DBusiness | September-October 2020

plus 30 IN THEIR THIRTIES

The 2020 class expands the regional economy.

TOP BUSINESS RESTAURANTS

Your guide to metro Detroit’s best dining spots.

INSIDE THE KITCHEN

Chef Bobby Nahra slices and dices a comeback.

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September - October 2020 || Volume 15 • Issue 5

Features This year’s 30 in Their Thirties class is a diverse group representing a wide variety of professions and industries.

Profiles by Dan Calabrese, Tim Keenan, R.J. King, Tom Murray, and Grace Turner,

10 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

62 SHORE UP Mat Ishbia transformed United Shore from a local player in metro Detroit to the nation’s second-largest mortgage lender. Then the COVID-19 crisis hit.

By Ronald Ahrens

JENNY RISHER

45 30 IN THEIR THIRTIES

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Contents || September - October 2020

37

32 Commentary 19

22

HYDROGEN ECONOMY As the world’s developed countries seek to limit carbon emissions from burning oil, gasoline, propane, coal, and natural gas, hydrogen is catching on as a clean alternative energy source.

JOB GROWTH: Michigan will benefit from USMCA. GOODBYE, RED TAPE: Rolling back regulations is beneficial.

COMPENDIUM How outsiders view Detroit.

30

Focus 32

The Ticker 25

28

GETTING HIS KICKS Ali Haji-Sheikh has moved from the Big House in Ann Arbor to the Super Bowl to the automotive retail business. By Tim Keenan UNLIMITED SLOTS: A Clinton Township maker takes model slot car racing to another level.

By Tim Keenan TESTING FOR A CAUSE: When Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co. needed help testing critical parts for the ventilators it was manufacturing in rapid order due to COVID-19, it turned to Auburn Hills’ FEV North America Inc. By Grace Turner ANOTHER WOMAN’S TREASURE A nonprofit in West Bloomfield Township teaches self-esteem through jewelry-making.

By Grace Turner PDA Q&A: Tim Bryan, chairman and CEO of GalaxE. Solutions in Detroit, is working to bring more jobs back to Michigan and the nation. By R.J. King

12 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

AROUND THE CLOCK A coffee, tea, and wine company in Royal Oak serves clients day and night. By R.J. King MICHIGAN MISSILES: Michigan could become the Cape Canaveral of the north between 2023 and 2025, when launch sites near Marquette in the UP and south of Alpena are expected to go into operation. By Tim Keenan

INSIDE THE KITCHEN How one chef balanced interests in a restaurant, a banquet center, and a catering operation, and launched food and beverage services at the Hotel St. Regis in Detroit. By Dan Calabrese

30 78

80

Etc. 14 14 16 83

Perspectives 37

TOP RESTAURANTS FOR BUSINESS DBusiness’ annual list of restaurants that offer private spaces for business luncheons, dinners, receptions, and special events.

Exec Life 73

76

FASHION FORWARD Fall and winter ensembles to help close any business deal, whether in person or virtually.

Styled by Jennifer Pickering RETURN ON INVESTMENT Play Ball: Daniel Okrent is a successful author and a featured commentator in a Ken Burns documentary, but he may be best known as the founder of Rotisserie League Baseball. By Tom Murray

PRODUCTION RUN Cold Growth: Starting with a single facility, Novi’s Lineage Logistics has expanded to 310 operations in an effort to help feed the world.

By Tim Keenan OPINION Changing Lifestyles: Technology is changing community associations. By Robert M. Meisner

86

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR LETTERS FROM OUR READERS CONTRIBUTORS FROM THE TOP Metro Detroit’s Top 20 intellectual property law firms, metro Detroit’s largest conventions and events for 2021, and metro Detroit’s largest meeting facilities.

CLOSING BELL Wayne County’s Jesse Merle Bennett showed the nation how to develop well-designed vistas along its burgeoning motorways. By Ronald Ahrens

ON THE COVER Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of United Shore in Pontiac, has led the growth of the company to be the second-largest mortgage lender in the country.

Photograph by Jenny Risher.

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Letters || September - October 2020

Working Together

A

s Michigan strives to diversify its economy at a time when the federal government is encouraging citizens to “Buy American,” the road ahead is paved with opportunity.

The challenge is to seize the moment, organize disparate forces, and create a winning strategy to boost our overall economic health. It won’t be easy. For decades, Michigan relied too heavily on the automotive industry — a plum any state would love to have — to generate jobs, wealth, and prosperity.

The game plan worked when times were good. Yet when the nation became gripped by an economic recession, as the saying goes, Michigan didn’t catch a cold, it came down with pneumonia. The dramatic boom-and-bust cycles of the auto industry inflicted severe pain when things literally went south — factories were closed, jobs were lost, and new, less costly manufacturing operations were set up in other states and countries.

Too much of a good thing never lasts. Historically, wages here are higher than in most other states — an example of our relative wealth can be found “Up North,” where many residents enjoy a second home that helps fuel the growth of wineries, resorts, downtown districts, and four-season recreational offerings — yet labor rates are also an Achilles heel when the sun sets on an economic expansion.

To stem the tide, over the past 20 years advocacy groups like Business Leaders for Michigan and the Detroit Regional Chamber, along with agencies like the Michigan Economic Development Corp., among others, have sought to draw new businesses and expand our economic output in health care, technology, mobility, aerospace, robotics, defense, and finance.

The strategy bore fruit, yet much more work is needed. Consider in recent decades Michigan has struggled to attract residents and break the 10-million population threshold, especially among highly educated professionals. By comparison, Florida’s population has skyrocketed. In 1980, the Sunshine State had 9.8 million residents. Today it’s home to nearly 21.5 million people.

So how do we become more like Florida?

While some may insist the weather plays a part in Florida’s success, the argument fails to take into account that few people venture out during most of the summer months, when the weather 14 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

there is hot and steamy.

Rather than ruminate over what we can’t control, which accomplishes nothing, a new bipartisan collaborative is embracing the concept that progress only materializes through concerted and coordinated action. To that end, Sen. Mike MacDonald, R-Macomb Township, and Rep. Joe Tate, D-Detroit, are showing that when members of two opposing political parties look past their differences and focus on the common goal of growing the state’s economy, much can be accomplished.

In recent months MacDonald and Tate have quietly, yet persistently, helped form the Michigan Aerospace and Defense Collaborative. The nonprofit advocacy group, made up of active and retired military personnel, industry leaders, and business associations, is working to help land major contracts and attract new companies in defense, cybersecurity, and aerospace.

The effort has already borne fruit with the Michigan Launch Initiative, through which the state is actively marketing itself as a cost-effective site for sending small rockets loaded with advanced satellites into space. They’re also working with the automotive industry and military sector to land new mobility and transportation contracts.

Now imagine what would happen if other business and political leaders worked together in the same fashion to grow our health care, technology, or energy sectors. Our state — and world — would be a much better place.

R.J. King

rjking@dbusiness.com

ART VAN SAGA

The recent article about Art Van Furniture was well done (July/August 2020). The company built by Art Van Elslander was a Michigan original and DBusiness’ cover feature was important for people to know and remember what he and the company meant to our state. It wasn’t just a company; Art Van Furniture was a community leader in every sense.

Art Van insisted that if you build success it is important to give back in many ways, which he and the company never stopped doing. At The Parade Company (in Detroit) we were very fortunate to have his amazing support, in addition to so many other important organizations that were recipients of his generosity. Regardless of the outcome of the sale of the company to a private equity group, his care and love for Detroit and Michigan will never be forgotten.

Your feature will go a long way in keeping his memory in our world.

Tony Michaels Detroit

ENERGY ECONOMICS

I enjoyed the Editor’s Letter in the March-April 2020 issue of DBusiness, which covered the rich ecosystem that has developed around DTE Energy’s Monroe Power Plant (where, over the winter, 78 American bald eagles nested due to the warm waters released into a nearby basin). Few people understand the true environmental impact of various energy sources. For example, did you know that the energy it takes to produce a battery for an electric car can mitigate the emission reductions at the tailpipe (depending on which country is doing the manufacturing, at least according to one of my clients). Anyway, I like hearing about the ecosystem near the coal plant.

Patrick Liebler Detroit EMAIL US AT: editorial@dbusiness.com SEND MAIL TO: Letters, DBusiness magazine, 5750 New King Drive, Ste. 100, Troy, MI 48098 Please include your city of residence and daytime phone number.

We reserve the right to edit letters for length and content.

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Contributors || September - October 2020

CONTRIBUTORS

VOLUME 15 • ISSUE 5 PUBLISHER John Balardo

EDITORIAL

EDITOR R.J. King MANAGING EDITOR Tim Keenan ASSOCIATE EDITOR Grace Turner COPY EDITOR Anne Berry Daugherty EDITORIAL INTERNS Zachary Marano, Jacob Walerius

DESIGN

ART DIRECTOR Austin Phillips ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Alexander Shammami

ADVERTISING SALES CONTRIBUTION: Cover story photography SEE IT HERE: Cover, page 62

CONTRIBUTION: DBusiness Daily News and DBusiness Tech and Mobility News

CONTRIBUTION: DBusiness Daily News and DBusiness Tech and Mobility News

JENNY RISHER is a metro Detroit-based lifestyle and portrait photographer. In this issue of DBusiness, she created the cover portrait of Mat Ishbia and the photos that accompany the cover story on page 62. The photos were taken on location at United Shore’s headquarters along South Boulevard in Pontiac.

She previously photographed Ishbia for DBusiness in 2015, when he was included in that year’s “30 in Their 30s” feature. Among her clients are ad agencies, magazines, publishing companies, nonprofit organizations, TV shows, and celebrities. Her first book, “Heart Soul Detroit,” includes interviews and photographs of 50 iconic Detroiters including Iggy Pop, Smokey Robinson, Jack White, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Lily Tomlin, Alice Cooper, Bill Ford Jr., Lee Iacocca, Eminem, and Tim Allen. Her second book, “D-Cyphered,” explores Detroit’s undocumented hiphop community.

JACOB WALERIUS was a DBusiness spring/summer 2020 intern. As part of his assignments, he wrote and contributed to articles for the DBusiness Daily News and DBusiness Tech and Mobility News newsletters, as well as the On the Move and Give Detroit Spotlight sections of the DBusiness website. He also helped research articles for DBusiness magazine, including this issue’s annual Top Restaurants for Business listings, along with the lists of top meeting venues and conferences coming to the region next year. A journalism graduate of Oakland University in Rochester Hills (August 2020), he previously attended Monroe County Community College in Monroe and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Walerius hopes to pursue a career covering sports or culture. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music and going on walks with his dog, Ava.

ZACHARY MARANO, a journalism major at Wayne State University in Detroit, was a DBusiness spring/ summer 2020 intern. In that role, he wrote articles on the automotive, health care, and technology sectors for DBusiness Daily News and DBusiness Tech and Mobility News, and posted stories on the DBusiness website. Marano graduated with honors from Oakland Community College in Farmington Hills as a library technical services major. He’s been a contributing writer for Wayne State University’s official student newspaper and the Michigan Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus. Upon completing his internship at DBusiness, Marano will fulfill all the requirements for his bachelor’s degree. Committed to improving his craft and place of work, he plans to pursue a career in editing and publishing. His hobbies include reading, music, and bicycling.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ronald Ahrens, Dan Calabrese, Robert Meisner, Tom Murray CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Matthew LaVere, Jacob Lewkow, Jennifer Pickering, Jenny Risher, Martin Vecchio, James Yang

16 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Jason Hosko PUBLISHING AND SALES ASSISTANT Danielle Szatkowski ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Cynthia Barnhart, Karli Brown, Lauren DeBano, Kevin Hayes, Kathy Johnson, Donna Kassab, Mary Pantely and Associates, Angela Tisch

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Jenine Rhoades SENIOR PRODUCTION ARTIST Robert Gorczyca PRODUCTION ARTIST Stephanie Daniel ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Christian Lott PRS GRAPHIC ARTIST Marcus Thompson ADVERTISING DESIGNERS Christian Lott, Daniel Moen, Amanda Zwiren

WEB

DIGITAL DIRECTOR Nick Britsky WEB PROJECT LEAD Matt Cappo WEB PROJECT ASSISTANTS Mariah Knott, Luanne Lim, Bart Woinski SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Travis Cleveland

IT

IT DIRECTOR Jeremy Leland

CIRCULATION

DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Michelle VanArman CIRCULATION MANAGER Riley Meyers CIRCULATION COORDINATORS Sue Albers, Barbie Baldwin, Cathy Krajenke, Rachel Moulden

MARKETING AND EVENTS

MARKETING AND EVENTS DIRECTOR Mary Sutton MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER Molly Stelma MARKETING RESEARCH DIRECTOR Sofia Shevin MARKETING RESEARCH COORDINATOR Ana Potter MARKETING RESEARCH ASSISTANT Hannah Thomas MARKETING AND EVENTS INTERN Kennedi Draper, Zoe Heller MARKETING AND RESEARCH INTERNS Eric Borg, Lourd Dawood

BUSINESS

CEO Stefan Wanczyk PRESIDENT John Balardo ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Kristin Mingo DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS Kathie Gorecki ACCOUNTING ASSOCIATES Natasha Bajju, Andrew Kotzian, Karley Locricchio, Katie West PUBLISHING AND SALES COORDINATOR Lindsay Miller DISTRIBUTION Target Distribution, Troy Postmaster: Send address changes to DBusiness, 5750 New King Drive, Ste. 100, Troy, MI 48098 For advertising inquiries: 248-691-1800, ext. 126 To sell DBusiness magazine or for subscription inquiries: 248-588-1851 DBusiness is published by Hour Media. Copyright © 2020 Hour Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. DBusiness is a registered trademark of Hour Media.

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INSIDE || HYDROGEN ECONOMY | JOB GROWTH | GOODBYE, RED TAPE | COMPENDIUM

HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN … USED SINGLY OR TOGETHER, WILL FURNISH AN INEXHAUSTIBLE SOURCE OF HEAT AND LIGHT, OF AN INTENSITY OF WHICH COAL IS NOT CAPABLE. — JULES VERNE, NOVELIST

ENERGY

ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES YANG

HYDROGEN ECONOMY AS THE WORLD’S DEVELOPED COUNTRIES SEEK TO limit carbon emissions from burning oil, gasoline, propane, coal, and natural gas, hydrogen is catching on as a clean alternative energy source.

As the most commonly known element in the universe, hydrogen offers great potential in eliminating harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Consider Germany’s cabinet recently approved a measure to invest $10.2 billion into hydrogen technology that will reduce CO2

emissions. Along with neighboring countries like the Netherlands, Germany plans to create a regional approach to clean hydrogen generation and distribution using as much existing infrastructure as possible.

Other nations are expanding their use of hydrogen, including Japan, South Korea, France, Norway, Australia, and China. What’s more, major corporations such as Siemens, Honda, and Toyota are investing millions of dollars to

produce “green” hydrogen from renewable energy sources already in place such as wind turbines and solar arrays.

To produce hydrogen, electricity is used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen through electrolysis. From there, once hydrogen is ignited, the resulting emission-free energy can be used to power factories, heat and cool buildings, and propel commercial and passenger vehicles. According to Siemens, hydrogen can be SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 19

Commentary || September - October 2020

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

H20

Only emission from hydrogenpowered vehicles.

5/300 A fuel cell car with five kilograms of hydrogen can travel 300-plus miles.

40K

Number of hydrogen-powered vehicles on U.S. roads by 2022.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy 20 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

easily stored and further used or processed. In addition, it has the potential to reduce primary fossil energy consumption by 50 percent, even as power demand grows by 25 percent.

The good news is hydrogen is now being used to produce synthetic fuels for immediate applications such as e-methane, e-methanol, e-diesel, e-gasoline, and e-jet fuel. To prevent the costly changeover to a new energy system, hydrogen can be blended gradually with fossil fuels until they fully replace coal and other carbons as a primary energy source.

In turn, existing infrastructure such as natural gas pipelines, service stations, and storage facilities can generate or transport e-fuels, while hydrogen can be utilized in gas turbines or fuel cell power plants. And while wind and solar power are intermittent — the air must move or the sun must shine for the respective infrastructure to generate energy — hydrogen has no such drawbacks. It’s also temperature agnostic.

On the automotive front, vehicles powered by hydrogen offer benefits in weight and recharging times. Around two pounds of hydrogen is needed to drive 60 miles in a medium-sized car, and fueling a hydrogen car takes three to five minutes, according to Power magazine. Electric vehicles, on the other hand, take up to eight hours to fully charge, are less efficient in cold weather, and are limited in usage (emergency vehicles require a great deal of energy to operate).

To better tap hydrogen as an energy source, in late July the U.S. Department of Energy announced $64 million in new funding for 18 projects that will support the H2@ Scale vision for affordable hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and use.

“Hydrogen has the potential to integrate our nation’s domestic energy resources, add value in industrial and energy-intensive sectors, and broaden technology choices for medium- and heavy-duty transportation,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.

“These projects will bring us closer to realizing hydrogen’s full potential for a resilient, flexible, and affordable energy system.”

TRADE

JOB GROWTH

WITH THE OFFICIAL SIGNING OF THE U.S.-MEXICO-CANADA FREE TRADE agreement in late June, Michigan and the rest of the country will benefit from a reduction of trade barriers, stronger supply chains within North America, and greater domestic components in cars and trucks. The state’s agricultural market will grow, as well, due to fewer restrictions on poultry, egg, and dairy products.

The agreement incentivizes vehicle production in the United States and North America, boosts domestic content of parts and production, and will encourage more foreign companies to set up shop in Michigan and across the country. As it stands, Michigan manufactures more vehicles than any other state in the nation — more than 2 million cars and trucks were produced last year across 11 assembly plants.

There’s more to come. General Motors Co. in Detroit had earmarked for closure its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant, but it quickly reversed course and is bringing new vehicles like the next-generation, all-electric Hummer to the facility. Ford is producing the new Ranger at its Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, and three new SUVs under the Bronco nameplate are now being assembled for delivery later this year.

FCA, meanwhile, is investing $2.5 billion to expand its Jefferson North Assembly Plant on Detroit’s east side for assembly of the next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee and an all-new, three-row full-size Jeep SUV, along with plug-in hybrid models. It will also support the ongoing assembly of the Dodge Durango. More PPE equipment also will be produced across North America, which will greatly improve the sourcing of vital medicines, equipment, and related supplies.

ECONOMY

GOODBYE, RED TAPE

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAD PROMISED TO ROLL BACK TWO regulations for every new one brought forward, but since President Trump took office, the federal government has eliminated seven regulations for every new one implemented. Such policy changes should continue as a means to boost economic growth as long as safety or the environment aren’t compromised. It will also keep the government from growing too large.

In one example, the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that 20 of the administration’s deregulatory actions alone will save U.S. consumers and businesses more than $220 billion per year. Overall, the rollback of rules and regulations has saved more than $90 billion over the last 3.5 years, based on CEA data.

According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, it took five years to build the Hoover Dam but 20 years to build an additional runway in Taos, N.M., and 35 years to add a road in Alaska to bring food and medicine to a small community. By lowering regulations, there’s more incentive for businesses to expand and add jobs.

Limited government centered on public safety, infrastructure, and education has long proven to be a boon to economic activity. And by driving for school choice, the Trump administration limits the ability of public school unions to put their members’ needs (higher pay, fewer hours) in front of students. The role of government is to serve the people in the most efficient, effective, and inexpensive manner as possible, but too often politicians believe the people are there to serve them.

C o n g r at u l at i o n s TO THE 2020 CLASS OF 25 UNDER 25 AWARD WINNERS!

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HOW OUTSIDERS VIEW DETROIT CivilEats.com | June 18, 2020 | By Jeff Burtka

REDISCOVERING DETROIT’S ROOTS THROUGH INDIGENOUS FOOD

ON A FRIGID MID-FEBRUARY SATURDAY, A SMALL CROWD gathers in a silent, snow-covered clearing in the woods. The atmosphere was more reminiscent of a far-off forest in northern Michigan than urban Detroit’s Rouge Park.

The group convenes around Jerry Jondreau, owner of Dynamite Hill Farms, who explains the Anishinaabe sugarbush tradition of tapping trees and boiling sap to create maple sugar and syrup.

Jondreau, who learned the process from his family,

shows the group how deep to drill into the trees, how to insert the tap so that it doesn’t harm the tree, and how to drill holes in the buckets that will collect the sap. ...

The demonstration was open to the public, and 15 to 20 people of diverse backgrounds showed up to learn how to tap trees. With Jondreau’s guidance, members of the group begin the tapping process.

After collecting the sap, additional volunteers will learn how to boil it to produce maple syrup and maple sugar. Luckily, COVID-19 did not affect this year’s harvest because the first case in Michigan was not reported until a month after this demonstration, and since sugaring is mostly an outdoor activity, it can be accomplished in compliance with social distancing guidelines.

Jondreau is Ojibwe and lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He is a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. …

Barron’s | July 17, 2020 | By Al Root

DETROIT SMACKDOWN: FORD’S NEW BRONCO COLLIDES WITH FIAT CHRYSLER’S JEEP

THE FORD BRONCO IS BACK. FORD MOTOR CO. HAS relaunched the SUV, last seen in 1997. Its target: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Jeep.

It might seem odd that one model can drive a stock. And usually it doesn’t. But anything that affects North American trucks matters to the Detroit Three — Ford, General Motors Co., and Fiat Chrysler. North America is their most profitable market, and trucks their most profitable products.

Jeep accounted for some 40 percent of Fiat Chrysler’s U.S. sales in the first quarter and 20 percent of its worldwide shipments. The company lost money outside the U.S. during the pandemic-wracked quarter.

The new Bronco, with its retro, off-road look, will be a stiff rival. “The Bronco,” emails Edmunds’ executive director of Insights, “is a particularly unique nameplate revival that walks the line 22 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

between fame and infamy.” The reason: In 1994, O.J. Simpson huddled in the back of a Bronco in his famous car chase through Southern California.

One problem that Benchmark analyst Mike Ward identifies: “Estimates are (for Bronco) to sell 200,000 to 250,000 units annually,” he says. “I’m not sure the rugged off-road market is big enough to support 250,000 Wranglers, as well as 250,000 Broncos; it should become a good marketing battle.” …

WSJ | June 23, 2020 | By John McCormick

CORONAVIRUS JOB AND DEATH TOLL IS WIDESPREAD IN MICHIGAN: ‘WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A VERY DEEP HOLE’

STEVE OLSEN, NORTHERN MACHINE TOOL CO.’S co-owner and president, said he has had to lay off the majority of his 33 employees since the start of the coronavirus pandemic that has driven Muskegon County’s unemployment rate to 29.3 percent from 3.8 percent before the crisis hit in March. He figures it will be at least a year until the family-owned business is back to that level of staffing.

“It’s been pretty devastating,” said Mr. Olsen, whose company supplies automotive and aerospace industries, like many others in the area.

The impact of both the pandemic and the economic downturn that followed lockdowns is widespread in Michigan, a Wall Street Journal analysis of unemployment and death data in more than 3,100 U.S. counties shows.

Almost a quarter of Michigan’s counties are among the top 20 percent nationally for both increase in unemployment from a year earlier and deaths per 1,000 residents linked to COVID-19.

Only Massachusetts and New Jersey saw a greater proportion of counties in both categories.

Michigan had the nation’s third highest jobless rate in May — 21.2 percent — behind only Nevada and Hawaii, two states where the tourism industry has been crushed by the pandemic. Among the nation’s top 50 counties for unemployment in April — the most recent data available at the local level — 32 are in Michigan The state also has recorded the eighth-highest rate of deaths per 1,000 residents tied to COVID-19, with more than 6,000 fatalities so far. ...

“It’s Depression-level unemployment,” said Patrick Anderson, CEO of Anderson Economic Group (in Lansing), …

Compendium || Commentary

Bloomberg Businessweek | July 29, 2020 | By David Welch

GM SEES PATH TO PROFIT IN SECOND HALF AFTER QUARTERLY LOSS GENERAL MOTORS CO. REPORTED ITS FIRST QUARTERLY loss since it emerged from bankruptcy but said it sees a path to full-year profit and paying off debt if the economy remains stable during the second half of 2020.

With plants running and customers returning to dealers following closures earlier this year, GM is rebuilding inventory, said Dhivya Suryadevara, GM’s CFO. Barring another economic shutdown from the coronavirus, GM expects to chalk up $4 billion to $5 billion in earnings before interest and taxes for the balance of the year.

“This assumes a stable economy going forward,” Suryadevara told reporters on a conference call.

“This is a scenario, not a guidance, and these factors are inherently difficult to predict.”

The automaker said (on July 29) it lost 50 cents a share in the latest three-month period, compared with a consensus forecast for a loss of $1.66 per share. The unexpectedly strong performance

underscores the company’s financial resilience in the face of the pandemic in the U.S. and China — its two biggest markets.

GM’s financial results signal the company may have weathered the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak. Loftier prices for its new large pickup trucks helped offset the springtime pause at its plants and showrooms. Sales climbed in May and June after crashing in April. And the automaker plans to repay by year’s end the $16 billion it borrowed to stay flush.

GM said it burned through $9 billion in cash over the last three months but still has cash on hand totaling $30.6 billion.

The automaker should be able to generate between $7 billion and $9 billion in cash in the second half with a stable economy, Suryadevara said. That would be enough to pay down the entire $16 billion that the company borrowed from a revolving credit line in March, a move triggered by

Forbes | June 23, 2020 | By Zach O’Malley Greenburg

the rapid spread of the coronavirus and its paralyzing impact on vehicle sales.

The bullish profit-recovery expectation comes as GM works to rebuild a depleted inventory of popular and profitable sport utility vehicles and trucks. ...

Culture Map Dallas | July 27, 2020 | By Teresa Gubbins

DETROIT GENIUS: A THREE-PRONGED ANSWER TO BUZZY DALLAS ONE OF THE MOTOR CITY’S TOUGHEST QUESTIONS STARTUP SPECIALIZES IN CRISPY CHEESY DETROIT-STYLE PIZZA WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CHALLENGE A HALF-DOZEN Forbes Under 30 alumni — with roughly a halfcentury of experience working for the likes of IBM, the NFL, code.org, the Smithsonian, Quicken Loans (now Rocket Mortgage), and the Air Force — to consider one of Detroit’s most pressing problems and find a solution? You get three.

