Crain’s Health Care Heroes, from left: Jean Kantrowitz; George Mogill, M.D.; Gregory Auner; Molly MacDonald; Najah Bazzy; Jody Burton Slowins; Chris Allen; William O’Neill, M.D. ; James B. Fahner, M.D.; Tolulope Sonuyi, M.D.; Jeffrey Taub, M.D.
MARCH 19 - 25, 2018 | crainsdetroit.com
Our 17th annual Health Care Heroes recognizes outstanding achievements in health care. Pages 8-17
LEADERSHIP
Women execs: Private companies better, but not much Men still hold 90 percent of top jobs
Women leaders of private companies in SE Michigan: 2006: 13 out of 200 companies = 6.5%
2016: 20 out of 200 companies = 10%
By Dustin Walsh dwalsh@crain.com
Women at Southeast Michigan’s top privately held companies have increasingly hung their name placard on the door of the corner office. Twenty women serve as the top executives of the top 200 private companies, based on 2016 revenues, in the region, up from just 13 in 2006, according to Crain’s Private 200 list data. Comparatively, only one woman — General Motors Co.’s Mary Barra — leads a public company in metro Detroit. But while women make up 10 percent of the private sector’s top leaders and rising, experts predict public-
Source: Crain’s Private 200 list data
Women leaders of public companies in SE Michigan: 2006: 0 out of 45 companies = 0%
2016: 1 out of 45 companies = 2.2%
ly traded businesses could catch up as strategic efforts move the needle — slowly. Why do private companies have more women in their leadership ranks? Some women executives of privately held companies took over for their parents. Kerry Whelan, president of Sterling Heights auto dealer-
ship group Buff Whelan Chevrolet Inc., took the reigns of the family company following her father’s death in 2004. Others started their own businesses. Andra Rush, chairman of Wayne-based Rush Trucking Inc., launched her company in 1984 with a $5,000 loan. SEE WOMEN, PAGE 20
RETAIL
Golden eyes expansion with old school playbook By Kurt Nagl knagl@crain.com
While the glory days of jean jacket vests and “sexy specs” are over, Richard Golden still has some dance left in him. At 71, the founder of SEE Inc. and former co-owner of D.O.C. Optics Corp., known for his fresh footwork in one of metro Detroit’s most memorable advertising campaigns, isn’t showing signs of fatigue as his stores confront new challenges from online eyewear sellers such as Warby Parker. Golden oversees 42 designer eyeglass stores — five of which are in Southeast Michigan — in the portfolio of his Birmingham-based company SEE (Selective Eyewear Elements), which he started in March 1998. After selling D.O.C. to eyewear giant Luxottica in 2007 for $90 million, it became his full-time job.
Richard Golden, founder of SEE Inc., in the Birmingham store. SEE INC.
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Need to know
Golden still set on opening 80-90 stores
SEE began selling glasses online last year
Company spends very little on advertising and digital marketing
“I’m working as hard now as I was then,” Golden said. “And I thought when I sold D.O.C. I was going to be retired.” SEE opened its first international store, in Toronto, last October, leading up to the company’s 20-year anniversary. There are plans to open another two or three stores this year. He opened three last year, one in 2016, one in 2015 and four apiece in 2014 and 2013. Golden’s ambitions for large-scale expansion didn’t pan out exactly how he envisioned 10 years ago. By 2013, he had hoped to have 80 stores. SEE SEE, PAGE 21
COMMENTARY
Ron Fournier: Now that Amazon bid is done, Rock Ventures, MEDC should share << A nondisclosure agreement between Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Is keeping tax incentives from the public. Page 6
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MICHIGAN BRIEFS
INSIDE
From staff and wire reports. Find the full stories at crainsdetroit.com
Moody’s: Michigan among most at risk if NAFTA ends
The termination of the North American Free Trade Agreement would hurt Michigan’s automotive and banking sectors, as well as negatively impact state tax revenue, according to a Moody’s Investors Service report. The report, released last Thursday, stressed that while the U.S. economy is resilient enough to withstand the end of free trade between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, state economies like Michigan’s are vulnerable. While Texas exports and imports more products by value from NAFTA partners, Michigan is most reliant on them, as 27 percent of its gross state product is made up from those imports and exports. Roughly 180,000 jobs supported by exports to Mexico and Canada could be in jeopardy, according to the report. Because the auto sector is so critical to Michigan’s success, the state’s tax revenue stream is also at risk from the U.S. ending free trade with Canada and Mexico. Michigan received 35 percent of its tax revenue from business and individual income taxes and 30 percent from sales tax in fiscal 2016, the report said. With a budget deficit, a sharp drop in tax revenue would likely
dampen public services as bottom lines shrank post-NAFTA. Regional banks, such as Comerica Bank, which operates primarily in Michigan and Texas, would be negatively impacted by a NAFTA termination, the report said. “Furthermore, Comerica’s loans to the automotive sector, an industry potentially affected by a NAFTA cancellation, account for 18 percent of its loan portfolio,” the report said. “The possibility of two of its major markets being affected at the same time is a credit threat.” The three trading partners continue to renegotiate the agreement, enacted in 1994 under former President Bill Clinton. Ending the agreement was a pillar of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Negotiations began last year.
Michigan awards mental health pilot projects
Michigan has announced the leads for the three mental health agencies to pilot test financial and clinical integration of behavioral and physical health services. The three awardees are Genesee County Community Mental Health Authority; Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority; and Muskegon County Community Mental Health (HealthWest) and West Michigan Community Mental Health, which are conducting a joint pilot, said the
CALENDAR
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CLASSIFIEDS
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KEITH CRAIN
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OPINION
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OTHER VOICES PEOPLE RON FOURNIER
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RUMBLINGS
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WEEK ON THE WEB
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Snyder signs bills on TIF authorities
BLOOMBERG
Ending the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada would hurt state economies like Michigan’s, according to a report.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. A fourth demonstration project in Kent County is under development between Network 180, a Grand Rapids-based mental health agency, and Priority Health in Grand Rapids. The pilot programs will begin Oct. 1. Contracts must be signed with MDHHS by July 1. The pilots are expected to run for at least two years, but could be terminated early if positive results aren’t found. Under what is known as Section 298 in Public Act 268 of 2016, named after a budget section the state Legislature approved, Michigan will test the three pilots and demonstration projects to determine if costs can be reduced, quality improved and services expanded us-
ing a managed care approach. Originally, Medicaid health plans lobbied legislators to manage the state’s $2.6 billion Medicaid behavioral health system. The managed care organizations, some of which are for-profit companies, already manage a nearly $9 billion Medicaid physical health system. Dominick Pallone, executive director of the Michigan Association of Health Plans, has said the Medicaid health plans have been promised by MDHHS that if the final plans for integration fail to show meaningful progress in financial, clinical and operation integration “then it’s not likely the pilots actually get off the ground even if the department selects them from the RFI process.”
Legislation consolidating tax increment finance districts into one section of law has been signed by Gov. Rick Snyder, Gongwer News Service reported. Senate Bill 393, sponsored by state Sen. Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth, consolidates corridor improvement authorities, downtown development authorities, local development finance authorities, neighborhood improvement authorities, nonprofit street railways, TIF authorities and water resource improvement authorities. All of the authorities would be subject to the same reporting requirements and have to hold informational meetings under the legislation.
CORRECTION The Restaurant Roundup in the March 5 issue of Crain's Detroit Business misspelled Castalia Cocktails.
Crain’s 40 under Forty alumni represent some of the most influential, successful professionals in Michigan. No, they don’t just work for large corporations or institutions, either. These individuals are leaders in civic life, at nonprofits and in creative fields; they are the boots on the ground that are willing change into existence. Do you know an under-40 like this? Nominate them for inclusion in our 2018 class today! The chosen 40 will be featured in a special issue on Sept. 3 and honored at our annual event in November.
HURRY – THE DEADLINE TO NOMINATE IS MONDAY, APRIL 9. To nominate, visit www.crainsdetroit.com/nominate
C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 1 9 , 2 0 1 8
NONPROFITS
Refugee clampdown hits local nonprofits
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REDEVELOPMENT
By Sherri Welch swelch@crain.com
Nonprofit services to help refugees fleeing war or persecution resettle in Southeast Michigan are a shell of what they were a year ago. Local resettlement agencies have laid off much of their staffs and closed offices, following revenue decreases tied to a federal clampdown that has significantly reduced the number of refugees coming Need to the U.S., espeto know cially those from Refugee Middle Eastern resettlement and African activity, structure countries that in Southeast have been the Michigan mainstay of local diminished resettlement efforts in recent Agencies have years. been forced to lay The slowdown off staff, close sites in acceptance of in wake of federal refugees and inreductions in refugees coming to creased vetting was ordered by U.S. the Trump ad They’re looking ministration over for grants, help concerns about from local security. It has churches and had an impact on community groups not just nonprofto continue to its but also emserve refugees ployers who were already here relying on resettled refugees as a source of labor, local nonprofits say. Similar cuts have played out at similar agencies in other parts of the country, said Steve Tobocman, executive director of Global Detroit, a proponent of immigration as an economic development strategy. SEE REFUGEE, PAGE 19
An aerial photo shows the site of the former Ford Wixom assembly plant. COSTAR GROUP INC.
Ford, investor battle over Wixom site Need to know
By Kirk Pinho kpinho@crain.com
Ford, Wixom plant site owner involved in federal legal battle
One of the world’s largest automakers. A Boston real estate investor known locally for his prickliness. The two have been uneasily tied at the hip for five years and are now locked in a chicken-or-egg federal legal dispute over how clean is clean at the former Ford Wixom assembly plant site. In a lawsuit that’s now more than a year old, Ford says its environmental remediation has been completed and it needs the buyer, Boston-based Trident Barrow, to sign paperwork saying so. Trident Barrow is saying, “Prove it.” And Ford says it can’t prove it until the paperwork is signed. At stake is the future of 182 acres of prime west Oakland County land in a
Key property in hot area at I-96, Wixom in limbo as case continues Dispute over owner signing restrictive covenant
growing area that once housed a 4.7 million-square-foot factory that employed as many as 5,500 people at its peak 45 years ago. Hospitals, retail, new residential housing have all cropped up in and around what’s locally referred to as the “lakes area” in the last 20 years as people flocked west along I-96 and north along the M-5 Connector. Brian Wilson, the head of Boston-based Barrow Development LLC,
five years ago purchased about three-quarters of the sprawling 318acre site at I-96 and Wixom Road to sell off after cleanup. For more than 18 months, his company has refused to sign documentation known as a restrictive covenant that could help free Ford from future environmental liability for the former factory that for 50 years produced some of the most iconic cars of the mid-20th century and employed tens of thousands of workers. Ford has “demanded” the signing of the restrictive covenant, according to Barrow court documents; Barrow, instead, says there was no proof the required cleanup had been done. “This isn’t your typical buyer/seller restrictive covenant issue,” said Arthur Siegal, an environmental attorney,
partner and chair of Southfield-based law firm Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC’s Environmental Practice Group. “This seems to be a pissing contest.” Judge Victoria Roberts is weighing Barrow affiliate Trident Barrow Management 22 LLC’s motion to dismiss Ford’s lawsuit, more than 15 months after Ford filed suit in federal court for refusing to sign the document, which the automaker says would allow it to submit environmental reports for what is known as a No Further Action ruling from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Getting an NFA, which details Ford’s cleanup activities, in effect, would say that Ford has done its necessary remediation and is free and clear from future liability for site. SEE WIXOM, PAGE 20
INVESTMENT
Renovations give Southfield Town Center new leases By Kirk Pinho
Southfield Town Center is the region’s second-largest office complex.
kpinho@crain.com
LASZLO PHOTOGRAPHY
It’s not been an easy road for the New York City owners of the region’s second-largest office complex, the Southfield Town Center. Four years ago this month, 601W Cos. said it would embark on a $50 million renovation of the 2.2 millionsquare-foot complex off the Lodge Freeway consisting of five sparkling office buildings the company purchased in 2014 for $177.5 million. Those renovations, now totaling about $56 million including tenant improvements, are about to enter their third and final phase with an upgrade to the sprawling atrium, ex-
Need to know
601W Cos. began improvements at Southfield Town Center four years ago
$56 million in renovations are about to enter final phase Competing with downtown Detroit for prime tenants
pected to begin later this year. The tough part? The landlord is competing with downtown Detroit for prime tenants and has lost a handful of household names to Dan Gilbert’s buildings and allure, including Microsoft Corp., Fifth Third Bank of Eastern Michigan and Ally
Financial, which had seriously considered leasing a big block of space at Southfield Town Center. Still, it has attracted HelloWorld Inc.; Tessellate, a business unit of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan offering other health plans Medicare risk adjustment and quality programs; and some key expansions of flagship tenants like Alix Partners LLC. In all, says Clarence Gleeson, the Transwestern senior vice president who leads leasing and management for the complex, occupancy is now approximately 71 or 72 percent, not that much higher than when 601W purchased it. SEE TOWN CENTER, PAGE 21
MUST READS OF THE WEEK Looks like a rough road ahead
Down at the Corner: New ballpark to open
Salvation Army store spruce-up
Chad Livengood: With local roads in a shambles, regional transportation is a tough sell in Detroit’s suburbs. Page 4
When the Corner Ballpark opens this week on the old Tiger Stadium site, it will be a field of dreams. Page 22
Southeast Michigan charity is investing more than $2 million to update the thrift stores it operates in the region. Page 22
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With roads in shambles, regional transit remains tough sell in suburbs
YOU MADE NEWS IN CRAIN’S Contact Laura Picariello at lpicariello@crain.com
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Wayne County Executive Warren Evans’ bid to get a 1.5-mill property tax increase for transit on the November ballot hinges on winning support from at least one of the two representatives from Macomb and Oakland counties on the Regional Transit Authority board. A supermajority of seven of nine voting members — and one from each county — is needed to let voters have a chance to consider a 1.5mill tax increase that would generate $5.4 billion over 20 years for regional mass transportation. The path to getting this politically controversial plan before voters this fall may lead down one of the most treacherous thoroughfares in Michigan. In an effort to broaden the appeal, Evans’ regional transit plan dangles before Macomb County $1.5 million per mile in new money for improving the deteriorating Mound Road to make the busy sixlane road a primary corridor for saturated bus transportation. The plan offers the same amount of money to Oakland County to help fund improvements along a stretch of Grand River Avenue to extend bus service to the major job centers in Novi, which has long cut itself off from regional public transit despite the fact that 85 percent of the workers in that city don’t live there. Evans’ plan seeks to address complaints suburban leaders had with the failed 2016 regional transit tax proposal, adding limited road funding to a mix of capital investments in improving light signals and bus transportation infrastructure along Mound, Grand River, Michigan, Woodward and Gratiot. Those five arteries would have buses stopping every 15 minutes from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. under the plan Evans proposed Thursday to an RTA board comprised of two voting members each from Macomb, Oakland, Wayne and Washtenaw counties and one member from Detroit. On Mound Road, there’s perhaps not another roadway in metro Detroit that needs both new asphalt and transit to give employers access to workers without cars. From the intersections of Mt. Elliott Road in Detroit to Hall Road in Sterling Heights, Mound Road has no bus coverage, despite being a corridor with thousands of jobs in Michigan’s auto industry. At its southern end in Detroit, it serves as an access road for workers, parts and finished vehicles coming in and out of the General Motors Co. Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant. At Eight Mile, there’s the FCA Warren Truck Plant, where the Auburn Hills-based automaker will add 2,500 jobs in 2020 when it brings next-generation Ram truck production back to the U.S. from Mexico. At 9 Mile and Mound, on one side of the road there’s a Flex-N-Gate auto parts plant — a big supplier for Ford Motor Co. On the other side, there’s the General Motors Co. Powertrain Warren Transmission Plant that employs 375 workers. Just north of I-696, from 11 Mile to 13 Mile, upwards of 30,000 people are employed between the U.S. Army’s TACOM research and development center for armored land ve-
CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Chunks of concrete from Mound Road are strewn across the boulevard medians of the heavily industrial roadway in Macomb County. Sterling Heights is spending $10.2 million this summer to pave over 3.5 miles of the pockmarked road between 14 Mile and 18 Mile roads.
