nancial services at J.P. Morgan was not necessarily “calculated.” Ultimately, she hopes to continue in a role that is challenging and “has impact to the end client.”

new role, which began in August. And it’s as important as ever given global economic uncertainty, she said.

“In times of personal crisis or confusion or large global scale — like when I started my career — people just want other people to talk to,” Baaki said. “To understand their goals and help them to invest their money in a way that achieves those goals, which are really their personal goals. So at a national level, I’m really focused on what our clients are experiences are in those 48 states.”

—Nick Manes

Ben Bernstein, 37

Principal, Beringea LLC

Early in his career, venture capitalist Ben Bernstein was “thrown to the wolves, but made it out alive.”

A Los Angeles native who went to school at Princeton and went on to work in investment banking at UBS just before the Great Recession, Bernstein quickly realized Wall Street was not the place he wanted to be.

Moving into the venture capital world allowed him to see that “time spent away from my desk was as valuable as the time spent at my desk.”

Now, Bernstein is established in Michigan VC circles and helping lead deals at Farmington Hillsbased Beringea LLC, the state’s largest VC rm.

Before joining Beringea last year, Bernstein was a principal at early-stage investment rm ID Ventures in Detroit and held a variety of roles in tech startups and venture investment.

A key goal is to level the playing eld for startup founders and the funds that fuel their growth. Having seen “ rsthand the disparity in funding for founders from underrepresented back-

Alex Bowman, 35

First job: Interned in the corporate affairs department at Sony Pictures

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Bernstein aims to be a partner at Beringea.

grounds,” Bernstein said a key professional goal is to address that issue.

While that work was ingrained at ID Ventures — part of nonpro t Invest Detroit, partially funded with philanthropic dollars — working at a more traditional venture rm comes with challenges and opportunities, Bernstein said. At Beringea, Bernstein said he has more reach to companies and investment pipelines, but the rm’s overall goal is to generate returns for partners.

He says his status as the “new guy” at the rm gives him opportunity to bring in new ideas.

“I can also do some of that stu on the margins where I’m broadening our funnel … and I think my partners appreciate that,” Bernstein said.

— Nick Manes

Partner; Co-Leader, Emerging Companies Group, Honigman

Alex Bowman placed third and fourth in the 1500- and 800-meter races at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships and was on the all-ACC academic team at the University of Virginia. After graduating, he came to Detroit to teach as part of Teach for America.

“I like to joke that I met my wife in middle school. We were teachers together.”

He wanted to be a juvenile defense attorney because he loves mentoring young people. But before going to Wayne State University Law School, he took a job with Chalk y, an o ce and school supplies startup. It was his rst experience with a startup and with venture capital, his legal focus.

Now he is proud to be co-leader of Honigman’s Emerging Companies Group, which helps entrepreneurs and young companies navigate legal issues involved in forming,nancing and growing their ventures.

“ e whole goal around the group was to say, ‘We’re doing this startup work. We’ve been doing it for years. But how do we create a platform that allows younger attorneys to learn a lot but

First job: “I was the assistant to a principal of a summer school. Think administrative assistant, that sort of thing. The pay was good. I think I got $7.12 an hour. I loved it.”

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I’d really like to see our rm become the go-to law rm for venture capital investors based in the Midwest. Oftentimes, investors can look to Silicon Valley for this type of work. ...Innovation was happening here in Detroit long before Silicon Valley was even Silicon Valley. It bothers me that we look elsewhere for this support and these resources. We have the expertise right here, right down the street.”

also to build their practice?’” He works with venture capital investor clients, too, which is “pretty awesome.”

Bowman attributes his success to his parents and their work ethic. His mom and dad spent more than 35 years each at the post o ce and the Virginia Department of Corrections, respectively. He also credits two “incredible mentors” at Honigman, Alex Parrish and David Parsigian.

—David Eggert

First job: “A sales rep at my uncle’s dry cleaners in Detroit when I was in high school. It was hot. He did not have air conditioning.”

Where she hopes to be in 10 years: “I hope to be leading the nonpro t I founded in 2021 in honor of my grandma, the AJ Butler Northeast Detroit Community Action Coalition, on the east side of Detroit full time and doing community development through housing revitalization and new construction.”

Sherisse Butler, 39

Senior Vice President and Executive Director, City Year Detroit

Early on, Sherisse Butler planned to go into medicine or the health sciences, but activism and advocacy are in her blood.

e example set by her grandmother, well-known Detroit community advocate Anne Butler, took her on a di erent path. “She was a community activist and child defender, and her in uence has made me the person I am today,” Butler said. “Her commitment to education and advocacy for the most vulnerable children in our community has been a driving force in my career path.”

e younger Butler earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from Columbia University, a master’s from Columbia’s Teachers College, and a master’s in divinity from the university’s Union eological Seminar. When she returned to Detroit in 2015 with no intention of staying, she learned that emergency management of the state’s largest school district was ending. She began volunteering for educational initiatives and school board campaigns. Later, she took a job at Teen Hype, providing sexual health education support for Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Butler pivoted for a short time to a communications role at the Detroit Land Bank Authority but had her eye on education. She returned to DPSCD and eventually became senior director of government a airs, where she helped secure school facilities funding as part of the scal 2022 budget, she said.

She took the helm of City Year Detroit a year ago, overseeing a $7.4 million budget and 110 employees. During her short tenure, she helped increase the number and diversity of student success coaches tutoring and mentoring in Detroit classrooms from 53 to 71.

Dimitri Cason, 31

Creative Director, Storehouse in a Box LLC; President and CEO, The Victors

Simply listening has been key for Dimitri Cason.

“It’s essential for me to absorb as much knowledge as I can without becoming stagnant,” Cason said. “I’m a MSU graduate with a degree in apparel and textile, a self-taught clothing and footwear designer with an expertise in Adobe Creative Cloud and AI design implementation. e path to my current level of success has been paved by a dedication to continuous growth and using my role strategically to gain comprehensive insights.”

Cason, creative director of a fundraising, design and marketing company with $40 million in annual revenues, is in the nal stages of bringing the company’s rst footwear o ering to the market. “As someone who is considered a ‘sneak-

First job: Cason worked as an understudy for a family friend, an electrician, when he was 14 so he could buy a computer. He earned $25 a day. “That allowed him to mentor me in the trade,” Cason said. “By the end of the summer, I saved enough money to buy a Dell PC.” Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Cason believes The Victors will stand as a global ecosystem that offers premium, affordable apparel. “Our mission will be to instill con dence in children around the world,” Cason said, “not merely through fashion but by in uencing their overall self-perception and potential.”

erhead,’ this is one of the most exciting product lines I’ve launched.”

Giving back to the community is big for Cason. rough Storehouse in a Box, he established his own company. e

Victors provides high-quality athletic apparel for kids and people in underserved communities. Storehouse in a Box and e Victors Foundation collaborate with nonpro ts to o er nancial resources that enhance the nonpro ts’ community service e orts.

Cason has helped get uniforms for students in a New York school. He was also part of an e ort that saw Storehouse in a Box adopt a school and village in Uganda, where the more than 5,000 residents gained access to water and solar power.

“My work allows me to instill condence in the youth and nd joy in serving others,” Cason said. “ e ful llment from these experiences rea rms my dedication to fostering creativity, condence and community growth.”

— Jay Davis

— Sherri Welch PHOTOS BY NIC ANTAYA

CT Charlton, 39

President, Charlton Group

CT Charlton is reimagining the family business after taking the reins from his father ve years ago.

For decades, St. Clair Shoresbased Charlton Group has functioned as a sales liaison in the automotive industry, growing its expertise and network to become one of the go-to rms for business development. It has expanded to accommodate changes in the industry over the years, including opening a warehousing and distribution center for its overseas suppliers. At a time of great change in the industry, Charlton knows the company is poised to be very different than the one founded in his grandfather’s basement.

“ e investment side of our business is so interesting and with so many new companies around the mobility space, this is a place that I can see us growing a lot faster than we are on the sales side,” he said.

Charlton said that could mean launching an investment fund and growing the portfolio of companies it has a stake in, which number about 15 currently. He said the sales side of the business will remain a large chunk of overall revenue, but growth would be greater with more capital than just its own.

Charlton’s future is up in the air,

Chantal Corn eld, 35

Regional Director of Operations, American House Senior Living

Working in health care was long a calling for Chantal Corn eld, but becoming a doctor was not the right path.

Rather, selling and operations became her passion, instilled in part by an early college job selling Cutco knives. Combining that skill with a “deep love and respect for grandmas and grandpas” helped bring Corn eld into the ever-growing senior living sector where she’s worked in a variety of roles for nearly a decade.

Since 2018, Corn eld has headed up regional operations for 14 of South eld-based American House Senior Living’s more than 50 facilities. It’s a job that keeps her busy and likely will stay that way.

ere are some 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day, Corn eld said, adding that the population of older adults who are 85 or older will double by 2036 and triple by 2049.

e organization’s goal is to “be a one-stop shop for your loved one,” Corn eld said.

“We’re able to provide them everything from daily activities,

First job: “When I turned 16, I started a valet parking business, working for parties, clubs or events around the Detroit area. We had 15 employees and would be running two crews per night on the weekend. I then added car detailing to the mix.”

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I see our company shifting more towards the nancial side. What that looks like I’m not totally sure… I don’t think we’d ever sell it. This is a company that my father and my grandfather started, so, for me, it’s more of a duty to carry this on and to help it grow.”

in more ways than one. at’s because the company president found a way to merge his passion for ying with his work. Charlton regularly pilots the company’s corporate jet out of Oakland County Airport, shuttling sales sta around the country to make deals.

— Kurt Nagl

First job: A hostess at a restaurant in South Carolina

Where she hopes to be in 10 years: Working with and advising future developers, owners and investors in the senior-living sector.

nourishment and transportation to and from medical and doctor’s appointments,” Corn eld said. “We have a culinary director and team on site that create the meals, and the residents are actually a part of creating the menu … So if they never wanted to leave their four walls, they wouldn’t need to. But we certainly provide them opportunities to leave the community and do things that they’re still interested in.”

Corn eld’s brother, Christopher Letts, was part of Crain’s 40 under 40 class in 2020.

—Nick Manes

Rian English Barnhill, 39

Vice President of Government and Community Affairs, Olympia Development of Michigan

Rian English Barnhill has taken a unique journey to end up in Detroit real estate development, cutting her professional teeth in journalism and education along the way.

e Renaissance High School and Tennessee State University graduate is now one of the most prominent public faces for the $1.53 billion in new and redeveloped buildings proposed for the Ilitch family’s District Detroit area along with contributions from New York City-based mega developer Related Cos.

Ranging from television interviews and panel discussions to community presentations and public meetings, Barnhill, who is vice president of government and community a airs for Detroit-based Olympia Development of Michigan, has been at the forefront of the process to kickstart the revived e ort to build out the District Detroit.

After her undergraduate degree — she recently completed an MBA at Yale University — Barnhill said she started freelancing for “anybody who would let me write, basically,” including Ambassador Magazine, Detroit Metro Times, Real Detroit and others. She ended up as an editorial assistant for Am-

bassador, and then parlayed that experience to become managing editor of the Michigan Chronicle. But as newsrooms were shrinking in the Great Recession, she wound up working in education doing things like teacher and student recruitment and fundraising for the Education Achievement Authority and Detroit 90/90, a nonpro t that provides management services to Detroit charter schools.

In October 2019, she wound up at Olympia. “It seems like an odd turn, but because of my connections with community, particularly in education and nonpro ts, I got a call from ODM,” Barnhill said. “And it’s like, ‘How does real estate development t in to education?’ And it really comes down to, as I jokingly say, everyone in Detroit is not six degrees of separate, it’s one degree of separation.”

From there, it was a grind, Barnhill said: 100 meetings in 100 days with a range of people. City council members. Former Neighborhood Advisory Council members. Developers. Nonpro ts.

It was a precursor to what eventually would come as Olympia and Related sought approvals this year in a slew of public meetings for a host of incentives — $800 million worth — from the state, city and Downtown Development Authority on the projects, the rst of which is set to start this year.

Now, with the incentives approved – including a $616 million transformational brown eld package – Barnhill is working to deploy the raft of negotiated community bene ts over the course of the next ve years.

at package includes things like development programs, education initiatives, minority business e orts and green space and public transit/parking plans.

— Kirk Pinho

Brandon Hanna, 39

Managing Partner, E ncore R eal E state Investment Services

Brandon Hanna caught the real estate bug early — really early — and hasn’t looked back since.

e West Bloom eld Township-based brokerage house Encore Real Estate Investment Services he co-founded with two partners just a few years ago now has a roster of about 40 investment sales brokers pulling in nearly $1 billion in revenue last year. Commercial Property Executive magazine ranked Encore as one of the top 25 brokerages in the country.