At least that’s what happened with a group

assigned to address the issue of bridging the Motor City’s digital divide as part of the Forbes Under 30 Detroit Hackathon: Accelerating Change, in partnership with Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans and Major League Hacking. The team of six developed a troika of solutions dubbed Detroit Genius, starting with a crowdsourced online directory of digital literacy resources built on the existing platform of annotation site Genius. For those without internet access, the Under 30 squad imagined an AI-powered hotline and a program to distribute low-cost preloaded tablets.

“We identified that rather than creating another training program, our efforts would best be spent figuring out how to connect the residents of Detroit with the existing high-quality community-based programs, trainings, and courses that currently serve the area,” explained the Motor City’s own Prachi Patel, a team leader at Quicken Loans, in its presentation. “Because the spectrum of digital literacy needs is so broad, we knew we needed more than a one-size-fits-all solution.”

The hackathon, developed by Forbes in partnership with the City of Detroit, Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans, and Major League Hacking, is a virtual replacement for the physical Under 30 gathering planned for Detroit before the COVID-19 outbreak. …

DALLAS’ PIZZA SCENE KEEPS GETTING BIGGER AND better, and now there’s a cool startup bringing a new slice.

Called 8 Mile Pies, it’s a delivery-only operation that specializes in the unique square pizza that's a signature of Detroit. 8 Mile founder Christopher “Phanzy” Phan is seriously into Detroit-style pizza.

In fact, never mind “style,” he says — it’s Detroit pizza, end of story.

“This is a Detroit pie,” he says. “It’s not made there but it's exactly what you’d get if you went to Detroit right now.”

Detroit pizza's key traits include: • A square shape • A thick, crunchy, airy crust • Baked-in cheese on the rim of the pizza that creates a super crispy cheesy edge Phanzy, who worked at pizzerias throughout college, became enchanted after visiting famed Austin shop Via 313, and began making Detroit pizza at home.

“What I make is not as deep as Chicago-style pizza, it’s very much like a Sicilian-style pizza, what they call a grandma pie,” he says. “ …

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The Ticker

INSIDE || GETTING HIS KICKS | UNLIMITED SLOTS | ANOTHER WOMAN’S TREASURE | AROUND THE CLOCK | PLUS PDA Q&A AND MORE...

FRESH BREWED

Five O’Clock Brands in Royal Oak roasts coffee daily to ensure taste and quality.

BY R.J. KING

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 25

Ticker || September - October 2020

DBUSINESSDIRECT May Mobility Expansion Underscores Michigan’s Autonomous Vehicle Leadership The Michigan Strategic Fund has awarded Ann Arbor-based May Mobility a $700,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant to enhance its autonomous vehicle shuttle fleet, a project that will generate a total private investment of $11.8 million and create 100 engineering and tech jobs.

Pharmacies Gain Central Position in Nation’s Health Care Over Primary Doctors Recent trends are showing that pharmacies are playing a much more central role in the nation’s health care, according to the 2020 U.S. Pharmacy Study released by J.D. Power in Troy.

Pharmacist consultation kiosks, exam rooms, and walk-in vaccination sites are part of a concerted effort by the nation’s major pharmacy chains to become the center of gravity for consumer health care, says J.D. Power.

Getting His Kicks

PIXO in Royal Oak Scores Breakthrough in $250B Extended Reality Sector

Jefferson Chalmers Neighborhood in Detroit Eyes $640M in Development The Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood on Detroit’s east side has detailed more than $640 million in new and renovated projects through a master plan process that includes new and restored houses, retail additions, a community center, recreational offerings, and more.

Herman Miller and Logitech G Unveil Ergonomic Gaming Furniture Zeeland-based furniture manufacturer Herman Miller and Logitech G, a gaming-specific brand of Logitech, have come together to unveil a series of performance gaming furniture and accessories, including the Embody Gaming Chair.

For full stories and more, visit dbusiness.com/daily-news to get daily news sent directly to your email.

Ali Haji-Sheikh has moved from the Big House in Ann Arbor to the Super Bowl to the automotive retail business.

H

BY TIM KEENAN

e’s scored points with his powerful right leg in the Rose Bowl as a University of Michigan Wolverine and wears a Super Bowl ring from the Washington Redskins, but now Ali Haji-Sheikh gets his kicks as executive vice president of Fred Lavery Co., a group of automotive dealerships based in Birmingham.

Born of Iranian parents in Ann Arbor and raised in Texas, Haji-Sheikh played for legendary coach Bo Schembechler between 1979 and 1982. He says “winning Bo’s first Rose Bowl” was his greatest achievement in football.

“The Super Bowl was cool, a close second,” he adds.

While wearing the maize and blue, Haji-Sheikh set a Big Ten Conference record, converting 76 consecutive extra points. He also set school records for career extra points (117) and field goals (31).

He was selected by the New York Giants in the ninth round of the 1983 NFL draft and spent three seasons in the Big Apple. As a rookie he made 35 field goals, which broke the NFL record for field goals in a season — a mark that stood until 1996. Haji-Sheikh appeared in the 1984 Pro Bowl, but a recurring hamstring injury hampered the rest of his career.

After leaving the Giants, he kicked for the Atlanta Falcons and Washington, winning Super Bowl XXII in 1988,

26 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

KICKING THE TIRES Ali Haji-Sheikh successfully made the transition from a college and NFL placekicker to an executive with Fred Lavery Co. in Birmingham.

before hanging up his cleats.

His automotive career started years earlier, while he was still with the Giants. The Lavery organization had a dealership in New Jersey, and Haji-Sheikh worked there selling cars in the offseason and while on the injured reserve list.

“The transition wasn’t that hard,” Haji-Sheikh says from his office in the Audi of Birmingham store, which contains a few items from his gridiron career. “I was moderately successful just working six months out of the year for two years. In 1989, I just went full time into it.”

He moved back to Michigan in 1993. In his current role, he interfaces with vehicle manufacturers and manages people, more like a coach than a player.

“I enjoy sales because of the competition,” he says.

“Somebody’s always keeping score, either internally, against people selling other brands, and even the guys down the street selling the same brand.”

The competition, however, is vastly different than what he experienced on football Saturdays and Sundays.

“There aren’t 100,000 people screaming at you while you try to sell a car or manage a dealership,” he says. “And if you make a mistake, it’s not in the paper the next day.”

COURTESY OF BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.

PIXO, an extended reality (XR) solutions company in Royal Oak, has launched a new platform that, for the first time, manages virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) applications with a single, cloud-based system. The new offering, called PIXO Apex, offers simplicity, flexibility, and ease of use, says Sean Hurwitz, founder and CEO of PIXO.

September - October 2020 || Ticker

Unlimited Slots

D

A Clinton Township maker takes model slot car racing to another level.

BY TIM KEENAN

avid Beattie, founder of Slot Mods in Clinton Township, has come a long way since playing with his older brothers’ slot car set when he was young.

Now he creates elaborate wood slot car sets in his 6,000-square-foot shop.

The sets, which feature tracks as well as cars, typically are patterned after real-world racetracks.

“To me, it’s interactive art,” says Beattie, who started Slot Mods in his basement in 2008 when he lost his job as an operations manager at a local display house. “If you’re not racing on it, you’re looking at it.”

Slot Mods tracks range in size from 32 square feet to 420 square feet, and range in cost from $20,000 to $250,000. On average, a track takes eight months to build and runs between $150,000 and $175,000.

“I found out there are people out there with the means to afford the hobby that I love in the scale (1:32) that I love,” Beattie says. “With the slot cars, it’s not how much money I can make, but the money allows me to make the tracks people love. I just really love the hobby.”

The artistic creations Beattie builds with four full-time employees have attracted big-name customers. Newly minted Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley was an early customer. Farley commissioned a track that resembles Laguna Seca Raceway in California, complete with its famous “corkscrew” turn.

“Beattie is a true artist who understands the importance of accuracy when creating scale models of iconic tracks,” Farley says.

Slot Mods created a replica slot car track of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for former

: COURTESY OF DAVID BEATTIE

Testing for a Cause

MOD SQUAD Slot Mods in Clinton Township makes realistic scale models of famous racetracks.

owner Tony George. Beattie has also built tracks for former Indy Car driver Adrian Fernandez and Indy 500-winning driver and owner Bobby Rahal, who asked for a replica of his favorite track, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. “I grew up at Road America with my dad racing in the ’60s, and myself racing there later,” Rahal says. “I told (Beattie) I didn’t want it to look like the current Road America. I wanted it to look like the Road America of my youth. There’s the old pagoda, old pits, guardrails, bridges, the barn that used to

be in turn 14, and the topography is very much like Elkhart Lake. All that stuff dates from the ’60s.

When people come here and see it, they’re wowed.”

Among Beattie’s corporate customers is the Formula 1 racing series.

“That Formula 1 track has gone around the world to every race on the circuit,” Beattie says.

“Ultimately it was auctioned off in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) after all of the drivers signed the main straightaway. I never could have dreamed something like that could happen.”

|| By Grace Turner

WHEN DEARBORN-BASED FORD MOTOR Co. needed help testing critical parts for the ventilators it was manufacturing in rapid order due to COVID-19, it turned to Auburn Hills’ FEV North America Inc. The supplier typically provides the automaker with equipment that detects leaks in engines and transmissions.

Ford called FEV on April 15, and

within five days the first parts were in transit to Ford. FEV was close to full capacity by April 27. “They had confidence (we) could do some things for them without a long time frame to get ready,” says Kevin Liscomb, project management supervisor of software and testing solutions at FEV. At the supplier’s Redford Township facility, workers from all realms of the

company — engineers, machinists, administrative assistants, and more — stepped up to test parts, which range in size from grains of rice to nearly 3 inches long. The testing procedures were critical, given air must travel almost entirely in one direction through the parts with the correct air pressure.

The supplier also processed

parts, or modified them to fit Ford’s design. In total, the company prepares seven parts for the ventilators.

A converted engineering office serves as a test and processing space, while some engineers work from home. About 24 people are working on the project. “People are willing and feel good about helping a cause,” Liscomb says.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 27

Ticker || September - October 2020

Another Woman’s Treasure A nonprofit in West Bloomfield Township teaches self-esteem through jewelry-making.

J

BY GRACE TURNER

oanne Ewald is keeping scrap automotive parts from landfills while helping survivors of abuse.

Ewald, herself a survivor of child sexual abuse, founded Mend on the Move in 2015 after jewelry-making helped her heal. The nonprofit employs women who have escaped abuse and teaches them how to make jewelry out of automotive scrap.

While all of the bookkeeping is done in West Bloomfield Township, the creativity is unleashed in a 30-foot motor home that Ewald converted into a studio. It allows her to come to the survivors, many of whom reside in recovery homes and lack personal transportation. “I’ve always really loved social business, where you give people the tools to help themselves,” Ewald says.

Some of the jewelry is simple enough to make, meaning sellable pieces can be created right away. The quick turnaround helps boost victims’ self-confidence early on. From there, they learn how to make more complex jewelry.

“It’s not just any kind of jewelry, and it’s not just any kind of job,” Ewald says, adding that survivors feel they’re standing up to the challenges they face and giving back to the community.

Using automotive parts is symbolic of the Motor City, and Ewald says some jewelry resonates with customers because it includes pieces from particular vehicles, such as cuff links and tie bars made with carbon fiber used in Chevrolet Corvettes donated by General Motors Co., or the “Living in the Light Necklace,” made with retainer ring washers used in Ford Mustangs.

Automotive seat leather from Southfield’s Lear Corp., metal seat component scrap from BAE Industries in Warren, aluminum from Ralco Industries in Auburn Hills, and more also make it into the jewelry.

Ewald started the company by creating fashion accessories herself and then raising $10,000 to get off the ground. Now she employs up to six makers at a time, and personally oversees the operation and the design direction.

COVID-19 put the jewelry-making on pause,

HOT ROD RINGS Joanne Ewald, an artist and founder of the nonprofit Mend on the Move, based in West Bloomfield Township, says jewelry making is relaxing and something people can pick up quickly.

but Mend on the Move continues to sell its existing inventory. While employees have traditionally stayed with Mend only while in recovery programs, Ewald is shifting the company’s focus to create permanent positions.

The jewelry is available at mendonthemove. org and at retailers listed on the site. The makers also sell the jewelry at events and art fairs.

While the overall operation is successful, Ewald says her goal has always been to help survivors. “It just takes someone being kind and respectful, and giving them that daily boost of confidence” for the women to see themselves in a positive light, Ewald says.

TIM BRYAN

CEO and Chairman GalaxE.Solutions, Detroit

DB: WHERE ARE YOU? TB: I’m at the east end of Long Island in New York. I have a summer home here, and we’re still in the work-fromhome mode.

DB: HOW’S IT GOING? TB: We’re doing very well. As you know, we provide IT services to a range of clients in health care, insurance, retail, and financial services.

Our mission has always been to bring jobs back to the United States and to the

28 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

markets we serve. We call it Outsource to America, and we have Outsource to Detroit, Outsource to Hartford, and Outsource to Milwaukee, with more to come in places like Nashville and St. Louis.

DB: WHAT’S DRIVING DEMAND? TB: We had great success before COVID-19, and now things are even better. People overseas often don’t have a home office, home computer lines, or consistent electricity

(at home), and that leads to concerns about privacy and security.

DB: ISN’T LABOR CHEAPER OVERSEAS? TB: It can be, but we look at the entire transaction. Time differences were already helping to bring jobs back to America. It’s hard to do business in the middle of the night. With the infrastructure issue I described, America makes an even better choice for remote work.

DB: ARE YOU HIRING? TB: Yes. We bring automation into the equation so people aren’t doing repetitive things, and with the way we’re set up, we can get virtual teams set up quickly. That means we can hire even more people and take a bite out of the unemployment rate. Plus, our workforce is getting more diverse, and our training can be done online. We’ve really tapped into a dynamic shift that’s helping America grow.

COURTESY OF MEND ON THE MOVE

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Ticker || September - October 2020

Around The Clock

DBUSINESSDIRECT Stryker in Kalamazoo Receives FDA Approval for Rear Brain Aneurysm Stent Stryker, a large medical technology company in Kalamazoo, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for an expanded indication of its Neuroform Atlas Stent System, becoming the first and only adjunctive stent approved for use in the posterior (back of the brain) circulation.

Auto Suppliers Lear and Gentherm Partner on Intelligent Seating Solution Lear Corp. in Southfield, a global automotive seating supplier, and Gentherm, a developer of thermal management technologies in Northville Township, have introduced an intelligent seating system that creates a personal climate environment using ambient cabin conditions. It transcends conventional air-handling offerings by targeting the body in five segments: head/neck, torso, thighs, arms, and hands/feet.

General Motors Partners with EVgo to Expand EV Fast Chargers Across America General Motors Co. in Detroit and EVgo in Los Angeles plan to triple the size of the nation’s largest public fast-charging network over the next five years to help accelerate widespread electric vehicle adoption. The two companies will add more than 2,700 new fast chargers to cities and suburbs that they hope will generate new EV customer segments.

Michigan Scores Eight Top 10s in National Business Rankings Michigan is No. 1 in automotive manufacturing, according to the recent rankings by Business Facilities magazine, but the state also scored top-10s in other categories. The state was No. 3 in manufacturing output percentage of GNP, No. 4 in manufacturing employment, No. 5 in foreign direct investments, No. 8 in opportunity zones, No. 9 in cybersecurity and tech jobs, and No. 10 in GDP.

A coffee, tea, and wine company in Royal Oak serves clients day and night.

I

t’s five o’clock somewhere is a common refrain among wine drinkers, but the phrase equally applies to those who enjoy coffee. No matter the time, though, Jim Spear has both markets covered. Spear, president and CEO of Five O’Clock Brands in Royal Oak, may be the only purveyor of wine and coffee in Michigan.

He also distributes and sells teas, beers, and ciders.

The company’s roots trace to 1911, when Standard Coffee Co. was established in Detroit. In those days, coffee was often home-roasted daily and the city’s streetcar network served as the delivery system. In the 1950s, Spear’s father acquired the business, sold off the name, and established King Coffee and Tea Service.

“Even though coffee purchased in a store or online is roasted, it could be six weeks or more before it actually reaches a customer, meaning it won’t taste as good,” says Spear. “We import raw coffee beans from around the world, and we roast (them) fresh daily. When you have fresh-roasted coffee to a customer in as soon as a day or two, it makes a big difference in terms of taste and quality.”

With more than 1,000 commercial and retail clients across 48 states, including Costco, plus another 500 online customers, Spear and his 15 employees generate around $5 million in annual revenue. Coffee makes up 75 percent of the business, while wine and the rest of the offerings account for the rest. The coffee retails for between $18 and $21 for a two-pound resealable bag, which Spear says closely matches wholesale prices.

There are 60 countries with tropical climates that grow coffee, and Spear sources most of his beans from Honduras, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Columbia, and Brazil, among others. There are nine single coffee offerings along with six blends. For custom orders, Spear, who also serves as lead barista and chief aeration officer, operates a tasting room within his 20,000-square-foot space on Edgeland Avenue, east of Woodward Avenue.

Michigan Missiles

U-M Researchers Create Shapeshifting Microbots Using Origami Principles Researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor have developed robots less than a centimeter in size that can form a shape, complete a task, then reconfigure into another shape for another task. The team used the principles of origami to unlock the potential of the robots, which now can be used in fields such as medical equipment and infrastructure sensing.

For full stories and more, visit dbusiness.com/daily-news to get daily news sent directly to your email.

BY R.J. KING |

LATTE AND VINO Jim Spear of Five O’Clock Brands in Royal Oak with his commercial grade coffee-roasting machine.

While COVID-19 impacted sales, Spear, along with a nephew and a son-in-law, stepped up their offerings on the website for King Coffee and Tea Service and a sister brand, Crazy Fresh Coffee. In another offering, reusable K-Cups are sold or are free with a subscription.

On the wine side, Spear carries dozens of brands from France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the United States. He distributes to area restaurants, hotels, casinos, and more.

“In the mornings we’re tasting and testing our coffee, and in the afternoons and evenings we turn to wine,” Spear says. “We also offer cold-brewed coffee, which has been really catching on.”

|| By Tim Keenan

MICHIGAN COULD BECOME THE CAPE Canaveral of the north between 2023 and 2025, when a vertical launch site north of Marquette in the Upper Peninsula and a horizontal launch site at Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport south of Alpena are expected to go into operation, according to the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association.

The Sterling Heights-based trade association spent more than a year investigating sites throughout the state

30 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

JACOB LEWKOW

before announcing its decision on a horizontal launch (from under airplane wings) location in February and the vertical launch (from traditional pads) facility in July.

The two launch sites, along with a yet-to-be-identified command and control center, are projected to create more than 2,000 jobs. The sites will be instrumental in creating a space ecosystem that’s expected to top 40,000 new jobs by 2025, according to

MAMA. Some experts are predicting satellite launches will be a $28-billion enterprise by 2028 due to defense needs, public demand for instant communications, GPS, and mobility.

“Michigan has a real opportunity to support a space-based ecosystem,” says Gavin Brown, executive director of MAMA. “By integrating sophisticated infrastructure with first-rate human talent, Michigan can be one of the leaders in the space industry.”

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Focus || Restaurants

A CHEF’S KITCHEN Chef Bobby Nahra found new revenue sources after stay-at-home orders went into effect in March.

INSIDE THE KITCHEN

How one chef balanced interests in a restaurant, a banquet center, and a catering operation, and launched food and beverage services at the Hotel St. Regis — all while constrained by a pandemic.

BY DAN CALABRESE |

H

MATTHEW LAVERE

eading into 2020, Chef Bobby Nahra was looking at his best year on record since he began cooking at age 6 alongside his late mother at his family’s banquet hall. It was there that he learned a chef must use all of their senses to prepare oysters Rockefeller, linguini with clam sauce, or New England clam chowder. “‘Stick with the classics,’ she would always say,” Nahra recalls. “She could walk through the kitchen and she could see, feel, and hear if everything was being done properly. She could tell if a pan was properly heated just by the sound a filet would make when it started cooking. She made

32 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

sure a classic dish was a classic, because she said that’s what people wanted.”

Today, at 49, Nahra is well-known for his Sunday morning appearances cooking at tailgates on Fox 2 before Detroit Lions games. With an interest in four establishments, including Encore by Chef Bobby, a 560-person banquet center in St. Clair Shores, a $200,000 Freightliner (restaurant-grade kitchen on wheels), a visible role in major charitable events, numerous TV spots, and dozens of catering contracts, he also is eyeing a cookbook and listening to offers to star in a nationally syndicated cooking show.

Then COVID-19 hit in early March, and his big year quickly turned into a bust. “It wasn’t an overnight bust, but in a matter of a few weeks I

lost almost all of my business. I was never more stressed out,” he admits.

And with good reason. Apart from all of his regular accounts, from catering weddings to partnering on all of the culinary operations at Freedom Hill in Sterling Heights, which had 85 weddings on the books this summer and fall, he was taking on major accounts with the Detroit Grand Prix and the North American International Auto Show.

That all disappeared. Even funerals didn’t produce business, because no one was allowed to have one. Due to state restrictions, he closed all of his restaurants. It was a punch in the gut for a chef whose career was (and still is) ascendant.

Once the pandemic set in, Nahra was determined to keep as much of his team together as possible. “My culinary staff never left my side,” he says. “None of them ever went on the stay-athome incentive (unemployment).”

Rather than sulk and search for pity, Nahra dug in. Even though his catering, banquet, and dine-in restaurant business was virtually nonexistent, he switched gears and saw an opportunity for providing individually prepared and wrapped

Restaurants || Focus

meals for hospital workers. It was a very different proposition from the activity that had made Nahra’s reputation.

“We worked from 5 in the morning to 11 at night, five to six days a week,” Nahra says. “We had to compartmentalize. Everything had to be individually wrapped and boxed. It’s not like doing a big buffet. It’s tedious to make individual meals for everybody.”

He also had to deal with the scarcity of everything from plastic forks to containers, as the food industry took a hit and deliveries were difficult to get on time. But Nahra found solutions.

“I worked with local vendors at Eastern Market, Del Bene Produce, and other suppliers,” he says. “They literally went out of their way to make sure my deliveries were on time, which we needed. I was having orders come in at noon and people wanted the food right away. When you treat everyone as your business partner, it helps when things start going bad.”

The hard work paid off, too. When hospital activity began to wane in mid-May, as the first wave of the virus passed through Michigan, Nahra switched his business model again and began offering prepared meals to the fitness community. The volume wasn’t the same as it was with the hospitals, but there were some pleasant surprises in store.

“I gave out samples of my food to all the body-builders, and I’ve got to be honest with you, it was depressing,” Nahra says. “This is what I’ve been reduced to? I’m giving away free samples? But you swallow your pride and drive forward. Then a guy walks up and says, ‘I’ll order 18 meals every other day.’ ” It was followed by a few more sizeable, and steady, orders. All this was enough to keep Nahra’s kitchen staff busy. That wasn’t necessarily the case with his wait staff, many of whom took unemployment benefits. He couldn’t retain everyone, especially with private dining restrictions.

But Nahra is, first and foremost, a chef — and he’s grateful that his kitchen staff stuck around.

In order to keep them together and maintain his overall financial stability, Nahra relied heavily on his wife, Nadia. A banking professional, Nadia made sure plenty of savings were on hand just in case there was a major need. She also helped her husband through the process of applying for a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program.

Even before he received the PPP money, Nahra dug into his own pockets to make sure his culinary team was taken care of. He says he’ll never regret it. “In a few years that won’t even feel significant, and really it will pay off in building goodwill and loyalty,” he says. “It hurts now, but that’s just a short-term thing.”

So are the COVID-induced difficulties, Nahra

insists, explaining that he continues to approach his business with optimism and ambition. After all, his parents got by with much less. His Lebanese-American father had established a catering business on Detroit’s east side, but it was his Italian-American mother who taught him to cook.

“She knew about the culinary arts through her family, so I had this Old World training they don’t teach in the culinary schools,” he says. “She would give me a dish and, as I was eating it, I would describe what I thought was in it. Over time, I was able to figure out how to prepare a dish just by tasting it. That has served me well over the years.”

His business ventures are numerous. He’s a 50-percent partner at Freedom Hill Banquet Center in Sterling Heights, and he’s also a partner at Port O Call restaurant in Algonac, which reopened right before the July 4th holiday weekend. Along with business partner Christos Moisides, he also runs the Boulevard Restaurant and Lounge, a 400-person banquet hall, and hospitality and catering offerings at the Hotel St. Regis in Detroit, which, as of press time, was scheduled to open in August.

“Would you believe over the July 4th weekend our business was up 12 percent over last year at Port O Call, and we were at 50-percent (seating) capacity due to the state rules? That was really gratifying because you work so hard to build up your brand, and then the virus hits and you’re almost back at square one,” he says.

Overcoming obstacles is nothing new for Nahra.

“In 2006, I was kind of in a rut with my father and I needed to grow, and my dad was content just to maintain the status quo,” Nahra recalls. “I wasn’t that guy. So I found a banquet hall location in St. Clair Shores and I leveraged everything I had to acquire it. I didn’t take a dime from my father. I gutted the building in less than 90 days. As we were gutting it, (it became obvious that) the building was really debilitated.

And I didn’t have a lot of resources.”

Nahra was determined to make it happen. He took out several hundred thousand dollars in unsecured credit cards. “It worked out,” Nahra says of Encore by Chef Bobby. “In the first month we had $17,000 in business on the books, and we cleared $850,000 in less than seven months.”

Nahra grew the business through repeat business, referrals, and networking — and he invested heavily in local charities.

“I went to every fundraiser,” he says. “I donated constantly to charities. I never told anybody, but I got involved. Detroit wasn’t booming yet, but I surrounded myself with hard-working people — people who were up-and-coming.”