CHAD LIVENGOOD clivengood@crain.com
hicles and GM’s sprawling Warren Tech Center. At 16 Mile and Mound, more than 3,200 people work at FCA’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant at full production. “This is a major thoroughfare that needs connections (to transit),” said Paul Hillegonds, the non-voting chairman of the RTA board. The daily disintegration of pockmarked Mound Road begs the question as to why, as a state, we would let this road deteriorate to its current condition given how economically important it is. From transmissions for nine different GM vehicles to FCA’s profit-reaping Ram trucks, there’s arguably a large slice of Michigan’s gross domestic product coming out of Mound Road each day. And yet, the road is splitting apart, with chunks of concrete from the road strewn across the median. Local officials estimate it will cost $25 million per mile to rebuild Mound from I-696 to M-59. With little hope that the Legislature will step in, Macomb County is currently seeking a $217 million competitive infrastructure grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Sterling Heights is pouring $10.2 million into adding 3 inches of asphalt to Mound Road from 14 & 1/2 Mile to 18 Mile this summer, just to buy another five or six years of use, Mayor Michael Taylor said. “We need a lot of money for Mound Road,” Taylor said. “$1.5 million (per mile) doesn’t do a whole lot, but every little bit helps.” Warren Mayor Jim Fouts said fixing roads also is his top priority. But he’s open to a grander bargain that combines fixing Mound Road with giving it bus service for the new em-
ployees GM and FCA are planning to add in the coming years. “I think Warren Evans might be in the right spot if he’s talking about repaving Mound Road and adding (public) transportation,” Fouts said. Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel isn't buying the plan. He said Macomb County needs $1.1 billion to repair the 700 miles of county roads rated in poor condition. “If people are going to be putting money toward anything right now, it’s going to be fixing or finding a solution on roads,” Hackel said. Taylor has yet to see Evans’ regional transit plan and has no position on it. But he’s open to hearing about it — unlike 2016, when the regional transit campaign backers never even called the mayor of Michigan’s fourth largest city to try to drum up local support. “There’s so much industry up and down Mound Road, it would make sense to put a bus route in,” Taylor said. Evans and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan have their work cut out to overcome opposition from Hackel and Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. It goes beyond convincing the Detroit Economic Club chattering class that talented workers demand public transit options. Those folks are already in. While there’s a general post-Amazon argument that now is the time to get serious about regional transit, it’s not resonating in the suburbs in an election year where the national political winds are as uncertain as ever. The Sterling Heights mayor said he doesn’t hear from GM Tech Center engineers living in his city of 125,000 people that they want public transportation options to get to work. They’re more upset about the road they drive to work, he said. “It’s not a hot button issue in Sterling Heights,” Taylor said of regional transit. “It doesn’t move the dial much.” Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood
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OPINION State’s failing schools MEDC punts trade secrets issue could stall comeback COMMENTARY
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he Michigan Economic Development Corp. is changing its policy for keeping corporate secrets, but not in time to reveal the size of tax incentives offered to Amazon. That would require Dan Gilbert’s approval. Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans Inc. and catalyst for Detroit’s downtown resurgence, should consider consenting to limited disclosure. It would be good public relations and great public policy. My colleague, Chad Livengood, reported this week that the MEDC is keeping secret the tax incentives offered to Amazon for an economic development project in Detroit that never materialized. Despite an impressive regionwide effort led by Gilbert, Detroit didn’t make Amazon’s list of finalists. When Livengood requested the incentive figures, the MEDC cited a Freedom of Information Act exemption that protects trade secrets from public disclosure if the information is submitted under a promise of confidentiality. In fact, the MEDC had promised confidentiality to Gilbert’s Rock Ventures. In a nondisclosure agreement signed in 2016 — before Amazon announced its second-headquarters sweepstakes — the MEDC promised to keep secret any commercial and financial information provided by Gilbert’s companies while the agency considered incentives on his potential projects. The broadly worded NDA expires in 2019. Once Amazon entered the picture with a request for bids, and the Gilbert-led team put one together for Detroit and Windsor, its incentive package was added to the NDA at the request of Gilbert’s team, according to Christin Armstrong, associate general counsel for the MEDC. She told me the agency’s hands are tied. She also said it won’t happen again. Going forward, the MEDC will not grant sweeping
RON FOURNIER Publisher and Editor
NDAs like the one entered into with Gilbert, she said. Rather, the agency will stipulate from the start that incentive details will be made public once a business declines the incentives — or once a business accepts them and the MEDC seeks approval from the Michigan Strategic Fund. “We learned a lot from this deal,” Armstrong said, “and we see some opportunities to improve the process and have done so.” So now the ball is in Gilbert’s court. It’s easy to understand why he doesn’t want the state to disclose the incentives. We’re talking about a massive package — billions of dol-
lars, almost certainly more than the $2 billion offered to Amazon for a Grand Rapids campus — that would enrage critics on the left and right who call tax incentives “corporate welfare.” Second, any numbers released in connection with the Amazon bid might bolster the negotiating position of businesses thinking of using state incentives to move downtown. Those firms would know how much money Michigan is willing to pay for an Amazon-sized project, and they would start their negotiations at that number — and demand more. One could argue that Gilbert and his partners are playing high-stakes poker, and once they fold, they’d be fools to show the competition what was in his hand. The problem with that argument: The public’s money is on the table. Taxpayers have a right to know how a state agency had planned to spend their money, because past behavior suggests how they’d invest in future projects. People are losing trust in government and the business community; the antidote to that trend is transparency, not secrecy. At the least, Gilbert should consider asking the MEDC to release one number: the top-line total of incentives offered to Amazon. Also, perhaps, the MEDC could release the separate top-line totals for each type of incentive. Since no other business is going to approach Detroit with a major project shaped exactly like Amazon’s, these limited disclosures would not give anybody a substantial competitive advantage. Gilbert could help give the public a small window into the public’s business without harming his own.
CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures signed a nondisclosure agreement with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. that is keeping the amount of tax incentives offered to Amazon confidential.
Ron Fournier is publisher and editor of Crain’s Detroit Business. Catch his take on business at 6:10 a.m. Mondays on the Paul W. Smith show on WJR AM 760.
he Detroit community has lacked a decent regional transit system for decades. It now looks like there is a chance to develop a system over the next couple of decades that is affordable and doable. Warren Evans realizes that for metro Detroit to grow, it needs a strong transit system. He also realizes that we have to pay for it over decades. And we can’t commit to spending billions of dollars on fixed rail systems that could become obsolete over a few decades and are way too expensive for our pocketbooks. Evans’ proposal sees that buses are the practical, reasonably priced way to get the system we need. Voters in all counties need to be
KEITH CRAIN Editor-in-chief
able to express their points of view at the ballot box. Even Brooks Patterson, who has represented his voters well over the years, needs to step aside and let his voters decide, even if they have rejected it previously. Times change, and so do attitudes. A system made up primarily of
s chairman of Barton Malow Enterprises, one of my biggest concerns is having access to the very best talent to keep Barton Malow a trusted name in Michigan’s construction industry. My business requires a continuous and steady flow of career-ready talent, and that begins with a high-quality pre-K-12 education that prepares all students for 21st century jobs, whether in skilled trades or following college. Michigan’s current, one-size-fits-all school finance system funds our schools without adequately addressing the needs of each student or the characteristics of our school districts. Our funding system is broken and failing our students, and potentially stalling Michigan’s economic comeback. Michigan ranks 41st in fourthgrade reading performance nationwide, and is one of only three states that have seen a decline in this area since 2003. Just this month, we learned Michigan has shown the greatest decline in third-grade reading compared with other states, despite an $80 million investment to improve third-grade reading. Such figures are raising red flags across Michigan’s business community in companies of all sizes. Our kids will only fall further and further behind if we continue to rely on our cookie-cutter approach to school funding. To improve student achievement in Michigan, we must address the cost of educating all students, from those who speak English as a second language, to students with severe learning disabilities, to students living in poverty. Not all students are bound for college, so we must also address the cost of career and technical education to prepare students for careers in the skilled trades. Thanks to the School Finance Research Collaborative, we now know the true cost of educating a child to
OTHER VOICES Doug Maibach
Michigan’s academic standards regardless of income, ZIP code, learning challenges or other circumstances. The collaborative recently delivered Michigan’s first truly comprehensive adequacy study that has provided lawmakers with a roadmap for a new school finance system that helps all students achieve and succeed. The report can be read at fundmischools. org. As a result of this research, we now have the building blocks of a school funding formula that provides both adequacy and equity within the funding system. The report has been shared with the Governor’s Office and leaders in the State Legislature for their use in crafting a solution. I was proud to join other concerned business leaders, as well as education experts from across Michigan on the collaborative, a diverse, bipartisan group whose members all agree we need a new approach to school funding. Thanks to the collaborative, Michigan has joined more than 30 other states that have conducted school adequacy studies since 2004 as a first step toward meaningful education reforms. This problem won’t be fixed overnight. But Michigan’s students, and our state’s continued economic comeback, demand that we begin the conversation about the fixes today. Doug Maibach is chairman of Barton Malow Enterprises.
LETTERS
It is a good idea
T
A
buses makes the most sense for Southeast Michigan, and spreading out the investment over a couple of decades makes good sense as well. Let everyone put their two cents in. Then let the people vote. For businesses to prosper and for Michigan to be able to attract new businesses, we need a viable transit system. A transit system should not be thought of as a luxury. In today’s competitive business environment, it is simply a necessity. Having a public debate makes some sense so we can get the entire community on board with this plan. Fixed rail would be nice but we are half a century late and many dollars short. Let’s hope the community agrees.