“We’re de nitely a force,” Hanna said.

Hanna started his career in brokerage at age 21 at Marcus & Millichap Inc., a California-based rm with an o ce in South eld, but his education in the industry started well before that.

“Real estate has always been in our family growing up,” Hanna said. “ e family pivoted into the gas station business. I would hear all the conversations about hard-corner locations, Main and Main locations, high tra c counts when I was like 9 years old. It was de nitely something that I grew up having an interest in. I was intrigued.

“Jeez, I did my rst deal when I was 15 years old. It was more from an investment standpoint, but I also got to understand the real estate so well that I was like advising family at that time on business strategies, business valuations.”

First job: He worked at his family’s grocery stores in Detroit.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Still brokering real estate deals around Detroit. “I always tell everyone: I’m a path of least resistance guy. I like to stay in my lane, my lane being real estate investment brokerage.”

Hanna and co-founders Deno Bistolarides and Ryan Vinco began recruiting brokers to start Encore in 2016 and launched the next year. Over the years, they have assembled a team with expertise in retail, multifamily, o ce and industrial space.

— Kirk Pinho

Brian Hartmann, 39 President, NorthStar Clean Energy

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Brian Hartmann worked at IBM as a strategy operations consultant. But he wasn’t super passionate about it.

He also taught in Africa through the WorldTeach program, which was a good experience that helped him realize he did not want to teach as a career. He took note, however, that he loved being outside.

“ at’s kind of when it all clicked for me that what I really wanted to focus my career on was doing something great for the planet, protecting the environment.” He returned to UM for grad school, getting master’s degrees in business and environmental sustainability.

At McKinsey & Co., he was a sustainability fellow and eventually an associate partner in Australia, focusing on work in energy and mining. He moved back to Michigan and connected with Jackson-based CMS Energy, where he took a job leading corporate strategy and further developing a “very inspirational” clean energy plan.

Hartmann later took charge of a subsidiary, NorthStar Clean Energy. It has about 200 employees, 11 power plants and additional solar arrays in development. It mainly helps large corporate customers reach decarbonization goals with on-premise renewables and storage, large-scale renewables o site and negative carbon credits.

e Chelsea resident is proud of the com-

First job: “I worked at a Rollerblading rink called U.S. Blades. I would Rollerblade around and make sure no one was getting in any trouble.” Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “Really, I wouldn’t mind still being in the same job, but I would want the company impact to be 10 times bigger than what it is today. As long as I’m doing something where I’m helping protect the environment and nding ways to have the impact … I’m pretty content.”

pany’s work converting biomass plants to do carbon capture and sequestration. It is innovative, he said, helps the environment and extends the life of the facilities.

—David Eggert

Vice President, Detroit market, CHN Housing Partners Inc.

Perhaps it was fate that Jason Headen ended up in commercial real estate. After all, his father worked in property management at the Renaissance Center and Fisher Building. But Headen has carved his own path to get to where he is today — and picked up new skill sets along the way.

After graduating from Wayne State University with a business management degree, he wound up in property management for Southwest Housing Solutions. He transitioned to Independent Management Services, which taught him the ins and outs of Section 8 housing.

From there, he joined Bedrock LLC, managing commercial properties, like the Globe Building, the Oslo Building, 1449 Woodward and the Chase Tower and working on tenant buildouts. Headen also worked on the transformational brown eld legislation that ultimately would end up helping subsidize four large downtown Detroit projects.

Today, he works on a ordable housing, including the Detroit Housing Net-

First job: Headen’s rst job was helping out with his dad’s janitorial company when he was 10 or 11.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I’m happy with what I’m doing right now with CHN, creating homeowners. I think that there’s a way that I can gure out how to take that to another level, whether that’s me developing homes or creating opportunities in the city itself. I think at some point, I could see myself absolutely taking a larger role in the real estate eld in Detroit.”

work, a coalition of a ordable housing organizations.

“It was very timely because of the global pandemic,” he said. “ e genesis was, all these organizations provide HUD housing counseling. ey provide credit repair. ey go through the mortgage process.”

Also on his plate: Working with Detroit Blight Busters on a new a ordable housing project in northwest Detroit, and another yet-to-be-announced project with two other groups, as well.

Steve Hernandez, 35

CEO, The North Group Inc.

Steve Hernandez credits his time in the U.S. Army with building the foundation for who he is today.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hernandez enlisted and subsequently served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom during the troop surge.

After transitioning out of the Army in 2011, he enrolled in Schoolcraft College’s culinary program on the G.I. Bill, but that career trajectory was changed with one call. A friend asked if Hernandez had thought of working in private security.

“He calls me back and says, ‘Hey, I’ve got a kidnapping. Do you want to help me out?’ I jokingly responded with, ‘Who are we kidnapping?’ He laughed,” Hernandez said, recalling how he came to work for an insurance company that underwrote kidnapping and ransom policies.

Kyra Harris Bolden, 35

Justice, Michigan Supreme Court

For Headen, his work is a continuation of his dedication to the city.

“I had opportunities to leave around the time I graduated, but I always saw myself as a part of the solution to stay in the city, work in the city because I love it so much,” Headen said. “ ... My thing is taking action and making sure it’s a good decision and good action for all, so I try to step up in spaces and places where I can because I care.”

—Kirk Pinho

Kyra Harris Bolden made history Jan. 1 when she became the youngest person and rst Black woman to serve as a Justice for the Michigan Supreme Court — and she didn’t even want a career in law initially.

“I was actually in college to get my psychology degree,” she said. “I had no interest in becoming an attorney.” at all changed when she learned about the death of her great-grandfather Jesse Lee Bond. Bolden discovered that Bond, a cotton farmer from Tennessee, had been lynched. Yet authorities misclassi ed it as an accidental drowning.

“Hearing about the injustice in my own family made me reevaluate my own life,” she said. “I’ve always had a strong sense of justice.”

First job: Hernandez was a busboy at Corrati’s on Main in Milford. Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I want to be in a position where I can truly be making a difference in the world, nancially and philanthropically.”

He then moved into things like corporate executive protection, law enforcement, security consulting, but, as he says, he “got the business bug.” Even after a previous business venture went belly up, he wasn’t deterred.

e North Group, which works in corporate, private and government sectors, formally launched in 2017 and, today, is a $5 million business with 150 employees. Currently, he is working on a school safety training program that he plans to launch this year and have in schools by

Daniel Kaufman, 38 President, Burns & Wilcox

When your grandfather is the founder and your dad is the chairman, making waves isn’t usually the rst thing you do as the heir apparent of the family company. But after graduating from law school, Daniel Kaufman had some ideas.

“It wasn’t right away, I spent a couple of years in our Chicago o ce being mentored,” Kaufman said. “It was one of our worst o ces despite the market size. It had major turnover and was just trying to be everything to everyone.”

Kaufman quickly became the managing director of that o ce and worked to hire a younger crop of associates and reduce its scope.

“We totally shifted the kind of business we wrote and who we wrote it with,” he said. “We needed a client focus and real expertise instead of being a generalist. We can’t be an expert in everything. Being a clear expert in one area or a few ar-

First job: Data entry with the family company at 16 years old. Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I hope to double the company in ve years; so in 10, I hope to be operating a signi cantly larger business that is still family-owned.”

eas was critical to our success.”

Kaufman quickly took over more of Burns & Wilcox’s Midwest o ces and became the COO in 2018, before becoming president in 2022.

In 2019, the rm needed a new CIO and Kaufman set out to not hire one with insurance experience, but from a bank. With a new CIO from Flagstar, Burns & Wilcox invested $100 million to overhaul its core IT systems. ose systems are just now rolling out, and Kaufman expects big returns.

Kaufman’s current goal is to double the company’s $2.4 billion revenue by

early next year.

“I have watched the increase in school shootings, the ignored warning signs, and when Oxford happened, the personal ties to the shooting led me to get up and do something,” he said.

—Kirk Pinho

Prior to joining the state’s high court, where justices vet some 200 cases a month seeking appeal, Bolden was a state representative in the Michigan House of Representatives. Before the legislature, she served as a judicial law clerk in Wayne County’s ird Circuit Court and practiced as a criminal defense and civil litigation attorney. Her work centered around criminal justice reform and helping pass bipartisan legislation to protect survivors of sexual violence.

Getting up to speed on the Michigan Supreme Court has been a whirlwind and among the biggest challenges Bolden has faced, she said, but it has been worth it.

“I think one of my great successes is just seeing the look on little children’s faces when they meet me and they know who I am…just that inspiration,” she said. “For me, success is helping the next person. I’ve always believed in lifting as you climb. I can be whatever, but if I’m not inspiring the next generation to be better, then I feel like I haven’t done my job.”

—Kurt Nagl

First job: Camp counselor at South eld Parks and Recreation. “I started in latchkey and learned how to entertain children all day…You have to have stamina, a positive outlook and good time management.”

Where she hopes to be in 10 years: “I just hope that I am making an impact, that I am inspiring others. Hopefully if I have done my job correctly, there will be other people that can take the reins.”

2028.

“Our biggest competitors are newer companies backed by private equity or are big public companies” Kaufman said. “I came with fresh perspective knowing we have to constantly evolve. I had to gure out how we leverage our history, but not be stuck in the past.”

— Dustin Walsh

Kiel Smith Senior VP, General Counsel, & Corporate Secretary

Vincent Kirkwood, 37

Associate Director, Sports/Entertainment & Major Accounts, Americares

After earning a master’s degree in sports administration from Wayne State University, Vincent Kirkwood spent a year in the professional sports world, holding positions in game operations, new media and group events with the Washington Wizards and WNBA’s Mystics and Cleveland Cavaliers.

He returned to Michigan a year later in 2011 to join Madison Heights-based experiential marketing company MRA as a program coordinator over consumer events.

Over the next 11 and a half years, he was promoted to director, then senior director of diversity and inclusion and business-to-consumer events.

“It was still in sports but also included working with consumer brands like liquor brands, retailers

First job: Cashier at Taco Bell in Ferndale.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “In 10 years, I hope to be a part of helping an organization reach its maximum potential. I want to have learned all I can and be a thought leader who inspires others.”

and sports retailers,” he said.

Last fall, he left MRA to hone his leadership skills as executive director of PlayWorks Michigan where he’s managed relationships with funders, school partners and the nonpro t’s 22 employees.

e nonpro t, which provides supervised play to keep kids active and help them develop social and emotional and con ict resolution skills, is expanding to 48 schools in Southeast Michigan this year, up 35 year

Thomas Klein, 34

COO, Ascension Medical Group Michigan

Thomas Klein is quick to tell you he’s not a doctor. But when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020, he was tasked with quarterbacking Ascension Michigan’s response.

“I was sitting on my couch when I got the call telling me I needed to report to the o ce and lead our medical technical unit,” Klein said. “ ere was a team of doctors in the room, all smart people. Everyone was tasked with various projects. We were all in a state of panic. But we needed to solve real problems and report out plans in a meaningful way. Plans in health care administration usually take four weeks or four months or four years. We were making plans in minutes and hours.”

Klein’s team had to gure out big problems that seem basic today, but there was no playbook at that point. How would they screen employees

First job: Concrete laborer for 5 Star Concrete Solutions, a family business based in Howell.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “Maybe it’s cliché, but in the next decade I plan to still hold a leadership role in health care. I see myself working in the community and in executive-level leadership.”

for work? Which masks should employees and visitors wear?

ese were the most important decisions administrators had to make. At its peak, there were 1,300 COVID-positive patients in Ascension’s Michigan hospitals, and 100 a day were dying from the virus. Keeping employees healthy was paramount.

“If our clinicians were ghting that hard, we knew we had to work equally as hard to keep them safe,” Klein

Bill Kozyra, 38

President, Alco Plastics

Automotive is in Bill Kozyra’s blood.

Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, Kozyra ascended to the automotive supplier C-suite at Romeo-based Alco Plastics Inc., where he serves as president of the plastic injection molding company. Kozyra said his experience rescuing a molding plant from the brink of closure earlier in his career positioned him to handle the challenges facing Alco, which employs 135 and has $20 million in revenue.

Kozyra, who has been in the industry 20 years, cut his teeth working for major tier-one suppliers, including yssenKrupp and BorgWarner, where he worked closely with sub-tier suppliers and became interested in the manufacturing side of the

over year. It also operates in every Kalamazoo elementary school and is entering Jackson schools for the rst time this fall.

To help fund its expansion into new schools, Kirkwood helped secure a $950,000 grant from the state.

