Crain's Detroit Business, Mackinac Issue, June 2, 2014 by Crain's Detroit Business

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www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 30, No. 22

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JUNE 2 – 8, 2014

Special Mackinac Section

Detroit’s first impression along I-94 lacks the Statue of Liberty’s gravitas. But tell that to the immigrants who have settled here

Driven to succeed

JOHN SOBCZAK

Amal Berry-Brown has fond memories of the Uniroyal Tire on I-94, the first thing she remembers seeing in the U.S. when her family emigrated from Lebanon.

BY AMY HAIMERL CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

riving east on I-94, the landscape is pure Michigan as you approach the outskirts of Detroit. Tall pampas grasses shimmy in the breeze, and groves of trees cast shadows on the day. Everything looks normal to all the world as drivers approach mile marker 205. But then, there it is. A sight that confuses newcomers, be they immigrants or out-of-staters. The Uniroyal Tire, standing eight stories tall. That sight burned into 7-year-old Amal BerryBrown’s memory, the first thing she remembers seeing when her family emigrated from Lebanon. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what kind of cars do they drive in the United States?’” said Berry-Brown, senior director of diversity and inclusion at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. (Technically, cars would need to be 200 feet tall to roll on that rubber beast.)

BUSINESS EDUCATION

S P E C I A L R E P O R T: I M M I G R AT I O N Michigan was built by immigrants and encouraging more immigration, with a focus on the higher-skilled, is seen as good public policy by many, including Gov. Rick Snyder. This special report, which runs through M8, examines the barriers and the opportunities.

AMERICAN DREAMERS: Immigrant success stories in metro Detroit. Starts on Page M9 She and her family arrived in 1976 after war broke out in Lebanon. They always intended to return home, but nearly 40 years later, Michigan has be-

come a place they could never imagine leaving. Even her holdout mother, who resisted learning English, recently joined her children and husband in becoming a naturalized citizen. “I remember standing next to her at Hart Plaza, and I was sobbing,” said Berry-Brown, 43. “She was holding the flag, and she was becoming a citizen. It was her and my dad and I, and I knew there was no return at that point. She was the one holding on to our Lebanese connection. It was a moment of great pride and deep sadness.” The transition from Lebanon wasn’t easy for the family. It had been of the professional class there, but here Berry-Brown’s father took odd jobs just to put food on the table. The language barrier was a significant deterrent to regaining the family’s previous wealth. Her mother still struggles. But BerryBrown laughs that she learned quickly, thanks to being in school and watching “The Flintstones” and “The Brady Bunch” on TV.

FROM SMALL SPARKS ...

Construction on campus isn’t taking the summer off

If entrepreneurship is to revive Detroit, it’ll take more than just big business

Page 33

Page 51

See Immigration, Page M3

PRIVATE 200 Crain’s list of the largest privately held companies.

Starts on Page 59

Welcome to the 2014 Mackinac Policy Conference www.itctransco.com

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

June 2, 2014

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DRIVEN TO SUCCEED | IMMIGRATION IN DETROIT

Immigrants: Learning to leave the bubble ■ From Page M1

“I can still quote any of them, by the way,” she said. For many adult immigrants like the Berry-Browns, it can be a challenge to learn American English because they aren’t in school like their children, where they would come into contact with new people and ideas. Instead, they often remain in the protective bubble of the existing immigrant community, which feels safer and eases the tribulations of day-to-day living — grocery shopping, banking, worshipping — but slows the pace of transition. “For refugees and immigrants, when they arrive they are dependent on who they already know,” said Christine Sauvé, Southeast Michigan communities coordinator for Welcoming Michigan, a project of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Sauvé Center. “That may mean they are getting tips about where to shop for food from people of their own culture. They want more opportunity to talk to Americans because they want to get to know the culture. They want to learn American English.” To help facilitate that, Welcoming Michigan hosts informal English as a Second Language chats to build community between immigrants and native-borns. The group wants to build a “welcoming spirit” that addresses cultural connections, not just the pure language. As the daughter of immigrants — her father is from Egypt, her mother from Slovakia — Erika Eraqi has watched newcomers be treated poorly simply because they struggle with the phonetics of English. Americans assume they are stupid, she said, condescending to them or raising their voices “They can be extremely intelligent people, but they are treated differently, like they are stupid, because they cannot speak English well,” said Eraqi, 28. “There is a couple I know from Albania. The husband was a police officer and his wife was a judge. Then they come here and are working fast food. They way people treated them was really unfortunate. “Back home, they are extremely educated and well-off, but there was not an opportunity for them, so they decided to come here and work hard — even if means suffering for themselves.” That is hard for her to observe because she knows her own parents still make faux pas. She reminds would-be detractors that these two immigrants raised three children with advanced degrees. Eraqi, who directs the Cadillac account for Jack Morton Worldwide, receives her master’s in business administration this spring from Michigan State University. That’s fairly normal: In Michigan, 40 percent of naturalized citizens hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to Welcoming Michigan.

The road from his rented room to a successful business, wife and daughter had a few bumps — he used to overhear students calling him the “stinky Spanish teacher” when he taught in private schools — but today Chavez is glad his mom didn’t let him return to Peru. “The language, the culture, how to communicate with Americans in general, you have to put more work into it,” he said. “But it pays off. If you work really hard, you have the opportunity here. That’s what I love about this country. If you really put your mind to something, and do your best, you can achieve it.”

First snow

JOHN SOBCZAK

Saad Abbo left Iraq in 1972 and now owns U.S. Ice Corp., serving more than 2,000 clients across Southeast Michigan.

Isolation Immigration isn’t new here. The state was essentially created by immigrants, from the French to the British to everyone since. And Southeast Michigan has always embraced newcomers — even before the world wars. “Half the city was foreign-born at the turn of the (last) century,” said Mike Smith, an archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. “And autos only accelerated that trend.” Then, most of the immigrants were from Eastern Europe, but today the region’s nearly 400,000 immigrants are more likely to hail from India, the Middle East, Mexico or China. What hasn’t changed is the sense of isolation — especially for refugees, who are often leaving horrific circumstances with little advance planning or preparation. “I know some new immigrants experience some depression when they come to this country and are coming to a completely different environment,” said Imam Sayed Hassan Al-Qazwini of the Dearborn Islamic Center of America. “Mostly I can say refugees who come here not because they wanted to but because they were fed up with the place they lived in, these are the ones who suffer a lot more.” The imam himself is an immigrant, having moved to the U.S. from Iran in 1992 to join his father, who had come to Los Angeles years earlier. His grandfather, an ayatollah, had been arrested and imprisoned by Saddam Hussein, and the family fled from Iraq to Kuwait and eventually Iran. When he arrived, “everything was new,” he said. “Everything was a shock. It took a while to adjust to the new realities of a new society I chose to live in. The American mentality and personality, that was something new.” First he had to learn English. He enrolled in a university and decided to study sociology as an extension of his seminary studies in

A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE Other facts from Global Detroit’s 2010 immigrant economic data study: 䡲 The state has a higher percentage of working-age immigrants (64.4 percent) than nonimmigrant working-age population (51 percent). 䡲 22 percent of World Intellectual Property Organization patent applications originating from Michigan in 2006 had one or more foreign nationals as an inventor, eighth-highest among all states. The WIPO regulates and governs global intellectual property on behalf of the United Nations. 䡲 The average age of local immigrants, for men and women, is 42 compared to 37 for native born. 䡲 There’s a wide disparity in immigrant income when it comes to gender: The average income for men is $61,582 while it’s $41,271 for women. 䡲 More than a third of metro Detroit immigrants are paid more than $75,000 annually, but most earn less than $50,000, according to Global Detroit. 䡲 Nearly 60 percent of metro Detroit’s immigrants have at least attempted higher education by age 25, with almost 20 percent having a graduate or professional degree, compared to 11 percent of the native population. 䡲 At the lower end of the educational spectrum, 23 percent of local immigrants have less than a high school degree compared to 11 percent of the native metro Detroit population. 䡲 A plurality of Michigan’s immigrants (45 percent) work in management, business, science and the arts compared to 28 percent of the native-born population. Iran. One of the first things he had to overcome was sitting in a mixed-gender classroom. “In the beginning, it was kind of uncomfortable,” he said. “But I had to adjust myself to it in a way that does not conflict with my religion and my upbringing. I got used to it afterward, but in the begin-

ning it was uncomfortable. I had to tell my classmates that I do not shake hands with the opposite sex. They understand. They quickly understood my limitations and special needs as someone who is from a Middle Eastern culture.”

Transportation The sense of isolation can be compounded by the region’s lack of public transportation. Cars are often outside immigrant families’ means, pushing them onto the region’s unreliable buses. “Because a lot of countries have some form of public transit, when folks arrive here, they are not expecting the limited public transportation,” said Sauvé. “... That’s the biggest challenge we hear about.” When Ernesto Chavez arrived in Pontiac, he felt completely isolated. His mother married an American, and he followed her here from Peru. But his mother worked as a livein nanny, while he and his new stepfather rented rooms in a Chavez boarding house. He was 17 and had no access to wheels or friends or any of the trappings of a youthful beginning. “I remember crying and complaining to my mom that I wanted to go back to Peru,” said Chavez, 28. “I was stuck. Most days I would just stay in the house for the whole day. I would go to the YMCA, but that was really the only thing I could do for the whole first year.” As he learned English and was better able to navigate, his outlook improved. He enrolled at Oakland Community College and then transferred to Oakland University, deciding to become an educator because he understood the importance of words and language. Now he owns his own business — Bright Loritos LLC — which teaches Spanish to nearly 1,000 children weekly.

Every immigrant who came from a warm climate has a firstsnow story. The experience becomes part of family lore and something that bonds people who may have nothing else in common except being newcomers. “In Egypt, it does not snow,” Eraqi said. “The first time my dad saw snow, he thought the world was ending. He was like, ‘Why is this so cold?’ ” “It was April when we came,” said Saad Abbo, who came to Detroit from Iraq in 1972. “We saw snow and were like, ‘What the heck is that?’ To us, it was like a miracle that we put our foot in America. It was a dream for everybody to come here, then you see snow, and it was like, wow.” Now, Abbo makes his money on the cold, wet stuff: Abbo owns U.S. Ice Corp., which manufactures and distributes ice to more than 2,000 clients across Southeast Michigan. The company employs 50 people and has revenue of nearly $2 million — and is getting ready for an expansion later this year. It wasn’t easy, though. Abbo spent most of his childhood acting as translator for his father, who owned a series of stores and groceries before starting U.S. Ice. As young as 12, Abbo would come home from school, do his homework, eat dinner and then go to work with his father, filling coolers, taking the garbage out, translating for customers and generally acting as a lifeline between the two cultures. When he was 16, he went to work full time. “My father was so aggressive, he couldn’t find anyone to work with him,” Abbo said. “One day, he told me, ‘You’re almost 16, you aren’t going to school tomorrow, you are going to work with me full time.’” But there are no hard feelings: “I’m successful today because of my father.” Today, two of Abbo’s three sons work for the business; his youngest is still in high school. And while the Chaldean community here is known for a thriving shopkeeping culture, Abbo sees things changing. “When we came over here, we worked in the store business,” he said. “We learned that business. If you put in the hours, you could succeed. Now I see a lot of lawyers, See Immigration, Page M4

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

DRIVEN TO SUCCEED | IMMIGRATION IN DETROIT

Green card delays create problems for legal immigrants, employers BY DUSTIN WALSH CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Immigration bills to ease green card wait times have been drafted several times, but ultimately failed to pass U.S. Congress. Left in a lurch are the legal immigrants seeking permanent legal status. Many wait as long as a decade for citizenship in the country where they are already working. The immigration issue is now front and center in Michigan, as Gov. Rick Snyder is asking the federal government for 50,000 visas for highly skilled legal immigrants. However, the current system is creating bottlenecks for legal immigrants and Southeast Michigan employers. Tata Technologies Inc., the Novibased subsidiary of India’s largest conglomerate Tata Group, faces an arduous and expensive process for its India-born workers with no guarantees. College degree-holding employees from India face longer wait times for a green card than any other nationality, as long as 12 years in some cases. For Tata, this becomes a retention challenge as its India-born workers operate on a work visa that lasts only as long as six years. “The timeline for the work visa and green card process doesn’t jibe, so occasionally we have those individuals that develop a crisis of confidence and head back to India,” said Warren Harris, president and COO of Tata Technologies and a U.S. green card holder from the U.K. “This doesn’t serve our company or this country.” The immigration bottleneck is a matter of supply and demand, with the government allowing 480,000

green cards for family-based applicants and 140,000 green cards for employer-based applicants. The employment-based green cards can be used only in situations where Harris a qualified candidate in the U.S. is not available. The jobs must be approved by the U.S. Department of Labor. Employment-based green cards are separated into five categories, from EB-1 to EB-5, based on certain skills and jobs. The policy also states that immigrants from a single country can’t exceed 7 percent of the total visas granted to immigrants annually, in each category. This means employer-based visas are limited to 9,800 per country. The limitations swing odds in favor of immigrants from small countries like Luxembourg (pop: 531,441) over countries with large populations like India (pop: 1.24 billion) and China (pop: 1.35 billion). Employment-based applicants from India, China and the Philippines far exceed the 9,800 visa limit year after year and have created a backlog due to the restrictions. A bachelor’s degree-holding applicant from Mexico, for example faces an 18-month backlog. A bachelor’s degree-holder from India faces a 10.5-year backlog. Indian immigrants with an advanced degree, such as a doctorate, face a 9.5-year backlog. The remaining preferences are reserved for athletes, professors and researchers; “special immi-

Visa rule change allows spouses to work A change in a specific federal work visa rule will benefit metro Detroit economically, said University of Detroit Mercy School of Law Professor David Koelsch, who also is director of the law school’s Immigration Law Clinic and the Asylum Law Clinic. The Obama administration is relaxing a prohibition that prevents spouses of workers here on the H-1B non-immigrant visa from working. The H-1B is targeted at highly skilled workers — typically Indians working in information technology — that the U.S. deems in short supply, and it allows them to stay up to six years. H-1B visa holders also can apply for a permanent alien resident status, known as the green card. Allowing spouses to work will prompt more skilled H-1B visa grants,” which include religious workers, employees of U.S. foreign service posts, etc.; and green cards for investors who invest $500,000 in a targeted employment area. There is no backlog for those three employment-based preferences. Marilu Cabrera, a public affairs officer for U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services in Chicago, said her office receives complaints but the limitations were assigned by Congress and implemented by the State Department. “This is the way it exists right now,” Cabrera said. “Not to say that it won’t change, but once the visas are allocated, everyone else gets put into a waiting period.” Critics of current U.S. immigra-

holders to stay here rather than return to India, Koelsch said. “Indian wives are educated and don’t want to sit around in Troy all day,” he said. “They want to work, advance careers and lead more fulfilling lives.” Immigrants at the other end of the financial spectrum can actually have a greater economic impact than temporary foreign-born high-tech workers, Koelsch said. Less-skilled immigrants, many of them undocumented, stay in Detroit long term, he said. They put down roots, pay taxes, have kids and have a longer impact versus the Indian immigrants who often return home after five or six years. “India is a decent place to live, and if you have U.S. work experience, you can punch your own ticket there,” Koelsch said. tion policy want a change, and soon. Amarnath Gowda, managing partner of the Farmington Hillsbased Law Offices of Amarnath Gowda, specializes in visa petitions and said the current policy is “destroying families.” He said Indian immigrants in Southeast Michigan, and all over the U.S., are stuck in social purgatory while mired in the backlog. “The stories I hear are unbelievable; they can’t buy a home or plan for their children,” Gowda said. “It’s really quite sad.” Gowda said the daughter of a recent client has yet to be accepted to a hospital residency program despite graduating from medical school at

the top of her class because her father has yet to receive his green card nearly 11 years after applying. Plus, mortgage lenders aren’t willing to facilitate a home loan to immigrants without a green card due to the threat of being forced from the country, Gowda said. It’s not just families feeling the pain of the policy; companies struggle with the rigidity and oversight, said Harris. If the employer of an immigrant employee wants to change the location or job title of the person applying for green card status, more paperwork must be filed. “The Department of Labor is very rigorous with the documentation requirements … ,” Harris said. “If an employee has to wait 10 years for a green card, there are typically job changes, location changes, etc.; the administrative overhead that exposes us to is really restrictive.” Harris said Tata Technologies sponsors only about eight to 10 green card applications annually due to the arduous process. “The process is very bureaucratic and very expensive,” Harris said. “If we had the benefit of a more streamlined process, not one that shouldn’t be tough, but one that is less onerous, the companies and this country could benefit.” Tata Group is lobbying on Capitol Hill to remove the geographical limitations from the system and move into a first-come, first-served system like many European countries, Harris said. Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042, dwalsh@crain.com. Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

Immigrants: Facing challenges, still building businesses ■ From Page M3

doctors, architects, wholesalers, suppliers. We are diversifying. Our kids are changing everything. Our families worked, and we learned from it.”

Food fights After a decade in Michigan, there is one thing that continues to baffle Chavez about America. “All the fast food,” he said, laughing. “In Peru, we cook all the time. Here people don’t have time. I got that bad habit of eating and gaining some extra weight.” As immigrants are thrust into new cultures and new lives, the tastes of home can be their lifeline. The American palate can be an acquired taste, but when immigrants have an opportunity to share their foods with Americans, it can be an important tool in building relationships and communities, said Welcoming Michigan’s Sauvé. Berry-Brown’s mother didn’t allow the children fast food, instead packing them healthy lunches filled with hummus and dolmades and other Middle Eastern delights. But

each day Berry-Brown would go to school dreaming of finding a bologna sandwich in her lunch. The kids would tease her, asking, ‘Why are you eating a leaf? Why are you eating a leaf stuffed with rice?’ ” One day she went home from school and told her mother she wanted a bologna sandwich with Wonder Bread and mustard. Incredulous, her mother asked if she was sure. Berry-Brown assured her that she was. The next day, her mother packed exactly what she asked for. “I took one bite of it and I started to gag,” Berry-Brown said. “I have never touched bologna since.” Instead, that experience allowed her to acknowledge that she was different — and that it was OK. Instead of hiding what she had, she began sharing her lunch and teaching her classmates about things like hummus. They also started trading Twinkies for date cookies. “I was bridging those two worlds,” she said. “They educated me on what it is like to be American, and I was educating them on

what it’s like to be an immigrant.”

Discrimination still a factor Regardless of how much immigrants contribute to the Michigan economy — Latinos alone account for $9.3 billion in purchasing power, according to a study by the University of Georgia — they still face hatred and discrimination. As an imam at the Dearborn Islamic Center, Sayed Hassan AlQazwini sees a great deal of fear and anger toward Arab Americans. He has advised Presidents Bush and Clinton and met with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on how the Muslims and Christians can co-exist. “I truly believe that building a real and permanent dialogue between the West and Muslim world would eradicate that the misunderstanding, prejudice and the kind of tension we see today that has become so prevalent in our world,” he writes on the Islamic Center’s website. Tony Lopez, whose family owns Lopez Tires on the city’s southwest side, had to look at the face of hate

WHERE STATE’S IMMIGRANTS COME FROM

6% 5%

12% 51% 26%

Asia Europe Latin America Canada, remainder of North America Africa and Oceania Source: Global Detroit

every day. His block is now mostly Latino, but when his family arrived from Jalisco, Mexico, they were one of the first immigrant families on the street. A neighbor woman would hurl slurs and gossip about the family. “I was scared of her,” Lopez said. “I was scared to cross the street.” But as his father and uncle launched Lopez Tires, things began to change. The neighbors “gave us more respect,” he said. Now they are a pillar of the south-

west community thanks to the family business, which has expanded. Lopez’s uncle owns Taqueria Lupita and other restaurants. And Lopez enjoys a bit of comeuppance: He bought the racist woman’s house and calls it home. Still, many immigrants were hesitant to discuss struggles for fear of being seen as anti-American. They fear their grasp of the language won’t be strong enough to express both the challenges and their gratitude. And they are grateful. In fact, many see themselves as Americans in the truest sense. “You are not truly American though you feel more American than American-born Americans,” explained Berry-Brown. “At one point, my family chose to be here. For me, I find that I appreciate being an American on a much different and deeper level than most Americans. That can only happen truly when you are from a different country and you chose to come and stay here.” Amy Haimerl: (313) 446-0416, ahaimerl@crain.com. Twitter: @haimerlad

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

DRIVEN TO SUCCEED | IMMIGRATION IN DETROIT

Built by immigrants Foreign-born workers integral part of Detroit’s history, economy BY BILL SHEA CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

etroit began as an 18th century French colonial trading post, and its subsequent economic history has been one built on a foundation of immigrant labor and entrepreneurship. The economic impact of more than three centuries of the foreignborn living and working here can be found almost everywhere, from Henry Ford’s blast furnaces to the delicate complexities of modern computer networks to the corner gas station. Tidal waves of immigration not only fed industry but also fueled the rise of notable ethnic enclaves — and boutique industries serving them — such as the Arabs in Dearborn, Mexicans and Latinos in Detroit’s Mexicantown, and the Poles in Hamtramck. “Detroit is a city of migrants and immigrants. They’re absolutely in-

India leads all nations in sending people to Detroit

hether pushed or pulled, immigrants arrived from many countries.

India The largest single immigrant group in metro Detroit comes from India. Of the 41,000 living in the region’s four main counties, about half live in Oakland County, with 11,000 in Wayne and the rest in Macomb and Washtenaw counties. The demand for professionals in the medical fields and computer technology has fueled an influx of highly educated Indian immigrants to metro Detroit, said Silvia Pedraza, a professor of sociology and American culture at the University of Michigan. “They draw on what they know well and are good at,” she said. Nearly half of foreign-born Indians locally earn more than $75,000 annually, federal immigration data show. More than 70 percent have a bachelor’s or advanced degree. They also come here in larger numbers for another reason: Im-

tegral in the whole economy of the region, not only as workers but as consumers,” said Eastern Michigan University Professor JoEllen Vinyard, who specializes in Vinyard Detroit and Michigan social and immigration history. “They’ve been important in both ends of the economy.”

Auto industry Whether pushed out of their homeland by war, famine or persecution, the major lure of Detroit for immigrants always has been the automotive industry. The 19th century saw waves of English and German immigrate to the city, working in myriad industries, from pharmaceuticals to copper ore to industrial machinery manufacturing. Then came the cars, attracting immigrants from many other places. Ford Motor Co.’s introduction of the $5 workday in 1914 fueled a major surge in Detroit immigration. “Word of Ford’s high wages — along with Ford’s international recruiting efforts — turned the Motor City into one of the most racial-

migrants from India, especially professionals in health care and technology, typically have a leg up on other immigrant groups because they already speak English. “They are English speakers, typically bilingual or trilingual,” Pedraza said. “They don’t have to go through the pains and difficulties (of) other immigrant groups who realize they must learn English.” Indian IT workers work heavily with auto suppliers that handle the IT contracts for automakers, said David Koelsch, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law who also is director of the school’s immigration law clinic. Much of the local Indian population can be found in Farmington Hills, Bloomfield Township and Troy.

Lebanon The Lebanese came to Detroit earlier than other Middle Eastern groups, starting in the early 20th century to work in the auto industry, said Silvia Pedraza, a professor of sociology and American culture at the University of Michigan. They were especially known as shopkeepers, grocers and restaurateurs, she said. That remains true today. The longtime host of the “American Top 40” radio show, Casey Kasem, was born in Detroit in 1932 to Lebanese immigrant par-

FORD MOTOR CO.

Workers outside an early Ford Motor Co. plant. In 1914, Henry Ford announced the $5 workday, which more than doubled daily wages.

ly and ethnically diverse places in America,” wrote author Thomas Sugrue, a Detroit native and University of Pennsylvania history professor, in an essay for the nonprofit New York City-based The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. “The auto magnate recruited skilled artisans from the shipyards of Scotland and England and blue-collar workers from the rural Midwest, as well as workers from Mexico and Lebanon, and AfricanAmericans from the city’s rapidly growing population of southern migrants.” Sugrue also noted that Ford’s efforts to “Americanize” immigrant

Detroit once was the thirdlargest U.S. settlement for immigrants, said Kurt Metzger, the retired founder of Data Driven Detroit who spent nearly 40 years compiling information and statistical analysis locally. “In 1930, the foreign-born accounted for almost 30 percent of Detroit’s population. The data show that more immigrants settled in De-

ents who operated a grocery store. Lebanon accounts for the sixthlargest immigration group in metro Detroit with 17,800, according to Global Detroit’s data. The bulk of those — 14,625 — are in Wayne County. Lebanese immigrants make up about 31 percent of the state’s Arab immigrant population, the majority of which is in metro Detroit. The earlier waves of Lebanese immigration were largely Christians, while the subsequent influx has been mostly Muslim, demographers say. Another major driver of Lebanese immigration to metro Detroit was the Lebanese civil war — a complex, multisectarian conflict lasting from 1975 to 1990, during which it destroyed the capital of Beirut and killed 120,000 people.

ity of any group in the county. Albania itself is home to just 3 million people. The 40-year authoritarian regime of Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha didn’t permit emigration, so it wasn’t until the collapse of communism in 1992 that Albanians began to come directly to the United States in large numbers. The exodus increased as Albania’s economy later collapsed, unrest broke out, and the wider Balkans erupted into sectarian war in the 1990s. In metro Detroit, Albanians are noted for opening restaurants, especially Coney Islands, demographers say. Albanian TV of America, which broadcasts Albanian-language entertainment, news and advertising, is based in Troy.

Albania

Poland

Metro Detroit has the world’s largest concentration of Albanians outside of Europe, according to Global Detroit. Macomb and Oakland counties in particular have experienced a significant Albanian influx in recent decades, said Steve Tobocman, director of Global Detroit. Macomb has the highest current concentration of Albanian immigrants locally at 4,800, according to Global Detroit’s data. That’s the fourth-largest national-

Detroit has long been identified with Polish immigration, and the city-within-a-city of Hamtramck was at one point 90 percent Polish. That has changed. Hamtramck is about 14 percent Polish today, with Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants from places such as Yemen and Bangladesh replacing them as the Polish population migrated. According to federal population data, Hamtramck leads Michigan with more than 40 percent of its

workers included a graduation ceremony where blue-collar workers walked into a “melting pot” wearing their national garb and came out dressed as “Americans.”

Coming to Detroit

troit between 1900 and 1920 than any other city but Chicago and New York,” Metzger said via email. “The makeup of Detroit — European (Poles, Germans, Sugrue Ukrainians, etc.) was heavily influenced by the national quota system that either forbid certain groups (Asians, for instance) or maintained extremely small quotas.” The second, much broader and more diverse wave of immigration began around 1970 after Washington relaxed the quota system on a wide variety of groups, he said. “We began to see large flows of Chaldeans from Iraq, Muslims from Lebanon and other areas of the Middle East, Asians from Taiwan, India, the Philippines, Albanians, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans,” he said. “Since that time, we have added, through war and displacement, Hmong, Cambodian and Vietnamese, Chaldeans, Syrians, Yemeni, and many more. “Groups like the Bangladeshi came here from other parts of the country (Queens, N.Y., in their case) because they were priced out See Immigrants, Page M7

population being foreign-born. Reflecting the general shift to the suburbs: Nearly 4,500 Polish immigrants live in Macomb County, tops in the metro area. Wayne County is second with 3,300 Polish immigrants. Poles began arriving in Detroit in the 1880s. Immigration increased when the Dodge Main plant opened in 1914. It closed in 1981. “They came at the time to work in the factories, especially Dodge Main, and on the street railways,” said JoEllen Vinyard, an Eastern Michigan University professor specializing in immigration history. “They settled near each other and built houses. Property was relatively cheap, so they could afford to build next to a relative.” General Motors Corp. opened its Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant in 1985, displacing 4,200 residents in an area known as Poletown that straddled the Hamtramck-Detroit border. Poles today work in a variety of fields, including in myriad shops aimed at Polish culture. They also still work in auto factories.

Mexico A sizable portion of Mexican immigration to the United States traditionally has been associated with migrant agricultural work. That’s less true for metro Detroit.

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by gentrification, and Detroit/ Hamtramck/southern Macomb was relatively inexpensive and ‘welcoming.’ ” Foreign-born workers and their families helped swell Detroit’s population to nearly 2 million people at its 1950 peak. Today, the city has fewer than 800,000 residents, but the metro area is more than five million. “People who came looking for a better future, they were pulled more by the economic opportunity in the United States rather than pushed by problems in the old country,” said Silvia Pedraza, a professor of sociology and American culture at the University of Michigan. “They come to donate their own labor.” And that donation was in the form of raw physical labor doing construction, ditch digging — what some call “pick and shovel men.” Others worked in agriculture and the auto industry and everything that feeds it, said Pedraza, who emigrated from Cuba at age 12.

Other work The waves of immigrants did more than just build cars and trucks. “People draw on their culture, and they become a market for that culture. They provide things people in that culture need — books in that language, food, community organization,” Pedraza said. “They recreate very quickly what home was like.” Immigrant groups form ethnic enclaves with businesses that

Like other immigrant groups here, Mexicans were attracted by the economic opportunity at the start of the 20th century. “There were quite a lot of Mexicans in the auto industry,” said the University of Michigan’s Pedraza. “The most dangerous and dirtiest jobs, those nearest the furnaces, went to blacks and Mexicans.” Like other immigrant groups, Mexicans formed their own ethnic enclave, today known as Mexicantown. The southwest Detroit neighborhood is filled with restaurants and shops reflecting Hispanic tastes and culture. Mexicantown actually is a bit of a misnomer, said Pedraza, herself a Cuban immigrant. “It’s really very Latin,” she said. “There are people from El Salvador, Cuba, Guatemala, Columbia. It’s a growing part of Detroit.” Hispanic and Latino immigrants were both pulled by economic opportunity to Detroit. But oftentimes — especially in the second half of the last century — they also were pushed out by political dictatorships and poverty. “People that are fleeing persecution, people that are more pushed than pulled, they were happy with their country and culture but left because of religious, political or social persecution,” Pedraza said. “The labor

cater to fellow immigrants from those nations or regions. And often, they look to capitalize on tourist interest, especially in the food industry. “As they dePedraza velop and get larger, they begin to market to a different clientele,” she said. “Immigrants always move through social networks, mostly the family or people close to them, almost as if they were kin,” Pedraza said. “The first person will often be the more adventurous, younger, fit young men (or women, in case of Irish). They get a certain type of job.” Detroit was attractive not only because of economic opportunity but also a generally welcoming atmosphere — at least compared to other places. “Detroit didn’t have the antiimmigrant sentiments found in the Eastern United States. It wasn’t started by the Puritans,” said Vinyard. It began as a French Catholic frontier settlement and saw its first large waves of immigrants in the 1830s — largely New Yorkers and New Englanders with reform and abolitionist sentiments, she said. Metro Detroit became a region of Mexican agricultural workers, Belgian brick makers, Balkan restaurateurs, Polish auto plant workers, Arab gas station owners, Indian doctors and Italian green grocers, Vinyard said.

migrants, they cannot see any future for their children. They’re motivated to find a better life.” Mexicans are the region’s third-largest immigrant group and Wayne County’s largest immigrant population at 22,700. They’re also among the top 10 groups in Oakland and Macomb counties.

Iraq Iraqis are metro Detroit’s second-largest immigrant group, with 36,000 across Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties, according to Global Detroit data. A significant number of Iraqis settling here are Chaldeans, primarily Catholics driven from their homeland by war and targeted violence. They hail mostly from northern Iraq but also parts of Syria, Iran and Turkey. Chaldeans account for about 17 percent of Michigan’s Arab immigrant population, the bulk of which lives in metro Detroit. Chaldeans do not identify as Arab but are included in Arab or Iraqi immigration and demographics data. Those who identify as Iraqi immigrants account for 10 percent of the state’s Arab population, most of which is in metro Detroit. About one-third of Arab-Americans in Michigan are foreign-

Spread out The economic impact of immigrants is both concentrated and spread throughout the region. Hamtramck is known for its Polish, and now, Arab residents. Dearborn is a longtime Arab enclave. Curiously, immigrants sometimes live in one area but open businesses in another, said University of Detroit Mercy School of Law Professor David Koelsch, who also is director of the law school’s Immigration Law Clinic and the Asylum Law Clinic. One example is Madison Heights, home to many Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese and other Asian businesses. The Asian owners tend to live elsewhere. “They live farther out, not in Madison Heights,” he said. One ethnic group living and opening businesses in the same place in recent years is the Iraqi community around 15 Mile and Ryan roads in Warren. “They’re starting to open businesses. It’s starting to become a real community, like a little Iraqi community,” Koelsch said. The metro area is attractive in general to immigrants because it has cheap houses and good suburban school districts. “Detroit’s a blank slate. It’s a pretty great time to be coming here as an immigrant,” Koelsch said. “The value you get in the Detroit region is pretty amazing.” Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626, bshea@crain.com. Twitter: @bill_shea19

born, many of them having arrived from Iraq after the Persian Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq war of 2003, according to data from the Arab American Institute. Chaldeans, who first arrived in metro Detroit to work in the auto industry, have been severely displaced by the Iraq wars. Macomb County’s top immigrant group, at 14,198, is Iraqi. Many of those are Chaldean. At just over 16,000, Iraqis are Oakland County’s second-largest immigrant group — some of those are non-Chaldeans. The 5,400 Iraqis in Wayne County are the seventh-largest immigrant group there. They settle in traditional Arab enclaves such as Dearborn. While some were lured by Henry Ford’s famous $5-a-day working wage, in true Chaldean fashion, entrepreneurial endeavors quickly took hold — particularly mom-and-pop food markets. Today, 61 percent of Chaldean households own one business, and 39 percent own two or more, according to the Sterling Heights-based Chaldean Community Foundation. Chaldeans locally are known for owning markets and party stores, said Kurt Metzger, the retired founder of Data Driven Detroit who spent nearly 40 years doing information and statistical analysis locally.

Michigan rolls out the welcome mat to educated immigrants BY CHRIS GAUTZ CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

In a two-week period in mid-January, Gov. Rick Snyder unveiled his three-pronged approach to making Michigan a more welcoming place for immigrants, and in less than four months he has only one prong left to achieve. Snyder pledged to create the Office for New Americans, which he did in a matter of weeks. He then petitioned the federal government to create a statewide EB-5 regional center, which it did in just 77 days. But he has yet to persuade federal officials to secure 50,000 EB-2 work visas over five years for those with advanced degrees, solely for the city of Detroit. But those discussions are ongoing, and Snyder was back in Washington in May to continue to lobby for the visas. The first piece of Snyder’s immigration plan, the Office for New Americans, which serves as a clearinghouse for when issues related to immigration arise, continues to coordinate with state departments and the various ways they touch immigration policy in the state. In March, Karen Phillippi was hired as the office’s deputy director. Phillippi previously worked for eight years as the immigration services business manager for Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC. Phillippi and the office’s director, Bing Goei, have been traveling around the state, meeting with stakeholder groups to talk about immigration and advocate for immigration reform at the federal level, said Dave Murray, Snyder’s deputy press secretary. And the new EB-5 center could create tangible results by the end of the year. After the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Division approved the center in April, state officials moved fast and created the Michigan Community Development Corp. as a subsidiary of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, to house the center. Scott Woosley, executive director of MSHDA and president and CEO of the new subsidiary, has already been to China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, to pitch Michigan to potential investors interested in coming to America. “What we’ve found is there is an enormous appetite,” he said. He also has trips planned to Vietnam, South America, central Europe and a second trip to China. Woosley said he has initially concentrated on the Middle East because of the state’s large Middle Eastern population. The center has put together marketing materials printed in both Arabic and Mandarin to take on

these trips. Simultaneously, his staff is vetting investment opportunities from businesses in the state that can range from business expansions to real estate or Woosley startups, and is encouraging businesses looking for investors to contact the center. “We are open for business,” he said. “We are aggressively entertaining investment opportunities.” A foreign investor can enter the program in one of two ways: be paired with an investment opportunity in the state or open a new business in Michigan. In both cases, the investor and the investment opportunity are vetted by the federal immigration services division, Woosley said. Investors are checked to make sure the money used to invest is theirs and was not given to them or obtained illegally. And the company that the investor wants to bring to Michigan and/or the Michigan companies that are seeking investors are also vetted to ensure they meet underwriting standards. The investment must be at least $500,000 if it is in a distressed area where the employment level is at or above 150 percent of the national unemployment rate. There are 433 such areas in the state. If the investment is not in one of these, the investment has to be at least $1 million. In order to receive a green card for the investor and his or her immediate family, the company receiving the investment has to create at least 10 jobs for two years. There are 10,000 of these types of visas available each year on a firstcome, first-serve basis, and about 6,000 remain this year, Woosley said. He said the center will certainly have a project ready for federal approval before the end of the year. Woosley said it took less than $2 million to get the center up and running, and he expects it will need a budget of about $1.2 million annually. But it will require no state funding to operate, he said. MSHDA covered the initial costs with the revenue it generates from its investment portfolio, and Woosley said once projects and investors begin to come in, the center will generate its own revenue. Fees are charged to both the potential investor and the businesses to cover the cost of vetting. The center is housed in MSHDA’s office in Lansing, but Woosley said it is in the process of picking a location in Detroit for a satellite office. Chris Gautz: (517) 403-4403, cgautz@crain.com. Twitter: @chrisgautz

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Survey: Biz backs Snyder’s immigration plan for Detroit BY CHRIS GAUTZ CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to promote legal immigration as an economic strategy for metro Detroit is supported by an overwhelming majority of businesspeople in Southeast Michigan. A survey commissioned by Crain’s Detroit Business and Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, and conducted by Lansing-based EpicMRA Corp., found that 76 percent thought Snyder’s plan was a good idea. Most saw it as a way to attract and retain skilled, smart and talented people. Respondents also cited creating good-paying jobs and improving the economy as reasons. The random survey of 300 business owners, operators, officers or managers in Southeast Michigan was conducted April 22-28 to gauge reaction to immigration reform proposals and the economy. The survey has an error margin of plus or minus 5.7 percentage points. “I was very encouraged to see there is significant support Friend within businesses in the state to support legal immigration,” said Carol Friend, partner and business immigration practice group leader at Honigman. She said she thinks that’s the case because people understand Detroit was built by motivated entrepreneurs, which immigrants often turn out to be. “It’s good to see there is a recognition we still need that in our city and our state,” she said. But it also may because a large number of metro Detroiters are close to their immigrant roots. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed said they, a parent or a grandparent were immigrants.