Theis’ efforts should be applauded
To the editor: Steven Gursten’s Feb. 18 column is an unnecessary and below-the-belt attack on a lawmaker who is working hard to bring down Michigan’s highestin-the-nation auto insurance premiums, even if it means standing up to powerful special interest groups who profit from the status quo. Rep. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, is working to fix Michigan’s broken, outdated auto no-fault system that has drivers paying the highest auto insurance premiums in the country and nearly double the amount drivers pay in surrounding states. Rep. Theis is committed to solving a real problem facing her constituents and the 7.1 million drivers in our state. What does she get in return for her efforts? High-pitched rhetoric,
mud-slinging and smear campaigns from ambulance-chasing personal injury attorneys who are more interested in protecting their gravy train than solving this very real problem. A recent study found the high cost of auto insurance is a major obstacle to Michigan’s continued economic success. Our state needs dedicated public servants like Rep. Theis, who are committed to keeping Michigan’s economy moving forward. We applaud Rep. Theis and other lawmakers in the Michigan House who are standing up to special interests, big hospital CEOs and personal injury lawyers and trying to craft real reforms to Michigan’s broken, outdated no-fault system. Wendy Block Senior Director, Health Policy, Human Resources & Business Advocacy Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Lansing
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CRAIN'S LIST: LARGEST MICHIGAN PHYSICIAN ORGANIZATIONS
Ranked by number of physicians Company Address Rank Phone; website
Top executive(s)
Physicians Jan. 2018/2017
Full-time employed physicians Jan. 2018/ 2017
Part-time employed physicians Jan. 2018/ Type of 2017 organization Physician hospital affiliations
1
Beaumont Care Partners LLC 15500 Lundy Parkway, Dearborn 48126 (313) 586-5872; www.beaumontcarepartners.org
Ryan Catignani, interim executive director
3,892 4,040 B
NA 0
NA NA
CIN
Beaumont Dearborn, Beaumont Farmington Hills, Beaumont Grosse Pointe, Beaumont Royal Oak, Beaumont Taylor, Beaumont Trenton, Beaumont Troy, Beaumont Wayne
2
Trinity Health ACO 20555 Victor Parkway, Livonia 48152 (734) 343-1000; www.trinityhealthaco.org
Daniel Roth, executive VP, chief clinical officer, Trinity Health
2,654 2,192
1,093 879
NA NA
ACO
Mercy Health, Muskegon; Mercy Health, Lakeshore Campus; Mercy Health Saint Mary's
United Physicians Inc. 30600 Telegraph Road, Suite 4000, Bingham Farms 48025 (248) 593-0100; www.updoctors.com
Michael Williams, president and CEO; Diane Slon, executive VP, COO
2,472 2,400
0 0
0 NA
IPA
The Physician Alliance LLC 20952 12 Mile Road, Suite 130, St. Clair Shores 48081 (586) 498-3555; www.thephysicianalliance.org
Michael Madden president and CEO
2,293 2,241
421 489
0 NA
IPA
Gary Wentzloff president and CEO
2,275 2,191
719 696
0 NA
PHO
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McLaren Physician Partners 2701 Cambridge Court, Suite 200, Auburn Hills 48326 (248) 484-4928; www.McLarenpp.org
Beaumont Health, Beaumont Health Farmington Hills, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Crittenton Hospital and affiliates, Detroit Medical Center hospitals, Pontiac General Hospital, Garden City Hospital, Henry Ford Health System, Karmanos Cancer Center, McLaren Health Care Corp., Oakland Regional Hospitals, Select Specialty Hospitals, St. John Providence Health System, St. Joseph Mercy Health System, St. Mary Mercy Hospital of Livonia, Triumph Hospital of Detroit, UM Hospital, others St. John Hospital and Medical Center, Providence Hospital, Providence Park Hospital, St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital, St. John River District Hospital, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit Receiving Hospital, Beaumont Health, Henry Ford Health System, McLaren-Macomb, Harper Hospital, Karmanos Cancer Institute McLaren Health Care Corp., Karmanos Cancer Center
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Henry Ford Physician Network 1 Ford Place, Detroit 48202 (313) 874-1466; henryfordphysiciannetwork.com
Bruce Muma, CMO and interim president and CEO
1,944 1,906
1,312 1,269
0 NA
CIN
1,933 2,048
0 2,048
0 NA
Group practice
Michigan Medicine (formerly University of Michigan Health System)
1,100 880
NA NA
NA NA
Group practice
St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, St. Joseph Mercy Livingston, St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea, St. Joseph Mercy Oakland, St. Mary Mercy Livonia, Mercy Health Muskegon, Mercy Health - Lakeshore Campus, Mercy Health Saint Mary's
1,095 1,100
1,095 1,100
0 NA
IPA
Crittenton Hospital and Medical Center, Henry Ford Health System, Beaumont Health, Mercy Memorial Monroe, McLaren Health System, St. John Providence Health System, Detroit Medical Center
1,084 977
0 0
0 0
ACO
Beaumont hospitals in Royal Oak, Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Grosse Pointe, Taylor, Trenton and Wayne
1,000 1,100
1,000 1,100
0 NA
IPA
Statewide hospital affiliations
959 936
NA NA
NA NA
CIN
Mercy Health Saint Mary's, Mercy Health Hackley, Mercy Health Muskegon, Mercy Health Lakeshore
926 915
0 0
0 NA
IPA
Henry Ford Main, Henry Ford Wyandotte, and hospitals designated by health plans with which UOP physicians are contracted
681 445
681 445
NA NA
IPA
Beaumont Dearborn, Beaumont Farmington Hills, Beaumont Trenton, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Crittenton Hospital and Medical Center, Henry Ford Health System, Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, McLaren Oakland, Sinai-Grace Hospital, St. John Providence Health System, St. Joseph Mercy Health System, St. Mary Mercy Hospital Livonia St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Michigan Medicine
3
4
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Timothy Johnson University of Michigan Faculty Group Practice senior associate dean for 4101 Medical Science Building I, Ann Arbor clinical affairs 48109-0624 (800) 211-8181; medicine.umich.edu/medschool/ patient-care/u-m-medical-group Daniel Roth, executive Trinity Health Medical Groups and Provider VP, chief clinical officer, Services C Trinity Health 20555 Victory Parkway, Livonia 48152 (734) 343-1000 Ewa Matuszewski MedNetOne Health Solutions CEO 4986 N. Adams Road, Suite D, Rochester 48306-1416 (248) 475-4701; www.mednetone.com Walter Lorang, executive Beaumont Accountable Care Organization director and COO 2000 Town Center, Suite 1200, Southfield 48075 (313) 586-5069; Beaumont.org Paul MacLellan Consortium of Independent Physician CEO Associations (CIPA) P.O. Box 1068, East Lansing 48826 (800) 594-6115; www.medicaladvantagegroup.com David Van Winkle, Affinia Health Network CIN executive medical 1675 Leahy St., #200B, Muskegon 49442 director, Affinia Health (231) 672-3882; www.affiniahealth.com Network Yasser Hammoud United Outstanding Physicians LLC 18800 Hubbard Drive, Suite 200, Dearborn 48126 medical director and CEO (313) 240-9867; www.uopdocs.com Jerome Frankel Oakland Southfield Physicians PC medical director 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 325, Southfield 48034 (248) 357-4048; www.ospdocs.com IHA Health Services Corp. 24 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive, Lobby J2000, Ann Arbor 48105 (734) 747-6766; www.ihacares.com
Mark LePage CEO
503 491
432 415
71 NA
Group practice
Olympia Medical LLC
Randall Bickle president and CEO
500 500
85 75
10 NA
IPA
Beaumont Farmington Hills, Garden City, St. Mary Mercy Livonia, Providence Park, St. Joseph-Ann Arbor
Professional Medical Corp.
Asif Ishaque, president; Mike Grodus, senior PO consultant
461 473
73 63
NA NA
IPA
Hurley Medical Center, McLaren, Genesys
Huron Valley Physicians Association PC
Jeffrey Sanfield president
440 450
57 60
22 NA
IPA
St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Ann Arbor, SJMH-Chelsea and Livingston
Oakland Physicians Network Services
Rodger Prong, executive director; Marco Gudziak, president
435 450
0 0
3 NA
IPA
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Oakland, Huron Valley-Sinai DMC, Beaumont Royal Oak, Crittenton, McLaren, Henry Ford, Providence, Pontiac General
Michigan Healthcare Professionals PC 30000 Northwestern Highway, Farmington Hills 48334-3292 (248) 851-3300; www.mhpdoctor.com
Jeffrey Margolis president
424 398
422 398
2 NA
Group practice
Five Mile Road, Suite 210, Livonia 48154 16 33300 (313) 357-1215; www.olympiadocs.com S. Linden Road, Suite D, Flint 48532 17 2425 (517) 336-1400; www.pmcpo.com Hogback Road, Suite 3, Ann Arbor 48105 18 2002 (734) 973-0137; www.hvpa.com Orchard Lake Road, Sylvan Lake 48320 19 2360 (248) 682-0088; www.opns.org
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Henry Ford Health System, others. Includes 1,312 employed physicians in the Henry Ford Medical Group.
Beaumont Health, Beaumont Hospital Farmington Hills, Crittenton Hospital, Detroit Medical Center hospitals, Garden City Hospital, Henry Ford Hospital West Bloomfield, Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, McLaren Macomb, McLaren Oakland, McLaren Lapeer, Pontiac General Hospital, Port Huron Hospital, St. John Providence Health System, St. Joseph Mercy Oakland, St. Mary Mercy Hospital
This list of physician organizations encompasses physician hospital organizations and independent practice associations and is an approximate compilation of the largest such groups in Michigan. IPA = Independent practice association. PHO = Physician hospital organization. ACO = Accountable care organization. CIN = Clinically integrated network that includes physicians, hospitals other providers. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the organizations. NA = not available.
B Includes some physicians listed by United Physicians and Oakwood ACO. C Trinity Health Medical Groups and Provider Services (Trinity Health employed physicians in state of Michigan â&#x20AC;&#x201D; includes IHA, providers employed by St. Joseph Mercy Health and providers employed by Mercy Health) LIST RESEARCHED BY SONYA D. HILL
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FOCUS
How we pick our Health Care Heroes Now in its 17th year, Health Care Heroes recognizes outstanding and beyond-the-ordinary achievements in health care in Michigan. Each Hero has either directly saved lives or significantly contributed to alleviating human pain and suffering. All have improved the quality of lives of the people or patients they touch. Competition for our Heroes is stiff. We received 80 nominations this year in eight categories: physician, allied practitioner, corporate achievement, board member, administrator, heart, cancer and other researcher. Our judges: Former Heroes Rob Casalou, CEO of St. Joseph Mercy Health System; Lisa Newman, M.D., an oncologist with Henry Ford Health System; pharmacist Ghada Abdallah, and Crain’s senior reporter Jay Greene. After reviewing the applications, our judges decided to add a new category — Lifetime Achievement. Crain’s Health Care Heroes will be honored at Crain’s Health Care NEXT event, to be held in June. More information at crains detroit.com/events.
2018 winners HEALTH SERVICES Gregory Auner — Seraph Biosciences. Page 9 BOARD MEMBER Jody Burton Slowins — Partners in Personal Assistance. Page 11 HEART / VASCULAR William O’Neill, M.D. — Henry Ford Health System. Page 14 CORPORATE ACHIEVEMENT Molly MacDonald — The Pink Fund. Page 10 PHYSICIAN Tolulope Sonuyi, M.D. — Detroit Medical Center. Page 16 ONCOLOGY Jeffrey Taub, M.D. — Detroit Medical Center. Page 16 ALLIED HEALTH Najah Bazzy — Zaman International. Page 10 ADMINISTRATOR James B. Fahner, M.D. — Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. Page 14 ADMINISTRATOR Chris Allen — Authority Health. Page 15 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT George Mogill, M.D. This page LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Jean Kantrowitz — Founder, HBeat and ViaDerm. This page
Now in its 17th year, Health Care Heroes recognizes outstanding and beyond-theordinary achievements in health care in Michigan.
HE
HEALTH CARE HEROES CO-WINNER, LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Jean Kantrowitz By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com
Jean Kantrowitz knows by heart all of the pioneering cardiac inventions and procedures performed by her late husband, Adrian Kantrowitz, whose team attempted the world’s first pediatric heart transplant at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn in 1967. “He was trained as a general surgeon. There was no such thing as a cardiologist at the time, but he was very mechanical,” said Jean Kantrowitz of Adrian, who died in 2008 at age 90 of heart failure. They were married 60 years. Since they met, fell in love and married within six months in 1948, Jean Kantrowitz has been instrumental in her late husband’s research, using her accounting skills to budget projects and her people skills to recruit research assistants, garner grants and explain ideas. And in the decade since Dr. Kantrowitz’s death, Jean Kantrowitz, now 95, has continued to honor his work and promote his research and ideas with two cardiac medical device companies. She is co-founder of Plymouth-based HBeat Medical and SEE KANTROWITZ, PAGE 17
Greg
G By
jgree
Jean Kantrowitz
CO-WINNER, LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
George Mogill, M.D. By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com
Last year, at age 100, family physician George Mogill threw out the first pitch in a baseball game between the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees. The Aug. 24 game turned into the famed “basebrawl” that emptied the benches three separate times. Luckily Mogill didn’t need to treat the players for injuries. Years before he already had trained the Tigers’ team doctor, Michael Workings, M.D. A squash player for more than 80 years, Mogill never played baseball and his only fight was in his youth after he became tired of being called “four eyes.” But he did land on the Normandy beaches during World War II, treated wounded soldiers in England, France and Germany, was one of the first doctors in Detroit to integrate his office in 1946 and was the first chair of Wayne State University’s family practice program in 1972. Mogill, who retired from practice at age 92 because of eyesight problems, still entertains doctors young and old at his home in Bloomfield Hills, where his two daughters help him hold court. One of his stories is how he became the Hoffa “family” doctor. In the lobby of the old Seville Hotel at 3150 Second Ave., Jimmy Hoffa SEE MOGILL, PAGE 17
George Mogill
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HEALTH SERVICES
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Congratulations to Chris Allen,
Gregory Auner
Gregory Auner By Jay Greene
Testing new tech
Medical engineer Gregory Auner has been involved in some of the most cutting-edge research at Wayne State University for nearly 40 years, if you add in his time there as an engineering and physics student in the late 1980s. Over the past decade, Auner has been taking bench research and applying it to real-world needs. For example, he is testing a hand-held medical instrument called a Seraspec that can detect pathogens, bacteria or infections in humans in real-time. “The purpose of my labs are to translate technology,” said Auner, who is a professor in the department of surgery and biomedical engineering at WSU’s School of Medicine. As co-founder and chief science officer of Seraph Biosciences Inc., a startup biotech company that is developing the Seraspec, Auner said he is near a major breakthrough that will give primary care physicians a device they can use to quickly diagnose sick patients. Now, when a patient is suspected of having an infection, a culture needs to be taken, then sent to a lab for analysis. The whole process can take days. “The Seraspec can get down to 98 percent certainty (the virus) is MRSA and shows if an antibiotic used will work on it,” said Auner, adding that the device reminds him of the “tricorder” device used in “Star Trek.” The Seraspec also be used to identify drugs, toxins or chemicals that might result from industrial spills, radiation from a nuclear accident or bioterrorism, Auner said. Seraph plans to use the device in the veterinary market first, where it can generate revenue as it goes through the process of getting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for human use. The hope is to submit early lab analysis results to the FDA in early 2019, he said. Seraph’s co-founder is Charles Shanley, M.D., a surgeon who recently was appointed CEO of University Physicians Group, WSU’s multi-specialty faculty practice plan. Seraph is using technology licensed from WSU.
In May 2017, Seraph Biosciences closed on a $5 million funding round. It’s moving to complete product development and initiate commercialization of Seraspec for the veterinary market in late 2018 and in 2020 for humans. Also last spring, Seraph opened an office in the WeWork co-working and incubator space in the Bedrock Building in downtown Detroit. It employs four there and five in Auner’s lab at WSU. At Henry Ford Hospital, where Auner is director of research for the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology under medical director Philip Hessburg, M.D., he is developing and testing an instrument probe to detect various eye infections, like pink eye, and also central nervous system implants for the senses, including retina implants for the blind and dorsal nucleus implants for the hard of hearing, he said. Auner also is testing a modified Raman probe for use by neurosurgeons to determine the extent of local tumor invasion during cancer surgery. The Raman probe can determine in real-time brain tumor grade and margins in the OR. “I became interested in this after my nephew had a brain tumor and he was receiving treatment at a small hospital” that didn’t have the expertise, said Auner, adding that his nephew received care at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and is still alive after 10 years. Mortality rates are very high for some brain cancers because tumor cells sometimes are left behind because they are so small. “We want to get them all out. The instrument works like a geiger counter. It shows where the tumor is and if anything is left around the margins,” Auner said. Auner said his research team is preparing for a new round of studies on the project with Henry Ford doctors. “We are analyzing in real-time excided tumor samples in the OR,” he said. “The next step is an IRB (institutional review board) for use on patients during surgery. The probe is not invasive and uses a low power laser to generate the Raman signals. That should begin this year.”
jgreene@crain.com
a progressive health executive who helped introduce population health to this region.
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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH CARE HEROES
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CORPORATE ACHIEVEMENT
Molly MacDonald By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com
Molly MacDonald’s life changed several years before she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her marriage broke up, leaving her nearly bankrupt in 2000, with five children to raise. Before she began telling the story of her breast cancer and the frustration she felt that led her in 2006 to founding The Pink Fund, which provides short-term financial support to women who are in active cancer treatment, the former Detroit Free Press reporter wanted to explain her difficulties as a single mother. After her split from her husband, “Everything was liquidated. I moved my kids into public education, began freelancing as a writer and (sold cosmetics) with Mary Kay,” said MacDonald. Times were tough. She took several other jobs, including one at Ford Motor Co. writing for the top 100 dealer program and later working for a company that developed promotions for the Detroit People Mover. She had just accepted a job in 2005 with another company when she had her annual mammogram, which found a suspicious mass. A biopsy came back as cancerous. “How do you start a job when you have a breast cancer diagnosis and (are) in treatment?” MacDonald said. Answer: She didn’t take the job. Instead, MacDonald had two sur-
Molly MacDonald
geries for her cancer, four weeks apart, then six weeks of daily radiation treatment. From April through August 2005, she didn’t work at all. “Other women I knew had longer treatment. They plowed through savings and they were terrified they would lose their jobs” and be unable to pay bills or lose their housing, MacDonald said.