Eventually he was noticed by Dario Bergamo, an automotive equipment representative who had helped develop an annual fundraising event called Cars and Cigars. The gathering serves as a fundraiser for more than 30 charities, including the Celani Family Foundation. Overall, Cars and Cigars supports the fight against hunger and serves the needs of youth.

Bergamo knew there was an opportunity coming up at Freedom Hill for a new chef to oversee all of the prepared food for concerts, including entertainers and VIP ticket-holders, along with weddings, family reunions, and festivals. He arranged for a meeting between Nahra and Freedom Hill owner Tom Celani.

“I put him and Tom together for the Freedom

SIGNATURE DISH Nahra prepares what he calls a julienne medley of summer vegetables inside the kitchen of his banquet center.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 33

Hill venture, which I thought was a really good thing,” Bergamo says. “It worked out really well from day one. Bobby had this laborious product under control. He knows how to run the catering business and his food always tastes terrific.”

Celani knew of Nahra’s reputation through his charity work and Encore by Chef Bobby, but he wasn’t sold right off the bat. “I wanted to make sure, as a partner, he had the time to do it and give the 110 percent he gives to everything else he does,” Celani says. “He cooked for me. He said, ‘Let me show you.’ ” A few days later, as a test, Nahra explored what Celani and his wife, Vicki, had in their pantry, fridge, and freezer, and proceeded to whip up two dinners on the fly. There was no trip to the local market. “If he could pull that off, it was a sign that he’s resourceful and creative,” Celani reasoned.

Soon after, Nahra visited Celani at his office.

The dinners he had prepared had gone well, he thought, but he says Celani “kept his cards close to his vest.” Nahra settled into a conference room and Celani appeared a few minutes later and tossed him a set of keys, saying, “We’re partners now.”

With that, Nahra gained not only a partner, but a mentor. “Tom’s so diversified, and he keeps all these businesses going,” Nahra says. “He inspired me to be more like him, more ambitious, telling me, ‘Grow your brand. Don’t be scared.

You’re a young man. Don’t settle for just two 34 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

businesses. Get 10 or 20.’ ” While Nahra was grateful for the shot of confidence and the new account, Celani reveals he was the beneficiary of the arrangement. “He made it turnkey for me,” he says. “I don’t have a worry about the hall. He hires the people. He trains them. I don’t have to worry about anything.”

Nahra’s television debut was another step into the unknown. “I was working at Red Crown for the Cotton family — as a 30-percent partner at the Red Crown Restaurant in Grosse Pointe Park — and I got a phone call from Fox 2 asking, ‘How would you like to be on TV?’ ” Nahra says.

“One of the producers came and ate there, and they were impressed with the food.”

The call came on a Wednesday evening.

Fox 2 wanted Nahra on set at 6 a.m. the following morning.

“So I bring the whole menu of food,” Nahra says. “I came in heavy. I’m with Jay Towers and Amy Andrews, my first time on live TV cooking. Jay destroys my name, calling me Chef Nash on TV. I don’t correct him, and I nailed the cooking segment.”

Apparently Fox 2 agreed, because they had him back several weeks later, this time for a segment on barbecue tips for Memorial Day. “I set up a beautiful buffet for TV,” Nahra says. “And they said, ‘You’re a natural. You haven’t done any TV?’ ” While it’s easy to get caught up by the starry

FINAL TOUCH Nahra prepares a dish of Ora King salmon.

“At the banquet hall, every dish is like what you would order in a restaurant,” he says.

lights, Nahra remains grounded.

“He helps feed 600 to 800 people a week that nobody knows about,” Bergamo says. “He moves that food over to Macomb Feeding the Need. It’s a lot of people that he feeds, and it’s crazy. He does it for Children’s Hospital, for us — I don’t know where he finds the time. He’s one of the hardest-working guys around.”

As part of Nahra’s work with Cars and Cigars, he allows himself to be auctioned off for a VIP dinner, drawing bids as high as $35,000. “Bobby is very giving of his time and donates a lot to charities,” Celani says. “I learned about him and his reputation through his charity network.”

While some may believe Nahra is so focused that he scripts his daily routine like a drill sergeant, the reality is he takes what comes and looks for opportunity.

“No two days are the same,” says Kelly Engel, Nahra’s longtime assistant. “You’ll never get burned out or bored, because every day’s a new experience. You never know what the upcoming event is going to be, or what our next plan or goal is.”

Nahra’s reputation as a hard-charging, runon-all-cylinders chef netted him the opportunity to do something he long dreamed of — run a

Restaurants || Focus

restaurant on the water.

Pete Beauregard Sr., owner of the Algonac Harbor Club, was impressed when Nahra came out and ran an invitation-only event he sponsored a few years back. It got him thinking about making a change at an underperforming restaurant called Port O Call that’s adjacent to the marina.

“I had leased out the restaurant space, and the lease was coming up in fall 2017,” Beauregard says. One thing led to another, and Beauregard told Nahra he was looking for someone who had a good reputation and could give him good guidance to take over the restaurant.

“He said, ‘I can definitely help you there,’” Beauregard recalls. “Then Bobby started making appearances at the restaurant. Not only would he go in the kitchen and whip something up, he would come out and work the floor and start talking to the people, and they would want to take pictures with him.”

Nahra says the Algonac opportunity was a challenge, but also a natural for him. “You’d have 400 boat wells filled, but no one was going into the restaurant,” Nahra says. “I’m always working the front and the back of the house, that’s just the way I am.”

It doesn’t take much time talking to Nahra to

recognize that he’s a Type A, high-energy person who relishes a challenge and enjoys a friendly conversation. “I start at 5 in the morning,” he says. “That’s my quiet time. I get e-mails knocked out, send a punch list to my staff, and by 6 a.m.

I’m on my way out to the gym.”

He’s convinced that working out and living a clean lifestyle are keys to his success, and keep him strong for Nadia and their two daughters.

“Without exercise I couldn’t do the work I do,” Nahra admits. “Too many chefs get hooked on opioids, nicotine, marijuana. I don’t mess with any of that. Life is too short.”

So will the story of Chef Bobby Nahra soon be known nationwide? A Los Angeles-based production company is considering a documentary series starring Nahra, and was tentatively planning to shoot sizzle footage for a pilot last spring.

Then COVID-19 put the project on hold until it becomes safe to hire a film crew.

“We’re exploring a documentary series about Chef Bobby,” says Stephanie Buxbaum, executive producer and owner of Sunday Brunch Productions Inc. in Winnetka, Calif., northwest of Los Angeles. “In the last year or so, Chef Bobby and I have been developing a great series in the food space. He has a great personality, a circle of

friends who are amazing, and a very nice family.”

Those who know him believe the nation will be impressed.

“His knowledge of food is unbelievable,” Beauregard says. “The chefs I know that have talked to him say nothing but praise about him, so the guy knows his business. And he can adapt to any type of market. He can go high-end, he can go sports-type food. It can be anything. He just whips it up so fast.”

Nahra is the first to say it’s the people he’s connected with along the way who have made it possible for him to turn his talent and his energy into success.

“I learned the hard way,” Nahra says. “I partnered up with the wrong people a couple of times, and either you win or you learn. Then I partnered up with people like Tom Celani over at Freedom Hill, and that’s been a great experience. I’ve taken it to the next level. That’s all you want to do in business, take it to the next level. If you stand pat, someone will come and pass you by.”

ON THE ROAD Nahra, along with Chef Jon Zube, wasn’t content fashioning a food truck from a service vehicle. Rather, he revamped a Freightliner Truck into a commercial kitchen. “It’s a restaurant on wheels that got greater use during COVID-19,” he says.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 35

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Top Business Restaurants || Perspectives

2020

TOP BUSINESS

RESTAURANTS in metro Detroit

DUE TO COVID-19, RESERVATIONS ARE OFTEN NEEDED. PLEASE CALL AHEAD FOR AVAILABILITY.

ANN ARBOR

THE CHOP HOUSE

An elegant steakhouse destination featuring grain-fed beef like filet mignon and New York strip — usually a great spot before or after a U-M football game. 322 S. Main St., Ann Arbor, 888-456-3463, D Mon.-Sun. / 35 / 40 / / The Chef’s Table. Seats 10-12 people at the front of the restaurant, with a view of Ann Arbor’s Main Street.

GANDY DANCER

Located in the elegantly restored 1886 Michigan Central Depot railroad station, the Gandy Dancer specializes in seafood, steak, and pasta dishes. 401 Depot St., Ann Arbor, 734769-0592, L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 30 / 130/ / / Window tables with a scenic view of the train tracks.

PAESANO RESTAURANT & WINE BAR

A cozy atmosphere featuring rustic Italian dishes with an emphasis on regional preparations. The menu also boasts variety, offering dishes such as duck ravioli and barbequed ribs flavored with orange molasses and vinegar. 3411 Washtenaw Ave., Ann Arbor, 734-971-0484, L&D Daily / 16 / 10 / / N/A ZINGERMAN’S ROADHOUSE

A down-to-earth establishment, Zingerman’s serves fresh regional American foods. Entrées include Uncle Joe Burroughs’

AVERAGE PRICE OF DINNER ENTRÉES

Southern fried whole catfish platter, rainbow trout, or Alaskan halibut. 2501 Jackson Ave., Ann Arbor, 734-663-3663, L&D Daily / 28 / 120 / / NA

AUBURN HILLS

offers a renowned wine list with more than 100 selections. 323 N. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham, 248-723-0134, D Daily / 45 / Three rooms of 36 or one combined room of 72 / / / The Captain’s Table seats eight people in large, comfortable chairs.

LELLI’S OF AUBURN HILLS

FOREST

This Italian restaurant is known for its filet mignon with zip sauce, a 32-oz. porterhouse, and tableside Caesar salad. Originally located in Detroit. 885 Opdyke Rd., Auburn Hills, 248373-4440, L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 45 / 70 / / / Located in a high-profile part of the restaurant, the tables by the bar are highly requested.

Located in Birmingham’s Triangle District, the culinary team prepares charcuterie and traditional bistro dishes. The chef emphasizes fresh, local ingredients. 753 Forest Ave., Birmingham, 248-258-9400, D Mon.-Sat. / 33 / 50 / / / The restaurant’s corner booth seats up to 14 people and provides ample privacy.

BIRMINGHAM

HYDE PARK PRIME STEAKHOUSE

BIG ROCK CHOP HOUSE

This Birmingham staple, set in a historic train station, offers an award-winning menu highlighted by unique steak and seafood offerings including cold water lobster tail and a 24-oz. porterhouse. 245 S. Eton, Birmingham, 248647-7774, L&D Mon.-Sat. / 22 / 300 / / / Under the outdoor gazebo or, if you’re looking to see or be seen, table 30 or 31 in the center of the dining room. Both tables seat five to six people.

FLEMING’S PRIME STEAKHOUSE & WINE BAR

PHOENICIA

This steakhouse, accompanying a menu complete with aged prime beef and fresh seafood,

MEETING ROOM CAPACITY

VALET

The popular downtown venue offers both traditional and specialty steaks, including dry-aged reserve prime offerings, as well as shrimp and lobster tail. 201 S. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham, 248-594-4369, D Daily. / 45 / 60 / / / The plush red Gotti booth is a customer favorite, but for more privacy the Board Room seats 8-10.

Other popular areas of the restaurant include six rooms for private dining, and stained glass-ornamented Room 11, which includes a flat-screen TV and a fireplace.

WI-FI

A unique and refined menu for Middle Eastern cuisine, inspired by Old World Beirut.

Owner Sameer Eid selects the finest cuts of

BEST TABLE IN THE HOUSE

meat every morning and uses them in specialty dishes such as the baba ghanoush and hashwi with lamb confit. 588 S. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham, 248-644-3122, L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 22 / No private meeting room, but the dining area can comfortably accommodate parties of up to 10 people. / / Booths 1, 2, and 21 are popular for meetings.

The two most private booths can seat up to six people and are located beside the wine cellar.

RUGBY GRILLE

Tucked inside Birmingham’s Townsend Hotel, the Rugby Grille offers steaks, seafood, and racks of lamb. Or sit outside on the expansive sidewalk patio that offers a great view of who is coming in and out of the main entrance doors. 100 Townsend St., Birmingham, 248642-5999, B, L&D Daily / 38 / NA / / / Tables 71 and 74 have unparalleled vantage points of the restaurant.

VINOTECCA

Vinotecca, a wine bar serving world cuisine, moved to Birmingham after 12 years in business. It offers live blues and jazz music on the weekends and a small-plate selection, sharables, and entrées in half and whole sizes. 210 S. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham, 248-203-6600, D Tue.Sat., Brunch Sat.-Sun. / 25 / Five private rooms offer seating for up to 150 people. / / / Patio seats on Old Woodward and booths closest to the live music are popular.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 37

Perspectives || Top Business Restaurants

/ 70 / The secluded south room, with its few tables, is reminiscent of old school Italian restaurants and is located away from the main room’s hustle and bustle. It’s private and quaint.

TOASTED OAK, Novi

DETROIT

ANDIAMO RIVERFRONT

Located on the Detroit River in the Renaissance Center, this scenic eatery offers authentic Italian dishes including ravioli and lasagna, and has numerous wine selections.

400 GM Renaissance Center, Detroit, 313567-6700, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat.-Sun. / 25 / 90 / / / The Galleria. Accommodating up to 90 guests, the elegant room offers plenty of privacy for meetings both small and large.

THE APPARATUS ROOM

BLOOMFIELD HILLS ANDIAMO BLOOMFIELD

Popular year-round, the Italian eatery offers a range of traditional dishes such as ravioli and lasagna, along with premium cuts of beef. 6676 Telegraph Rd., Bloomfield Hills, 248-865-9300, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat.-Sun. / 24 / 130 / / / Table 40 is at the center of the restaurant near a fireplace.

With a low wall to one side and a high wall to the other, this secluded table offers ample privacy for a group of eight.

EDDIE MERLOT’S

This is the first and only Eddie Merlot’s in Michigan and, in keeping with the restaurant’s mantra, it provides top-of-the-line steaks and seafood. 37000 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, 248-712-4095, D Daily / 80 / 70 / / / Table 441, located in the center of the restaurant, seats up to eight people and offers views of the entire restaurant and the wine wall. Table 119 is also highly requested for a more private setting.

JOE MUER SEAFOOD

Joe Muer Seafood in Bloomfield Hills is the second Muer seafood restaurant in the region.

The menu is the same, and the décor is distinctive with a central bar, black-and-white marble floors, live acts, and an extensive wine collection. 39475 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, 248-792-9609, L & D Daily / 36 / 100 / / / The Bloomfield Hills location seats up to 250 people, with several prime locations.

38 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

ROADSIDE B&G

This bar and grill is retro-themed and specializes in everything from burgers, ribs, and fish and chips to steaks and seafood. 1727 S. Telegraph Rd., Bloomfield Township, 248858-7270, L & D Daily / 20 / 40 / Tables on the patio are the most requested.

CANTON TOWNSHIP

ANTONIO’S CUCINA ITALIANA

Family recipes feature authentic Italian cuisine, like linguine primavera, ravioli, and cannelloni, that truly reflects the old country.

2220 N. Canton Center Rd., Canton, 734-9819800, L&D Daily / 14 / 140 / / The VIP Room. This plush and private room, equipped with a 20-foot-long captain’s table and captain’s chairs, has a widescreen TV with a DVD player.

CLARKSTON VIA BOLOGNA

Designed to remind customers of the romantic atmosphere of European dining, this Italian restaurant specializes in pastas, veal, chicken, and fish entrées. 7071 Dixie Hwy., Clarkston, 248-620-8500, D Daily / 20 / 50 (only before 3 p.m.) / / Table 14 is tucked away by a window.

CLINTON TOWNSHIP THE BREWERY RESTAURANT

A casual American restaurant featuring upscale, world-class cuisine including steak, chops, fresh

seafood, and daily specials. 39950 Hayes, Clinton Township, 586-286-3020, D Daily / 19 / 75 / / A corner table by the patio that seats up to eight people and offers plenty of privacy.

DEARBORN

ANDIAMO DEARBORN

Joe Vicari’s Andiamo Dearborn features cuts of premium beef and seafood, and tableside Caesar salad, cordials, and a dessert cart. It has all the ambiance of an upscale steakhouse and overlooks a woodland area.

21400 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, 313-3593300, L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 30 / 250 / / / Table 36 is nestled in the corner and next to the fireplace.

ROMAN VILLAGE CUCINA ITALIANA

This family-owned restaurant sticks to its traditional Italian roots and uses family recipes.

For example, their polenta consists of cornmeal topped with Italian sausage and meat sauce. 9924 Dix Ave., Dearborn, 313-8422100, L&D Daily / 12 / 110 / / A round table in the center of the room.

DEARBORN HEIGHTS

ANTONIO’S CUCINA ITALIANA

This location, just as the Rugiero family’s other locations, produces its own pasta daily. Apart from ravioli Florentine or mannicotti, pair their fresh gnocchi with the house special pancetta and mushroom sauce. 26356 Ford Rd., Dearborn Heights, 313-278-6000, L&D Daily / 14

AVERAGE PRICE OF DINNER ENTRÉES

MEETING ROOM CAPACITY

Housed in the former Detroit Fire Department Headquarters that is now the 100-room Foundation Hotel, the Apparatus Room features regional riffs on traditional American dishes.

Entrées include braised farm chicken, lamb shank, and seafood bourride. 250 W. Larned, Detroit, 313-800-5600, B & L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 30 / 10 / / / The Chef’s Table, a 10-seat space that offers a multicourse tasting menu, and also serves as a home for visiting chefs and pop-ups.

BESA

An exceptional modern dining experience in a 1917 building. 600 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mon.-Wed. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4-10 p.m.; Thurs.Fri. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4-11 p.m.; Sat. 4-11 p.m.; Sun. 4-9 p.m / 30 / 10 / / / The Chef’s Table, a 15-seat space on the lower level that features its own lounge.

CAUCUS CLUB

The Caucus Club, which originally opened in 1952 and then closed in 2012, is enjoying new life and new ownership in the Penobscot Building. House favorites include tenderloin steak bites, roast prime beef, and pan-seared halibut. 150 W. Congress, Detroit, 313-965-4970, L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat. / 35 / 24 / / / Table 53, a corner booth that’s right in the middle of the restaurant, is the most sought-after spot, but table 31, a “Vegas-style booth,” is the favorite of owner George Sboukis.

CUISINE RESTAURANT

Set in New Center, this quaint French-American restaurant is located inside a residential manor and offers seared sea scallops, beef tenderloin, and roasted Alaskan halibut. 670 Lothrop St. , Detroit, 313-872-5110, L Wed.Fri., D Tue.-Sun. / 25 / 80 / by request / / Tables 15 and 16 are on the old porch overlooking Lothrop Street.

GIOVANNI’S RISTORANTE

A recipient of the 2001 DiRoNA award for being

VALET

WI-FI

BEST TABLE IN THE HOUSE

Top Business Restaurants || Perspectives

among the best restaurants in North America, Giovanni’s is a cozy Italian eatery offering ravioli, lasagna, and gnocchi. Guests have included Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. 330 S. Oakwood, Detroit, 313-841-0122, L&D Tue.-Fri., D Sat. / 25 / 28 / / The Sewing Machine Table, in a corner that overlooks the entire restaurant, seats up to four people.

which allows the chefs to work with different cuts of meat. Republic Tavern also practices “nose-to-tail” eating with its meat, minimizing waste. 1942 Grand River Ave., Detroit, 313-4468360, L&D Tue.-Fri., D Sat.-Sun. / 20 / 150 / / Two royal blue celebrity booths are highly requested. There‘s also a private table behind the booths, centered around a three-piece mural of Detroit.

IRIDESCENCE

Located atop the stylish MotorCity Casino Hotel, Iridescence is an AAA Four-Diamond rated restaurant that offers Yuzu salmon, wild striped bass, and Colorado lamb. 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit, 313-237-6732, D Wed.-Sun. / 75 / 6 / / A corner booth with a bird’s-eye view of the city.

JOE MUER SEAFOOD

With sweeping views of the Detroit River and a modern interior, the menu offers various seafood dishes, sushi, and classics such as Dover sole, whitefish, and surf and turf. There’s also a piano bar and a small patio. 400 Renaissance Center, 313-567-6837, D Daily / 36 / 36 / / / A table in the main dining room, next to floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the river, the RiverWalk, and Windsor.

THE LONDON CHOP HOUSE

Renovated and paying homage to the original restaurant, The London Chop House is like dining in private luxury. Also harkening back to the original restaurant, the new establishment serves old favorites like a Porterhouse steak.

155 West Congress, Detroit, 313-962-0277, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat. / 30 / 75 / / / Booths 1 and 2. In the restaurant’s early days, and even today, these booths hosted celebrities and auto luminaries.

PRIME + PROPER

Aiming to be Detroit’s premier steakhouse, Prime + Proper dry-ages all meats in-house and offers 100 percent USDA prime beef and lamb, as well as seafood. In the lower level is a truly private bar called Cash Only. 1145 Griswold, Detroit, 248-294-0700, D Daily / 40 / 30 / / / Table 1 is one of the restaurant’s most private and sought-after tables, while Table 2 offers the chance to see and be seen.

RATTLESNAKE CLUB

Enjoy Maine diver sea scallops and a host of seafood and steak selections on the covered terrace, when weather permits, and take in the views of the Detroit River. 300 River Place, 313567-4400, L&D Tue.-Fri., D Sat. / 40 / 70 / / / Any table along the riverfront provides a wonderful view for guests.

REPUBLIC TAVERN

This popular restaurant focuses on European tavern-style dishes. All ingredients are locally sourced and butchering is done in-house,

ROAST

Tucked inside the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit, Roast offers everything from beef pierogi to stuffed Hungarian hot peppers to porterhouse for two and roasted chicken.

The owner is Iron Chef Michael Symon of “Food Network” fame. 1128 Washington Blvd., Detroit, 313-961-2500, D Mon.-Sun. / 30 / 55 / / / For privacy, there are cozy booths behind the bar, as well as a private room near the entrance. For a more scenic view, sit next to the windows that look out onto Washington Boulevard.

SELDEN STANDARD

This seasonally driven restaurant allows guests to enjoy flavors born on local farms and captured at the peak of the season, for ultimate taste and quality. The eatery offers meals such as seasonal flatbread, grilled trout, and charred octopus, as well as local brews and craft cocktails. 3921 2nd Ave., Detroit, 313-438-5055, L&D Mon.-Sun., B, L, D Sat.-Sun. / 25 / 90 / The chef’s counter seating area is highly requested and very interactive.

THE WHITNEY

Detroit’s most iconic mansion, this historic eatery retains all of its charm and refinement while appealing to contemporary tastes with offerings such as bourbon beef Wellington, bourbon-glazed salmon, and crispy panroasted duck. 4421 Woodward Ave., 313832-5700, D Daily / 40 / 60 / / / Table 28 is in the center of the bay window area and overlooks Woodward Avenue. The table seats two and looks out over a colorful, expansive garden.

WOLFGANG PUCK STEAK

Japanese A5 from Miyazaki Prefecture highlights the menu of red meat, but the restaurant also offers seafood dishes such as stuffed shrimp and whole Maine lobster.

To provide privacy, it’s nicely tucked away from the casino floor. 1777 Third St. in the MGM Grand Detroit, 313-465-1644, D Daily / 50 / 50 / / / The aptly named Wine Cellar Table is located in the restaurant’s wine cellar and is readily visible through glass panels. The Chef’s Table, located near the wine cellar and in front of the kitchen, provides an excellent view of the grill, allowing guests to watch the preparation of their meal.

WRIGHT & CO.

This restaurant offers contemporary American food, small-plates style, along with craft cocktails. The menu typically features nine plates and three desserts, which change with the seasons. 1500 Woodward Ave., Second Floor, Detroit, 313-962-7711, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat.-Sun. / 15 / NA / / Table 40. The round table underneath the chandelier is by the front window and overlooks Woodward Avenue. It comfortably seats a minimum of five people and a maximum of eight.

FARMINGTON HILLS

ANTONIO’S CUCINA ITALIANA

Signature dishes include gnocchi Rita, chicken Antonio, various veal dishes, and pizzas — all in an Italian countryside setting. 37646 W. 12 Mile Rd., Farmington Hills, 248-994-4000, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat.-Sun. / 15 / 50 / NA CAFÉ CORTINA

This Farmington Hills restaurant may be the “best-kept secret” in metro Detroit. A garden provides fresh ingredients like arugula, basil, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes for the Northern Italian cuisine. 30715 W. 10 Mile Rd., Farmington Hills, 248-474-3033, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat. / 30 / 150 / / / When weather permits, the ideal table is one by a fireplace on the patio, with a scenic view.

HONG HUA

With more than 80 years of combined experience, the chefs at Hong Hua offer guests authentic Chinese cuisine like Peking duck in an upscale setting. Other selections include stir-fried choice rib-eye, king of the sea, and Phoenix nest. 27925 Orchard Lake Rd., Farmington Hills, 248-489-2280, L&D Daily / 14 / 200 / Private meeting rooms are available.

STEVEN LELLI’S ON THE GREEN

Located at Copper Creek Golf Course, Lelli’s Inn continues the tradition started in 1939, serving filet mignon with zip sauce, bone-in filet mignon, and veal marsala. 27925 Golf Pointe Blvd., Farmington Hills, 248-994-1111, L&D Tue.-Fri., D Sat.-Sun. / 40 / 165 / / / Tables in the Red Room or the Champagne Room are very private.

GROSSE POINTE

GROSSE POINTE FARMS DIRTY DOG JAZZ CAFÉ

In an intimate pub atmosphere, this restaurant provides live music along with entrées such as Vietnamese short ribs, confit chicken fettuccine, and braised pork chops.

97 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe Farms, 313-882-5299, L&D Tue.-Fri., D Sat. / 17 / 22 / / For entertainment, Table 4 offers an up-close view of the live music, but for a quieter and secluded setting, the Board Room is a private room with a 64-inch screen and speakers that allow guests to see and hear the band, yet still conduct a private meeting. Live music may not be available during the pandemic.