Solid support The individual pieces of Snyder’s immigration proposals aimed at attracting highly educated immigrants also received high marks with those polled. One piece of his plan, which has been accomplished — federal approval of a state-sponsored EB-5 regional center — saw 79 percent support, with 12 percent opposing it. The center is focused on attracting wealthy immigrants who can receive a green card for themselves and their family if they invest $1 million, or $500,000 in a high-unemployment or rural area, in a business that creates at least 10 jobs here. Snyder’s plan to ask the federal government to designate one quarter of the 40,000 annual EB-2 visas for legal immigrants who are willing to live and work in Detroit for five years was supported by 76 percent of respondents, with 41 percent strongly supporting it. There were 17 percent that opposed it, with 11 percent strongly opposed. There was also strong support

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CRAIN’S/HONIGMAN SURVEY 47 percent said either they themselves, their parents or grandparents were immigrants. Most common countries of origin: Italy (16 percent); Germany (13 percent); Poland (11 percent); Russia (7 percent); Hungary (5 percent); England (5 percent). 85 percent believe federal immigration reform is important. 67 percent support authorizing employment for spouses of workers here on H1-B visas as well as expanding opportunities for academics and researchers to come to the U.S; 26 percent oppose. 47 percent said the way to deal with illegal immigrants is to allow them to become U.S. citizens if they have a waiting period, pay fines and back taxes, pass a criminal background check and learn English. Thirty-four percent said illegal immigrants should be allowed to become permanent legal residents, but not citizens, so long as they complete the same list of requirements. Twelve percent are in favor of deportation. 64 percent support the plan the U.S. Senate has approved that would allow illegal immigrants to become citizens after they wait 13 years, pay a fine and learn English; the plan also would double the number of patrol agents and double the miles of fence along the Mexican border. Twenty-six percent oppose. 76 percent support Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to designate onequarter of the nation’s 40,000 annual EB-2 employment based visas for legal immigrants who are willing to live and work in Detroit for at least five years and who have advanced degrees in STEM areas or other valuable knowledge and skills. 17 percent oppose. 79 percent support immigration reform that would make it easier for international students with advanced STEM degrees to stay in Michigan. 15 percent oppose. 25 percent in favor of promoting legal immigration said the major benefit to Michigan is attracting and retaining talented people; 20 percent said it would create well-paying jobs; 14 percent said it would help the economy, and 12 percent said it was because immigrants pay taxes. 57 percent of those opposing promoting legal immigration said we should focus on employing the people already here. 49 percent believe the state’s efforts to attract immigrants should be restricted to the highly educated; 28 percent believe that immigrants of lower economic and educational status should be included.

If immigrants “ want to come here

Having a grad “ student from India or

and work hard, that is what started America and made us successful.

from wherever taking the place of a grad student here ... I just don’t buy into it.

Robert O’Neill, Spec Techologies Inc.

Harvey Rabinowitz, Media...Period

for Snyder’s call to change the federal immigration system so that foreign students who receive advanced degrees in state universities do not have to return to their country upon graduation. On this idea, 79 percent support Snyder’s call, with 15 percent in opposition. Friend said fixing this problem, which stems from an H1-B visa shortage, is one that will only continue to get worse if nothing is done. There are 85,000 H1-B visas available each year nationwide, and this year, 172,500 petitions were filed. The recipients are selected through a random lottery system. Honigman filed 67 petitions this year for clients across the country, and 45 were chosen in the lottery. Of the 22 not selected in the lottery, nine were those with master’s degrees. “These individuals already are working,” she said. “Now those employers will have to either send the student back to school, or if it’s an international firm, send the individual abroad to work at a subsidiary, or they have to terminate

employment and send them home.” Robert O’Neill, CFO of Shelby Township-based Spec Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of fixtures and equipment for the automotive industry, said he also supports the calls for immigration reform, saying his company has had a difficult time finding high-tech workers. O’Neill, who took part in the survey, said just because someone lives here doesn’t mean he is entitled to a job. “I think anybody who is willing to work hard for a living, they should have the opportunity,” O’Neill said. “If immigrants want to come here and work hard, that is what started America and made us successful.” O’Neill said opening the state up to immigrants will lead to an improved economy, because that always occurs when you hire motivated people who want to better themselves. Evan Mountain, owner of the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Bloomfield Hills, said the complexity and

”

limitations of the federal immigration laws are keeping him from being able to hire more dance instructors from Eastern Europe. He would like to see the federal laws reformed, and indicated in the poll that he strongly supported Snyder’s policies as well. “It directly affects my business,” he said. He said he spends thousands of dollars and a lot of time working with his attorney trying to work within the system. He said it is difficult to find high-quality dance instructors in the region, and even across the U.S., while there are thousands in Eastern Europe that want to come to America, he said. If he could, he said, he would hire four more teachers right now. “I am limited on the number of employees I can have. I want to hire more, but I can’t find them,” he said. “My hands are tied. I could pay more taxes, if I could hire more teachers. It is so frustrating.”

Another view Not everyone is supportive of Snyder’s plans. Among the 15 percent polled who think it is a bad idea to attract more immigrants to Michigan, the overwhelming reason given was that we should be employing the people already here. That was the sentiment expressed in the poll by Harvey Rabinowitz, president of West Bloomfield-based Media…Period, a media planning and buying service. “We should employ people who live here and train them and give them jobs,” he said. “Having a grad student from India or from wherever taking the place of a grad student here ... I just don’t buy into it. It’s not logical to me.” Jody Kuhn, owner of Bingham Farms-based Kuhn & Associates, a small accounting firm, said she is supportive of immigration reform to a point, but said as much, if not more, emphasis needs to be placed on reforming the state’s education system. “Michigan is losing the war on educating our children,” she said. “I don’t see too many kids staying here after they graduate because there aren’t jobs available.” In her profession, she said, it is easier if students coming out of college had the skills needed, but they don’t, and training an immigrant not familiar with state and federal tax laws would take too long. Kuhn said she doesn’t have a serious problem with bringing in highly skilled immigrants, but not to the point that students in Michigan can’t get into the medical schools here, even if they have the highest grades possible. Snyder’s immigration proposals are largely, if not exclusively, focused on attracting wealthy or highly skilled and educated immigrants, and respondents agreed that was the best course, with 49 percent agreeing. There were 28 percent of respondents who felt that the state should also try to attract less wealthy and

less educated immigrants, and 14 percent who said Michigan should not attract immigrants at all.

National action On the national level, 85 percent said it was important that President Obama and Congress pass immigration reform, with 7 percent saying it was not important at all. There were 24 percent of respondents who deemed it essential. When given some of the details of the plan, including attracting the best and brightest entrepreneurs from other countries and highly skilled immigrants and their spouses, the support declined to 67 percent, with 26 percent opposing it. It declined slightly again among respondents when asked about another detail of the plan — accelerating the process of connecting the work in the labs of biomedical entrepreneurs developing commercial entities so they can enter their ideas into the marketplace faster. This time, 64 percent supported it, with 22 percent in opposition. John Cavanagh, co-founder of EPIC-MRA, said the lessened support likely had more to do with the way people respond to such questions, rather than the merits of Obama’s proposal. “Things tend to get greater support until you get into the components,” he said, while noting the converse is true for Obamacare. He said the president’s health care law is perceived negatively overall, but many of its component parts have higher approval ratings. Cavanagh said he wasn’t sure what to expect from the results overall, given it was surveying a business audience rather than average voters. “They take a somewhat less emotional view on immigration than the general public,” he said. Richard Smith, an assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University who also focuses on immigration, said he was not surprised by the results because business owners have to deal with the realities of not having enough qualified workers and the complexities of the immigration system every day. “(They) see this is a barrier to doing business,” he said. Smith said Snyder’s policies and having the governor going out and making the case publicly that Michigan is open and inviting to immigrants will make a difference. “It’s great if you have a welcoming state,” Smith said. “That will have a positive impact.” Cavanagh said the fact that Snyder’s immigration proposals received stronger support than Obama’s, has to do with the president having a lower approval rating in this survey than Snyder, as well as the general negative attitude people have toward Washington right now. “Immigration is a political issue nationwide, but it certainly doesn’t wear the same clothes here,” he said. Chris Gautz: (517) 403-4403, cgautz@crain.com. Twitter: @chrisgautz

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AMERICAN DREAMERS 䡲 Ronald Acho, Page 11 䡲 Kenny Akinwale, Page 13 䡲 Andrew Ansara Sr., Page 13 䡲 Fadi Aoude, Page 15 䡲 Chaker Aoun, Page 16 䡲 Yahya Basha, Page 15 䡲 Itai Ben-Gal, Page 23 䡲 Manoj Bhargava, Page 16 䡲 Sundaresh Brahmasandra, Page 22 䡲 Chopjian family, Page 13 䡲 Cornelius (Neil) De Koker, Page 17 䡲 Haifa Fakhouri, Page 17 䡲 Ina Fernandez, Page 17 䡲 Fadhel Gannouni, Page 18 䡲 Lydia Gutierrez, Page 19 䡲 Andrea Hachem, Page 21 䡲 Hammoud family, This page 䡲 Kalyan Handique, Page 22 䡲 Hassan Jaber, Page 21 䡲 Terry Kalley, Page 26 䡲 Joumana Kayrouz, Page 24 䡲 Radwan Khoury, Page 26 䡲 Antonio Luck, Page 24 䡲 Perry Mehta, Page 27 䡲 Akram Namou, Page 27 䡲 Victor Nemirovsky, Page 23 䡲 Cheong Choon Ng, Page 28 䡲 Godfrey Nolan, Page 24 䡲 Patrick O’Leary, Page 24 䡲 Waltraud Prechter, Page 29 䡲 Enrica Rugiero, Page 29 䡲 Osama Siblani, Page 28 䡲 Mohamed Sohoubah, Page 29 䡲 Luke Song, Page 30 䡲 Mina Sooch, Page 30 䡲 Lambros Stassinos, Page 31 䡲 Sonali Vijayavargiya, Page 31

Six successful children, lucrative businesses buoy life in metro Detroit for Lebanese family … and it all began by pumping gas

COURTESY OF HAMMOUD FAMILY

2014 DREAMERS

Sisters Maya (left) and Elvana Hammoud with their father, Mustapha, in front of the family’s Eastpointe gas station.

LARRY PEPLIN

Abed (second from right), an assistant U.S. attorney who is the oldest of the six Hammoud children, chats with family members at one of the clan’s get-togethers.

Their stations in life BY MAUREEN MCDONALD SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

or the Hammoud family, life in the United States, at least initially, revolved around an Eastpointe gas station. The family business, which later included gas stations in Center Line and Troy before they were sold, was the foundation from which each of the six Hammoud children grew into independent successes. Mustapha Hammoud, now 71, and his wife, Soubhye, now 64, came to the U.S. in 1988 with five of their six children, after spending two years in Canada awaiting a U.S. visa. Mustapha, a physical education teacher and journalist in his home country, wanted to leave Lebanon because of the escalating violence and the fear his sons would be conscripted into the war, said his eldest son, Abed. Mustapha and Soubhye acquired a Mobil franchise the same year they arrived in the U.S., because many of their friends from the old country were in the gas station business. It was relatively easy to get a mortgage; the business wasn’t difficult, and staffing wasn’t a problem with a large family, Abed said. After acquiring the gas station at 10 Mile and Kelly roads in what was then East De-

HARD WORK, STRONG WILL HELPED IMMIGRANTS FLOURISH In many ways, metro Detroit was built by immigrants. They left their homelands to escape war and persecution, to get an education or to seek more economic opportunity. The American Dreamers profiled in this section have built professions and businesses across industries as diverse as they are, from restaurants to automotive, life sciences, venture capital and social services. But their stories share a common theme: Hard work and persistence pay off. On the Web: Crain’s also wrote about American Dreamers in 1999 and 2007. To find out what they’re doing, see crainsdetroit.com/dreamers.

troit and now is Eastpointe, then getting it going, Mustapha asked Abed to join the family in the U.S. At 24, Abed was quite happy in France with a fresh master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquees and a hankering to discover more of life. But his father wasn’t about to take “no” for an answer. So Abed came to the U.S. in 1990. Most of the Hammoud children worked at the family gas station, taking turns sweeping floors, changing oil and selling

lottery tickets while learning English and studying for college exams. “We couldn’t afford outside help, so we all pulled shifts, shared transportation and worked for each other when one had an exam,” said Abed Hammoud, 48, who in 2011 became an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S.

Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. Because the oldest siblings had to share their parents’ old Buick station wagon, Mazen, Abed and Billal Hammoud attended nearby Wayne State University. When the family acquired another car, Maya and Elvana Hammoud carpooled to the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Mazen Hammoud transferred to the University of Michigan for his doctorate in mechanical engineering so he could drive his sister Maya to her classes for her first two years at the UM Medical School. When they weren’t in class, the children wedged in studies between customers. “Our dad thought a master’s degree was the minimum requirement; he set the bar high,” Abed said. “He devised the gas station as a way to pay for our college and keep us together.” See Hammouds, Page M10

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS THE HAMMOUD FAMILY Mustapha (father), 71, retired coowner of three metro Detroit gas stations Soubhye (mother), 64, retired coowner of three metro Detroit gas stations Abed, 48, assistant U.S. attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan Mazen, 46, chief engineer, electrified LARRY PEPLIN powertrain systems, Ford Motor Co. From left: Mazen, Abed, Billal, Maya, Ali and Elvana Maya, 44, associate chair, Department of Obstetrics and Billal, 42, mechanical engineer, former divisional chief Gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical executive, TT Electronics PLC School, professor of obstetrics and gynecology Ali, 38, private client banker, J.P. Morgan Chase Elvana, 43, operations and audits manager, DTE Energy Co.

Hammouds: 6 for success ■ From Page M9

Every sibling went on to earn a graduate degree or higher in his or her chosen field. Weekends were also spent at the gas station, said Mazen Hammoud, 46, who is chief engineer of electrified powertrain systems at Ford Motor Co. As he changed oil and worked on engines, Mazen discovered he had a passion for combustion. He hired into the General Motors Tech Center as a co-op student in 1990 while attending WSU and took a perma-

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nent job at General Motors Corp. as a powertrain engineer in 1991. He led the engine combustion development system for the small-block V-8 Corvette and some trucks while working toward his master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering. After eight years at GM, Mazen joined Ford in 1998 as a research technical specialist and rose to his current job in 2012. His sister Maya Hammoud, 44, saw so much bloodshed and suffering in her 17 formative years in Lebanon that she wanted to become a doctor. “As a medical professor, I can teach multiple people how to take care of a diverse population,” said Maya, associate chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at UM Medical School and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology. Her father was insistent that she and her sister, Elvana Hammoud, 43, get an education because he thought his own father mistreated his sisters and denied them any chance of formal learning. Elvana, who earned an MBA specializing in marketing and international business from WSU, is operations and audits manager at DTE Energy Co. With a bachelor’s in engineering and an MBA from WSU, Billal Hammoud, 42, has held positions at TI Automotive Inc., Dow Chemical Co., Honeywell International Automation and Control Systems, and London-based TT Electronics PLC, where he was divisional chief executive. Billal left TT Electronics, where he managed a $400 million budget, to take a job in Minneapolis that will involve less global travel. The youngest, Ali Hammoud, 38, was in high school when the others were juggling cars and going to college. But he followed their lead, earning an MBA from WSU. He is a private client banker at Chase Bank in South Lyon. Even as they pursued careers of their own, many of the siblings — including Abed, who by 1996 had become assistant Wayne County prosecuting attorney — continued to work at their parents’ Eastpointe gas station whenever needed. “Dad would arrive at 4 a.m. so I could take a nap before my regular job,” said Abed, who placed second in the Dearborn mayoral race in 2001 against incumbent Michael Guido. Maya said once she was on rounds at the hospital, she got special dispensation from working at the gas station. Their father retired in 2003, freeing the family for other pursuits. The Hammoud family still gets together some Sundays and most holidays to share breakfast and catch up with each other and 13 grandchildren. “Unlike our school days, when we shared everything we learned, we have jobs that are affected by privacy laws,” Abed said. “My wife works in banking, my one sister works in medicine, and I’m in the courtroom. We are mindful of our responsibilities.” But conversations are still lively, he said. “We all love discussing politics and current events.” And of course, they still reminisce about the days they spent at the family gas station.

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS

LARRY PEPLIN

Ronald Acho believes that with opportunities come responsibilities and it is important to give back to the community: “In the long run, (that) helps us all.”

RONALD ACHO Partner and co-founder Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho PLC Livonia Country of origin: Iraq When and why he came to the U.S.: Acho came to the U.S. in 1949 at age 4 with his family, which fled Iraq to escape religious discrimination against Christian Iraqis and pursue a better life. Why he is an American Dreamer: He helped to grow what is now one of the region’s largest law firms and the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce. He also was an early investor in the Bank of Michigan, started by the local Chaldean community to help Middle Easterners and others reach their financial goals. f it weren’t for the Detroit riots in 1967, Ron Acho, 68, might still be working in his family’s Detroit grocery store, stocking rutabagas and wine. Instead, he helps run one of the region’s largest law firms, Livonia-based Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho PLC. A young night school student at the University of Detroit Mercy, Acho watched as his family’s Hamway Market, where he’d worked as a stock boy since age 8, was torched to the ground during the riots. His parents, who’d invested their life savings in the market, could secure only cash and cigarettes from the store before it burned. “We were penniless; no insurance, no building ownership,” Acho said. To help pay his college expenses, Acho got a job as a clerk at Ford Motor Co.’s Rouge Plant. He stayed with the automaker for eight years while earning a bachelor of arts in business administration and marketing, and graduating summa cum laude from UDM, where he met his wife, Rita. He went on to earn his law degree from the Detroit College of Law

but was unable to land a job in Ford’s legal department, something that turned out to be a blessing in disguise, Acho said. He hired into Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho in 1975 when the firm was on a growth spurt. Within a year, he was made partner. Since then, Acho has helped to grow the firm to 40 lawyers and 80 employees across two local offices and locations in Grand Rapids, Traverse City, Kansas City, Mo., and Riverside, Calif. He specializes in employment and business law, working on behalf of hundreds of clients, including DTE Energy Co., Consumers Energy Co., Farmers Insurance and Dean Foods Co. He’s handled more than 8,000 cases; one of his proudest was defending the city of Southfield from accusations of discrimination. Over the years, Acho has been offered several judgeships. And after Operation Desert Storm, he got a call from Washington, D.C., asking him to serve as a special prosecutor of war criminals in Iraq. He declined to leave his family for a year and a half. Acho also does a lot of pro bono work and advocates for humanitarian issues, said Martin Manna, president of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce, which Acho helped start in 2003. Today, the chamber has 900 members representing 3,500 businesses and serves as a central resource for networking the 130,000 Chaldean-Americans in metro Detroit. Acho also was an early investor in the Bank of Michigan in Farmington Hills, which was started by the local Chaldean community in 2005. With opportunities come responsibilities, Acho said, and he believes it is important to give back to the community, especially to those who are less fortunate, so they, too, have the opportunity to improve their lives. “In the long run, (that) helps us all,” he said. — Maureen McDonald

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS ANDREW ANSARA SR. Founder and past chairman Ansara Restaurant Group Inc. Farmington Hills Country of origin: Lebanon When and why he came to the U.S.: After marrying an American, Ansara immigrated in 1951, seeking the opportunity to start his own business. Why he is an American Dreamer: After arriving with $25, Ansara built a restaurant franchise that employs about 2,500 people and has revenue of nearly $70 million. hen Andrew Ansara Sr. came to the United States seeking economic opportunity, he brought with him little more than a willingness to work hard. “I had nothing,” recalled

JOHN SOBCZAK

Andrew Ansara says that when he arrived in the U.S., he could hardly speak English and had $25.

Ansara. “I hardly could speak one word of English, (and) I had $25 in my pocket.” Ansara, 84, turned that into a restaurant operation that today includes 22 Red Robin locations — all

in Michigan except for sites in Toledo and Maumee, Ohio — and six other local restaurants, including 2Booli, Burgrz, Portofino Restaurant, and a 25 Degrees Restaurant in Chicago. Living with his new bride, Jacqueline, and her parents, Ansara made his start working in the meat and vegetable sections at Vic’s Supermarket in Detroit. Two years later, with a firmer grasp of English, he went to work at the former Goebel Brewing Co. in Detroit in maintenance and worked his way up to brewer. He dreamed of being in business for himself, and one day found a small beer and wine store in Detroit that was for sale. But, said Ansara, “I didn’t have any money.” That’s when he struck a deal with a milkman, brokering an $800 loan in return for allowing the milkman to supply his new store, Coyle Market. He used the loan to make a down payment on the store and paid the remainder of the purchase amount from store operations.

After doubling the market’s business, Ansara sold it, turning an investment of a few thousand dollars into $18,000. The sale allowed him to buy Gee’s Drive-In Restaurant in Allen Park before selling it and becoming an Elias Bros. Big Boy franchisee in Garden City in 1961. “I was turned down about five or six times,” Ansara said with a chuckle. “One of the Elias brothers told me, ‘Don’t you take no for an answer?’ I said, ‘Mr. Elias, maybe you told me no, but maybe next week you’ll say yes.’ ” Using a second mortgage on his home to cover startup costs, Ansara got his restaurant. “It was tough; I was putting in at least 15 to 16 hours a day,” said Ansara, whose brother, George, joined him in the business. “In order to be successful, you have to work hard.” The brothers worked for three years to pay off the business, only then allowing themselves a trip to Lebanon to visit the parents they hadn’t seen in 14 years. They grew their Big Boy fran-

chise to 18 locations before selling lower-revenue stores and moving into other restaurants with the purchase of the former Portside Inn — now Portofino — in Wyandotte from the late Heinz Prechter and their first Red Robin 21 years ago. About a year and a half ago, they sold the last six of their Big Boy restaurants. With George Ansara deceased and Andrew Ansara semi-retired, the next generation has taken over. Andrew Ansara’s sons, Victor, Norman and Andrew Jr., and George’s son, Lew, run the business, and a third generation is getting involved in the family trade. Ansara said his one regret is not being able to spend more time with his children while he was building the family business. But during the time he did have with them, he instilled in them the value of hard work and ethical business, he said. “Dealing with people the honest way, you’ll get places,” Ansara said. — Doug Henze

CHOPJIAN FAMILY

LARRY PEPLIN

Kenny Akinwale started in food service to pay his college tuition. He now is CEO of Detroit Seafood Market.

Toros Chopjian, 55, co-owner and director of design and product development, Motif Diamond Designs Inc., Motif Jewelers Inc. Matios Chopjian, 53, owner and operator, Flash Manufacturing LLC Onnig Chopjian, 52, owner, Flash Jewelers, Southfield Jacques Chopjian, 50, manager, Motif Jewelers, Milford Tamar Aguilar, 46, manager, Motif Jewelers, Milford Country of origin: Lebanon When and why they came to the U.S.: Came in the late 1970s to escape the Lebanese civil war.

JOHN SOBCZAK

The Chopjians: Onnig, Toros, Tamar Aguilar, Toros’ son Arakel, Jacques and Matios.

KENNY AKINWALE Owner and CEO Detroit Seafood Market LLC Detroit Country of origin: Nigeria When and why he came to the U.S.: Came to the U.S. in 1983 as a teenager, with his father, to attend school. Why he is an American Dreamer: After a restaurant career that led him to the corporate office of Pizza Hut Inc. and Aramark Corp., Akinwale opened Detroit Seafood Market, which employs 65-75 and has $3 million in revenue. enny Akinwale started in the food service business to pay his college tuition to the University of the District of Columbia. But what began as a job became a passion. While at college, Akinwale got a night job washing dishes at a fine dining restaurant in Silver Spring, Md. Eventually he moved on to what he felt was a better opportunity: an assistant manager at a local, corporately owned Pizza Hut. From there he became a regional training instructor and district manager for Pizza Hut Inc. In 1998 he transferred to Pizza Hut’s corporate office in Dallas, where he became a core process team manager, charged with de-

veloping new operational systems for the restaurant chain. Akinwale developed a system to automate scheduling, staffing and labor forecast that reduced costs and was implemented in 1,200 Pizza Hut locations nationwide. In Dallas, Akinwale earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees online in hotel, restaurant and tourism and parks management from Gulfport, Miss.-based Madison University. He moved to Detroit in 2001 to become regional manager for Aramark Corp., an international food services company, and rose to vice president of operations in 2005, overseeing sites in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Colorado, North Carolina and Missouri. When the former Detroit Fish Market in Detroit’s Harmonie Park shut down, Akinwale saw an opportunity to pursue a lifelong dream and go into business. He leased the building, changed the restaurant’s name to the Detroit Seafood Market and reopened it in the summer of 2010. The business today employs 65-75 and has revenue of $3 million, Akinwale, 51, said. “This country provides an opportunity like no other country in the world. You have to be smart early on and put away some money and have a vision. ... It’s never easy and you never give up.” — Zack Burgess

Why they are American Dreamers: Built jewelry design/manufacturing and retail stores from a basement operation. n Lebanon, there was an expectation that everyone would become a shoemaker, jeweler, tailor or some other type of craftsman. “My father was a shoemaker; my grandfather did some jewelry work ... (and) my uncles and aunts are all artists or painters,” said Toros Chopjian, director of design and product development and cofounder of Taylor-based Motif Jewelers Inc. “Art is in our family.” The Chopjians brought that legacy with them when they came to the U.S.: Matios first, followed by brother Toros; their brothers Jacques and Onnig, sister Tamar Aguilar and their mother, Mayda. The family was sponsored by their sister, the late Nayiri Terian, who died in 1987 from breast cancer. She had come to Detroit with her Armenian-American husband. The brothers immediately sought work in the jewelry business. Toros applied at Paris Jewelry Design in Southfield, where he landed a job as a repairman and helped his brothers get jobs doing similar work. They soon took on design and repair work for department stores and other jewelers. Work they couldn’t complete during the day, they worked on late into the night in the basement

of their Oak Park home. “I knew we could take this out of the basement and get to a small store, so we could ... be known not just by the jewelers but by the customers,” Toros said. In 1983, they launched Flash Jewelers Inc. in a Southfield storefront. The family had enough money to rent the space but no money to buy jewelry. So they put pictures from catalogs in the showcases. Toros would show up to work in a suit and tie and stand in front of the showcases. Nearby jewelers were bewildered. “They thought I was nuts,” he said. “But I was very motivated.” Slowly, the Chopjians added pieces of their own to replace the catalog pictures. For every new jewelry piece they made for a customer, they would make one or two extras to put on display. There even were a few pieces that they had made for their mother. And they continued to do repair work for others. In 1988, the brothers were able to purchase 30,000 jewelry molds and other equipment from the shuttered Motif Manufacturing Co. Inc., which had operated in the David Whitney Building in Detroit. With the equipment came commercial accounts for jewelry and department stores as far away as Kentucky and Missouri. Toros was fascinated by the Motif name and its deep roots in Detroit. Hoping to capitalize on the

brand, he and his wife, Karyn, launched Motif Diamond Designs Inc., as the parent company of Motif Jewelers. The first Motif stores opened in the former Livonia Mall in 1996 before moving two years later to Southland Center in Taylor. To use the molds and equipment, Matios, now 53, founded Flash Manufacturing LLC to create duplicates of original Motif and family designs. Over the past three years, Motif, which employs 30, has opened a second Taylor location and showrooms in Milford and Traverse City. Sales have increased 20 percent since they opened. Jacques, 50, and Tamar, 46, comanage Motif Jewelers in Milford. And Onnig, 52, now owns Flash Jewelers, the Southfield store where it all began. As the family grows, so does the number of Chopjians working in the business. Karyn, 56, is owner of Motif Diamond and president of Motif Jewelers. Their 26-year-old son, Arakel “Eric,” is director of operations, and daughter Jaclyn, 24, is manager of Motif’s second store in Southland Center. Breaking into the business in the U.S. was easier than he expected, Onnig said. Though most jewelry was made by hand in Lebanon and by highproduction equipment in the U.S., “good craftsmanship is appreciated all over the world,” he said. — Shawn Wright

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ISSUE DATE: Dec. 29, 2014 CLOSE DATE: Oct. 31, 2014

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS FADI AOUDE Senior vice president of technology DealerDirect LLC dba FordDirect Dearborn Country of origin: Lebanon When and why he came to the United States: A trip to the U.S. in 1992 with his family for his father’s bypass surgery at Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center turned out to be a permanent stay. Why he’s an American Dreamer: Aoude helped FordDirect move 3,300 corporate and dealer websites to a common technology platform in 2006 and today oversees a $100 million technology budget and is a member of the company’s leadership team supporting all of North America. hroughout the civil war in Beirut, Fadi Aoude and his family stayed, surviving missile launches, school closings, barricades and buses exploding. The country was their home. But his father’s need for a cardiac bypass operation brought the family to Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center in Dearborn in August 1992. Aoude, now 40, stayed in the U.S. after his father’s surgery, taking English classes afternoons and evenings between shifts as a dishwasher, busboy and waiter at LaShish restaurant in Dearborn, where he met his wife. Aoude earned a teaching certifi-

YAHYA BASHA President and founder Basha Diagnostics PC Royal Oak Country of origin: Syria When and why he came to the U.S.: Basha came to the U.S. in 1972 to seek greater opportunity and flee Middle East unrest. Why he is an American Dreamer: Basha built a medical diagnostics company that has grown to 100 employees and $20 million in annual revenue. hen Yahya Basha immigrated to the U.S. in 1972, he was fueled by dreams sparked by the stories he read about U.S. companies as a high school student. “I was imagining I’d succeed, but I’ve had success beyond my imagination,” he said. Today, Basha, 68, runs Basha Diagnostics PC, a 100-employee medical diagnostics business that competes with hospitals, performing magnetic resonance imaging and computer tomography, among other tests. Success didn’t happen overnight. “It took a lot of hard work and sleepless nights,” Basha said. With an ophthalmology degree from the University of Damascus in hand, Basha came to Southeast Michigan to do an internship at Mount Carmel Mercy Hospital in De-

cate at Henry Ford Community College and transferred to the University of Michigan-Dearborn while teaching math and science at Thomas-Gist Academy in Inkster from 1997 to 1999. He earned a bachelor’s in computer science in 2002. A chance meeting helped launch his career. During a friend’s wedding in 2000, Aoude met Hassan Mashhour, who worked for Computer Methods Corp. in Livonia then but now is vice president, delivery services manager at Team Detroit. Mashhour offered Aoude contract work with companies including FordDirect, a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its dealers to manage digital marketing services. After Computer Methods went bankrupt, FordDirect hired Aoude as a quality assurance analyst in 2003. In that position, and later as tech manager and director, Aoude helped move Ford’s 3,300 corporate and dealer websites to a common platform. He was promoted to senior vice president of technology. During his tenure, he’s helped grow FordDirect’s team from 10 people to 130. He now oversees its $100 million technology budget and is part of the company’s leadership team supporting all of North America. — Maureen McDonald

troit. But competition was too stiff to get into a residency program in that field, so Basha opted to train as a radiologist through a three-year residency at Beaumont Health System. In 1980, Basha got the opportunity to buy a small, private imaging business from a retiring physician for only a few thousand dollars. “The practice, at that time, was very small and barely supported the retiring doctor,” said Basha, who has seven children with his wife, Samar. “I was fascinated with the idea of building a larger practice.” Instead of maximizing profit by cutting costs, Basha invested in the latest equipment, including open MRI machines for heavy and claustrophobic patients. “We did not shy away from paying what it takes to make it happen,” he said. Basha also offered less expensive tests than the competition and sometimes had radiologists read results on weekends. Royal Oak-based Basha operates from additional sites in Sterling Heights and Dearborn and generates about $20 million in annual revenue. — Doug Henze

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

AMERICAN|DREAMERS CHAKER AOUN

and to look for a better future.

Founder and CEO Michigan Bottling & Custom Pack Co., Garden Food Distributor Inc. Detroit Country of origin: Lebanon

Why he is an American Dreamer: He is founder or co-founder of several business ventures, including a beverage wholesaler and a beverage bottling company that collectively employ about 105 people in Southeast Michigan and produce combined sales of about $20 million annually.

When and why he came to the U.S.: Aoun came here in 1976 to escape from Lebanon’s civil war

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hen he came to the U.S. in 1976, 21-year-old Chaker Aoun had a high school education and no business background. But he had drive. “You cannot make it sitting home, working three, four hours. You really have to get out there and work … to make things better for you and others,” the Lebanese immigrant said. It’s a philosophy that’s guided Aoun’s path, which began with his first U.S. job processing meat at a former Frederick & Herrud Inc. plant in Detroit. He worked in the plant about a year before buying a small party store in Ecorse, putting up about $3,000 he had saved toward the purchase and paying for the remainder on land contract with the store owner. Aoun, now 59, sold the store in 1980 and moved to Chicago, buying a grocery store, and with a business partner acquired additional stores, gaining management experience and familiarity with the distribution business. He moved to Dearborn in 1989 and established Garden Foods Inc., a beverage wholesaler that Aoun said at its start employed 15 or 20 people and has grown to about 55, now operating as Garden Food Distributor Inc. Garden Food Distributor sells to more than 4,000 Michigan customers — including supermarkets, cafeterias, gas stations,

Chaker Aoun has made his philosophy of hard work pay off as founder and CEO of a beverage wholesaler and a bottling company.

MANOJ BHARGAVA CEO Living Essentials LLC, the producer of 5-Hour Energy Farmington Hills Country of origin: India

LARRY PEPLIN

liquor stores, mini marts and dollar stores — and also sells to about 25 wholesalers outside Michigan, Aoun said. One of the brands he distributed was Old Towne soft drinks, now produced at another company he founded, Michigan Bottling & Custom Pack Co. From its 230,000-squarefoot plant in Detroit, the company produces many brands it has created, including Fresh & Pure fruit juices, the Fruity Doo line of children’s drinks and Twist & Clear flavored waters. Those beverages are distributed through Aoun’s Garden Food and other wholesalers in Michigan and several other states. The plant also bottles for private-label retail accounts. Aoun is also a co-founder of Chase Cash & Carry Inc. in Dearborn, a general merchandise wholesaler of tobacco and grocery

products with about 35 employees, and Bargain Club, a retailer of closeout, excess inventory and liquidation merchandise that includes national brand names. Established by Aoun and Nasser Beydoun, vice president, multicultural marketing at Bassett & Bassett Inc. and former executive director and chairman of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, Bargain Club sells online and at through a Westland store opened in November 2012. Additional Southeast Michigan stores are planned this year, Aoun said. Achieving success hasn’t come without sacrifice, he said. Working eight and nine hours wasn’t enough. Sometimes, Aoun said, you work 14, 15 hours per day “and you think you still need to do more.” — Amy Lane

Manoj Bhargava distills the strategy that made 5-Hour Energy a household name: “Where do you want to compete? In the beverage cooler with some of the bestknown brands on Earth, or next to the cash register with the key chains?”