By
jgree
Fortunately, by then she had remarried in 2002 to Tom Pettit, whom she calls Tom Terrific, because of his support to her and his positive nature. But the couple had just started a marketing consulting business and income was very low. “Foreclosure notices began arriving in my mailbox while we were juggling utility, car and insurance payments.” Their neighbors and friends helped, but the stresses mounted. “This is a nightmare,” she said. “I could not believe with all my education and background I would become homeless.” There were no organizations around to help. But MacDonald said she had an idea, based on her hard-knocks experience. “If I can’t get help, maybe I am supposed to give help.” So on Oct. 1, 2006, with encouragement from Tom, she opened The Pink Fund. It now is housed in a wing of the Bloomfield Hills office of Spalding DeDecker Associates. So far, The Pink Fund has paid out more than $2.5 million to nearly 2,000 women, mostly in Michigan. But the numbers of women in other states receiving temporary financial support is growing. The nonprofit organization has spread out to all 50 states through such financial sponsors as Ford Motor Corp.’s Warriors in Pink, Celgene and Snap-on. Donations come from three main sources: one-third each from online, events and corporate donations.
How it works Women and some men who apply for benefits, which are paid directly to creditors, must fill out a lengthy application and supply proof of treatment, which includes a letter from the doctor, two pay stubs and proof of income loss because of treatment. “Our donors want to make sure there is no fraud,” MacDonald said, adding that people who don’t qualify sometimes “get unhappy.” But only about 7 percent of applications are completed and of those 95 percent are funded, said Carolyn Pindzia, program manager and patient navigator. Once the application is approved, the Pink Fund committee approves the length of benefits, 30 to 90 days. Average payments are $1,500 and the pay cap is $3,000 per month. “It is a bridge to work,” MacDonald said. Depending on the donation flow, the fund pays out about $50,000 per month in benefits with 58 percent going toward housing. “We mostly receive emails thanking us, but the reaction (over the phone) when they get their money first is silence, then sobbing,” Pindzia said. “Or in a quiet voice, ‘Thank you,’ and crying happy tears.” Pindzia said the many emails from beneficiaries express thankfulness about receiving the money and finally being able to sleep at night. Or how the funds relieve anxiety about paying for treatment; how it saved their job, enabled them to pay for car insur-
ance, provided food for family or prevented homelessness. One of the surprising things that happened several years ago was when MacDonald met Erin Denton, the wife of James Denton, known for his portrayal of Mike Delfino in “Desperate Housewives.” MacDonald had helped Erin’s sister, Meghan, get through the financial problems of breast cancer treatment. James, whose mother had died of cancer, volunteered to help raise money for The Pink Fund. Denton worked with Ford’s Warriors In Pink in 2012 to produce a Pink Fund T-shirt, full-page ads of James wearing the shirt and a four-minute video. Funds raised are 100 percent donated to The Pink Fund. Looking to the future, MacDonald realizes that a breast cancer diagnosis has multiple impacts on people. One is “financial toxicity,” or the emotional, mental and physically debilitating financial side effects and burdens induced by cancer treatment. “We have a grant this year to do podcast programs that talk about treatment and financial issues,” MacDonald said. Podcasts will help people how to negotiate payments with creditors, hospitals and review bills. “Our survey (of 587 people in treatment or survivors) shows that 41 percent (of women with breast cancer) skipped treatment (at one time) because they couldn’t afford it,” she said. “We need to address this upfront. Knowledge is power.”
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ALLIED PRACTITIONER
Najah Bazzy By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com
Congratulations to James Fahner, MD, for being named one of the 2018 Health Care Heroes. Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is proud to have someone like you who is dedicated to the health and well-being of kids from across Michigan and beyond.
helendevoschildrens.org © Spectrum Health
For more than 20 years, Najah Bazzy — the CEO of Zaman International, an Inkster-based nonprofit that helps women and children pull themselves out of poverty and despair — has been helping families struggling to raise kids, take care of aging parents or simply join the workforce to find hope. Back in 1996, Bazzy, a registered nurse specializing in transcultural issues, was working at the old Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center in Dearborn, now Beaumont Dearborn. There was an Iraqi family who had already lost one of their two baby twins in the hospital’s neonatal ICU. Administrators and doctors had determined the second twin could not be saved and wanted to withdraw ventilator and feeding support. The family objected. Bazzy became their de facto advocate. In a subsequent medical ethics hearing, she was able to negotiate a way for the baby to go home with a ventilator and feeding tubes. But when she went to the home for a visit she was shocked at what she encountered. “The home was bare. There was only carpet on the floor, where all the 13 family members slept. They brought the baby to me in a laundry basket for a crib,” said Bazzy.
Najah Bazzy
“I was shocked. I had not seen such poverty in the community,” said Bazzy, who grew up in the lower income area of East Dearborn, the daughter of a U.S. Army Korean War veteran. “We didn’t have much but we didn’t know it at the time. This was different.” Bazzy went home and told her mother to gather up all of the extra furniture, pots and pans they could spare to bring to the family. They
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BOARD MEMBER
Jody Burton Slowins By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com
Jody Burton Slowins has always known the difficulty disabled people have in finding and keeping personal care assistants. The 59-year-old developed multiple sclerosis when she was 15 years old and needed a helping hand. So in 1999, Slowins, the late Lena Ricks and other like-minded disabled people co-founded Partners in Personal Assistance, an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit that is designed to provide patient-directed care to clients and also competitive wages and benefits to caregivers. “Finding and keeping quality personal assistants is difficult,” Slowins said. “On the other side, the PAs had issues and were not being looked at as professionals and often not being paid competitive wages.” Unfortunately, that remains a large problem in Michigan for caregivers, she said. Slowins said many other people in the community have helped keep PPA going to serve the personal and community care needs of people with disabilities and senior citizens. One was Dohn Hoyle, who now is director of public policy with The Arc Michigan. He helped the organization in its early days become a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. “The IRS at the time was putting a magnifying glass on nonprofits. Dohn helped us avoid IRS scrutiny and we changed from a co-operative to a directorship,” she said. The goal of PPA, she said, continues to be providing in-home and community-based personal assistant services so people with disabilities and the el-
If someone needs personal assistance, Slowins says they call or visit the agency, which is housed at 3840 Packard St. in Ann Arbor. They apply and qualify for services and the agency will send out a worker to the home to meet with them.
loaded everything into a truck, found a donated refrigerator and delivered it to the family. “They were overwhelmed with gratitude,” she said. “We started it out that way.” Such was the beginning of what is now Zaman International. “We give people their dignity back. We call it ‘one-stop hope,’” said Bazzy, who is CEO, chief fundraiser and traveling minister for preventive care and medical education. From 1996 to 2004, Bazzy and her family worked out of their home, rented out trucks, picked up donated furniture, housing items, food and clothing and delivered it to needy families with income less than $12,000 in metro Detroit. Originally founded as Bayt Al Zahra, which is Arabic for house of hope and light, Bazzy changed the name to Zaman in 2004 when it became an non-governmental organization and 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. “We couldn’t keep up with demand and needed to expand,” she said. In 2016, Zaman moved to a new 40,500 square-foot building at 26091 Trowbridge St. The Hope For Humanity Center building has eight times more space as its previous locations. Supported by donors, more than 240 community partner organizations and 1,500 volunteers, Zaman
serves more than 25,000 people in metro Detroit and 22 communities. The agency started out serving Iraqi and Syrian refugees, but now serves all needy women and children. Zaman’s outreach initiatives now include crisis assistance, infant burial, literacy and job skills training, international and domestic orphan sponsorship, a summer meals program for youth, disaster relief partnerships, a resale shop and a Gleaners-affiliated food pantry. In December, Zaman opened its Culinary Arts Training Center two years ahead of schedule because of donations from the community. The center is offering nutrition and culinary classes as well as hot meals for client families and community members. Zaman also offers vocational training and tutoring to show clients they can do more if they try. “Some women have adjusted to this life. They shouldn’t settle. We are focusing on women with children who really have a dream. We can help them manage the goals they set. It takes a lot of energy to set goals, but we see them improving and we encourage them. We restore hope,” Bazzy said. Over the next two years, Bazzy said she wants to add child care and transportation programs and to raise funds for a preventive health clinic.
Jody Burton Slowins
derly can maintain as much independence as possible. Caregivers are carefully screened, she said. “We make sure the workers are fully trained to meet the requirements” of the job, including understanding CPR, first aid and home-based services, Slowins said. Services include housekeeping, personal care, dressing, range of motion exercises, meal preparation and transportation. “My own PA, she does laundry for me and helps me with range of motion and dressing,” said Slowins.
How PPA works
“We ask them what they need. That makes us different than others in that the whole service is based on self-determination,” she said.
Slowins said PPA is different from a home health agency because the disabled person interviews and chooses his or her own assistants, helps determine what services are needed and can ask for flexible service hours. “We want people to feel comfortable with workers in their homes, so the interview is just as much ensuring our clients are happy with caregivers,” she said. A small agency, there are approximately 30 clients currently enrolled and about 40 caregivers providing services, although those numbers fluctuate depending on funding, Slowins said. “We have so many needs out there and sometimes are limited in what we can do, although we never turn people way,” she said. “Our limiting factor is caregivers. It is difficult to find good workers when McDonald’s pays $11 per hour and PAs get $10.50.”
PPA is funded through a myriad of companies, including the Area Agency on Aging office in Southfield, the Washtenaw County Community Mental Health and donations raised through various fundraisers that net about 7 percent of its $923,000 annual budget. “AAA pays a flat fee and those amounts rarely go up from the state,” she said. “Even after 18 years we are still bouncing from paycheck to paycheck. We would like to grow, and we have plenty of consumer demand, but that depends on how much we raise in our annual event.” Slowins also is a volunteer leader of a multiple sclerosis support group through the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living. She has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s in social work from Michigan State University.
12 SPONSORED CONTENT
About Centria Healthcare n Company was founded in Michigan in 2009 to meet a growing demand for homebased, specialized behavior-
Innovative ABA therapy changes lives of family touched by autism
al health services. n Centria provides direct therapy services to more than 2,000 children in eight states: Michigan, California, Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey and Arizona. n Centria employs more than 3,500 clinicians and support staff throughout the country. n Centria is contracted and credentialed with more than 130 payers (insurance companies) including Medicaid and is accredited by the Joint Commission (JCAHO), an independent nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies healthcare organizations and programs in the United States.
‘Every day I see something n
Nautica Arnold has noticed a remarkable difference in her son Davion, 7, since he started ABA therapy with Centria Autism Services two years ago. Arnold’s mother, Ayanna Sheffield, and daughter Desire, 2, join Davion during a recent therapy session.
By Marti Benedetti Crain Content Studio
finally about to start changing for the better.
Nautica Arnold remembers clearly how taking her son Davion to the grocery store could quickly turn stressful. At age 3, if Davion was denied a toy or food, he would throw himself on the floor screaming and yelling. Sometimes, he would force himself to vomit. “At that age, he wasn’t talking, and we noticed his cousin the same age was more advanced,” said Arnold, of Detroit. “We started thinking something was wrong, so we began working with him, reading and talking to him more.” Arnold and her mother, Ayanna Sheffield, continued to worry. They took Davion to a doctor, who referred them to Children’s Hospital of Michigan for tests. Davion was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and referred for treatment to Novi-based Centria Healthcare. That was April 2015; Davion was almost 5, and the family’s life was
Davion writes his name Centria Healthcare is a national leader in Applied Behavior Analysis therapy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families. Its mission is to help every child living with autism to develop, pursue, and achieve their goals and dreams through high quality ABA therapy and support. “Three years ago, he really could not communicate, except for babbling sounds,” said Centria senior therapist Robin Savage about Davion. Savage has been working with Davion at the family’s house and at Centria’s Dearborn clinic for more than two years. “Now he speaks in full sentences and is reading at a first-grade level. A year ago, he started writing his name. Our goal is to get him to grade level (second grade) by June,” Savage said. The plan is for Davion to attend public school next fall. The 7-year-old will be in a regular classroom, not in
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Centria Autism Services therapist Robin Savage works with 7-year-old Davion 40 hours a week. “Three years ago, he was completely nonverbal ... Now he speaks in full sentences and is reading at a first-grade level,” Savage said.
About ABA therapy Applied Behavior Analysis therapy is considered the most effective treatment for autism and is the only evidence-based therapy approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Surgeon General. ABA therapy is an evidence-based science in which behavior modifications are systematically applied to
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an autism-specific or special education room. The family calls what Centria did for Davion “amazing.” Centria provides ABA therapy to roughly 2,000 children across the United States. Every child’s treatment plan should be individualized to their needs. Therapy can be provided at home or in a clinic setting. All of the children receive one-on-one therapy. ABA therapy is used to bring about positive changes in behavior in children with autism. By showing socially appropriate behaviors, the child receives positive reinforcement such as stickers and verbal praise. The child receives no reinforcement for behaviors that pose harm or prevent learning. This therapy is especially effective for children and is “the standard of care for autism,” said Steven Merahn, M.D. and chief medical officer at Centria. “There are other interventions but even those are based on the principles of ABA.” While Davion needs 40 hours a
week of therapy to make progress, some children may require 10 to 25 hours a week and visits might be only at a clinic. All of the children receive one-on-one therapy from a trained behavior technician, who is supervised by a master’s level Board-Certified Behavior Analyst. “The guidelines show that at least 25 hours a week is needed for comprehensive treatment,” said Alicia Decker Kidwell, Centria vice president of autism services. Kidwell explained that intervention as soon as possible after diagnosis is best. One in 68 children has autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The number is increasing because of greater awareness, leading to a more frequent diagnosis rate. The U.S. demand for autism services is high. Training employees and making sure they are the right fit for the job takes time; for some parents, it can be a two-year wait for their child to get help.
improve socially significant behavior to a meaningful degree. During ABA therapy, skills are Consistency a key to therapy ABA therapy is widely recognized as a safe and effective treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder. It has been endorsed by the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others. In the past 10 years, there has been a notable increase in using ABA to help those diagnosed with autism live happier and more productive lives. Consistency and follow-through by a child’s family and therapist are vital parts of the therapy process. Kidwell added that parent engagement can be difficult both because it involves getting accustomed to having a stranger in your home, and it requires consistency and patience by the family. “The progress is great when you see it, but it is not an overnight fix. It’s stressful and hard to stick with,” Kidwell said. In his first years, Davion had classic ASD symptoms. Besides being non-verbal and having tantrums, he
displayed repetitive behavior such as continually rolling the wheels of a toy car or lining up objects the same way over and over again. In addition to one-on-one ABA therapy sessions, Savage gave Arnold and Sheffield the tools to help Davion with home therapy and schooling. Savage’s use of ABA therapy has resulted in Davion going from saying five to 300 words. “Every day I see something new with him,” Savage said, adding that she logs data on everything about Davion’s behavior. Once Davion is in public school, Savage’s relationship with him will end. He will be re-evaluated in 2019. Davion’s family has worked to teach him manners and proper behavior, Savage said, and it comes through as he shakes hands with a new acquaintance and smiles. Davion said his favorite subject is writing and he favors Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books. “He has come so far,” Sheffield said.