At the end of September, he joined global health relief organization Americares as associate director of enterprise partnerships. Playing on his earlier strengths, Kirkwood will help cultivate relationships with sports and entertainment groups to support Americares’ mission.

e new role will enable him to use his skills in development, fundraising, sports and entertainment

“to continue making a greater impact not only in Detroit but across the world as well,” he said.

— Sherri Welch

First job: “My rst paying job was as a general grounds laborer at a pheasant hunting club at the age of 14.” Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I hope to have doubled the size of Alco plastics and be working on a new exciting venture in niche automotive manufacturing after having developed the right leadership to run the day-to-day business that I am currently doing.”

business. At TI Fluid Systems, he took on a role as manager of a plant in New Baltimore that was failingnancially and nearly subject to resourcing to China.

“ is operational turnaround not only saved the plant from closure and resourcing overseas to China, it also saved over 150 jobs and allowed the plant to qualify for additional in-

said.

rough four surges between 2020 and 2022, Ascension Michigan treated 40,000-plus COVID patients.

In late 2021, Ascension promoted Klein away from his non-COVID role of vice president of oncology services to COO of its medical group in the state. His current goal is simple. Expand ambulatory services to care for the state’s aging population.

“Even though we have a at population, more and more people are needing care,” Klein said. “Access is key. We’re looking to gure out how we get our Medicare population their annual screenings, making sure our mammography unit is growing and overall making our populations healthier. Getting to disease early produces better outcomes and, frankly, the costs are lower.”

— Dustin Walsh

vestment and growth,” Kozyra said. “ e plant went from nearly closing down to becoming a agship facility within TI Fluid Systems.”

While many small suppliers and injection molding shops have struggled due to supply chain woes and general cost cutting in the industry, Kozyra sees a path toward building Alco up to $50 million to $60 million in annual revenue while creating upwards of 250 more jobs in Michigan.

at will happen through small strategic acquisitions, growing business with existing customers and landing new ones, he said.

“I am looking to extend our customer base and grow the automotive business while preserving our family-oriented company atmosphere.”

— Kurt Nagl

Wonwoo Lee, 34

Chief Real Estate Of cer, Oxford Cos.

For Wonwoo Lee, his career overseeing a $450 million real estate portfolio for Ann Arbor-based landlord Oxford Cos. is an o shoot of one of his passions: Telling stories.

While at the University of Michigan, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Lee worked on a research project that data-mined and analyzed the results of 618,000-plus U.S. tax court cases, developing a predictive model for how others should turn out. at type of quantitative modeling could, he thought, be applied to other relationships like predicting how people commute — by foot, bus, car, train or bike.

A fascination with urban planning was born.

“ ere’s a lot of stories behind how cities came to be,” Lee said. “ ink of I-94’s impact on Detroit’s immigrant neighborhoods or geospatial segregation in Chicago — transportation and land use are inextricably tied as we evolve mobility, and its implications on socioeconomic access and equity.”

Lee, who was born in South Korea and raised in the U.S., is a proli c musician who performed in a lot of musical theater; he plays 13 instruments ranging from guitar and bass guitar to the clarinet and piano.

“I felt that urban planning was kind of a good intersect of people and art,” Lee

First job: Tutoring math at Kumon in high school.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I think I’ll still be in Ann Arbor, working on economic development and writing progressive policy, building great places and doing placemaking where people can make meaningful memories.”

said. “ ere’s such a human element of real estate. at’s where the intersect of doing music, telling stories, making people feel emotions, to placemaking, what the built environment does to human behavior and all of that kind of consolidated well.”

He started his career working as a consultant doing zoning analysis for Ann Arbor and then joined McKinley Inc. as an analyst and shortly thereafter became portfolio manager in 2014, overseeing a $250 million portfolio working in leasing, budgeting, re nancing, development and investment, he said.

In 2016, he joined Oxford, starting rst as asset manager, then becoming director of asset management before taking on his current role in May 2022, overseeing some 2.6 million square feet of real estate. He is also a member of the Ann Arbor Planning Commission and a guest lecturer at UM.

—Kirk Pinho

Rian English Barnhill Vice President of Government and Community A airs

Nick Leja, 36 Alex Linebrink, 38

Owner, Plato’s Closet, Disc Replay, European Wax Center, My Salon Suite, and Superior Fence & Rail franchises

Receiving a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach eir Kids about Money at the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!” from his father while in middle school helped send Nick Leja down his entrepreneurial path.

Leja began assembling his large franchise portfolio not long after graduating from Kettering University in 2008 with an electrical engineering degree.

Enter Disc Replay, a resale business that buys and sells used video games, movies and electronics. His rst franchise in Flint proved successful, and it was full steam ahead from there. His dad, however, wasn’t yet convinced.

“For probably two years after I opened my rst business, he kept clipping job ads” for electrical engineering positions, Leja said. “He was very much against business ownership. I don’t know why he gave me that book, but that was kind of what made me start thinking with a more entrepreneurial mindset. Before that, I wanted to be an astronaut or a doctor or whatever. But after reading that book, I realized that I wanted to go forward like the ‘rich dad’ route and not get caught in the rat race.”

Leja didn’t put all his eggs in one basket: His second franchise was Plato’s Closet, also in the resale space, but for clothing.

Today, Leja has dozens of franchise locations of Disc Replay, Plato’s Closet, European Wax Center, My Salon Suite and Superior Fence & Rail locations around the country generating some $60 million in revenue. He’s also started writing books, with two on personal and professional development under his belt and a third on the way.

Kirk Pinho

First job: Leja started out at McDonald’s.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Leja, a new father, plans to spend time living abroad with his family.

CEO and Co-Founder, Passage Inc.

From companies funded by credit card debt to scraping by during the COVID-19-induced shutdowns, Alex Linebrink has experienced the ups and downs of a modern-day startup entrepreneur.

Since 2014, Linebrink has led Passage Inc., a Detroit-based ticketing and payment startup that works with everything from professional soccer clubs to haunted house attractions during Halloween season.

“We had some great deals going into 2020,” Linebrink said. “But surprisingly, that was a turning point for us. In (early 2020, as the pandemic started), we had investors calling and telling us to shut down and kind of hibernate.”

Linebrink, however, said he rebu ed those calls and instead got to work on a platform for virtual and socially distanced events, such as virtual queues for events to avoid making people wait in lengthy lines.

As a result, the company’s revenue wound up about 80% above the previous year. Now Passage is averaging 50% growth year over year, with about $60 million in transaction volume expected this year, Linebrink said.

Linebrink’s founding of Passage nearly a decade ago came after years of work in the Detroit-area startup space that included working on a payments processing company that did work with organizations tied to billionaire Dan Gilbert. “ at’s when I started Passage. I wanted to build something that was around payments because I knew I had an edge there — that knowledge base of how that stu works,” Linebrink said. “But I also had a big background … in events.”

—Nick Manes

First job: He worked with his father in the construction business and also started a computer repair business with his father. Where he hopes to be in 10 years: The “serial entrepreneur” said it’s somewhat open-ended, noting he’s unsure if Passage will remain an independent company at that time.

•

Jack Mashini, 36

Co-Founder and Franchisor, Wing Snob

Jack Mashini owns and operates Wing Snob, a Warren-based restaurant chain with annual revenues of about $25 million. Mashini hopes the company, which has nearly 30 locations in a handful of U.S. states, doubles its footprint by the end of the year. e fast growth stems from the approach he and fellow 40 under 40 honoree, Brian Shunia took at the outset.

“(Brian) and I worked in the rst restaurant seven days a week until we knew we were in a position to step back a bit,” Mashini said. “We did the same thing with new locations, so we were really just working nonstop for the rst years as we built our teams and systems to run the well-oiled machine we have today.”

Now he’s focused on enhancing systems and growing their customer base.

“We rolled out our redesigned mobile app last year and also revamped our new loyalty rewards program, Snob Perks. We recently just celebrated hitting 150,000 Snob Perks members in our database,” Mashini said.

Mark Nasr, 37

General Counsel, Sachse Construction and Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services

Mark Nasr would have been a terrible engineer, even though he is trained as one.

Fortunately, he’s had plenty of success as an attorney for prominent Detroit-based companies Sachse Construction and Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services, which are active in the city’s development scene. He is also general counsel for three other companies in the Broder/Sachse business portfolio.

“I knew like almost the moment I started my studies in civil engineering that I was not going to be working as an engineer,” Nasr said. “ ey’re brilliant in their own regard, and I would have failed miserably as an engineer.”

After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in the eld from Wayne State University, he went on to law school at the University of Detroit Mercy, where he found his calling.

From there, he spent about six years at Plunkett Cooney, focusing on architectural, engineering and construction law before moving to Clark Hill PLC and working on similar issues.He became a member within three years. Todd Sachse, head of Sachse Construction, recruited Nasr after the attorney successfully represented his company in a legal dispute.

“I took a chance when I approached a then-34year-old to lead our legal and risk team,” Sachse said in a statement. “It has paid signi cant dividends. I am grateful for all that he has accomplished and can’t wait to see what he does next.”

Working for a diversi ed group of companies allows Nasr to work on a slew of issues on any given day – just how he likes it.

First job: Mashini got his start at cellphone stores owned by an older brother. “My stores got bought out, so that was my rst step out of the cellular industry and into the restaurant world,” Mashini said. “That was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” He owned and operated multiple MetroPCS authorized retailer locations from 2008 to 2014 and 23 metro Detroit Cricket Wireless locations until 2017. Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Mashini hopes to have 100 Wing Snob chains throughout the U.S. and in Canada. He also plans to expand into commercial real estate. “From a personal perspective, I’m looking forward to enjoying watching my kids grow with my wife as we continue building our family,” Mashini said. “Ten years from now I’ll have a teenager, so that is very crazy to think about.

Wing Snob isn’t just a business to Mashini. “Wing Snob is basically my third child,” he said. “I’m extremely proud of what (Shunia), our teams and I have built in just under six years, and we’re just getting started.”

Jay Davis

•Business,

•Fraud

•Outsourced

First job: Folding towels at Lifetime Fitness in Troy as a 13-year-old.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “To be an example as to how best to support as many people as you can, both professionally and personally. The more you can be a resource, the more you can be available to people who are in need. Not only do they bene t but you bene t because you’re making a difference. The more you can make a difference, the better you are.”

“No two days are the same,” he said. “It’s a mixed bag, for sure. It’s hard to describe without seeing it for a day, but you could have 50 di erent touch points on 50 di erent issues in a single day, which is exactly where we want to be.”

—Kirk Pinho

Michelle Navarro Ormsby, 36

Vice President of Strategy, Teach for America Detroit

Michelle Navarro Ormsby was on a law track when she realized she was meant to do something else.

Born and raised in Miami by Cuban immigrant parents, she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from University of Florida and, while prepping for law school, began teaching English in a migrant community in Florida.

It soon became clear “education is the instrument for opportunity,” the rst-generation college grad said.

She came to Michigan in 2010 as part of the Teach for America program and over the next three years taught high school, middle school and preschool before taking a sta position with Teach for America.

She held positions supporting operations and logistics for its new teacher program and served as an instructional coach returning to the classroom for a year to teach. But she soon was back at Teach for America, moving from instructional leadership coach through a number of positions to vice president of strategy in June 2022.

She currently oversees a team of four and a $2 million budget.

Navarro Ormsby redesigned the program to include more direct teachernancial supports, new approaches to workshops and coaching and localized trainings. ose things improved teacher retention and completion of the Teach for America program, along with student success and teacher engagement with the organization and one another, Navarro Ormsby said.

“We believe to create systems change,

Where

that it’s a collective e ort… when teachers connect with other teachers, they can in uence each other, inspire one another and in uence the trajectory of entire schools.”

e changes and her advocacy helped Teach for America gain the con dence of state leaders and a $30 million appropriation. Navarro Ormsby co-led the development of a strategy to expand the program across Michigan, and its national organization is adopting some of the direct-to-teacher support practices, she said.

Keith Nichol, 34 President & CEO, Carrera Capital Advisors

Aself-proclaimed “small-town kid,”

Keith Nichol made the jump from football to nance “almost overnight.”

A native of Lowell in eastern Kent County, he went on to play wide receiver and quarterback at Michigan State University from 2009 to 2011. He went on to have tryouts with multiple NFL teams — including the Detroit Lions — but never made it on to a roster. Nichol quickly realized he could have more impact in the business world.

Flash forward to today, and Nichol is working with a host of metro Detroit business elites on their nancial planning.

“As the kid who was subconsciously entrepreneurial and business-minded and nance-minded … the lightbulb went o for me,” Nichol said. “Football is all well and good and opened a lot of doors. But there’s a world of opportunity above and beyond football. (I used) football as a stepping stone to achieve and accomplish way more in life than football has to o er.”

e goal going forward, Nichol said, is to focus on a handful of strategic geographic areas where the rm could expand. at includes Naples, Fla., Newport Beach, Calif., and the Denver area, due to overall growth in the regions.

e rm can’t ignore large population centers such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, Nichol said, but the regions are not an overall focus.