THE HILL RESTAURANT

The award-winning restaurant offers classic American fare, including numerous meat and seafood choices, prepared with premium ingredients. The European Dover sole is one of the restaurant’s signature items. 123 Kercheval, Grosse Pointe Farms, 313-886-8101, L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat. / 25 / 50 / / / Table 64 seats up to eight people and is convenient for a private luncheon.

GROSSE POINTE WOODS

i

DA EDOARDO

Family-owned by the Barbieri family for more than 25 years, Da Edoardo offers rich Italian cuisine like fettuccine Alfredo, tuna au poivre, and veal saltimbocca. 19767 Mack Ave., Grosse Pointe Woods, 313-881-8540, D Daily / 20 / 40 / Fireside booths, with elegant mahogany and leather features, offer an impressive and intimate setting.

LIVONIA

ANTONIO’S PICCOLO RISTORANTE

This new upscale casual, family-owned restaurant is decorated with oil paintings and mosaics on its walls and serves its fan-favorite linguine with white clam sauce, as well as a fresh, steamed mussels appetizer, and spaghetti carbonara. A full carry-out menu is available. Everything, including the gelato, is made in-house in this authentic Italian restaurant. 31735 Plymouth Rd., Livonia, 734-513-8000, L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 18 / 15 / / NA

MARAIS

FLEMING’S PRIME STEAKHOUSE

A past Hour Detroit’s Restaurant of the Year features duck a l’orange, black truffle risotto, and a dish called “Tasting of Veal” made from homemade ingredients. There’s also an expansive wine list. 17051 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe, 313-343-8800, D Tue.-Sat., Brunch Sun. / 40 / 24 / Tables 1 and 27 are recommended for private business meetings.

An ideal setting for entertaining clients, this restaurant offers award-winning steak and seafood, including New York strip, bone-in rib-eye, and double breast of chicken. Desserts can easily be shared. 17400 Haggerty Rd, Livonia, 734-542-9463, / 60 / 60 / / / A table in the main dining room, next to the reserve wine room with more than 100 bottles.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 39

Perspectives || Top Business Restaurants

BESA, Detroit

MITCHELL’S FISH MARKET

Fish so fresh, the menu is printed twice daily. Mitchell’s provides a wide array of fish, and their crab cakes are a guest favorite. 17600 Haggerty Rd., 734-4643663, L&D Daily/ 21 / 32 / / / NA

NORTHVILLE

GAUCHO STEAK HOUSE

This authentic Brazilian steakhouse offers a vibrant atmosphere and 17 types of unlimited meats including filet mignon, rib-eye, and lombo com parmesao. 39550 W. Seven Mile, Northville, 248-380-7770, L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 49 / 30 / / Table 7 is located in the second dining room and, conveniently, near the salad bar. This table offers privacy, and one of the restaurant’s waterfalls accentuates the surroundings. There’s also a private dining room that seats up to 30 people.

248-679-0007, D Tues.- Thurs. 4:30-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 4:30-10 p.m. / 45 / 60 / / / NA

NOVI

NO. SIX PRIME

Serving prime steaks and seafood in an elegant setting, this Novi establishment located inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel is known for its live Maine lobster and generous cuts of beef. 27000 S. Karevich Dr., Novi, 248-305-5100, D Daily / 32 / 50 / / Any of the oversized luxury booths.

STEVE & ROCKY’S

Opentable.com’s Diner’s Choice Winner for 2016. Chefs Steve Allen and Chuck “Rocky” Rachwitz offer local American fare favorites including filet mignon, shrimp Provencal, and lake perch sauté. 43150 Grand River Ave., Novi, 248-374-0688, L Mon.-Sat., D Daily / 22 / 125 / / The perimeter tables offer the most privacy.

HYDE PARK PRIME STEAKHOUSE

The venue offers both traditional and specialty steaks, including dry-aged reserve prime offerings, as well as shrimp and lobster tail. 17107 Haggerty Rd., Northville Township,

40 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

TOASTED OAK GRILL & MARKET

Located in the Baronette Renaissance Hotel next to Twelve Oaks Mall, the upbeat restaurant offers an array of steak and seafood

prepared in-house, including grilled pizza, Lake Huron trout, local grass-fed rib-eye, and Creekstone Farms tenderloin. 27790 Novi Rd., Novi, 248-277-6000, B&L Mon.Sat., D Daily, Brunch Sat.-Sun. / 19 / 50 / / A private dining room is available that can extend near the fireplace. With its doors shut, the private dining room holds approximately 26 people.

PLYMOUTH

FIAMMA GRILLE

With a quaint view of downtown Plymouth, this restaurant offers a contemporary dining experience. Entrée selections include Piedmontese filet mignon, Norwegian salmon, and spring vegetable risotto. 380 S. Main St., Plymouth, 734-416-9340, D Daily / 23 / 60 / / A table by the window overlooking the park for a quieter dinner, or a table in the back corner.

/ Table 11 is tucked away in the corner of the dining room off the beaten path, giving you a full view of the room. Table 22 is more private, in an area where diners don’t see many others.

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP CANTORO TRATTORIA

This restaurant offers a selection of homemade gelatos, cannoli, breads baked fresh daily, and a cheese room. Hundreds of wines complement appetizers, salads, fish, meats, seafoods, pastas, and pizzas.

15550 N. Haggerty Rd., Plymouth Township, 734-667-1199, L&D Daily / 35 / 200 / / Table 19 is the most popular. The restaurant can’t guarantee reservations for it, but takes requests.

ROCHESTER

LA BISTECCA ITALIAN GRILLE

PARK 600 BAR + KITCHEN AT THE ROYAL PARK HOTEL

The Grille offers pollo alla picatta and an array of steak and seafood such as a 16-oz. New York strip and salmon al griglia. All steak is certified Piedmontese beef. 39405 Plymouth Rd., Plymouth, 734-254-0400, L Wed.Fri., D Mon.-Sat. / 23 / N/A / /

Park 600 bar + kitchen is a well-appointed restaurant that has memorable flavors and locally sourced foods. The expansive menu features Indian Brook rainbow trout, Asian-styled pork shank, and pasta carbonara. 600 E. University, Rochester,

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Top Business Restaurants || Perspectives

248-453-8732, B, L&D Mon.-Sat. / 26 / 118 / / / Booths near the fireplace or half-booths along the back wall are recommended.

ROCHESTER CHOP HOUSE

The Kruse and Muer restaurant offers great, affordable steaks, chops, and seafood such as Maine lobster tails, stuffed shrimp, and Australian lamb chops. 306 Main St., Rochester, 248-651-2266, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat.-Sun. / 28 / 60 / / / Table 210 is highly requested and is located in the center of the restaurant. The table is half-moon-shaped and near the piano, providing a nice view of the restaurant.

SILVER SPOON RISTORANTE

A new location that embraces the culture and feel of dining in Italy. There are plenty of homemade dishes to satisfy any palate.

534 Main St., Rochester, 248-652-4500, D Mon.-Sat. / 25 / N/A / / / Will accommodate upon request.

ROCHESTER HILLS MITCHELL’S FISH MARKET

Fish so fresh, the menu is printed twice daily. Mitchell’s provides a wide array of fish, and their crab cakes are a guest favorite. 370 N. Adams Rd., Rochester

Hills, 248-340-5900, L&D Daily/ 21 / 32 / / / Tables 91, 92, 93, and 94 are horseshoe-shaped booths that are semiprivate, and located in the back of the restaurant. Each one seats up to six people.

ROMULUS REFLECTION

Located inside The Westin at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Reflection offers a contemporary setting with a modern American menu that provides a wide array of options including pasta, salads, and soups. 2501 Worldgateway Place, Detroit, 734-229-6782, B, L&D Daily / 25 / 10 / / / Table 29 is next to the tranquility pond in the atrium, and provides an intimate and relaxed setting. A great way to relax before or after a flight.

ROSEVILLE

Mon.-Fri., D Sat. / 24 / 182 / / / The larger booth in the back corner of the restaurant.

ROYAL OAK

DIAMONDS STEAK & SEAFOOD

In the heart of downtown Royal Oak, the Adam Merkel-owned Diamonds serves as the premier steakhouse in Oakland County.

100 S. Main St., Royal Oak, 248-291-5201, Sun.-Thurs. 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5-11 p.m. / 35 / Two at 50 each, / / NA

SOUTHFIELD

BACCO RISTORANTE

Classic Italian cuisine meets a contemporary ambience. The restaurant boasts an impressive selection of authentic Italian dishes made with fresh ingredients. 29410 Northwestern Hwy., Southfield, 248-3566600, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat. / 38 / 25 / / / Tables 40 and 44. Private rooms are also available upon request.

MR. PAUL’S CHOPHOUSE

NOMAD GRILL

This family-operated restaurant offers exceptional steak, seafood, and pasta in a club-like setting. Beef and fish are delivered to the restaurant twice daily, in order to keep meals fresh. 29850 Groesbeck Hwy., Roseville, 586-777-7770, L&D

The Nomad Grill inside the Best Western Premier features a menu designed to appeal to the diverse ethnic population of Michigan. It’s homestyle cooking with a twist, according to the manager. When utilizing the event space of the Best Western, it can accommodate

150-500 guests for banquets, meetings, ceremonies, and receptions. 26555 Telegraph Rd., Southfield, 313-567-2622, B, L&D Daily / 32 / 40 / / Tables 13 and 22 are both larger corner tables that seat up to five or six.

STERLING HEIGHTS

JOE BOLOGNA’S TRATTORIA

This restaurant gives off a homey Italian atmosphere, with family photos and paintings of the Italian countryside, and it excels at providing fresh cuisine. Many of the dishes are family recipes. 2135 17 Mile Rd., Sterling Heights, 586-939-5700, L Tue.-Fri., D Daily / 20/ 62 / / Table 36 is upstairs in the balcony and seats four people.

TAYLOR

PETE’S PLACE

Fresh food and great service has been the motto for the past 30 years. A new addition has taken the motto a step further to include 40 draft beers, 26 of which are Michigan craft beers. The menu includes an array of salads, sandwiches, pasta, and more. 12245 Telegraph Rd., Taylor, 734-374-0088, B, L&D Daily / 11 / 40 / / A large hightop table seats up to 10 people and is highly requested by larger parties.

JOE MUER , Bloomfield Hills

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 41

Perspectives || Top Business Restaurants

TROY

THE CAPITAL GRILLE

Located at Somerset North, the Capital Grille offers prime steaks and seafood, accompanied by an extensive wine list.

2800 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 248-6495300, L Mon.-Sat., D Daily / 30 / 50 / / / Table 64 is the most secluded table, and 61 is great for romantic occasions such as anniversaries and engagements.

EDDIE V’S PRIME SEAFOOD

Eddie V’s, which opened its first Michigan restaurant in June 2017, offers fresh seafood, a wide selection of steaks, jazz played by local musicians, and more than 300 wines. 2100 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 248-649-7319, D Daily / 40 / 60 / / / The V Lounge offers live jazz every night in a comfortable, secluded area. Live music may not be available during the pandemic.

MON JIN LAU

Enjoy cuisine infused with Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Vietnamese influences, a lengthy sushi list, and a lively atmosphere. Menu selections include cashew chicken, Mongolian rack of lamb, and spicy Korean pork chop. 1515 E. Maple Rd., Troy, 248-689-2332, L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 15 / 60 / / / The patio is spacious, and can be rented for private events.

MORTON’S STEAKHOUSE

Enjoy an intimate setting among lush wood tones and unique caricatures — it’s as close to an Old World steak and seafood club as you can get, and famous for its large portions. 888 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 248-4049845, D Daily / 45 / 88 / / / Booth 70 is often requested, and is set against a brick wall. Table 51 is highly requested for a party of eight. The round table encourages interaction between guests.

OCEAN PRIME

Steak selections include filet, New York strip, and porterhouse. Well located near I-75. 755 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 248-269-8424, D Daily / 40 / 60 / / / Table 50, a special round table that accommodates 10.

1063 Erie St. East, Windsor, 519-254-6213, D Tue.-Sun. / 15 / 90 / / There’s a VIP table, available upon request, near the bar side of the restaurant. The table is secluded and in a quieter area.

STONEY RIVER STEAKHOUSE AND GRILL

WYANDOTTE

An upscale steakhouse specializing in hand-cut steaks, fresh seafood selections, signature salads, and house specialties.

Lunch and dinner specialties include steak and biscuits, wild mushroom meatloaf, and burgers, sandwiches, and bistro chicken.

155 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 248-925-4730, Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.10:30 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m ./ 40 / 60 / / / NA

UTICA

FILIPPA’S WINE BARREL

A tradition in dining excellence for more than 40 years, Filippa’s offers quality steaks and seafood, but the hand-rubbed, sweetsauced ribs are a favorite. 45125 Mound Rd., Utica, 586-254-1311, L&D Daily / 18 / 120 / / Table 5 and 91. Table 5 is in a corner by a window and faces the main dining room area. Table 91 faces the bar and is near a bulk counter. With the terrace to the right, this is a great option for guests looking for a serene setting.

Compiled by DBusiness All restaurants are reviewed anonymously, all expenses are paid by Hour Media, and the listings have no relationship to advertising in the magazine.

ANDIAMO WARREN

The flagship location of a bustling Italian franchise. Joe Vicari’s Andiamo Italian Steakhouse features cuts of premium beef and seafood, and tableside Caesar salad, cordials, and a dessert cart. It has all the ambience of an upscale steakhouse. 7096 E. 14 Mile, Warren, 586-268-3200, L&D Mon.-Fri., D Sat.Sun. / 24 / 750 / / / Tables in the main or west part of the restaurant allow diners privacy.

WEST BLOOMFIELD PRIME29 STEAKHOUSE

A contemporary steakhouse featuring prime cuts of seafood and beef aged for 29 days. The 24-oz. bone-in rib-eye is a restaurant specialty. 6545 Orchard Lake Rd., West Bloomfield, 248-737-7463, D Daily / 30 / 229 / / A table inside a glass-partitioned room adjacent to the main dining area.

RUTH’S CHRIS STEAKHOUSE

ENZO’S TRATTORIA

42 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

A Wyandotte riverside landmark for almost 40 years, the restaurant’s menu is current, with seafood and pasta being the main focus. Lunch and dinner are available all day.

Specialties include Italian cuisine like seafood, pastas, baked Italian sausage pasta, and authentic Italian desserts. “Small Plate” offerings include ahi tuna, shrimp and grits, lobster crab cake, and calamari steaks. “Big Plate” selections offer filet mignon, New York strip, chicken marsala, gnocchi, and more.

3455 Biddle Ave., Wyandotte, 734-281-6700, L&D Daily / 18 / 200 / / / The August Room seats up to 18 people.

WARREN

This contemporary version of a rich American supper club is an award-winning steakhouse that offers prime beef and seafood on its made-from-scratch menu. 2915 Coolidge Hwy., Troy, 248458-0500, L Mon.-Fri., D Daily / 38 / 60 / / / Table 10 is highly requested for a party of eight. An allglass room that seats up to eight people is a popular setting.

With more than 40 years of rich history, Ruth’s Chris boasts an extensive offering of steak and seafood, and an award-winning wine list.

PORTOFINO

WINDSOR

A casual, home-style trattoria offering a simplistic approach to fine Italian dining, with a menu that includes pizza, pasta, and more.

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THE ULTIMATE BOOK ABOUT DETROIT’S HISTORY

Explore the latest book from award-winning journalist and DBusiness magazine editor R.J. King. “Detroit: Engine of America” is the real life story of how the city grew, step by step, from a French fort on the riverfront in 1701 to become the world’s largest manufacturing economy in 1900.

To purchase copies of “Detroit: Engine of America” personally signed by the author, visit DetroitEngineofAmerica.com.

CONGRATS TO THE 2020 30 IN THEIR THIRTIES HONOREES FROM DBUSINESS AND OUR SPONSORS

Congratulations, Quinn Damon Lockton congratulates all honorees, including our own Quinn Damon, for being named to DBusiness Magazine’s 30 in Their Thirties class of 2020.

Congratulations to our Chief Operations Officer, Elise Fields, on being named a DBusiness Magazine 30 in their Thirties award winner!

We celebrate Quinn for embodying the entrepreneurial spirit, independence and creativity of Lockton. lockton.com Š 2020 Lockton Companies. All rights reserved.

30 in Their Thirties || Feature

30 In their

thirties

The 2020 Class of 30 in Their Thirties dug deep for an extra measure of fortitude to meet the outbreak of COVID-19 and, along the way, developed new products and services, sought out cuttingedge business models, and pivoted into unchartered waters.

PROFILES BY DAN CALABRESE, TIM KEENAN, R.J. KING, TOM MURRAY, AND GRACE TURNER MARTIN VECCHIO

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 45

Feature || 30 in Their Thirties

Michelle Aristeo Barton

President • Aristeo Construction, Livonia • Employees: 700 Revenue: $470M • College: Duke University (B), University of Michigan Ross School of Business (MBA) TAKING OVER A FAMILY COMPANY THAT HAS GROWN TO MORE THAN 700 EMPLOYEES

35

poses a unique challenge that includes maintaining a supportive, small-business feel despite having a workforce that has technically outgrown the definition.

Michelle Aristeo Barton, president of Aristeo Construction since 2018, strives to grow the business while maintaining the spirit of the company’s humble roots.

Her grandfather and father founded the company in 1977 with one pickup truck and a $10,000 loan. Today, Aristeo offers end-to-end construction and does as much of its own work as possible to maintain quality and safety.

Barton grew up with the company, answering phones on the weekends as a 7-year-old, helping in the office through high school, interning in college, and eventually being hired. She always knew she wanted to work with the company, and started her full-time career in the human resources department.

“Over my 13 years at Aristeo I’ve worked closely with leaders across the company and led a variety of cross-functional teams. That’s allowed me to gain a deep understanding of the complexities of our business and how we operate,” she says.

As president, Barton is responsible for profit and loss, sets the company’s direction, and makes sure it delivers on its promises. She also ensures her team has the tools and training they need to succeed, so they feel recognized and appreciated in an industry that often requires long hours and is physically demanding.

“When you have committed individuals at all levels of your team who are truly living, breathing, and embodying the company’s values and culture, then those values naturally permeate throughout the organization,” she says.

Barton is also preparing the company for the next generation of leadership. The company is the largest Women’s Business Enterprise National Council-certified general contractor in the country. The certification means the company is majority female-owned and has female executives. — Grace Turner

founder and CEO • Start My Wellness, Troy • Employees: 15 Revenue: $750,000 • College: Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute (B), Wayne State University (M), Smith College (Ph.D.) LIFE CAN BE STRESSFUL ENOUGH AS IT IS. THEN COVID-19 ARRIVED ON THE SCENE IN

March, which explains why Dr. Anton Babushkin is an exceptionally busy man these days. “Yes, there’s certainly been a lot more calls,” Babushkin says. “I don’t know if it’s the pandemic or good marketing or word of mouth, maybe all the above, but people are stressed and they’re looking for help.”

Babushkin, a psychoanalyst with a Ph.D. in clinical social work, is founder and CEO of Start My Wellness, a diverse collection of therapists who provide support for individuals, couples, and families, as well as a critical, previously overlooked segment of the population: employees. “We specialize in employee wellness, and the best thing for us is that more companies are recognizing the need for helping their employees more in this kind of way,” he says.

For so long, the topic of mental health could be a source of shame. Not anymore.

“The reality is mental health is part of everybody’s life,” Babushkin says. “It’s a matter of are you able to take care of things on your own, or do you want some help?”

Although Start My Wellness offers traditional, in-person sessions for employees at their office, online sessions are far more popular. “It’s like 95 percent of what we do,” Babushkin says of virtual communication, adding that he’s eager to expand his business model far beyond Michigan.

“I’m working on a directory of clinics and therapists nationwide who are able and willing to provide this kind of emotional health care to employees,” he says.

“We’re going to build out a national network of these providers that employers can find and source through our directory, so employers can come to us and find out who’s really good in New York or California, and we can help them find those providers. Basically, Babushkin concludes, “it’s going to be like Airbnb, except instead of rooms we’re going to have high-quality providers and guide more people to the help they need.” — Tom Murray

46 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

Anton Babushkin

37

30 in Their Thirties || Feature Principal • Stark Enterprises, Livonia Employees: 120 • Revenue: $30M

Mike Butcher

38

MIKE BUTCHER’S FORMAL EDUCATION WAS ADMITTEDLY EARNED THROUGH THE SCHOOL

of hard knocks, but he’s determined to forge a career path for others interested in working in the construction trades.

His Stark Enterprises, a five-year-old subcontracting business, is planning to open a school by 2022 called Stark University. There, high school graduates will be able to prepare for careers in plumbing, electrical, carpentry, flooring, or mechanical systems — all of the services Stark offers his clients.

“Our goal for the future is to get the school up and running so we can take kids right out of high school, bring them into a job, and give them a career,” Butcher says. “The school will be free for employees and will allow them to learn about any area of the business.”

Recruited out of high school to design truck parts for Ford Motor Co., Butcher left after a year to join AT&T for a 10-year stint in positions ranging from lineman to installing fiber optics and doing repairs. While at AT&T, he moonlighted by remodeling houses and selling them for a profit.

“When I started my side business, I knew I didn’t really want to have to work 80 hours a week to provide for my family,” Butcher says. This is the same sales pitch he used to recruit other trades to join Stark Enterprises, including Douglas Mechanical, Eco Painting, and Resurrection Carpentry.

“The only reason a lot of smaller subcontractors aren’t bigger is because they don’t have enough time to work on projects, run the business, and grow the business,” he explains. “They’re stuck with a five- to 10-person company and making a good living, but they’re working 80 hours a week.

“We guarantee to take (a partner company) from an 80-hour workweek to more of a 40- or 50-hour workweek, and from $1 million in (annual) revenue to $5 million. By taking care of all the business (operations), the partners become more efficient with their time and they’re able to manage more projects.” — Tim Keenan

CFO • Farbman Group, Southfield • Employees: 200 Revenue: NA • College: Adrian College ONE MIGHT BELIEVE THAT THE 35-YEAR-OLD CFO OF THE FARBMAN GROUP PROPERTY

management company in Southfield might have aspirations of a similar role at a larger company. One would be wrong.

“Without a doubt, this is the best career move I ever made, coming here.

There’s nowhere else I’d rather be and nowhere else I envision myself being,” says Chris Chesney, when asked what the future holds for him. His goal, he says, is “Continuing to grow and help us get to 40-plus more years in addition to the 40plus we’ve already had, and see where it takes us.”

Chris Chesney

35

Chesney’s career started in 2006 after graduating from Adrian College. First, he was a clerk at a Detroit company, and then joined a now-defunct startup property management firm where he began as a staff accountant and rose to the position of senior accountant.

In 2012, he joined Signature Associates in Southfield as a senior accountant and worked his way up to director of accounting before joining the Farbman Group in 2014 as accounting supervisor.

In his current role as CFO, he oversees the financial department, works with staff accountants to ensure the company adheres to all internal controls, and reports properly to internal and external clients. He works closely with Andy Gutman, president of Farbman Group, on various business and financing issues.

He’s also responsible for the company’s tax returns, tax projections, and audit functions of the firm and its related entities.

“I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of working with numbers and working through complex problems and finding the solutions,” says Chesney who started college as a psychology major. “I realized after my freshman year that business really interested me.”

When not working, Chesney coaches his 11-year-old son’s travel baseball team as well as his 8-year-old’s baseball team. — Tim Keenan SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 47

Feature || 30 in Their Thirties Partner, Vice President • Lockton Cos., DETROIT Employees: 7,500 • Revenue: $1.9B • College: University of Missouri

Quinn Damon

30

QUINN DAMON LIVES BY WHAT HE CALLS HIS “ROCKING CHAIR” PHILOSOPHY — HE

makes decisions based on whether he thinks he’ll regret a missed opportunity when he’s old and sitting in his rocking chair.

This methodology brought the Kansas City, Mo., native, a partner and vice president of Lockton Cos., to Detroit in January to help build a brick-and-mortar presence in Michigan. Lockton, based in Kansas City, is a global risk management and employee benefit consulting firm that also offers retirement services.

“We’re all about organic growth,” Damon says, adding that Lockton has never made a domestic acquisition.

Damon joined Lockton as an intern in 2011, shortly before he graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in finance. The company acts as a middleman between companies and their insurance providers to negotiate contracts.

For a period, Damon worked with clients in construction and manufacturing.

After building a book of business valued at more than $1 million, he was promoted to vice president and partner. He transitioned into his new position and was asked to move to Detroit around the same time.

The next step is to grow everything in Michigan: the company’s client base, workforce, and presence in the market. Damon’s goal is to triple Lockton Michigan’s revenue in the next five years. Already, the firm has more than 150 Michigan customers.

In addition to his objectives for growth, Damon wants to make Lockton a place where insurance professionals want to work. He says part of the firm’s draw is its straightforward and supportive workplace culture. The company has offices in Detroit and Birmingham, and is planning to open one in Grand Rapids.

“Our goal is to be the place to do insurance in Michigan,” he says.

— Grace Turner

Director of Nursing and Clinical Services American Advantage Home Care Inc., Dearborn • Employees: 30 Revenue: $1.2M • College: Mott Community College FOR AS LONG AS SHE CAN REMEMBER, SARAH DE SONIA KNEW SHE WANTED TO PROVIDE

direct care to patients — but the health care industry had bigger plans for her.

De Sonia, a registered nurse, was hired to work in quality assurance at Dearborn-based American Advantage Home Care Inc., a home care company with offices in Dearborn and Flint, in August 2019. By April, she was promoted to director of nursing and clinical services.

The story has taken a similar turn almost everywhere De Sonia has worked — she’s been asked to take on a management role after just a few months. She even left management positions a couple of times to pursue patient care before being promoted again. “I’ve just accepted it’s my gift,” she says.

In her current role, De Sonia is in charge of compliance and quality review, education and training for clinical staff, and supervising case management.

She says she wasn’t afraid to take the reins during the COVID-19 pandemic, developing emergency preparedness plans, increasing staff education, and securing personal protection equipment, all while taking infection control into consideration.