When and why he came to the U.S.: Moved here at age 14 with his family, following his father’s academic career. Why he is an American Dreamer: Creating 5-Hour Energy built an empire of wealth that Bhargava is turning into philanthropy and venture capital.

reate a product, find a way to sell it, make a billion dollars.

It’s a dream for many, but it’s real life for Manoj Bhargava, 61, and 5-Hour Energy. The son of a college professor, Bhargava moved to the U.S. at age 14 from Lucknow, India. He didn’t follow the path of academia like his father. Instead, he dropped out of business school at Princeton University after one year to pursue life experiences and feed his entrepreneurial drive. He opted for a string of odd jobs such as driving a cab, laying bricks and driving a dump truck. In 1990, he came across a company for sale that produced vinyl strapping for outdoor furniture. Because he was able to negotiate a sale price that was less than the amount of money that could be generated by selling the assets, he was able to find a bank willing to back him. He turned the company around and parlayed that into the acquisi-

NATHAN SKID

tion of another company in the plastics supply chain, Prime PVC Inc. in Marion, Ind. When he built the firm to $25 million in sales in 2000, he retired. He sold it in 2006. After “failing at retirement,” as he terms it, he set out looking for new ideas and inventions that needed his business acumen. Eventually he found the idea of 5Hour Energy at a trade show and added the innovation of putting it into the smaller 2-ounce bottle rather than the larger bottles of other energy drinks. The drink is a brand manufactured and distributed by parent company Living Essentials LLC, based in Farmington Hills. “Where do you want to compete?” he asked in a past Crain’s interview. “In the beverage cooler with some of the best-known brands on Earth, or next to the cash register with the key chains?” He opted for the latter. In 2013, retail sales of 5-Hour Energy grossed $1.2 billion, Bharga-

va said. Charity is also a priority for him. He’s taken Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge,” vowing to give 50 percent of his wealth to charity. Bhargava’s roots play a large role in his current philanthropy strategy. Through an India-based organization called the Hans Foundation, he donates to charities throughout India. His focus is the country’s Uttarakhand state, which he has “adopted.” He works closely with the government and people in that area. The goal for his giving, much like the goal for running his company, is to “be useful.” “The jargon of philanthropy is sustainability,” he said. “Things don’t need to be sustainable; people just need to be helped. If I am poor, if I am starving, I might be dead by tomorrow, I need help today. “What we need to do is go to them, ask them what they need, and find a way to give it to them.” — Daniel Duggan

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS CORNELIUS ‘NEIL’ DE KOKER Founder Original Equipment Suppliers Association Troy Country of origin: the Netherlands When and why he came to the U.S.: De Koker arrived at Ellis Island in 1951 with his parents, who sought a better life for their family. Why he is an American Dreamer: After a career with General Motors Corp. that included heading its energy conservation programs during the 1973 oil embargo and helping identify labormanagement relations changes that spurred the creation of Saturn Corp., De Koker founded the Original Equipment Suppliers Association to provide resources and a forum for auto suppliers. ight-year-old Neil De Koker arrived at Ellis Island in December 1951, and his family decided to try its hand at farming on a 160-acre plot in Daviston, Ala. But the soil didn’t yield crops, and the family moved to Grand Rapids two years later. From there, De Koker, now 70, pursued an electrical engineering degree at then-General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) and was hired by General Motors Corp. as an electrical engineer in 1962. He moved swiftly up the ranks at the automaker, becoming manager of energy conservation and attending White House meetings on energy policy on auto plant emissions and fuel economy standards in the 1970s. In 1984, as director of business development and advanced product engineering, he joined the group that visited GM and competitive factories around the world. The group benchmarked the best in manufacturing, marketing, sales and human relations. De Koker helped to identify labor-management relations changes and to draft the new agreement with the United Auto Workers in the 1980s that spurred the creation of Saturn Corp. He went on to become director of business systems at Saturn before leaving in 1985 to become senior vice president of Magna International Inc. in Canada and president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association of Canada in the early 1990s. In 1998, he launched the Original Equipment Suppliers Association as a trade group for all North American suppliers and led it until 2013. OESA represents more than 70 percent of North American automotive suppliers with combined global automotive sales of $300 billion. — Maureen McDonald

HAIFA FAKHOURI President and CEO Arab American and Chaldean Council Lathrup Village Country of origin: Jordan When and why she came to the U.S.: When political instability and a looming battle between Palestinian refugees and native Jordanians threatened Fakhouri’s family, they came to the U.S. in 1968. Why she is an American Dreamer: Haifa Fakhouri founded the Arab American and Chaldean Council, which has grown into one of North America’s largest human services organizations for the Middle Eastern community, operating 44 local centers on a $14 million budget. t’s an image that wouldn’t leave Haifa Fakhouri’s mind: a family of five or six sharing a onebedroom apartment in a Detroit neighborhood, sleeping on the floor, drying underwear on the

Haifa Fakhouri in 1979 launched the Arab American and Chaldean Council.

radiators and praying they’d have enough food for the week. The image prompted her to found what has become one of the largest human service organizations for the Middle Eastern community in North America. After coming to Detroit as a Jordanian refugee with her family in 1968, Fakhouri, now 69, set about earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work

from Wayne State University in 1974 and spent the next nine years working at a number of agencies that provided services for the impoverished. She met the late Rev. John Badeen of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in the mid1970s. He begged her to form an organization to help the people who’d fled civil wars and were miserable and starving in Detroit. She went back to college, combining studies at Mansoura University in Egypt and WSU to earn a doctorate in education psychology in 1986. While still working on her thesis on the plight of Middle Eastern women, she made contacts at the United Nations, which led to positions as international adviser to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world, and international consultant on Middle Eastern women and population policies to the United Nations. She worked from Detroit and the Middle East for a year before returning to Detroit to launch an agency to help Arab Americans in metro Detroit.

With a promise from Michigan Gov. William Milliken to provide a $2 match in state funding for anything she raised, which gave her $20,000 total, Fakhouri set up an office in the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit in 1979 and launched the Arab American and Chaldean Council. The organization provided immigration assistance, health care, employment training, job placement and other services to 421 people the first year. Last year it served more than 79,000. In 1995, Fakhouri launched fundraising and work to build a $37 million community services campus at Seven Mile Road and John R. To date, ACC has opened four buildings offering a variety of health and social services to the community and has worked with local businesses to revitalize their buildings in the neighborhood with state funding. This month, ACC began the Community Development Company of North Detroit to continue commercial redevelopment, expand ACC’s services and move into housing development. — Maureen McDonald

INA FERNANDEZ Managing director, shareholder Liberty Capital Management Inc. Birmingham Country of origin: India When and why she came to the U.S.: Came to America in 1972 to earn an MBA in finance from the University of Detroit Mercy. Why she is an American Dreamer: She has managed financial portfolios for more than 25 years, handling hundreds of millions of dollars for individuals, nonprofits and foundations. na Fernandez came to the U.S. to pursue better opportunities for women in the workplace. But she almost wound up heading back to her native India. In 1974, two years after she had come to the U.S. to pursue an MBA at the University of Detroit Mercy, a recession hit, and the U.S. Department of Labor decided to crack down on foreign nationals. Fernandez, who’d come into the country on a student visa, did not have a green card. After graduating from UDM, she spent six months with General Motors Corp. as a trainee in financial management before leaving to take a staff auditor position in internal accounting at the former National Bank of Detroit, now J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. “My 18 months had lapsed; I got a notice posted on my apartment door that said I had six weeks or so to make arrangements and leave the country,” she said. Fernandez had just met the man who would become her future husband and was motivated to stay. She found an immigration lawyer who was able to get NBD to sponsor her for a work

Ina Fernandez, managing director of Liberty Capital Management, credits friends and colleagues — most of whom were women — for helping her advance in her career, and she tries to pay it forward.

GLENN TRIEST

visa and, later, a green card. She worked at NBD from 197577 before joining then-Coopers & Lybrand as a senior audit manager. In 1984, Fernandez went to work for Comerica Inc., serving as vice president of trust administration and director of internal audit before becoming senior portfolio manager for Comerica Capital Management in 1989. From there she headed to Woodbridge Capital Management and later Munder Capital Management, where she directed more than $200 million in assets after a 14year career. She specialized in socially responsible investments, endowments and foundations. Four years ago, Fernandez joined Birmingham-based Liberty Capital Management Inc. as managing director and shareholder, managing $20 million in assets and helping to grow the firm’s client roster.

Fernandez, 62, credits multiple colleagues and friends for helping her along the way; most of them were women. To pay it forward, Fernandez has served as past president of Inforum and as a board member and treasurer of the Michigan Women’s Foundation. As she recounts her path to the U.S. and through her career, Fernandez talks of her earliest role model: her mother, Leonora, a retired teacher, who was chairwoman of the Bombay Teachers’ Association and, in essence, a single mom because her husband traveled a lot for work.

“It was a very conservative society, in India. My mother was a very strong woman … (and) a feminist before there ever was a word for it,” Fernandez said. “My sister and I were sheltered from preconceived notions of what women were about.” That strength spurred Fernandez to find a career of her own. She admits that being in a maledominated profession pushes her to succeed. “This is what’s different about the U.S. than other places of the world,” Fernandez said. “You know that if you do well, there are opportunities for you to succeed.” — Shawn Wright

This is what’s “ different about the

U.S. ... You know that if you do well, there are opportunities for you to succeed.

”

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS FADHEL GANNOUNI

him, lived and thrived here, so he came to the U.S. in 1996.

Co-founder La Marsa Mediterranean Cuisine Farmington Hills Country of origin: Tunisia

Why he is an American Dreamer: Gannouni started out waiting tables; a decade later, he’s coowner of a Middle Eastern restaurant chain with more than $10 million in annual revenue.

When and why he came to the U.S.: His uncle, who had mentored

Congratulations to

Dr. Radwan Khoury President & CEO of Gateway Community Health on being chosen as one of Crain’s American Dreamers

Gateway’s mission is “improving the quality of life through evidence-based practices.” Personal Centered Network Partners: Adult Well-Being Services Arab American and Chaldean Council Community Care Services Detroit Central City Community Mental Health Gateway-Detroit East Lincoln Behavioral Services Arab American and Chaldean Council www.myacc.com

Community Detroit Central City Care Services Community Mental Health www.comcareserv.org www.dcccmh.org

Gateway Detroit East www.gchi.org

Lincoln Behavioral Services www.lbscares.com

Fadhel Gannouni waited on tables before opening his first La Marsa in 2007. Now, he hopes to grow the business into a national restaurant chain. JAMES LADY

One taught him: “To succeed in your life, use from here to here,” he said, gesturing from his chin to the top of his head. He moved to the U.S. in July 1996 at age 23 to be near an uncle, who lived in San Diego, had a hotel and had worked for Coca-Cola Co. He always did good and respected people, from the oldest and the youngest, Gannouni said. “I want to be a copy of him.” Two years later, Gannouni came to Michigan, seeking work. He landed the server’s job and learned about hospitality. “I like to serve people ... to make people happy,” he said. Starting La Marsa in 2007 as the U.S. headed into a recession actu-

ally created opportunities. As other restaurants closed, Gannouni and his partners could lease them out. He opened the company’s eighth location, in West Bloomfield Township, last year and is looking to open in downtown or Midtown Detroit and in Plymouth. Annual revenue for the chain is $10 million to $12 million, Gannouni said. He hopes to grow La Marsa’s mix of Lebanese, Egyptian, Tunisian and a few Israeli dishes into a national chain. Gannouni said he’s learned a lot in the U.S. “You can have anything you want if you work hard,” he said. — Vickie Elmer

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t La Marsa Mediterranean Cuisine, some waiters get training to become managers and some step up to become partners in new locations for the growing Middle Eastern restaurant chain. The career track makes perfect sense to co-founder Fadhel Gannouni, since he took the same journey. He waited on tables at a local banquet hall and La Shish before opening the first La Marsa in 2007 in a tiny former deli in Farmington Hills with two business partners. “We came. We painted. We fixed it. We started with, like, four tables,” he said. Gannouni, 41, met his two business partners while they worked at La Shish; one was a chef and one was a manager. “I used to work three jobs; I saved my money,” he said. And so did his partners. They started La Marsa after Gannouni was let go from La Shish after he spoke up about a tiny tip his coworker received from a party of 10. “The server, they have a family too, like you,” he said. Gannouni grew up poor in Tunisia. His family was unschooled and ate only two meals a day, he said. Yet he connected to some business owners in his native country, and they instilled in him a zeal to work for himself.

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Do you remember your first ”Eureka” moment?

AMERICAN|DREAMERS

How will eureka technologies affect businesses in the coming decade? >05»Z YLZLHYJO [LHT PZ WLYMVYTPUN J\[[PUNɫLKNL YLZLHYJO [V OLSW 4PJOPNHU LTWSV`LYZ LJVUVTPJ KL]LSVWLYZ LU[YLWYLUL\YZ HJHKLTPJPHUZ ^VYRMVYJL KL]LSVWLYZ HUK V[OLYZ \UKLYZ[HUK RL` PUUV]H[PVUZ [OH[ HYL SPRLS` [V KYHTH[PJHSS` JOHUNL [OL ^H` ^L KV I\ZPULZZ JYLH[L UL^ QVIZ HUK LU[LYWYPZLZ HUK ZOHWL V\Y [HSLU[ In as little as 10 minutes, you can make an important impact on the research by taking our survey at: www.ssgresearch.com/WIN-AD

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Lydia Gutierrez hasn’t always found it easy to run Hacienda Mexican Foods, but she has led the company to “go out there and be a lot more aggressive” in sales.

LYDIA GUTIERREZ Co-founder and president Hacienda Mexican Foods LLC Detroit Country of origin: Puerto Rico When and why she came to the U.S.: Her parents moved to the mainland when she was an infant, looking for better opportunities. Why she is an American Dreamer: Gutierrez is president of Hacienda Mexican Foods LLC, which has about 50 employees and $5 million in revenue; chairwoman of the West Vernor & Springwells Business Improvement District board; past chairwoman of the Southwest Detroit Business Association; and a member of the Henry Ford Health System executive board. ydia Gutierrez’s company operates within blocks of where she attended high school in southwest Detroit — but 1,900 miles from her birthplace in Puerto Rico. She remembers little about the Caribbean island that she left at around a year old but plenty about going to Clark Park for tennis or ice skating and her years at Western International High School. Gutierrez, 54, was the youngest of six children, and her parents were active in Detroit’s Latino community as pastors of a Spanish-speaking church. They instilled in her an appreciation for community and hard work. “We lived a pretty simple life,” she said. Years later, in 1990, Gutierrez used that work ethic when she and her late husband, Ricardo, started Hacienda Mexican Foods in a tiny space in southwest Detroit. The

company made tortillas and tortilla chips and hired five workers within a few years. She helped with sales, answered phones, handled paperwork and learned the business. When Ricardo, died in 2005, she focused on growing the business and raising their two sons, Gabriel and Michael. One will work at Hacienda this summer. Running the company hasn’t always been easy. A couple of years ago, Hacienda lost a key customer that set up its own factory, a move that reduced sales but gave Gutierrez’s company an opportunity to bring in a lot of new customers, too, she said. “We’ve had to go out there and be a lot more aggressive,” Gutierrez said, adding that Hacienda is growing again and hiring workers again. In a bid to be more competitive, Hacienda installed around $700,000 in automated packing equipment about 18 months ago and cut staff to 50 employees from 80. Gutierrez said she cut her hours, too. “We were working 20 hours a day. It was real consuming,” she said. Hacienda instituted flexible work schedules to allow employees to choose the days they need off. Gutierrez is outspoken on the need for the growing number of Latino-owned businesses in southwest Detroit to give back by volunteering and serving on boards. She and her company have offered employees — many of whom come from South America, Jordan or Poland — classes in English as a second language and soon will launch GED classes for them. — Vickie Elmer

Provide your insights at: www.ssgresearch.com/WIN-AD

A RIVER OF CHANGE FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy has been on a mission to transform the riverfront. Starting in June, we will introduce our latest jewel, Mt. Elliott Park, featuring a Great Lakes schooner-themed water feature, and later this year, officially open phase one of the West Riverfront, which includes a 20-acre majestic green space. Along with the Cullen Family Carousel, William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor, a soon-to-be expanded Dequindre Cut Greenway and so much more, we invite you to take it all in. Join us and help be a part of the transformation on the river. Come visit us at detroitriverfront.org.

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ANDREA HACHEM President and CEO Midfield Concession Enterprises Inc. Romulus Country of origin: Germany When and why she came to the U.S.: After meeting her husband, Dean, an American visiting Germany, Hachem immigrated to the U.S. in 1983. Why she is an American Dreamer: Hachem built a $40 million enterprise that manages a total of 37 restaurants at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and six other major U.S. airports. ndrea Hachem’s path to the U.S. began as a love story but turned into a tale of business success. After meeting the man she’d later marry, she quit her job as a nurse, sold her car and followed him to the U.S. That was the beginning of her restaurant career. She worked as a waitress in her husband’s Dearborn restaurant Mr. Shish Kabob, a restaurant the couple later sold, learning the business and English at the same time. Hachem increasingly took on greater responsibility and with

her husband went on to open The Sheik Restaurant, a West Bloomfield Township establishment the couple sold eight years ago. Hachem saw another opportunity when Wayne County began looking for concessionaires for Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s Edward H. McNamara Terminal in 2001. “We wanted to go in there with some new food — Mediterranean food,” Hachem, 52, said. While other large restaurants came to bid with lawyer entourages, she took only her chef along. “I bid and won against some big shots,” she said. Her company’s first restaurant at the airport, Mediterranean Grill, snowballed into 15 more at Metro, ranging from Sora Japanese Restaurant to Hungry Howie’s Pizza & Subs, Quiznos Subs, Waterworks Bar & Grille and Mrs. Fields. Hachem has also secured contracts to operate restaurants at other major airports. “They liked how we operated — customer service, cleanliness and good food,” said Hachem,

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS HASSAN JABER whose husband is director of operations for the company. Today, Midfield Concession Enterprises Inc. operates 37 restaurants at Detroit Metro and major airports near Boston, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J. The $40 million company employs about 550. Competition among airport eateries is intense, she said. “You always have to be on the edge, always looking for ways to serve your customers,” Hachem said. “People are into green food now, organic food. You have to think of that. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.” Making that work more manageable is technology. To keep on top of so many locations, Hachem uses cameras that feed images into her office. “We have regional managers (who) take care of the business,” she said. “If I see something wrong, I call the manager.” While the business brings constant challenges, from finding servers who actually want to serve to figuring out ways to please customers, Hachem said she’s confident she picked the right profession. “I love people,” she said. “For me, it was the right thing to be in the restaurant business.” — Doug Henze

Executive director Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services Country of origin: Lebanon When and why he came to the U.S.: Came in 1977 to join his family members who’d immigrated to the U.S. three years earlier. Why he is an American Dreamer: He helped grow the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services from a storefront in Dearborn to eight locations serving more than 70,000 people on an $18 million budget, and helped raise $20 million to launch the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, the only museum of its kind in the U.S., in 2005. s a teenager, Hassan Jaber thought he was courageous enough to remain alone in Lebanon and survive the civil war there after his family immigrated to the U.S., but the incessant guns of war persuaded him to leave three years later. The airport was shuttered and land passage was dangerous, so Jaber took a fishing boat to Cyprus and headed to Egypt to apply for a U.S. visa. Seven months later, he arrived in America. Jaber, now 57, took odd jobs to finance classes at Henry Ford Community

College in 1978. During his free time he volunteered with Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, which serves immigrants. He transferred to Wayne State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1982 and a master’s degree in public administration two years later. He became COO at ACCESS while finishing his college degrees and in 2007 rose to executive director. Over the years, Jaber helped grow ACCESS from a volunteer organization with $10,000 in donations to one that employs 300 people and is operating on an $18 million budget this year, up from $17 million in 2013. During the 1990s, he taught Arabic language and culture at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and lectured around the country on social justice, immigrants and Arab Americans. In 1993, he helped found the “Concert of Colors” festival, raising funds to bring musicians from nations around the globe to perform in Detroit. Jaber also helped raise $20 million — including $2.5 million from trips to Middle Eastern countries — to fund the 2005 renovation of a former department store in Dearborn as the home for the Arab American National Museum, the first and only museum in the U.S. devoted to Arab-American history. — Maureen McDonald

Congratulations

Dr. Radwan Khoury 2014 Crain’s Detroit Business American Dreamer

Gateway Community Health congratulates Radwan Khoury, Ph.D., President and CEO, for his recognition as one of Crain’s Detroit Business American Dreamers for 2014. Under Dr. Khoury’s visionary leadership, Gateway is a success story in delivering excellence in: •

Outcome Integrated care – Gateway is at the forefront in the U.S. in offering integrated outpatient primary healthcare, dental, mental health and substance use services all under one behavioral health home model, with futuristic vision.

•

Consumer-centered care – Gateway is committed to self-determination and meaningful member involvement through our Independent Advisory Board, peer support programs, active membership on our Board of Directors, and by employing consumers.

•

Data-driven care – Together with research partners at the Psychiatry Department, School of Medicine, Wayne State University and a robust information technology system Gateway closely evaluates outcomes to assure quality and cost effectiveness of care, including medication and hospital stay reviews.

•

Technology-enhanced care – Through telemedicine Gateway expands access to expert treatment while alleviating the shortage of psychiatrists in community mental health clinics.

•

Cultural Competence - Gateway Community Health provides access to high quality, comprehensive and culturally competent mental health and substance use services for children, adults and families in Detroit and Wayne County.

As behavioral health services evolve in the coming years, Dr. Khoury’s vision will enable Gateway to continue to deliver the outcomes that allow our members to meet life goals.

1333 Brewery Park Blvd. Suite 100 | Detroit, MI 48207-2635 www.gchi.org | (800) 973-4283 (GATE)

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS KALYAN HANDIQUE President and CEO DeNovo Sciences Inc. Plymouth Township Country of origin: India When and why he came to the U.S.: Arrived in 1995 to get his Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Why he is an American Dreamer: While At the University of Michigan, Handique co-founded HandyLab Inc., a medical device company that sold for $275 million, before taking the helm of DeNovo Sciences Inc., another medical device startup that’s secured $3.3 million in seed funding and its first orders from the American Association for Cancer Research in April. alyan Handique and Sundaresh Brahmasandra, both 41, are serial entrepreneurs. While attending the University of Michigan, the chemical engineering students co-founded medical device company HandyLab Inc. in 2000 to make bench-top devices for quick analysis of body fluids for use in research and the pharmaceutical industry. To launch the company, they began meeting with potential in-

SUNDARESH BRAHMASANDRA President NeuMoDx Molecular Inc. Ann Arbor Country of origin: India When and why he came to the U.S.: To get his Ph.D. in chemical engineering, enrolling at Drexel University in Philadelphia in 1994 before transferring to the University of Michigan in 1996. Why he is an American Dreamer: Co-founded HandyLab Inc. with Handique before joining yet another medical device startup, NeuMoDx Molecular Inc., which in April closed on a $21 million venture capital round led by Pfizer Venture Investments of New York. vestors the year before. One of them, Tom Porter, a co-founder of Ann Arbor-based EDF Ventures LLC, served as a mentor. He helped Handique and Brahmasandra with their business plan, then wrote them a check for seed funding and provided a small office at EDF’s headquarters on Main Street in Ann Arbor. Gov. Rick Snyder, a venture capitalist at the time, was chairman of HandyLab’s board and an-

ROBERT CHASE

Kalyan Handique co-founded HandyLab Inc. with Sundaresh Brahmasandra while both were students at the University of Michigan.

other early investor. In 2009, Handique and Brahmasandra sold HandyLab to New Jersey-based Becton, Dickinson and Co. for $275 million. It took a while for the two to get green cards, because no one had heard of HandyLab, Brahmasandra said. “We had to wait a while until we had some success.” That early success of building a company and getting funding at HandyLab eventually led to a green card for both him and Handique for what are termed by the federal government “aliens of ex-

traordinary ability,” Brahmasandra said. Not one to rest on his laurels or his bank account, Handique joined DeNovo Sciences Inc., another startup that makes medical devices that detect early stage cancer by trapping cancer cells floating in the bloodstream, as president and CEO in 2011. DeNovo made its first big splash in 2011 as winner of the $500,000 grand prize at the Accelerate Michigan Innovation contest. In April, the company brought its devices to market, taking orders

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from researchers at the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego. DeNovo, which employs seven, Brahmasandra has raised $3.3 million, including the Accelerate Innovation award and $2.8 million in angel investing. Brahmasandra didn’t sit idle for long after the sale of HandyLab, either. In 2011, he became president of life sciences company Life Magnetics Inc., but a year later he and CEO and chairman, Jeff Williams, who was CEO of HandyLab, decided the cost and time to get to market were too much and killed it. Brahmasandra and Williams went on to co-found NeuMoDx Molecular Inc. to develop medical devices that can detect genetic disorders, cancers and other diseases, with $5 million from Arboretum Ventures LLC. In April, the new company announced it had closed on a venture capital round, led by Pfizer Venture Investments of New York City, of $21 million, one of the larger rounds of venture capital in the state in recent years. — Tom Henderson

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS in downtown Detroit, and revenue is expected to double this year to about $2.5 million. Compuware Ventures LLC made the first investment in iRule, with Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert’s venture capCo-founder, chief technology ital arm, Detroit Venture Partners, officer joining a subsequent funding iRule LLC round. Detroit After winCountry of origin: Russia ning Detroit’s Google Demo Day competiWhen and why he came to the tion, the comU.S.: Arrived in 2005 to work for a pany won the local subsidiary of Israeli comparight to pitch ny CogniTens Ltd. its business plan to Google Inc. executives in April. Nemirovsky IRule’s first Co-founder and CEO customers were those with highiRule LLC end home entertainment systems. Detroit Last year, it began marketing to hospitals, universities and large Country of origin: Israel commercial customers, aiming to When and why he came to the do for corporate and institutional U.S.: Came in 1986 when his faconference centers what they inither, Joseph, opened the U.S. tially did for man caves. subsidiary of Israel-based TecnoOne big customer is CNN in New matix Corp. in Southfield. York City, where “every room has Why they are American Dreamers: a bunch of TVs,” said Ben-Gal. Both Nemirovsky and Ben-Gal Co-founded iRule, a company to say life in the U.S. has been relabetter connect and manage hightively trouble-free. end home and entertainment Ben-Gal said he was teased in systems through mobile devices, grade school for being small and that’s drawn investments from for having an accent, but most of Compuware Ventures and Tom the teasing was harmless. “The acLaSorda’s IncWell venture fund cent went away quickly. I never and the opportunity to pitch the once felt like an outsider,” he said. business plan to Google Inc. “The U.S. is very warm and generally accepting. You have this ictor Nemirovsky came here melting pot culture here that you in 2005, after spending 15 years don’t have in Israel.” in Tel Aviv, Israel, to work at Nemirovsky was here just two the Southeast Michigan subweeks before he met his future sidiary of Israeli company wife, Tanya, thanks to an invitaCogniTens Ltd., which provided celtion from Ben-Gal to attend a vollular location tracking technology. leyball game of Russian immiOn his first day, he met another grants. Ben-Gal has been his immigrant, Itai Ben-Gal, and they mentor and became friends. best friend, Nemirovsky, now Nemirovsky 41, and Ben-Gal, 36, said. had no idea “Immigratthey were ing here was founding a much easier company than when I when they emigrated to decided in Israel, which 2009 that is a small, there had to tense society,” be a better he said. “Isway to manraelis are age home enwarm, too, but tertainment systems this is a than a tableful of refriendlier culmote controls. They ture to come were just hoping to to.” Itai Ben-Gal make $2,000 each to As for his help out with family vacation exmentor, Ben-Gal said, “Begrudgingpenses by designing and selling ly, my father. I did everything difuniversal remote control apps for ferent from him. He was a businessiPhones and iPads to fellow geeks man. I went into computers. He was they’d met in chat rooms. always wrong, I was always right. By then, they both had jobs in In my late 20s, I realized he had acthe auto supply chain locally and tually been right about everything.” planned to keep them, Ben-Gal at Ben-Gal said his father, Joseph, Plymouth-based Perceptron Inc., who had co-founded Farmington and Nemirovsky in Wixom at Hills-based Gal-Mar LLC to provide Hexagon Metrology Ltd., a division consulting and financing to Israeli of a Swedish company that had companies, helped incorporate bought CogniTens. iRule and did the company’s taxes. But a company they have. In A year ago, Ben-Gal and Ne2010, iRule LLC’s first full year of mirovsky convinced Joseph to business, the company had revjoin iRule as chairman and CFO. enue of $110,000 through sales in “It got to where we were going 30 countries. In 2011, they raised a to him seven days a week for free, seed round of $500,000 and later so ... I convinced him to quit his raised another $1.1 million in lucrative private equity business and take a pay cut and come here,” funding as they grew the business. Ben-Gal said. They now operate with 17 em— Tom Henderson ployees in the Madison Building

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS

t was love of soccer that helped Dubliners Patrick O’Leary and Godfrey Nolan get a foothold in their careers after coming to the U.S. A soccer teammate pointed O’Leary toward the telecommunications industry, and he paid it forward by linking Godfrey — whom he’d met while watching a televised soccer match — to the work that launched his IT services company. Here are their stories:

JOUMANA KAYROUZ Lawyer and owner Law Offices of Joumana Kayrouz PLLC Southfield Country of origin: Lebanon

PATRICK O’LEARY

When and why she came to the U.S.: Came in 1986 with her husband, who was accepted in a residency program at Yale University. Why she is an American Dreamer: Grew a solo practice into a multimillion-dollar, high-profile personal injury law firm employing 70. anding in America with only a minimal knowledge of English she had gleaned during classes at the American University of Beirut, Joumana Kayrouz entered Connecticut State University to complete the undergraduate degree in philosophy that she’d begun in her homeland. Within months of arriving, she became pregnant with the first of two daughters. While her husband worked long hours, completing a residency at a nearby hospital, Kayrouz immersed herself in language, philosophy and ethics. She taped her lectures and listened to them repeatedly to master her studies, earning her bachelor’s degree and transferring to Yale University to earn a master’s in ethics in 1992. That same year, she and her husband moved to Ann Arbor when he took a job at a surgical center. Kayrouz entered Wayne State University and earned her law degree five years later. By the time she graduated from law school, she could speak fluent Arabic, French, Italian and English, having built on early language lessons in Lebanon. By 1998, her marriage had ended, and she took an entrylevel lawyer job at the former Philo, Atkinson, Stephens, Wright,

CEO TelNet Worldwide Inc. Troy Country of origin: Ireland When and why he came to the U.S.: Came to the U.S. to play on a Gaelic football league in Chicago for several summers before moving here in 1984 after marrying his wife, who was American. Why he is an American dreamer: Grew LDMI Telecommunications Inc. to $100 million in sales before its 2005 sale to Talk America Holdings Inc.and now is CEO of TelNet Worldwide Inc., with 110 employees and revenue of $20 million.

LARRY PEPLIN

After her 1986 arrival in the U.S., Joumana Kayrouz earned a law degree and established a firm that handles thousands of personal injury cases each year.

Whitaker & Philo PC. She rose swiftly to junior partner. When principal Harry Philo retired in 2002, she started her own firm. A dozen years later, the Law Offices of Joumana Kayrouz PLLC has 18 attorneys and 52 other employees working on thousands of personal injury cases each year. Kayrouz, 50, appears on more than 750 billboards and buses bearing the motto “Know your rights.” The advertisements don’t bring her clients, she said. She uses them to brand her image with the public as a smart, attractive lawyer who helps the injured. Kayrouz counts on word-ofmouth advertising to bring her clients. Her referral base from satisfied customers brings her “millions and millions,” she said. “I am very blessed.” She looks at her work as not only a way to make money but a way to help rebuild lives, she

ANTONIO LUCK Director of business acceleration, entrepreneurship and innovation Michigan Economic Development Corp. Lansing Country of origin: Brazil When and why he came to the U.S.: Came to Detroit in 2006 as part of a student exchange program between Tuiuti University of Parana in Brazil and Wayne State University, after a personal invitation from former WSU President Irvin Reid. Why he is an American Dreamer: Helped launch Monarch Antenna Inc. as a spinoff from Delphi Technologies Inc. and now directs the teams that manage the state’s investment portfolio of startup technology companies, research and infrastructure grants, and entrepreneur assistance, while managing the Pure Michigan Venture Match Fund. ntonio Luck expected to come to Detroit to earn his MBA, take in the sights and then return to Brazil, but it didn’t work out like that. While serving as an adviser to the president of Tuiuti University of Parana in Brazil, Luck, a student at the university, met Irvin Reid, then pres-

said. “You’re dealing not just with economic loss and physical limitations that people might have from their accidents but also with their depression, their personal relationships and their daily struggles,” Kayrouz said. In 2012, the American Arab Chamber of Commerce named her “Economic Bridge Builder of the Year,” noting that she was the only woman to own a major personal injury law firm in Michigan. Kayrouz, who supports a number of political candidates, has been invited to meet with President Barack Obama on several occasions. She appears on a twice-weekly radio show on WNZK AM 680/690, a local ethnic station, speaking on topics such as the five most common personal injuries, record-keeping and tax credits. — Maureen McDonald

ident of Wayne State University. It was Reid’s encouragement and the prospect of living abroad that brought Luck, who was completing a civil engineering degree and a law degree, to Detroit in 2006. “I wanted to see where it would take me,” Luck said. “I had only been to the U.S. one other time ... had two bags and only knew one person … Dr. Reid.” That first year at WSU, Luck, 33, won the Adams Entrepreneurial Fellowship and with it a stint at Delphi Technologies. In 2008, Delphi hired him as a business development manager assisting with intellectual property and commercialization. He was a member of the team that helped Delphi launch spinoff company Monarch Antenna Inc. Luck, who is in the country on a work visa and seeking a green card, joined the Michigan Economic Development Corp. in 2009 to oversee statewide investments in early-stage technology companies and last year was named director of business acceleration, entrepreneurship and innovation, overseeing the portfolio management team, research and infrastructure grants and the Pure Michigan Venture Match Fund. — Shawn Wright

uring summers off from college, O’Leary would fly to Chicago to play in a Gaelic football league that competed with peer leagues in other cities with large Irish immigrant communities, such as New York and Boston. The team would pay to fly O’Leary and others to play in the amateur league — a cross between soccer and rugby. He’d also line up work in construction or at a bar. “The leagues were very competitive, and the clubs would fly people out to strengthen the teams they were affiliated with,” said O’Leary, 59. He did that from 1976-1981 before returning home to work toward a bachelor’s degree in history and economics and a post-graduate degree in education from the University College Dublin. One summer, he met his late wife, Beth, while in the U.S. They lived in Ireland for a short time before moving to Chicago in 1984, leaving behind the economic recession and political tensions in Ireland. He taught high school social studies for two years before looking for part-time work to augment his salary. A passing mention to a local soccer league teammate that he was looking for part-time work proved to be the first step into a new career in telecommunications. His teammate’s wife, who worked for Combined Network Inc., got him an evening job doing telemarketing sales for the longdistance services company. Interested in the business, O’Leary offered to write a training curriculum for new salespeople. The project led to other positions and later to director of sales and marketing, and after Combined became Allnet Communication Services Inc., a transfer to Allnet’s Bingham Farms office in 1991. New York-based Ram Mobile Data recruited O’Leary in 1993 to serve as Detroit-based regional vice president of sales and later as vice president of sales for the east coast. In 1996, he joined Hamtramck-based LDMI as vice president of sales and marketing, and was named CEO two years later. O’Leary took the company from $4 million in annual revenue to $100 million before its 2005 sale to Talk America for a reported $48.1 million. O’Leary spent a short time as a consultant before joining TelNet Worldwide as CEO in 2008. TelNet, which provides broadband, networking and other services, employs 110

people split between Troy and Marquette. It had 2013 sales of more than $20 million. In June, TelNet plans to announce that it is moving into the data center business “in a significant way” locally, O’Leary said.