Jenny Poma, 39

COO, Lighthouse

Jenny Poma cut her project management and community organizing teeth at Warren Conner Development Corp. She joined the organization in 2008 to do community organizing around safety issues and food security after earning a master’s in social work at Wayne State University. She monitored budget, scal reporting and cash draws for various projects and grants, managed government contracts and led establishment of a farmers market on the city’s east side, among other e orts.

When her hours were cut later that year, she took an additional project coordinator role at Hope Hospitality and Warming Center in Pontiac and soon was named project manager. She moved into a lead case manager role at South Oakland Shelter in 2010 and over the next nine years was promoted to director of program development and then COO.

Poma led the programmatic due diligence for SOS in advance of its 2019 merger with Lighthouse and was named COO of the merged organization. en came the pandemic.

“ at was interesting, but in a lot of ways it was good for the merger. It really tested that notion of can we do more together, and we were immediately able to respond with yes,” Poma said.

She oversaw the strategy behind expanding the nonpro t’s emergency shelter and food response. at included scaling up shelter capacity from 30 people each night to 150 through a building conversion and food assistance for 5,000 people each week during the height of the pandemic and 40,000 annually now.

In February, Lighthouse acquired three runaway homeless programs from Common Ground. Poma is assimilating those into its other programs, hiring sta and maintaining licenses for the new programs.

She’s now overseeing a $30 million campus Lighthouse is developing in the center of Pontiac.

— Sherri Welch

Where she hopes to be in 10 years: “I hope to be implementing the next vision at Lighthouse with our team we have now that I admire so much.”

First job: A college job doing landscaping work

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Nichol hopes to serve as an industry leader in the wealth management space while also having a great relationship with his children.

“We’re hyperfocused on adding the highest quality talent and individuals to our team and cultivating the talent that already exists,” Nichol said. “And then of course, what comes from that is the ability to expand and grow at a rapid rate.”

—Nick Manes

—Sherri Welch

First job: Telephone surveys of people on their political views.

she hopes to be in 10 years: “Doing work that makes me proud and taking care of my parents.”

First job: Santa’s little helper at Lakeside Mall.

Michael Prokic, 39

Vice President, IT Planning, Trinity Health

With 92 hospitals across 22 states and a coverage area of more than 30 million people, coordinating a cohesive information technology plan is more di cult than a quadruple bypass.

ere are far more arteries leading to Trinity Health’s Livonia headquarters: patient charts, centralized payroll systems, nancial records, new acquisitions, IT systems and more.

Michael Prokic led an archival project related to Trinity’s systemwide transition to Epic’s electronic health records system. e plan would terminate more than 1,000 software applications and ultimately save the company $100 million annually.

“It’s the least sexiest business achievement,” Prokic said. “But this is the largest archival project in the country. No other health system is doing a single EHR (electronic health records) program like this.”

Prokic, at the time a senior manager, and his supervisors had to build a pro-

cess, alongside asking Trinity’s C-suite for $50 million to fund the project, to migrate the mass records. Trinity hospitals in total eld more than 2 million visits annually.

Prokic’s team is partially through the program and is already saving Trinity $40 million annually.

Now that the process is operating, he’s moved on to his current role with the goal of modernizing much of the system’s legacy IT infrastructure by creating product standardization across its 92 hospitals and making the merger and acquisition integration process smoother.

“Really, it’s about building a high-performing team,” Prokic said. “We’re the planning side of IT. We’re not engineering or touching the keys. We’re project managers and we have a big opportunity in IT because of how large and complex this health system is.”

— Dustin Walsh

First job: Busboy at Ram’s Horn restaurant in Livonia.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “Really, it’s being a family man. I picture this household with kids and sports and school. It’s always a family rst kind of thing. It’s not about the title or anything. Sure, I’d like increased scope and scale of in uence, but I don’t care about the title. I’ve already made it.”

Mark Russ, 39 Chief Financial Of cer, Detroit Vs. Everybody

Mark Russ is the CFO and one of the architects behind of one of Detroit’s most recognizable brands — one with annual revenues of $1.3 million. e key to his success, he said, is making business personal.

“It’s not just about transactions and numbers. It’s about understanding people, forming genuine connections and truly caring about the outcomes,” Russ said. “In a world that’s increasingly automated and detached, bringing that personal touch sets me apart.”

Since its establishment in 2012, there have been several attempts to copy the Detroit Vs. Everybody brand.

“It’s downright annoying. We’ve poured our hearts into building a brand grounded in authenticity and genuine connections,” Russ said. “So, when I see subpar knocko s oating around with no genuine connection or story behind them, it feels like a disservice to all the hard work we’ve put in. Authenticity isn’t something you can just replicate.”

Creating Detroit Vs. Everybody with partners Tommey Walker and Sean Williams is Russ’ greatest achievement. Russ said that goes beyond manufacturing or technology.

“It’s about forging an environment where local Detroit talents can rise, collaborate and nd their

Eric Salo, 35 Director of Product Portfolio Strategy, E-Systems, Lear Corp.

When auto production shut down in March 2020 due to the pandemic, Eric Salo took on a vital assignment for Lear Corp. — helping realign the company’s E-systems segment.

e division represents about a quarter of the South eld-based seating supplier’s overall revenue, but the shift to electric vehicles and push for nearshoring have presented signi cant growth opportunities. Over the past three years, Salo overhauled the division’s R&D strategy and cut its portfolio of o erings from 24 to 10, “focusing on a smaller range of products which align with Lear’s strengths,” Salo said.

e realignment made the company more competitive, and it has since won new EV business with several automakers, including General Motors Co., which it will supply with a new $80 million plant in Independence Township.

Salo said that mentors have been key to his success. at’s why he strives to be that person for others through volunteer work with the First Tee — Greater Detroit. “ e greatest success of my career has been helping others by being a leader and a coach,” Salo

First job: Russ started out working for himself. When his grandmother, then an employee at the Detroit Medical Center, gave him multicolored pens from her job, he turned requests for a pen into a small business, selling pens to classmates for $1. Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Russ sees Detroit Vs. Everybody growing into a global brand. “The dream of creating an all-encompassing apparel ecosystem in Detroit will be realized, serving as a benchmark for cities worldwide,” Russ said.

unique voice with leading retailers. is endeavor, to me, is a testament to my dedication to amplifying Detroit’s spirit and innovation on a global scale,” Russ said.

Jay Davis

First job: “My rst paying job was mowing lawns, but my of cial and favorite rst job was driving a Zamboni while I was a college student. I got to live every hockey player’s dream and have a lot of great memories.”

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I see myself continuing to be an adviser and coach to others. I love what I do now, and I would like to be able to do it on a larger scale to increase my reach, to be able to in uence and tackle and solve bigger problems. Also, in 10 years, who knows how many new hobbies I will have picked up by then. Maybe there will be a few pickleball championships in my future.”

said. “In both my professional and personal life, I have felt most ful lled when I am helping others navigate challenges and nd the best versions of themselves.”

Kurt Nagl

Brian Shunia, 37

Co-founder and CEO, Wing Snob

Brian Shunia has taken an interesting road to running a $25 milliona-year company in just six years. Dropping out of high school as a sophomore forced him pushed him to nd another avenue for success. Shunia found a t in the “food biz” and has been in the industry for about two decades.

“I love serving people, satisfying people and, most of all, feeding people. I have a driving passion for this space,” said Shunia, the company's co-founder.

Shunia said Wing Snob consistently works to identify market trends and deciencies and work through them. Earlier this year, the company launched a learning management system platform to help franchisees streamline employee onboarding and training processes. e system will facilitate more growth for Wing Snob, which has about 30 locations around the country.

Shunia and co-founder Jack Mashini, also a 40 Under 40 honoree, recently told Crain’s the company hopes to grow to 50 locations by year end.

“We receive leads (on potential new locations) almost every day coming from not only the U.S.A. but di erent parts of the world,” Shunia said. “I know that our work is not going unseen.”

For Shunia, simply establishing Wing Snob is his greatest achievement. Successful expansion, pro tability and building a loyal customer base bring him great pride.

Jay Davis

Kiel Smith, 39

SVP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Auria Solutions USA Inc.

Kiel Smith has become a master navigator of red tape.

at’s what happens when you become the x-it guy in one of the largest automotive supplier spino s in recent years, which involved a stateowned and publicly traded Chinese company. Helping launch Auria — a supplier of vehicle carpet and acoustic components spun out of IAC Group in 2017 — is Smith’s greatest professional achievement to date, he said. e spino , which resulted in a company with 4,000 global employees and $850 million in revenue, was basically his full-time job for more than two years.

“Between being state owned and publicly traded, the amount of red tape that they have to go through to get anything done is incredible,” he said. “ e

First job: Smith worked for his parents’ small business in Toledo supplying telephone systems to companies, but his rst job on his own was mowing lawns.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I’ve been taking on more business responsibility with internal audit and IT. In the next year, I’m going to take on additional responsibility and become the chief administrative of cer for Auria… My challenge for the next year or two is understanding the HR and communications part of the business.”

scope and complexity of this deal were staggering.… e business had to be scrutinized and separated down to each piece of equipment, employee, asset, et cetera.”

As senior vice president, general

counsel and corporate secretary, Smith keeps plenty busy with challenges ranging from broken supply chains to geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S. It’s a daily grind to keep tabs on the impact that North American “onshoring” and the push to decouple from China is having on the business, not to mention tari s and trade disputes.

“We’re trying to gure out what the U.S. and China are going to do,” Smith said.

Smith had always seen himself as a lawyer, but he is being pushed — willingly — further into a business role under the tutelage of Auria CEO Brian Pour, who he credits for much of his success at the company.

— Kurt Nagl

First job: Shunia joined the ranks of the employed when he started working at a local Caribou Coffee location. “When I was 14, one day my sister and I walked into a Marshall’s, and I saw a necklace I wanted,” Shunia said. “My sister said I’d need a job if I wanted that necklace. I bought it after I saved enough money.”

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Shunia hopes he and Wing Snob are in good health, that the company earns global recognition, and that it becomes a dominant force in the quick-service restaurant space.

Nicole Smith, 38

CFO, Advantage Health Centers

Advantage Health Centers primarily provide health care services to the underserved, poor and homeless populations in metro Detroit. But relying on government reimbursement is never easy — particularly in competing for talent among the high-cost labor field of health care.

Labor costs skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic as nursing and support service roles were in short supply, driving wages up.

Nicole Smith led the development of a profitability model to keep Advantage out of the red. Smith called it “survival mode.” By adjusting the staffing model with the right patient to provider ratio, Advantage was able to increase its patient volume by 30% compared to before the pandemic. It was also able to raise some wages and open a new facility in Detroit.

“We had to ensure we could still operate,” Smith said. “We worked to put in a new staffing model … and created better communication with our clinical team that helped drive and increase our revenue. We were still able to renovate and open up a new facility to really help the underserved in Detroit.”

Smith said the system is now aiming to expand beyond serving the Medicaid population and diversifying its patient payer mix.

Tommy Tran, 39 Group COO, Detroit Medical Center

As it did for many in health care, the COVID-19 pandemic de ned Tommy Tran’s career. Serving as the executive director of performance improvement, Tran’s goals were to get the most out of the least.

e pandemic exploded the concept of performance as Tran was tasked with leading the Detroit system’s response.

“Everything was pretty much thrown out the door when COVID hit,” Tran said. “Everything was funneled through me, whether that was coordinating with the White House or the state of Michigan or our hospitals. ere was no guidance from the (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) at the time. We had to develop our own policies and hope we were right.”

Tran’s team stood up clinical and procedural policies in a week and navigated the pandemic. DMC, particularly Sinai-Grace and Detroit Receiving, were ground zero among parent company Tenet Health’s hospitals and became the companywide standard for operating under COVID.

“For us, our financial goal is to increase our revenue by 20%,” Smith said. “My current business goal is to strategize operational and financial improvements in a volatile market by promoting staffing consistency and retention.”

Dustin Walsh

“We learned that with the right subject matter experts, moving in the right direction, we can come up with a procedure in no time,” Tran said.

Tran has since become the group COO and his main goal is simple — improve and reduce patient length of stay.

Patients entering the emergency department go from “treat to street” in about ve

to six hours, Tran said. His goal is to knock that down to two hours.

“My job is to work the work ow and get patients an appropriate level of care in two hours. You don’t get better sitting in an ER.” Dustin Walsh

First job: Busboy at Crazy Buffet & Grill in Florida. Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “Either to be a CEO of a large region or to work for (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) probably would be the top of my list. Or working with the CDC to develop protocols.”