“Really, we’re doing all the same things we’ve done all along,” she says.

De Sonia started her career in a skilled nursing facility where she saw more than 20 patients each day. She says she didn’t think she had enough time with each patient to truly make sure they were on their way to recovery.

Through home care, nurses can see what challenges patients face at home.

Frequently, the challenges can be serious. Patients may not have a working stove, or they might need help applying for Medicaid. “Home care gives you the opportunity to see and treat the entire patient,” De Sonia explains.

De Sonia’s future plans include preparing a licensing application so American Advantage can offer hospice and accredited private duty services, which help clients with nonmedical home care needs. — Grace Turner

48 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

Sarah De Sonia

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30 in Their Thirties || Feature

Ward Detwiler

35

President and CEO • Spin Tech Inc., Bingham Farms • Employees: 8 Revenue: NA • College: Northwestern University (B), University of Michigan (MBA) WHEN HE’S NOT SAILING THE GREAT LAKES AND HOSTING THE MONTHLY “GREAT LAKES

Now” program on Detroit Public Television, metro Detroit native Ward Detwiler is working to revolutionize the medical imaging industry.

As president and CEO of Spin Tech Inc. in Bingham Farms, Detwiler is raising capital, developing business and marketing strategies, and navigating FDA approval for MRI imaging software that he says is 40 percent faster and offers “a significant amount more data of the brain itself” than what currently is available.

Detwiler’s journey to medical entrepreneurship started as an undergrad at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he launched an advertising technology business. He also assisted a professor with starting an analytics company that included health care clients. “That was really my introduction to the startup world in terms of raising venture capital and trying to build a real technology company,” Detwiler says. “It was a tremendous experience.”

He came back to Michigan to complete his MBA, and following graduation he set up a Detroit office for U3 Ventures, a Philadelphia-based firm that helps large industrial landowners with development strategy and operational needs.

One of U3’s first projects was assisting Henry Ford Health System in Detroit set up its innovations program on the main hospital campus to commercialize ideas from employees. Eventually, Detwiler joined HFH as director of digital health innovation, where he spent nearly five years.

“Being a startup guy at heart, I got the itch to get back into the operational world,” Detwiler says. So he and Wayne State University professor and researcher Mark Haacke decided to form Spin Tech to commercialize Haacke’s inventions.

“There are a lot of great ideas that never make it out of the lab,” Detwiler says. “A lot of times, how you bring that idea forward is as important as the invention itself.”

— Tim Keenan

Managing Director/President • Finance Michigan/Marketplace Homes, Detroit • Employees: 1,000+ • Revenue: NA College: Kalamazoo College (B), University of Texas (M) WILL DICKSON IS NO STRANGER TO MANAGING MONEY. AT AGE 13 HE STARTED TRADING

stocks, and used the proceeds for spending and travel needs.

“I would read weekly research reports from Value Line and make a decision on whether I liked the companies, and then I would buy the stock,” says Dickson, managing director of Finance Michigan in Detroit. “I’d come out ahead around 25 percent each year. My big win was an investment in Blue Rhino, which got acquired by another company. I made over 100 percent on that trade and was hooked.”

Dickson, a CPA, still makes investments as part of Trowbridge Trading, which

Will Dickson

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is a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange, and Chicago Board of Trade. At Finance Michigan, he oversees financing and support for entrepreneurs throughout Michigan with his father, Stan Dickson Jr., a CPA and lawyer. The pair operates from two side-by-side mansions and a carriage house along Jefferson Avenue just east of downtown Detroit. One of the homes, the Charles Trowbridge House, was built in 1826 and is the state’s oldest residential structure.

The mansion serves as a calling card for Marketplace Homes, another family company that offers virtual home tours in 35 states. Founded in 2002, the enterprise was one of the pioneers in developing non-contact tours of homes using software and hardware like cameras and microphones. Currently, 1,000 homes are being marketed. “The virtual tours have been a real nice offering in the age of COVID-19, and the company was really ahead of the curve,” Will Dickson says.

“With Finance Michigan, we’re always looking to partner with entrepreneurs, and we have capital and services to help companies grow.”

The Dicksons run several other companies including First National Bank in Howell, Corcoran Global Living, and Happy Howie’s, among others. “We’re running out of room, which is a good problem to have,” Dickson says. — R.J. King

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 49

Feature || 30 in Their Thirties COO • Midtown Detroit Inc., Detroit • Employees: 10 • Revenue: NA College: Michigan State University

Elise Fields

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THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS INCREASED THE IMPORTANCE OF ONE ASPECT OF THE

work Midtown Detroit Inc. does: helping small businesses. The nonprofit community and economic development organization serves the Midtown and New Center neighborhoods by striving to improve and build community spaces, supporting small businesses and real estate development, and creating marketing and events, says its COO, Elise Fields.

Fields, who was promoted to her current position in 2019, says her role has evolved along with the nonprofit since she was hired in 2008. Today the organization is finding ways to accommodate new needs created by the pandemic.

Some small businesses in the area have been able to pivot, offering alternate methods for shopping or services, Fields says. Others are still working to get back on their feet. The organization has helped these companies find resources and has reallocated its funds to help them with rent and other expenses.

“We’ve always been a very responsive ... organization,” says Fields, explaining that Midtown Detroit Inc. is able to quickly change directions so it can help businesses, nonprofits, residents, and visitors as needed.

Some of the organization’s plans have been delayed. In 2018, JPMorgan Chase & Co. selected Midtown Detroit Inc. for a five-year mentorship program. The nonprofit is using the support to weigh the benefits of turning the Midtown area into a business improvement district in which tax dollars paid by commercial property owners would be captured to support initiatives chosen by the community.

The next steps for the initiative include community education, soliciting feedback through a survey, and eventually conducting a formal vote among the commercial property owners. Fields says the organization hopes to pick the project back up this fall. Major players in the area include Wayne State University, the College for Creative Studies, Little Caesars Arena, Henry Ford Health System, the Detroit Medical Center, and many of Detroit’s museums. — Grace Turner

Owner/CEO • Genesis In-Home Care/Odyssey Logistics, Waterford Township • Employees: 100/150 • Revenue: $4M/$2.5M College: Oakland Community College ONLY 32, PAUL GALLAGHER IS ALREADY OPERATING TWO SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES.

Odyssey Logistics, launched in 2019, has 150 employees and delivers packages to residents and businesses in the greater Detroit area.

His other startup, Genesis In-Home Care, is closest to his heart. Long before he started the business in 2012, Gallagher was already on a path toward helping people who need extra care and attention. “Even before I was an adult, I had family members with disabilities,” he says. “My uncle was intellectually impaired, my mom has been dealing with childhood trauma for many years, and my sister suffers from schizoid affective disorder, which is a form of schizophrenia.”

He also had a friend in high school who was autistic. “I used to call it ‘artistic,’ because I didn’t understand autism,” Gallagher says.

By the time he was 18, Gallagher was working as a caregiver for the disabled, which led to his first business. “We provide support and services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in their home and in the community,” he says. “In some cases, those individuals may live with parents at their home, but in most cases it’s one, two, three, or sometimes four people living together in their own house or apartment receiving care from us.”

The people in the Genesis program have a range of disabilities, but all are the beneficiaries of Gallagher’s singular approach, which he calls “the culture of gentleness.”

“It’s really a methodology focusing on connecting with the people we serve, and not restraining or trying to force them to do certain things that won’t work,” he says. “Most important is making sure they feel safe in the relationship.”

Gallagher has a personal philosophy, as well: “I want to just continue to add value to the world and to make an impact, whatever that means, which I try to define every single day,” he says. — Tom Murray

50 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

Paul J. Gallagher Jr.

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30 in Their Thirties || Feature CEO • Trevco, Madison Heights • Employees: 120 • Revenue: NA College: University of Michigan

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Trevor George

ONCE AN ENTREPRENEUR, ALWAYS AN ENTREPRENEUR. GROWING UP, TREVOR GEORGE

sold Beanie Babies, cleaned cars, and fixed yo-yos. While attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, he hosted concerts for up to 5,000 people while overseeing a staff of 22 interns.

Following college, he joined his father, Jim George’s, company. After learning the business side of Trevco, which at the time produced branded apparel and other items that were sold at wholesale prices to retailers and distributors, he spotted an opening for a new direction. “After learning and studying the business, I saw that we could sell branded items directly to consumers,” George says. “My dad agreed, and (we’ve been) able to triple the business (since 2015), and now we’re 95 percent direct to consumer and 5 percent wholesale. I also launched Blue Wheel Media in Birmingham; today it’s a 50-person digital marketing services agency.”

Both businesses expanded steadily until March, when the outbreak of coronavirus brought on stay-at-home orders. “I will never forget COVID-19,” George says. “I was watching the analytics in real time on my computer screen, and our sales fell 60 percent. We had to reduce our workforce and, for the next two to four weeks, it was all I could do to keep the ship from sinking.”

As he sought to work his way out of the jam, his wife, Morgan, suggested printing some of the company’s popular licensed brands — Superman, Hello Kitty, Harry Potter — on face masks. At first, George wasn’t sure. But when he struggled to convince his young son to put on a mask, Morgan persuaded him the process would be easier if there was a superhero on the front.

“We didn’t have the rights (for face masks), we didn’t have sewing machines, but we had our digital platform and we figured it out,” George says. “The whole thing went viral almost overnight. We’ve been able to donate 250,000 masks to first responders through our buy one/give one (sales) model. We also brought everyone back, and we hired more people.” — R.J. King

Project Engineer • Means Group, Detroit • Employees: 10 Revenue: NA • College: Howard University (B), (MBA) LAUREN KING WANTS TO BE AN INSPIRATION TO OTHER WOMEN OF COLOR WHO WANT

to get into the real estate development field. “I’m really interested in becoming a developer/owner myself,” says King, who has completed her first year as a project engineer for Means Group in Detroit. “I really want to be a symbol for people like myself, to show that it’s possible to add diversity to what’s happening in Detroit.

“I really want to have a hand in the landscape of the city, especially since there aren’t a lot of minority women in the industry. Often, I’m the only woman, and the only minority woman, in the room.”

King says she didn’t have that experience at Detroit-based General Motors Co., where she started her career in the automaker’s purchasing department.

Lauren King

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At Means Group, King leads the Eastern Market Metro Accelerator project, a 15,000-square-foot building that is being partitioned off to create several commercial kitchens. “I have no problem getting my hands dirty,” she says. “I’ve picked up a caulking gun on the site to make sure things get done on time. Getting those small businesses in there is really important to me.”

She’s also project engineer for the Cambria Hotel development, a 158-room lodge now under construction at 600 W. Lafayette Blvd. at Third Street that will include an adaptive reuse of the historic former home of WWJ studios.

King says she’s known since her last year at Howard University that she wanted to be involved in commercial real estate development. “I love the process of building and I love construction.”

She has been doing residential redevelopment with a partner, having flipped seven homes so far.

“I was comfortable at GM, and joining (Means Group) was really a leap of faith in an area that I really knew nothing about but was willing to learn with my feet to the fire,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot and gained a lot of experience in the field.”

— Tim Keenan SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 51

Feature || 30 in Their Thirties

Header || Feature President • Lamanen Construction, Brighton Employees: 6 • Revenue: NA IN BUILDING CUSTOM HOMES THAT RANGE IN PRICE FROM $800,000 TO $5 MILLION,

Clint Lamanen, sometimes consults with his father, Steve, who started Lamanen Construction in Brighton 25 years ago. Now retired, the patriarch early on

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Clint Lamanen

offered his two sons — Kyle serves as vice president — sound advice in dealing with clients.

“He said: ‘Always remember we’re here for our clients, and not the other way around,’” Clint says. “‘Be honest, tell them what you can do, not what they want to hear. And make sure you don’t overschedule things. Our clients have enough to worry about, so make sure you’re on time and you deliver what you promised.’”

While COVID-19 stay-at-home orders impacted the construction industry in Michigan for a few weeks, Clint says business has never been better. In addition to building custom homes in Ann Arbor, the Grosse Pointes, and the Bloomfield communities, the company undertakes home residential and landscaping projects — hardscapes in construction parlance.

“People are more at home now, and they’re more focused on improving their living spaces,” explains Lamanen. “Today, the trends we’re seeing are bigger windows, folding glass walls, infinity pools, home offices with green screens, home theaters, large, heated garages, wine rooms, in-law suites, and golf simulators.”

Working almost exclusively with Lou DesRosiers, principal of DesRosiers Architects Inc. in Bloomfield Hills, Lamanen says it can take two to three years to design, build, and deliver a custom home. “We mostly do traditional and contemporary homes, and our work is split evenly between building and renovations,” he says.

The latter work centers on redoing kitchens, bathrooms, and basements.

“Where before we relied on people looking to build a new home, in the last two years people have stayed in place and taken on a renovation or a large addition,” Lamanen says. “That’s brought more work our way, which is why we’re moving into hardscapes.”

— R.J. King

President • Lau & Lau Associates, Bloomfield Hills • Employees: 13 Assets Under Advisement: $1B College: DePauw University (B), The American College (M) JONATHAN LAU CAN’T PINPOINT THE MOMENT HE REALIZED HIS CAREER PATH WAS

already essentially determined.

“From my earliest memory I looked up to my dad greatly, and saw other people looking up to him,” says Lau, president of Lau & Lau in Bloomfield Hills. “I was hanging around the office and going in with him on weekends. It was always kind of my assumption that I would end up working with him.”

Lau’s grandfather, Donald, started the financial services firm in 1940. He was joined by his son, David, in 1973, and after another three decades Jonathan became the third-generation family member of Bloomfield Hills-based Law & Lau Associates. “My dad passed away very suddenly last October,” Lau says. “I had 15 wonderful years working with him.”

Lau’s firm specializes in wealth management for private investors, along with offering an array of services for corporate clients. Not surprisingly, maintaining long-established relationships is a major focus for the firm.

“When a person passes away, the odds of keeping that family as a client are very low,” Lau says. “The statistics are pretty abysmal. And that’s kind of our niche.

We’ve worked with specific families for three generations.”

The firm’s reputation is its calling card. “We don’t advertise, and we’re not on the radio trying to attract customers,” Lau says. “If we’re meeting with a prospective client, they’ve been referred to us by someone.”

Most firms that offer similar services for high-income clients require a minimum amount to invest before they can even get in the door. “We don’t do that,” Lau says. “We’re looking for serious-minded professionals, executives, and business owners who care deeply about their financial future and that of their family.”

Speaking of family, is there a fourth-generation Lau already in the on-deck circle? “I have two kids, ages 9 and 4,” Lau says. “Too soon to say.”

52 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

— Tom Murray

Jonathan Lau

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30 in Their Thirties || Feature President and Co-Owner • Value Wholesale Distributors, Oak Park Employees: 60 • Revenue: NA

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MATT LOUSSIA KNEW WHEN HE JOINED HIS FATHER’S COMPANY FOLLOWING HIGH

school that he would likely be groomed to one day lead it. He also knew, as the son of the boss, it could be difficult to be accepted by the company’s employees.

Matt Loussia

For that reason, along with a desire to learn the business from the ground up, Loussia decided that he wanted his job at the company to be, well, everything.

“I spent the first four years doing the real dirty work,” says Loussia, president and co-owner of Value Wholesale Distributors in Oak Park. “The sweeping, the cleaning, the orders, stocking the shelves, unloading semi-trucks.”

He even obtained a commercial driver’s license so he could personally handle food deliveries to grocery and convenience stores, service stations, schools, military facilities, and more.

Unfortunately, by the time Loussia turned 30, his father, John, had passed away. As he took the reins of the company sooner than he had anticipated, he used everything his dad taught him and applied it with some of his own thinking.

“I took risks that, if my dad were alive, he and I would have gone to war over,” Loussia says. “I was young enough that if I made a mistake, I could have recovered from it and it wouldn’t have destroyed my life.”

Loussia also faced a challenge in leading the company through the COVID-19 shutdown, and he was determined to ensure that every customer would be adequately supplied.“We were fighting tooth-and-nail with our vendors to get product,” Loussia says. “As you can imagine, we’re not Costco or Spartan Nash or Meijer or Kroger. We’re the last on that list to get product. We were creating extra purchase orders, paying for product in advance, and sending our own trucks to pick up product as often as we could.”

It paid off, and Loussia now looks to the future with the recent acquisition of Warren-based Liberty Wholesale. He hopes to use the acquisition to expand into new demographic groups — particularly Hispanics.

— Dan Calabrese

Founder and President • Detroit Wing Co., Eastpointe Employees: 135 • Revenue: NA AS A RESTAURANT OWNER, GUS MALLIARAS HAD TO JUGGLE CLOSING AND THEN REOPEN-

ing nine Detroit Wing Co. locations in the region, all the while working with suppliers to ensure there was a steady source of chicken wings from poultry producers.

“Chickens grow very quickly and must be processed at the right time,” says Malliaras, founder and CEO of Detroit Wing Co. “It takes about 13 weeks to go from an egg to a chicken, and with COVID-19, we wanted to ensure there weren’t supply disruptions once we reopened.

“It was a balancing act. We have good volume and buy wings by the truckload, but we had to go to our suppliers and say, We’ll pay for a truck upfront, no matter what. There were also a lot of price fluctuations. It was week to week. Through a great partnership with Atlas Foods in Detroit, the majority of our (supply) concerns are largely gone now.”

Still, a location at the MGM Grand Detroit was slow to reopen due to state restrictions on operating casinos during the pandemic. At the same time, Malliaras is planning to add locations near Mack Avenue and Moross Road in Detroit, and in

Gus Malliaras

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East Lansing. To help bring more consistency and efficiency to the operation, Malliaras is revamping how the company makes its handmade sauces. Every location creates more than a dozen offerings each morning, including Cajun, lemon pepper, teriyaki, Asian orange, and sweet heat flavors, but the effort is time-consuming.

“Initially, making the sauces at the stores made sense, but now we’ve found it’s a lot of labor for the stores,” Malliaras says. “We (realized) it would be easier to open restaurants and staff them if we could create one commissary kitchen and headquarters, and make all of the sauces at one location. We’ll still be making all of our sauces by hand, but in larger volumes — plus, with the consistency we want.”

The company plans to invest $2.5 million to $3 million to build out an existing 18,000-square-foot facility. A final location will be selected shortly, and the goal is to open the commissary kitchen next year.

— R.J. King

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 53

Feature || 30 in Their Thirties Founder and CEO • Gayanga Co., Detroit • Employees: 50 Revenue: $10M • College: Western Michigan University IN 2017 BRIAN MCKINNEY SOLD BENJII, HIS HOUSTON-BASED FINANCE TECH FIRM, AND

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Brian McKinney Sr.

decided to chase a dream he’d been contemplating for a long while — moving back to his hometown and starting another company focused on infrastructure, road, and utility construction.

It’s worked out well so far; since its initial launch, McKinney’s Gayanga Co. has razed close to 1,000 structures in Detroit. The business has grown from a $400,000 startup to a thriving contender for a wide array of jobs all over the city, with more than 50 employees and revenue exceeding $10 million.

His efforts led to McKinney finding himself front and center in July during negotiations for Proposal N, which deals with fixing Detroit’s longstanding blight problem. The $250 million bond proposal on the November ballot will allow city voters to determine whether they want to stabilize 8,000 vacant but salvageable houses and demolish another 8,000 that can’t be saved. It also prioritizes Detroit-based companies and employees, helping to level the playing field for Black and minority-owned businesses like Gayanga.

“If we ever want to participate on freeway projects and large water infrastructure projects, we have to build capacity,” McKinney says. “This was an opportunity to do it in our neighborhood. By and large, the majority of the federal funds to demolish structures in highly impacted African-American community strongholds went to large suburban white companies that didn’t hire anyone who looked like the people in the community.”

Soon after Mayor Mike Duggan finished hammering out the final touches on the legislation, he singled out McKinney, in particular, for his efforts in getting it finalized. “It was definitely a labor of love, and one of the most rewarding experiences in my life, to be part of the solution in blight — but, equally as important, to create economic opportunity for African-American businesses. I’ve never been a part of anything that has the potential for that kind of impact.”

Equity Shareholder • Butzel Long, Detroit Employees: 200+ • Revenue: NA College: Northwood University (B), Ave Maria School of Law (JD) THERE’S THE PRACTICE OF LAW AND THE BUSINESS OF LAW. THEY’RE TWO DIFFERENT

skillsets, and it’s not always easy for an attorney to excel at both.

At Butzel Long, a law large firm in Detroit, Paul Mersino transcends between the two disciplines, all the while raising five children along with his wife, Erin, who he says is “the best lawyer in the family.”

A 2008 graduate of the Ave Maria School of Law, Mersino has known no other professional home. He served Butzel Long as a summer associate the year before he graduated. Upon passing the bar, he was offered a full-time position with the firm and he hasn’t looked back.

“Once you’ve been doing this, even just a few years at a big law firm, you get head-hunters calling you just about every day,” says Mersino, chair of Butzel Long’s litigation department. But the calls don’t interest him, as he enjoys the firm’s atmosphere and the freedom he has to focus on his family.

A business litigator with a specialty in noncompete agreements and trade secret law, he enjoys the particular challenges of intellectual property law. “Things in the law tend to go slowly,” Mersino explains. “The neat thing about trade secrets and noncompetes is, when someone has a noncompete and they leave, or steal your secret, you’ve got to be in court the next morning. It’s a fire drill that’s both stressful and exciting.”

Mersino, who earned a business degree from Northwood University in Midland, has come to master the balance between client service and business results, such that his fellow shareholders voted him to the firm’s board of directors this year. He sees the board slot as an opportunity to bridge some generational gaps.

“I think I can connect the two as we get more shareholders who are in their 30s and early 40s, as opposed to those in their 60s,” Mersino says.

— Dan Calabrese

54 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

Paul Mersino

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— Tom Murray

30 in Their Thirties || Feature Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer • Duo Security, Ann Arbor Employees: 900 • Revenue: NA • College: University of Michigan (B), (M), (Ph.D.)

Jon Oberheide

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JON OBERHEIDE SPENT HIS COLLEGE YEARS HACKING INTO COMPUTER NETWORKS.

He expects to spend the remainder of his career keeping others from doing the same.

“I was always passionate about security,” says Oberheide, co-founder and chief technology officer at Duo Security in Ann Arbor, now part of Cisco Systems Inc. in San Jose, Calif. “I’m very interested in how things work and how to break them.”

In fact, Oberheide met his business partner, Dug Song, while both were working at Arbor Networks during a college internship. Oberheide had a position as an offensive security researcher, more commonly known as a hacker.

“Breaking in is the easy part,” he says. “Trying to figure out how to build a secure defense system is the really hard part. You’re trying to build a defense and there are smart humans on the other end trying to figure out where you made a mistake.”

In 2010, after Oberheide completed his doctorate, he and Song launched Duo Security in Ann Arbor. They were so effective at cybersecurity that Cisco Systems acquired the firm in 2018 for nearly $2.4 billion, making it the largest exit ever for a Michigan-based software company.

“I’ve always had a nontraditional career path,” Oberheide says. “I feel like I only had one real job in my life — making beautiful submarine sandwiches at Quiznos during high school.”

That’s not all he did in his teenage years, though. Together with a partner, Oberheide ran a business that did web hosting, along with web programming and design. “That’s how I first got the entrepreneur bug. It was good money for being in high school, but it wasn’t what I would call a serious business,” he says. “I did learn a lot about taxes, financial planning, and supporting customers, even if it was just two high schoolers working in the middle of the night.”

— Tim Keenan

Owner • Stonefield Engineering and Design, SheWolf Pastificio and Bar, Detroit • Employees: 150/70 • Revenue: NA College: Western Michigan University WHEN HE’S NOT OVERSEEING STONEFIELD ENGINEERING AND DESIGN, WHICH HE OWNS,

Timothy Ponton can be found “hanging out” at the SheWolf Pastificio and Bar, which he also owns. Both are located in Detroit.

Stonefield, a civil engineering company with offices in New York City, Tampa, Boston, and Princeton, N.J., is a nontraditional firm, Ponton says.

“We’re more about mentoring people, providing economic opportunity, and accelerating young peoples’ careers,” Ponton explains. “A lot of our competitors make people climb the ladder that goes by number of years of experience, not necessarily performance and learning.

“The motto of our company is to ‘replace yourself,’ so we’re trying to take (college graduates, have them) grow organically, and replace ourselves with them.

What ends up happening is they’re even better than us. Then we encourage them to branch out and start their own office with their own teams. If you focus on the

Timothy Ponton

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people, then the business grows with them.”

Ponton started his career at a civil engineering firm in New Jersey in 2007, before joining a group of colleagues who wanted to strike out on their own in 2010.

Stonefield now has 150 employees. The Detroit office opened in 2014.

The restaurant, which made its debut in Detroit’s Midtown district in 2018, is the dream of Ponton’s childhood friend, Chef Anthony Lombardo. Ponton takes care of SheWolf’s business and Lombardo handles the cuisine.

Ponton, a Sterling Heights native, says his role at Stonefield has evolved over the years as the industry has changed. “The first five or six years it was strictly engineering,” he says. “Once we got to a point where we had a handful of different offices and more employees, I had to start focusing more on the business side. I still go to planning commission meetings and am involved on the design side, and mentoring the younger staff.” — Tim Keenan

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 55

Feature || 30 in Their Thirties Managing Partner • TK Fund, Detroit • Employees: 3 • Revenue: NA College: University of Michigan SINCE HIS COLLEGE YEARS, ALEX RILEY, HAS BEEN STARTING BUSINESSES, DOING ALL

Alex Riley

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the hard setup work, then leaving them in someone else’s hands as he moves on to the next endeavor. He, and especially his wife, hopes the TK Fund will be the last business he starts.

Riley, managing partner of the Detroit-based real estate development and private equity firm, says his earlier efforts involved a staffing company that supplied construction workers to contractors, and the Detroit Training Center, which fills a void for skills training in the construction industry.