GODFREY NOLAN Owner and president RIIS LLC, Troy Country of origin: Ireland When and why he came to the U.S.: Nolan moved to the U.S. with his wife, a Detroit native, in 1998 to join her family and to launch his information technology company. Why he is an American Dreamer: Nolan founded an information technology consulting/programming company that employs 45. hile watching a soccer match at the former Spectadium in Troy in 1998-99, Godfrey Nolan met O’Leary, then CEO of LDMI. As they cheered on Ireland, the two began to exchange stories. Nolan, an Ameritech programmer at the time, held an engineering degree from the University College Dublin and a master’s degree in parallel processing from Bristol Polytechnic, now the University of the West of England, Bristol. He shared his attempt to start a programming company in Ireland and his inability to do so because of the small economy. He’d tried writing for IT magazines when he got to the U.S. in the late 1990s but soon realized he couldn’t support his wife and child. So he joined Ameritech and began doing contract work on the side in a renewed bid to launch a company. O’Leary needed a programmer, and by the end of the game, he’d offered Nolan a contract job. One job at LDMI turned into several. Nolan hired another six programmers to help build Web screens for LDMI’s call center. And that led to work with American Communications Network Inc., which operated from Farmington Hills at the time. Soon, Nolan’s love of soccer gave him yet another running start with his business. As a coach for a Berkley soccer league in which his son played, Nolan met parents who helped connect him with work for companies like General Dynamics Land Systems and Proctor Financial Inc. Today, RIIS employs 45 working on contracts with companies including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Beaumont Health System and DTE Energy Co., among others. The company had more than $5 million in revenue last year, and Nolan, 48, is projecting this year it will be closer to $10 million. — Sherri Welch

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS RADWAN KHOURY President and CEO Gateway Community Health Detroit Country of origin: Palestine When and why he came to the U.S.: Arrived in 1977 so his family could pursue education and prosperity. Why he is an American Dreamer: Khoury served as executive director and COO of the Arab American and Chaldean Council before becoming president and CEO of

Gateway Community Health. fter spending the first seven years of his life in a refugee camp in Jerusalem, Radwan Khoury came to understand the importance of education, hard work and perseverance. He brought those lessons with him to the U.S. Khoury managed three Big Boy restaurants while pursuing a master’s degree and doctorate in educational administration and supervision at the University of Michigan. “Sometimes I found myself operating on three, four hours of sleep,” said Khoury. “There were days, after working a 12-hour night shift at Big Boy … when I couldn’t stop or I

would fall asleep at the wheel.” He graduated from UM in 1982 and joined the Arab American and Chaldean Council as an educational consultant for Arab-American youths in southeast Detroit. He later provided technical help to metro Detroit schools as a project director and was named assistant director of ACC before becoming executive director and COO in 1992. In his last roles at ACC, he

helped to establish a network to administer managed care for mentally ill residents in Detroit and the Wayne County area. Last July, Khoury joined Gateway Community Health, which had total revenue of $120 million in 2013, as president and CEO. Khoury, 67, oversees about 200 employees at the Detroit-funded managed care plan network, which contracts more than 20 outpatient hospital and clinics and hundreds of adult foster care homes providing mental and behavioral health services for more than 50,000 people. — Zack Burgess

TERRY KALLEY Managing director Global Logistics Strategies LLC Bloomfield Hills Country of origin: South Africa When and why he came to the U.S.: Kalley left his native South Africa and its apartheid policies to come to the U.S. in 1982 to earn a master’s of business administration at Case Western Reserve University. Why he is an American Dreamer: He co-founded automotive aftermarket company Bright Solutions International LLC, growing it to more than $10 million in revenue before its 2007 sale, and went on to found a strategic consulting company to the third-party logistics companies for the ocean shipping industry and become chairman of the East Michigan District Export Council. fter living too long with apartheid, Terry Kalley decided he’d had enough. “While I enjoyed the rights of the country, I just found it terrible that everyone could not enjoy such freedoms,” Kalley said. Kalley, 55, came to the U.S. from South Africa in 1982 to pursue his MBA at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. An expired student visa threatened to send him back to his native country. But a professor at the university helped him to remain in the U.S. and secure his first job after graduate school an international trade specialist at the former Semcco Trading Co. Inc. in Troy in 1983. Two years later, Kalley joined Widger Chemical Corp. in Warren, where he learned about fluorescent leak detection technology. Armed with that knowledge, in 1992 he co-founded Troy-based Bright Solutions, LLC, which supplied leak detection dyes for airconditioning systems to the automotive aftermarket industry. In 2007, Kalley and his business partner sold the company, which employed 10, for an undisclosed amount,to Keystone Aniline Corp. He stayed on as president of the company, which had begun operating as Bright Solutions International LLC, until 2011. His wife’s bout with breast cancer that year led him to found the nonprofit Freedom of Access to Medicines to give a voice to critically ill patients who are denied life-saving drugs until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves them. In 2012, he co-founded Global Logistics Strategies LLC to provide investment, merger and acquisition and strategic consulting to the third-party logistics companies that make up the ocean transportation intermediary industry. Kalley also is chairman of the East Michigan District Export Council, which supports the U.S. Commerce Department in promoting U.S. exports. — Zack Burgess

Michigan is turning around. Help us get there. In 2009, a group of business, government and community leaders got behind a plan to turn Michigan around. Since then, the state has made enormous progress: we’ve added 250,000 new jobs, reduced long-term debt by $20 billion, and made the state more

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS AKRAM NAMOU

PERRY MEHTA President and CEO FutureNet Group Inc. Detroit Country of origin: India When and why he came to the U.S.: Mehta came to the U.S. in 1989 to pursue graduate education and greater professional opportunity. Why he is an American Dreamer: He built FutureNet Group from a startup technology company to a diverse government contractor, with revenue of $100 million and about 250 employees, including 120 at its Detroit headquarters. erry Mehta came to the U.S. in 1989 with a desire to do more than the civil engineering job he’d held with the state of Gujarat in India. “As a civil engineer, working for a state government, I was not able to utilize even 5 percent of … (my) entrepreneurial drive,” Mehta said. “I decided the land of opportunity was the United States of America.” Mehta, 50, attended the University of New Haven in Connecticut, adding a master’s degree in environmental engineering to the bachelor’s degree in civil engineering he’d earned in India.

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Perry Mehta tried working as a civil engineer in India, but “I was not able to utilize even 5 percent of … (my) entrepreneurial drive.”

He landed his first job in Chicago with engineering firm C.C. Johnson & Malhotra PC and after six months was transferred to Detroit, working on projects at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. He bought a small convenience and pizza store, which his family managed, before going on to his next venture. He raised about $25,000 through credit card cash advances and his own funds to start FutureNet Inc. in Michigan in 1994 as a technology company working in conjunction with a second company he founded in India, Future Generations Pvt. Ltd. The two

provided computer education in India’s public schools. Mehta managed the Indian company long-distance with his brother, Jay, a computer engineer, in India overseeing day-today operations. In 1998, Mehta sold his store and resigned from CCJM to join Lakeshore Engineering Services Inc., where he was vice president. He left in 2002 to to expand FutureNet beyond technology services into environmental and construction services, focusing on federal government work. He changed the name of his company to FutureNet Group Inc. in 2003. The company also offers energy, security and technology services. Clients have included the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of the Air Force, U.S. Army, FBI, IRS, city of Detroit and the state of Michigan. FutureNet Group has about 250 employees, including 120 in Detroit and about 100 in Tennessee it added in 2012 with its purchase of Smith & Wesson Security Solutions Inc., which provides perimeter security services and fixed and mobile vehicle barriers. Revenue was $100 million in 2013, and Mehta said it’s far from finished growing. He plans to take the company global in the hopes of making it a billion-dollar company by 2025. — Amy Lane

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President and CEO A&M Hospitality Services Inc. Southfield Country of origin: Iraq When and why he came to the U.S.: Came in 1980 to pursue economic opportunity and escape religious persecution and political turmoil. Why he is an American Dreamer: Owns 10 full-service hotels and 70 limited-service and extended-stay hotels collectively employing more than 2,500 people. kram Namou, 64, left Iraq in 1972 to do a chartered accountancy apprenticeship in England. He’d been educated by American Jesuits at Al-Hikma University in Baghdad and held a bachelor’s degree in business by the time he went. In 1980, he chose to come to the U.S. instead of returning to Iraq. He landed a job at Follmer Rudzewicz PLC, now UHY Advisors Inc., and stayed there until 1984, when the entrepreneurial urge he inherited from his father — who owned an import/export business and had invested in a hotel — kicked in. Namou borrowed $15,000 from his parents and launched his own accounting firm, working at first by himself, with his wife, Azhar, serving as the office secretary. Today, Namou Gumma CPA Group PC in

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS CHEONG CHOON NG President Choon’s Design LLC, Wixom Country of origin: Malaysia When and why he came to the U.S.: Ng came to the U.S. in 1991 with his brother to attend Wichita State University. Why he is an American Dreamer: Created Rainbow Loom, a product that sold 3.5 million units last year. fter Cheong Choon Ng, 45, earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1996, he planned to spend a year immersing himself in American culture before heading back home.

But after signing on with a succession of engineering software contracting companies and, eventually, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., he stayed. The idea for Rainbow Looms came in 2010, when he watched his daughters twist ponytail bands into rubber band bracelets. He thought about trying to weave one, too, but he realized his thumbs were too large to weave the half-inch bands by hand. So he grabbed a block of wood and used push pins and dental floss to make a loom. He tinkered with more push pins in multiple rows until his daughters could make diamond patterns and weave them into bracelets. When

they modeled them at school, their friends wanted to make them, too. And the idea for Rainbow Looms was born. Six months and 28 iterations later, Ng had a product he liked. Using $10,000 from his daughters’ college fund and another $10,000 from his brother, he launched Choon’s Design LLC to produce the kits, which comprise a loom and a metal hook for weaving colored rubber bands into bracelets, rings, charms and small purses. Since their launch in 2011, the kits have won four Toy Industry of America awards and spawned a series of YouTube videos showing various things you can make with them. And that $20,000 in startup costs paid off; the company generated more than $44 million in revenue last year. — Maureen McDonald

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OSAMA SIBLANI Publisher The Arab American News Dearborn Country of origin: Lebanon When and why he came to the U.S.: Siblani came here in 1976 to escape the Lebanese Civil War and to get a college education. Why he is an American Dreamer: He is founder and publisher of The Arab American News, a bilingual weekly with circulation of more than 30,000 in metro Detroit, which publishes news and analysis about the U.S. and Middle Eastern Arab communities. hen the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975, Osama Siblani’s family pooled their money and put him on a plane to London, where he caught another flight to the U.S. He had just $185 left in his pocket when he got here, but he got jobs parking cars, pumping gas and delivering pizza to support himself while learning English and earning a degree in electrical engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy. The hard work landed him a job at General Motors Corp., where he worked for six months before a friend launching Canton Township-based electromechanical supplier Energy International Inc. recruited him as vice president in charge of overseas sales and marketing. Siblani generated millions of dollars in sales from contracts in the Middle East and helped manage the company and its 20 local employees when not overseas. But a routine visit to his mother in Lebanon in 1982 changed all of that. Seeing planes flying overhead and sensing war, Siblani kissed his mother goodbye and headed back to the U.S. while he could still get a flight. Feeling that U.S. media coverage of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon didn’t reflect the Arab perspective led Siblani to quit his job and found The Arab American News in 1984. During its 30-year history, the paper — with a circulation of more than 30,000 in metro Detroit today — has won numerous awards. But it’s also drawn criticism from groups such as the Anti-Defamation League for what some see as anti-Israeli and pro-Hezbollah views — which Siblani has said are meritless — and for Siblani’s acknowledged criticisms of American foreign policy in the Middle East. Siblani, 59, said his tires have been slashed, his windows broken and his daughters harassed. But Siblani, who was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame last year, has never regretted his decision. “I will not shy away from ... our story, and our position,” he said. “It may not be popular, but we have to tell it and why.” — Shawn Wright

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS WALTRAUD ‘WALLY ’ PRECHTER President, founder Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund and World Heritage Foundation-Prechter Family Fund Ann Arbor, Trenton Country of origin: Germany When and why she came to the U.S.: Prechter followed her new husband to the U.S. in 1977. Why she is an American Dreamer: Founded the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund and leads the Trenton-based World Heritage Foundation-Prechter Family Fund, which had $8.9 million in assets in 2013. ove brought Waltraud “Wally” Prechter to America. As a newlywed in 1977, Prechter followed her husband, Heinz, founder of sunroof pioneer American Sunroof Corp., to the U.S. Having been in the country since the 1960s, Heinz Prechter was already steeped in American life and culture and “got a kick out of me getting used to different things,” Wally Prechter said. “I came from a small village; I wasn’t

used to living on that level of society that I lived here.” Born in Alfershausen, Germany, Prechter, now 59, attended the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg for a short time before immigrating to the U.S. and completing a bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Michigan. In 1984, she became a U.S. citizen, something she had looked forward to. “I think only in America certain things happen, especially if you look at Heinz’s life,” she said. “He epitomized the American dream.” In 1997, Heinz Prechter created Prechter Holdings Inc. to oversee his business interests, which by then included real estate, livestock and newspapers. Wally Prechter was a business adviser, confidante and helpmate to her husband. The couple founded the World Heritage Foundation to support revitalization of Detroit’s Downriver community and German-American culture. Life was good. But on July 6, 2001, everything changed. Heinz Prechter committed suicide after a 30-year battle with bipolar disorder. Wally Prechter, who once considered herself a quiet and introverted person, realized that was no longer an option. She took her pain and became an advocate for those afflicted with mental illness, including the couple’s daughter, Stephanie.

MOHAMED SOHOUBAH President and CEO Biomed Health Solutions LLC PharMor Pharmacy LLC Southfield Country of origin: Yemen When and why he came to the U.S.: Came in 1988 with his family for a more stable life and better educational opportunities. Why he is an American Dreamer: Founded a regional pharmacy chain and custom pharmaceutical compounder that together employ more than 160 people and have combined average gross sales of more than $210 million. family health emergency led Mohamed Sohoubah to a career in the pharmaceutical industry. He had moved to the U.S. at age 14 from a 400-year-old “mini-castle” of sorts in Yemen that eight generations of his family had occupied, following his father, who’d worked at Ford Motor Co. off and on for years, and the rest of his immediate family. Once here, Sohoubah worked his way through school, learning English and studying while working odd jobs. A deal with a local grocery store owner enabled him to get full pay for stocking and running lottery tickets from 3-8 p.m. and half pay from 8-10 p.m., when he’d do his homework at the store so the owner was not alone. Just after he graduated from high school, his mother, who suffered from migraines, had a sudden health issue that took them to the emergency room. After the family was told she was having a dangerous drug interaction from mixing three pain medications prescribed by different doctors, he decided to study pharmacy. He earned a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from WSU in 1998 and moved on to graduate studies in pharmaceutical sciences.An internship with Arbor Drugs Inc. in 1993 led to his joining the company full time after graduation, and he later was named a pharmacy manager. During the CVS Caremark Corp. acquisition of Arbor Drugs in 1999, he was named a pharmacy trainer, working with the pharmacists ap-

Before Heinz Prechter’s death, the couple had donated $1 million to the University of Michigan Depression Center. After his death, Waltraud Prechter founded what is now the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund as an independent foundation. The fund’s inaugural gala dinner in 2002 raised $1.25 million, making it the largest single fundraising event for bipolar disorder in U.S. history at the time. The same year, Prechter testified before Congress in favor of increased federal funding for bipolar disorder research, and President George W. Bush appointed her to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health to help improve the U.S. mental health care system. In 2004, the Prechter Bipolar Research Fund was transferred to the University of Michigan Medical System and is now operated as part of the UM Depression Center. Since the fund’s inception, Prechter has donated and helped to raise more than $11 million in private donations for research, which has leveraged more than $10 million more in donations and federal grants for related research. “We’re very excited about all the things we’re doing,” Prechter said. “I think we will find the answers we are looking for.” — Shawn Wright

pointed to new CVS stores in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. He stayed with CVS until 2003, when he left to open his own pharmacy. Sohoubah said he knew the local sales representative for McKesson Corp., a pharmaceutical wholesaler. “I told him I wanted to do my own pharmacy, (and) what do you suggest?” he recalled. The rep helped persuade McKesson to give him a $70,000 loan, which combined with $150,000 he’d saved, enabled him to open Detroit Medical Pharmacy across from the Detroit Medical Center in Detroit. McKesson became a supplier and gave him 30-day payment terms. Since then, Sohoubah, 40, has grown PharMor Pharmacy LLC to 27 metro Detroit locations employing 160 and producing $150 million in gross annual revenue, with a margin of about 2.5 percent. He is the sole owner of many of the locations but has given minority shares to the operating pharmacist at others. Over the next five years, he plans to open another 25 area locations. He also launched a custom compounding pharmacy, Biomed Health Solutions LLC, which operates two Biomed Specialty Pharmacy locations in Southfield and Cincinnati. The sites, which sell custom, prescription medication to treat arthritic and inflammatory pain and skin conditions, produce $60 million to $70 million in gross revenue. Sohoubah plans to expand BioMed into two new Midwest states in 2015. Sohoubah is now taking the same split-ownership model with local operators to the restaurant business. He co-founded La Palma Mediterranean Cuisine, which opened at Canfield and John R streets in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood last year, and the Half-Time Cafe, with Mediterranean food and Caribou coffee, which opened in November at the WSU School of Medicine’s Mazurek Medical Education Commons. Sohoubah said he and his restaurant business partner plan to open a second La Palma, in Dearborn, by the end of this year. — Sherri Welch

ANTHONY BARCHOCK

Waltraud Prechter came to the U.S. with her husband in 1977 and has since founded a fund that has raised and leveraged $21 million for bipolar research.

ENRICA ‘RITA’ RUGIERO Vice president and co-founder Roman Village Inc. and Antonio’s Cucina Italiana Inc., Dearborn Heights Country of origin: Italy When and why she came to the U.S.: Her father believed it was a place where immigrants, especially women, could do well, and then-President John F. Kennedy was inviting more immigrants into the U.S. Why she is an American dreamer: She is the matriarch of her family’s restaurant chain, which has grown to four locations with 280 employees and $14 million in revenue, with a fifth location on the way for Livonia. hen new workers join Enrica Rugiero’s staff, many need a basic course in Italian food. During a week of training, they taste mostaccioli, lasagna, fresh mozzarella and homemade gelato as they learn to introduce themselves to customers and to get tables ready for clearing after diners leave. “They go home with a big bag of food like this,” said Rugiero, 71, using her hands to indicate a paper grocery bag size full of leftovers. For many of the early years, she prepared the pasta dishes herself, and she was the one who coached workers — or let them go if they didn’t work out. Rugiero operates the business with her four sons: CEO Anthony, Mark as corporate secretary, Robert as treasurer and Patrick as a manager. The family’s first Roman Village Cucina Italiana in Dearborn paved the way for the establishment of three Antonio’s Cucina restaurants in Dearborn Heights, Canton Township and Farmington Hills. Revenue reached $14 million last year. Many of the restaurants’ 280 employees

come from Lebanon, Mexico and other countries. Rugiero, a diminutive woman who wears a handembroidered white apron and a large gold watch and is known as “Mama Rita” to many, smiles as she greets customers and still cooks sometimes. She grew up in a small town north of Rome, one of seven children. Her father traveled back and forth between a coal mining job in Pennsylvania and Italy, and spoke about America in glowing terms. When President John F. Kennedy championed immigration reform, removing quotas and opening America’s gates to millions of new citizens, her father encouraged her to come to the U.S. She came to Dearborn in 1963, when she was 20, with two brothers and moved in with a third brother already living here. She was homesick, yet she had a job waiting for her, thanks to a friend of her father’s. She arrived on a Wednesday and started working on Friday night at Joe’s Pizzeria, where she met her husband, Antonio, who charmed her with flowers and gifts. He bought the restaurant — which he renamed Roman Village — and they married and had four sons. When the sons came of age, they opened the family’s second restaurant in 1992, naming it after their father. But it was their mom’s support they solicited when they wanted to try new menu items or décor. And by year’s end, their fifth restaurant is set to open in Livonia. Antonio died in 2008, but “Mama Rita” still shows up in the dining rooms and in radio ads. She likes seeing customers who have come in for decades and new ones with babies and young children. “It’s a family restaurant. We want family to come,” she says, smiling. — Vickie Elmer

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Congratulations!

AMERICAN|DREAMERS MINA SOOCH President and CEO ProNAi Therapeutics Inc. Plymouth Township Country of origin: India

2014 VOLUNTEER AWARDS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY 2014 Outstanding Achievement Awards Brenda B. Baney, Delphi Corporation Stephen Friedeck, Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies 2014 New Volunteer Award Deb Heed, Ford Motor Company Michael Wolf, Chrysler Group LLC 2014 Corporate Responsibility Summit Planning Group Award Amanda Bishop, Visteon Corporation Kimberly Bowden, Delphi Corporation Elly Bradford, Honda, North America, Inc. Morris Brown, Chrysler Group LLC Luke Contos, Chassix Jennifer Guest, Tetra Tech Alfred Hildreth,General Motors Company Mary F. McDonald, The McDonald Consulting Group Susan Rokosz, Ford Motor Company Bing Xu, Ford Motor Company Todd Yaney, Chrysler Group LLC 2014 IMDS & Product Chemical Compliance Conference Planning Group Award Brenda B. Baney, Delphi Corporation Amanda Bishop, Visteon Corporation Mayrie Eckermann, Tetra Tech Derek T. Ewing, General Motors Company Christopher Harden, PTC-Parametric Technology Corporation Chuck LePard, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services Kathy D. Phipps Michael Wurzman, RSJ Technical Consulting Bing Xu, Ford Motor Company

SUPPLY CHAIN 2014 Outstanding Leadership Awards Mark Argenti, Chrysler Group LLC Diane DeJarnett, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. James Phillips, General Motors Company Alisa Clemons, Ford Motor Company Tyese Doby, General Motors Company Aidan E.G. Hughes, Stackpole International Terry Onica, QAD Yolonda Wilson, Chrysler Group LLC

QUALITY 2014 Outstanding Achievement Award Douglas Halliday, Trubiquity 2014 Outstanding Leadership Awards Bryan C. Book II, Chrysler Group LLC Robert D. Francois, III, Johnson Controls, Inc. Arun P. Prasanna, Tenneco, Inc. Murray J. Sittsamer, The Luminous Group Neil Taylor, United Machine Inc.

Why she came to the U.S.: Brought here by her parents as a baby in 1969 when her father, Jagdish, came to get his master’s degree in civil engineering at Wayne State University. Why she is an American Dreamer: Sooch helped found Kalamazoobased Apjohn Ventures LLC, now Apjohn Group LLC, and led its investment in pharmaceutical developer ProNAi Therapeutics before taking the helm of the company and helping to raise $72 million in venture capital for it this year. hen Mina Sooch’s father and mother, Sushila, arrived in the U.S. from the Indian state of Gujarat, they had just $50. He was the first member of both his and his wife’s poor farm families to go to college. By the late 1970s, Sooch’s parents had brought over all their siblings and their parents. “They all started small businesses, momand-pop shops, party stores, gas stations,” she said. Because she was a baby when she arrived, Sooch, now 46, assimilated easily. “I never faced any challenges because I was Indian,” she said. Sooch graduated at the head of her class in chemical engineering from Wayne State University, and then one of her mentors, Ralph

LON HORWEDEL

Mina Sooch helped found Apjohn Ventures LLC and led its investment in ProNAi Therapeutics, where she is now CEO.

Kummler, the dean of the engineering school, helped get her into Harvard University, where she got her master’s in business administration in 1991. Within two years, she joined Monitor Co. Group LP, a consulting firm based in Cambridge, Mass., working on mergers and acquisitions until 2000. When she decided she wanted to get into venture capital, another mentor, Hugo Braun, hired her as an entrepreneur in residence at his Ann Arbor venture capital firm, North Coast Technology Investors LP. After two years there learning the ropes, Sooch helped found Kalamazoo-based Apjohn Ventures LLC with Donald Parfet, part of the Upjohn Co. founding family. Sooch led Apjohn’s investment in Plymouth Township-based ProNAi, which was formed in 2004, based on technology developed at WSU and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Can-

cer Institute, and has helped managed the company since. She was named CEO in 2012. For years, ProNAi struggled to stay alive on the long and costly path of trying to bring a cancer drug to market. Sooch and Parfet were able to raise enough venture capital and angel funding to keep the lights on until the company got national attention when it presented results of its drug for non-Hodgkin lymphoma at an oncology convention in New Orleans in December. Based on those results, the company raised $12.5 million in venture capital in January, and in April raised another $59.5 million, the largest single round of VC in state history. The company is believed to be planning an IPO for later this year, something Sooch can’t confirm or deny because of rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission. — Tom Henderson

LUKE SONG CEO Mr. Song Millinery Southfield Country of origin: South Korea Luke Song’s parents founded Mr. Song Millinery in 1982. Their son, Luke, took over the reins in 1998.

When and why he came to the U.S.: His parents moved the family to the U.S. in 1982 so their children could go through the American education system. Why he is an American Dreamer: Song is an internationally sought-after hat designer based in Southeast Michigan. uke Song’s parents, Han and Jin, didn’t want their children to grow up in the rigorous and competitive South Korean education system where private, afterschool classes and tutoring late into the night are the norm. “My parents wanted us to enjoy our childhood,” said Luke Song, 41, owner of Mr. Song Millinery. So in 1982, the family immigrated to the U.S., and three days later, he started fourth grade. For him, English wasn’t too hard to learn. The cultural hurdles were tougher to handle. “I came from a big city, and the suburban life never suited me and my family,” said Song, who has three older sisters. “To this day and to my amusement, my mother

NATHAN SKID

refuses to wear sandals and casual wear.” After majoring in biochemistry for three years, Song switched to fine arts, moving to New York City to attend Parsons The New School for Design. He lived “an expat, artistic life due to the lack of finances” for a short time in Paris before returning home. His parents had founded Mr. Song Millinery in 1982 initially as a designer brand-name hats store but launched their own label when his mother, Jin, showed a knack for hat design. Song followed in his mother’s footsteps, applying his artistic skills to hat design, and within six months, demand for the hats was outpacing supply. In 1998, Song took the reins of the boutique and began distributing its hats to stores around the

U.S. He became the label’s chief designer by 2001 and created Moza Inc. as a corporate entity to manage the Mr. Song Millinery brand and retail shop. Song’s big break came in January 2009, when Aretha Franklin wore one to President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Produced with the help of four to 20 employees, depending on the level of business, Song’s designs are now sold in more than 500 boutiques and in many countries around the globe. Every day is crazy, said Song, who recently filled orders for 10,000 hats for this year’s Kentucky Derby. But it doesn’t feel like a chore. “As immigrants, we all know it’s about hard work,” Song said. “Do what you love ... (and) it will never feel like work.” — Shawn Wright

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AMERICAN|DREAMERS LAMBROS ‘LARRY ’ STASSINOS CEO Global CNC Industries Ltd. Plymouth Township Country of origin: Greece When and why he came to the U.S.: Seeking the economic opportunity to start and operate a successful business venture, Stassinos moved to the U.S. in 1969. Why he is an American Dreamer: Stassinos launched a computer numerical control tooling company that has grown to more than $6 million in revenue from contracts with clients across North America, and he’s staffing it with immigrants from a number of other countries, so they, too, can pursue the American Dream. ambros Stassinos’ path to prosperity in the U.S. was anything but a straight one. Traveling from Greece to Brazil

to Canada before landing here, Stassinos did everything from cleaning carpets to running a party store before founding Global CNC Industries Ltd. The business, which manufactures tool holders for industrial machines, brings in $6 million to $7 million in annual revenue from thousands of North American customers. “I almost went out of business two times, but I survived,” Stassinos, 73, said. “Sometimes, I had to work 18 hours to 24 hours a day. I made a lot of sacrifices, but success does not come very easy.” Stassinos, a U.S. citizen since 1976, realized his childhood dream of moving to the U.S. in 1969, when he emigrated from Canada with his wife, Helen, and their children. Stassinos worked as a tool and die machinist, delivered the Yellow Pages and owned an ice cream shop and a bakery before starting his company in 1983.

Having taken business courses at the University of Michigan and classes in CNC — the automation of machine tooling — at Washtenaw Community College, Stassinos launched his company with a small, CNC lathe. “I had no employees, no customers,” Stassinos said. What he did have was a willingness to work hard. Stassinos sent out 50 letters to machine shops around the Detroit area, in an attempt to secure customers. “Persistence and commitment — it paid off,” he said. Global CNC Industries employs 45 people operating 40 machines. “I have been very fortunate. I love this country,” its founder said. Stassinos now gives opportunity to other immigrants who share his work ethic. His company employs people from countries that include Mexico, China, Korea, Romania and Greece. “The immigrants who come here, they come to better their lives,” he said. “We like the people who are honest, hard-working and committed to the job.” — Doug Henze

SONALI VIJAYAVARGIYA Founder and managing director Augment Ventures Fund I LP Ann Arbor Country of origin: India When and why she came to the U.S.: Came to the U.S. in 2001 when her husband was transferred here. Why she is an American Dreamer: Vijayavargiya’s Augment Ventures raised $5 million in its first round; funds it is investing are locally based tech startups or startups that plan to manufacture here or hire talent from Michigan. hen Sonali Vijayavargiya arrived in the U.S. 13 years ago, she thought it would be easy to find a job. But no jobs were available, and no companies were sponsoring visas. She came to the country when her husband, Venkat Dhenuvakonda Rao, who now is vice president of financial planning and treasurer of CMS Energy Corp. and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Energy Co., was transferred here. Consumers sponsored her husband’s visa, and she gained a work permit, but she could not find work, despite the fact that she held a bachelor’s degree in statistics from Fergusson College in Pune, India, and a master’s of business administration from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in India. In her home country, Vijayavargiya had worked with firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the Industrial Development Bank of India, nowIDBI Bank Ltd., and was part of a startup management team for investment advisory firm Edelweiss Capital Ltd., where she raised over $100 million for Indian startups. But she found it hard to break into startup consulting and venture

ROBERT CHASE

Sonali Vijayavargiya on how she conducted a job search at the University of Michigan: “I just showed up and started poking my nose in things I had no business being in ... I had no clue who I was talking to.”

capital in the U.S. until one of her former PricewaterhouseCoopers bosses, a University of Michigan alumnus, suggested she try to connect with the university in her job search. “I just showed up and started poking my nose in things I had no business being in ... I had no clue who I was talking to,” said Vijayavargiya, 42. She attended the 2003 Michigan Growth Capital Symposium at UM, which highlighted high-growth Midwest companies in emerging technologies, and there met David Brophy, a finance professor and director of the Office for the Study of Private Equity Finance at UM. Brophy invited her to come and share her experiences with his entrepreneur class, and one thing led to another, she said. Vijayavargiya started meeting others who were working with startups and began working with a few herself through Ann Arbor

Spark, TechTown and Automation Alley. She provided consulting on commercialization, business development and fundraising for such companies as Accuri Cytometers Inc. and Adaptive Materials Inc., which now is Ultra Electronics AMI. “One of things that dawned on me was that one of the biggest things lacking in our region is capital,” Vijayavargiya said. In 2011, she launched Augment Ventures Fund I LP and closed on its first round of funding in mid-2013, raising $5 million from local entrepreneurs and investors and her own contribution. To date, Augment has invested about 40 percent of its first round in Ann Arbor-based supply chain design software services firm LLamasoft Inc. and four tech startups. It’s hoping to invest in five more tech startups before launching a second round of fundraising next year. — Sherri Welch

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REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK ACCOUNTING CHANGES

Kirk Pinho covers real estate, higher education and Macomb and Oakland counties. Call (313) 4460412 or write kpinho@crain.com.

New pension liability reporting rules to weaken colleges’ balance sheets. Page 39

Business Education Kirk Pinho

UM biz center stays positive At the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizations, part of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, it’s all about using academic research to help employers and employees do well not only for themselves but also for others. The center, founded in 2002, is led by Managing Director Christopher White. Its faculty, all Ross school professors, taught 1,600 students in undergraduate, graduate and executive education classes last year, White said. Faculty members also published five books last year. And this year, the center appointed its first executive-in-residence. The center’s main focus is conducting research on how to create profitable businesses where there is “meaning and purpose in the workplace, ethics and virtues like forgiveness, generosity and compassion,” White said. What does that mean? A sampling of faculty members’ recent academic articles gives an idea. They include “Compassion at Work,” “The Role of Organizational Culture in Retaining Nursing Workforce” and “Growing at Work: Employees’ Interpretations of Progressive Self-Change in Organizations.” In April, Fred Keller, CEO of Grand Rapids-based Cascade Engineering Inc., was picked to be the center’s first executive-inresidence. Keller is serving an unpaid two-year term and will travel to Ann Arbor one day a week, he said. His task is to help bridge the gap between Keller research and those building organizations. “The thing I think I can do is help some students with mentoring and giving them some understanding of what running a positive organization means, what our experiences are and what I’m trying to do,” said Keller, whose company employs 1,200 in four states. “The word ‘positive’ sounds pretty squishy,” Keller said. “The center is uniquely qualified to help business leaders understand what the opportunity looks like. We have a great deal of potential influence in a positive way on the world. ... There are a great deal of business leaders who are positive thinkers and just need a little encouragement to take those steps.” Keller is a former board chairman of the U.S. Department of Commerce Manufacturing Council and is the former chairman of the Battle Creekbased W.K. Kellogg Foundation board of trustees, where he remains a member. The Michigan native also is the founder and current chairman of Talent 2025, a catalyst for the development of an integrated talent system to meet employer needs.

PHOTOS BY GLENN TRIEST

Anne Vandenbussche (right), director of design and construction services for Wayne State University, watches as work continues on the Multipurpose Biomedical Research Building (above).

Bricks & mortarboard In summer, construction on campus – and there’s lots – doesn’t take a vacation BY KIRK PINHO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

s students return home for summer or scale back their course work, colleges and universities ramp up construction. Close to $1 billion for the construction and renovation of academic buildings, residence halls and welcome centers at Southeast Michigan universities and colleges has been spent since 2012 or will be spent in the next two years. Some schools are embarking on ambitious projects like Wayne State University’s $90 million Multipurpose Biomedical

Research Building, the largest WSU construction project ever in terms of cost. Similarly, Eastern Michigan University spent $90 million on a 256,000-squarefoot science complex, completed in 2012 for the biology, chemistry, psychology, physics and astronomy, and geography and geology departments on the western end of campus off Oakwood Street in Ypsilanti. The project is also the largest in EMU history. Others, like the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, are continuing their tradition of large construction projects, with two valued at more than $100 mil-

lion, each expected to finish by 2016. Some university planning and construction officials are seeing an uptick in construction on their campuses, while others such as EMU are in more of a lull after large capital spending campaigns in recent years. “You didn’t see any new permits being acquired,” said Joseph Veryser, university architect at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. “It was a dramatic slowdown, and it was very sudden and just stayed flat for a long time. In the past year, I have seen a comeback.” See Construction, Page M34

New GVSU library’s design based on student habits BY ROD KACKLEY SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

More than 1 million clicks in less than a year have been recorded by the front door counters at the newest library in West Michigan, counting every student, teacher — and tour group — entering the new Mary Idema Pew Library on the main campus of Grand Valley State University. The reason the students and professors are visiting the library is obvious — they have work to do. Others come to see the unique design. “When people are talking about the future of our libraries and what they should look

like, they are going to hold this library up as an example,” said Gail Madziar, executive director of the Michigan Library Association. The library includes a rooftop garden; numerous printers, including 3-D printers for creating architectural models and working prototypes; iPads and tablets that can be checked out; monk-like quiet cells — complete with piped-in white noise — on one side of the building; and collaborative spaces with acoustics that cut off the top end of conversations on the other side of the $65 million facility. There’s even a 21-foot-long fireplace. And, of course, there are books: 650,000 See Grand Valley, Page M35

COURTESY OF GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY

A Grand Valley student works in the new Mary Idema Pew Library, which offers iPads and tablets on loan, quiet cells and a rooftop garden.

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Construction: $1B in work underway ■ From Page 33

COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Rendering of George Granger Brown Memorial Laboratories addition and renovation.

2012-2015 SPENDING ON SE MICH. COLLEGE BUILDINGS: $1B Nearly $1 billion for the construction and renovation of buildings on college campuses in Southeast Michigan has been spent since 2012 or will be spent in the next two years. The following are projects detailed in the accompanying story:

University of Detroit Mercy Student Fitness Center construction

Cost: $8.3 million. Completion: October 2011. Square feet: 39,000. Contractors: The Monahan Co., Eastpointe; TMP Architecture Inc., Bloomfield Hills Chemistry Building renovation Cost: $4.9 million. Completion: May 2011. Square feet: 49,000. Contractors: The Monahan Co.; TMP Architecture George J. Asher Law Clinic Center renovation Cost: $1.3 million. Completion: November 2012. Square feet: 6,700. Contractors: McCarthy & Smith Inc., Farmington Hills; TMP Architecture

Wayne State University Multipurpose Biomedical Research Building construction

Cost: $91 million. Completion: April 2015. Square feet: 200,000. Contractors: Barton Malow Co., Southfield; Harley Ellis Devereaux Corp., Southfield Electrical improvements Cost: $13.5 million. Completion: December 2015. Contractors: Not yet chosen. Alex Manoogian Building renovations Cost: $6 million. Completion: August. Square feet: 27,000. Contractors: Not yet chosen

Eastern Michigan University Science Complex

Cost: $90 million. Completion: 2012. Square feet: 256,000. Contractors: The Christman Co./Dumas JV, Lansing Rackham Hall renovation Cost: $3.6 million. Completion: Spring 2014. Contractors: McCarthy & Smith. Best Residence Hall Cost: $2.3 million. Completion: August 2013. Contractors: A3C Collaborative Architects, Ann Arbor; J. S. Vig Construction Co., Ann Arbor Hoyt Residence Hall renovation: Cost: $2.16 million. Completion: August 2012. Contractors: Contracting Resources Inc., Brighton

Lawrence Technological University Residence hall construction

Cost: $11.6 million. Completion: Fall 2015. Square feet: 48,000. Contractors: University Housing Solutions, Mansfield, Ohio; JPRA Architects, Mansfield, Ohio A. Alfred Taubman Engineering, Life Sciences and Architecture Complex Cost: $55 million. Completion: Spring 2016. Square feet: 125,000. Contractors: Morphosis, New York City and Culver City, Calif.; Albert Kahn Associates Inc., Detroit Detroit Center for Design + Technology Cost: $7 million. Completion: October. Contractor: The Monahan Co.