Learn more about ABA therapy and the resources available to you, visit CentriaHealthcare.com. If you are concerned about your child’s development, call Centria Healthcare’s 24-hour help line at 855-77-AUTISM.
broken down into small, easy-to-learn steps. Positive reinforcement is used to motivate the child, and data is continuously collected to measure the child’s progress and modify their personalized treatment plan. ABA is the single-most effective treatment for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the only treatment shown to lead to substantial, lasting improvements in the lives of children with autism. SPONSORED BY
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14
SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH CARE HEROES
CO
William O’Neill, M.D.
By
CO-WINNER, ADMINISTRATION
HEART AND VASCULAR RESEARCH
By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com
William O’Neill, M.D., has been saving lives since the 1980s. But after decades treating patients for major heart attacks, he grew tired of survival rates stuck at 50 percent. So he did something about it. Using a tiny heart pump and his powers of persuasion, O’Neill got competing cardiologists at five of the largest health systems in Southeast Michigan to develop and test a life-saving methodology. It is now known as “the Detroit protocol.” In July 2016, O’Neill and more than a dozen fellow cardiologists formed the Detroit Cardiogenic Shock Initiative to test the model protocol that is beginning to be used across the nation. The initial results? Survival rates skyrocketed to 76 percent from 50 percent for the 41 patients treated over a 10-month period. These patients had heart attacks so strong that their heart muscles went into a state of shock, vastly diminishing their chances of survival because they lacked sufficient blood flow. Cardiologists at Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Medical Center, St. John Providence Health System, Beaumont Health and St. Joseph Mercy Health System dropped their competitive natures and agreed to use a new protocol using an Impella heart pump on patients showing signs of cardiogenic shock. The Impella is manufac-
William O’Neill, M.D.
tured by Abiomed, a Danvers, Mass.based company, which funded a national review of 15,000 heart patients treated using the heart pump. “I talked with my friends at all the health systems. We are all like-minded doctors, all competitive for elective procedures, but not for (cardiogenic) shock,” said O’Neill, 66, who is also medical director of the Henry Ford Center for Structural Heart Disease. “(Those patients) go directly to hospital” when they have a massive heart attack, O’Neill said. “Everybody knew if we didn’t do something we would
be stuck at 50 percent. We started treating patients in a systematic way, monitored the use of the device” and began quickly improving survival rates. After O’Neill presented the Detroit initiative at the annual American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in March 2017, Henry Ford was bombarded with inquiries about how to use the method. Now the program has been expanded to the National Cardiogenic Shock Initiative. More than 40 hospitals have signed up, he said. By this summer, O’Neill said he believes more than 200 patients will be treated in a clinical study at hospitals in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Massachusetts, Florida and Washington state. O’Neill also wants to expand the initiative to smaller hospitals in Michigan. “Sixty percent of the shock comes into small hospitals,” he said. O’Neill received his medical degree in 1977 at Wayne State University School of Medicine and has been a physician leader at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak and at the University of Michigan Hospitals in Ann Arbor. He was dean of research at the University of Miami Health System before coming to Henry Ford in 2012. O’Neill also performed the first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) through a catheter in the U.S. in 2005.
James Fahner, M.D. jgreene@crain.com
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By Jay Greene
James Fahner, M.D., was the first pediatric hematologist-oncologist to be recruited at the new Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids 28 years ago. As division chief, he created what is now an 80-member pediatric hematology/ oncology department, which includes 15 specialty physicians. “Our program has grown and grown. We assembled a multidisciplinary team, and it required me to take a leadership role with administrative oversight,” said Fahner. “It is not something doctors are trained for.” Still, Fahner, 60, a University of Michigan medical school graduate in 1983, took charge of the fledgling DeVos department because there was great interest in Grand Rapids from doctors and community leaders to develop a world-class children’s hospital for western Michigan. The last six years, DeVos Children’s has been recognized as a top hospital by U.S. News and World Report. Fahner also has been heavily in-
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James Fahner, M.D.
volved in Make-A-Wish Michigan the past 20 years, first serving as a board member and later chairman. He recently joined the national organization as its first chairman of a national physician advisory board. Over the past five years, nearly 550 eligible children who were treated at DeVos Children’s were referred to Make-A-Wish Michigan. Last year, the hospital had a record number of referrals with 148 children treated at the hospital being referred and having their wish granted. Each day 50 to 60 children are treated at DeVos with chemotherapy and infusion services for a variety of conditions in the outpatient unit. Another 18 to 24 children receive inpatient care each day. The numbers are growing each year, he said. “I am proud of the work we do for these children. They receive the best care possible,” he said. In 2012, Fahner faced a cancer scare of his own, one that made him rethink what it means to be a patient. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor. With support from his wife, Gail, he went through all the typical emotions a person newly diagnosed with possible cancer goes through. After surgery to remove the growth, the tumor was found to be benign. “I did have a pretty remarkable speed bump a few years ago,” Fahner said. “I am so very blessed by comparison to so many others that I usually don’t make much comment about it at this point.” But Fahner said the cancer scare changed his perspective of cancer and how he approaches patients. Fahner said he began to understand more clearly “just how dreadful high-dose steroids are to the terrifying, out of body experience one has when it is your name on that MRI showing a massive brain tumor. It was humbling and life-changing, and I hope enhanced the quality of my communication with my very courageous young patients.” Two years ago, Fahner was appointed the inaugural chair of the national Make-A-Wish America organization’s 20-member medical advisory council. “I am humbled and honored to work with some of the best children’s hospitals in the country and some of the absolute experts in their fields,” Fahner said.
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CO-WINNER, ADMINISTRATION
Chris Allen
By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com
Chris Allen, CEO of Authority Health, is one of few health care executives in Southeast Michigan who has worked to improve health care for underserved populations as both a hospital administrator and for the last two decades working on public health issues. In his 13 years at Authority Health, Allen has spearheaded a number of projects that have addressed inner-city health problems, ranging from improving prenatal care to enhancing the primary care physician pipeline and expanding behavioral health services. But his latest passion is preaching how to become a “population health executive,” said Allen, a University of Michigan graduate of health care studies and administrator at Detroit Osteopathic Hospital, Hutzel Hospital and Detroit Medical Center from 1976 to 1995. “There are many definitions to population health. The term was first coined in 1979,” he said. “It was more academic then. Now it is based more on what we know is happening in our city.” And Allen clearly is perturbed by what’s happening in Detroit. “Detroit only has two stars in the Medicare (Hospital Compare quality) ranking (for medical-surgical hospitals). Why?” he asked. “There is a study on Michigan’s health in its 83 counties. Wayne is at the bottom of the list. Fifty-six percent of the residents in the city live in underserved areas compared with 4 percent of the hospital beds.” He also believes hospitals can do a more effective job in reducing readmissions within 30 days of discharge. “(Hospitals) discharge some of them back to neighborhoods where they have problems. Shame on you,” he said. To better assess the basic health of residents of Detroit, Allen also has made sure doctors in training in Authority Health’s six primary care residency programs conduct brief surveys on the “health toxicity” of patients they treat. “When they see patients, residents ask four or five questions about what impacts their health — do they have transportation problems, lack of access to good food or good housing,” Allen said. “We are developing population health dashboards that allows us to make intelligent decisions on where to locate our next wellness center.” Allen said Authority Health also is offering a two-year certification in population health. “When a patient comes into our practice, the ZIP code triggers questions to ask,” he said. “These are social determinants of health, and we are finding out what barriers our patients have to good health.” One of the problems in today’s health care delivery system is how competition for patients sometimes results in lack of coordination between health systems and safety-net providers to address unmet needs. Allen wants to change that with the Detroit Regional Health Collaborative. Representatives from various public and private health organizations have agreed to work on joint community health needs assessments. The goal of the project
will be to develop several health improvement initiatives that will improve population health. “We are working on a community benefit assessment that will encourage health systems to work together more. This will be important as (hospital) resources become scarce,” said Allen, noting that Rob Casalou, CEO of St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor, is cochair of the committee that will suggest specific joint projects among health systems. Toward Allen’s aim of improving the health of populations in Detroit
Chris Allen
and Wayne County, Authority Health has established: J The Detroit Nurse-Family Partnership to address high rates of poor birth outcomes. This six-yearold program provides in-home nursing care for first-time, low-income mothers from the beginning of pregnancy until the child is 2 years old. Families served by the program had 6.7 percent babies born prematurely compared with Detroit’s 2015 average of 16.5 percent. J A new wellness center at Lahser and Eight Mile roads, to open this spring. The center is a partnership with Behavioral Health Professionals, Inc., and Development Centers
Inc. and will offer integrated behavioral and physical health services with social support systems to care for patients with dual diagnoses. J A community-based primary care medical residency program, the second largest in the nation, with 71 current residents in six primary care specialties. The program, co-sponsored with Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, trains residents at several DMC hospitals, the Detroit VA and St. John Providence Hospital in Southfield. After nearly 40 years in health care, has the 68-year-old considered retirement? “I've got a lot to do. I'm having fun,” he said.
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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH CARE HEROES
FRO
PHYSICIAN
Tolulope Sonuyi, M.D. By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com
As an emergency physician, Tolulope Sonuyi, M.D., has seen too many young men with gunshot or stabbing wounds brought into DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital. One study on victims of violence treated in ERs and recidivism, written in the 1980s by emergency physicians at Henry Ford Hospital, where Sonuyi completed his residency in 2011, reported that 44 percent of those who suffered violence had repeat assaults within five years and 20 percent ended up dying. “The statistics haven’t changed much,” said Sonuyi, now an emergency physician at DMC Sinai-Grace under contract by Medical Center Emergency Services, an independent academic group affiliated with Wayne State University. Because Sinai-Grace sees more gunshot wound and stabbing victims in its ER — sometimes averaging nearly two per day — than any other hospital in Michigan, Sonuyi decided to take action. Working with the grassroots group My Brother’s Keeper, Sonuyi in 2016 founded DLIVE, the first hospital-based violence intervention program in Michigan. DLIVE stands for Detroit Life Is Valuable Everyday. “No one case gave me the idea. The accumulation of seeing a lot of preventable deaths, seeing that with the ubiquity of trauma in the community I thought we have an opportunity to do something. There are resources in the city, but there was a disconnect because it wasn’t getting done,” Sonuyi. “DLIVE is that connector.” As DLIVE medical director, Sonuyi coordinates a multi-disciplinary team of doctors, nurses, social workers, mental health specialists, violence intervention specialists and
volunteers. They work together, treating violence as a public health issue, to help patients injured by violence and change the trajectory of their lives. Despite the team’s intervention attempts, Sonuyi still sees too many survivors of interpersonal violence routinely discharged from the ER back into the community, and he is looking to expand DLIVE. As homicide is the number one cause of death for Detroit residents ages 15-34, Sonuyi gathered together a group of like-minded individuals. He garnered grant funding from DMC Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation, the Skillman Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. Sonuyi recruited for DLIVE such community leaders as Calvin Evans, Michelle Berry and Ray Winans to serve as violence intervention specialists. LaToiya Richarson is the program’s administrative coordinator. There are also 10 volunteers ranging from graduate students to members of the community. Sonuyi said DMC executives such as Conrad Mallet, Sinai-Grace president, and Tony Tedeschi, M.D., DMC CEO, have been supportive of his idea to expand DLIVE into Detroit Receiving Hospital. If all the details are worked out, he said additional staff will be hired and trained sometime this year.
Need outweighs capacity After patients are stabilized in the ER, Winans said DLIVE begins the sensitive process of visiting them and talking about their options to participate in the program. During a 48hour stay, for example, patients will be visited four to five times. “Sometimes we meet them in the trauma bay, the recovery room or in
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Tolulope Sonuyi, M.D
patient room,” Winans said. “We get the family together and come back to see them. If they can eat, we get them breakfast. We talk about the process of recovery. Whatever they can do, we help them.” Of the 65 patients who have been part of DLIVE, 90 percent have agreed to be part of the program. “Nobody so far has been re-injured who has been in our program,” said Sonuyi, adding that the vast majority are either now employed or back in school. But Sonuyi said that an estimated 175 potentially eligible participants could not be assessed by DLIVE because the program still lacks sufficient staff or there was inadequate time to meet with the patient before
discharge. “This shows there is a tremendous need at Sinai-Grace that has outweighed DLIVE’s initial capacity,” said Sonuyi, adding he hopes to change that later this year when two more staff will be hired. The basic concept of DLIVE is not exclusive to DMC. Hospitals in about 30 cities also have adopted a similar hospital intervention model, including hospitals in St. Louis, Baltimore and Washington D.C. Originally from California, Sonuyi received his medical degree from University of Michigan Medical School and decided to focus on inner city emergency medical care at Henry Ford and later at DMC in Detroit.
In 2012, he was recognized as clinical teacher of the year for the Sinai-Grace Hospital emergency residency program. He also has worked with the Jackie Robinson Foundation, Cease-Fire Detroit and the Alkebulan Village. “We deal with the real deal when it comes to violence. Often individuals have high levels of previous trauma and DLIVE then receives the downstream effects of that,” Sonuyi said. “The violence intervention specialists provide the critical basis for the therapeutic relationship that must be forged for all other things to occur,” he said. “The gems, keys and solutions to stubborn issues lie within the community.”