First job: Mortgage sales at 14 years old. Where she hopes to be in 10 years: “CEO is next for me. I love public health and want a bigger role in a public health organization to make a bigger impact in our community.”

John Vermiglio, 38

Proprietor and Chef, Four Man Ladder

John Vermiglio is a co-founder and chef of Four Man Ladder, a nearly 10-year-old hospitality group with annual revenue of $9.5 million and a portfolio that includes Detroit establishments Grey Ghost, Second Best and Basan. e Four Man Ladder team also includes beverage director Will Lee, chef Joe Giacomino and director of operations Michael Gray. e company has 130 employees.

Vermiglio, who’s been in the industry for nearly 25 years, said a tried-and-true recipe got him to this point.

“It’s a direct result of pure hard work and dedication,” Vermiglio said. “Setting a goal for myself at the onset of my career to open my own restaurant allowed me the opportunity to tailor my career choices from the start toward achieving my ultimate goal.”

Four Man Ladder is checking out Detroit neighborhoods and spaces for its next concept. “With so much opportunity, growth and enthusiasm in the city, it’s hard to contain our inherent desire to contribute as much as we can to this great city,” Vermiglio said.

Grey Ghost, which opened in 2016 in Detroit’s Brush Park, o ers everything from lamb chops to bologna. “As a high school senior I decided to commit my life to culinary arts and set my sights on a restaurant of my own in Detroit,” Vermiglio said. “Fifteen years later, ... I was able to achieve that goal. It’s something I’ll be proud of for the rest of my (life).”

— Jay Davis

First job: Vermiglio vividly recalls his introduction into the workforce — washing dishes at a Big Apple Bagel. Vermiglio worked his way up to sandwich artist before deciding to leave the job. “Ultimately I quit because I had to clean the bathrooms at the shop every night,” Vermiglio said.

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Vermiglio hopes to see his business portfolio grow by leaps and bounds. “I’d like to have several more businesses and several hundred more team members,” Vermiglio said. “I hope my restaurants will have become staples of the fabric of Detroit and that my path will be unexpected but ful lling.”

Erika Williams, 37

Senior Purchasing Manager, Stellantis NV

When Erika Williams graduated from the University of Michigan during the recession in 2009, she weighed the ROI of an advanced degree and decided to pursue an MBA over a juris doctorate. It paid o .

Landing at Fiat Chrysler, now Stellantis, happened more by chance than anything else. Williams regularly passed the automaker’s hulking HQ building in Auburn Hills and wondered what went on inside. On one of those trips up I-75, she decided that was where she wanted to be. “I pursued a master’s of administration in supply chain and set my sights on automotive,” she said.

She got her foot in the door after a job fair visit led to her being hired as a contract employee. From there, Williams became a buyer and worked her way up the purchasing division to senior manager heading up a more than $1 billion budget for purchasing paint, sealing, lighting and glass.

Williams said steering her department through the supply chain crisis in

the wake of the pandemic has been her biggest career challenge and achievement. With pressure to reduce production costs colliding with demands from the supply base to address in ation, Williams helped lead a team on global renegotiations of long-term contracts valued at about $500 million. e result was a “win-win scenario” and the mitigation of nearly $30 million in in ationary claims.

One of the keys to success, Williams said, is treating the work as if you own the company. “I treat every role as though it were my money, my company. If I had to sit and watch me do my job, and I were the owner, would I be pleased?”

— Kurt Nagl

Kelly Vickers, 39 Chief Development & Investment Of cer, Housing and Revitalization Department, City of Detroit

Kelly Vickers studied nance at Western Michigan University but initially had trouble entering that eld due to the state’s lengthy recession. He painted houses and sold insurance and eventually got his foot in the door with First National Bank of America in East Lansing, working in the tax lien division. He later landed at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, which was hiring and expanding programs thanks to federal stimulus packages. He worked as a closing specialist on multi-family developments before moving to Capital Impact Partners, a national community development nancial institution that started an a ordable housing program in Detroit.

Vickers was appointed to the city’s Housing and Revitalization Department

First job: “I worked for Busch’s. I cleaned up the bottle return room. I would take all the items on the shelves and bring them forward so that they were easily reachable. I would bag (groceries).”

Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I hope to apply the lessons I’ve learned in Detroit on a larger stage, on a larger scale, and help more communities and more places around the state and around the country so they can meet their affordable housing goals.”

in 2018 with a charge to boost production of a ordable housing. Financial tools like the Strategic Neighborhood Fund and the A ordable Housing Leverage Fund were in place, but everything was not aligned in the same direction. He overhauled several processes to create one throughput so de-

Glenn Wilson, 39 President & CEO, Communities First Inc.

Glenn Wilson has found his calling in residential and commercial development spaces in gritty neighborhoods of Detroit, Flint and Saginaw.

He and his wife, Essence, have built a portfolio that includes redeveloping a former school in Flint into senior housing, creating a food truck park in Genesee County and multiple projects in Detroit.

With their real estate projects, Wilson said the goal is to take an overall holistic view of people’s needs.

“We like to help people get to a place of sustainability,” Wilson said. “So, if a per-

First job: Wilson, who said he’s always been a serial entrepreneur, had a job working at General Motors that only lasted a few weeks and did work for a time at a funeral home. Where he hopes to be in 10 years: Wilson said he aims to be on more corporate boards, offering his services at the corporate level. He also hopes to coach his young children’s sports teams.

son comes in and they’re homeless, we’ll give them workforce opportunities, job training. It’s not transitional housing, but we always want people to think of housing as a transitional way to move up the

velopers can get nancial support. He has directed the investment of more than $200 million, leveraged against $1.4 billion, completing over 2,100 housing units with 1,200 under construction.

“We’ve been able to close gaps and get projects moving.”

While a big focus is securing tax credits for projects, the agency also addresses gaps related to in ation and higher interest rates. Vickers wants to nalize nancing for roughly 20 projects yet this year.

“ at’s a lot of units. It’s a lot of investment. It’s going to keep a lot of people busy.” His advice? Get a deep understanding and mastery of a job. Get to know other important people in the eld. Keep a positive attitude.

—David Eggert

economic ladder.”

While Wilson touted a number of real estate developments he’s worked on as some of the top accomplishments in his career, it’s been his ability to work side by side with his wife for over a decade that stood near the top.

“We get along quite well together,” Wilson said. “It’s pretty awesome for us to be able to work together collaboratively, understanding that we both have our unique skills and gifts, and being able to accomplish things and do great things together.”

— Nick Manes

First job: Williams’ rst job was at Media Play inside Tel-Twelve Mall in South eld. “I wanted a job there so badly, but that was short-lived.”

Where she hopes to be in 10 years: Williams’ goal is to make SVP at the company. “I’m just, at this point, taking in all the experiences, meeting all the challenges head on and just looking for all the opportunities I can to grow. I feel like if you do that, the opportunities for your career will come.”

John Zervos, 37

E xecutive Director,Global Health Initiative, Henry Ford Health

The travel time from Detroit to Kathmandu, Nepal, is roughly 36 hours.

John Zervos, a trained attorney, travels there annually, but not to celebrate Indra Jatra or to climb Mount Everest. Zervos leads Henry Ford Health’s international outreach operations. The office in Kathmandu opened in 2018 as the Detroit health system’s first international medical office. It has technology licensing agreements with hospitals in international locales, like India.

Zervos said the intent in Kathmandu is to not only expand Henry Ford’s reach but also to better understand medicine.

“We decided we wanted to have a more focused and deeper connection in fewer countries than the previous research and humanitarian work we’ve done abroad,” Zervos said. “Most (health systems) go into a place for a week and never come back. We want to be able to enroll folks in clinical trials, so we can better learn. Lower-income countries are generally not active in clinical trials.”

The office also is working to increase cancer screening and prevention programs and suicide prevention.

Zervos hires local residents in the clinic and works collaboratively with the local governments. His team travels every other month to Kathmandu.

This year, the group is opening new offices in Jordan and Colombia.

“We have a large number of physicians (in Detroit) from Jordan,” Zervos said. “We’ve developed a good relationship with King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman, and it opens a talent pipeline.”

Zervos taught English and history at the University of Bogota while earning a law degree from Wayne State University.

He has no quarrel with the Midwest — his efforts returned here during the COVID-19 pan -

First job: Newspaper delivery in B irmingham. Where he hopes to be in 10 years: “I would love to fine-tune my Spanish writing skills and pick up a little Arabic and Nepali. B eyond that, I hope to spend a lot more time in nature by getting more involved in local conservation efforts, gardening and hiking.”

demic. His department led the development and operation of HFH’s mobile COVID-19 program in Detroit and oversaw clinical trials of the vaccine.

— Dustin Walsh

How Rite Aid's bankruptcy ling could affect its Michigan footprint

Jay Davis and Kirk Pinho

Some three million square feet of leased retail and distribution space across Michigan is in limbo as a result of the planned closure of a major percentage of Rite Aid Corp. stores.

e Wall Street Journal reported based on anonymous sources that the Philadelphia-based drug store chain plans to close 400-500 of its more than 2,100 locations as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy ling.

In addition, its remaining operations could be sold or taken over by creditors involved as the company buckles under the weight of some $3.3 billion in debt and lawsuits over its over-prescription of opioids, the Journal reported.

e company website lists 232 locations in Michigan, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lings say it also has a 360,000-square-foot distribution center in Pontiac. e retail stores in the eastern part of the country

average about 11,200 square feet, according to Rite Aid's annualnancial report led earlier this year. e average Rite Aid nationwide is about 13,600 square feet.

e company has not yet detailed which stores would close, but any impending closures would likely have an e ect on Rite Aid’s footprint in Michigan, one of the states where it is the most prevalent.

Brandon Hanna, managing partner of Farmington-based En-

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

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

ARCHITECTURE

Gensler

Alicia Cecchini and Matthew Brien have joined Gensler Detroit, both relocating from Gensler London. As Studio Leader and Project Director, Alicia returns to her native Detroit with 17 years of experience and a holistic approach to designing and delivering architecture in urban centers. Her expertise is in leading multidisciplinary teams in a diversity of project scales with a focus on mixed-use developments, retail, and of ce buildings. As a Design Manager, Matthew brings 22 years of experience to Gensler Detroit, with a specialty in handling complex adaptive reuse and building transformation projects. He has a comprehensive understanding of design and functionality with successful project work in regions around the globe.

ARCHITECTURE / ENGINEERING

Fishbeck

Fishbeck is pleased to announce that Vimala Anishetty, PhD, has joined the rm as Vice President/Senior Environmental Engineer. Vimala is a senior advisor within the rm’s Environmental Management Department. She will help oversee environmental compliance and will help clients navigate the ever-changing regulatory landscape, including air quality, environmental audits, spill and contingency plans, permitting, stormwater assistance, regulatory reporting, and onsite assistance and training.

INSURANCE

Kapnick Insurance

Kapnick is excited to welcome Michael Harp as a new Partner and Client Executive, following the strategic acquisition of his East Lansing company, Michigan Group Bene ts. This move marks a signi cant milestone in Kapnick’s growth plans, expanding both their capabilities and geographical footprint. With Michael’s deep industry knowledge, Kapnick’s resources, and their commitment to exceptional service, they look forward to providing even more comprehensive solutions to valued clients.

core Real Estate Investment Services, in an email to Crain's said the closures could pose shortterm challenges for landlords although "( e closures) would create issues with landlord lenders," Hanna said, "However, I do see a light at the end of the tunnel here. ... most of the Rite Aid stores (that will close) will be located on hard corners with good visibility...and an audience of tenants will be coming o the sidelines to try and either buy or lease the properties."

"It will take time and losing a tenant in any scenario is painful, so the landlords will need to connect with brokers who understand the process to help them with repositioning the assets so they can start collecting rent again," Hanna said.

Rite Aid o cials did not respond to multiple requests for additional information on the closures, speci cally as it relates to

Michigan.

Michigan is one of the states where it is most prevalent, according to the ling. Only Pennsylvania, California and New York have more Rite Aid stores than Michigan, according to the company website.

Rite Aid’s market share lags behind some of its sti est competition in the drug store chain industry, according to online data rm Statista.

CVS Health Corp. at the end of 2022 had a U.S. market share of 25.2%. e Rhode Island-based company as of last year had nearly 9,700 U.S. locations.

Walgreens Boots Alliance, based in Deer eld, Ill., at the end of last year had a U.S. market share of 15.5% and nearly 8,700 stores.

Rite Aid at the end of 2022 had just 2.3% of the U.S. market share, behind Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart and Kroger.

Detroit-based YMCA names returning executive as CEO

e YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit has named Parrish Underwood, a former executive with the organization, as its new CEO. Underwood, 53, will rejoin the Detroit-based nonpro t e ective November 27 after its top executive for the past ve years, Helene Weir, retires.