University of Michigan George Granger Brown Memorial Laboratories addition and renovation

Cost: $93 million. Completion: Summer. Square feet: 220,000. Contractors: Integrated Design Solutions LLC, Troy; DeMaria Building Co. Inc., Novi; Granger Construction Co., Lansing Munger Graduate Residences Cost: $185 million. Completion: Summer 2015. Square feet: 370,000. Contractors: Integrated Design Solutions; Walbridge Aldinger Co., Detroit West Quadrangle and Michigan Union-Cambridge House renovation Cost: $114.5 million. Completion: Summer 2015. Contractors: Integrated Design Solutions, Walbridge Aldinger

Walsh College Original campus building renovation

Cost: $15 million. Completion: Winter 2015. Square feet: 110,000. Contractors: Valerio Dewalt Train Associates, Chicago

Scott Storrar, director of facilities and planning and construction for EMU, said that although higher education construction spending and projects have increased across the country, EMU is spending $10 million a year, which is average for the Ypsilanti school. “For us specifically, I think we are doing what we typically do from a localized standpoint,” Storrar said. Margie Simmons, former CEO of Texas-based SHW Group LLC, an architectural, engineering and planning firm that focuses solely on higher education and K-12 clients, said universities and colleges are constructing and renovating more Simmons science buildings and residence halls to keep up with the demand for knowledgebased jobs and the increasing demand for better living amenities for students. “Students today have expectations about where they are going to live and the type of student life they are going to have,” she said. “Most universities are either renovating or building new residences. “There is competition for the best and brightest students, and one of the ways to attract them is to offer the type of housing and student life they desire.” Simmons’ company, which has an office in Berkley, designed the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s $51 million science building, expected to be completed in 2016. SHW also has designed the $89 million biosciences building at Central Michigan University, expected to open in the fall of 2017, and the $65 million, 150,000-square-foot Mary Idema Pew Library, which opened last year and replaced the James H. Zumberge Library at Grand Valley State University. (See story, Page 33.) SHW Group, which has about 110 employees in Berkley, was purchased last month by Edmonton, Alberta-based Stantec Inc., which has offices in Farmington Hills, Ann Arbor and Okemos. Simmons, who is based in Berkley, is now the vice president and global leader of Stantec’s education sector. “There is definitely a need” for new capital projects, Simmons said. “Public colleges and universities need the funding for new buildings to support increased enrollments in certain instances but also to basically change the space so they can provide the programs that employers in the state want.” Here’s a look at the current and upcoming projects:

University of Michigan Among Southeast Michigan universities, UM has far and away the most construction projects planned or underway, totaling nearly $800 million. Among them: a $185 million residence hall for about 600 graduate students. The Munger Graduate Residences project, expected to be complete in the summer of 2015, is an

Wayne State University’s Multipurpose Biomedical Research Building is expected to be completed by April 2015.

GLENN TRIEST

eight-story, 370,000-square-foot building designed by Troy-based Integrated Design Solutions LLC and built by Detroit-based Walbridge Aldinger Co. UM also plans a $114.5 million, one-year project to renovate the West Quadrangle and Michigan UnionCambridge House. Integrated Design Solutions and Walbridge Aldinger are the contractors on that project, as well, which is expected to be complete in summer 2015. Other large projects include the George Brown Memorial Laboratories mechanical engineering addition and renovation, a project with a $93 million price tag. It’s expected to be complete this summer after starting construction in the fall of 2011. Integrated Design Solutions is the architect on the project, while the construction contractors are Novi-based DeMaria Building Co. Inc. and Lansing-based Granger Construction Co.

Wayne State University The Multipurpose Biomedical Research Building, at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Piquette Street, will be 200,000 square feet for the departments of WSU’s School of Medicine. When completed, the research building will house programs in cardiovascular disease; metabolic disorders such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity; bioinformatics and computational biology; and biomedical engineering. It is expected to house hundreds of researchers. Harley Ellis Devereaux Corp. is the architect and Barton Malow Co. the project manager for the biomed center. Both companies are based in Southfield. The center is expected to be completed by April 2015, said Anne Vandenbussche, director of design and construction services for WSU. “The main structure is in place, and dollarwise, it’s about 40 to 50 percent complete,” said Vandenbussche, who was hired by WSU nine years ago. “Since I’ve started, we’ve not had many large construction projects, whereas UM or MSU have some virtually every year. But things are moving a little faster for us. We are seeing more and more opportunity to develop the campus because more people are interested in it.” The WSU board also approved $13.5 million for electrical projects on campus and $6 million for renovations to the Alex Manoogian Building on West Warren Avenue. Contracts for those projects have not

yet been awarded.

Lawrence Technological University At LTU, a $11.6 million residence hall for about 160 students is planned to be completed by the fall of 2015, while the $17 million first phase of the $55 million, 125,000square-foot A. Alfred Taubman Engineering, Life Sciences and Architecture Complex is expected to be complete by the spring of 2016. “We don’t do much construction or many new projects here,” Veryser said. These, however, are exceptions. In addition, a December groundbreaking ceremony was held for a $7 million building at Woodward Avenue and Willis Street in Midtown that will house a new LTU Detroit Center for Design + Technology. The university is expected to occupy the building by October. The Monahan Co. in Eastpointe is the construction manager of the project site. The 48,000-square-foot residence hall will be the third for LTU students. Farmington Hills-based JPRA Architects is the architect of the project, while University Housing Solutions and Adena Corp., both based out of Mansfield, Ohio, are responsible for the development, design and construction. Bidding for the construction contractor on the Taubman complex is expected next month. The design architect is Morphosis, which has offices in New York City and Culver City, Calif. The architect of record is Detroit-based Albert Kahn Associates Inc. Bids for construction on the Taubman project are due June 23, and a contract is expected to be awarded by the middle of August.

University of Detroit Mercy Between 2011 and 2012, UDM has completed construction on an $8.3 million student fitness center, a $4.9 million renovation of its chemistry building and a $1.3 million renovation of the George J. Asher Law Clinic Center. The 39,000-square-foot fitness center, on the university’s McNichols Road campus, was finished in fall 2011. The Monahan Co. was the construction contractor, and the architect was Bloomfield Hillsbased TMP Associates Inc. Those companies were also the contractors on the renovation of 18,000 square feet in the 49,000square-foot chemistry building, work completed in May 2011. See Next Page

IN F it X S S te

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Grand Valley: New library design focuses on student habits ■ From Page M33

print volumes — 150,000 in the stacks and 500,000 in the automatic retrieval system — and 1 million ebooks. “We were trying to escape the gravity of the traditional library, and we achieved liftoff,” said Lee Van Orsdel, dean of university libraries for GVSU. The 150,300square-foot, fourstory Pew Library replaced the Zumberge VanOrsdel Library, which was built in the 1960s for 5,000 students who attended what was then known as Grand Valley State College. The new library in Allendale serves nearly 25,000 GVSU students. The Zumberge is now an administration building. Two years of planning went into the Pew Library project before ground was broken in September 2010. It opened in September 2013. To start things off, the design team at SHW Group in Berkley, working with GVSU librarians, examined the way students used the Zumberge Library. ”It was a little daunting at the outset to rethink a library, but it was an aspirational project,” said Tod Stevens, principal of SHW Group and the principal designer on the project. Stevens said they discovered Stevens that during the day, students came into the library between classes as individuals. Around 5 or 6 p.m. they saw the traffic change as students came into the building in groups and began working together on class projects. “We sat and watched and counted people so that we would get it right,” said Stevens. The SHW team also noticed very subtle things about how students use a library. “For instance, if you have a cafe table, students will sit down and put their backpack on the chair next to them. And we lose a seat,” said Stevens. “So we began to lower the cafe tables and make them a

From Previous Page

Farmington Hills-based McCarthy & Smith Inc. was the construction contractor on the law clinic, while Wyandotte-based Thomas Roberts Architect LLC was the architect.

Eastern Michigan University The new science complex dwarfs recent EMU projects in terms of size and scope. Others include a $2.16 million renovation of the Hoyt Residence Hall, completed in August 2012; a $2.3 million renovation of the Best Residence Hall, completed in August 2013; and a $3.6 million renovation of Rackham Hall, completed this spring.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY

little bit bigger to accommodate the laptops and other things they are bringing.” He said that change allowed students to put their backpacks on the floor instead of on another chair. The building was designed with an eye toward the highest LEED certification, but Stevens said the goal of sustainability involved more than just adding one more certificate to the SHW resume and one more plaque on the wall of the Mary Idema Pew Library. He said studies show students learn better in natural light, so the

library is flooded with it. “We also brought fresh air into the ‘breathing zone’ of each student so their toxins are not mixed with everyone else’s,” Stevens said. Instead of the infrastructure for heating and cooling on the ceiling pointing everything down, it is done from the floor up, to bring each student fresh air directly. “So we are heating from the floor to 6 feet high. After that, who cares how hot it gets?” Stevens said. He also said there were infrastructure challenges that went beyond the usual water, sewer and

HVAC concerns. They had to look at information technology and social media and bring them into play so students could connect now and in the future. Stevens said they also had to account for the way education has changed. No longer is it a strictly solitary exercise for the student. “They are required to work in teams,” said Stevens, “and work with a variety of media. It is a whole new world.” The building belongs to the students, says Van Orsdel. It used to

be that librarians were the wardens of their universe; now students are the focus. Students are allowed, even encouraged, to move the furniture to where they need it. There are 50 whiteboards in the building and small, movable tables that can turn any chair into a desk. “And they move all over the building,” said Van Orsdel. Some even have been found in the library’s elevators. Van Orsdel said the librarians don’t touch the furniture until the end of the semester. Only then do they put it back where it began. “The environment is theirs,” she said of the student users. Not everyone is completely happy with the design. Student Kevin Joffre wrote in The Lantern, the student newspaper, that it was troubling not to be able to raise window shades after they dropped automatically, triggered by the temperature of the windows. “There’s something unnerving about being outsmarted by a building,” he wrote. (Mary Kramer, publisher of Crain’s Detroit Business, is a member of the GVSU board of trustees.)

Walsh College

building renovation that will house college administration, human resources and business services. The project started in May 2013, two months after Schoolcraft purchased the former American Community Mutual Insurance Co. building at Seven Mile and Haggerty roads in Livonia for $3.44 million. The vacant building was constructed in 1980.

Highland Hall building on the Highland Lakes campus in Waterford Township in a $1.4 million effort to use that area as green space, said Dan Cherewick, director of physical facilities for OCC. The building, a former tuberculosis sanitarium built in 1927, is expected to be demolished by the end of August, he said. “What we are trying to do is put our resources not into the buildings themselves; we are maintaining what we have,” OCC Chancellor Tim Meyer said. “We are putting our focus and emphasis into our programming areas.” However, a big project could be on the horizon. OCC has been pur-

chasing property in Southfield recently for a possible expansion of its campus south of Nine Mile Road and east of Northwestern Highway. In March, OCC purchased the 296,000-square-foot North Park Plaza building out of foreclosure for $2.5 million from Evanston, Ill.-based First Bank & Trust. OCC also bought 5 acres near that building from the city of Southfield and the Southfield Downtown Development Authority for $2.2 million. The land was the site of a Ramada Inn before demolition began last August. Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412, kpinho@crain.com. Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

Study spaces at the new Mary Idema Pew Library on the main campus of Grand Valley State University were designed around students’ habits. The design team from SHW Group observed the way students used the campus’ Zumberge Library. Its findings influenced the design of all areas, from seating and desk space to heating and cooling systems.

Walsh is also spending $15 million to renovate its original Troy campus building by the end of 2015. That project will involve renovations and additions to the 110,000-square-foot building, including a new student center and expanded business communications department. The project architect is Chicagobased Valerio Dewalt Train Associates, the same firm that designed the 37,000-square-foot Jeffery W. Barry Center on campus.

Schoolcraft College Schoolcraft College this month expects to complete a $10.67 million

Oakland Community College New construction at Oakland Community College has come to a halt. But OCC — the state’s largest community college, with nearly 27,000 students — is tearing down the 69,000-square-foot

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With graduation now in the rearview mirror of this year’s crop of MBA graduates, the race is on to find a job. But that doesn’t mean they all need to charge toward the same finish line. A second look at industries on the periphery of most graduates’ view can widen the options of newly minted MBAs, while the rest of the crowd runs headlong toward the McKinseys of the world. It so happens not all industries are saturated with MBAs. Popular targets for new graduates are big consulting firms, marketing and finance. But survey data from the Graduate Management Admission Council show spikes in demand for MBA holders among energy/utility and pharmaceutical/health care companies — industries that have not been magnets for the briefcase crowd. “Those industries are relatively minor consumers of MBAs,” said Damian Zikakis, director of career services at University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. GMAC’s 2013 Corporate Recruiters Survey showed the largZikakis est increase in demand for MBAs came from the energy and utilities sector, with 86 percent of those companies saying they planned to hire MBAs, compared to 69 percent of them saying they had hired MBAs in 2012. Another industry that hasn’t been a hotbed of MBA hiring but reported a heightened interest was pharmaceuticals and health care (treated as one in the GMAC survey), with 89 percent of those companies planning to hire MBAs in 2013, compared to 77 percent who’d actually done so in 2012. The 2013 survey results came from 935 employers across all sectors from around the globe. Of course, company plans also can change, as seen with GMAC’s 2014 survey results, released late last month. Two non-traditional big draws of MBAs — pharmaceutical/health care and manufacturing — saw different hiring in 2013 than predicted. In the pharmaceutical/health care sector, 81 percent of companies hired MBAs last year, not the 89 percent expected. Last year, 63 percent of manufacturers said they expected to hire MBAs; this year they reported that 85 percent of them added MBAs. But as an indicator of which way the winds are blowing, the survey is a useful starting point. GMAC’s survey of class of 2013 MBA graduates showed those targeting traditionally marginal MBA industries had a greater chance of getting a job offer. The percentage of graduates who received job offers from the energy/utility sector

was 62 percent; 67 percent received offers from pharmaceutical/health care companies; and 71 percent got offers from manufacturers. Numbers for the traditionally popular industries came in at 65 percent for consulting, 54 percent for finance/accounting, and 53 percent for products/services. Industries on the less-beaten path draw fewer business school students. “However, students looking for jobs in those industries are highly successful and receive job offers,” said Gregg Schoenfeld, GMAC’s survey research director. “There’s high demand, and people interested in those industries are becoming quite successful.” In the case of the utility industry, rising pressures are behind the new appreciation for MBAs. The industry is changing from being the static, highlyregulated power plant to one in which things like data mining and J.D. Power and Associates customer rankings matter, said Westerhof Cynthia Westerhof, director of people services and talent acquisition at Jackson-based Consumers Energy Co. Engineers are the classic utility hire. At Consumers, many go on to get MBAs through the company’s tuition reimbursement program, Westerhof said, and she did just that. But only very recently has there been a push to go hunting for MBAs outside, in areas such as data analysis, productivity, technology investments and customer service. Westerhof has been hearing more demand for MBA talent from officers and managers. Consumers is putting together an MBA hiring program it plans to have ready by graduation time next year that could include a rotation so entry-level MBAs can quickly gain experience. The challenge will be in educating MBAs that the industry is a lot more dynamic than people realize. “A lot of people are totally clueless about our industry. It’s not as sexy as getting an MBA and going to work for a consulting firm on Wall Street,” Westerhof said. Utilities have morphed into diversified energy companies, and they need people who can handle business development, strategy and acquisitions, said Jean Redfield, president and CEO of NextEnergy. Redfield herself is an engineer who went on to earn an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and worked for McKinsey & Co. before moving to DTE Energy Co. (where she struggled to hire MBAs). Regulatory changes developing over the past 20 years are manifesting now, she said. “The first 100 years of the industry compared to the next to 30 years is going to be night and day,” Redfield said. The industry faces massive investments to upgrade aging power

plants, continued pressure to cut carbon emissions, commodity price uncertainty and an aging workforce, said Marco Bruzzano, vice president of corporate development at DTE. “We need to bring in a lot of new young talent because the industry is going through a lot of change now,” said Bruzzano, who also has engineering degrees as well as an MBA, and spent time at McKinsey and Booz Allen Hamilton. DTE has Bruzzano about 30 percent more MBAs than it did a decade ago, and the company expects that trend to continue. UM’s Ross school has a 60-member club for students interested in utilities and energy, said Redfield, who works with the students. Zikakis said career advisers try to steer students toward whatever kind of work they think they will do well in, as opposed to which industries happen to be hiring more. But for those who aren’t sure of what they want, advisers will talk about industries in demand. Students fear that starting with a company in a specific industry locks them into that industry, said Zikakis. They figure it’s easier to start a career at a consulting firm and later jump to a company. Last year, 4.4 percent of Ross MBA grads went into the energy/utility sector, up from 2.7 percent in 2012 and similar to the 4.7 percent of 2011. For health care and pharmaceuticals, 2.9 percent of the school’s 450 MBA students went into that sector, compared to 2.5 percent in 2012 and 2.4 percent in 2011. Like utilities, the pharmaceutical industry has been slow to develop demand for MBAs. That’s partly because it is loaded with small companies like Riverview-based Ash Stevens Inc., a maker of ingredients used by drug companies, said Stephen Munk, its president. Munk hires Ph.D.s who can speak to the scientists holding the purses at customer companies. But the big drug companies like Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline plc are starting to behave more like traditional manufacturers, looking to streamline manufacturing and research processes. “If you’re sending thousands of pills to millions of locations, things you learn in business school, like operations and JIT (just-in-time manufacturing) are really critical,” Munk said. This year’s GMAC survey showed 90 percent of pharmaceutical and health care companies expecting to hire MBAs before the end of the year. Another industry, one near and dear to Michigan, showed signs of needing MBA skills: 87 percent of manufacturers projected MBA hiring this year. Companies in that sector reported that 85 percent of them hired MBAs in 2013, compared to 70 percent in 2012.

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Communication among issues in rift between WCC faculty and president BY CHAD HALCOM CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Rose Bellanca says she is trying for open communication with the faculty at Washtenaw Community College, which is at least the fifth Michigan community college in five years to vote no confidence in its top executive. The Washtenaw Community College Education Association, which represents nearly 300 full-time instructors and adjunct faculty, voted 15822 on May 1 to pass a no-confidence resolution. The board of trustees released a statement in support of the president. Some board members told Crain’s the recent rift with the union is unfortunate, while others noted that if the faculty had a legitimate gripe, it would have brought a grievance under its collective bargaining agreement, rather than take the largely symbolic no-confidence vote. Among the union’s stated concerns underlying the vote are a lack of faculty communication or consultation on new initiatives, an “increasing climate of distrust and fear” in which instructors fear retaliation for voicing concerns, the dismissal of a well-regarded administrator, a lack of transparency or accountability, recent staff departures on a grant-funded program and a heavy-handed approach to developing a new advanced manufacturing initiative. The college’s board voted Bellanca in as president of the Ann Arbor-based institution in 2011, and renewed her contract last summer. Bellanca told Crain’s she and college CFO William Johnson consulted with association president Maryam Barrie and other faculty leaders in late May about the budget, which she considers part of a “ground-up” financial decisionmaking process informed by faculty. The board has been reviewing a proposed $98.8 million operating budget for the next academic year, compared with the current $97.6 million. She also said the meeting was one of several efforts by the administration to communicate with faculty, but that she must weigh instructors’ concerns against the need to adapt and meet employer demand for new training. “I think it’s just uncomfortable for them,” Bellanca said of the faculty vote. “Getting to have input doesn’t ultimately mean you’ll always agree on (the results). The faculty is an important voice to us. But so is my business community, as we’re a member of Ann Arbor Spark, and the needs of employers looking for new skill sets, and the student body, and the legislative demands put upon us (by) the state.” Barrie described the faculty budget meeting as largely a management slide presentation, without much interaction or participation by the union. She also said the administration has created a climate of fear for instructors who

The faculty is an important “ voice to us. But so is my business community ... and the student body, and the legislative demands.

”

Rose Bellanca, Washtenaw Community College

voice concerns or criticism, and that the faculty lacks a forum to express its own ideas without fear of reprisals. “The (board members) have gone pretty far out on a limb to support her. I think Dr. Bellanca’s skill set would be much better suited at a different sort of institution than at our institution,” Barrie said. “She’s certainly a bright woman, and enthusiastic, but in some ways we’re probably too big and established to move and change as spontaneously as she might like. She gets an idea and seems to want it implemented this week. But it can take time to get the whole community within an institution involved on a project.” The faculty also has been critical of Bellanca’s decision last spring not to renew the employment contract of Vice President of Instruction Stuart Blacklaw, a generally well-liked figure in WCC’s academic community who often coordinated with the faculty and human resources department on labor grievance issues. The faculty leadership has also voiced concerns with reports it has received that Bellanca threatened instructors and told them to “get on board or get out of the way,” during an April planning meeting about its proposed Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Composite Materials and Intelligent Transportation Systems. The college has been working to collaborate with area employers and seek a grant to fund new training programs as part of that center. Bellanca denies being threatening and said she was simply trying to stress that opportunities were available for instructors who choose to be part of the program. She also said the program has received several faculty volunteers, and that her administration has also worked earnestly with four union appointees on a recent search committee to help find Blacklaw’s replacement. Bill Abernathy has been serving as interim vice president of instruction since Blacklaw’s departure, and Bellanca said there’s a good chance he’ll be the permanent appointment. WCC, which saw enrollment drop slightly from 12,476 in fall 2012 to 12,327 last fall, is the latest school in a trend of faculty voicing their dissatisfaction among Michigan’s community colleges. Oakland Community College, the state’s largest such school with

nearly 27,000 students, received a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Timothy Meyer in February, with 256 of its more than 290 faculty voting in favor. The board went on to pass a resolution in support of the chancellor. The Jackson College faculty voted no confidence in President Daniel Phelan in January, as did the faculty of Centreville-based Glen Oaks Community College against President Gary Wheeler in late 2012 and Scottville-based West Shore Community College against President Charles Dillon in 2009. Bellanca also said the 158 votes to pass the measure is just over a majority of the 307 faculty positions represented by the union, and might indicate that the opposition is not as strong as association leaders contend. But Barrie said that figure includes positions currently unfilled at the college, and the union’s rank and file is currently about 260 instructors. The college full-time faculty has another academic year left on its current contract, but Barrie said the adjuncts are in negotiations on a pact of their own now. The management team recently made an offer in those talks that the leadership could not in good faith submit to its members for a vote, she said, but did not elaborate. Patrick McLean, vice chairman of the board of trustees, said the gripes about communication and lack of consultation aren’t new, and the administration has been trying to respond to them. “These (no-confidence votes) are publicity stunts, and there’s nothing within a vote of no confidence that allows for a response or tells us how we are supposed to address this situation, and I believe there’s nothing the faculty has brought to us by way of any grievance,” said fellow board Trustee Richard Landau, managing partner of Ann Arbor commercial litigation firm RJ Landau Partners PLLC. “The makeup of the administration isn’t something the faculty has any input on. We hire the president. They don’t. We’ve instructed the president to try to work with the faculty on its issues, and she appears to be trying to communicate with the faculty.” Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796, chalcom@crain.com. Twitter: @chadhalcom

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

June 2, 2014

Focus: Business Education

New pension liability reporting rules to weaken colleges’ balance sheets

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NEW ARRIVALS FRACTIONAL AND MANAGED BUSINESS AVIATION PROGRAMS. SERVING ALL SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN.

BY AMY LANE SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Pension liabilities reaching hundreds of millions of dollars collectively are going to start showing up on the balance sheets of Michigan community colleges and some universities — a new and, some say, unwelcome recording. Effective with fiscal years beginning after June 15, many public higher-ed institutions in Michigan and around the country are among governmental employers falling under 2012 national accounting standards affecting defined-benefit pension plans. For some, the standards issued by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, which establishes accounting and financial reporting standards for U.S. state and local governments, mean factoring in liabilities that they’ve previously reported. But others that participate in multiple-employer government pension plans will now have to report and record their shares of the plan’s net pension liability — in Michigan, an estimated $2.2 billion collective tab for the seven universities and 28 community colleges that are part of the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System. That retirement plan, which is also available to K-12 public school districts, public school academies and district libraries, covers more than 432,000 people and had total unfunded pension liabilities of $24.3 billion as of Sept. 30, 2012, the most recent data published. Colleges and universities argue the liabilities aren’t really theirs or under their control. But it affects individual financial appearance. “On the one hand, you could say that it’s just a paper thing. On the other hand, it is a real unfunded liability that they show on their financial statements,” said Mike Hansen, president of the Michigan Community College Association. Washtenaw Community College, for example, has been told by the state that its estimated share of unfunded liability is about $105.5 million. Taken as a charge against the college’s unrestricted net assets, the unfunded liability would dramatically reduce the college’s net financial position, even though the pension obligations themselves are not new and nothing would have changed with the college’s ability to manage its day-to-day operations. William Johnson, Washtenaw vice president and CFO, said that while the liability can be explained to banks, credit rating agencies and other stakeholders, its impact is still unknown. “We’re uncertain, as a college, as to what the impact is going to be as to the external view of the college … and the industry,” he said. Johnson said the college has to record a liability that is not its own. “We feel this unfunded obligation is an obligation of the state, and not the college’s,” he said. “Up until just recently, the college had, and the employees of the college

uncertain, “asWe’re a college, as to what the impact is going to be as to the external view of the college … and the industry.

”

It is an “ obligation that we end up having to record, and it’s an obligation that we don’t have any control over.

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”

William Johnson, Washtenaw Community College

Greg Rosine, Western Michigan University

had, no rights to not be a plan participant.” Community colleges are required by law to participate in MPSERS, although changes in recent years allowed full-time faculty and administrative staff to choose between MPSERS’ defined-benefit plan and other retirement plans. According to the state, early liability-share estimates provided to other local colleges by the Office of Retirement Services include: Oakland Community College, $178.4 million; Macomb Community College; $152.1 million; Wayne County Community College, $123.3 million; Henry Ford Community College, $119 million; and Schoolcraft College, $100.3 million. The state next year will provide actual figures to be used in the fiscal 2015 financial statements. Seven universities, for various historical reasons, have also been part of MPSERS, although 1996 legislation sought by the universities closed off MPSERS to their new employees. New employees instead enroll in defined contribution plans. Mary Hill, controller and associate vice president for financial services and reporting at Central Michigan University, said having to book the liability share, which the state estimates at $101.9 million, “is going to eat up quite a bit of our Hill unrestricted net position” — available operational funds totaling $276.1 million as of fiscal 2013. “It does make us look less financially healthy,” she said. Among the seven universities, Western Michigan University has the largest state-estimated liability share, at $108.6 million. “It is an obligation that we end up having to record, and it’s an obligation that we don’t have any control over. It’s a state retirement system; we don’t determine benefits, eligibility,” said Greg Rosine, WMU vice president for government affairs and university relations. Other estimated university shares of MPSERS, according to the

state, are Ferris State University, $80.2 million; Eastern Michigan University, $74.6 million; Michigan Technological University, $50.1 million; Northern Michigan University, $46.4 million; and Lake Superior State University, $14.5 million. Stephen Blann, director of governmental audit quality in the Grand Rapids office of Rehmann Robson, a division of financial services firm The Rehmann Group LLC, said the GASB standards aim for transparency, giving readers of financial statements a clearer view of retirement promises made to employees and progress toward funding those promises. But he said booking the unfunded liabilities will likely change many balance sheets from positive to negative, making those colleges and universities look like they are insolvent, when they probably are not. Blann, who also chairs the governmental auditing and accounting task force for the Troy-based Michigan Association of CPAs, said upcoming fiscal 2014 financial reports will note the latest data on estimated shares of unfunded liabilities. Rehmann Robson’s clients include Michigan community colleges and universities. Public institutions that have their own defined-benefit plans also face changes under the GASB standards. Grand Valley State University, for example, has some current and former hourly employees in two defined benefit plans. Those plans have unfunded liabilities, currently about $18 million, that Grand Valley has been reporting and Bachmeier has been on a path to fully fund, and will now book in fiscal 2015, said Jim Bachmeier, vice president for finance and administration. “It changes almost nothing, with one exception. When you pick up our financial statements, and the … liabilities are on there, our net position will be lower than it used to be,” he said.

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June 2, 2014

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Focus: Business Education

Two colleges drop ‘community’; unlikely to be a trend BY KIRK PINHO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Two Michigan community colleges have dropped “community” from their names in the past two years after the enactment of a state law allowing them to offer fouryear baccalaureate degrees, but the ripple is not expected to build to a wave that sweeps the state. Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn changed its name to Henry Ford College in May, while Jackson College in Jackson dropped “community” in 2013. “I have not heard anybody indicate that they are on the similar path,” said Mike Hansen, president of the Michigan Community College Association in Lansing. “I would not be surprised if it was just those two, at least in the short term.”

The board voted unanimously “ and loved the idea. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any (opposition) out there, but I haven’t heard any. I’ve talked to faculty, students, staff and community members who love the idea.

”

Stanley Jensen, Henry Ford College

Public Act 495 of 2012 allows community colleges to offer fouryear degrees in cement technology, maritime technology, energy production technology or the culi-

nary arts. Nursing had been included in previous versions of the enacting legislation, but it was stripped from the bill. In addition to nurs-

Of the 15,700 business schools across the globe, fewer than 700 are accredited by AACSB, the world’s premiere accrediting agency for business programs. University of Detroit Mercy’s business program has been accredited by AACSB for 65 consecutive years, attesting to its excellent, Jesuit- and Mercy-inspired business education in a great American city. UDM’s College of Business Administration now also offers the Commerce Scholarship, worth $25,000 per year to qualified students entering the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration or 5-Year Accelerated BS/MBA program.

For more information, contact us at 800-635-5020 or admissions@udmercy.edu.

We want great things for you. business.udmercy.edu

ing, the MCCA is lobbying to extend four-year degree opportunities at community colleges to other fields, including information technology, manufacturing technology and allied health. “It’s important to remember that even if they were to offer one or two programs at the baccalaureate level, this is out of the hundreds of associate degree-level programs they currently offer,” Hansen said. “In other words, the vast majority of the programs and the overall mission is still that of an associate degree-granting two-year college responding to the local community.” Henry Ford College President Stanley Jensen, who was sworn in as the college’s fifth president last month (see Q&A, next page), said dropping “community” from the college’s name more accurately reflects its educational offerings. “We are going to be offering some baccalaureate degrees, and one that we’ve already gotten approval for is culinary arts,” Jensen said. He hopes to also have a baccalaureate nursing program if the Legislature votes to include that in the list of approved baccalaureate programs at community colleges. Jensen said there has been no known opposition to the name change. “The board voted unanimously and loved the idea,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t any out there, but I haven’t heard any. I’ve talked to faculty, students, staff and community members who love the idea.” Jensen said it will help attract international students whose countries encourage attendance at fouryear institutions instead of community colleges. Those countries include Saudi Arabia, China and Brazil, Jensen said. However, Tim Meyer, chancellor of Oakland Community College, the largest in the state with about 27,000 students, said OCC has no plans to follow Henry Ford’s and Jackson’s lead. “We are quite proud of having ‘community’ in our name because it represents our market, our target and our interest in the community,” he said. “Virtually half of our students come to OCC to transfer to a four-year institution. We do a great job as a two-year college because we have great four-year opportunities within our area.” Hansen said changing the names might be beneficial for students ap-

plying for jobs after graduation. “This change is largely for the benefit of students who now will likely have an easier time in the job market with a baccalaureate degree from a college, and not a community college,” Hansen said. Meyer disagreed. “There have been nearly a million students at OCC in the last 50 years,” he said. “People are extremely proud that they’ve attended OCC, so we don’t get that sense from employers.” Thirty-seven community colleges nationally have dropped “community” from their names between 2000 and 2012, according to Kent Phillippe, associate vice president of research and student success for the American Association of Community Colleges in Washington, D.C. More than half of those, 19, are in Florida, where the Legislature passed a law in 2008 that allowed community colleges to offer four-year degrees. During that same time, 38 have added “community” to their names. Many of them were former technical colleges that broadened their mission, Phillippe said.

are quite “ Weproud of having ‘community’ in our name because it represents our market, our target and our interest in the community.

”

Tim Meyer, Oakland Community College

Prior to Henry Ford and Jackson changing their names, 25 percent of the state’s 28 community colleges didn’t have “community” in them: Bay College (Escanaba); Delta College (University Center); Lake Michigan College (Benton Harbor); North Central Michigan College (Petoskey); Northwestern Michigan College (Traverse City); Schoolcraft College (Livonia); and Southwestern Michigan College (Dowagiac). Jackson College’s name change was the third in the college’s history. It was founded in 1928 as Jackson Junior College; in 1962, it was changed to Jackson Community College. The most recent change was approved by the board of trustees in June 2013. Henry Ford College was founded as Fordson Junior College in 1938 and then changed its name to Dearborn Junior College in 1946. It became Henry Ford Community College in 1952. Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412, kpinho@crain.com. Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

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June 2, 2014

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Focus: Business Education

Jensen’s focus: Financial turnaround, adding 4-year options Stanley Jensen, the presianyhow. We’ve been usdent of Henry Ford College, ing more money to beef spent 20 years in business up our welcome center as the founder and presiand improve the processdent of Leadership Enterprising of students as they es Inc., Bondurant, Iowa, a come in. corporate consulting comI had my own business pany, before entering the for 20 years, so part of academic world as a dean what I did was build of students and adjunct process improvement faculty member. He eventeams. We’ve built 15 of tually became president of those so far in the first Colorado Mountain College year, some of them havin Glenwood Springs, ing to do with accreditawhere he served for five Stanley Jensen, tion processes, student years before being ap- Henry Ford College satisfaction processes — pointed HFC’s fifth presianswering the phones dent in its 75-year history. better, better processing through Jensen, 61, spoke with Crain’s financial aid, those kind of things. reporter Kirk Pinho about his agenThese are cross-functional da for the college. teams, so we have faculty and staff working on them. We turned What challenges lie ahead? things around in a very dramatic I think one of the biggest chal- and wonderful way. We see our lenges is continuing to work on students as the most important providing all sorts of services for people, and we need to serve them our students to see higher levels of and meet their needs. student success. We are working really hard on that. We hope to How does your business experience grow, as well. We have about 26,000 transfer to the academic world? students now, but we’d like to I’ve worked with businesses, serve more. We’d also like to make built teams, did leadership trainsure we meet their needs in terms ing and also for colleges and uniof technology. versities. I’ve worked for 30 different institutions over the years, Explain the theory behind dropping building scores and scores of “community” in Henry Ford Communi- teams. I was a dean at one time at ty College’s name. a small college. I worked with difIt is aimed at hopefully serving ferent colleges and helped them our students better by adding with their processes and reorgasome four-year degrees and adding nizing. a university center. We’ve already Those things taught me a lot of started that. That will contain oth- the skills, all the ins and outs, and er universities and colleges offer- the business of higher education. ing classes on our campus. Certainly, higher education is The University of Michigan- very much a relationships busiDearborn is right next door. Siena ness — building relationships Heights University is officially with students, faculty. Students coming on board next week. We’ve are our customers, in a business had great interest and are almost sense. ready to sign with Eastern MichiStudents today see themselves gan University, and probably Fer- more as consumers. They are ris State University, and we just choosing a college like a consumer started talking with Wayne State would. They compare colleges. I University. There are a number of think a college has to be aware of others that are interested, and the marketplace they are in. we’ll keep pursuing those. Higher education is changing a lot right now. The cost of educaWhat cost-saving measures have tion is in headlines all the time. been implemented in your tenure so We have one of the lowest tuition far, and what more need to be done? rates in Michigan, but it’s still a We started a year ago when I got significant investment. Partnerhere. The first cash flow showed us ships are important with high running out of cash in the middle schools and other colleges to cut of July. We needed to take some the cost, to help streamline higher sound measures to rectify that sit- education, so that students get the uation. We started with a known best return on their investment. $16 million deficit in the current budget. We’ve had about an $18 Talk about HFC’s efforts to promote million swing to the good, and STEM education and careers. cash flow today is at about $13.5 We have very strong STEM promillion positive. It looks like we’ll grams. We have a very strong engiend the fiscal year $1.2 million to neering and tech program collabothe good. rating with UM-Dearborn and Some of the things we did to ac- other colleges like that, where stucomplish that was to lay off about dents do two years here and two 14 people last summer. We had ear- years there. There are math and ly retirement of about 17 full-time engineering components in our faculty. They received a $17,000 MAT2 (Michigan Advanced Techearly retirement incentive. Some nician Training) program, which members of my own Cabinet, I did- is providing education and is a n’t replace. My Cabinet and I took training program. Scaling that up some significant pay cuts. is important. We cut millions of dollars in We have the ASSET program spending in the operations budget. (Automotive Student Service EduLater on (in May), we’ll finish the cational Training), which is with sale of our other campus in Dear- Ford (Motor Co.) and providing techborn Heights to the K-12 district, nicians in the dealerships for which they already occupy part of Ford, which involves everything

Q&A

from math and science and hightech areas. We have a new science building, so we have a very, very strong science program. Technology, engineering and math have great faculty in those areas. A lot of students come here for two or three years and then transfer in those areas or get an associate degree. We have several colleges/universities right now that have a “three plus one,” where they take three years here and finish with one year at Ferris State and Eastern Michigan and others. That will increase. We have lots of dual-credit students. Those are combinations with high schools. In the medical field, we have the largest registered-nursing program in the state. About 240 RN nurses graduate from here every year.