“About a year after we started the staffing company, we saw the need for vocational training in construction, particularly with Detroiters who had some kind of barrier to employment like a criminal history or a low education level,” Riley says.

“So we launched Detroit Training Center, a licensed vocational school that covers everything from asbestos and lead abatement training to equipment use and commercial driving.”

In late 2019, a friend from college asked him to start a real estate development company focused on Detroit. They put a group of investors together and TK Fund was born.

“I’ve loved the city of Detroit since I moved here from Ann Arbor in 2011,” Riley says. “I’ve been around real estate for the last 10 years while staffing construction companies and training workers, so it seemed like a fit. It’s using a combination of all my skill sets.”

TK Fund’s first project is the 40,000-square-foot 2000 Brooklyn building in Corktown, the former brush factory turned loft living space that Riley intends to redevelop as commercial space, apartments, and a production studio.

“In the beginning I wanted to build the biggest company possible with the most revenue,” Riley says. “I’ve gotten away from that. Now I want to set things up and have freedom and flexibility.” — Tim Keenan

CEO • C3 Industries Inc., Ann Arbor • Employees: 175 • Revenue: NA College: University of Michigan Ross School of Business (B), University of Michigan Law School AFTER SPENDING FIVE YEARS IN NEW YORK CITY AS A CORPORATE ATTORNEY AND IN-

vestment banker, Ankur Rungta moved back to Ann Arbor, where he had attended the University of Michigan, to jump into an entirely new business opportunity. In 2016, along with his brother, Vishal, and a longtime friend, Joel Ruggiero, Rungta launched C3 Industries Inc., a cannabis production and retail operation.

“We didn’t ease our way into the business; rather, we first applied for and received a growing license in Oregon,” says Rungta, CEO of C3 Industries. “It was an advanced market, so we had to really prove ourselves. It’s a huge badge of honor to us … that we came in late to what was a competitive market and succeeded.”

When Michigan opened up cannabis sales last year following voter approval of a statewide referendum, C3 Industries applied for and received a license to grow and sell cannabis products throughout the state. Eager to control production quality, the company opened a state-of-the-art, 37,000-square-foot facility in Webberville, near Lansing. A neighboring 70,000-square-foot growing complex will be added next year.

On the retail side, the enterprise’s High Profile stores sell a variety of cannabis products including C3’s own brands, Cloud Cover Cannabis and Galactic Meds — flowers, edibles, vaporizers, concentrates, topicals, and tinctures. Overall, the product line is available in 75 stores in Michigan. In addition, next year the company will enter the cannabis market in Massachusetts with growing facilities and a retail footprint.

“In the cannabis industry we bring discipline to a range of activities, including efficient costs of production, consistency, and quality,” Rungta says. “We have passed all of our targets in (cannabis) testing with third-party labs. We plan to have between 12 and 15 (High Profile) stores in Michigan, and we’re approved to enter the cannabis market in Missouri.” — R.J. King

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Ankur Rungta

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30 in Their Thirties || Feature

Greg Schwartz

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Co-founder and COO • StockX, Detroit • Employees: 800 Transactions: $1B • College: University of Michigan STOCKX SALES ARE SOARING HIGHER THAN THE MODEL ROCKETS FOUNDER AND COO

Greg Schwartz launches with his son on weekends. The Detroit-based company, an e-commerce business that connects buyers and sellers using stock market mechanics, was the brainchild of Dan Gilbert and is executed by Schwartz.

StockX, which started with listing custom and sought-after sneakers, has grown and now handles streetwear, collectable items, and electronics. The exchange reaches customers in 200 countries. Schwartz, with Gilbert’s backing, launched StockX in 2015 after working in New York on the digital strategy team at Warner Music Group. He moved back to Detroit to start Upto, a mobile calendar app in which Gilbert was a lead investor.

“I’ve always liked building things,” says Schwartz, whose first foray into apps was a mobile checkbook platform that he devised while studying at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “I really liked the fact that the mobile checkbook app was helping people avoid overdrafting their accounts. This was in the days before iPhones, Androids, and mobile banking that we know today.”

He was just about to sell Upto and move to the West Coast when “Dan had the idea of a stock market mechanics system to sell sneakers,” Schwartz recalls. “That conversation led to the incubation of StockX in 2015. The next Monday morning we were putting together a team to build StockX.” The company’s differentiator from other e-commerce platforms is that it authenticates every item that is purchased. “We have six authentication centers globally,” Schwartz says. “And we physically verify the condition, authenticity, and size so the buyer has peace of mind when they’re purchasing on StockX.” What does the future hold for Schwartz and StockX? “We’re really doubling down on globalizing the experience for these customers, not only in Europe, where we’re seeing explosive growth, but in Japan, Canada, and China. It’s a major priority of ours right now.”

Senior Development Manager • The Platform, Detroit • Employees: 20 Revenue: NA • College: University of Pennsylvania (B), Walsh College (M) ALTHOUGH ANDREW SHERMAN GREW UP BIRMINGHAM AND BLOOMFIELD VILLAGE, HIS

mind was elsewhere.

“I was really looking for an urban atmosphere,” Sherman says. “When I started to look for colleges, I became extremely focused on cities instead of college towns.

That’s how I ended up in Philadelphia. I fell in love with the University of Pennsylvania and the idea of being on a college campus within an urban core. Being able to explore that city was everything I dreamed of.”

Sherman’s affinity for all things urban makes him a perfect fit for his job as senior development manager at The Platform, a private real estate company based in the Fisher Building in Detroit — one of 16 city properties the company is

— Tim Keenan

Andrew Sherman

34

either developing or leasing.

“We like to say we're developers trying to do good in Detroit,” Sherman says.

“We believe Detroit’s turnaround cannot be deemed successful without the neighborhoods rising with the rest of the city.”

In recent months, Sherman has overseen the acquisition of 411 Piquette, more commonly known as the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant. Designed by Albert Kahn for Henry Ford, the three-story historic structure was the birthplace of the Model T. He also supervised the revival of 6001 Cass, another Kahn creation, built in 1920. The building sat empty for decades but is now a vital part of TechTown, with 113,500 square feet of fully leased office space. Sherman managed the $40 million overhaul from the start, negotiating the contracts and leases for all tenants, including WeWork and the North American headquarters for Tata Technologies.

He’s now overseeing the $16-million redevelopment of Chroma, a vacant nine-story cold-storage building in Milwaukee Junction (near I-75 and I-94).

Already, he’s lined up what he describes as three “key” tenants. “There’s definitely a lot left to do in the city, and (it needs to be done) the right way,” he says.

— Tom Murray

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Feature || 30 in Their Thirties Co-Owner and CFO • Oakpoint, Birmingham • Employees: 30 Revenue: $5M • College: Michigan State University ERIK STRANG HAS LEARNED HOW TO OVERCOME HARDSHIPS. HE LOST BOTH PARENTS

before his 13th birthday, and credits an aunt — who took him in and became

39

Erik Strang

another mother to him — for the success he enjoys today. “I look at COVID-19,” Strang says. “Many businesses were closed for three months. Things come at you.

But if I could recover from the loss of my parents, have a career, and raise a family, I could overcome any curveball that comes my way.”

In the field of dentistry, Strang noticed an opening. Like many specialty fields, dentists can excel at taking care of oral health, but they may struggle with running the back office operations. Strang saw that clearly during a four-year stint as corporate director of development at Great Expressions Dental Centers in Southfield, which operates 300 dental locations.

The Ernst & Young veteran — Strang worked for the multinational professional services firm before and after his time at Great Expressions — saw an opportunity to assist dentists.

Along with CEO Mick Janness, the pair launched Oakpoint in 2019. In essence, Oakpoint invests in individual dental practices — acquiring 60 percent to 70 percent of the business while the respective dentist maintains the rest. As part of the deal, Oakpoint oversees payroll, human resources, IT, regulatory compliance, and marketing.

“We help dentists grow,” Strang says. “The doctor still has a lot of autonomy in their practice, but they still get to pick our brain a lot.”

Typically, Oakpoint will assign at least two points of contact for each dental practice — one for operations and one for finance. Oakpoint meets monthly with each dentist to review profit/loss and other key operational issues.

“I was very involved with EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year process, and I always knew I wanted to be part of growth companies,” Strang says. “When I got recruited

by Great Expressions, I learned the dental industry.”

Managing Director • Accenture, Detroit • Employees: 1,300 (Detroit) Revenue: $43.2B (Global) • College: University of Michigan THE FIRST THING CORIEL TAYLOR DISCOVERED ABOUT THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

field is that it’s not about what someone already knows. It’s about what that person is willing and able to figure out. Hired by Accenture straight out of the University of Michigan in 2005, Taylor showed up armed with a degree in engineering and a readiness to guide clients in her various areas of business knowledge.

“We were helping a client with an M&A doing data integration work,” Taylor says. “I’d never done that before — merging two different systems of records for customer continuity.”

Exploring new opportunities has been Taylor’s strength since her days at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, which she attended as a lifelong Detroit east-sider. From there she attended the University of Michigan, where in addition to her academic achievements, she helped establish a program for underrepresented students. It was through this program that she landed an internship at Accenture, which led to her full-time job.

When the firm decided in 2017 to establish the Detroit Digital Delivery Center, Taylor jumped at the chance to become its managing director. “It was the perfect storm for me,” Taylor says. Since taking the helm of the new Detroit studio, Taylor has enjoyed the opportunity to hire and work with diverse talent within her hometown, as well as being part of the rebranding of Detroit.

“It’s really part of the process of thinking of (Detroit) as a top-tier talent for technology, helping people think of us differently,” says Taylor, who recently explained to a new hire that Accenture’s business model isn’t that people have to know everything; it’s that they have to be able to figure it out.

“For me, a young black woman from the inner-city who made it to the University of Michigan, it’s important to go back to my high school and talk to students about college and career, and at the University of Michigan to stay connected to that studio that helped me land my job,” Taylor says.

58 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

— Dan Calabrese

Coriel Taylor

37

— Dan Calabrese

30 in Their Thirties || Feature Manager of Demand Management and Capacity Planning Health Alliance Plan, Troy • Employees: 1,100 • Revenue: $2B College: Central Michigan University

32

Matthew Tebbe

THE HEALTH INSURANCE SECTOR IS HIGHLY REGULATED, LEAVING FEW OPTIONS TO

offer new services, handle special requests, or manage unforeseen issues. However, Matthew Tebbe’s focus is a little different. He’s concerned with how people utilize health care, while looking for ways to make that utilization more efficient.

As manager of demand management and capacity planning at Health Alliance Plan, an HMO owned by Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Tebbe is pursuing innovative and unconventional approaches to get people the best possible health outcomes without forcing everything into traditional models.

“Finance people will hate me, but if we can break even but show improved health outcomes, I’m OK going with that,” Tebbe says.

His boss will not hate him. HAP’s new CEO, Dr. Michael Genord, assumed his position this year. According to Tebbe, Genord is always pushing those in the company to do things differently in ways that benefit its members first.

It’s an idea Tebbe has already pursued successfully. Prior to joining HAP in 2017, he worked at the Detroit Medical Center managing a $10-million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. He considers his work with that grant his “pride and joy.”

Specifically, Tebbe addressed the problem of people going to emergency rooms for issues that should have been dealt with via primary care. The solution: Tebbe and his team established primary care centers within ER facilities — two at Detroit Receiving Hospital, and one each at Sinai Grace and Children’s Hospital.

“The goal was to give people the right care at the right time,” Tebbe says. “We had a large interdisciplinary team that truly took care of their needs, including social work, behavioral health, nurses, and pharmacists. It was all-encompassing.”

From there, Tebbe moved to HAP, where he found an environment receptive to driving the same kinds of reforms.

— Dan Calabrese

Co-Founder and President • Detroit Labs, Detroit • Employees: 150 Revenue: NA • College: Central Michigan University DAN WARD, CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF DETROIT LABS, MAY HAVE EARNED A

history degree from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, but he felt like he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in business from “the school” of Dan Gilbert.

An admitted party guy while at Central, Ward says his first job out of college was as a computer support technician at Quicken Loans Inc. That led to a place on the company’s Z Team, which assists the company’s executives with technical issues. Through that role, he became Gilbert’s dedicated support person.

“It started off as technical support, helping him with his technology at home

Dan Ward

36

and at the office to design work on his presentations,” Ward says. “Then I had an opportunity to go with him to New York City. The trip went well, and I found myself going on 80 percent of his trips, acknowledging that I had an interest in all of the meetings he was attending. Sometimes I was there to help, sometimes to observe.

“I got to learn, see, and witness so many things,” Ward says. “I was very much a sponge when I worked for him.”

While there, Ward pitched his idea for Detroit Labs to one of Gilbert’s early venture companies, where he was introduced to Paul Glomski, Nathan Hughes, and Henry Balanon, who had even bigger plans for Ward’s brainstorm.

That idea became a custom software development company that designs and builds mobile apps and web products for clients including Domino’s, General Motors Co., Bosch, Volkswagen, Jimmy Johns, and others.

“It’s not like I grew up saying I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” says Ward, who spent his high school years focused on sports, particularly hockey. “I honestly didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I knew that I just wanted to work at a company where I had some control, and just wanted to come in to work every single day.” —Tim Keenan

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Feature || 30 in Their Thirties Founder and CEO • RIZZARR Inc., Detroit • Employees: 8 • Revenue: NA College: University of Southern California

31

Ashley M. Williams

AFTER A CAREER IN JOURNALISM THAT TOOK HER TO NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA, SPAIN,

and South Africa, where she worked for the likes of NBC, MSNBC, Good Morning America, the BBC, and USA Today, Ashley M. Williams returned home to launch Detroit-based RIZZARR, a content creation company that helps national brands reach millennials and Gen Z customers.

Williams’ love for content creation began when she was a student involved with Southfield-Lathrup High School’s television station and worked on documenting challenges faced by teenagers. After graduation she headed to the University of Southern California to study journalism. As a freshman at USC, she managed to land an internship usually reserved for juniors and seniors. She graduated in 2011 and pursued a career in journalism until she founded RIZZARR in 2014.

Her company has two segments. The first part is a free platform where more than 5,000 young content creators can build portfolios showcasing videos, photos, articles, and podcasts they’ve developed. RIZZARR then pulls the best of the content creators to do paid work for brands that are looking to understand and reach younger generations.

“We’re unique because of how we’ve been groomed, and we’re so used to digital,” Williams says of millennials and Gen Zs. It can be difficult for companies to keep up with the quantity and quality of work required to have a solid presence on all of the channels through which young consumers engage.

Quicken Loans, Microsoft, Michaels, the American Heart Association, DTE, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor, among other companies, have used RIZZARR’s services.

The company is in the midst of a $2.5 million seed round that will be used to further develop the company, scale the team, and redevelop the platform. Williams’ goal is to change both how brands see themselves as they evolve to meet the needs of younger generations, and how content creators see themselves as they build portfolios they can show to potential employers.

— Grace Turner

Director of Construction • Bedrock, Detroit • Employees: 3,100 Revenue: NA • College: Michigan State University “I WAS A LEGO KID WHO THREW THE INSTRUCTIONS AWAY,” SAYS BRETT YUHASZ,

director of construction at Bedrock in Detroit, when asked when he first thought about a career path. “I always knew I wanted to go into some type of construction.”

He started working in residential building while in high school and studied construction management at Michigan State University, where he was counseled that the commercial sector was the best path to follow.

Yuhasz’s first job out of college was a four-year stint as a project engineer at Auch Construction in Pontiac. Then it was on to Bedrock as a project manager, followed by a position as a senior project manager before assuming his current position in January.

As director of construction, he manages the process from the time Bedrock acquires a building or a piece of land to the final outcome. Along the way he works with internal and external teams to guide a project through design, programming, architecture, and construction.

“I went to work for Bedrock in 2015 and it’s been like drinking out of a fire hose ever since,” he says. “We move very quickly and we’re good at what we do but you have to be nimble, thick-skinned, and be able to manage your own projects and destiny. It’s been a really exciting, rewarding, and challenging situation.”

Since he’s been at Bedrock, Yuhasz has left his mark on some 60 projects, including moving the financial firms Ally and UBS into their current buildings along Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, relocating a Microsoft Technology Center from Southfield into its new Detroit home, and redeveloping the Shinola Hotel.

“That was my baby for three years,” he says of the Shinola Hotel. “It was the most challenging thing I’ve done and probably will ever do in my career. There was no playbook. We had two historic, landmark structures, we knocked down two buildings in between, and built a (connecting enclosed skywalk) across a public alley. It was complicated and extremely rewarding.”

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— Tim Keenan

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Brett Yuhasz

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Mat Ishbia chose, among his five regular stations, Hits 1 with Fireball on Sirius XM for the seven-minute drive to work. “Whatever’s popular these days,” says the 40-year-old president and CEO of United Shore on his musical tastes.

Most mornings he leaves a full hour later, but today he was unable to sleep. These were stressful times. back here and keep doing great things.”

Within the preceding two weeks he oversaw The model for building UWM had nothing to the dispersal of 97 percent of his staff, which do with working from home. From a 12-person plunged from 6,500 employees to just 200 stalmortgage shop in 2004, it has become the secwarts in the office as the company all but closed ond-largest overall mortgage lender in the its 1.5-million-square-foot Pontiac headquarters United States after Quicken Loans Inc. in — two buildings separated by South Boulevard Detroit, originating more than $100 billion in and connected by what will be the nation’s lonloans last year and grossing $3.2 billion in revegest skywalk — to work from home. nue. To make the process go, Ishbia likes to hudAlthough he had already added 650 new dle with his account executives to fire them up. employees in 2020, United Shore’s wholesale It is understood people will mix together almost lending operation, United Wholesale Mortrandomly in the cafeteria as a team-building step. gage, had gone two full weeks without a new And Ishbia schedules no meetings on Thursdays in hire. Nevertheless, despite the onset of the order to get out and hobnob with his colleagues, COVID-19 crisis and the transition to telelearning their subtle process innovations and commuting, UWM had just wrapped up absorbing free-floating ideas for efficiency. another record month in March.

“It’s so important to our culture that we’re all In midafternoon, sitting in an office here together,” he says. “So that was the hardest adorned with pictures of his kids and memenpart. I’m sitting in my office right now, and I walk toes of his Michigan State University basketout there — my assistant, Sabrina Saracino, is out ball career, Ishbia dials down his usual there — but no one else is around for a hundred double-barreled delivery, even while still confeet, or two hundred feet.” Despite the moment’s densing sentences into three or four syllables upheaval, he intends to “reshape things” and still as if working against a shot clock. “It’s lonely,” expects to hire 1,500 to 2,000 people before he says. “I miss people. I’m hoping everything year’s end. gets better in America, and we get everyone Eight days later, in a sprawling videoconference with UWM’s 30 major teams and the 600 captains who carry responsibility for six to 16 colleagues, Ishbia preached family togetherness while reassuring his team about job security, issuing the singular declaration, “I will sleep on their couch before I lay anyone off.”

Besides expanding training opportunities during the lockdown, UWM also strove for cultural reinforcement by means of online afternoon dance parties. This was not, after all, Goldman Sachs. This privately owned company belongs to the long-robust Detroit mortgage scene, but follows more of a Silicon Valley model with a basketball court and Lollapalooza atmosphere.

UWM’s 2019 holiday party, for example, featured a performance by The Chainsmokers, an electronica duo who are big on the festival circuit.

Thirteen Cadillacs and 30 cruises to the Bahamas were dispensed among the multitude.

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Cover Story || Mortgages

Asking Ishbia who has given away more Caddies, UWM or Elvis, rouses his competitive spirit. “I assume he did, but we’re proud to give ’em away and take care of our team here. Maybe we’ll pass him this year.”

If there’s a company motto, it can be summed up with “Hard work, winning, success!” That’s the main theme of “Running the Corporate Offense: Lessons in Effective Leadership from the Bench to the Board Room,” Ishbia’s autobiography and leadership manifesto published last November by Triumph Books.

MSU men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo contributed the foreword, writing that Ishbia “was born and raised to be a workhorse.” The 5-foot, 9-inch walk-on guard from Birmingham Seaholm High School was a scrappy player who held a reserve spot during the height of the Spartans’ glory. His term from 1998 to 2003 (the last year as an assistant coach) encompassed the 2000 NCAA National Championship season and two additional Final Four appearances. The Oakland Press described him as “a borderline cult-figure on campus.”

“He was an amazing basketball player, a small white Jewish kid from the suburbs,” writes Ishbia’s wife, Emily, in “Overcoming Obstacles,” her own autobiography, which adheres more to the Oprah confessional style and includes better than five dozen of her original, captivating fashion poses.

Ishbia spent “at least” a year writing his book and another year getting it published. The impetus was pretty obvious. “As boring as you think mortgages can be,” he says, “I took basketball and leadership and Izzo’s mentality, and a lot of stuff I learned from my father, and I applied it to mortgages and a mortgage business and I thought it was a great thing to share with people.”

Alas, intrepid readers may recognize the origins of Ishbia’s rah-rah fare. “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men — that is genius,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1841.

Indeed, Mat is “a visionary in this business,” says Jeff Ishbia, the serial entrepreneur and long-practicing private attorney who sticks to the credo that “a spouting whale gets harpooned” and rarely agrees to be interviewed.

He is the father of two sons, Mathew Randall and the eldest, Justin Ryan, who runs Shore Capital, a private equity company in Chicago.

The patriarch founded Shore Mortgage in 1986. At the beginning, he explains, Mickey Shorr — who was all over television and radio with ads for his car stereo business — was to be the pitchman. But Shorr got sick, so Jeff changed the spelling from “Shorr” to “Shore” and concentrated on conventional and FHA 64 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

THE GREAT DIVIDE To literally bridge the connection between two office structures on opposite sides of South Boulevard in Pontiac, United Shore is building the nation’s longest skywalk.

Mortgages || Cover Story

home loans. Shore Mortgage became “a goodsized local company” with more than 10 offices and as many as 400 employees. The wholesale brokerage was always an afterthought. Much later, the name was changed to United Shore, and Mat took over the United Wholesale Mortgage division As if bursting from a 19th-century novel by Horatio Alger, who laid out the archetype of the dedicated altruist getting a break and excelling, Mat joined UWM after his MSU days. “Look, Mat, you’re my son, so you’ll always have a job here, but what that job is and how far you advance is entirely up to you,” Jeff told him.

“I tried to get him to work for my alarm company that had thousands of accounts and generated tremendous income,” Jeff says. “Nope,” Mat replied. In April of 2004 the son went to Chicago, bought a condo in Lincoln Park with his brother, and operated a Windy City branch of the company, buying mortgages from independent brokers. He was making $18,000 a year, owned three suits, and made his sales calls in a 1998 Ford Explorer.

By the following autumn, Ishbia had reconnected with his future wife, Emily Clarke, who had come back home from East Lansing after college. The native of Naperville, a western suburb of Chicago, earned renown while roaring up and down the North High soccer pitch, setting the school record with 21 goals her senior year.

Wooed to MSU, the fleet 5-foot, 5-inch forward had a distinguished career for the Spartans, capped in her senior year against Ohio State University when she broke a scoreless tie with three minutes remaining to notch the team’s win.

She writes her own account of those days: “(Mat) would drive around Chicago’s suburbs all day meeting his accounts. He hustled so hard he wore a hole in the side of his car seat and his pants from sliding in and out so many times a day.” At night, serving as Ishbia’s amanuensis, she wrote down his ideas in a journal. “I’m telling you this man had the wildest goals. I thought he was crazy.”

Yet Ishbia asked, “Why not me?”

Emily witnessed the first blossoming of success. “He started making changes to the way things were done in his office,” she writes. UWM went paperless, for example. Then he bucked the

industry model for using outside salespeople.

Mat completes the picture, saying, “Everyone in our whole mortgage world (operated the same way). You go and meet your client.

You walk in and give ’em some flyers and bring ’em some donuts. You went shop to shop all day and tried to get them to send a loan to your office.”

It was a convivial business, yet terribly inefficient. Mat figured what the brokers needed, instead of a friend, was help closing loans.

“Hey, boots on the street, Mat. That’s how you do it,” Jeff relayed.

All due respect to his father, Mat saw a new avenue, one not reachable from the peripheral freeways bisecting Chicago’s western suburbs.

So he pitched his father on funding a new business strategy.

“What he wanted to do is have a call center for wholesale,” Jeff says. “It wasn’t done anyplace in the country, as far as I knew.”

Mat’s modest pitch included a key incentive.

He asked for six account executives, an underwriter, a processor, and a closer — and he would return to Oakland County. By February of 2006, Mat and Emily had returned to Michigan.

“I’m moving everyone inside,” he told Emily. By using the phone, the business could cover more territory, better meet brokers’ needs, and save on donuts. Ishbia also noticed a prevalance of weak customer service standards. “He wanted to blow them away,” she writes. “He would spend more money upfront on staff so the files could be done more efficiently and with better service to the customers.” He promised, “I’ll give them a white-glove experience like they’ve never had.”

Jeff invested in Mat, whose record of excellence dated from his days practicing dribbling in the driveway and firing 200 shots at the hoop. Although he’d been a “phenomenal” soccer player, Jeff says, Mat was determined to play college basketball. As a Seaholm Maple, he averaged 24.5 points per game as a senior, hitting about 80 percent of his free throws.

“He had the tenacity and drive,” Jeff continues.

“He played AAU basketball with the top players in the country (like Antonio Gates) and learned he was capable of competing at that level.”

Jeff told Mat they would give it six months, recalling, “He wrote the game plan and had everyone follow through to a T.” In doing so, Mat Ishbia realized the dream of George Babbitt, the protagonist of Sinclair Lewis’s novel of American business. “Babbitt” was published in 1922. The story, set 100 years ago, presents the main character entering his “pirate ship” office and listening to his outside real estate

Precepts from “Running the Corporate Offense: Lessons in Effective Leadership from the Bench to the Board Room,”

by Mat Ishbia FIRM 40 “Here, we live by a philosophy we call ‘Firm 40,’ ” Mat Ishbia writes. “It’s our way of saying come in and grind for eight hours a day, and then get out of here and go be with your family and friends. We don’t live to work, we work to live. Sure, people can put in 60 hours to 70 hours of work in a week, but that’s not sustainable long-term.”