ARCHITECTURE

McIntosh Poris Architects

McIntosh Poris

Architects announces the promotion of staff member, Blake Hill to Associate. His responsibilities include project management, project design and coordination, and technical documentation. He has extensive experience in commercial, residential, interiors, and adaptive reuse projects, and has been instrumental in several projects including Carhartt Workshop and the upcoming Fisher 21 Lofts. Blake has worked with McIntosh Poris Architects since 2012.

HEALTHCARE / INSURANCE

ASR Health Bene ts (a HAP subsidiary)

Health Alliance Plan

(HAP) has hired Chris Moyer as the next President and CEO of its subsidiary, ASR Health Bene ts. For more than 15 years, Moyer held leadership roles at Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, most recently serving as Vice President of its third-party administrator (TPA) division, HealthNow Administrative Services. His experience will enable him to deliver a wide range of customized health bene ts to employers and position ASR as a national leader in the TPA market.

NONPROFIT

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is thrilled to welcome Mary Riegle as Chief Philanthropy Of cer for the Pontiac-based nonpro t building equitable communities that alleviate poverty. Mary is a collaborative, results-driven leader who previously served as Policy and Development Director for the Downtown Detroit Partnership. In her new role she will lead a dynamic fund development team that supports Lighthouse’s mission and growth, addressing affordable housing needs, homelessness, food insecurity, poverty, and more.

He has spent his 31year career with YMCA a liates, most recently serving as chief Advancement o cer at the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta. In that role, he helped the organization secure substantial philanthropic support and achieve organizational sustainability, fostered community awareness and led partnerships to expand global impact and service-learning opportunities, the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit said in a release.

Prior to that, he was group vice president executive director at the Atlanta YMCA.

“We had strong interest, from around the country in this position and during our vetting process Parrish was a clear standout,” said YMCA Vice Chair Gail von Staden, principal of von Staden Architect, LLC and chair of the search committee, in a release.

“His history, passion, and commitment to the Detroit region are exactly what we were looking for in the next YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit leader. Parrish’s experience in large YMCA operations and philanthropy, enhanced by his vision for our 171-year-old YMCA, gives the committee con dence that he will lead our YMCA with distinction and grace and help position it for success in the coming years.”

Underwood spent nearly 10 years at the Detroit YMCA before departing for Atlanta in 2012, where he began his career, to serve as vice president- nancial development and executive director. In those roles, he oversaw operations of the public-private YMCA in Southgate and led the association’s annual e orts to raise $1.5M annually.

Underwood holds a master’s of organizational management and leadership from Spring eld College and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Morehouse College in Atlanta.

e YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit operates seven membership branches in the region in Birmingham, Detroit, Milford, Southgate, Farmington Hills, Mount Clemens and Royal Oak.

Advertising Section

Brien

Cecchini

Philadelphia-based drugstore chain Rite Aid plans to close 400-500 of its more than 2,100 locations as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy ling. | BLOOMBERG

Sherri Welch

Parrish Underwood

New Shinola Hotel executive chef: ‘There's a lot happening’

By Jay Davis

Chef Cory Barberio has grand plans for his new position as executive chef at Shinola Hotel in downtown Detroit.

Barberio, who started his new role Aug. 30, came to Detroit in 2018 from New York and helped open San Morello restaurant inside the Shinola Hotel.

e Shinola Hotel is a NoHo Hospitality property. e New York-based hospitality company also operates Evening Bar inside the hotel and Mister Dips, e Brakeman and Penny Red's restaurants in Parker's Alley adjoining the hotel.

Barberio has been with NoHo Hospitality since 2009. He helped open Italian restaurant Locanda Verde in New York City and held roles at three other New York restaurants before moving to Detroit.

e 39-year-old Royal Oak resident talked with Crain’s about a handful of topics, including his new position and wanting to turn the Shinola Hotel into a bit of an incubator for up-and-coming chefs.

What’s the gist of your new role?

Previous to my taking over as executive chef I oversaw all the day-to-day operations at San Morello: sta ng, menus, food development, o -site events, private dining room. Now I’m taking a wider view of the entire property itself. I’m trying to do the same sort of thing I did at San Morello at some of the other food and beverage venues on the property. I’m trying to get my hands on events, catering, things like that. Work to make things more e cient.

Where does the need for increased ef ciency come from?

Again, with the broader approach to operations, I’m looking at nancials, purchasing the right products, using the right vendors and sta ng in a way that we can put out the right product. It’s something I haven’t had my eyes on the last ve years. ere are a lot of moving parts.

What’s been your biggest eyeopener since you took over as executive chef?

Food and sta and hospitality is easy. en you think of the operational stu — dealing with di erent vendors, making lots of phone calls, having my door open to support sta — it’s really great. ere’s a great energy on the property. I think the most challenging thing is managing my time during the day.

What’s a typical day for you?

I’m still guring things out to see where the needs are on the property. Obviously I check in with all the venues to make sure they’re happy and rolling along. ings break and need repair. I have a laundry list of things I work through in the morning. Once the administrative stu is done, I try to integrate myself into the venues, the team. It’s typically around a 12-hours-a-day gig.

You’ve been here a while. How does the Detroit food scene compare to what’s offered in New York City?

ere’s a lot happening (in Detroit). ere’s a lot of buzz around the culinary scene. What I like most about it here is how supportive the chef community is. We talk on a regular basis, see each other at a lot of events, pick each other’s brains. It’s very collaborative, which I like a lot. As a New Yorker, we don’t get time to do that there. And it’s a little more cutthroat. I do like it here, too, that you can have a busy downtown

city with a lot of activity and live 15-20 minutes away and come straight to work. You get a little bit of a lot of things living and working in this area.

I’m sure you like all the Shinola Hotel properties. What’s your go-to spot outside of what the hotel offers?

One of the places I take a lot of people when they’re out-oftowners for a good meal, good service, is Selden Standard. It’s been around a long time. I think it’s set the standard for the downtown restaurant scene. I lean toward Italian food. If I want to eat pasta or Italian, I check out (SheWolf Pasti cio & Bar) or Oak & Reel. ose guys are all friends of mine.

Does NoHo plan to add more restaurant concepts?

I don’t think so. We’re always looking for good opportunities to increase the footprint of NoHo Hospitality. We’ve looked at spaces before. We’ve talked about it a lot.

What’s your main goal in the executive chef position?

I think I’ve always been kind of a culture guy. Bringing a higher level of culture and hospitality to the program is a big goal of mine. Kitchen work can be monotonous. Sometimes when it’s late at night you don’t want to take that extra table, that extra party. I want this to be a positive experience for guests and the people who work here. We’ve been fortunate the last ve years to have a core of people who keep the place going. Another big goal of mine is attracting more people who want to work on the property. I nd a lot of young cooks around town who have been working as long as I have but they’re still in a cooking role. I’d like to give them a place to grow and learn as a way to climb up the ladder, raise a family, earn a corporate wage. en maybe if (NoHo) does open up more properties down the line, they can have and run their own concepts.

Pair of restaurants split a well-known Sylvan Lake space

By Jay Davis

A restaurateur has brought an interesting dining concept to one of metro Detroit’s lake communities — one of which he calls home.

Brad Cousens in late August opened Goomah and Live Bait restaurants in Sylvan Lake at 2440 Orchard Lake Road — a space previously home to Pepino’s Italian Restaurant, which closed in November 2021 after nearly 40 years in business.

Goomah, Italian slang for mistress or girlfriend, o ers wood-

BANKING

From Page 3

“We should be concerned about whether our existing detection and enforcement mechanisms are up to the task, as are our regulations,” Wellman said. “ e ability to interact in human language opens a chance to in uence markets by injecting language or by extracting information from language. ese new AI systems really depend on having massive amounts of information for training. And if only certain rms and certain entities have access to this amount of information, it could really a ect the evenness of the playing eld in new and di erent ways.”

However, generative AI, or AI used to generate text, media or images, could enable labor productivity growth of 0.1% to 0.6% through 2040, a Mckinsey Digital report found. at’s the goal of Ally Bank’s new internal-facing generative AI program, Ally.ai.

Ally.ai is used by Ally’s customer satisfaction representatives to summarize the conversation and collect data to identify how employees are serving customers.

“In the traditional sense, Ally has used AI for a few years now,” Sathish Muthukrishnan, the chief information, data and digital ocer of Ally, said.

“You're running models with supervised learning, predictive analytics, image recognition, chatbots, all of the traditional AI applications. en the AI is new. So what we thought was, we should bring all of the existing AI capabilities and the new AI capabilities that we're going to build out in a single platform, which is what we call the Ally.ai platform.”

Human backstop

Muthukrishnan said the company’s three principles for the new system is to be e cient, ef-

fective and safe and does so by ensuring there is a human checking every AI-generated summary.

“I personally believe the more secure you are, the greater the trust you build with your customers,” Muthukrishnan said. “So the Ally.ai platform runs on a private cloud infrastructure, which means we have all of the data that is protected within our own infrastructure and encrypted … We remove all of the personally identiable information before we send it to the model.”

Companies utilizing AI should have transparency in their system and allow people to have a clear idea of how it works and what “guardrails” have been put in place to keep it safe for its possible uses, Wellman said.

e Ally customer satisfaction representatives have readily embraced the transition to Ally.ai, Muthukrishnan said. e team averages around 10,000 calls with customers a day and the system allows them to focus on having more meaningful conversations.

Looking ahead, Muthukrishnan said the goal is to continue improving the system and investigate other areas where Ally would e ectively utilize arti cial intelligence.

“Automating any kind of practice can reduce costs and make things work well,” Wellman said. “In general, AI has the ability to really be a democratizing force. It puts powerful information processing tools in the hands of everybody … AI is used to solve difcult problems and perform onerous tasks that we don't necessarily like to perform.”

e development and use of arti cial intelligence is not entirely good or bad, Wellman said, and it’s important that while someone utilizes the bene ts, they are also aware of the risks.

“We all have a stake in well functioning capital markets,” Wellman said.

OBITUARY

Gregory Louis (“Greg”) Nichols

January 13, 1960 - September 18, 2023

NICHOLS, Gregory Louis (“Greg”) of Clarkston; passed away on September 18, 2023; age 63. Beloved husband of Kathryn for more than 41 years; loving father of Amanda (Chris) Hess and Andrea Nichols; devoted grandfather of Theo and Charlotte. Son of Lois and the late Christ Nichols; brother of AnneMary (Peter Zagone) Nichols and Martin (Brenda) Nichols; son-in-law of Richard and Deanna Niazy; brother-in-law of Krista

red pizza along with dishes including shrimp scampi, smoky beef bolognese, rigatoni, and chicken parmesan. Live Bait features fresh seafood like what you’d nd on the East Coast, including oysters, mussels, chowder, shrimp, grouper, tuna and salmon.

Executive Chef Jason Millross and Chef Jesse Almodovar anchor a shared kitchen. Millross previously worked with Cousens when the former owned and operated Mexican restaurant El Camino in Keego Harbor. Millross also served as prepared foods manager for

Westborn Market. Almodovar moved to the area from Chicago to work as a private chef.

e two restaurants share about 6,000 square feet of space but are separate entities, Cousens said. Sta includes seven employees in the shared kitchen, six front of house sta ers at Goomah and three at Live Bait. Goomah has seating for 60 guests, plus two rooms available for private parties. Live Bait has seating for 40. Patio seating at both spots will be available come next spring, according to Cousens.