COURTESY OF HENRY FORD COLLEGE

Stanley Jensen said he arrived at Henry Ford facing “a known $16 million deficit.” Now, “It looks like we’ll end the fiscal year $1.2 million to the good.”

WE’RE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS IN MICHIGAN. Our award-winning programs and innovative research in cutting-edge fields help students make an impact and allow our corporate partners to thrive. Together, our talented faculty, students and alumni make University of Michigan-Dearborn a leader in business education.

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CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS

CRAIN'S LIST: MICHIGAN GRADUATE BUSINESS DEGREE PROGRAMS Listed alphabetically Degrees offered

Michigan campus locations

Types of programs

Minimum GPA

Minimum GMAT/GRE

Cost per credit hour as of June 2014

Andrews University Berrien Springs 49104-0620 (269) 471-6321; www.andrews.edu/grad

MBA; MSA in church administration; M.A. and Ph.D. in educational leadership, higher education administration; graduate certificates in educational leadership

Berrien Springs

Online, full time, part time

2.6

Varies

$993

Aquinas College 1607 Robinson Road S.E., Grand Rapids 49506-1799 (616) 632-8900; www.aquinas.edu/management

Master of management with concentrations in organizational leadership, marketing management and health care administration; master of sustainable business

Grand Rapids

Part time, full time

2.8

450

$523

Baker College Center for Graduate Studies 1116 W. Bristol Road, Flint 48507 (800) 469-3165; www.baker.edu/graduate-studies

MBA, M.S. in information systems, industrial/organizational psychology, M.S. educational effectiveness, doctor of business administration

Allen Park, Auburn Hills, Clinton Twp., Flint, Jackson, Cadillac, Port Huron, Muskegon

Online, part time

Varies

NR B

$405

Central Michigan University 1650 Research Drive, Suite 165, Troy 48083 (248) 526-2620; www.cmich.edu/academics/ graduate_studies

MBA with emphases in enterprise resource planning using SAP, human resources, logistics management, marketing, value-driven organization, human resources, marketing; MSA with concentrations in acquisitions, human resources, leadership, general, engineering management, information resource management, international administration, others; M.A. in education in curriculum and instruction, training and development; M.A. in school principalship, charter school leadership emphasis; M.A. in sports administration; Master of Public Administration; graduate certificate in cybersecurity and other areas; Doctor of Educational Leadership; Educational Specialist

Auburn Hills, Clinton Twp., Dearborn, Detroit, Southfield, Troy, Warren, East Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids, Mount Pleasant, Petoskey, Saginaw, Traverse City

Full time, part time, evenings, weekends and online

2.7

NR MBA 450/ NR C

$487

Cleary University 3750 Cleary Drive, Howell 48843 (800) 686-1883; www.cleary.edu

MBA in financial planning, health care leadership, management and organizational leadership; certificates in health care informatics and event and meeting management

Ann Arbor, Howell

Online, blended

2.5

$600

Concordia University - Ann Arbor 4090 Geddes Road, Ann Arbor 48105 (734) 995-7300; www.cuaa.edu

MBA, master's in organizational leadership and administration, with concentrations in corporate communication, environmental studies, finance, health care ,HR, international business, management, marketing, public administration, others. Also, master's in educational leadership, curriculum and instruction

Ann Arbor (main campus); Dearborn, Frankenmuth and Jackson

Full time, part time and evenings

Varies

$590

Full time, evenings, online

2.7

$470

Davenport University 27650 Dequindre Road, Warren 48092 (800) 383-5200; www.davenport.edu

MBA with concentrations in accounting, finance, health care management, human Livonia, Warren, Traverse City, Full time, part time, resources management, strategic management and marketing; executive MBA, M.S. in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, evenings, weekends information assurance, health infomatics, information management; master of management Battle Creek, Lansing, Midland, and online Flint, Saginaw

2.87

400/NR D

$653

DeVry University Keller Graduate School of Management 26999 Central Park Blvd., Suite 125, Southfield 48076 (248) 213-1610; www.devry.edu

On campus: MBA, M.S. in accounting. Online: master's in accounting and financial management, HR management, information systems management, network and communications management, project management, public administration

2.7

NR E

$766

Eastern Michigan University 306 Gary Owen Building, Ypsilanti 48197 (734) 487-4444; www.emich.edu/cob

General MBA or in one of 13 areas; M.S. in accounting, human resources and Ypsilanti and Livonia; some organizational development, information systems, integrated marketing communications; 13 courses available in Traverse graduate certificates, two interdisciplinary graduate certificates City

450/ 500 MSA

$465.85

Ferris State University 1201 S. State St., Big Rapids 49307 (231) 591-5000; www.ferris.edu

MBA, M.S. in information security and intelligence

Alpena, Auburn Hills, Bay City, Online, weekends, Big Rapids, Clinton Twp., campus Dowagiac, Flint, Garden City, Grand Rapids, Greenville, Harper Woods, Howell, Lansing, Midland, Muskegon, Petoskey, Port Huron, Saginaw, Scottville, Sidney, Traverse City, Warren, Scottville, Bay City, Saginaw

2.75

500/upper 50th percentile

$512 F

Grand Valley State University Seidman College of Business 50 Front St., Grand Rapids 49504 (616) 331-7100; www.gvsu.edu/mba

MBA with optional emphses in finance, innovation and technology management, health sector management, and international business; M.S. in taxation; M.S. in accounting

Grand Rapids, Holland

Full time integrated; part time

3.0

500

$567

Kettering University 1700 University Ave., Flint 48504 (800) 955-4464; www.kettering.edu/academics/ departments/business

MBA with concentrations in leadership, health care systems, IT, supply chain, and Flint technology management; engineering concentrations in manufacturing, health care systems, mechanical design, others; M.S. in engineering management and operations management; graduate certificates in global leadership, green business, others

Online, full time

3.0

$799

Lawrence Technological University 21000 W. 10 Mile Road, Southfield 48075-1058 (248) 204-3160; www.ltu.edu/futurestudents/ graduate/index.asp

MBA, M.S. in information systems, doctor of business administration; dual degrees: MBA/ M.S. in information systems, MBA/master of engineering management, MBA/master of architecture

Southfield, Warren (for Tacom Full time, part time, employees), Chrysler Technical weekends, online Center (for CTC employees), Traverse City, Petoskey

3.0/3.3 doctoral

$1,050

Madonna University 36600 Schoolcraft Road, Livonia 48150 (734) 432-5667; www.madonna.edu

MBA, 13 certificate options; MSBA in leadership studies, leadership studies in criminal justice, international business, and in quality; MS in e-commerce, health services administration and project management

Livonia, Orchard Lake, Part time, evenings, Gaylord, Clinton Twp., Detroit weekends and online

3.0

$650

Marygrove College 8425 W. McNichols, Detroit 48221 (313) 927-1513; www.marygrove.edu

M.A. in human resources management, educational leadership

Detroit, online

Part time, full time, online

3.0

Varies

Michigan State University Broad College of Business 632 Bogue St., East Lansing 48824 (517) 355-8377; broad.msu.edu

MBA; WMBA; M.S. degrees in accounting; business analytics; finance; management, strategy, and leadership; marketing research; supply chain management; hospitality business. Ph.D.s in accounting, IT management, logistics, operations and sourcing management, finance, management, marketing

East Lansing, Troy

Full time, part time, evenings, weekends, and online

Varies

Michigan Technological University School of Business and Economics 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton 49931-1295 (906) 487-3055; mbaonline.mtu.edu

MBA

Houghton

Online, campus, full time, part time

2.9

550/NR

$820.50

Northern Michigan University Walker L. Cisler College of Business 1401 Presque Isle Ave., Marquette 49855-5301 (906) 227-2900; www.nmu.edu/mba

MBA

Marquette

Full time, part time, campus

3.0

500/NR

$623

Northwood University Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management 4000 Whiting Drive, Midland 48640 (800) 622-9000; www.northwood.edu/graduate

MBA and M.S. in organizational leadership

Troy, Grand Rapids, East Lansing, Midland

Full time, accelerated, part time, evenings, online

3.0

Varies

Oakland University School of Business Administration 238 Elliott Hall, Rochester Hills 48309 (248) 370-3287; www.oakland.edu/business/grad

MBA, executive MBA in health care management, information systems leadership, M.S. in IT management, master of accounting; post-masters certificates in accounting, business economics, entrepreneurship, finance, others; and general management geared to nonbusiness masters applicants

Rochester Hills

Part time or full time, evenings, some Saturday morning and some online courses

3.0

GMAT 500/ V 153 Q 144

$616.50

Olivet College 320 S. Main St., Olivet 49076 (269) 749-7626; insurance.olivetcollege.edu

MBA in insurance

Olivet

Online

3.0

500

$681

Saginaw Valley State University 7400 Bay Road, 160 Wicks, Saginaw 48710 (989) 964-6096; www.svsu.edu/mba

MBA

Saginaw

Online, hybrid, part time, evenings

3.0

$480

Siena Heights University 19675 W. 10 Mile Road, Suite 400, Southfield 48075 (248) 799-5490; www.sienaheights.edu

M.A. in leadership in organization, health care, higher education

Southfield, Monroe, Adrian, Battle Creek, Benton Harbor, Lansing

Evenings, blended online, online

3.0

$515

Cornerstone University, Professional and Graduate MBA; online MBA; MBA concentrations in health care (online), lean manufacturing (online) Lansing, Kalamazoo, Grand Studies finance (online) project management (online); M.S. in management Rapids, Zeeland 1001 E. Beltline Ave. NE, Grand Rapids 49525 (616) 222-1448; http://pgs.cornerstone.edu

B Three years of full-time work experience prior to applying for admission. C A 450 GMAT score is required for the MBA program only. D GMAT waived if undergrad final GPA was 3.4 or better. E GMAT/GRE not required unless GPA is below 2.7. F After July 2014.

Southfield

Full time, part time, online

Full time, part time, 2.75 for evenings, Saturdays and MBA, online MSHROD, MSIS, MSIMC; 3.0 for MSA

Continued on Page 44

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

CRAIN'S LIST: MICHIGAN GRADUATE BUSINESS DEGREE PROGRAMS Listed alphabetically Minimum GPA

Minimum GMAT/GRE

Cost per credit hour as of June 2014

3.0

$603

3.0

NR B

$1,439

Varies

From Page 43 Michigan campus locations

Degrees offered Spring Arbor University Gainey School of Business MBA, M.S. in management 106 E. Main, Spring Arbor 49283 (517) 750-6611; www.arbor.edu/academics/ gainey-school-of-business

Types of programs

Troy, Flint, Battle Creek, Full time, online, hybrid Gaylord, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Bay City, Fremont, metro Detroit, metro Toledo, Petoskey

University of Detroit Mercy 4001 W. McNichols, Detroit 48221 (313) 993-1203; business.udmercy.edu

MBA; MBA with health care concentration; joint MBA/MHSA; joint JD/MBA; joint MBA/ Detroit MCIS; graduate certificates in finance, ethical leadership and change management, forensic accounting, and business turnaround management.

Part time, full-time, evenings, weekends, online, and off-campus (in Harper Woods).

University of Michigan Ross School of Business 701 Tappan St., Ann Arbor 48109 (734) 763-5796; www.bus.umich.edu

MBA, global MBA, master's in accounting, supply chain management, entrepreneurship; over 20 MBA dual degree programs; doctoral study program

Full time, part time (evening or weekend) and executive

University of Michigan-Dearborn College of Business 19000 Hubbard Drive, Dearborn 48126 (313) 593-5460; www.cob.umd.umich.edu

36-48 credit MBA in accounting, finance, HR management, international business, Dearborn investment, management information systems, marketing, others. 30-credit MS in accounting, business analytics, finance, information systems, others. Dual degrees in MBA/ MS-Finance, MBA/Master of Health Services, others

Full time, part time, evenings and online

$798

University of Michigan-Flint School of Management 2200 Riverfront Center, 303 E. Kearsley St., Flint 48502 (800) 942-5636; umflint.edu/som

Master of Business Administration with concentrations in accounting, computer information Flint systems, finance, health care management, international business, lean manufacturing and marketing; Master of Science in accounting; graduate certificate in business

Part time, full time, traditional, mixed mode

3.0

450/150

$602.75/ $833.34 C

University of Phoenix 26261 Evergreen Road, Suite 135, Southfield 48322 (248) 675-3764; www.phoenix.edu

MBA in accounting, global management, health care management, HR management, Southfield, downtown Detroit marketing, public administration, project management, others; master's in management, HR management; M.S. in accountancy; doctoral programs

Evenings and online

2.5

$740

University of Windsor Odette School of Business 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4 (519) 253-3000; www.uwindsor.ca/business

MBA; MBA/JD dual; master's in management in international accounting and finance; and manufacturing, logistics, supply chain and HR management

Windsor

Full time

2.75

550

Varies

Walsh College 3838 Livernois Road, Troy 48083 (248) 823-1610; www.walshcollege.edu

MBA, master's in management, M.S. in accountancy, finance, information assurance, information systems, taxation; dual MBA/M.S. in finance

Troy, Novi; classes at Macomb Full time, part time, Community College, St. Clair evenings, weekends County Community College and online

2.750

$641

Wayne State University School of Business Administration 5201 Cass Ave., Detroit 48202 (313) 577-4501; www.business.wayne.edu

MBA, M.S.A., M.S. in taxation, graduate certificate in business, joint J.D./MBA, Ph.D. in business with tracks in finance, management and marketing

Detroit, Farmington Hills, Warren, Livonia

Full time, part time, evenings, weekends and online

NA D

GMAT 450 Ph.D. 600

$643

Western Michigan University Haworth College of Business 2100 Schneider Hall, Kalamazoo 49008 (269) 387-5133; www.wmich.edu/mba

MBA in computer information systems, finance, general business, international business, management or marketing, health care, aviation; MBA/J.D., MBA/M.D., MSA

Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo

Full time, part time, evening

2.5

GMAT 450 or equivalent GRE score

$497

Ann Arbor

B GMAT can be waived for those with professional experience. Tuition discount of 50 percent on GMAT scores of 600 or higher. C Traditional/NetPlus D For Ph.D.: undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or graduate GPA of 3.5. LIST RESEARCHED BY CRAIN'S STAFF

Make your impact here. Then on the business world. The world doesn’t need more businesses. It needs better ones. It needs dreamers and doers. It needs brighter minds and harder workers. Most of all, it needs people who are willing to make a difference. Are you ready to get started? Enroll today and own your future.

Let’s Get Started! 800-622-9000 www.northwood.edu

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Focus: Business Education

NEW PROGRAMS This directory of new programs was compiled from dozens of interviews with academic, admissions and marketing executives at these schools. The list is meant to showcase new programs of interest to a Southeast Michigan business readership. If you know of a new program we should add for the online version of this directory, please contact Gary Piatek at gpiatek@crain.com.

EB-5 Center Opens Michigan to the World Tapping MSHDA’s Expertise

A simple acronym, EB-5, is playing a major role in Gov. Rick Snyder’s efforts to generate foreign investment—and create jobs—in Michigan.

Woosley is also serving as president and CEO of the Michigan Community Development Corp. (MCDC), an entity formed by MSHDA and the State Land Bank Fast Track Authority to operate the EB-5 Regional Center. Joe Borgstrom, who also is director of the Downtown & Community Services Division at MSHDA, will oversee the EB-5 Regional Center’s daily operations as its director.

The State of Michigan EB-5 Regional Center, after gaining federal approval this spring, is aiming to attract immigrants who want to live, work and invest in job-producing enterprises in Michigan. The center is only the second such state-managed operation in the country, after Vermont's.

Congress created the EB-5—more formally known as the employment-based, ﬁfth-preference visa—in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. The State of Michigan EB-5 Regional Center will partner with approved foreign nationals seeking permanent green cards, which will allow them and immediate family members to locate to the United States. They must invest at least $500,000 or $1 million in Michigan, depending on whether the project is located in a targeted economic area with 150 percent or more of the national unemployment rate. Scott Woosley, executive director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), said the EB-5 Regional Center’s staff is eager to deepen relationships internationally and bring home investment projects, jobs and possible new residents.

Potential investors already are expressing interest in injecting capital into Michigan’s economy, and the MCDC is working to identify potential EB-5 projects.

Capitalizing on Cultural Diversity In working to attract investors to Michigan, the EB-5 Regional Center will tout such assets as Southeast Michigan’s cultural diversity, affordable cost of living, quality of life and improving economy as reasons to take up residency here. The EB-5 Regional Center is just one cornerstone of Gov. Snyder’s plans for drawing foreign capital and talented workers to Michigan. “Statistics show that immigrants are net job providers, and we want them to use their skills in science, technology, engineering and math to be innovators and job creators,” Woosley said. For more information, visit michigan.gov/EB-5.

Photo courtesy of Issue Media Group

New Jobs for State Residents

Baker College

MSHDA staff were assigned to manage the EB-5 Regional Center based on the authority’s experience with executing federal compliance, performing underwriting and developing a deal pipeline. © Vito Palmisano

“This is an important step in helping to harness top talent and attract direct international investment into the state to accelerate Michigan’s comeback,” the governor said in announcing the center’s start-up.

BAKER COLLEGE

A finance bachelor’s is coming to Baker.

This fall, Baker’s Clinton Township location will offer a bachelor of business administration degree in finance. The program is designed for students who seek employment in corporate finance, investment banking, financial markets and services, and insurance. It emphasizes finance as the study of resource allocation, which includes financial markets, instruments, individuals and institutions that manage money and assets. In addition, the Clinton Township location will begin its bachelor of science in nursing. The pre-licensure nursing program combines humanities and sciences with the theory and practice of nursing. It will replace Baker’s existing associate’s degree in nursing program. Baker’s Allen Park location will offer B.S. degrees in health and wellness along with nutrition and dietetics.

neurship courses as well as guest lectures and other startup events. Students also will have the opportunity to work in teams on realworld problems and startup ideas, developing concepts for new products and services and ways to extend the market for existing products and services.

Davenport University This fall, Davenport will offer a new, competency-based MBA program designed for experienced business professionals and managers who would like an alternative to the traditional MBA program. The program prepares students for mid- to upper-level management positions in business, industry and nonprofit organizations. Candidates should be self-directed professionals with strong self-discipline and organizational skills and should have been employed for at least three years after completing their undergraduate degree in business or a related field. The CMBA can be completed in an average of 20 months but as quickly as 12 months, depending on a student’s transfer credits, credit for prior learning and how fast they progress through direct assessments of competencies. The program is designed to be more cost-effective than other graduate programs. The CMBA is offered solely online for flexible scheduling and can be completed during regular semesters.

Central Michigan University CMU’s online MBA program is moving to open enrollment this fall to increase flexibility for working professionals. The Mt. Pleasant-based university also will offer new degree-related programs around metro Detroit, both online and in the classroom. The programs are a master of science in administration, engineering management (face to face and online), administration recreation and park administration (online) and a master of arts in education in training and development (face to face and online). CMU also opened an office in downtown Detroit in the One Kennedy Square Building.

Concordia University Concordia University in Ann Arbor is building an incubator on campus to support entrepreneurial activities. By this fall, Concordia hopes to have an initial group of students. Construction of the incubator will be completed within the academic year. The incubator, open to all undergraduate and graduate students and alumni, will offer interactive and experiential-based entrepre-

EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

EMU is adding MBA specializations.

Eastern Michigan University This fall, EMU’s College of Business will add two specializations to its MBA program: one in hotel and restaurant management and another in sports management, bringing the number of MBA specializations to 13 in various business disciplines. In addition, four courses were recently approved for EMU’s fully online master of science degree in integrated marketing communications. Courses include privacy policy management, social media marketing strategy, customer relationship management and business marketing. The new courses will begin to roll out in the winter of 2015. The IMC degree requires 36 credits and 12 courses. The university also is developing an M.S. in taxation. See Next Page

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Focus: Business Education Dual Education System, which integrates business and education to grow technology jobs and produce qualified workers for Michigan. Students earn an associate’s degree in a high-tech, high-demand field, with tuition paid for by an employer that hires them full time at the start of the program, pays them a salary while in school and transitions them into a position at the end of the three-year program.

From Previous Page

Lawrence Technological University Lawrence Tech’s College of Management has a new master of science degree in information technology, with concentrations in business analytics, information assurance or project management.

Madonna University This fall, Madonna will consolidate several majors into a new and enhanced bachelor of science in business administration to accommodate businesses that have said they would prefer to hire students with a broader degree. The majors that will be consolidated are marketing, international business, human resource management and health care management. Instead of 30 credits in a particular major, students will take fewer credits over a broad range of business classes. They also will have the opportunity to add certificates to this major if they want a stronger concentration in a particular area.

MADONNA UNIVERSITY

Madonna will combine majors this fall.

Michigan State University MSU’s Eli Broad College of Business this fall will offer a master of science in marketing research, a specialized program that provides a graduate-level degree for people who want to build or accelerate their careers in marketing research. The program is available in two formats: a one-year, fulltime program that includes an internship and a part-time program that is completed in 21 months. MSU intends to be among the handful of universities in the United States to offer such a degree. In addition, MSU this fall will offer a master’s certificate in advanced procurement management. This past January, the college launched its M.S. in management, strategy and leadership. It’s offered completely online (30 credit hours). The program emphasizes leadership and team management, business strategy, managing change, negotiations and decision making. It is designed for experienced managers.

Northwood University This fall, Midland-based Northwood will offer the opportunity to earn dual majors in four years and will add two bachelor of business administration programs in insurance risk management and innovation marketing and management. In addition, a B.B.A. in accounting, computer information management, finance, franchising management and management information systems now can be earned online. Graduate degree opportunities include an MBA or the recently launched master of science in organizational leadership, offered online from Northwood’s DeVos Graduate School.

LAWRENCE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Lawrence Technological University expects to offer a new IT degree.

Oakland Community College OCC expects to have a computer information systems degree and

certificate this fall, based on the Michigan Advanced Technician Training pilot conducted last year. MAT2 is based on the German

Oakland University This fall, Oakland’s School of Business Administration will incorporate business analytics as a new focus within its undergraduate and graduate programs. It will em-

OAKLAND UNIVERSITY

Oakland will focus on analytics.

phasize areas such as financial analysis, management of big data, marketing analysis, supply chain management and consumer demand analysis. At the undergraduate level, the

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Focus: Business Education From Page M47

business school is introducing a class in product and innovation management. Also this fall, Oakland will begin to expand its executive MBA program offerings for experienced professionals with a course on innovative management and product development.

Schoolcraft College

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Nonbusiness undergrads can benefit from a University of Michigan master’s program.

Schoolcraft will have a new plastic technology skills certificate, which includes new courses in introduction to plastic materials and introduction to plastic processing The program was designed with

the local plastics industry, the Society of Plastics Engineers and the Livonia Chamber of Commerce. The college also will continue to offer its accounting internship course, which ran for the first time in January.

opening a 10,000-square-foot facility in Southfield in September.

Spring Arbor University Along with Spring Arbor’s MBA program offered in the spring semester, its metro Detroit locations also are offering a bachelor of science degree in business and organizational management. In addition, Spring Arbor is working to launch a program this fall in the B.S. in facilities management stream. Spring Arbor says it’s

Value(s) added.

UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY

Detroit Mercy will add new courses.

University of Detroit Mercy This fall, the College of Business Administration will offer new undergraduate courses in business intelligence, business analytics, database management, insurance law and human rights law as well as new concentrations in sports management and business law. UDM also is introducing dual-enrollment courses in accounting, finance, business law and other subjects for exceptional high school students. To help qualified freshmen enrolling in business, the college will begin offering a renewable scholarship of $25,000 a year. Also this year, UDM’s accelerated five-year bachelor of science/MBA program will begin to incorporate an international experience for all students in addition to two internships and an industry mentor. The MBA program recently was ranked among the world’s top 30 for its emphasis on sustainability. In addition, the five-course graduate certificate in business turnaround management will be offered entirely online, while the graduate certificate in finance will be offered both on campus in Detroit and off-campus at the Wayne County Community College District center in Harper Woods.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Earning a graduate degree in business from UDM means you’ve gained the kind of strategic thinking that can make an impact in today’s business world. It also means you bring a socially responsible perspective to every decision. That’s because UDM’s College of Business Administration infuses its curriculum with both excellence and ethics, drawing on its Jesuit and Mercy traditions. In fact, our MBA program is ranked among the world’s top 30 for sustainability. So UDM graduates deliver an uncommon value-added to the workplace. And UDM’s AACSB accreditation means that you’re attending an elite business school—among the top 5 percent worldwide—where teaching matters as much as research, and accountability reigns. GRADUATE DEGREES

GRADUATE CERTIFICATES

MBA Joint JD/MBA Joint MBA/Health Ser vices Joint MBA/Computer Info Systems

Finance Forensic Accounting Business Turnaround Management (online) Ethical Leadership & Change Management

We want great things for you.

business.udmercy.edu

This fall, UM’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business will offer a master of management graduate degree program, designed to deliver business fundamentals to students who have a nonbusiness undergraduate degree. The 10-month, cohort-based program works for students looking to add a business degree to a liberal arts, science or engineering undergraduate degree. The program is an intensive, full-time, general management program that includes study in such areas as accounting, finance and marketing. Students will learn the building blocks of business, with an emphasis on analytical frameworks and tools, along with communications and teamwork skills.

University of Michigan-Dearborn UM-Dearborn’s College of Business this fall is launching a revised master of science in information systems that can be completed in 30 credits. The program previously was 30 to 48 credits. The M.S. in information systems provides the knowledge and skills required to manage information technology projects, oversee appliSee Next Page

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Focus: Business Education

Possible is everything. Today, more than ever

, global competition and corporate streamlining require innovative thinking and leadership abilities. Continuing your education can be key to ensuring your success. From workplace technology and entrepreneurial skills to project management and information technology, Lawrence Technological University offers innovative business degrees and fast-track certificate programs to prepare you for the jobs of the future.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-DEARBORN

UM-Dearborn has revised its master’s program in information systems. From Previous Page

cation development and help develop an organization’s IT strategy. The program is open to all students who have an aptitude for information technology and is useful to students with backgrounds in IT management, computer science, computer engineering, electronic engineering and related fields.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-FLINT

UM-F is stressing enterpreneurship.

University of Michigan-Flint UM-Flint’s School of Management will introduce a major in entrepreneurship and innovation management in fall 2015. The school previously has offered a number of courses geared to help students start a business. The new major also will include courses from complementary fields in marketing and management. The school is offering further assistance to students with entrepreneurial interests through its centers, entrepreneur-in-residence and student organization called the Entrepreneurs Society.

Washtenaw Community College Five new certificate and degree programs will be in effect this fall at WCC. The new certificate programs are facility and energy management (certificate), HVAC energy management technician (advanced certificate) and engineering design technology (certificate). The new associate’s degrees are honors in the liberal arts (associate in arts) and paralegal studies/pre-law (associate in arts).

artistic welding course that now has grown into a certificate program for the fall semester. This program incorporates elements of traditional welding technology into artistic expression.

Wayne State University The School of Business Administration has launched a human resources concentration for its MBA program. MBA students who have a particular area of professional interest can choose HR or one of 12 other concentrations as part of their program. The school also has launched an executive education arm. The early emphasis will be on offering open-enrollment “short courses” and custom programs developed with businesses, nonprofits and government entities. At the same time, the school’s executive education task force is evaluating opportunities for developing executivelevel degree programs, such as an executive MBA. This fall, Wayne State will enroll the first students in its new post-bachelor certificate program in information systems management. The 24-credit program provides students with backgrounds in other disciplines a foundation in information systems management. This fall also marks the launch of the “Schoolcraft to U” partnership between Wayne State and Schoolcraft College. The program allows students to complete most or all of the course work toward a Wayne State degree at Schoolcraft’s Livonia campus. Initial degrees offered include a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree in accounting, or both.

Wayne County Community College District New to WCCCD are certificate programs in database administration, anesthesia technology, business analytics, programmable logic and digital photography. Last spring, WCCCD launched an

WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY

Wayne State will offer “short courses.”

Explore over 100 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs in Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management.

Lawrence Technological University 21000 West Ten Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48075-1058 800.225.5588 | admissions@ltu.edu | www.ltu.edu

2014

BEST COLLEGES in the Midwest

GREEN COLLEGE

Review®

Princeton

2014 AMERICA’S BEST

UNIVERSITIES U.S. News & World Report®

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2014 Mackinac Policy Conference

Growing large by thinking small If entrepreneurship is to revive Detroit, it can’t be fueled by big business alone BY AMY HAIMERL

TECHTOWN BY THE NUMBERS

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

believe in entrepreneurs. That is what I would say if I were on the old NPR show “This I Believe,” where contributors talked about a range of topics that spoke to their souls, from ghosts to the power of diversity. My food critic friend Jason Sheehan recorded one of the show’s most popular missives: I believe in barbecue. I’ve always wondered what I would say if asked. I know now: I believe in entrepreneurs. I believe in their hustle. I believe in their drive. I believe in their unwillingness to accept defeat. I believe in their ability to pick themselves up and start over again. I believe in their willingness to see opportunity where others only see challenges. I believe in the men and women commercializing new medical device innovations and the ones starting new auto-body shops. I believe in the food entrepreneurs who are turning jams and sausage and vegan delicacies into thriving businesses. I believe in the immigrants who move to our shores with their entrepreneurial spirit and drive. I believe in high-tech companies developing products we never even knew we needed. I believe in neighborhood businesses that feed our communities and our cultures. And I believe in the fastgrowing companies that create

Between 2007 and 2013

䡲 Served 866 companies, which created 1,155 jobs and raised more than $103 million in follow-on investment Building numbers

䡲 Physical tenants: 26 (82% occupancy) 䡲 Mailbox tenants (mailbox and access to conference rooms and support services): 24 䡲 Co-workers (share desk space off the lobby): 17

COURTESY OF TECHSHOP INC.

TechShop in Allen Park provides welding and other skilled trades opportunities needed in the region.

jobs that allow people to support these small business owners. The Detroit Regional Chamber believes in them, too. So much so that it made entrepreneurship a tenet of this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference. “What we’re trying to do here is really have a different culture mindset in Michigan,” said Sandy Baruah, CEO of the chamber. “We need to make being an entrepreneur a much more celebrated path for individuals. This has been a state that has been successful for being big. “Big companies. Big unions. Big government, and even big non-

profits. The result of that success — of being big — is that small has not been celebrated. However, being small leads to more disruptive innovations. Being small leads to being nimble. Being small leads to creativity. Being small leads to new possibilities.” Being small and entrepreneurial also has the ability to remake this state, and revive our cities. But only if we define “entrepreneur” as someone who sets his or her own destiny, rather than the narrow vision of small tech startups that has captured the zeitgeist. “Entrepreneurship tends to be presented as four kids with beards

and checked shirts sitting in the Madison Building,” said Robin Boyle, chairman of the urban planning and studies department at Wayne State University. “That’s presented in the media as the entrepreneurial spirit, and that’s alienating to many people.”

Starting small Entrepreneurship is about so much more than optimism and coding skills. It’s about growing and starting a business, supporting your family, adding jobs, building wealth. It’s about controlling your future.

The venture capital-fueled tech startups toiling away in Dan Gilbert’s incubator and accelerator are doing important and laudable work that will hopefully lead to huge successes. They are bringing sexy back to Detroit by showing the world a very different Motor City than the one they’ve seen in the ruin-porn compilations. But while they are a critical piece of our future, they alone cannot fuel the resurgence of the Motor City. It will take an entrepreneurial spirit, and a culture of entrepreneurship, rather than a myopic focus on one industry, to grow the economy and create jobs in Michigan. Anything else is an old-school model of economic development. “To put all our money in one thing, that is the classic whatwe’ve-done-in-the-past,” said Boyle. “We throw big money at big business that will come there. That world is gone. We need a more sophisticated and denser approach.” When the idea of entrepreneurship as an economic development tool was formally introduced to the region six years ago, it seemed like a crazy idea to many thinkers. Even those who did embrace the See Next Page

MARY KRAMER: Time for talk about real engagement MACKINAC ISLAND — Leave it to Detroit to find the downside in a $100 million gift. That was my first reaction to hearing negative comments about the $100 million commitment to Detroit revitalization that J.P. Morgan Chase Chairman Jamie Dimon announced in Detroit on May 21. At the policy conference here, a prominent Democrat told me that given the mortgage meltdown’s traumatic effect on Detroit, many people he was speaking

with believed $100 million was hardly enough. After all, the bank settled with the feds late last year for a record $13 billion over its role in selling poor-quality mortgage-backed securities at the core of the mortgage mess that helped to decimate Detroit’s neighborhoods. But what do you do? Leave the Chase money on the table? Or take the money and hope to leverage more of it to finance Detroit’s turnaround? Clearly, I think it’s the latter. What

Detroit needs most is investment and jobs. Without both, the city’s turnaround chances are dim. I was out of town the week of Chase’s announcement, but the media coverage I saw was hugely positive. One exception: Michigan Chronicle editor Bankole Thompson, who framed the Chase gesture in the context of “public good” vs. “public relations.” The Chronicle is Michigan’s leading media voice in the African-American community. Thompson raised Chase’s role — or the role of companies it acquired — in the mortgage crisis. The $100 million announcement

was somewhat surprising since Chase has been a quiet presence in Detroit, clearly not in the stature of its ancestor, NBD Bank. At the very least, Thompson is hopeful that Chase’s $100 million could spur others “whose fingerprints are absent or barely present on Detroit’s economic landscape, to now act in goodwill, and out of a crucial need to make a difference.” As he concluded in the column: “Corporate social responsibility should go beyond just sponsoring a banquet or a dinner. It is more than writing a $5,000 check to have your name mentioned at an event. … It should mean taking part and con-

tributing to making lives better in the communities in which some of these institutions operate.” Thompson offers a reasoned argument for genuine engagement, beyond cash. But for companies who listen to some of the community chatter, it is tough to figure out just what to do without being called a carpetbagger, interloper or worse. Detroit needs investment. We can’t afford to leave money on the table — or vilify investors. This is definitely a conversation that needs to happen. Who will convene it? Maybe Thompson and Crain’s can help start it.

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idea, like the New Economy Initiative, thought the game was to invest in tech startups. “We jumped on this sexy startup craze,” said David Egner, executive director of NEI, which has invested more than $100 million in the entrepreneurship economy. “We got to work in the innovation-to-market game. That is where the Googles are made. But if we only focus there, it will take at least 10 years to get an output. But that’s where we put our resources. We thought a big breakout would give a symbol that some things are happening.” What about now? NEI is thinking about how to play smarter baseball. Instead of betting solely on tech startups and hoping for the home run, NEI and regional leaders are investing in building and growing companies of all varieties. Sometimes that’s a base hit, other times stealing second. They are building the infrastructure to support more entrepreneurs on their paths to start, grow and scale their businesses — whether working with a highinnovation firm or a neighborhood businesses looking to scale up. “Living on the dream of one in a million isn’t good for any of us,” said Leslie Lynn Smith, president and CEO of TechTown Detroit, which both invests in hightech ventures and works with small neighborhood retail businesses. “Dan Gilbert wants that, but he is Smith that. And it’s great. But I think what happens when you are so busy looking for the next Google or Facebook is that you overlook extraordinary opportunities to hit a couple of doubles and triples.”