ONCOLOGY RESEARCH
jgreene@crain.com
Jeffrey Taub, M.D., drew inspiration from his own childhood bout with cancer when he decided to become a pediatric oncologist. Taub, a Canadian from Windsor who was treated for Hodgkin lymphoma at Children’s Hospital in 1977, ended up completing his residency at Children’s and has spent his entire 30-year career at the hospital, which is now part of Detroit Medical Center and owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp. in Dallas. “I went to medical school in Canada (University of Western Ontario) and did my residency here. I never thought I would get to this level,” he said. “It was just meant to be. I don’t have any regrets I didn’t go elsewhere (after residency training).” As a cancer survivor, Taub believes he can help children understand the challenges and anxieties they may have with a cancer diagnosis as he treats them and participates in the hospital’s annual survivors program. “We have 60 to 70 people on our team. We develop long-term rela-
tionships with patients, sometimes seeing them when they are a child. I have a patient who was 6 years old. Now he is age 20, an R.N., married, has a baby and who still comes in to see me with his mom," said Taub, the division chief of oncology at Children’s since 2011. “(People) say pediatric oncology is so depressing, stressful, challenging. But we see what we can accomplish,” said Taub, who also is a professor of pediatrics and endowed chair in pediatric cancer research with Wayne State University School of Medicine. “It is all worth it. At the clinic we try and be upbeat. You hear a lot of laughing at our clinic.” One reason for the laughing is magic tricks. To entertain young and older patients after their visit or treatment, Taub sometimes pulls out the “never-ending scarves” or a string trick where he shows three separate strings of all different sizes only to combine them into one string and then back into a “father, mother and baby string.” “It is part of the treatment at Children’s,” he said. When Taub isn’t seeing patients,
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Jeffrey Taub, M.D.
he is conducting a variety of research on childhood cancer, leukemia, lymphoma and retinoblastoma. Taub has led the largest single study on survival outcomes for children with Down Syndrome, acute
lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Researchers have developed new testing and treatment protocols that have made treating patients with Down more effective and safe. “Children with Down have a greater predisposition (10-20 percent higher risk) to develop leukemia and AML. Nobody understood why,” he said, adding that doctors need to take the correct treatment approach and individualize it to the patient to be effective. Taub was principal investigator in a multi-site study through the Children’s Oncology Group that enrolled 204 children from 2007 to 2011. “The cure rates were very high,” he said. During treatment, the most common side effects experienced by patients were infections that occurred when their white blood cell counts were low. But no children died due to cardiac complications. Another pioneering study that Taub is involved with uses zebrafish to identify genetic and environmental factors that may lead to childhood leukemia. At WSU’s Integrative Biosciences
Center, Taub is working with other researchers on the Kids Without Cancer Zebrafish Initiative. Leukemia is the most common cancer in children and teens, accounting for almost one out of three cancers. The work is being funded by Kids Without Cancer, a nonprofit group of parents whose children have been treated for cancer at Children’s Hospital. The group has committed $356,000 to fund the research at Wayne State University medical school. Taub said researchers hope to find out if common pesticides are triggers that flips a switch in a specific gene, causing leukemia in children. Because zebrafish have clear skins whose spinal column and blood can be seen, they can be bred with the human leukemia genes and studied. They turn off-white color when they develop leukemia. “In preliminary studies, we did see the fish develop leukemia. We are using one pesticide now and my interest is we test other pesticides,” said Taub. “We are trying to answer what triggers leukemia. ... I hope we can find the answer.”
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KANTROWITZ FROM PAGE 8
ViaDerm, companies that came out of her late husband’s research. HBeat Medical develops devices that assist with the treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the heart, such as power sources for implanted blood pumps. ViaDerm creates skin access devices that reduce the infection of tubes traversing skin by using a microporous surface that stimulates cell multiplication to accelerate healing and promote the formation of a natural biologic seal. The companies are headquartered at Michigan Life Sciences Innovation Center in Plymouth, a facility managed through the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
Making history When Dr. Kantrowitz in 1967 removed the heart of a brain-dead baby and implanted it into the chest of a baby with a fatal heart defect, he became the first doctor to perform a human heart transplant in the U.S. While the patient only lived for six and a half hours, the operation became a milestone toward the routine transplants that are possible today. In 1970, Dr. Kantrowitz moved his entire lab from Brooklyn along with 25 surgeons, engineers and nurses to Sinai Hospital in Detroit. In 1972, with a $3 million grant, the Kantrowitz team created the left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, which allowed patients with chronic heart failure to leave the hospital with a permanent implant. In 1983, the Kantrowitzes co-founded the medical device company LVAD Technology. “He envisioned some means of helping the fail-
MOGILL FROM PAGE 8
and his friends came in for haircuts. One day, the barber brought Hoffa to see Mogill. At the time, Mogill’s office was connected to the Seville through a back hallway. “I treated Jimmy, his family and his friends,” Mogill said. “I loved Jimmy. He was a very good person and a very, very, very loyal person.” Did Hoffa have any medical issues? “I wouldn’t tell you,” Mogill said in his characteristic quick-response manner. Did Mogill give Hoffa medical advice? “I told him to quit smoking every time I saw him.” “They paid cash,” Mogill recalled.
Learning surgery under fire Before joining the Army, where he served in the 8th Field Hospital in Europe, he received his medical degree from Wayne State in 1942 at age 25 and completed his internship year at the old Blain Memorial Hospital. “I fought to get into the Army. I was a Jewish-American. I had no choice but to go to prove myself a good American,” Mogill said. During his years in France and Germany in 1944 and 1945, Mogill gradually came to realize the atrocities the Jews were subject to at the hands of the Germans. When his medical team entered Germany and visited concentration camps, he saw for himself the ugly truth of the Holocaust. “I went to the camps with the nuns and treated some of the survivors. They told me stories,” said Mogill, his voice trailing off. After the war, Maj. Mogill returned to Detroit to complete his surgery residency. But despite federal rules to protect the jobs of returning soldiers, Alexander Blain Memorial gave away his surgery residency slot. Grace Hospital gave him privileges as a general practitioner, so he went into private practice, said Mogill, who later helped create the hospital’s department of family practice. In 1946, Mogill opened his Detroit office near the Seville Hotel, in a storefront location between Peterboro and Charlotte streets. Before he opened the office, he received a phone call. The caller gave him some advice. “George, I know how Democratic you are. If you open your practice to black and whites you
ing heart. Heart failure is not like cancer. He thought you don’t really need an artificial heart, just leave it there. So he built an assist pump, a booster pump,” said Jean Kantrowitz, who lives in the family house in Lake Angelus.
Finding grants, talent Originally from New Jersey, Jean Kantrowitz received her undergraduate degree in 1942 in business education from Rider College in Trenton, N.J. and a business education master’s in 1945 from the University of North Carolina. In 1975, she received a second master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Michigan. “I was a pretty smart academic (who) understood rigorous research and how to do science when I met him,” Jean Kantrowitz said. “He was a resident at the time and not used to doing research. None of the secretaries were knowledgeable about writing up papers. I did it at home.” Dr. Kantrowitz’s first two grants were small, $9,000 and $14,000, Jean recalls. But the grants grew larger. “We got a $3 million grant, which was very large for the late 1950s in Brooklyn,” she said. “I could write an English sentence, describe the facilities needed, and it got to the point where the NIH (National Institutes of Health) recognized what I was doing,” Jean Kantrowitz said. “I worked for Adrian directly, but I also worked for the NIH, as a reviewer. Not for the science, but for the administrative competence.” She also has big-time recruiting skills. “I did a search for researchers and was mobbed by the Japanese. There were older professors who were very interested in having younger people come to the U.S. to do research and bring it back to them,” Kantrowitz said. “We had a long list of Japanese researchers.” “I did whatever was needed,” she added. won’t have a practice,” Mogill said. “Well, I said, ‘I won't have a practice.’” Mogill was upset. People in the community also suggested Mogill schedule different days for white and black patients. When he finally opened to patients, he became the third Detroit doctor to integrate his office. Mogill helped open WSU’s family medicine residency in 1972. He became chief of family practice at Harper-Grace hospital from 1977 to 1984 and later when it became Sinai-Grace Hospital. Preceptorships for third-year WSU medical students with Mogill were very competitive. The student assigned to him would begin the day with him at 6 a.m. with a game of squash. Mogill would give every student — totaling about 500 over the years — a squash racket to keep. They played at the Uptown and Downtown Athletic Clubs or the Northwest Activities Center. Afterward, the doctors would go to the hospital for breakfast and begin rounds. Two years ago, Jack Sobel, M.D., dean of the Wayne medical school, awarded Mogill with a Lifetime Achievement Citation for his meritorious loyalty and commitment to the school and the teaching and mentoring of medical students and residents. Over the years, Mogill has received many other awards, including the Southeast Michigan Quality of Care Award presented by Pfizer Inc. in 2000, the Exemplary Teaching Award from the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2006 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians in 2016. The George Mogill, M.D., Endowed Award for Family Medicine is an annual gift at WSU created in 2000 by Mogill from a $100,000 gift from a former patient. It is presented annually in March during residency program Match Day to graduating seniors who are committed to specializing in family medicine. Mogill and his wife Irma, who passed away in 2012, have eight grandchildren from their two daughters and son — Jain, Elizabeth Silver and David Mogill. His grandson, Jonathan Lauter, is a pediatrician who graduated from WSU medical school in 2008. “My dad is our family hero,” says daughter Jain. “He loves people, medicine and life. He professes that a good doctor must be available. He always was. He still is.”
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CALENDAR
SPOTLIGHT
JoAnne Purtan to leave WXYZ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21 JVS Business Connections: Networking for Introverts, Extroverts and In-between-verts. 7:30-8:45 a.m. JVS. Speaker: Abby Kohut. Topics: How to explain what you do so people will remember you, how to identify the right networking opportunities for you, what “paying it forward” is all about and why networking is simply making new friends. JVS, Southfield. Free, but registration required. Contact: Angela Bevak, info@jvsdet.org CEO Luncheon featuring Steve Tobocman. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Troy Chamber of Commerce. Featured keynote: Steve Tobocman, director of Global Detroit. Maggiano’s Little Italy, Troy. $28 Troy Chamber members; $38 nonmembers. Contact: Jessica Minnick, phone: (248) 641-1606; email: jessica@ troychamber.com; website: troycham-
ber.wpengine.com/events/ceo-luncheon-steve-tobocman-global-detroit/
THURSDAY, MARCH 22 Digital Marketing Secrets Revealed. 7:30-11:30 a.m. Detroit Regional Chamber. Digital marketing leaders from the Detroit region will look at the current digital marketing landscape. Greektown Casino-Hotel. $55 members, $99 nonmembers. Contact: Jim Connarn, phone: (313) 596-0391; website: detroitchamber.com/digital-marketing/ To submit calendar items visit crainsdetroit.com and click “Events” near the top of the home page. Then, click “Submit Your Events” from the drop-down menu that will appear. Fill out the submission form, then click “Submit event” at the bottom of the page. More Calendar items can be found at crainsdetroit.com/events.
WXYZ-Channel 7 news anchor JoAnne Purtan is leaving the station later this month after learning her contract will not be renewed. The nonrenewal is “due to corporate restructuring of the Scripps-owned television stations and cost-cutting iniJoAnne Purtan tiatives,” Purtan said on her Facebook page. Purtan said this Friday is scheduled to be her last day on air. She started at WXYZ in 1998. She wrote in her Facebook post that she was “shocked” and “disappointed.” “I have had an amazing 20 years at WXYZ-TV because of you, our faith-
ful viewers,” she wrote. “I can’t thank you enough for inviting me into your homes and your newsfeeds through the years, trusting me to bring you the stories, both good and bad, that impact our local communities.”
DowDuPont names division leadership
DowDuPont Executive Chairman Andrew Liveris plans to step back next month as the company makes executive leadership changes to its Dow Material Science Division — one of three companies to be created after a $62 billion merger between the chemical giants. Liveris, 63, has been at the helm of the company since 2004. He will give up his executive chairmanship in April, and his role as director on July 1, when he officially retires. The Material Advisory Committee intends to appoint Jim Fitterling to the role of CEO of the division, where he currently serves as chief operating
officer, according to a company news release. Fitterling joined Dow in 1984 and worked in sales, marketing and supply chain positions before assuming a variety of leadership roles.
First Independence Bank appoints chairman, CEO
First Independence Bank has named Kenneth Kelly its new chairman and CEO. He replaced Barry Clay, who retired after more than two decades, in October. Kelly, 50, will oversee the financial operations and assets, policies, regulations and management infrastructure for one of the country’s largest African American-controlled commercial banks, the Detroit-based bank said in a news release said. First Independence was founded in 1970 to counter redlining practices that made it difficult for black home buyers to secure mortgage and commercial loans in metro Detroit.
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Axiom Advisory Group Craig Hershel joins Axiom Advisory Group. Herschel will be specializing in industrial, office, and vacant land sales and leasing. Since 2004, Hershel has completed sales of unique and specialized industrial assets throughout the Midwest. He holds real estate licenses in Ohio and Michigan, is a member of the Commercial Board of of REALTORS, the National Association of REALTORS as well as a candidate for the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR). Steve Laskowski joins Axiom Advisory Group after 25 years of construction management experience in a variety of market sectors, particularly automotive, manufacturing, legal, finance, IT, healthcare, and government. Laskowski has overseen a number of prominent projects throughout his career as a project manager and an owner’s representative. Laskowski offers a wealth of knowledge and will be a welcomed contributor to Axiom Advisory Group as they continue to grow.
KIRCO Laney Cavazos recently joined KIRCO as Director of Property Management and is responsible for the daily operations of KIRCO’s property management and senior housing portfolios. Laney was most recently a Regional Real Estate Director at St. Joseph Mercy Health System. Prior to that, Laney worked at Farbman Group as Senior VP of Healthcare Services where she managed their medical real estate division providing real estate services to healthcare systems encompassing 5 Million SF in Southeast, MI.
CBRE Group, Inc. Mary Anne Wilson has joined CBRE as a Senior Advisor in its Furniture Advisory Services, Project Management team in Detroit. With 20-years of furniture dealership sales experience, Mary Anne will work with clients to develop a customized bidding strategy aimed to deliver transparency and savings to the process.
Marketing Resource Group (MRG) Jenell Leonard has joined MRG, which specializes in public affairs, communications, political campaign management, and public opinion survey research. She provides public relations and public affairs counsel, political and campaign finance services and strategic business development. Previously, Leonard was appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to serve as director of the Michigan Film & Digital Media office. She also worked in the Michigan House of Representatives and Lt. Gov. Brian Calley Executive Office.
ENGINEERING & CONSULTING Nathan Stalker Mechanical Department Leader
Strategic Energy Solutions, Inc Nathan Stalker, PE, LEED AP BD+C was recently named Mechanical Department Leader at Strategic Energy Solutions, Inc. (SES). An active member and past president of the Detroit Chapter of ASHRAE, Nathan has over twenty years of experience leading our most technically challenging and complex projects. As Department Leader, he will direct a department of talented engineers and designers, ensuring successful projects for clients.
