Grant Burns, 30

Co-Founder and CEO, Shield Security, Detroit

Employees: 120 •

Revenue: NA

College: Oakland University

From the time he learned to walk, Paul Buscemi worked at his father’s party store. Founded in 1956 as a single store by his grandfather, Paul, today the Rose-ville-based business has 45 Buscemi Party Shops, most of which are in Macomb County. All are franchised and operated by a number of different owners.

“I’ve been in the food business all my life,” says Buscemi, CEO of Carmela Foods in Fraser. The latter business was founded by his mom’s brother, Anthony Tocco Jr., in 1992. At first, Tocco sold Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a business started by his uncle in New York City, to merchants across Macomb County.

“He was selling the olive oil literally out of the back of his truck,” Buscemi says. “It was one of the first cold-pressed extra virgin olive oils. Over time, he was asked by store owners to bring in more goods, and today we sell 25,000 specialty items in metro Detroit, outstate to places like the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, and in Cleveland, Columbus, and beyond.”

Carmela Foods operates from a 100,000-square-foot facility and, in addition to distributing items to Buscemi Party Shops, the business delivers goods to gourmet markets, grocery stores, restaurants, casinos, hotels, and country clubs. Such an array of customers came in handy when restaurants closed in March 2002 due to COVID-19.

“I’m glad we were so diversified, because when all the restaurants closed down, retail carried us through,” Buscemi says. “We were actually up in revenue in 2020. It was a good time for us to grow.”

Offering everything from organic beef to seafood, poultry and eggs from Amish farmers, artisan breads, family estate wines, pastas, sauces, and San Marzano tomatoes, Carmela Foods sources its inventory primarily from local and regional farmers, as well as companies across Europe and elsewhere, with an emphasis on Italian cuisine.

To help market the lineup and debut new products, Carmela Foods hosts two major food shows each year and invites all of its customers. In March, the company hosted its first show of the year at the MGM Grand Detroit.

“The show is one of the keys to our success. We get the customers in front of the vendors in a ballroom setting,” Buscemi says. “For Carmela Foods, we’re looking to expand more into Ohio, Indiana, and the Midwest.”

R.J. King

His father’s act of neighborly kindness and his mother’s determination to raise her three sons to succeed, propelled Jesse Dhillon to the top job in a company with the most disparate entities — a national chain of hair salons, two coffee shops, and a digital sports network.

Dhillon, as vice president of Lady Jane’s Haircuts for Men, directs the day-to-day operations of more than 100 stores in 21 states. He also co-founded Birmingham Roast and Royal Oak Roast coffee shops, and supervises the fledging Woodward Sports Network, based in Lady Jane’s Birmingham headquarters. And in addition to those responsibilities, he’s a licensed real estate agent, consulting with eXp Realty.

Growing up, Dhillon’s family lived in Oakland Township, where his father, Paul, who owned two restaurants, built solid relationships with people in the community. Paul personally welcomed newcomers such as Chad Johnson — who with his wife, Jenny, and children had just moved from Boston to the neighborhood — in the early 2000s. Soon after making the move, Johnson acquired two existing Lady Jane’s stores in metro Detroit.

“My father took a full family dinner over (when the Johnsons moved in) and told Chad that if he ever needed anything, to just reach out,” Dhillon recalls.

The families grew close as Johnson revamped and standardized the store layouts and began expanding the operation around metro Detroit. He hired Dhillon’s cousin, Robby, a computer engineer, to develop the digital infrastructure system for the company.

At the time, Dhillon was a junior in high school. He went on to earn a business degree from Michigan State University and, following graduation, he joined Deloitte, a business consulting firm.

“My mom, Perminder, did everything she could to make sure my two brothers and I were given every opportunity possible (after my dad died),” Dhillon says. “We knew we didn’t want to let her down.”

In 2015, Johnson offered Dhillon a job. Knowing his reluctance to leave Deloitte, Robby encouraged his cousin to accept the offer to become finance director at Lady Jane’s. “There were 58 stores at the time,” Dhillon says. “We’ve doubled in size since my onboarding.”

Two years later, he was named vice president. From there, Dhillon developed the company’s headquarters in downtown Birmingham, which includes a coffee shop owned in partnership with Johnson, along with the sports network in which Johnson is a major investor. They opened the Royal Oak coffee shop in 2021.

Johnson now lives in south Florida. “We talk every day,” Dhillon says. “I run the day-to-day operations and manage all the departments in the company.”

Norm Sinclair