Scaling up Right now, NEI is looking for a number of those base hits with its NEIdeas program, which will give $10,000 grants to 30 existing businesses — and $100,000 to two big winners. As part of the project, NEI is trying to figure out how to elevate Detroit’s entire entrepreneurial culture and ecosystem, including those traditionally left out of economic development efforts. “We are creating and growing businesses that are serving the higher innovation jobs that we are also focusing on,” said Egner, who is also president and CEO of the Hudson-Webber Foundation. “You can’t do neighborhood entrepreneurship and bring it to scale if you don’t have the growing economy. The two have to be connected. Historically, we have attacked one or the other; we have to connect and attack both at the same time.” Focusing on both sides of the entrepreneurial spectrum builds a sustainable entrepreneurial culture that is authentic to our humble Midwestern ethos — rather than trying to mimic Silicon Valley with its burn rates, failure rates, Pied Pipers and increasing inequality. This rejuvenated culture should

NATHAN SKID

FoodLab co-founder Jess Daniel: “We have this narrative of revitalization, and a lot of energy and excitement about new things.”

include both good jobs and strong neighborhoods. It can help us bridge the talent gap by convincing young people to stay and newcomers to arrive. It gives us the leverage to make the money men, and money women, come to us. “If the spirit of entrepreneurship is infused through all of our opportunities, that can change the course here,” Smith said. “Entrepreneurship is a culture. It can be a path to independence.” Organizations such as Focus: Hope see the potential for entrepreneurship to be a path to prosperity for their clients. The nonprofit has historically focused on workforce development, particularly IT and machinist training, but now offers entrepreneurship training. It has graduated 34 students through its training program and another 150 through various workshops, which range from business plans to lending. “It is our expectation that not just the big companies or OEMs will rebuild our neighborhoods, our city,” said William Jones Jr., CEO of Focus: Hope. “We will need those small entrepreneurs at work in the neighborhoods to provide services. The local hardware store is going to be important. Local lawn care is going to be important. I applaud the folks who bring their brains here and do the apps stuff, but we also need urban manufacturing and other things. We need good-paying, middle-class jobs.” Even the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the city’s nonprofit economic development arm, is thinking beyond tech startups and focusing on growing the region’s entrepreneurs. “We focused a lot of energy on startups for the past couple of years, and I think where we are going now is trying to figure out how to scale up their businesses,” said Olga Stella, DEGC vice president of business development. “That’s where a lot of policy and programmatic stuff is happening.” That’s the same story deep in the trenches, too. “An entrepreneur who is growing a business is looking for, in essence, an untapped opportunity,” said Timothy Bryan, CEO and chairman of GalaxE Solutions in Detroit. “Something that someone else isn’t doing — or isn’t doing very well.

NATHAN SKID

Angel Gambino saw cars not as cars but as “mobile platforms.” At which point, “I got incredibly excited and engaged.”

“And they take that opportunity and they invest and they take risk, where no one else has necessarily taken it. That’s the nature of what an entrepreneur does. They know that there is something that is unfulfilled here — and ‘I’m going to take my time and my money and something big and important is going to come of it.’ That’s exactly the situation that Detroit is in.” A small-scale example: FoodLab Detroit is a tiny nonprofit that assists food entrepreneurs to move from the informal economy through classes and access to lowcost commercial kitchen space. When the organization formed, it was busy just getting businesses off the ground. Now, its members are interested in how to grow, how to scale. FoodLab itself has to rethink what services it offers and how it grows and evolves. “We have this narrative of revitalization, and a lot of energy and excitement about new things,” said Jess Daniel, FoodLab Detroit co-founder. “But we have to ask if we are going to continue to start lots of new stuff or invest in the infrastructure and capacity required to sustain organizations that have already started.”

Startup city? When the big dogs and the small food-justice/social entrepreneurs are thinking about the same things, seeing the same path, it’s a sign that something is percolating. Interestingly, the DEGC sees a

food entrepreneurship — not just its bread and butter of big business and big plants — as a key component to Detroit’s developing economy. The chamber’s Baruah has called them the “modern-day Henry Fords.” “Our burgeoning entrepreneurship culture around food and food business, it’s very unique,” Stella said. “There are tech applications when it comes to food. There are logistics applications in food. Detroit is at a really interesting place with different kinds of food production. It’s a huge opportunity. “We are at the intersection of innovation and the actual process of making things.” And that may be the essence of the Michigan entrepreneurial culture: We blend technology and innovation with practicality. We have both the entrepreneurs to dream up the future and the talent to actually build it. We’re home to the country’s largest pool of engineers. We sit at the nexus of 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. We can manage a supply chain like no other. Everybody else can only dream of our infrastructure. “Part of what is interesting about Detroit and our region has to do with what made us great,” said Stella. “It’s great design and production. We are really good at making things efficiently. We are really good at moving those things out. It’s the intersection of all those things. It’s what made us great for auto and can make us great for other kinds of things.” “We’ve sort of tried to run away from the auto industry and be something different,” said TechTown’s Smith. “We’re trying to be something different because we’re afraid of who we are. When the auto industry left us high and dry, or changed the dynamics of everything we once knew, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we can never be that again.’ But the reality is: Our entire economy depends on the auto industry.”

Michigan strengths Angel Gambino is a local entrepreneur who sees Michigan’s relationship with the auto industry from both sides. As the founder of the Alchemist Collective, which is both an innovation accelerator and a consultant for major multinational companies such as BP and Castrol, she seeks auto-tech deals. But she never expected to find so many opportunities tied to connectivity. “Before this, I worked on everything except for cars because I thought of them as, well, cars,” said Gambino, who presented at Mackinac. “But when I thought of them as mobile platforms, I got incredibly excited and engaged.” Gambino has evaluated more than 200 startups in the space and invested in 20. She was shocked not to find a single deal in Michigan. “It’s a shame that as a region we didn’t put driverless scars and connected cars on the map as invented here,” she said. “What we are known for is automotive. And we have an automotive ecosystem that has bounced back and is

growing, which is impressive. “But I haven’t seen a lot of new auto-related tech companies in the region. I would have thought digital properties such as AutoTrader.com and Cars.com would have had a natural home here in Detroit. We’re breathing autos as much as oxygen in the state of Michigan.” But the recent sale of Ferndalebased Livio Connect to Ford Motor Co. proves that innovation and entrepreneurship are percolating in that arena. Gambino would just like to see the region’s entrepreneurs focus their energy on developing connected cars as core strength. Meanwhile, she and other leaders are trying to identify where else Michigan can excel. “It is a full-court press to make the business environment more conducive to companies, big and small,” Baruah said. “We have multiple legs of the stool to go. What are we good at? We’re good at mobility. We’re good at health care. We’re good at manufacturing. And how do we create those ecosystems where both the good companies and the small companies can flourish? In other words, what are our strengths?” Nearly everyone, from Smith at TechTown to Boyle at Wayne State identified urban manufacturing, green and blue technology, and medical devices/IT as three arenas ripe for Michigan entrepreneurs to own. “I think medical IT is a coming wave that will connect the Dan Gilbert world with Henry Ford Health System,” said NEI’s Egner. “We have the tools in place to do some fantastic things in the hightech and high-growth. If you look at the intersection of medical and technology and our aging population, this is a 30-year economic wave that we cannot afford not to catch and surf all the way to the shore.” GalaxE’s Bryan also pointed to software innovation as an important path — and it can be used to support a range of industries in evolution. At the same time, reminds Boyle, “we still need stuff, lots of stuff. In many places, this is being called the new urban manufacturing. If it were just Shinola, I think I would scream. But there are other people doing it. “If we can recapture that and get some more market share — and at the same time make sure the conditions are right for the four guys in checked shirts — and make sure the conditions are right for the fledgling businesses in the neighborhoods, we will have created a dense network.” Urban manufacturing. High technology. Connected cars. Medical technology. Green economy. Sustainability. Entrepreneurship at all levels, from the neighborhood auto shop to the top of the Compuware building. Jobs. Michigan. Detroit. In this I believe. Amy Haimerl: (313) 446-0416, ahaimerl@crain.com. Twitter: @haimerlad Freelance reporter Zack Burgess contributed to this report.

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New head of UM entrepreneur institute puts foot on accelerator into its program but, rather, Last September, Stewart takes a slice of equity. Are Thornhill took over as execyou going to do a similar utive director of the thing? Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie We definitely want to Institute for Entrepreneurial have “you get money when Studies, housed at the Uniyou arrive.” Whether versity of Michigan’s that’s going to be in the Stephen M. Ross School of form of a convertible note, Business. He replaced Tom a forgivable loan if you Kinnear, who had led the achieve certain mileinstitute since its foundstones, some equity play ing in 1999. plus nondiluted capital — Thornhill, a Canadian there’s a bunch of different citizen, previously held the same title at the Pierre Stewart Thornhill, models we’re playing with, some of which will be guidZell & Lurie L. Morrissette Institute for Institute for ed by what we can do as an Entrepreneurship at Western Entrepreneurial entity of the university, University’s Ivey Business Studies some of which will be guidSchool in London, Ontario. ed by what we can do as a Now settled into his new role in a new country, Thornhill is function of the donor agreement and working on a few new initiatives to some of which will be guided by further the institute’s entrepreneur- what makes sense for the companies ial mission, including one to launch coming in. The differentiating factor between a Silicon Valley-style business accelerator. The accelerator would com- the accelerator and an incubator is plement the institute’s TechArb incu- the incubator is just space and menbator, managed in league with the torship. The accelerator will also Center for Entrepreneurship at UM’s have money higher expectations. And then there will be a graduation College of Engineering. The launch and early operation event, which will be a pitch day to of the as-yet unnamed accelerator the investment community. So we’ll will be funded by a $1 million gift bring in all the local VCs and angels; from the family of Bharat Desai, do a big, splashy event; have all the founder of Troy-based Syntel Inc. companies come in and pitch; and Thornhill filled in the early details then set up opportunities where they of the plans in a conversation with can see if they can attract interest in their companies. Gary Anglebrandt. The timeline? We’d love to open in September. That’s a function of Let’s hear more about the accelerado we get into the space when we tor. want, do we get the director hired, The accelerator will be modeled and can we get running? on Y Combinator, Techstars, Launchpad LA. The perfect company to enWhere’s the space expected to be? ter an accelerator is the one that is We’re negotiating with a vendor quarter-baked. You want it to be downtown, close to campus. The inhalf-baked before it’s really in a pocubator is off campus, between sition to get that early, seed or anWashington and Liberty (streets), so gel investor money. But if compawe’d love to be in that same area. nies try to go for that early investor too early, they’re going to fail or Any idea as to the type of compathey’re going to have to give up so nies you expect to put in there? much of their company because of The type will largely be deterthe wildly risky nature of it that it’s mined by whether they can benefit often not worth doing. from a three- or four-month accelWe often find that students who eration period — let’s call it 15 incubate ideas, whether in a formal weeks. There are certain compaincubator or just in their dorm nies that can make a lot of progress room, often get to the point where in 15 weeks. Those are the ones they finish their degree, they’d love we’ll look at. Something like a therto be able to take it to that next apeutic drug or a medical device stage, but they have to go get a job. where the development period is They’ve got student loans, they years or sometimes decades, have to pay rent, buy groceries. they’re just not going to fit. So if we can fill in a gap where Likely what you’re going to see those companies have a place to go is lots of stuff around the “Internet for another three or four months, of things” — software, hardware, we can put some funding behind interface devices, wearable comthem, put some intense mentorship puting, apps, some consumer debehind them, put some very rigor- vices — stuff where they can make ous milestones in place to really a meaningful leap forward in that keep them on track. And then when intense acceleration period. they graduate from that three- or four-month acceleration period, we Any other initiatives happening? put them in a position where they I’d like to bring more entreprepitch to local VCs, local angels and neur education outside of just student investment funds. what we do in our degree programs. I’ve developed, and I’m Y Combinator doesn’t charge an up- working to launch, a high-growth front cash fee for companies accepted program for entrepreneurs —

Q&A

bring entrepreneurs into the university for a one-week program. These are people who already have a business? People who already have a business and are interested in taking it from a small business to a medium size or a medium size to a large company — really focus on growth. I did a lot of this work on the Canadian side, and often what we find is people who run companies like this feel like they’re the only ones experiencing the problems and challenges they’re facing. They often lack a peer network; they don’t know where to go for support and education. They’re, quite frankly, so busy all the time fighting fires, they have very little time to reflect on longer-term strategy. So there’s real value in giving them time and space to come in. We have world-class faculty here. The folks who teach in this building just continually amaze me with what they do and know. When do you hope to start this here? Ideally, I’d love to have the pilot of this program running by this time next year.

SURVEY

Looking at Current Business Issues

Highlights of the survey can be found in this issue and the full survey can be found at honigman.com or crainsdetroit.com This is the 24th in a jointly-sponsored series on critical business issues.

Are You Ready for a Tauber Team? Whether you’re a student or employer, learn how our graduate-level engineering and business team projects beneﬁt everyone involved with high-impact, high ROI projects such as: s Lean process design and implementation s Manufacturing rationalization plan s Strategic site assessment s Supply chain implementation plan s Strategic sourcing plan s New product/process development strategy s Product complexity analysis s Plant ﬂoor layout Submission Deadline Project proposals are due December 1, 2014 for projects starting in summer 2015.

More Information? Contact Jon Grice at gricej@umich.edu or (734) 647-2220.

Last year Tauber Institute student teams showed sponsor companies how to streamline their operations and projected savings of more than $500 million.

www.tauber.umich.edu Find out more at Spotlight! on September 12, when 35 teams will present the results of their 2014 projects at the Tauber Institute’s premier annual event at the Sheraton in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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STEM programs make impact, still need work, advocates say BY SHAWN WRIGHT SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

A focus on STEM education is the hot topic of conversation among academics, business leaders and politicians. Everyone agrees a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math is important; jobs to fill today’s talent gaps — and jobs of tomorrow — will demand STEM skills. And there is no shortage of Programs, contests programs to target pre-college encourage students, and promote Page M55 STEM-related curriculum and career fields to youths and adults. But all the chatter begs the question: Is it working? “Yes, we are making a dent,” said Barbara Bolin, executive director of Lansing-based Michigan STEM Partnership. “But we still have some issues.”

STEM BUILDERS

Created last year, the Michigan STEM Partnership is a statewide collaborative that includes educators, employers, legislators and others. The partnership is one of Bolin 19 states that comprise the STEMx Network, which provides a platform for sharing best practices, analyzing and disseminating information and resources. Other public-private groups also are working on the issue, as are a number of business leaders. Bolin’s group is focused on the new economy and addressing the lack of STEM skills in schoolchildren and job applicants. Some of the issues she considers top of the agenda: filling the state’s workforce gap, getting more females interested in STEM and

changing parents’ perceptions about skilled trades. Needs in the STEM fields are growing faster than anyone can keep up with, Bolin said. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2018, there will be an estimated 274,000 STEM-related jobs in Michigan. In the U.S. as a whole, the number will approach nearly 8.7 million. “Over the last several years as a state, and a country, we’ve pushed college, college, college,” said Marilyn Schlack, president of Kalamazoo Valley Community College. “It was interpreted as four-year university education. Many high schools and some community colleges started discontinuing their technical programs or let some of their equipment go. Now … we’re not as ready as we should be.” KVCC is part of a number of STEM-related programs. Last year, the college opened its Mechatronic Systems Technician Acade-

my. The academy trains participants in electronics, computers, mechanical fundamentals and automation. In the past, a skilledtrades program would focus on Schlack just one area. “It’s really about working with our companies to train people across machining, electrical, etc,” Schlack said. “These are short-term training and competency-based.” In addition, KVCC is part of Project Lead The Way, a nonprofit provider of STEM curriculum for middle and high schools. Unlike traditional math and science courses, its offerings in engineering and biomedical sciences apply math and science principles in a real-world context. More than 120 Michigan schools are involved. The U.S. ranks 36th overall in math and 28th in science, according to the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, a survey of education systems conducted every three years by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “It’s really staggering when you see some of the statistics that are out there,” said Gregory Ioanidis, vice president of Novi-based ITC Holdings Corp. and president of ITC Michigan. Another staggering factor, he said, is the fact that 69 percent of high school graduates are Ioanidis not prepared for college-level science. As a member of the board of directors of the Michigan Science Center and the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition, STEM education for Ioanidis is personal. He is working as a co-chair with MAC’s STEM Careers and Skilled Trades Task Force to develop a strategy for exposing children, college students and displaced adults to technical and STEM education and careers in the skilled trades. The task force plans to have policy recommendations later this year. Bolin’s Michigan STEM Partnership, meanwhile, recently received $375,000 in grant money commitment to disburse to its five regional hubs. The grants for projects will begin and mostly be completed over the summer. Funds awarded to the partnership by the Michigan Legislature are used to support project-based and applied learning — and to connect math science centers with STEM activities. Many of the projects involve immersing middle school students in creative ways. For example, the Robot Factory 4-H Club in Alpena Public Schools, serves 60 actively participating members who are researching and mapping invasive species using underwater robots.

The key, Bolin said, is making science and math fun while teaching it in an applicable way. And although getting all students interested in STEM is the main goal, adolescent females need to be specifically targeted. “Girls are still behind,” Bolin said. “Something like 33 percent of girls entering college choose a STEM field. But only 0.3 percent graduate with a STEM degree. That’s pitiful.”

Opportunity knocking Having STEM strategies to get not just girls — but all children and teens — interested in technical careers also means they have a better chance to get hired down the road in well-paying jobs. If Michigan employers are unable to fill 75 percent of the jobs in STEM fields, workers will miss out on high-paying jobs, most between $25 and $40 per hour, according to data supplied by the Workforce Intelligence Network. WIN is a Southeast Michigan collaborative of nine community colleges, seven workforce boards and economic development partners. The unfilled jobs will leave $1.9 billion in annual wages on the table, and not in the pockets of prospective employees. Rob Valentine, global STEM director for Midland-based Dow Chemical Co., has a metaphorical equation that relates to the current STEM crisis: Uninterested + unprepared = unrealized opportunity. “We’ve found that the younger generation is not interested in STEM-type careers,” he said. “This impacts Dow because we have to make sure we have future employees in our company.” Dow’s positions include chemical process operators, lab technicians, pipefitters, electricians, welders, and mechanical and electrical engineers. “A lot of people think that STEM careers mean engineers only,” Valentine said. Last October, Dow was the main sponsor of the Great Lakes Bay Science and Engineering Festival at Delta College, about halfway between Midland and Bay City. The free two-day festival was designed to get children, adolescents and their families excited about science and engineering. And getting parents on-board is a big piece of the equation. “I remember when we used to say, ‘Why don’t your kids go into an apprentice program?’ And the parents would look at you with a horrified expression,” Bolin said. “But an apprenticeship will pay the student to go to college and then give them a good job afterward. How bad is that?” The consensus is that Michigan has made strides, but more needs to be done. “We need to start earlier. We have a governor and state superintendent who realize that pre-kindergarten education is where we need to start,” Bolin said. “We have to make the most of the time the kids are in school.”

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STEM pioneer DAPCEP pushes to reach students early BY KIRK PINHO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Brittany Nelson was a student at Ann Arbor Trail Magnet Middle School in Detroit when she first encountered the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program. Thirteen years later, Nelson, 24, is the epitome of the program’s mission — educating metro Detroit students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math to prepare them for careers. A Cass Technical High School and University of Michigan-Dearborn graduate, Nelson is an electrical and computer engineer for Alpine Electronics Inc. in Auburn Hills, where she has been employed for a year. “After DAPCEP, I focused on my math classes, and it just kind of carried on from there,” she said. “It really inspired me.” Since its founding in 1976, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit has taught more than 150,000 students, according to Executive Director Jason Lee. It provides in-school and out-of-school educational experiences to Detroit-area youths from kindergarten through 12th grade. Subjects covered include nanotechnology, renewable energy, robotics, computer programming,

chemical engineering and mechanical engineering. DAPCEP was started by Detroit educator Kenneth Hill and had just 245 students at the time. Lee “He went to Africa on a mission,” Lee said. “He said, ‘I’m teaching kids in Africa by candlelight how to do calculus. Why can’t I do this in Detroit?’ ” The nonprofit’s budget this year is $3.1 million, with $1.9 million coming from grants and contributions, and about $1.13 million of in-kind support. Direct program costs are about $793,000 this year, and $565,000 for its staff of six full-time and one part-time employee. DAPCEP won the Crain’s Detroit Business Best-Managed Nonprofit contest in 1995 in the category of nonprofits with budgets over $2.5 million. Lee himself is an engineer by trade, most recently for Ford Motor Co. The 40-year-old joined DAPCEP as executive director in 2004.

At that time, 80 percent of the students were city of Detroit residents, and 90 percent of those went to Detroit Public Schools. As people moved out of the city to neighboring suburbs and more charter schools formed in the city, today about 55 percent of the students are city residents and about 25 percent come from DPS, Lee said. About 20 percent come from Oakland County. There are about 60,000 unfilled STEM jobs in Michigan, Lee said. Barbara Bolin, executive director of the Michigan STEM Partnership, a statewide organization that promotes STEM education, said DAPCEP does a good job but has “a big task ahead of it” in educating its students for what the state estimates will be 274,000 STEM jobs that will need filling by 2018. “That is only based on what we know at the moment,” Bolin said. “What’s happening is the extraordinary explosion of companies and technologies we could only dream about six or seven years ago. Now we are 10th in the nation in terms of need. It certainly isn’t your grandpa’s manufacturing anymore.” The key to filling those jobs is

Robot contest aims to build STEM interest BY SHAWN WRIGHT SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Their mission is to put engineering skills to work under real-time deadlines and build battle ’bots. In the process, the participating students often find a passion for science and engineering. That’s one reason that Gov. Rick Snyder last month attended the FIRST Robotics State Finals at Eastern Michigan University for his second consecutive year. Snyder has taken a special interest in Manchester, N.H.-based FIRST Robotics (FIRST as in For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a worldwide competition that gives high school students the opportunity to build, design and program remote-controlled robots that battle in twominute games. And although it may appear to be just playing with mechanical toys, the program helps interest students of all ages in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — commonly known as STEM. The importance is evident, especially to Snyder and members of the Michigan Legislature who have supported the state’s FIRST Robotics teams and their goals, investing $3 million last year and recommending $2 million more in this year’s budget. “We have a highly supportive governor right now,” said Barbara Bolin, executive director of the Lansing-based Michigan STEM Partnership, a statewide public-private collaborative that includes educa-

Michigan has at least 280 teams, more than any other state in the country. tors, employers and legislators. “He’s very supportive of STEM education, FIRST Robotics and other programs.” Bolin has worked as a mentor for a FIRST Robotics team. Professional engineers also will often work side by side with students while building the robots. Kids from elementary to high school are involved with FIRST Robotics. The project designs programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in STEM while building self-confidence, knowledge and life skills. “Is every one of the kids involved going to go into a STEM field? No,” Bolin said. “But I can tell you that through efforts like FIRST Robotics, kids are going on to college.” The nonprofit FIRST Robotics, founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology, now has 314,000 participants worldwide in 70 countries. Last year, more than 29,000 teams competed, compared with 28 teams during the inaugural year. Michigan has at least 280 teams including 77 additions this year, more than

any other state in the country. California is second with 237 teams. At the FIRST Robotics Championship in St. Louis this month, “Team RUSH” from Clarkston won the Chairman’s Award, the highest honor given at the event. It recognizes the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST Robotics. David Valencia, a 21-year-old advanced manufacturing student at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, has nothing but praise for FIRST Robotics. He first experienced the program while in high school. “Instead of doing things by myself, it gave me a group-team atmosphere,” Valencia said. “It helps train you for the real world. You learn how to work with people. FIRST Robotics is essential. It’s the best thing out there for any young people who want to go into business, machining or anything.” Valencia will graduate next year with an associate degree in advanced manufacturing. He plans to attend a four-year university to study product design and developments. And money is available to help students like Valencia with their post-secondary education. More than $16 million in college scholarships is available to FIRST alumni to help them on the path to careers in STEM-related fields. “There are just all sorts of different ways to get kids engaged,” Bolin said. “Certainly, robotics is one of the fun ones.”

starting to work with students at a young age. “I’ve got three engineering degrees. You don’t wake up your senior year of high school and say, ‘You know what? I’m going to go to college, major in engineering and take six years of math.’ That’s not going to happen for a lot of people.” The in-school courses are taught by DPS teachers, while Saturday courses are taught at eight locations by professors, graduate teaching assistants and employees of companies such as Midlandbased Dow Corning Corp. “Dow Corning recognized very early that having a talent base here in the state that understands their products, that can do their work, is advantageous because it’s going to help them in the future,” Lee said. “A volunteer core actually goes from Midland to Oakland University in Rochester and puts on a DAPCEP class because they realize the importance of this.” Tracking how many DAPCEP students go on to STEM careers like Nelson did is difficult, Lee said, but the nonprofit hired a new employee last year to engage program alumni. DAPCEP is also try-

ing to address this though social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Sponsors include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, J.P. Morgan Chase, DTE Energy Co., the Michigan Department of Education, the Skillman Foundation, the National Science Foundation, Detroit Public Schools, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit, General Motors Co. and the GM Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, 3M, Ford and the Ford Motor Co. Fund, the UAW and Denso. “I want a kid to walk up to a college recruitment table and say, ‘I want to come to your school and major in mechanical engineering,’ ” Lee said. “ ‘I was involved in DAPCEP and did some classes in electrical engineering but didn’t like that. I did some environmental engineering and didn’t like that. I had some classes in medicine but didn’t like that. “ ‘But I liked the classes in mechanical engineering. I can see gears. And by the way, my ACT is a 29 and I have all these different experiences.’ ” “Any college recruiter is going to say, ‘Sign here.’ ” Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412, kpinho@crain.com. Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

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CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

2014 Mackinac Policy Conference

Connected cars: AA test has effort shifting to higher gear BY DUSTIN WALSH CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Green means go, but the light at Plymouth and Green roads in Ann Arbor is signaling to proceed with so much more. The intersection is equipped with connected vehicle technology, in which a transmitter on the light post sends information to and from servers and the nearly 2,900 vehicles participating in the research. The crossing is one of 25 infrastructure technologies installed as part of the Safety Pilot research program between University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The $22 million, federally funded pilot program has spurred the government to promise legislation on connected vehicle technologies as the automotive industry continues to advance. Ann Arbor is one of many sites,

The federal stance on the issue has fueled the automotive industry, researchers, and state and local economic development officials into action, said Richard Wallace, of the Center for Automotive Research. and stakeholders, in Michigan posturing to bank on the future of connected cars. The Michigan Department of Transportation and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. are focused on creating a connected car development framework, even if the industry segment is in its nascent stage. In Ann Arbor, the roughly $20 million UMTRI Safety Pilot program, which has existed since 2012, includes the deployment of cars,

outsourced risk management

WHAT PATH ARE YOU ON?

commercial vans, buses and motorcycles equipped with transmitters and data-logging devices to track position, acceleration and velocity to vehicles and infrastructure. “There are larger questions about connected cars that must be answered, which is what we’re setting out to do,” said Peter Sweatman, director of UMTRI. “We need to understand the impact to the economy, urban and suburban infrastructure, and people’s lives.” While many of these questions remain unanswered, USDOT and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found enough evidence from the ongoing UMTRI study to announce in February that they will move forward with determining vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicleto-infrastructure regulations. The preliminary data from the study is being analyzed by a third party. “Vehicle-to-vehicle technology represents the next generation of auto safety improvements, building on the life-saving achievements we’ve already seen with safety belts and airbags,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. No timeline has been determined, but the federal stance on the issue has fueled the automotive industry, researchers, and state and local economic development officials into action, said Richard Wallace, director of transportation systems analysis for the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research. “With the expectation of a mandate, localities (want) to take advantage by having some infrastructure investment,” Wallace said. “Right now, they don’t have a lot of expertise, but that could change sooner than later.”

Michigan sets the pace

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The MEDC identified connected vehicle technology as its top priority, said Nigel Francis, the state’s car czar and senior vice president of the MEDC’s automotive office. “Connected is new, and we are already the global leader in Francis this technology,” Francis said. “However, technology moves quickly and automotive needs to continue to speed up development; I’ve learned in my career in the industry that it’s much better to take a leap of faith toward the fu-

THE LINGO OF THE CONNECTED CAR INDUSTRY Connected vehicle: Equipped with technology that enables a connection between other vehicles, infrastructure and a consumer wireless device. Automated vehicle: Uses mechatronics and sometimes connectivity to gather information and autonomously perform driving functions. Automated technology includes lane departure warning systems, emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. Autonomous vehicle: A vehicle equipped with radar, remote sensing, cameras and other technology to perform many or all of the driving functions — better known as a self-driving car. Automotive experts think partially autonomous vehicles will be sold by 2020. ture than play catch-up.” The MEDC is playing gatekeeper and salesman to what it hopes is a growing technology in the state’s dominant industry. “It’s pretty clear that the investment will need to come from the public sector as well as the private sector to be successful,” Francis said. “We’re supporting the existing industry and looking to create interesting businesses in the state tied to these technologies.” To show the state is serious about this technology, MDOT, MEDC and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources threw its support behind securing Belle Isle for the Intelligent Transport Systems 21st World Congress, to run concurrently at Cobo Center Sept. 7-11. The island will host live demonstrations of connected vehicles and the extension of connectivity with autonomous vehicle technology, in which passenger vehicles, commercial trucks and military vehicles operate with little to no interaction from a driver. Oakland County also wants in on the action. In February, County Executive L. Brooks Patterson appointed a task force to draft recommendations on how to deploy the first countywide connected vehicle infrastructure system. “I will be placing Oakland County on the global map as the first county in the world to initiate a countywide connected car ecosystem,” Patterson said in a statement. Elaina Farnsworth, CEO of Pontiac-based automotive mobility firm Mobile Comply LLC and director of global communications for the International Connected Vehicle Trade Association, was appointed to the Oakland task force. Farnsworth Farnsworth said as test beds for connected vehicle technologies continue to expand, Oakland County can be in a unique position to lead. “There are still so many facets of the technology that need to be explored and proven, but Oakland County intends to test and validate a business model to support this technology,” she said. Global industry CEOs recognize a need for infrastructure investment as well. Automotive CEOs say advancements in technology have influenced the need to invest in building

infrastructure and replacing or updating infrastructure, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC’s 17th annual global CEO survey, “Fit for growth: The automotive industry — Where it’s going and how it plans to get there.” About 57 percent said they are concerned there aren’t enough basic infrastructures to support new technologies in the next five years, which will inhibit business growth, according to the survey. “Change is here, and leading companies are closely evaluating every aspect of their business,” said Rick Hanna, PWC’s global automotive leader, based in Detroit. But executive interest doesn’t always equate to investment, Francis said. Public and private funding are deemed necessary, but stakeholders must be wary of creating too much, too fast without getting buyin from the auto industry, he said. “We need to be sure the industry wants any facility we co-develop,” Francis said. “We have to be careful that we develop the resources the industry wants and needs; otherwise, we’ll end up with a big white elephant.” As research continues, UM is boosting its Safety Pilot to 9,000 vehicles and constructing a $6.5 million test track for autonomous vehicles, a next-wave technology for connected cars.

Connected benefits A short car drive away from Ann Arbor, the success of another proposed connected vehicle development center, in Ypsilanti Township, could serve as the bellwether for more in-state investment. Detroit-based Walbridge Development LLC, a subsidiary of Walbridge Group Inc., entered into an agreement for redevelopment of General Motors Co.’s former Willow Run Powertrain Plant in September 2013. The plan is to redevelop a majority of the 332-acre site into a connected vehicle research center. Walbridge will own and operate the shared research and development center, which will be used by automakers, suppliers and research institutions. Walbridge has been quiet about the plan, which is contingent on industry and government buy-in. A decision about the future of the center is expected in the next 12 months, the company previously told Crain’s. Representatives from Walbridge See Next Page

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2014 Mackinac Policy Conference

COURTESY OF MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

The state made Michigan International Speedway a test site for connected cars in 2009. From Previous Page

did not respond to a phone call and email about the center in time for deadline for this story. For existing entities with test tracks and other areas of open space available for multipurpose use, work on connected vehicles pilot projects is easy extra revenue. MDOT, with assistance from the MEDC, made the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn a test site in 2009, using it to market Michigan’s research and development prowess. MIS offers its 1,400 acre site to suppliers and automakers to test connected, automated

and autonomous technologies. Roger Curtis, president of MIS, said the racetrack grounds works for the current iteration of connected vehicle testing. “For the most part, it just worked; we’ve repaved the infield road course, but consider ourselves the first course for testing before companies move on to something more tailored for their needs,” Curtis said. “We have a lot of unused assets; it’s low maintenance for us, and it helps keep jobs or even bring jobs to Michigan.” Companies used MIS for testing for about 150 days in 2013, up from 100 in 2012. Firms testing on the

grounds include Roush Industries Inc., USDOT, Hitachi Ltd., Toyota Motor Corp., Hyundai Motor Co. and others. The connected vehicle testing makes a very small margin for MIS’ revenue, and the track is there to help the state and its race teams, Curtis said. “We’ve amassed a good resume, but compared to NASCAR and the other fan events … it’s still a very small piece of our revenue stream,” Curtis said. “And likely always will be.” Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042, dwalsh@crain.com. Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

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CRAIN'S LIST: PRIVATE 200 Ranked by 2013 revenue Rank

1. 2. 3.

Company Address Phone, website

Top executive

Revenue ($000,000) 2013

Revenue ($000,000) 2012

Percent change

Detroit area employees Jan. 2014

Worldwide employees Jan. 2014

Type of business

Chrysler Group LLC, Auburn Hills 48326-2766

Sergio Marchionne chairman and CEO

$72,144.0

$65,784.0

9.7%

30,579

69,165

Automobile manufacturer

Penske Corp., Bloomfield Hills 48302-0954

Roger Penske chairman

23,100.0

21,300.0

8.5

41,626

Retail automotive, truck leasing and logistics, transportation components, motorsports racing

5,600.0 B

5,600.0 C

0.0

Manufacturer of glass, automotive and building products

5,200.0

4,700.0

10.6

846

28,000

Global tier-one supplier of automotive components and systems, including interior and exterior trim

3,600.0 D

3,100.0 D

16.1

9,122

10,470

Mortgage banking

(248) 576-5741; www.chryslergroupllc.com

(248) 648-2000; www.penske.com

Guardian Industries Corp., Auburn Hills 48326-1714 Ron Vaupel (248) 340-1800; www.guardian.com

president and CEO

International Automotive Components (IAC),

James Kamsickas president and CEO

Quicken Loans Inc., Detroit 48226

Dan Gilbert chairman and founder

TI Automotive Ltd., Auburn Hills 48326

Bill Kozyra chairman, president and CEO

3,200.0

3,000.0

6.7

400

24,000

(248) 494-5000; www.tiautomotive.com

Fuel systems; brake and fuel lines; heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems

Ilitch companies, Detroit 48201

Christopher Ilitch president and CEO

3,100.0

2,600.0

19.2

6,100

22,411

(313) 471-6600; www.ilitchcompanies.com

Little Caesars Pizza, Detroit Red Wings, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, Champion Foods, Olympia Entertainment, Uptown Entertainment, Olympia Development, Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising Program and Ilitch Holdings; Michael Ilitch owns the Detroit Tigers, Marian Ilitch owns MotorCity Casino-Hotel

Inteva Products LLC, Troy 48084 (248) 655-8886; www.intevaproducts.com

Lon Offenbacher president and CEO

2,500.0

2,850.0

-12.3

350

11,500

Automotive supplier of interior systems, closure systems, roof systems, and motors and electronics

Plastipak Holdings Inc., Plymouth 48170 (734) 455-3600; www.plastipak.com

William Young president and CEO

2,295.3

2,371.7

-3.2

600

Manufacturer of rigid plastic containers for the consumer products industry

Bridgewater Interiors LLC, Detroit 48209 (313) 842-3300; www.bridgewater-interiors.com

Ronald Hall Sr. president and CEO

2,233.2

1,838.7

21.5

1,104

2,251

Moroun family holdings, Warren 48089

NA E

1,890.0 D

1,870.0 D

1.1

Ambassador Bridge and various trucking and logistics companies

Atlas Oil Co., Taylor 48180

Sam Simon chairman and CEO

1,848.7

1,878.7

-1.6

187

458

Petroleum distribution, total fuel needs

(800) 878-2000; www.atlasoil.com

Soave Enterprises LLC, Detroit 48207 (313) 567-7000; www.soave.com

Anthony Soave president and CEO

1,796.0

1,917.0

-6.3

668

1,328

Dura Automotive Systems LLC/Global Automotive Systems LLC, Auburn Hills 48326

Lynn Tilton CEO

1,650.0

1,588.0

3.9

15.