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FROM PAGE 3
“Ultimately, the current state of affairs impacts the services agencies can offer to integrate new refugees,” given the loss of economies of scale that come with larger resettlement numbers, Tobocman said. To continue providing services to refugees already here, resettlement agencies are seeking alternative funding such as grants from private funders. And some are looking to local churches and community groups for help. “When we’re closing offices in Ann Arbor, where does a refugee go? They can no longer stop by our office to get basic support,” said Vickie Thompson-Sandy, president of Samaritas, a Detroit-based social services agency that counts refugee resettlement among its services. “We really have to rely on local partners, now, to do some of that work for us.” Local resettlement agencies predicted last year that declining refugee activity and the subsequent loss of federal funding would lead to layoffs and office closures. The number of refugees arriving in Michigan as a whole during the federal government’s fiscal 2017 fell 40 percent to 2,536, according to data from the U.S. Department of State. Just over half or 1,363 refugees that came to the state were resettled in Southeast Michigan last year. And all but 41 of them were from Middle Eastern and African countries that are reportedly among the 11 “high-risk” countries whose refugees the Trump administration is restricting and subjecting to additional security reviews that are slowing the process of those refugees coming into the U.S. Refugee activity in Southeast Michigan has slowed to a trickle this year. Five months into the federal government’s fiscal 2018, agencies in Michigan have resettled a total of 289 refugees. Just 11 percent, or 32 people, have come to cities in Southeast Michigan. Trump has capped the number of refugees who can come to the U.S. this year at 45,000, about half the 2016 number. Some local companies are feeling the squeeze in their workforces. Local manufacturing and retail employers that relied on new refugees as employees are calling the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Detroit on a weekly basis, said Tawfik Alazem, director of its Dearborn office. Among them is Reino Linen Service, a company that launders and returns about 50 million pounds of linens to area hospitals, health clinics and doctors’ offices each year. The company’s location in Brownstown Township, where public transportation is an issue, leads to high employee turnover, said Mary Onifer, a corporate human resources specialist for the company. Reino has turned to organizations like USCRI Detroit for the past nine years to engage refugees as employees. “All of the employees they’ve sent us were ready to work ... (and) had the right documents” including driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and permanent resident or authorization to work cards, Onifer said. About 25-30 percent of its 255 employees are currently refugees, and those employees are very dedicated, Onifer said. The company is growing each year and always has job openings to fill, said general manager Nate Adams. “If there were more refugees coming
19 March 19, 2018
Dave Bartek: Declined to make predictions.
Tawfik Alazem: Employers relied on refugees.
through, maybe we could fill some of those (open) positions.” And there is a broader economic impact. Refugees resettled in the region over the past decade generated as much as $295.3 million in new spending and between 1,798 and 2,311 jobs in 2016, according to a study released by Global Detroit last fall looking at activity in Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties. As a whole, Michigan ranked fourth in the country for the number of refugees resettled in 2016 and over the decade prior, according to the study.
Flood to a trickle But it’s a different story these days. Samaritas is now seeing single-digit refugee arrivals in Southeast Michigan, Thompson-Sandy said. For the first four months of the federal fiscal year, the agency resettled 62 refugees, mostly in Grand Rapids. That’s an average of 15 per month, down from 115 per month in recent years, something that’s resulted in significant decline in federal funding that comes with the refugees to support the staff and infrastructure to resettle them. In fiscal 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, Samaritas received $4.8 million to fund its program. It’s forecasting it will receive $1.2 million in operating funds this year, just a quarter of the revenue it saw two years ago, Thompson-Sandy said. Over the past year, “there was so much volatility that we tried to hold out as long as we could with staffing to figure out if something was going to change,” she said. “We got to the point where we could not do that.” Samaritas has laid off 26 of its 32 resettlement employees and closed its Ann Arbor resettlement office. It’s now closing its Battle Creek location and consolidating that into its Grand Rapids office. It has just two resettlement employees left in its Troy office. Traditionally, the nonprofit had enough resettlement staff to continue assisting refugees with issues such as language barriers or the appropriate response to a letter they might receive tied to their immigration, even after the $1,000-per-refugee federal contract to help them for their first 90 days in the country expired, Thompson-Sandy said. To continue providing some level of services to refugees already here, Samaritas is adopting the “Circle of Welcome” program developed by its national resettlement agency, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, funding half of any costs. It’s in talks with local churches and community groups for a yearlong volunteer commitment to help refugees with issues like transportation and helping them understand cultural issues. The challenge is there are language barriers, Thompson-Sandy said. “While volunteers can come around us and support our work, there are gaps in services when we do not have professionals who speak that language and can assist.”
Other resettlement agencies have faced the same issues. USCRI Detroit resettled just 455 Vickie Thompin son-Sandy: Have refugees to rely on partners. Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties last year, 40 percent fewer than in 2016. USCRI Detroit has been approved to settle 283 refugees this year, just over a third of the number it helped acculturate two years ago, USCRI-Detroit’s Alazem said. USCRI Detroit has laid off close to 60 percent of its staff, which numbered about 16 when it opened its Dearborn office over a decade ago, Alazem said. “It’s sad to see very experienced staff who dedicated years in helping refugees being laid off because of this,” he said. “But this is not really about employees or resettlement agencies. It’s about refugees, human beings who really have to run from their homes and run for their life … (and) deserve people … to protect them and their children.” Alazem declined to share specifics on the impact the declining refugee numbers have had on USCRI Detroit’s revenue. For now, the organization is relying on related federal programs to continue to provide some services to local refugees already here, he said. They include an employment program to help refugees become self-sufficient through resume building, employment training, job placement and other services and a program that provides education and support to help low-income refugee families strengthen their marriages. Like others, it’s also working to figure out what services are needed and seeking grants and other funding to support those, Alazem said. Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan laid off an undisclosed number of employees after the number of refugees it resettled dropped 46 percent in fiscal 2017 to 394 people. CEO Dave Bartek declined to make any predictions about the current fiscal year, because the local agency’s national resettlement partner, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services, is in discussions with the State Department as it makes decisions about which agencies will continue to resettle refugees. The U.S. State Department in December said it plans to consolidate affiliates to maintain only those that resettle at least 100 refugees per location. The charity had total revenue of just under $9 million in 2017 and ended the year with an operating excess of just over $500,000. Refugee resettlement services made up 8 percent to 10 percent of its revenue at one point, Bartek said, but less last year. Catholic Charities’ other programs include adoption and foster care, behavioral health counseling, adult day care, health services and the All Saints Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry in Southwest Detroit. “There’s really a moral imperative that ... we have to support our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” said Bartek. “Our national wants a Catholic presence in refugee resettlement here,” he said. “Whether I can do that from a pragmatic business perspective remains to be seen.” Sherri Welch: 313 (446-1694) Twitter: @SherriWelch
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WOMEN FROM PAGE 1
Kathleen McCann, chairwoman and CEO of Romulus-based United Road Services Inc., and Mary Graff, president and CEO of Warren-based Sur-Flo Plastics & Engineering Inc., are the only two women leaders in the Crain’s Private 200 who didn’t get there as part of a family business or by starting their own companies. McCann rose through the ranks as a CPA at Coopers and Lybrand, which became PricewaterhouseCoopers, before getting recruited to serve as CFO of Soave Enterprises by CEO Mike Piesko. After more than a decade of Kathleen leading its finanMcCann: More cial arm, McCann opportunities in joined United private sector. Road in 2011 as its CEO. McCann said privately held companies provided better opportunities. “It’s possible that the grind of bureaucracy and structure makes it tougher or longer to get noticed in bigger corporations,” McCann said. “Privately held companies seem to have more utility players than specialists by necessity — those that jump in and are willing to do what’s necessary are probably more easily noticed. There is likely more easy access to key decision-makers as well. That makes a big difference.”
The business case
Of the top 100 Michigan companies by market cap, 47 have no women executive officers, the same study showed. On Crain’s Private 200 and Public companies lists, only one woman CEO is not white. Rush is Native American descended from the Mohawk tribe.
Nationwide, more women than men are going to college — 57 percent of college students in 2015 were women, and they earn a degree more frequently than their male counterparts, according to a 2017 report by the U.S. Department of Education. That should deepen the pool of candidates for executive leadership roles. But it also makes the small percentage of women in executive roles more glaring. Today, private and public businesses are both ramping up efforts to diversify leadership, partially because of public outcry but also because of the demonstrated correlation between women’s leadership and profitability. A 2016 global study by Ernst & Young revealed that organizations with 30 percent female leaders could add up to 6 percentage points to their net margins. Coupled with the fact that nearly one-third of companies globally have zero women on their board of directors or in their C-suite, there are plenty of margin gains to be made. Thirty-one out of 100 top Michigan companies have no women board members. The EY study analyzed results from approximately 21,980 global publicly traded companies in 91 countries from a variety of industries and sectors. “There’s a business case for focusing on this,” said Terry Barclay, president and CEO of Detroit-based Inforum. “And while it’s great to hear women make up 10 percent of privately held CEOs, it’s still a really small number given that women account for 60 percent of college graduates.” And despite their gains in the Private 200, there are fewer women executives overall — not just CEOs — in Michigan now than in 2007 and men outnumber women 7-to-1 in executive roles, according to a 2017 Inforum study.
Promoting for potential Globally, Eastern Europe and Africa outperform the U.S. and European Union in women’s inclusion in top management across all companies, according to a recent Grant Thornton survey, “Women in business: Beyond policy to progress.” These regions are more successful, according to the study, because of more progressive policies, such as the publication of gender diversity data and paid parental leave in Eastern Europe and equal pay for men and women and the use of quotas for women leaders in Africa. The U.S. relies on anti-discrimination rules, but has not expanded its scope to the use of quotas and other more direct regulations to ensure diversity and pay equity. Women business leaders stateside stress the importance of mentoring women and anointing them on potential, not accomplishments — which is how their male peers advance. “Research shows the pipeline starts narrowing at the very first promotion,” Barclay said. “Men are being promoted more often on their potential and women on their accomplishments. Women lack the mentors that take an interest in them to reveal their potential.” Cheri Alexander, executive director of corporate learning at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business’
executive education department and former executive director of global human resources for General Motors Co., attributes her rise through the ranks at GM to a former UAW leader, who pushed internally at GM for Alexander to lead labor relations in the late 1970s. “It was very early on in my career that I was anointed as a high-potential person,” Alexander said. “I had amazing men in each of those roles in my career, and I believe we will find that in all women who have ascended to the C-suite. Perhaps Cheri Alexander: in the future we will see more feOptimistic for male coaches, future. mentors and sponsors evolve this elevating more women to top jobs in both public and private companies. At least I see that beginning, so I am optimistic.” McCann said Piesko did the same for her, propelling her career on a quicker trajectory to the top. And she sees this happening more often today. “In the corporate setting, there is much more intentionality today. Many advocacy groups for women in business, women entrepreneurs, women directors, etc. Women help each other — and men are helping women succeed as well.” Alexander said male-dominated roles may erode by sheer numbers. In her executive education courses, she’s seeing more and more women overall. And in a specialty program designed for Silicon Valley executives beginning this month, Alexander expects as many as half of the 45 students to be women.
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WIXOM FROM PAGE 3
Much of the dispute arises from how the two sides interpret an Environmental Cooperation Agreement they entered in December 2012, when Trident Barrow bought the approximately 240 acres from Ford. Trident Barrow says it needs Ford to submit its NFA reports to the DEQ and obtain confirmation that its “physical remediation activities comport with the requirements of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act,” or NREPA. Ford says that Trident Barrow refusing to sign the covenant “prevents Ford from obtaining MDEQ’s approval of the remediation activities.” “MDEQ has advised Ford that it will not review or approve Ford’s NFA reports without the Trident-signed Restrictive Covenant accompanying the reports,” court documents say. Ford declined comment, as did its attorneys in the Detroit office of Dykema Gossett PLLC. A voice mail and email left with Wilson were not returned. His attorneys in the Boston office of Ropes & Gray LLP also declined comment. What’s agreed upon is this: On July 26, 2016, Ford sent Trident Barrow a proposed restrictive covenant, which would limit the future use of the property to nonresidential uses and prohibit use of the site’s groundwater for drinking or irrigation, for the real estate investment company to sign; Trident Barrow says Ford “demanded” a signature, but it refused because it did not know whether the automaker had adequately remediated the site. “Trident discovered that Ford had not submitted any of its NFA reports to the MDEQ, which means that Ford (and Trident) had not received any independent agency confirmation that Ford’s physical environmental remediation of the Wixom Site in fact satisfied the nonresidential cleanup standards under Part 201 of the NREPA,” Trident wrote in court filings. Trident Barrow also says that Ford submitted three reports to the agency from 2013-15 that falsified information about underground storage tanks, saying that they were not in wellhead protection zones when in fact they were. Ford later amended the reports. Siegal, the Jaffe attorney, says the case strikes him as unique because there aren’t major roadblocks to some sort of settlement. “What it’s typically about is that the liable party, Ford, wants to bring this to closure as easily, quickly and cheaply as possible,” he said. “Trident Barrow wants to get it as cleaned up as it can get it. The buyer wants to have as much flexibility for their own use, but also for who they are selling to.” “Where do you end up in the fight between how broad a restrictive covenant should be? Here, that doesn’t seem to be the case — they seem to be fighting about which comes first, the restriction or the DEQ approval of all the environmental reports, which Trident Barrow has objections to.” It’s not like the site has been idle since the factory shuttered in 2007. Several new developments have opened on the property, including a new Menards store, a new headquarters and sales area for Wixom-based General RV and an At Home Goods Inc. store, plus a new Aldi Inc. store. Ford, Trident, Menard Inc. and At Home have all sold tracts of land to make those projects happen. But the majority of the site, 182 acres, sits unused. Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB
C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 1 9 , 2 0 1 8
SEE
FROM PAGE 1
“We opened up at my pace because I wasn’t doing it for the money,” he said. “I wanted to keep it pure. We’re not a business that’s under the gun to hit benchmarks and goals. I do what I want. There’s no hard and fast rule. The business plan changes when I wake up every day.” Golden, though, has not changed. His image is still as cool as ever — the slick, gregarious merchant with the hippest selection of eyewear. As such, he has little interest in straying from the business blueprint he drew up years ago, even as digital consumer habits continue to morph the retail business. The U.S. eyeglass industry generated $22.39 billion in sales at the retail level last year, according to the Vision Council, a nonprofit trade association that conducts annual studies on the optical industry. Only about 3.29 million pairs, or 4.4 percent, of all eyeglasses were purchased online, but that number is expected to grow by 6 percent this year and continue to inch up. Since 1998, SEE has stood by its credo of offering designer-quality products at affordable costs — $169 for entry-level to $399 at the highend. Only last year, though, did it begin selling online. “I never thought it was going to be a huge deal,” Golden said about the digital marketplace. “We just haven’t done it. We’ve done a few tests here and there.” Golden’s father, Donald, who is 99 years old, started D.O.C. in 1946 and was one of the first advertising doctors in the nation, Golden said. He hit the radio circuit and bought advertisements in newspapers and magazines. The momentum continued when Richard joined the company in 1977 after graduating with an advertising degree from Michigan State University and helped create the company’s wildly popular
SEE INC.