BEING IN THE WEEDS “Being in the weeds of your business … refers to leading with an intimate knowledge of your business and of the various elements and activities that your company is made up of. It’s about being an involved, hands-on leader with an incredible command and understanding of your business — and people will respect your vision more because of it. The point is that I understand the role each team plays in the firm’s success. I can relate to the challenges that they each face, because I’ve stood in their shoes and could do that job if I needed to.”

NO MEETING THURSDAYS Upon becoming CEO in 2013, Ishbia put his No Meeting Thursday rule into effect. “The only thing on my agenda for the day is touching base with my people, not only with the executive leaders, but also with other leaders and team members throughout the company that don’t directly report to me.

Even if a conversation has nothing to do with business, it goes a long way to solidifying the family-oriented culture that I want here.

We’ve also adopted a ‘No Technology in Meetings’ rule to make sure we stay as on-topic and time-efficient as possible.

Phones, laptops, and tablets are all banned.”

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salesman “talking on the telephone with tragic lack of that firm manner which disciplines clients.” Appalled, Babbitt ponders “how hard it was to find employees who had his own faith that he was going to make sales.”

Rather, Babbitt liked to invoke the need for a pep talk. This thought bled off the pages into real life. A few years after the novel was released, Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne traveled around the country as a leadership coach for Studebaker, an American carmaker that had manufacturing operations in Detroit. He would arrive in town perfect as how you think it should be done,” he “full of pep and fervor for bigger and better says. “But 80 percent to 90 percent right is the business,” a newspaper reported. The mixture only way you can scale it. Saying, ‘Just do it my of coach and commerce has since assumed way,’ it’s like Michael Jordan saying, ‘Just do a many forms. turnaround jump shot and shoot it.’ You have to Settling into a 20,000-square-foot office in be able to coach and teach people.” a former Farmer Jack’s grocery store (origiTwo developments helped United Wholesale nally A&P) along Adams Road in BirmingMortgage grow so that recent projections of ham, UWM picked up steam as the Great $200 billion in annual lending business by 2025 Recession eased, and ultimately the staff looked plausible. The first thing is technology would number 400. In October of 2011, applied via the web. “I got 800 amazing technolMelinda Wilner joined up in underwriting. ogy team members here and growing,” Ishbia Wilner, now COO, fit the type for an says. “Those guys do such a fantastic job. They underwriter — prudent, understanding of turned this (lockdown) thing on a dime, instantly numbers, and recognizing cause and effect. made it happen. It was fantastic.”

Emotional brokers and their overwrought UWM’s claimed distinction is the proprietary home-buying clients chafe at the Melinda software to automate the closing process and Wilners of the world, who may hold up a deal serve myriad other in-house needs. “What I because of new information about title or learned a long time ago is if I want to be the best, credit. The idea is to maintain a smiling your differentiator has to be completely owned sangfroid and keep the game going. “Underand controlled by you. My differentiators? One is writers don’t sit in a dark closet with superculture, right? The other one is technology.” thick glasses, like people think,” Wilner says.

The broader technological expansion, with “Ours are friendly and fun.” webcams and video chats, allows multiplication Ishbia had perfected his brokerage-whisof sales pitches far beyond the advantage of movperer routine to be in position for the great ing sales inside to use the phone. “The technology market opening, which would allow an has leaned into me and helped me,” Ishbia says. unprecedented upscaling. “You have to step Factor in the efforts of 680 account executives, at back and realize not everyone’s going to be as last tally, and it’s hard to imagine an independent broker being overlooked.

The second boost for UWM came from changes in the regulatory environment after the Dodd-Frank reform act of 2010. Now, a

“Winning Is a Habit: Vince Lombardi on Winning, Success, and the Pursuit of Excellence” — Vince Lombardi, Pro Football Hall of Fame Coach “If you quit now, during these workouts, you’ll quit in the middle of the season in a game. Once you learn to quit it becomes a habit. We don’t want anyone here who’ll quit.”

66 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

“I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson” — Jackie Robinson, Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame “I remember, even as a small boy, having a lot of pride in my mother. I thought she must have some kind of magic to be able to do all the things she did, to work so hard and never complain and to make us all feel happy.”

“Unstoppable: My Life So Far” — Maria Sharapova, Tennis Player, Winner at Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open (in different years) “What’s defined my game more than anthing? Determiniation, tenacity. I do not quit. Knock me down 10 times, I get up the eleventh and shove that yellow ball right back at you.”

“Wooden on Leadership” — John Wooden, 10-Time NCAA Basketball Championship Winner as a Coach at UCLA “True success in basketball shouldn’t be based on individual statistics or the percentage of victories any more than success in life should be based on material possessions or a position of power and prestige.”

Mortgages || Cover Story

CROSSOVER DRIBBLE After hiring 1,500 people between June and July, United Shore has plans to add 2,000 more employees by the end of the year. The company says it will post $200 billion in mortgage production in 2020.

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Cover Story || Mortgages

borrower’s high-quality credit was the priority instead of just getting the deal done. Some large banks backed away from the mortgage business, while smaller ones found the staffing requirements too onerous. Nonbank lenders had a new opening. Tied to Dodd-Frank, the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures, known as TRID, were implemented in 2015 to give borrowers a more precise loan estimate and no surprises about fees.

The looser guidelines were the exponent that surprised even Ishbia. “I didn’t even see this type of scale three years “Now you have a critical mass, and the need for ago — the numbers we’re at, the size we’re at,” additional employees becomes even greater. he says. United Shore isn’t listed among the 10 And keeping those employees is more importlargest private companies in Michigan, but it ant. Training new people is expensive. If you could be eligible for an at-large bid. don’t have a great culture and benefits, it’s going Apart from its technology edge, UWM’s culto be hard to grow.” ture not only attracts recruits but it also helps As Ishbia mans the helm of a ship moving in retain them. That’s especially important given high winds, he’s come up against and steered metro Detroit is one of the nation’s leading clear of most every known impediment. “He’s mortgage centers. navigated all the minefields,” Jeff says, recalling a Quicken Loans Inc. in Detroit, since practice session in East Lansing when Mat took renamed Rocket Mortgage, is the nation’s largan elbow to the nose, staggered to the locker est mortgage company, while Flagstar Bank and room to dry out the blood, and then returned (as UWM are close behind. Along with other the MSU song says) “fighting with a vim.” Jeff smaller home lenders in the region, each enterchimes in, saying, “He does that because he has prise has their niche, yet they all compete for the heart to win. We can go as far as we want as top recruits and seasoned professionals. long as we reach for it. Mat’s always done that.”

“Much like the auto industry, metro Detroit As in the kaizen continuous-improvement happened to have a lot of pioneers in the mortphilosophy that prevailed during the 1990s, gage industry grow up here,” says John Moore, Ishbia seeks out his own weaknesses and tries professor of finance at Walsh College in Troy. to improve.

“It’s all about: Are you a short-term thinker or a long-term thinker?” says Matthew Roling, executive director of the office of business innovation at Wayne State University in Detroit. “If 68 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

you’re long-term, it’s fairly easy to see the intersections of social corporate responsibility and business sustainability.”

As the whole world muddled through the spring months, the change of calendar generated thoughts of strolling amid peony beds but also the coming summer of forbearance. On Cinco de Mayo, a Tuesday, Ishbia got up at 2:15 a.m. and went to the office. April had closed out as the third-best month ever, indicators looked strong, and UWM started hiring again.

“We have so many needs,” Ishbia says, again from his office. “We’re going to have an amazing second half of the year and beginning of next. There’s a great run ahead of us on the mortgage side because rates are going to be low, and hopefully people will start getting their jobs back. We’re well inside of the forbearance rate. A lot of our borrowers had more reserves and are less likely in need of forbearance.”

Meanwhile, UWM’s Facebook page promoted the big announcement to come a week hence, when Ishbia would outline his plan to help restart the economy and the mortgage industry. COVID-19, it appeared, had struck merely a glancing blow at the mighty dreadnought sailing out of Pontiac.

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THE SALVATION ARMY’S 14TH ANNUAL CLAY SHOOT You are invited to join The Salvation Army for the 14th annual Clay Shoot at the Detroit Gun Club on Thursday, Oct. 29. Funds raised will support The Salvation Army Outdoors (TSAO), an outdoor program designed to provide children and their families with engaging and educational outdoor experiences through a diverse network of vested partners and friends.

Clay Shoot participants will choose between an early afternoon flight, including lunch at 11 a.m. and a shotgun start at noon, and a midafternoon flight, including lunch upon arrival and a 3 p.m. shotgun start. Beginning at 5:30 p.m., dinner, awards, and a live auction will cap the day. All skill levels, from beginners to avid outdoorspeople, are welcome at this safe and fun outdoor experience. State of Michigan masking and safety protocols will be followed. For sponsor opportunities, please contact Christina Gallop at christina.gallop@usc.salvationarmy.org or 248-330-2146. For event details, please contact Kimbre Wyldon at kimbre.wyldon@usc.salvationarmy. org or 248-200-3395. For more information and to purchase tickets, please go to salmich.org/clayshoot.

CFA SOCIETY DETROIT’S 12TH ANNUAL FORECAST LUNCHEON CFA Society Detroit presents its 12th annual Forecast Luncheon on Friday, Nov. 13, at the MotorCity Hotel Sound Board. The event features celebrated tech entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and professional jazz guitarist Josh Linkner and Katie Nixon, CFA, chief investment officer for Northern Trust Wealth Management. Information and registration links can be found online at cfasociety.org/detroit.

THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION’S HARD HATS WITH HEARTS GOES VIRTUAL With COVID-19 keeping more Americans at home, the American Heart Association — the leading voluntary health organization focused on heart and brain health for all — is encouraging metro Detroiters who work in the construction industry to join us virtually for our fourth annual Hard Hats with Heart networking event. More than a fundraiser, Hard Hats with Heart is a movement where project owners, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and unions come together to address the industry’s increased risk of heart disease and to showcase how creating a culture of wellness can make a big difference. The event will take place virtually on Thursday, Nov. 5, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at hardhatsdetroit.org. Hard Hats with Heart benefits the American Heart Association’s work to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives, specifically aimed at the construction industry. For more information, contact chris.rettich@heart.org or 586-216-9471.

VETERANS 4USA GOLF OUTING Golf, anyone? We at Professional Golf Planners of America (PGPA) invite you to lend your support for Veterans 4USA by registering for our upcoming golf outing Monday, Sept. 21, at Paint Creek Country club.

Registration is at 8:30 a.m. with a 10 a.m. shotgun start. There are golfer and sponsor opportunities still available. Veterans 4USA is making the world a better place for all veterans. This nonprofit organization assists homeless veterans in need of clothing and toiletries. Veterans 4USA also provides contact information to our veterans for the organizations that may be helpful and available in their quest for assistance. PGPA is proud to partner with and support the fundraising efforts of this outstanding organization. PGPA is “chipping in to make a difference.” Register today for our early birdie discount at progolfplanners.com/veterans4usa.

*PLEASE NOTE, EVENT DATES MAY HAVE BEEN CANCELED OR POSTPONED. CHECK WITH INDIVIDUAL EVENT ORGANIZERS FOR MOST UP-TO-DATE CHANGES.

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PERSONAL WEALTH Q&A

CONSIDER YOUR CURRENT WEALTH AND HOW IT CAN BENEFIT OTHERS The subject of personal finance can be a sensitive one in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Many people are dealing with a change in income. Workers may be unemployed, underemployed, or uncertain about their employment. The virus situation has affected most employers, as well. If they’re open for business, they may have reduced hours. At the very least, they’ve changed their operations to comply with new guidelines.

This is a time for all of us to manage our finances as best we can, and take care of ourselves and our families — and, if we’re in a position to do so, to extend a helping hand to those in need.

It’s also a time to look forward and be mindful of planning for life in the years ahead. Even small steps today can help create a more secure future. Consider your current assets and those you will someday leave

behind. Planning should encompass your present financial status and include the proper legal documents for transferring ownership of your assets to those you designate. That’s where a qualified professional can provide valuable guidance.

The following experts offer unique insight into different aspects of personal finance. Contact them if you would like to know more.

Q: Are the recent protests and criticisms of American wealth justified?

A: The year 2020 has generated great social unrest in the United States. These events highlight the unfortunate gap between our nation’s ideals and its present realities.

One of 2020’s manifestations has been intense criticism of American business and capitalism. These views are wholly misplaced.

The United States is one of the wealthiest nations in the world. That wealth isn’t the cause of our woes. Rather, free markets are the pathway for meaningful change to realize the aspirations of 1776.

American business and entrepreneurship created living standards that leave most Americans better off than John Rockefeller,

the world’s richest man, was 100 years ago.

The historical record demonstrates that broad governmental programs have failed to remedy our current social problems. However, the private sector, through business leaders and everyday individuals, can do what government can’t — and that’s to put a personal face on making life better for all of our disadvantaged fellow citizens.

Change must happen from the bottom up, rather than from the top down. It’s up to today’s business leaders and “everyday” Americans to work toward creating tangible opportunities for our less fortunate neighbors, and ultimately share what our nation has accomplished. Only we can be the face of real change!

Walsh

John Moore, Ph.D., CPA Chair and Professor of Finance and Economics 3838 Livernois Rd. Troy, MI 48083 248-823-1600 walshcollege.edu Advertisement on page 13

Q: How do I avoid probate?

A: There are two primary incentives that prompt clients to create an estate plan. First and foremost, most people want whatever assets they own upon their death to be distributed based on their desires and intent, rather than according to the default laws of intestate succession for administering probate assets owned by an individual who dies without a will. Second, clients create estate plans because they want to avoid probate.

Simply having a will to avoid probate is a popular misconception. In reality, the mere execution of a last will and testament will lead the personal representative (or executor) of the estate’s assets directly to probate court if no other estate planning instruments, joint

ownership, or beneficiary designations exist.

When an individual dies with assets that are owned solely by him or her, those assets may be subject to probate. This can be avoided by either retitling assets to a trust or other separate legal entity that foreseeably survives the individual, by designating specified beneficiaries, or by directing the asset custodian to relinquish custody of said assets upon the owner’s death.

Joint tenancies (or jointly-held) assets are also useful probate-avoidance planning tools, since legal title is conveyed to the surviving coowner immediately upon the death of the other co-owner(s). Jointly-owned and beneficiarydesignated assets are considered nonprobate transfers under Michigan law.

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Ryan P. Bourjaily Attorney, Trusts and Estates Practice Group 38505 Woodward Ave., Ste. 100 Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304 248-594-7052 plunkettcooney.com/team-527 rbourjaily@plunkettcooney.com Advertisement on page 11

Exec Life

INSIDE || FALL FASHION | RETURN ON INVESTMENT | PRODUCTION RUN | OPINION | CLOSING BELL

FASHION FORWARD

Fall and winter ensembles to help close any business deal.

STYLED BY JENNIFER PICKERING MARTIN VECCHIO

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 73

Exec Life || Fall and Winter Fashion Previous page, from left to right: Medium Whitney Bag, $2,230, Max Mara, Troy, 248-637-3073, maxmara.com

Au Noir Check Jacket, $895, L’Uomo Vogue, Bloomfield Hills, 248-855-7788, luomovogue.com

Romy Natural Mix Pump, $850, Jimmy Choo, Troy, 248-209-4350, jimmychoo.com

Suslo Couture Floral Shirt, $78, simplycasual clothingstore, Detroit, 313-864-7979

Brief Tote, $795, Shinola, Shinola Locations, shinola.com

Patou Cardigan, $495, Tender, Birmingham, 248-258-0212, tenderbirmingham.com

Sand Sneakers, $895, L’uomo Vogue, Bloomfield Hills, 248-855-7788, luomovogue.com

Patou Zip Blouse, $1,150, Tender, Birmingham, 248-258-0212, tenderbirmingham.com The Suite Skirt, $68, Suitably, suitably.com

This page, from left to right: Insearch Blazer, $225, simplycasual clothingstore, Detroit, 313-864-7979 LCR Black Edition Cardigan, $148, dolce MODA, Birmingham, 248-399 6200, dolcemoda.com Lorenzoni Polo, $375, L’Uomo Vogue, Bloomfield Hills, 248-855-7788, luomovogue.com Ted Baker Wallet, $79, dolce MODA, Birmingham, 248-399 6200, dolcemoda.com

74 DBUSINESS || September - October 2020

The Runwell 41 mm Blue Dial w/ Natural Leather Strap, $550, Shinola, Shinola Locations, shinola.com Hinto Italian Leather Oxford, $158, Banana Republic, Troy, 248-816-8112, bananarepublic.com Brakeman Briefcase, $495, Shinola, Shinola Locations, shinola.com

Fall and Winter Fashion || Exec Life

This page, from left to right : Ileana Coin Necklace, $550 Tender,

The Birdy 34mm, $525, Shinola,

Birmingham, 248-258-0212,

Shinola Locations, shinola.com

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Rupert Sanderson Loafer, $680, Tender, Birmingham, 248-258-0212,

Nu Puff Sleeve Blouse, $189, dolce

tenderbirmingham.com

MODA, Birmingham, 248-399 6200, GB Sunglasses, $25,

dolcemoda.com

dolce MODA, Birmingham, High Rise Tapered Crop Pants, $89.50,

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bananarepublic.com Gibson Tote, $795, Patou Gold and Pearl Earrings,

Shinola, Shinola Locations,

$495, Tender, Birmingham,

shinola.com

248-258-0212, tenderbirmingham.com

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 75

Exec Life || Return on Investment

Play Ball Daniel Okrent is a successful author and a featured commentator in a Ken Burns documentary, but he may be best known as the founder of Rotisserie League Baseball. BY TOM MURRAY

D

76 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

RIBBON AND INK Before computers reached newsrooms, Daniel Okrent and other journalists banged out copy on manual typewriters.

and art history, but I really was an extremely mediocre student, I barely graduated, and I didn’t pay any attention to my studies,” he admits. “So I say I majored in working on The Michigan Daily.

That’s where the excitement and action was, and that’s also where my passion was.”

By the time Okrent graduated from U-M in 1969, he already had a job lined up in New York City. “I went to work at Alfred A. Knopf as a book editor, then at Viking Press,” he says. “My last job in publishing was when I was made editor-inchief of Harcourt Brace when I was 28. I was not qualified and I wasn’t ready for it. I failed at it and I was fired 15 months into it, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I wasn’t made for that world.”

There was a silver lining to the career setback: The burning passion Okrent had for baseball, set aside during college, never really went away.

“That’s when I started writing about baseball,” he says. “I think my first piece in Sports Illustrated was in 1980. I wrote for them fairly frequently, and then in Esquire quite a lot.”

Okrent wasn’t only writing about the game he loved, he was constantly thinking about it — which inspired a long-simmering idea for a way baseball fans could enhance their experience with the game by actually competing against each other. Legend has it that Okrent put the final touches on his

concept while on a fabled flight one early winter evening in 1979 from Massachusetts to Texas.

“Hartford to Austin,” he says drolly. “That’s the foundational myth and it’s basically true.”

The premise he pitched to a cadre of fellow New York-based hot stove devotees was simple enough: Participants build on-paper teams with real ballplayers, producing dream lineups only their wildest imaginations would allow, then act as managers or owners as they buy, sell, and trade players whose performances and statistics in real games determine the success of each offfield, on-paper team.

“We would have lunch every month or six weeks, and that’s where I first presented the rules and we codified it,” he says.

It turned out to be a luncheon summit of historical proportions: Not only were the rules and regulations of Okrent’s idea finalized, but because it all took place at Manhattan’s now defunct La Rotisserie Francaise restaurant, Rotisserie League Baseball was officially memorialized and hatched.

“Our first season was 1980, and most of us in the league were in the media so we got a lot of media coverage,” Okrent says. “The following year, during the 1981 strike, sportswriters started writing about it when they didn’t have any real baseball to write about.”

COURTESY DANIEL OKRENT

aniel Okrent can’t pinpoint the exact moment when he realized his dream of becoming a major league baseball player like his hometown heroes on the Detroit Tigers — perennial All-Star Harvey Kuenn in particular — was never going to happen.

However, it might have been during one of the countless games he played near his family’s summer place at Cooley Lake. Or maybe it was in the early spring or late fall, in the middle of Wisconsin Avenue, near the intersection of Six Mile and Wyoming on the city’s northwest side.

That’s the neighborhood where Okrent grew up and lived until he graduated from high school, and where he and his buddies dodged traffic as they swatted at pitches and tracked down pop-flies. At some point reality sank in and Okrent figured if he couldn’t play the game he loved, at least he could write about it.

“I mean baseball was how I started as a writer, because it was something that I knew a lot about and cared about a lot,” says Okrent, who discovered his love for writing as the sports editor of the school paper at Post Junior High and Cass Technical High School.

“I started getting on what was called the Second Avenue bus, picking it up on Six Mile and taking it seven or eight miles downtown to high school every day,” he recalls. “Cass Tech was less than half a mile from Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium, before Comerica Park) and the school day ended for us around 2 or 2:30 p.m.

“We could walk over to the stadium and get there in the sixth or seventh inning, and it really wasn’t much to sneak in. The (stadium) was pretty much open and we’d go sit in the bleachers and watch the rest of the game and then take a bus home.”

Okrent pauses here, seeming to savor a particularly fond memory from so long ago, then adds, “I felt like I owned the city.”

Soon after he enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in the fall of 1965, Okrent joined the staff of the college newspaper while pursuing a major in American studies.

“It was a combination of literature, history,

Return on Investment || Exec Life

Okrent’s experience with Rotisserie, coupled with his array of work as a freelance baseball writer, seemed to be the perfect opportunity for him to parlay his love for the game into a career covering it full-time. But that notion had no appeal.

“I continued to write about baseball occasionally until roughly 1988, but I realized I had made the mistake of turning a hobby into a job,” he admits. “I could no longer see the game the way a fan saw it. I also knew too much — this player was a racist, that one beat his wife, etc. I wanted to know less, and go back to being a fan.”

In short order, he pivoted onto another path.

“In 1984 I founded a magazine called New England Monthly,” he says. “Not related to the current magazine with the same name. It won two national magazine awards in its first two years of existence, which is kind of unheard of.”

Okrent served as editor for five years. After the magazine folded, he became editor of Life magazine for another five years. It was during this stint that he appeared in Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary, described by one pundit as “the romantic in the red sweater.”

“I think I was on camera more than anybody else, and years later I could tell when it was being replayed on PBS because people would look at me on the subway,” he recalls. “Thirty years had passed, I’d gained 30 or 40 pounds, and they were trying to figure out who the hell I was.”

Okrent followed his time at Life with a corporate job at Time Inc., leaving in 2001 when he took early retirement at 53 and began writing books. “Great Fortune,” a history of New York City’s Rockefeller Center, was not only critically acclaimed but a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

More book deals clearly loomed, but then Okrent got a call from The New York Times.

“That led to my being hired as the first public editor,” he says. “It was for a term-certain 18 months. I announced in my first column, which was in December of 2003, that my last column would be in May of 2005, and I had 18 incredibly thrilling, intense, sleep-disrupting, nerve-unraveling months. It was both the most interesting job I’ve ever had and by far the most difficult because every day I was just dealing with people who were unhappy.

“I would go to the editors or the writers on the paper (to check on a potential correction) and they’d say, ‘Who the hell are you? What are you doing here? Get out of my face!’ It was like being in internal affairs in the police department.”

Okrent got another book out of his gig at the Times; “Public Editor No. 1” is a compilation of his columns in the paper. He’s since published “Last Call,” a deep dive into the history of prohibition, and just last year delivered “The Guarded Gate,” a sobering look at the story of immigration in the early 20th century. “I’m always working on

a book, and I’m right now between books and looking around for a new one,” he says.

Meantime, as if it was really necessary for Okrent to further demonstrate his range, interests, and ability to write well about virtually any topic, he and a business partner bought the rights to the website OldJewsTellingJokes.com, and in 2012 turned it into a smash show. “It ran for 520 performances off-Broadway, and has played since then in 13 other cities,” he says.

And here’s where the Okrent narrative takes

I’M ALWAYS WORKING ON A BOOK, AND I’M RIGHT NOW BETWEEN BOOKS AND LOOKING AROUND FOR A NEW ONE.” — DANIEL OKRENT yet another unexpected turn: The unabashed Mel Brooks fan and successful producer of a show heralding the Brooksian brand of irreverent ethnic humor is the same guy who in 2009 wrote a cover story for Time magazine entitled “The Tragedy of Detroit.”

“I went back and spent time there and wrote about what I found and how awful it was, and explained why I thought it had become that way,” Okrent says. “It was a very controversial piece.

People in Detroit were furious about it for a variety of reasons, but that was really Detroit at its absolute nadir. It was on its way to bankruptcy and things were just awful.”

In the decade since, Okrent, who splits his time between homes in New York City and Cape Cod, has made regular visits to his hometown and is encouraged by the progress, but guarded

when it comes to discussing the city’s future.

“Certainly the direction has been positive and the change is possible, particularly downtown,” he says. “When it’s going to reach the neighborhoods fully, I don’t know. I think the real enduring calamity of Detroit is the school system.

Until it can be resolved and straightened out, the city will never have a full comeback.”

But Okrent is quick to emphasize it was that very same public school system that made an indelible impression on his life.

“In my case, the great formative Detroit experience and, in fact, the great educational experience of my life was Cass Tech. Here I went from my own rather insular neighborhood to a high school that was probably about 25 percent or 30 percent African-American. That’s when I learned about the variety of Detroit — all ethnic groups and income levels.

“I could sit in the class between the son of a Wayne State professor and the daughter of a banker, and behind the son and daughter of auto workers. It was a totally democratic and meritocratic place, and I cherish it. My years at Cass Tech had more impact on me, I would say, than any other three years of my life.”

That experience, and all Okrent gleaned from it those many years ago, undoubtedly explains why he had a specific request toward the end of our interview: “I would just ask you to please make certain (to say) in the piece that I think Detroit was a wonderful place to grow up in the ’50s and ’60s if you were white.