Niazy. Also survived by nieces, nephews, extended family, and friends. For over 23 years, Greg was the Chief Financial Officer of Android Industries, a global just-in-time assembler of complex vehicle systems headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. In this pivotal role, he exhibited exceptional wisdom and guidance, and Greg served as a trusted advisor to Kathryn Nichols, his spouse and Android’s CEO. Greg worked tirelessly to safeguard and foster Android’s financial health, risk management, and legal compliance. His influence and stewardship extended across various departments, including Finance, Legal, Purchasing, Business Systems, and IT. Greg’s vast contributions have been central to shaping the company’s trajectory, and he leaves a profound and enduring legacy Greg’s family meant the world to him, and they were a beacon of love and the guiding purpose in his life. He was a proud graduate of the University of Michigan and a devoted U of M football fan. Greg could often be found on the lake with his grandchildren or at the golf course with his buddies; he relished every opportunity for personal joy and relaxation alongside those he loved. Whether on the boat, at the golf course, in the Big House, or at the office, Greg had a warm spirit and generous heart. His steady presence and faithful dedication to all that mattered will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him. Family and friends shared an outpouring of love and support at Greg’s September 24th visitation in Clarkston. A similar expression of community and connection was evident at the Memorial Service on September 25th at Kensington Church in Troy, Michigan. Please share your memorials with Blessings in a Backpack or Grace Centers of Hope. You’re encouraged to leave a memory or condolence in the online guestbook at www.wintfuneralhome.com

The spokesperson,

Crain’s

Cory Barberio

CRAIN'S LIST |

LARGEST SE MICHIGAN EMPLOYERS

Ranked by full-time employees July 2023

1 FORD MOTORCO. One American Road, Dearborn48126-1899 313-322-3000;ford.com

2 STELLANTIS (FORMERLY FCA US LLC) 1000 Chrysler Drive, Auburn Hills48326-2766 248-576-5741;stellantis.com

3 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Ann Arbor48109 734-764-1817;umich.edu

23 WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY 42 W. Warren, Detroit48202 313-577-2424;wayne.edu

24 OAKLAND COUNTY 1200 N. Telegraph Road, Pontiac48328 248-858-1000;oakgov.com

25 ROBERT BOSCHLLC 38000 Hills Tech Drive,

ResearchedbySonyaD.Hill:shill@crain.com

|ThislistofSoutheastMichiganemployersencompassescompanieswithlocationsinWayne,Oakland,Macomb,WashtenaworLivingstoncounties.Numberoffull-timeemployeesmayinclude full-timeequivalents.Itisnotacompletelistingbutthemostcomprehensiveavailable.Unlessotherwisenoted,informationwasprovidedbythecompanies.Companieswithheadquarterselsewherearelistedwiththeaddressandtopexecutiveof theirmainDetroit-areao ce.Actual guresmayvary.MagnaInternationalwhichwasNo.21onlastyear'slistdeclinedtoparticipate.NA=notavailable.NOTES: e. Crain'sestimate. 1. FromForm10-KendingDec.31,2021. 2. Includesapproximately 16,000in-statepart-timeemployees. 3. Includesapproximately15,600in-statepart-timeemployees. 4. AsofJanuary. 5. BeaumontHealthandSpectrumHealthmergedasanintegratedhealthsystemwiththetemporaryname,BHSHHealthonFeb. 1.,2022.RebrandedasCorewellHealthinOctober2022. 6. FreeseDeckerbecametheheadofthemergedBeaumont-SpectrumsystemsinceitsinceptioninFebruary2022. 7. AsofDecember2022. 8. AsofJuly2021. 9. TrinityHealthIHAMedical Group. 10. IncludesTrinityHealthIHAMedicalGroup. 11 EstimatebasedonnumbersfromMWPVLInternationalInc. 12. BecameapubliclytradedcompanyonAug.5,2020,andtradingunderthetickersymbolRKT. 13. SucceededBillEmerson,interim CEO,e ectiveSept.5. 14. Planstoretireatendof2024. 15. AsofJanuary2022. 16. FiguresareFTEcountsfromtheCenterforEducationalPerformanceandInformation. 17. TotalcompanyemploymentasofDec.31,2022,accordingtoSECForm10-K. UWM declined to disclose updated employment gures. 18. Succeeded M. Roy Wilson as president in August. Want the full Excel version of this list — and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data

at's why states like Michigan and Illinois within it, many of which have massive down payments on new battery plants, are watching the strike play out with their economic futures at the forefront.

UAW President Shawn Fain has demanded wage raises of more than 40% over a four-year contract, roughly in line with what pilots have negotiated with major U.S. airlines. He points to billions of dollars in pro ts and the massive salaries of CEOs as he attempts to claw back concessions made by the union during the industry’s bankruptcy era.

Fain has plenty of data to support his push. Stellantis made $18 billion in net income last year and GM took in $10 billion. While Ford’s bottom line took a hit in 2022, it recorded $18 billion in net income the year prior.

Meanwhile, company executives have reaped rewards. e highest paid of the trio is GM CEO Mary Barra, who took home $29 million in 2022 — 362 times that of the median GM employee. At the same time, UAW pay has stagnated with autoworker pay topping out at $32 per hour after annual increases of just 3% since 2019.

President Joe Biden visited a picket line in metro Detroit on Tuesday to deliver this message to its members: “You deserve what you’ve earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than what you’re getting paid now.”

Automakers don’t disagree a raise is in order for its 150,000 UAW-represented workers; the problem is the size of the ask, said Glenn Stevens, executive director of MICHauto, a nonpro t launched in 2007 to grow Michigan’s auto industry.

“From their perspective, they can’t let the labor situation drive costs up too much," Stevens said. " ere’s a lot of pressure on them to make sure that they’re able to fund that and control all of their costs as they try to win market share in the burgeoning EV market."

e automakers and union have to balance yesterday’s nancials with tomorrow’s needs.

“Last year was the peak year for the production of internal-combustion engines in this country,” said Daron Gi ord, a senior partner in Plante Moran’s mobility practice in metro Detroit. “It’s already declining. It’s just a matter of how fast does it decline?

“ e long-term for the UAW is the next negotiating cycle. In four more years, there’s going to be a lot of plant closures. ere’s going to be consolidation.”

EVs have 30%-40% fewer parts, which will reduce the amount of labor needed by carmakers themselves, but Gi ord said new jobs created by EVs should o set those lost jobs. As transmission and engine plants go extinct, more domestic manufacturing of EV-related parts, such as batteries and electric-drive components, will bring more jobs to the U.S. Automation will eliminate some jobs but create others in maintaining equipment.

“ e overall number of workers

By The Numbers

— if you go all the way down through the supply chain — probably looks about the same,” Gi ord said.

Still, Donald Trump and others have played to the fears of job losses because of the Biden administration's push for more EVs. Trump, campaigning for a second term as U.S. president, spoke to supporters at a non-union auto supplier in Macomb County last week , worked to win over blue-collar voters.

Trump told supporters that electric vehicles would "spell the death of the U.S. auto industry" because they cost too much and consumers don't want them.

Automakers are trying to catch a falling knife with one hand and reach for the stars with the other.

“EV volumes are going to increase pretty dramatically,” Gi ord added. “ is is where all the OEMs’ capital spending is going because they’re playing catch-up to Tesla on EV technology. Some of the money the UAW wants … is going to take away from (automakers') ability to invest. at’s a problem.”

Texas-based Tesla already has a signi cant cost advantage over the Detroit 3, as do foreign automakers. Ford, GM and Stellantis pay $66 an hour in wages and bene ts per worker, according to industry data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. at’s compared with about $55 for nonunion carmakers while Tesla is

believed to be as low as $45. If the Detroit 3 meet the UAW’s demands, labor costs would soar to $136 per employee, costing the companies up to $8 billion each, according to an analysis by Colin Langan with Wells Fargo. Taking a deal as it stands now would drive up the price of an EV by $3,000$5,000, Wedbush estimates, at a time when new cars are already una ordable to many and as automakers struggle to make money on EVs.

“ is is … an almost impossible decision that could change the future of the Detroit automakers in our view,” Ives said. “Let’s be clear: is is a growing nightmare situation.”

e stakes are high in the Rust Belt because despite years of southern migration by auto companies, particularly Asian and European brands, the Midwest still has the highest concentration of autoworkers in the country. Michigan, Indiana and Ohio have twice as many auto jobs — 333,780 last year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data — as Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. Together, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois accounted for 45% of auto-manufacturing jobs nationwide last year.

In communities across the Midwest, the question of whether they’ll remain auto-manufacturing hubs beyond the next contract

heavily subsidized push to re-shore manufacturing. In most cases, those plants are owned by a joint venture with an Asian battery maker and not subject to the union’s national contracts with the Detroit 3.

“I would say that EV is the principal driver of what’s going on with these discussions,” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who specializes in labor. “I think you’re going to see signi cant job losses. I think that companies are taking advantage of the situation in knowing that producing EVs is much more labor e cient.”

Ford brought the issue front and center last week when it said it would pause construction of its planned $3.5 billion battery plant in Marshall. e plant, which was to be wholly owned by the Dearborn-based automaker with a licensing agreement with Chinese giant CATL, had been eyed for organizing almost as soon as it was announced.

Ford said it was “pausing work and limiting spending” until it felt con dent about operating the plant “competitively.” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corp., which facilitated around $1.7 billion of incentives for the project, indicated that they hope the project will resume once Ford makes a deal with the UAW.

Some look at the automaker’s move as a shrewd bargaining strategy. With Ford appearing to edge closer to a deal than its competitors, the company could be using the plant as leverage against further UAW demands. Fain didn’t mince words with his opinion on the decision, calling it "a shameful, barely-veiled threat by Ford to cut jobs."

looms large in current negotiations. Automakers are deciding which communities will make EVs, batteries and other critical parts.

e fate of plants such as the Stellantis factory in Belvidere, Ill., which made Jeep Cherokees until it was idled in February, is among those up in the air. Whether it becomes a giant parts-distribution center or a site that makes EVs is expected to be determined in this contract cycle.

“ at is the question — what, when and how many,” said Matt Frantzen, president of UAW Local 1268, which represents about 1,300 workers at the Belvidere plant.

Chris Pena, president of UAW Local 551 at Ford’s assembly plant on the south side of Chicago, calls EVs “the elephant in the room” during negotiations.

“It’s inevitable,” he said of the shift to EVs.

Workers at the Torrence Avenue plant in Chicago, which makes hybrid Ford Explorer and Aviator SUVs, already are experiencing it.

“We’ve been transitioning for some time," Pena said. "We know the EV market is the next step. It will drastically change our work … to jobs that are more technical. Wages need to re ect it.”

e UAW has demanded a “fair and equitable transition” to EVs and has been clear about its desire to organize the battery factories cropping up around the U.S. in the

Ford announced the news on the eve of Biden’s visit to metro Detroit picket lines and as the federal government is poised to clarify rules on whether “foreign entities of concern” such as China can participate in federally subsidized EV manufacturing. at decision will have far-reaching consequences.

Michigan and Illinois have hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives riding on battery plants by Gotion High-Tech, often criticized for its tied to the Chinese Communist Party. In Michigan, Gotion plans a $2.4 billion EV battery parts plant near Big Rapids that executives said they hope will remain non-unionized, and that some locals are wary of its ties to China.

e Republican Party of Illinois has alleged that the $2 billion EV battery plant scheduled to open next year in downstate Manteno, Ill., is really a front for Chinese communists to spy on key U.S. military installations.

Ford’s factory pause could be more than a ploy, said Erik Gordon, business professor at the University of Michigan. “Ford is probably re-running the numbers and is guring out, what do the economics of a battery plant in Marshall look like if it is a UAW plant at the new pay scale that we’re facing, and no temp workers, no tier workers … e economics of that plant might look very di erent than the economics that were projected six months ago.”

Ford Motor Co. invested heavily into the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, which builds the electric F-150 Lightning, as part of its electric vehicles future. | FORD MOTOR

The chart shows the combined market share of Ford, GM and Stellantis, an estimate of the blended average of the companies’ labor costs and the top hourly wage for production workers in UAW contracts.

Note: Costs and wages are nominal blended averages weighted by total employment by company. 2023 data is year to date. NA: Not available.

Source: Federal Reserve of Chicago

Social workers at Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak said families there needed lodging, and they wanted to refer them to the Ronald McDonald House, but it was 12-15 miles away, she said. at spurred the charity to invite in those families and to begin providing a free shuttle service using the passenger van they had already to get them back to the suburban hospital.

Respite for caregivers

Rising demand meant Ronald McDonald House needed a larger vehicle. e nonpro t has now purchased a 15-passenger shuttle bus with a lift for wheelchairs, funded by an anonymous donor.

e larger shuttle will hit the streets of Metro Detroit next week.

“Corewell Health’s Beaumont Children’s (Hospital) has partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities Detroit on a shuttle service that transports patients and families between facilities,”

Matthew Denenberg, chief of pediatrics at Beaumont Children’s Hospital, said in an emailed statement.

“We look forward to ongoing conversations in support of the children and families of Southeast Michigan.”

Ronald McDonald House has operated a family room at Children’s Hospital of Michigan since 2017, two years after it moved from its longtime home near the hospital to clear the way for construction of a new patient tower.

Many families seek out specialty care in metro Detroit for their children from other parts of the state,

ENERGY

From Page 3

e state's two largest utilities, DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, are voluntarily aiming for "net-zero" carbon emissions by 2050. But they are not legally mandated to do so. In regulatory cases, the companies have pledged to close their remaining coal- red plants in 2025 and 2032. Coal accounts for the lion's share of greenhouse gas emissions associated with electric generation.

Supporters of the legislation say there should be aggressive, binding targets to address the urgent problem of climate change.