The Birmingham location of SEE Inc. Richard Golden oversees 42 designer eyeglass stores — five of which are in Southeast Michigan.
television commercials. Fast forward to today. SEE spends virtually no money on traditional advertising and very little on digital marketing. It doesn’t make sense for a company of its size to buy TV or radio spots like D.O.C., which had more than 100 stores in Michigan alone during its heyday, Golden said. Make no mistake, the company prizes its quirky culture and it communicates accordingly with customers through email lists, word of mouth and some social media. Most of the traditional advertising it has done — on storefronts and billboards — was designed to push boundaries, and it often accomplished this purpose. Take for example a campaign launched at its Manhattan store to stir up attention before opening. Golden put up a poster of a construction worker making an obscene gesture with the caption, “I’ve got your glasses right here!” After it became talk of the town and Golden was pressured to remove it, he swapped the banner out for one of a nun wearing glasses with the caption, “We have SEEn the error of our ways.”
“I thought, geez, you guys can’t have a little fun around here?” Golden said. “It’s Manhattan!” With SEE projecting $45 million in sales this year, Golden’s trusty blueprint certainly doesn’t appear flawed. Five years ago, revenue was just over $30 million, he said. However, digital savvy competitors like Warby Parker have convinced Golden to make some concessions. He hired a social media manager last year, for example. To be clear, Golden said he doesn’t feel threatened by Warby Parker nor does he lose sleep over the digital side of business. He wouldn’t disclose how many pairs of glasses the company sells online but said it accounts for a “very small” piece of revenue. “I believe glasses are a real touchand-feel item,” he said. “There is nothing that is a substitute for live trying.” Industry data supports that idea but also suggests a shift in consumer behavior, particularly among millennials, said Marge Axelrad, longtime editorial director of Vision Monday, a New York-based retail trade publication.
TOWN CENTER FROM PAGE 3
Gleeson said between expansions and new leases, there has been about 500,000 square feet of new space leased under the current ownership group. There are about 175 tenants in the buildings, with about 50 of them taking 15,000 square feet or more, he said. “It’s kind of like two steps forward and one step backward. I’ve been here 32 years. This is all I’ve done pretty much in my lifetime. The decision matrix, the dynamics of real estate decisions to me … is foreign to me. I’ve watched it change. The dynamics are quite interesting,” Gleeson said. Of the capital expenditure budget, $15 million to $20 million has been spent on improvements to things like lobbies and the atrium; about $15 million in tenant improvements; and the balance is on things like chillers, parking and elevator modifications. “Those are things that have to occur in buildings this age,” he said of the complex, which was built in phases between 1975 and 1989. Sam Munaco, president of Southfield-based Advocate Commercial Real Estate Advisors of Michigan LLC, has an office in the complex and has represented several tenants in it. “They’ve done a good job,” he said.
LASZLO PHOTOGRAPHY
Some $56 million in renovations at Southfield Town Center have included tenant improvements and updates to hallways and lobbies.
“The renovations that have taken place have been very well received. They’ve lost some big tenants the last few years, but they are starting to back-fill the space” with companies like Baker Tilley and CBRE Inc. “They still have their challenges and big blocks of space, and they are aggressive, I’ll tell you that,” Munaco said. “As rental rates continue to escalate in the CBD area, tenants are showing more and more of an interest in taking a look at the suburbs, primarily because of the aggressive
rental rates, the amenities and the free parking.” The 2014 sale of the Southfield Town Center came about after a mortgage default. According to commercial mortgage-backed securities data from Bloomberg LP at the time, Blackstone Group LP failed to pay the balance due on a $235 million mortgage on the property originated in 2004 by Irving, Calif.-based Greenwich Capital Financial Products Inc. The loan was transferred to Wells Fargo Bank
“When it comes to eyeglasses, close to 20 percent of consumers say they use the internet to research choices for frames and lenses, but only about 4 percent of purchases take place online,” she said. Digital media is transforming the way people obtain information and learn about a brand. For its part, Warby Parker captured a zeitgeist of millennial attitudes and awoke the industry to the need for an online presence, Axelrad said. However, once an exclusively online retailer, Warby Parker has moved feverishly to open brick-and-mortar locations, including in downtown Detroit and a store set to open this year at Somerset Collection in Troy. “Marketing online to eyeglass wearers is not all it’s cracked up to be,” Axelrad said, largely because eyeglasses are such a complex purchase. Buying prescription eyeglasses requires an eye exam from optometrists and often knowledgeable retail workers to properly outfit — an experience that cannot effectively be recreated online. Axelrad said she doesn’t see online sales ever dominating the industry. Golden admits Warby Parker has a loud microphone but insists that it has been good for his business. Its advertising draws people to its stores, many of which happen to be near SEE locations in the downtown Birminghams of the nation. The result is increased exposure for him. As far as expansion, the plan might have been dialed down but it is far from folded. “Absolutely, we will be at 80 or 90 stores (possibly in the next 5-10 years), but we don’t want to accelerate too fast,” Golden said. “It’s just a fun company.” The bigger question is, will Golden ever bust out the rug-cutting dance moves again? “I can still get a crowd,” he said. Kurt Nagl: (313) 446-0337 Twitter: @kurt_nagl NA for special servicing. A loan modification letter originally stipulated that Blackstone pay the balance by Nov. 5, 2012. The complex was appraised in the summer 2014 at $177.5 million, 45 percent below a 2004 appraisal of $321 million, according to Bloomberg loan data. “That property was in need of updating and upgrading, not just from an aesthetic standpoint, which they did, but a lot of mechanical upkeep and maintenance. They put a lot of money into the property,” said Andrew Hayman, president of Southfield-based real estate ownership and management firm Hayman Co. Hayman also had high praise for the renovations and how they have helped keep the property competitive. “Current ownership, everything I have seen was top-notch. If they didn’t do what they did, they might be at lower occupancy. It’s a prestigious address and property and a great alternative to companies that want to be in the suburban Southfield market and not want to be downtown, but they have had their challenges competing with downtown now.” That, he said, is a relatively new phenomenon. “That’s never been the case in … ever.” Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB
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C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 1 9 , 2 0 1 8
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THE WEEK ON THE WEB
RUMBLINGS
Detroit says it will close golf courses
Down at The Corner, new ballpark to open
MARCH 9-15 | For more, visit crainsdetroit.com
D
etroit City Council last Tuesday rejected a two-year contract for management of Detroit’s municipal golf courses that was pitched by Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration as a step toward selling the cityowned Rackham Golf Course in Huntington Woods. City officials warned that rejection of the contract would delay opening of golf courses this spring with no management firm in place to run day-to-day operations. “We’d run the risk of not being able to open these courses, at least on time, this year,” said Charlie Beckham, the mayor’s group executive for neighborhoods. Beckham and the city’s chief procurement officer, Boysie Jackson, had recommended a two-year contract with Pinehurst, N.C.-based Signet Golf Associates II for $90,000 a year in management fees. A resolution to approve the contract failed on a split 4-4 vote with Councilman Scott Benson absent. The contract called for Signet to just manage the Rackham, Rouge Park and Chandler Park golf courses and the city would close the Palmer Park course, which has been limited to nine holes the past two seasons because of problems with the course on the back nine holes. Oakland Township-based Vargo Golf Co. has managed Detroit’s four municipal golf courses since 2011, paying the city $125,000 a year and pocketing all profits. Vargo had been working on one-year contract extensions for the past two summers, with the 2017 golf season contract set to expire March 22, Beckham said. In a statement issued after the vote, Jackson said the golf courses would cease operation on March 23. Signet’s bid for a management feebased contract was $15,000 lower than Vargo’s bid. But city officials have been unhappy with Vargo’s performance. “We do not intend on extending (the contractor) to the current contractor we have in place,” Jackson said. “We want to have financial control.” Beckham said the two-year “bridge” contract would buy the city some time to create a strategy for making capital improvements to Rouge Park and Chandler Park, bidding out a 15-year golf course management contract and marketing Rackham for sale. “We want to put it up for sale and see what we can get,” Beckham said of Rackham.
BUSINESS NEWS J Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor was the only Michigan restaurant or food business to make it to the finals for the 2018 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards. J Eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker plans to open this summer in Somerset Collection in Troy — its second store in the state after opening in downtown Detroit in 2016. J Detroit’s hairdo options are expanding again with the arrival of North American blowout chain Blo Blow Dry Bar in the city’s downtown area.
W
MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Federal funds will help pay for a 6-mile, multi-use loop trail around Belle Isle Park in Detroit. U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters of Michigan say $750,000 is being provided by the National Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund State and Local Assistance Program. Private investments will match the federal funding.
Detroit digits A numbers-focused look at last week’s headlines:
$250M
The money in a fund Detroit is creating to preserve 10,000 affordable housing units and create 2,000 new ones on vacant land or in existing vacant buildings by 2023.
$630,000
The amount in previously awarded grants that economic development program Motor City Re-Store has yet to disburse to winners to beautify their storefronts.
8
The number of years early the city of Detroit paid off its $88 million in post-bankruptcy bonds
J Quest Diagnostics Inc. plans to close its Troy laboratory and lay off 57 employees there this spring. J Taste of the Lions will return to Ford Field for the sixth installment of the dine and stroll event on May 16. J Eckhart Inc. is opening a 47,000-square-foot tech center in Warren with an expansion plan that includes employing 170 or more workers in the next two years. J Envoy Air Inc. is planning to terminate business at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in a move that will affect 114 employees. J Detroit Medical Center closed its Coumadin clinic at Harper University Hospital for heart, stroke and other patients requiring treatment to prevent blood clots and is referring patients to primary care doctors. J New Jersey-based SOS Security LLC plans to hire 200 in metro Detroit over the next couple months, after it purchased the guard services arm of Southfield-based Guardian Alarm Co. J A joint venture of Sturgeon Bay Partners and Millennial Partners has purchased the Park Shelton’s 21,000 square feet of retail space and plans cosmetic upgrades. J Grand Blanc-based McLaren Health Care Corp., a 12-hospital nonprofit integrated health system, has completed the purchase of MDwise Inc., a 360,000-member Medicaid health plan in Indianapolis with
annual revenue of $1.5 billion. J The Wellness Plan Medical Center will open a sixth clinic location, this one in Keys Grace Academy charter school in Madison Heights. The clinic will serve a predominantly Chaldean and Assyrian refugee population. J The Detroit Tigers are installing a new “enhanced netting system” that will extend down the first and third baselines to protect more fans from being hit by errant balls and bats. J Official rebranding of Greektown Casino-Hotel to Jack Detroit Casino-Hotel, which includes a new paint job and new signs, is being delayed until the end of summer. J Karl Bell has left Invest Detroit for a job leading GAA Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management's new investing arm for real estate and job creation, GAA New Ventures LLC. J An art school said it will not reopen in Franklin Village Plaza after Oakland County health officials forced all five businesses in the building to cease operations earlier this month after the discovery of toxic chemicals on the site. J Cafe Via, a fine-dining restaurant in downtown Birmingham, closed abruptly last week and says a new restaurant will likely open there in June.
hen the Corner Ballpark presented by Adient opens this week on the old Tiger Stadium site, it will be a field of dreams not only for the city’s children but also young Detroiters looking to break into the sports and entertainment world. As it hosts youth sports games, outdoor markets, concerts, car shows and other events, the stadium will serve as a workforce training site for 17 young adults, many of them former Detroit PAL participants. Detroit PAL chose the young adults ages 18-30 from over 350 who applied for paid positions in the yearlong program. The new training program expands on Detroit PAL’s longtime focus on youth development through sports. It gives participants a chance to make connections in the sports and entertainment world through Detroit PAL’s relationships with the city’s professional sports teams. “We can begin to build a bridge for our workforce participants to those franchises,” with job shadowing, internship and introductions, Detroit PAL CEO Tim Richey said. The training program also answers a need for hospitality workers in Detroit, he said.
Detroit PAL will train them through its operations and partnerships with area companies for positions related to sports officiating, coaching, and sports management) event and facility management communications and media and other customer service positions. A $750,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is supporting the program for the next three years. The hope, CEO Tim Richey said, is that the new “Dream Team” will become the face of the Corner Ballpark. “They’re getting some training in a couple of different areas that will allow them to hopefully extend their opportunities beyond the corner here and (beyond) Detroit PAL,” he said. Detroit PAL will open the new stadium Saturday, three years after launching a $20 million campaign to fund its construction and expanded programs in the city’s neighborhoods. A $500,000 gift from Kar’s Nuts to sponsor the original Tiger Stadium flagpole that still stands at the stadium brings the amount raised to $19.5 million, Richey said. Also in place at the new stadium: 50 seats from Tiger Stadium and the top of the Michigan Avenue gates, which were refurbished and placed on the outfield wall.
OTHER NEWS J The overgrown 120-acre property that was once Rogell Golf Course in northwest Detroit could be cleaned up and converted into a park if City Council approves a request to purchase the property for $1.94 million. J Phoenix-based PetSmart Inc. is donating 30,000 pounds of pet food to a Detroit pet pantry to jumpstart the Michigan Humane Society’s new partnership with Forgotten Harvest. J The Grosse Pointe Public School System and the Detroit Historical Society marked the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Grosse Pointe South High School with a commemoration program last Wednesday. J Former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner is scheduled to deliver a talk about trust-building at the Mackinac Policy Conference on May 31. J The city of Detroit received three proposals to redevelop the long-vacant Lee Plaza on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit’s Northwest Goldberg neighborhood. All plans include a blend of mixed-income residential with ground floor commercial.
SALVATION ARMY SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN ADULT REHABILITATION CENTER
The Salvation Army Southeast Michigan Adult Rehabilitation Center’s Rochester thrift store, following a recent update.
Salvation Army plans $2M store spruce-up
T
he Salvation Army Southeast Michigan Adult Rehabilitation Center is investing over $2 million to update the thrift stores it operates in the region. Larry Manzella, administrator of the Southeast Michigan ARC, is projecting the investment will bring a $13 million boost in annual sales for the chain, which has 37 stores across Southeast Michigan. The increased revenue is needed, he said, to improve sluggish sales at the stores and to support rising demand for the ARC’s free alcohol and drug rehabilitation program. Updated stores bring in more customers, Manzella said, with people coming back to shop as a result of the fresh appearance and the expanded
variety of products the ARC is able to display thanks to more efficient backroom operations. “When you go in stores you like, you go back,” he said. The Southeast Michigan ARC began the store updates late last year, with $300,000-$400,000 worth of work at 15 of its stores. The rest will see upgrades over the next year and a half. The stores support the ARC’s sixmonth program for recovering addicts who have gone through detoxification treatment at another site. They brought in gross revenue of $58.8 million last year, according to the ARC spokeswoman, and netted $18.6 million, which went to support the ARC’s rehabilitation programs.
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Amanda Bobrovetski Regional Sales Manager Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
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Anne Bradley
Campaign Manager The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Dandridge Floyd
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Labor Relations and Personnel Management Oakland Schools
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Chase Cantrell
Executive Director Building Community Value
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