There’s no question that I, and others of similar background, experienced the city in ways that were not so readily available to so many Black families.”

It’s been over 50 years since Dan Okrent left Detroit. And the decisions he’s made during a rewarding and wide-ranging career suggest he relies on his gut instincts and never dwells too much on second-guessing anything.

Until now.

“I’ve often thought about moving back to Detroit,” he says wistfully. “For at least the last 10 years, maybe a little bit longer. My affection for the city, my care, my concern for it is really boundless. But it’s not gonna happen. I’m 72 years old …”

Okrent trails off here, and after a few seconds he continues, more energized. “I remember saying to myself, If the Tigers called and said, We’d like you to be the general manager, would you move back to Detroit?”

And now he reaches back all the way to those long-ago summer days at Cooley Lake, and connects solidly with the first true and everlasting love of his life. “I said, Geez. If the Tigers called me and asked me if I wanted to be the batboy, I’d move back to Detroit.”

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 77

Exec Life || Production Run

WAREHOUSE WONDERS Operating one of the most sophisticated food storage businesses in the world, Lineage Logistics in Novi owns more than 48 million square feet of real estate worth $15 billion.

Cold Growth

Starting with a single facility, Novi’s Lineage Logistics has expanded to 310 operations in an effort to help feed the world.

78 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

around the world, operating more than 310 facilities in 12 countries worldwide.

The operation got its roots in Seattle when the New York private equity company Bay Grove acquired a single cold storage facility in 2008 with nearly 100 employees, and less than $10 million in annual revenue.

After a year of observing the business, owners Kevin Marchetti and Adam Forste set about transforming Lineage Logistics into “the most dynamic company in the cold storage industry,” Lehmkuhl says. They got involved in the Global Cold Chain Alliance industry association to learn more about their new industry as well as identify future acquisition partners.

“The industry at the time was very much a

cottage industry, comprised of many family-owned, smaller regional enterprises,” Lehmkuhl says. “Then customers started requiring these businesses to be more sophisticated in terms of technology and with a broader scale. “(The founders’) vision for the industry was far more innovative, more tech-savvy, more financially savvy, and more institutionalized, and they consolidated,” he says.

To that end, the company made six acquisitions between 2009 and 2014, including Millard Refrigerated Services, which gave them a national footprint for the first time.

The next year, the partners hired Lehmkuhl away from Con-Way Freight, where he was president. At the start, he called a halt to acquisitions

LINEAGE LOGISTICS

G

reg Lehmkuhl, president and CEO of Lineage Logistics, says his company is one of the largest Michigan-based companies you likely never heard of.

How big? Well, the Novibased cold storage warehousing and logistics enterprise annually handles more than 58 billion pounds of poultry, potatoes, bread, pork, beef, vegetables, and other food items around the world — about one-third of the nation’s and 8 percent of the world’s food — before it gets to grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals, military bases, and schools.

It owns 48 million square feet of real estate — worth $15 billion — and has 60 port facilities

BY TIM KEENAN

Production Run || Exec Life

for about a year while he stabilized the company, put a new team in place, and updated the technology, including what he calls the Data Lake — which integrates and unifies all of its business data. It also allows any new acquisitions to be easily added.

A native metro Detroiter, Lehmkuhl, along with several key managers from the area, decided to move the company’s headquarters from the West Coast to Novi in 2017. Soon after, an acquisition spree began in full force.

In 2018, Lineage Logistics picked up Yearsley Group Ltd. in the U.K., Service Cold Storage in Wisconsin, four warehouses in the southeast and eight temperature-controlled warehouses from U.S. Growers Cold Storage, and expanded its warehouse and distribution facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.

The following year, Lineage acquired New Jersey’s Preferred Freezer Services and two facilities from Van Soest Coldstores, an organization based in the Netherlands. Also in 2019, the company launched Lineage ON DEMAND, a truckload transportation service that guarantees 24/7 freight coverage for its customers.

So far this year, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lineage acquired Maines Paper and Food Service Inc. in Cleveland, Henningsen Cold Storage Co. in Oregon, Emergent Cold in Australia, New Orleans Cold Storage, and Ontario Refrigerated Services Inc. in Canada.

“Our goal has never been to be the largest; it’s been to be the most valuable to our customers,” Lehmkuhl explains. “It’s to be the most capable, with the best locations and best services.

“Our goal is always to fulfill our mission of being the most dynamic company in the industry, reimagining the industry, recreating how business is done within the cold chain, being a great place to work, and fostering professional growth.”

In addition to growing through acquisition, Lineage continues to invest in and expand its current operations. It presently is expanding 20 buildings around the world at a cost of more than $1 billion.

“When we’re looking to grow, it’s always about what geographies do our customers need us to be in most, and what services do they need us to provide,” Lehmkuhl says. “We are an extremely purpose-driven organization. Our mission is to transform the cold supply chain, to eliminate waste, and help feed the world. Everything we do is about sustainability; (it’s) about using lean principles to keep cost and waste out of our operation.”

Lehmkuhl says he expects to announce four more acquisitions this year, and nine additional purchases have yet to close.

How do they do it?

“We have great private equity partners in New York and institutional investors,” Lehmkuhl says.

“No matter what is happening in the world, people are going to consume the same amount of calories year over year. Our investors see us as incredibly high gross. We’re recession-resistant.

We have years and years of growth ahead of us.”

THE RUNDOWN

29.1B: Pounds of food Lineage Logistics handles annually in the U.S.

1.9B: Cubic feet of temperature-controlled storage capacity.

LOBSTER FEAST With all of its recent growth around the globe, Lineage Logistics will soon close on four deals, while nine more are in the pipeline and 40 potential acquisition targets are on the radar.

310: Number of facilities around the world.

12: Countries in which Lineage Logistics operates.

Source: Lineage Logistics SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 79

Exec Life || Opinion

Changing Lifestyles Running the business side of a community association is changing rapidly with the growing use of electric vehicles and aerial drones, along with relaxed cannabis laws and more emotional support animals. xperienced and seasoned attor- connection with the charging station.

With respect to changing social values, the neys in some areas of the law may eventually feel they’ve “seen advent of Michigan’s medical and recreational it all,” and there remains little to cannabis laws has given rise to many questions surprise them. I can attest this from condominium clients, especially with reisn’t the case in the area of com- gard to smoking. The conflict between state and munity association law, where I’ve spent many federal laws on the subject is certainly not helpdecades representing Michigan condominiums ful, and professional legal guidance is required to and subdivisions, as well as developers and indi- understand how they both should be observed.

Facing the increasing popularity of cannabis, vidual community association residents.

Condominiums alone can encompass com- many associations have decided to vote on an mercial, industrial, mixed-use commercial and amendment to their bylaws prohibiting smoking of any kind, in order to guard residential, campgrounds, park“FORTUNATELY, THE against smoking nuisances and ing lots, sports stadiums, airport and racetrack condos, and much FAIR HOUSING ACT HAS make their community more apLED TO POSITIVE pealing to nonsmokers. more that may arise from the inCHANGE AND GREATER Our changing social values, as genuity of the developer and creOPPORTUNITIES FOR reflected in the federal Fair Housative legal counsel.

MORE PEOPLE.” ing Act, have also had a signifiAdvances in technology and changes in our collective social values have pro- cant impact on community associations, which vided a multitude of challenges, especially for are considered “housing providers” under the act. This means they have many of the same reresidential community associations.

For example, who could have predicted that sponsibilities to ensure equal access and nondisone day we would have to deal with autonomous crimination in their rules for co-owners as a vehicles and drones in our communities? Some landlord has with respect to tenants.

Since 1968, when the act was first signed into associations have reacted by banning drones entirely due to safety and privacy concerns, while law, it has been the basis of a great deal of litigaothers have harnessed the technology to inspect tion, including suits against community associfor compliance with the association’s architec- ations and their directors and officers.

Some of those conflicts involve tural governing document restrictions.

Drone photos have already been used to ad- emotional support animals.

Even though many peovertise homes for sale. And once retailers are cleared for takeoff and drone/autonomous deliv- ple have a valid need for ery to individual residences begins, community an emotional support associations will be forced to deal with this issue animal, there are others who enlist the assisone way or another.

Additionally, electric vehicles continue to rise tance of their doctor or in popularity, and some residents of condomini- a website that’s willing ums will buy first and ask questions later as it to play along and proconcerns the installation of charging stations in vide a fake diagnosis the common elements. This could lead to a big so they can get facepalm moment and a crash course in the dif- around the pet references between a co-owner’s rights within the strictions in an assoboundaries of the unit as opposed to the common ciation’s governing documents. elements managed by the condo association.

Other Fair HousUsually, these situations can be resolved with a modification agreement recorded against the ing Act conflicts inunit. Under such an agreement, the co-owner volve discrimination, assumes all liability, responsibility, and costs in many on a familial ROBERT M. MEISNER is principal attorney of The Meisner Law Group in Bingham Farms.

80 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

basis. Even our collective understanding of the definition of family has changed dramatically over the years. Fortunately, the Fair Housing Act has led to positive change and greater opportunities for more people.

Well-run community associations are governed by boards of directors that understand they’re running a business and have fiduciary duties under the Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act. And businesses (must realize that they) need to adapt and evolve along with the larger world.

As volunteer directors and officers serve without compensation, while at the same time taking on certain risks, they should enlist the very best talent in every discipline to help steer them and their associations in the right direction.

AUSTIN PHILLIPS

E

BY ROBERT M. MEISNER

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

WHERE TO MEET, WHERE TO STAY

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MGM Grand Detroit specializes in everything from large events and trade shows to intimate black-tie affairs. You’ll find more than 30,000 square feet of flexible space that can accommodate events for up to 1,200 people. Highlights include executive boardrooms and the 14,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom. Meeting rooms are equipped with WiFi, video conferencing, and more. There’s also

convenient freight access for automobile reveals and large product displays.

Choose a unique lounge or signature restaurant to create the perfect setting for private events.

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The newly renovated Promenade Deck Pavilion is Mackinac Island’s newest outdoor event space, offering unparalleled views of the Straits of Mackinac and ample room for social distancing.

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The world of meetings and events is looking different today and the team at Mission Point is incredibly knowledgeable, creative, and dedicated to offering a great experience.

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A Life of Purpose

F

Every leader has a unique story. The key is activating that story to help deepen customer relationships.

rom a young age, Lindsey Walenga had an innate sense that her life’s work would involve connecting people. She was attracted to the idea that she could build a career on bringing people together, and her interest in learning about others by way of storytelling led Walenga to transform her passion into a career.

Walenga launched Siren PR, which she describes as a strategic communication firm, in 2012 with Adela Piper. The business, based in downtown Royal Oak, has averaged 28 percent revenue growth in each of the last six years.

As CEO, Walenga drives the company’s mission of elevating businesses that are helping to fuel Detroit’s turnaround by giving them a voice through the power of storytelling. She and her team take the typical notion of public relations a step further in order to help brands and leaders articulate the core of their values and purpose, and put those words into action.

“This is definitely more than PR,” says Walenga, who earned a bachelor of arts degree in organizational communication from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. “My purpose and journey on this planet are to help people really become everything they were meant to be.”

WHAT’S YOUR STORY? Walenga has always found a natural joy in learning about people’s stories.

She’s spent years honing her unique ability to cut to the core of a person’s story by using clear communication and interpersonal skills.

Over the course of her career, she’s learned that many people don’t know how to tell their story — or don’t recognize they have one that’s worth telling. “Everyone has a story; (many people) just aren’t comfortable sharing it,” Walenga says.

More than anything, Walenga recognizes the power of storytelling and helps her clients dig deep by drawing out the potential that, many times, they don’t even realize is there. She asks the tough questions, discovering everything from a leader’s current challenges to the evolution of his or her organization. From

BY JEFF SLOAN there, she packages and helps distribute these stories in an artful and clever way.

“We spend more time than most (PR firms) getting underneath the motivations, priorities, and needs of the leaders we work with — and, therefore, their brands and also their audiences,” Walenga says. “We want to really deeply understand all the people who are involved, and what they need in order to bring them together in meaningful ways.”

POWER OF STORYTELLING Walenga says every business has a leader behind it, and every leader has a unique story. The key is activating that story to help deepen customer relationships.

Business today is relationship-oriented, and she believes authentic storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool that every owner, CEO, or manager should have in his or her arsenal. Leaders who share their stories in an authentic manner can foster better business connections, build meaningful relationships, and establish trust among their audiences.

“It’s not just about promoting what’s great about your business; it’s about finding that story underneath that people can connect to on a human level,” Walenga says. “It’s really important to know your stories and be able to articulate them really well, so people can connect.”

PURPOSEFUL COMMUNICATION Walenga’s expertise lies in developing these personal narratives so her clients can achieve understanding and build meaningful connections with their audiences.

Brave and clear communication is one of her core principles, and Walenga encourages her clients to open themselves up to the process in order to speak bravely and truthfully when sharing their own stories.

“I think when we all tap into who we really are and what we’re here to do, we can speak that clearly,” Walenga says. “Meaningful change happens and we’re able to live our most authentic lives, which I think everybody benefits from.”

Walenga lives a life of purpose in which her ambition is to find and communicate the passion of others. “I drive meaningful change using brave communication as the catalyst,” she says. “I’m a truth-teller, and living a life of purpose means I’m able to bravely communicate in order to effect positive change and to help others do the same.”

JEFF SLOAN is co-founder and CEO of Startup Nation and Aria Ventures, both in Birmingham.

Top IP Law Firms || From the Top

DBusiness’ Top 20 Intellectual Property Law Firms in Metro Detroit

1. BROOKS KUSHMAN 1000 Town Center, 22nd Floor Southfield 48075 248-358-4400 brookskushman.com Total IP attorneys: 66 Total attorneys nationwide: 71

5. HOWARD & HOWARD 450 W. Fourth St. Royal Oak 48067 248-645-1483 howardandhoward.com Total IP attorneys: 37 Total attorneys nationwide: 169

2. HARNESS, DICKEY AND PIERCE 5445 Corporate Dr., Ste. 200 Troy 48098 248-641-1600 hdp.com Total IP attorneys: 52 Total attorneys nationwide: 101

6. YOUNG BASILE 3001 W. Big Beaver Rd., Ste. 624 Troy, 48084 248-649-3333 youngbasile.com Total IP attorneys: 22 Total attorneys nationwide: 42

3. DICKINSON WRIGHT 500 Woodward Ave., Ste. 4000 Detroit 48226 313-223-3500 dickinsonwright.com Total IP attorneys: 49 Total attorneys nationwide: 490

7. CARLSON, GASKEY AND OLDS 400 W. Maple Rd., Ste. 350 Birmingham 48009 248-988-8360 cgolaw.com Total IP attorneys: 21 Total attorneys nationwide: 21

4. HONIGMAN 2290 First National Building 660 Woodward Ave. Detroit 48226 313-465-7000 honigman.com Total IP attorneys: 47 Total attorneys nationwide: 333

8. QUINN LAW GROUP 21500 Haggerty Rd., Ste. 300 Northville 48167 248-380-9300 quinniplaw.com Total IP attorneys: 21 Total attorneys nationwide: 21 9. REISING ETHINGTON 755 W. Big Beaver Rd., Ste. 1850

Troy 48084 248-689-3500 reising.com Total IP attorneys: 20 Total attorneys nationwide: 20 10. BODMAN 1901 St. Antoine St. 6th Floor at Ford Field Detroit 48226 313-259-7777 bodmanlaw.com Total IP attorneys: 17 Total attorneys nationwide: 151 11. FISHMAN STEWART 39533 Woodward Ave., Ste. 140 Bloomfield Hills 48304 248-594-0600 fishstewip.com Total IP attorneys: 17 Total attorneys nationwide: 17 12. DINSMORE AND SHOHL 900 Wilshire Dr., Ste. 300 Troy 48084 248-647-6000 dinsmore.com Total IP attorneys: 16 Total attorneys nationwide: 110 13. MILLER CANFIELD 50 W Jefferson Ave., Ste. 2500 Detroit 48226

313-963-6420 millercanfield.com Total IP attorneys: 15 Total attorneys nationwide: 226 14. BUTZEL LONG 150 W. Jefferson Ave., Ste. 100 Detroit 48226 313-225-7000 butzel.com Total IP attorneys: 14 Total attorneys nationwide: 142 15. BEJIN BIENEMAN 2000 Town Center, Ste. 800 Southfield 48075 313-528-4882 b2iplaw.com Total IP attorneys: 11 Total attorneys nationwide: 14 16. BRINKS, GILSON, AND LIONE 524 S. Main St., Ste. 200 Ann Arbor 48104 734-302-6000 brinksgilson.com Total IP attorneys: 11 Total attorneys nationwide: 93 17. THE DOBRUSIN LAW FIRM 29 W. Lawrence, Ste. 210 Pontiac 48342 248-292-2920 patentco.com

LEGAL CENTER Howard & Howard offices in downtown Royal Oak.

Total IP attorneys: 10 Total attorneys nationwide: 11 18. DYKEMA GOSSETT 400 Renaissance Center Detroit 48243 313-568-6800 dykema.com Total IP attorneys: 5 Total attorneys nationwide: 26 19. CANTOR COLBURN 201 W. Big Beaver Rd., Ste. 1101 Troy 48084 248-524-2300 cantorcolburn.com Total IP attorneys: 4 Total attorneys nationwide: 110 20. JAFFE, RAITT, HEUER, AND WEISS 27777 Franklin Rd., Ste. 2500 Southfield 48034 248-351-3000 jaffelaw.com Total IP attorneys: 4 Total attorneys nationwide: 107 Firms are ranked by number of metro Detroit area IP attorneys.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 83

From the Top || Largest Conventions

2021 Largest Conventions in Metro Detroit (AS OF AUGUST 2020) EVENT

ARRIVAL

DEPARTURE

FACILITY

ATTENDANCE

Detroit Boat Show

1/16/21

1/24/21

TCF Center

67,000

Michigan Democratic Party State Convention

2/20/21

2/20/21

TCF Center

NA

Autorama

2/26/21

2/28/21

TCF Center

70,000

Career Development Conference

3/9/21

3/13/21

TCF Center

5,000

NCAA DIV I Men's Basketball Championship First and Second Rounds

3/18/21

3/20/21

Little Caesars Arena

20,250

SAE World Congress, WCX

4/13/21

4/15/21

TCF Center

12,000

FIRST Robotics Championship

4/28/21

5/1/21

TCF Center

50,000

Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council

5/4/21

5/6/21

TCF Center

NA

Power Plex

5/10/21

5/13/21

TCF Center

NA

Automate Conference

5/15/21

5/21/21

TCF Center

20,000

Agile and Beyond

5/24/21

5/26/21

TCF Center

NA

Detroit Grand Prix

5/29/21

5/31/21

Raceway at Belle Isle

95,000

Detroit Golf Club

NA

Rocket Mortgage Classic

North American International Auto Show

6/11/21

6/26/21

TCF Center and Downtown Detroit

820,000

Women of Color STEM Conference

10/7/21

10/9/21

TCF Center

5,500

Motown Classic (formerly Warrior AAA Invitational)

10/21/21

10/24/21

Suburban Ice Macomb

17,500

Youmacon

11/4/21

11/8/21

TCF Center

21,000

Nations Cup Tier II

11/25/21

11/28/21

Suburban Ice Macomb

11,500

JVA Boys Tournament

12/11/21

12/12/21

TCF Center

12,000

Sources: Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau and individual organizations.

All attendance figures are estimates.

84 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

Largest Meeting Venues || From the Top

Top 25 Largest Meeting Venues in Metro Detroit VENUE

ADDRESS

CITY

TELEPHONE

WEB ADDRESS

SQ. FT.

TCF Center

One Washington Blvd.

Detroit

313-877-8777

tcfcenterdetroit.com

2,400,000

Hyatt Place Detroit Novi at the Suburban Collection Showplace

46080 Grand River Ave.

Novi

248-513-4111

novi.place.hyatt.com

340,000

Comerica Park

2100 Woodward Ave.

Detroit

313-471-2000

313presents.com

325,213

Ford Field

2000 Brush St.

Detroit

313-262-2000

fordfield.com

200,000

The Parade Company

9500 Mt. Elliott St., Studio A

Detroit

313-923-7400

theparade.org

200,000

Macomb Community College

14500 E. 12 Mile Rd.

Warren

586-445-7561

tinyurl.com/macomb-college-events

175,000

Little Caesars Arena

2645 Woodward Ave.

Detroit

313-471-7000

313presents.com

163,501

Detroit Opera House/Michigan Opera Theatre

1526 Broadway

Detroit

313-961-3500

michiganopera.org

150,000

Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center

400 GM Renaissance Center

Detroit

313-568-8000

detroitmarriott.com

100,000

Macomb Community College Sports and Expo Center

14500 East 12 Mile Rd.

Warren

586-498-4198

macomb.edu/eventservices

75,000

MotorCity Casino-Hotel

2901 Grand River Ave.

Detroit

866-782-9622

motorcitycasino.com

67,000

Ford Piquette Avenue Plant/ Model T Automotive Heritage Complex

461 Piquette Ave.

Detroit

313-872-8759

fordpiquetteplant.org

57,510

Eastern Market

2934 Russell St.

Detroit

313-833-9300

easternmarket.org

53,000

Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center

3711 Woodward Ave.

Detroit

313-576-5100

dso.org

50,000

Detroit Institute of Arts

5200 Woodward Ave.

Detroit

313-833-7900

dia.org

46,940

Inn at St. John's

44045 Five Mile Rd.

Plymouth

734-414-0600

theinnatstjohns.com/

42,000

GM Renaissance Center

100 GM Renaissance Center

Detroit

313-567-3126

gmrencen.com

41,000

The Henry Ford

20900 Oakwood Blvd.

Dearborn

313-982-6001

thf.org

38,950

Westin Book Cadillac Detroit

1114 Washington Blvd.

Detroit

313-442-1600

bookcadillacwestin.com

35,000

Westin Hotel — Detroit Metropolitan Airport

2501 Worldgateway Place

Romulus

734-942-6500

tinyurl.com/westin-dtw

32,727

Macomb Center for the Performing Arts

44575 Garfield Rd.

Clinton Twp.

586-286-2141

macombcenter.com

32,600

Crowne Plaza — Detroit Downtown Riverfront

2 Washington Blvd.

Detroit

313-965-0200

tinyurl.com/cpdetroit

32,000

Atheneum Suite Hotel & Conference Center

1000 Brush St.

Detroit

313-962-2323

atheneumsuites.com

30,000

MGM Grand Detroit

1777 Third Ave.

Detroit

313-465-1777

mgmgranddetroit.com

30,000

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 || DBUSINESS.COM 85

Closing Bell || Roads

Majestic Byways Wayne County’s Jesse Merle Bennett showed the nation how to develop well-designed vistas along its burgeoning motorways.

86 DBUSINESS || SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020

With Cass Benton and Hines, Ford was a charter member of the newly founded Wayne County Road Commission in 1906. Three years later, with John Haggerty having replaced Ford, the Commission experimented with the first mile of concrete roadway instead of brick, cobblestones, or tarmac.

As paved routes were laid throughout Detroit and western Wayne County, Bennett followed close behind with his blueprints and tree calipers. He anticipated public demand for well-designed landscaping and for roadways that included vista points and comfort stations.

He directed the placement of trees and shrubs, the planting of seeds, and the laying of sod. One of his firmest tenets called for use of nursery stock rather than specimens dug from woodlands. His principles — Bennett also wrote “Roadsides: The Front Yard of the Nation” — served to guide development throughout the United States and raised eyebrows internationally.

“Many of those responsible for street trees in the inter-war years seemed unaware of some of the advances now being made by professionals in the USA,” commented a British reader.

The great showpiece was Hines Drive, which runs along the Middle Rouge River’s floodplain from Ford Road in Dearborn Heights to Seven Mile Road in Northville. “Rather than letting

GRIST TO THE MILL Nankin Mills in Westland, built in 1842 and once owned by Henry Ford, today serves as an interpretive center in Hines Park.

that land sit unused by everything but mosquitoes, or more likely, be gobbled up by industries in the early 1900s, Wayne County adapted the land into a spectacular public park,” the County’s website proclaims. At different points, the roadway is laced with water-powered mills, pump houses, dams, and spillways. Although he resigned after a year on the Commission, Ford continued to exercise outsize influence on the development of Hines Drive by deeding several of his properties to the County.

“Roadside Development,” Bennett’s detailed how-to manual, was published in 1929. “These drives are for pleasure traffic and provide an economic use of lowlands and slopes which would otherwise be of little value.” Now popular with commuters in this age of isolation, Hines Drive is a welcome diversion from canyon-style highways, while the annual show of Christmas lights is a rolling, seasonal attraction.

Besides his books, we remember the planner as the namesake of Bennett Arboretum, a part of Hines Park in Northville. Those who walk the reserve’s two-mile trail can reflect upon Bennett’s mantra: “Roadside development adds to the comfort and convenience of the motorist in every detail.”

BY AUSTIN PHILLIPS

A

pioneer in selecting desirable varieties of trees and florid scenery to beautify roadsides across the country, Jesse Merle Bennett came down hard on the question of the undesirable ones. Fruit and nut trees “may have some ornamental value, (but) experience has shown that they suffer from the thoughtless depredations of the public during the time the fruit is ripe,” Bennett wrote in “Roadside Development.” And evergreens “are often appropriated by a careless few for Christmas trees.”

As the Wayne County superintendent of parks and forestry in the 1920s and 1930s, Bennett exercised esthetic and practical leadership at a key time. Ever since bicycles became popular during the Gilded Age, ordinary Americans had pushed for better roads (his colleague, printer and cyclist Edward Hines, was among them).

From there, automotive pioneers joined in.

Charles Brady King, a skilled craftsman who built and drove the first car in Detroit in 1896, organized the American Motor League a year earlier to help promote better roads. Biographer Douglas Brinkley records that even Henry Ford took some credit when he wrote in Ford News, “The Ford car blazed the way for the motor industry and started the movement for good roads.”

BY RONALD AHRENS

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