"Michigan's utilities are making important progress but not fast enough. We need a regulatory framework to ensure that they act quickly and that the bene ts of clean energy and energy e ciency are shared with us," Charlotte Jameson, chief policy o cer at the Michigan Environmental Council, told senators during a three-hour hearing last week.

Critics, including manufacturers, favor a goals-based approach over mandates, saying it would provide exibility for the power industry to adapt to changing technology while balancing price and reliability.

"We simply don't know what the

other states and even other countries.

"During COVID, we had a family from Jamaica that stayed with us. A mother and two children were being treated for intensive facial surgeries at Beaumont Royal Oak," Litomisky said. "We struggled through that year getting that family back and forth, but we did it. After that, we started getting more requests from Beaumont and Henry Ford and other hospitals."

DMC Children's Hospital leases over 2,500 square feet of space to the charity for about $1 a year for the family room and takes care of the cleaning and maintenance of the room, DMC’s Smith said.

For its part, Ronald McDonald House invested $1 million to erect walls to create private “pod” spaces in that larger area at Children’s Hospital when it opened, Litomisky said. e investment equipped the room with desktop computers, lounge chairs, televisions, a washer and dryer, a fake replace to create a more comforting space and children’s toys and books. It also covered startup sta -

cost will be to one, site and build the thousands of megawatts of additional generation assets and two, securitize the retirement of other generation assets prematurely," said Mike Alaimo, director of environmental and energy affairs for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. "We don't know the cost to retro t (natural gas plants) so they comply under a carbon-free mandate."

Democrats seem unlikely to change the deadlines after recently moving their proposed original date for 100% clean power, 2035, to 2040.

Off-ramps

One focus is on o -ramps that would let utilities delay hitting the benchmarks. Power providers could seek an extension for "good cause" — if they show the Michigan Public Service Commission that complying with a deadline would not be practically feasible, for instance, or would be excessively costly for customers or would result in not enough electricity being produced.

e agency could grant up to two two-year extensions per deadline, though additional extensions could be given under certain circumstances. e bill's opponents fear lawsuits whenever an extension is or is not granted.

Smith said.

“We’re just very excited about the opportunity to continue working together.”

e Detroit nonpro t is one of four Ronald McDonald Charities a liates in the state with others in Ann Arbor, Lansing and Grand Rapids.

Operating on a $1.1 million budget with 18 sta and consultants, it hosts between 1,500 and 5,000 families each year at its Detroit house in the leased space.

e house “is a well-worn place,” Litomisky said. “Our occupancy at the house is higher than it’s ever been because we are expanding to other hospitals.”

I-75 carpool lanes would open under legislation

By David Eggert

ing and operating costs for the rst three years.

e charity would seek a similar amount of space and help from other hospitals to build out family rooms with pods, showers and other amenities, she said.

Filling a need

e Ronald McDonald family room at Children’s “is such a beautiful place of respite,” Smith said, enabling families to have a place to rest that’s near their child.

“We want to bring that same level of comfort, as well as amenities, to Hutzel families.”

DMC is in the process of looking at di erent space options at Hutzel, with the goal of opening a family room in the hospital sometime next year, she said.

Ronald McDonald House would fund supplies and amenities “and we’d work together if there are any facility or construction needs,”

What

is renewable?

Michigan de nes renewable energy as electricity generated from sources such as wind turbines, solar panels, dams, land ll gas and biomass. Under the bill, the burning of biomass, or wood waste, would still count but from existing plants — not future ones. Also, those facilities could no longer core biomass with scrap tires or tire-derived fuel.

e provisions are opposed by the biomass and timber industries. ey say bioenergy, while accounting for a tiny fraction of overall power generation, provides reliable baseload power to complement intermittent wind and solar, gets rid of old tires and reduces emissions. Biomass critics say it pollutes the environment and is not truly clean like wind and solar are.

What is carbon-free?

It would be up to the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, to de ne what carbon-free means. An earlier version had a de nition and included an exception for existing natural gas plants, which have helped to replace coal, if they are retro tted to be at least 90% e ective in reducing carbon emissions or in capturing and storing carbon.

Ronald McDonald House is in the midst of a $2 million capital campaign launched in 2021 to fund upgrades to the house and to help cover the costs of shuttle services and overnight stays. So far, it has raised $1.3 million of its target, Litomisky said.

ere is “absolutely” need for another Ronald McDonald house in Southeast Michigan, she said, “but I don’t know where it will be.”

About ve years back, the charity was in late-stage talks with Beaumont about putting a new, 10-room house on its campus, but the deal fell apart just before the contract was signed, Litomisky said.

“I think we want to dust that o and look at it again. We’re really just it for families from out of town,” coming to get medical care for their child, she said.

Mike Johnston, executive vice president of government a airs and workforce development with the Michigan Manufacturers Association , said "it is inappropriate to delegate authority over the state's economic competitiveness to an unelected panel of three people."

On the other side, some environmentalists who oppose carbon capture as an unproven technology are concerned about an oramp that appears to allow regulators to authorize carbon capture or other energy systems if demand cannot be met and the technology can reduce carbon emissions by at least 95%.

Rooftop solar

e law says utilities can cap distributed generation, essentially rooftop solar, at 1% of their average in-state peak load for the preceding ve years. e cap would rise to 5% under the legislation.

e Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council, a trade association for advanced energy companies, says there should be no cap.

Community solar

Advocates say the bill would not go far enough to fully enable a robust, third-party community solar program so residents, businesses

LANSING — Michigan would authorize the use of high-occupancy vehicle lanes on highways, including on Interstate 75 in Oakland County, under legislation nearing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her expected signature.

e Democratic-led Senate passed House Bills 4352-53 on 2612 and 25-13 votes Wednesday.

e House, also controlled by Democrats, narrowly approved the measures in June but needs to take nal votes because the Senate made changes.

e state currently has no operational HOV lanes, which add capacity and encourage carpooling to reduce congestion in an environmentally friendly way, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

As part of the modernization of 18 miles of I-75, MDOT has built a northbound HOV lane and a southbound HOV lane between 12 Mile Road in Madison Heights and South Boulevard in Pontiac. But they currently are closed to tra c. ey can be general-use lanes only unless the bills are enacted into law.

e state is planning for them to be HOV lanes during peak hours: 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. between Monday and Friday. Vehicles with two or more people could use them during hours of operation.

and other groups could rent or own portions of solar arrays and get bill credits. Community solar is billed as an option for people who cannot install panels on their roofs.

e measure would require the state to study and devise a tari for a pilot community solar program for low-income communities and households. DTE and Consumers, which have their own voluntary customer renewable energy programs, have opposed e orts to expand small-scale, community solar arrays, contending costs should not get backed into the bills of their entire customer base.

Siting

e siting of renewable projects is a huge issue. Utilities and solar and wind companies are running into resistance at the local level when they propose new turbines and arrays. e Democratic-controlled House is working on yet-tobe-introduced legislation that could transfer permitting decisions to the state, as called for by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Another ght relates to who owns new sites — utilities or companies that sell the electricity to utilities. Suppliers are lobbying for a provision to limit utility ownership to half of new projects, which currently is not in the Senate bill.

Ronald McDonald House Charities Detroit has operated a family respite space at DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan since 2017. | RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES DETROIT

“We want to bring that same level of comfort, as well as amentities, to Hutzel families.”

Jacqlyn Smith, DMC

Joslin Monahan on the future of cannabis and case law

MILLER JOHNSON: Joslin Monahan, partner, has been in the state's marijuana industry since the beginning. She's among the law industry's heavy hitters in the space alongside Warner Norcross' Bob Hendricks and Honigman's Doug Mains. The state's legal industry has become intertwined with the state's marijuana industry as regulators, operators and Legislators work out the kinks in the legal marijuana system. It's not been smooth and, according to Monahan, won't be any time soon. By |

How does a commercial litigator end up being a cannabis attorney?

I moved back here from Montana where I was a commercial litigator right at the early stages of the industry. I am from here. I knew I wanted to come home and develop my own practice and eventually to be in a larger rm. At the time I was representing a pretty large brokerage and doing volunteer work for the ACLU. I worked on amicus briefs as a cooperating attorney on a charge amendment for Grand Rapids to decriminalize cannabis. From there I was connected with individuals who were trying to start a cannabis company in 2016. I met a few key individuals, like Bob Hendricks and Douglas Mains and Shoran Williams (now general counsel at Grand Rapids-based Fluresh). It was an exciting new area of the law. It touched so many di erent disciplines in law and I just found it fascinating. And it really scratched an itch on the social justice side for me. So I started my own cannabis practice from there and eventually went to Miller Johnson with it.

Why are lawyers so critical in this industry?

It’s very heavily regulated. All these regulations are being applied for the rst time or nearly for the rst time. And because it’s federally illegal, and there is still a lot of limitations on what companies can do because of that. It requires a lot of creative

solutions due to the federal regulations. Plus, there isn’t an ability for these companies to access traditional nancing and, again, that requires creative solutions usually involving a lawyer's skill set.

What part of cannabis law do you nd yourself doing most often?

I am a litigation attorney. at’s what I do anyway. I have partners who do the M&A, fundraising side of it. But mostly what I do is help resolve con icts. I like that. ere's a lot of con ict resolution and problem solving in this industry. Frankly, con ict doesn’t bother me. It's better to talk about it and get to the heart of it and gure it out ... or roll the dice and let it get adjudicated. Con ict is what happens when you have competing interests and people have competing interests all the time. So there's lots of opportunity to try and resolve that in this industry and where I nd myself most useful.

We are several years in and it doesn't feel like the need for attorneys has slowed down at all

Read all the conversations at CrainsDetroit.com/TheConversation

ere’s a handful of us that were around at the beginning and we all seem to agree that not a lot has really settled down. ere has been a lot of signi cant changes on the state regulatory side. First we had the board (Michigan Medical Marijuana Licensing Board), then it was the (Marijuana Regulatory Agency under (Andrew) Brisbo and now it's the (Cannabis Regulatory

Dustin Walsh

characteristics of all of those leaders and phases. We always say we’re building an airplane mid- ight and we still are. Really, a lot of its is because there is a lot of negativity still surrounding cannabis. It’s still a cultural ashpoint. Some people are still very, very opposed to it and that shapes policy. It's part of the culture war issue and operators worry that the rug might get pulled out from under them at any moment, so yeah, we're still

What's

ere are a lot of disputes surrounding license renewals. We’re seeing a lot of cannabis business licenses being revoked, far more than other types of business licenses. ere's more license disputes than with liquor licenses or other licensed businesses. ere aren’t these established protocols and standards or even acceptance when it comes to cannabis. I hope there becomes more parity in the way we treat these companies and their operators with how we treat other markets. at's good for the state and meets legislators' intent with the industry.

Parade Co. gets extension to raise money

e city of Detroit has given the nonpro t behind the annual anksgiving Day parade more time to raise the money it needs to nance its plan for a new headquarters on the Detroit riverfront.

e Parade Co. extension comes just days before the Sept. 30 deadline the city had previously imposed in April for the nonpro t to raise the $45 million needed to purchase and redevelop the R. ornton Brodhead Naval Armory property o Je erson Avenue and Townsend Street. e city approved the sale of the historic property, which has been vacant for 20 years, to e Parade Co. for $300,000 in June 2022.

" e Parade Company has shown they are close to completing the nancing needed to purchase and redevelop the Brodhead Armory and therefore the City of Detroit has agreed to approve their request for a 9-month extension on the project."Antoine Bryant, the city's director of planning and development, said in a statement.

e city has attempted to nd a developer for the property for years, Bryant said, and e Parade Co. presented the only viable plan for adaptive reuse. "Granting this extension will provide them the additional time they are requesting to secure the nal funding," he said.

Tony Michaels, President

CEO of

and

the Parade Co., said he is

'elated' over the extension.

" is extension allows us to continue raising the funds necessary to complete our vision for the iconic Brodhead Armory and our new headquarters and studio on the beautiful Detroit Riverfront," Michaels said in a statement. " is project includes an o ce for veterans, and our new home broadens our ability to reach kids and families throughout the community with educational programming.”

When Michaels announced the $45 million campaign publicly in June, he said the spot would be more than just a warehouse for storing the oats featured at the anksgiving Day parade.

e goal is to make the riverfront site, which will include a partial

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renovation of the historic armory there and a new two-story building to accommodate oat production and an outdoor plaza connected to the Detroit Riverwalk, a destination for residents and tourists alike, Michaels said previously.

Plans include the reinstallation of salvaged Depression-era artwork from the building, arts and crafts in nearby parks for kids, summer camps and educational opportunities, weddings and meetings, a permanent o ce for veterans groups and veterans events and tours of the oats and "big heads," the Italian paper maché heads of celebrity personalities, created for the annual America's anksgiving Parade and artists making them.

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the most pressing legal issue right now in the

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