The Suburban Collection, Troy 48084 (877) 471-7100; www.suburbancollection.com

David Fischer chairman and CEO

1,599.3

1,370.8

16.7

1,485

1,583

Automobile dealerships

16.

Sherwood Food Distributors LLC, Detroit 48228

Earl Ishbia co-chairman, president and CEO

1,539.9

1,523.4

1.1

275

1,020

Wholesale food distributor

(313) 659-7300; www.sherwoodfoods.com

H.W. Kaufman Financial Group/ Burns & Wilcox, Farmington Hills 48334

Alan Jay Kaufman chairman, president and CEO

1,425.0

1,225.0

16.3

222

1,410

Specialty insurance, reinsurance, premium financing, loss control and premium audits

18.

Belfor Holdings Inc., Birmingham 48009

Sheldon Yellen CEO

1,387.5

1,261.0

10.0

1,460

6,100

Insurance repair and reconstruction, environmental cleanup, residential, commercial and industrial, janitoral, duct and kitchen exhaust cleaning services

19.

Walbridge (formerly Walbridge Aldinger Co.),

John Rakolta Jr. chairman and CEO

1,307.0

1,291.1

1.2

265

1,000

Construction: general contracting, design-build, construction management, engineer/procure/construct

Innovation Ventures LLC (Living Essentials LLC,Manoj Bhargava CEO 5-Hour Energy), Farmington Hills 48331

1,200.0

0.0

Key Safety Systems Inc., Sterling Heights 48314

Jason Luo president and CEO

1,167.0

1,032.0

13.1

300

8,800

Meridian Health Plan Inc., Detroit 48226

David Cotton president and CEO

1,164.7

977.1

19.2

675

(313) 324-3700; www.mhplan.com

Barton Malow Company, Southfield 48034 (248) 436-5512; www.bartonmalow.com

Ryan Maibach president

1,145.5

1,005.9

13.9

728

1,410

General contracting, construction management, design/ build, engineer-procure-construct, integrated project delivery, self-perform services: civil, concrete, rigging and interiors

24.

Metaldyne LLC, Plymouth 48170

Thomas Amato president and CEO

1,112.0

1,100.0

1.1

136

4,380

Global automotive supplier providing precision-engineered products for powertrain applications

25.

Syncreon Global Holdings Ltd., Auburn Hills 48326 Brian Enright CEO

1,100.0 D

990.0 D

11.1

390

11,500

(248) 377-4700; www.syncreon.com

Global provider of advanced supply chain services that offers a full range of third- and fourth-party logistics services in an asset-light business model

26.

Wolverine Packing Co., Detroit 48207 (313) 259-7500; www.wolverinepacking.com

Jim Bonahoom president

1,060.0

1,156.0

-8.3

Wholesale meat packer and processor; wholesale meat, poultry and seafood distributor

27.

Grede Holdings LLC, Southfield 48075 (248) 440-9500; www.grede.com

Douglas Grimm chairman, president and CEO

1,000.0

1,200.0

-16.7

4,600

28.

Kenwal Steel Corp., Dearborn 48126

Kenneth Eisenberg chairman and CEO

904.3

0.0

205

Steel service center

29.

Victory Automotive Group Inc., Canton Township Jeffrey Cappo president 48188 (734) 495-3500; www.victoryautomotivegroup.com

830.1 F

703.5 F

18.0

Automotive dealerships

814.4

815.3

-0.1

188

1,300

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

17.

20. 21. 22. 23.

Southfield 48034 (248) 455-7000; www.iacgroup.com

(800) 251-9080; www.quickenloans.com

(586) 939-7000

(248) 299-7500; www.duraauto.com

(248) 932-9000; www.kaufmanfinancialgroup.com (248) 594-1144; www.belfor.com

Detroit 48226 (313) 963-8000; www.walbridge.com

Diversified management holding company Control systems (shifters, parking brakes, pedals, cables, hardware); exterior systems (glass systems, exterior trim systems); structural systems (lightweight body structures, door structures)

Maker of energy drinks

(248) 960-1700; www.5hourenergy.com

(586) 726-3800; www.keysafetyinc.com

(734) 207-6200; www.metaldyne.com

(313) 739-1000; www.kenwal.com

George P. Johnson Experience Marketing,

30.

Automotive seating/interiors

Auburn Hills 48326 (248) 475-2500; www.gpj.com

Laurence Vallee president, Project:Worldwide David Drews executive VP, CFO, Project:Worldwide

Airbags, seatbelts, steering wheels, electronics Government programs health insurance

Metal components supplier

Experiential marketing agency

This list of privately held companies is an approximate compilation of the largest companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties that do not have stock traded on a public exchange. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analysis and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area office. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available. B Forbes estimate, as of December 2013. C Forbes estimate, as of November 2012. D Crain's estimate. E There is not a holding company for the Moroun family businesses. Some are public companies controlled by Manuel and/or Matthew Moroun. Others are owned privately by the Moroun family. F Automotive News. LIST RESEARCHED BY GARY PIATEK, CAMILLE PIPPEN

Continued on Page M61

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Continued From Page M59 Rank

31. 32. 33. 34.

Company Address Phone, website

Top executive

Revenue ($000,000) 2013

Revenue ($000,000) 2012

Percent change

Detroit area employees Jan. 2014

Worldwide employees Jan. 2014

Type of business

Barrick Enterprises Inc., Royal Oak 48073

Robert Barrick president

$798.9

$809.9

-1.4%

Henniges Automotive, Auburn Hills 48326

Douglas DelGrosso CEO

774.0

682.0

13.5

195

6,780

(248) 340-4100; www.hennigesautomotive.com

The Diez Group, Dearborn 48126 (313) 491-1200; www.thediezgroup.com

Gerald Diez chairman and CEO

733.0

612.0

19.8

Holding group for steel and aluminum manufacturing companies

Piston Automotive LLC, Redford 48239 (313) 541-8674; www.pistongroup.com

Vincent Johnson chairman and CEO

684.0

569.9

20.0

284

480

Automotive supplier

(248) 549-3737; www.barrickent.com

Petroleum retailer and wholesaler Weatherstrip seals, glass encapsulation, modular sealing systems and anti-vibration components

35.

McNaughton-McKay Electric Co., Madison Heights Donald Slominski Jr. president and CEO

664.0

641.0

3.6

285

741

Electric/electronics distributor

48071-4134 (248) 399-7500; www.mc-mc.com

36.

Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co., Farmington Hills

Richard Russell president and CEO

639.6

551.2

16.0

374

711

Property and casualty insurance company

48331 (248) 615-9000; www.amerisure.com

Orleans International Inc., Farmington Hills 48334 (248) 855-5556; www.orleansintl.com

Earl Tushman president

631.0

637.0

-0.9

Meat importer

RKA Petroleum Cos. Inc., Romulus 48174 (734) 946-2199; www.rkapetroleum.com

Kay Albertie managing shareholder

613.8

719.0

-14.6

Wholesale distributor of gasoline, diesel fuel, ethanol, biodiesel, Jet A and Jet A1 products; hauler of crude oil

Carhartt Inc., Dearborn 48126

Mark Valade chairman and CEO

600.0

555.0

8.1

360

4,370

LaFontaine Automotive Group, Highland 48357 (248) 887-4747; www.thefamilydeal.com

Michael LaFontaine owner and president Maureen LaFontaine owner and vice president

577.1

453.3

27.3

850

Automobile dealerships

Art Van Furniture Inc., Warren 48092 (586) 939-0800; www.artvan.com

Archie Van Elslander chairman Kim Yost CEO

575.0

515.0

11.7

1,581

3,399

Retail home furnishings

Neapco Holdings LLC, Belleville 48111

Robert Hawkey president and CEO

570.0

550.0

3.6

370

2,300

Designs, manufactures and distributes driveline systems and service parts

PVS Chemicals Inc., Detroit 48213

James Nicholson president and CEO

549.3

566.0

-3.0

280

950

(313) 921-1200; www.pvschemicals.com

Manufacturer, marketer and distributor of industrial chemicals

Lipari Foods LLC, Warren 48089 (586) 447-3500; www.liparifoods.com

Thom Lipari president and CEO

540.0

502.0

7.6

490

885

Wholesale food distribution

Global Automotive Alliance LLC, Detroit 48210

William Pickard chairman and CEO Sylvester Hester vice chairman

514.0

415.0

23.9

446

1,419

Automotive manufacturer, assembler, warehouse sequencer, aerospace warehousing and logistics

McKinley Inc., Ann Arbor 48104 (734) 769-8520; www.mckinley.com

Albert M. Berriz CEO Matthew Mason senior VP and managing director, institutional commercial real estate

500.0

400.0

25.0

1,600

Invest and manage residential and commercial real estate

47.

Michigan Tractor and Machinery Co. (Michigan Cat), Novi 48375

Bill Hodges executive vice president

485.0

392.0

23.7

300

700

Heavy equipment dealer providing sales of new and used equipment as well as rental and parts and service.

48.

The Harvard Drug Group LLC, Livonia 48150

Terrance Haas CEO

462.3

438.0

5.5

273

524

Pharmaceutical distributor, wholesaler and manufacturer, compounding, vet supply

49.

Prestige Automotive LLC, St. Clair Shores 48080 (586) 773-2369; www.prestigeautomotive.com

Gregory Jackson chairman, president and CEO

414.3

436.0

-5.0

Automobile dealerships, real estate and insurance

50.

Plante Moran PLLC, Southfield 48037

Gordon Krater managing partner

411.3

331.0

24.3

966

2,048

Accounting and management consulting firm

(248) 352-2500; www.plantemoran.com

Roush Enterprises B, Livonia 48150 (734) 779-7006; www.roush.com

Evan Lyall CEO

402.0

351.3

14.4

2,600

3,020

Engineering, product development, and integration specialists; development and manufacturing of performance vehicles, aftermarket components and alternative fuel systems for fleet applications

51.

U.S. Farathane Corp., Auburn Hills 48326 (248) 754-7000; www.usfarathane.com

Andrew Greenlee president and CEO

402.0

270.0

48.9

2,000

2,517

Plastic injection molder, extruder, thermal compression molder

53.

Trico Products Corp., Rochester Hills 48309 (248) 371-1700; www.tricoproducts.com

Lou Braga president and CEO

396.0 C

0.0

Original equipment manufacturer, original equipment supplier and aftermarket windshield wiper blades and systems

54. 55.

ABC Appliance Inc., Pontiac 48343

Gordon Hartunian chairman

395.0

0.0

696

(248) 335-4222; www.abcwarehouse.com

Appliances, electronics and car audio, bedding and furniture

Letica Corp., Rochester 48307-2321 (248) 652-0557; www.letica.com

Anton Letica president

380.0 D

0.0

Plastic and paper packaging manufacturer

Southfield Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram, Southfield

Dan Frost president Gary Wood CFO

368.7

306.3

20.4

337

Automobile dealerships

48034 (248) 354-2950; southfieldchrysler.com

RevSpring Inc., Wixom 48393 (248) 567-7300; www.revspringinc.com

Timothy Schriner president and CEO

365.7

236.1

54.9

141

453

Business process outsourcing, accounts receivable management

General RV Center Inc., Wixom 48393

Robert Baidas CEO Loren Baidas president and chairman

355.0

303.0

17.2

450

Recreational vehicle and trailer dealership

(248) 349-0900; www.generalrv.com

Camaco LLC, Farmington Hills 48331

Arvind Pradhan president and CEO

350.0

0.0

900

Full-service supplier of automotive seat structure assemblies

SET Enterprises Inc., Warren 48093

Sid Taylor chairman

350.0

0.0

180

Steel processing and sales

37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46.

51.

56. 57. 58. 59. 59.

(313) 271-8460; www.carhartt.com

(734) 447-1380; www.neapco.com

(313) 297-6676

Apparel manufacturer

(248) 349-4800; www.michigancat.com

(734) 743-6000; www.theharvarddruggroup.com

(248) 442-6800; www.camacollc.com

(586) 573-3600; www.setenterprises.com

This list of privately held companies is an approximate compilation of the largest companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties that do not have stock traded on a public exchange. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analysis and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area office. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available. B Figures do not include motorsports employee counts or revenue of Roush Fenway. C Figure is an estimate from the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association Top 100 list. D Plastics News estimate, North America injection molding. LIST RESEARCHED BY GARY PIATEK, CAMILLE PIPPEN

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Continued From Page M61 Rank

Company Address Phone, website

Top executive

Revenue ($000,000) 2013

Revenue ($000,000) 2012

Percent change

Detroit area employees Jan. 2014

Worldwide employees Jan. 2014

$350.0 B

$340.0

2.9%

1,150

1,854

Type of business

Belle Tire Distributors Inc., Allen Park 48101

(313) 271-9400; www.belletire.com

Don Barnes Jr. chairman

Elder Automotive Group, Troy 48083 (248) 585-4000; www.elderautogroup.com

Irma Elder CEO

343.6

365.6

-6.0

197

383

EQ The Environmental Quality Co., Wayne 48184

David Lusk president and CEO

339.0

297.0

14.1

490

1,261

Environmental management services

(734) 329-8000; www.eqonline.com

U.S. Manufacturing Corp., Warren 48093 (586) 467-1600; www.usmfg.com

Brian Simon president and CEO

334.0

287.0

16.4

594

1,106

Automotive parts supplier

65.

United Road Services Inc., Romulus 48174

Kathleen McCann president and CEO

333.0

275.0

21.1

380

2,175

Vehicle logistics for vehicle manufacturers, remarketers, auctions, dealers and internet vehicle transactions nationally

66.

NYX Inc., Livonia 48150

Chain Sandhu chairman

331.4

330.0

0.4

1,628

Automotive interiors and under-hood plastic moldings

67.

Stewart Management Group Inc., Harper Woods

Gordon Stewart president

320.8

296.4

8.2

118

454

Automobile dealerships

68.

Hungry Howie's Pizza Inc., Madison Heights 48071 Steve Jackson president and CEO (248) 414-3300; www.hungryhowies.com

296.5

290.8

2.0

100

Pizza franchisor

69.

Commercial Contracting Group Inc., Auburn Hills William Pettibone chairman

285.0

304.0

-6.3

153

235

48326 (248) 209-0500; www.cccnetwork.com

General contractor, machinery installer, building interiors, concrete

70.

Motor City Electric Co., Detroit 48213

Dale Wieczorek chairman, president and CEO

272.9

183.6

48.6

576

754

Electrical contractor

(313) 921-5300; www.mceco.com

Great Expressions Dental Centers PC, Bloomfield

Rich Beckman CEO

262.0

255.0

2.7

640

2,375

72. 72.

Contractors Steel Co., Livonia 48150

Donald Simon president and CEO

260.0

270.0

-3.7

188

330

Fisher & Co. Inc., St. Clair Shores 48082

Alfred Fisher III CEO

260.0

230.0

13.0

646

1,574

(586) 746-2000; www.fisherco.com

74.

Altair Engineering Inc., Troy 48083 (248) 614-2400; www.altair.com

James Scapa chairman and CEO

251.0

238.0

5.5

603

Global software and technology, engineering simulation, advanced computing, enterprise analytics and product development

75. 76.

John E. Green Co., Highland Park 48203

Peter Green chairman

250.0

300.0

-16.7

Mechanical and fire protection contractor

Detroit Lions Inc., Allen Park 48101

Martha Ford owner

248.0 C

248.0 D

0.0

National Football League franchise

77.

Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc., Detroit 48226

Cynthia Pasky president and CEO

238.0

208.7

14.0

906

2,332

Consulting and staff augmentation services, vendor management programs, executive search services, call center technology and a domestic IT development center

Palace Sports & Entertainment LLC, Auburn Hills

Dennis Mannion president and CEO

234.0 E

216.0 E

8.3

Detroit Pistons, The Palace of Auburn Hills, DTE Energy Music Theatre

The Ideal Group Inc., Detroit 48209 (313) 849-0000; www.weareideal.com

Frank Venegas Jr. chairman and CEO

231.0

182.0

26.9

457

459

General contracting, specialized miscellaneous steel manufacturing and distribution of protective barrier products, pure global supply chain management, centralized storage and on-demand distribution of parts for machinery, and selling excess stock materials

Cold Heading Co., Warren 48089

Derek Stevens CEO

224.0

199.0

12.6

Automotive supplier

Roncelli Inc., Sterling Heights 48312

Gary Roncelli chairman and CEO Thomas Wickersham president and COO

223.0

185.0

20.5

210

230

(586) 264-2060; www.roncelli-inc.com

Construction services, program management, construction management, design and build

Crain Communications Inc., Detroit 48207

Keith Crain chairman

222.3

246.1

-9.7

260

800

(313) 446-6000; www.crain.com

Publisher of business, trade and consumer publications and related websites

Aristeo Construction Co., Livonia 48150 (734) 427-9111; www.aristeo.com

Joseph Aristeo president

221.0

206.0

7.3

200

Manufacturing/industrial general contractor and construction manager

The Bartech Group Inc., Southfield 48034

David Barfield chairman, president, CEO Brian Salkowski senior VP, managed solutions Aaron Barfield VP business development Jim Hanrahan executive VP and CFO

216.5

223.0

-2.9

1,370

2,941

Develops and delivers workforce management solutions.

Gabriel (Ride Control LLC), Troy 48084

Curt Huston vice president and general manager

216.0

0.0

1,500

(248) 247-7474; gabriel.com

Aftermarket and original equipment manufacturer of shocks and struts for light- and heavy-duty vehicles

Acro Service Corp., Livonia 48152 (734) 591-1100; www.acrocorp.com

Ron Shahani president and CEO

216.0

159.6

35.3

1,429

3,993

Staff augmentation (IT, engineering, office support), outsourcing and IT and engineering consulting, application development and enablement, relational database design and development, Web design and development

Alta Equipment Co., Wixom 48393

Steven Greenawalt CEO

208.0

152.0

36.8

239

Heavy construction equipment, material handling equipment, industrial equipment, cranes

Chase Plastic Services Inc., Clarkston 48346 (248) 620-2120; www.chaseplastics.com

Kevin Chase president Carole Chase vice president

200.0

181.0

10.5

Specialty engineering thermoplastics distributor

59. 62. 63. 64.

71.

78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83.

(734) 947-7900; unitedroad.com

(734) 462-2385; www.nyxinc.com

48225 (313) 432-6200; www.gordonchevrolet.com

Hills 48304 (248) 203-1100; greatexpressions.com

(734) 464-4000; www.contractorssteel.com

(313) 868-2400; www.johnegreen.com

(313) 216-4000; www.detroitlions.com

(313) 596-6900; www.strategicstaff.com

48326 (248) 377-0100; www.palacenet.com

(586) 497-7000; www.coldheading.com

(248) 208-4300; www.bartechgroup.com

84. 85. 85. 87. 88.

(248) 449-6700; www.altaequipment.com

Retailer of tires and automotive services Automotive dealerships

Offers a complete range of dental care, including general and preventive care, cosmetic, orthodontic and specialty dental services Steel service center Automotive seating systems and components

This list of privately held companies is an approximate compilation of the largest companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties that do not have stock traded on a public exchange. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analysis and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area office. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available. B Company estimate. C Crain's estimate. D From Forbes. E Crain's estimate. LIST RESEARCHED BY GARY PIATEK, CAMILLE PIPPEN

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Revenue ($000,000) 2013

Revenue ($000,000) 2012

Percent change

Detroit area employees Jan. 2014

Worldwide employees Jan. 2014

DialogDirect Inc. (formerly Budco Holdings Ronald Risher Inc. and Dialogue Marketing Inc.) B, Highland Parkexecutive chairman

$200.0

$140.0 C

42.9%

1,600

4,300

90.

Parkway Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, Clinton Township 48038 (586) 465-7210; www.parkwaychryslerjeep.net

Charles Riley president

199.9

153.9

29.9

113

Automobile dealership

91.

Snethkamp Automotive Family, Highland Park 48203 (313) 868-3300; www.snethkampauto.com

Mark Snethkamp president

198.0

185.0

7.0

207

Automobile dealerships

92.

Vision Information Technologies Inc. (VisionIT), Detroit 48202

David Segura, CEO Christine Rice, president

190.0

226.5

-16.1

345

1,030

Jim Riehl's Friendly Automotive Group Inc.,

James Riehl Jr. president and CEO

184.5

173.7

6.2

Automobile dealership

Ervin Industries Inc., Ann Arbor 48108 (734) 769-4600; www.ervinindustries.com

John Pearson president and CEO

180.0

195.0

-7.7

419

Worldwide manufacturer of steel and stainless steel metal particles.

Dykema Gossett PLLC, Detroit 48243 (313) 568-6800; www.dykema.com

Peter Kellett chairman and CEO

180.0

180.4

-0.3

330

699

Law firm

Fori Automation Inc., Shelby Township 48315

Mike Beck VP of operations Paul Meloche vice president of sales

179.0

160.0

11.9

179

500

(586) 247-2336; www.foriauto.com

Global assembly, testing, and welding equipment for the automotive, aerospace, military agriculture, recreational vehicle, and alternative-energy industries

Hiller Inc., Southfield 48075 (248) 355-2122; www.hillers.com

James Hiller, CEO Justin Hiller, vice president

168.0

0.0

500

Grocer

SmithGroupJJR Inc., Detroit 48226 (313) 983-3600; www.smithgroupjjr.com

Jeffrey Hausman Detroit office director Carl Roehling president and CEO

163.0

166.6

-2.2

276

812

Architecture, engineering and planning

Buff Whelan Chevrolet, Sterling Heights 48313

Kerry Whelan-Thieleke president

162.8

136.7

19.1

120

Automotive dealership sales and service

CareTech Solutions Inc., Troy 48084

Jim Giordano president and CEO

162.6

161.2

0.9

Information technology and Web products and services for U.S. hospitals and health care systems

Urban Science Applications Inc., Detroit 48243

James Anderson president, founder and CEO

161.2

146.6

9.9

309

773

(313) 259-9900; www.urbanscience.com

Global retail marketing consulting with a scientific approach

Dearborn Mid-West Co., Taylor 48180 (734) 288-4400; www.dmwcc.com

Anthony Rosati president and CEO

153.0

155.0

-1.3

107

207

Material Handling Systems, Construction, Tooling/ Equipment Installation, Plant Maintenance Services

Pat Milliken Ford Inc., Redford 48239-1492

Bruce Godfrey president Brian Godfrey VP and general manager

153.0

136.0

12.5

114

Automobile dealership

(313) 255-3100; www.patmillikenford.com

102.

HTC Global Services Inc., Troy 48084

Madhava Reddy president and CEO

153.0

135.0

13.3

180

5,500

105.

Exhibit Works Inc. (EWI Worldwide), Livonia

Dominic Silvio founder, chairman, CEO David Bean corporate president

150.0

159.0

-5.7

180

48150 (734) 525-9010; www.ewiworldwide.com

Conceives and creates live marketing experiences worldwide

Florida Production Engineering Inc., Troy 48083

150.0 D

0.0

105.

Brad Gotts president and COO

150.0 D

(248) 588-4870; www.fpe-inc.com

Design, development and manufacturing of plastic injection-molded components and innovative value-added assemblies; products are supplied to automotive OE manufacturers with a strong presence in exterior and interior trim components/modules and wheel trim products

105. 108. 109.

1st Source Servall Inc., Centerline 48105 (586) 754-9952; www.1stservall.com

Kim Adler president

150.0

145.0

3.4

470

Distributor of appliance parts

Royal Oak Ford/Briarwood Ford, Royal Oak 48067 Eddie Hall Jr. president

148.9

138.5

7.5

165

Automobile dealership

(248) 548-4100; www.royaloakford.com

Vesco Oil Corp., Southfield 48076 (248) 557-1600; www.vesco-oil.com

Marjory Epstein chairperson

144.8

144.0

0.6

118

196

Distributor of auto and industrial lubricants and chemicals, auto aftermarket products

110.

Sachse Construction and Development Co. LLC, Detroit 48226

Todd Sachse CEO

138.0

115.4

19.6

General contracting, construction management, design/ build and tenant coordination

Netlink Software Group America Inc., Madison

84.5

59.1

2,670

111.

Dilip Dubey chairman and CEO Anurag Shrivastava co-founder, CEO EMEA Greg Hacias, president

134.5

Heights 48071 (248) 204-8800; www.netlink.com

112. 113.

Bill Perkins Automotive Group, Eastpointe 48021 (586) 775-8300; www.merollischevy.com

Bill Perkins president

134.3

118.1

13.7

134

Automobile dealerships

George W. Auch Co., Pontiac 48341 (248) 334-2000; www.auchconstruction.com

Vincent DeLeonardis president and CEO

134.1

122.7

9.3

General contractor and construction manager

Jeffrey Tamaroff Automotive Family, Southfield

Marvin Tamaroff chairman emeritus Jeffrey Tamaroff chairman and CEO

133.1

121.0

10.0

212

Automotive dealerships

48034-1928 (248) 353-1300; www.tamaroff.com

115.

Hatch Stamping Co., Chelsea 48118 (734) 475-8628; www.hatchstamping.com

Ross Gatlin chairman and CEO

133.0

114.0

16.7

337

529

Manufacturing

115.

James Group International Inc., Detroit 48209 (313) 841-0070; www.jamesgroupintl.com

John James chairman and CEO

133.0

110.0

20.9

131

162

Global supply chain management providing services in IT, export/import logistics, assembly, consolidation/ deconsolidation

Rank

88.

93. 94. 94. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 102.

114.

Company Address Phone, website

Top executive

48203 (313) 957-5100; www.dialog-direct.com

Type of business BPO providing end-to-end marketing and customer engagement solutions to help companies target, acquire and retain and maximize customer relations

Mobile application solutions, managed IT services and talent management

(877) 768-7222; www.visionit.com

Warren 48093 (586) 979-8700; www.jimriehl.com

(586) 939-7300; www.buffwhelan.com (248) 823-0800; www.caretech.com

(248) 786-2500; www.htcinc.com

Application development and maintenance, business process management, document and content management and project management office services

(313) 481-8200; www.sachse.net

Managed IT and cloud-enabled business solutions

This list of privately held companies is an approximate compilation of the largest companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties that do not have stock traded on a public exchange. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analysis and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area office. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available. B Glencoe Capital Michigan LLC, owner of Budco Holdings Inc., Dialogue Marketing Inc. and Novo 1 Inc., combined the three entities Jan. 30, 2014 under the name DialogDirect Inc. C Revenue attributable to Budco Holdings Inc. Dialogue Marketing Inc. had $41.4 million in 2012 revenue. D Plastics News estimate.

Continued on Page M64

LIST RESEARCHED BY GARY PIATEK, CAMILLE PIPPEN

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Continued From Page M63

Revenue ($000,000) 2013

Revenue ($000,000) 2012

Percent change

Detroit area employees Jan. 2014

Worldwide employees Jan. 2014

Chelsea Milling Company, Chelsea 48118

Howdy Holmes chairman, president and CEO

$132.0

$130.0

1.5%

Retail, institutional, foodservice baking mixes

The Macomb Group Inc., Sterling Heights 48312 (586) 274-4100; www.macombgroup.com

William McGivern Jr. CEO Keith Schatko vice president

131.9

135.1

-2.4

128

269

Distributor of pipe, valves, fittings, heating and cooling, control and instrumentation, boilers, pumps repair, steam products, sanitary piping products, hose assemblies, fire protection and AWWA products

Clark Hill PLC, Detroit 48226 (313) 965-8300; www.clarkhill.com

John Hern CEO

127.4

Legal services; law firm

Avis Ford Inc., Southfield 48034 (248) 355-7500; www.avisford.com

Walter Douglas Sr. chairman and CEO

126.1

107.6

17.2

102

Automobile dealership

121.

Ghafari Inc., Dearborn 48126

Yousif Ghafari chairman

125.6

110.2

14.0

695

995

Architecture, engineering, construction services, manufacturing engineering, consulting, professional staffing

122.

Humanetics Innovative Solutions Inc., Plymouth

Christopher O'Connor president and CEO

125.0

200

500

Designs and manufactures safety equipment, including sophisticated crash test dummies, software modeling and related test equipment

Phillips Service Industries Inc., Livonia 48150

121.0

0.0

250

468

123.

W. Scott Phillips president and CEO

121.0

(734) 853-5000; www.psi-online.com

Defense systems, homeland security, aircraft components, providers of direct manufacturing technology, welding machines, rugged electronics, wireless networks, automated assembly systems, repair services, uninterruptable power supplies

124.

Devon Industrial Group, Detroit 48226

David Burnley president

118.5

109.0

8.7

Provides construction management, general contracting, program management, design build, pre-construction and decommissioning services

Rank

117. 118. 119. 120.

Company Address Phone, website (734) 475-1361; www.jiffymix.com

(313) 441-3000; www.ghafari.com

48170 (734) 451-7878; www.humaneticsatd.com

(313) 221-1550; www.devonindustrial.com

Top executive

Type of business

124.

Technical Training Inc. (TTi Global), Rochester

Lori Blaker president and CEO

118.5

104.0

13.9

Staffing, outsourcing and training

Hills 48309 (248) 853-5550; www.tti-global.com

126.

Iconma LLC, Troy 48083 (888) 451-2519; www.iconma.com

Claudine George managing member

118.3

109.7

7.8

Professional staffing and project-based services that include proprietary mobile apps and a content management system

127.

Tweddle Group Inc., Clinton Twp. 48036

Andrew Tweddle president and CEO

113.0

102.0

10.8

440

603

Information and communications solutions company focused on helping our customers enhance the ownership experience of their consumers

128.

Milosch's Palace Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge Inc., Lake Donald Milosch president

112.2

95.4

17.6

146

Automobile dealership

Orion 48359 (248) 393-2222; www.palacecjd.com

129.

Diversified Computer Supplies Inc., Ann Arbor

Joseph Hollenshead chairman, president and CEO

111.8

106.5

5.0

48108 (800) 766-5400; www.dcsbiz.com

Distributes imaging/printer supplies, develops IT strategies for clients and supports back-end connectivity with XML feeds, EDI integration and an e-commerce platform

130.

Rush Trucking Corp., Wayne 48184 (800) 526-7874; www.rushtrucking.com

Andra Rush chairman and CEO

111.0

104.0

6.7

625

Motor carrier, logistics management

131.

Gorno Automotive Group, Woodhaven 48183

Ed Jolliffe president and general manager

110.4

105.5

4.6

Automobile dealership

(734) 676-2200; www.gornoford.com

132. 133. 134. 135. 136. 137.

Garden Fresh Salsa Co. Inc., Ferndale 48220

Jack Aronson president

110.0

100.0

10.0

Food manufacturer

Wright & Filippis Inc., Rochester Hills 48309

Anthony Filippis chairman and CEO

107.0

121.0

-11.6

500

650

(248) 829-8200; www.firsttoserve.com

Provider of home medical equipment, respiratory and prosthetic and orthotic services

Ray Laethem Inc. , Grosse Pointe 48224 (888) 692-6317; www.raylaethem.com

Jeff Laethem president

104.5

87.0

20.1

Auto dealership

Edwards Brothers Malloy Inc., Ann Arbor 48104

John Edwards president and CEO

104.2

115.0

-9.4

560

761

Book printer and binder

(734) 769-1000; www.edwardsbrothersmalloy.com

Village Ford Inc., Dearborn 48124 (313) 565-3900; www.villageford.com

James Seavitt president and CEO

103.0

102.6

0.4

Automotive dealership

DeMaria Building Co. Inc., Novi 48374-1305

Joseph DeMaria Jr. president

101.6

122.1

-16.8

116

General contracting, design build, construction management

138.

Roger Zatkoff Co. (Zatkoff Seals & Packings),

Gary Zatkoff president and CEO

100.6

96.5

4.2

166

Distributor of seals and packings; manufacturer of gaskets

139. 140. 141.

FutureNet Group Inc., Detroit 48223

Perry Mehta president and CEO

100.0

65.0 B

53.8

123

Customized solutions for environmental and infrastructure improvement

Van Pelt Corp. (Service Steel), Detroit 48212

Roger Van Pelt president and CEO

98.5

99.2

-0.7

175

350

Steel distributor

Kar Nut Products Co., Madison Heights 48071

Nick Nicolay president and CEO

92.7

78.0

18.8

166

Snack food manufacturing and distribution

National Business Supply Inc. (NBS Commercial Interiors), Troy 48083

Richard Schwabauer president

91.3

94.6

-3.5

135

Commercial furnishing, audio visual distributor

Wolverine Truck Sales Inc., Dearborn 48120 (313) 849-0800; www.wolverinetruckgroup.com

Lynn Terry president

85.7 C

85.7

0.0

113

Truck sales, parts and service

Guardian Alarm Co., Southfield 48075 (248) 423-1000; www.guardianalarm.com

Douglas Pierce CEO

85.6

79.0

8.4

997

1,140

142. 143. 144.

(586) 307-3700; www.tweddle.com

(248) 336-8486; www.gardenfreshsalsa.com

(248) 348-8710; www.demariabuild.com

Farmington Hills 48335 (248) 478-2400; www.zatkoff.com

(313) 544-7117; www.futurenetgroup.com

(313) 365-3600; www.servicesteel.com

(248) 588-1903; www.karsnuts.com

(248) 823-5400; www.yourNBS.com

Security services: alarm installation and service, guard services, medical monitoring

This list of privately held companies is an approximate compilation of the largest companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties that do not have stock traded on a public exchange. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analysis and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area office. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available. B Acquired Smith & Wesson Security Solutions Inc. July 2012. C Company estimate. LIST RESEARCHED BY GARY PIATEK, CAMILLE PIPPEN

Continued on Page M65

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June 2, 2014

Page M65

CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS

CRAIN'S LIST: PRIVATE 200 Ranked by 2013 revenue

Continued From Page M64 Rank

Company Address Phone, website

Top executive

Revenue ($000,000) 2013

Revenue ($000,000) 2012

Percent change

Detroit area employees Jan. 2014

Worldwide employees Jan. 2014

$82.0

$101.0

-18.8%

133

Industrial engineered fluid handling equipment distributor

81.0 B

70.0 B

15.7

Trading and manufacturing company specializing in product design and development, tooling fabrication, injection molding and decorating and assembly

Type of business

145.

Corrosion Fluid Products Corp., Farmington Hills

Joseph V. Andronaco CEO

146.

TransNav Technologies Inc., New Baltimore 48047

Gerrit Vreeken president

147. 148.

ChemicoMays LLC, Southfield 48033

Leon Richardson CEO, chairman, president

80.0

200

Chemical manufacturing, chemical management

(248) 723-3263; www.chemicomays.com

Madison Electric Co., Warren 48093-1047 (586) 825-0200; www.madisonelectric.com

Brett Schneider president

79.2

82.0

-3.5

145

Electrical, electronic and automation distributor

149.

BullsEye Telecom Inc., Southfield 48033 (248) 784-2500; www.bullseyetelecom.com

William Oberlin chairman and CEO

77.0

71.2

8.2

180

194

Integrated telecom and internet services to small, medium single-location businesses and large Fortune 1000 enterprises with multiple locations

150.

Roseville Chrysler Jeep Inc., Roseville 48066

Michael Riehl president

76.7

66.0

16.3

Automobile dealership

151.

Rapid Global Business Solutions Inc. , Madison

Nanua Singh president and CEO

74.9

64.5

16.1

582

Software development, IT and services for staffing, engineering, vendor management, and recruitment process outsourcing

48335 (248) 478-0100; www.corrosionfluid.com

(586) 716-5600; www.transnav.com

(586) 859-2500; www.mikeriehls.com Heights 48071 (248) 589-1135; www.rgbsi.com

152.

Load One Transportation & Logistics, Taylor

John Elliott CEO

74.3

68.8

8.0

432

512

48180 (734) 947-9440; www.load1.com

Air charter, ground expedite, truckload, partial truckload, flatbed, drop-deck flats, curtainside flatbeds, truckload and expedite brokerage

153.

Link Engineering Co., Plymouth 48170 (734) 453-0800; www.linkeng.com

Roy Link chairman and CEO

74.0

72.0

2.8

290

404

Manufacturer of testing systems and provider of commercial testing services

Proper Group International Inc., Warren 48089

Geoffrey O'Brien CEO

74.0

70.0

5.7

Plastic injection molds, injection molded parts and assembly, polyurethane and skin form tooling, microcellular foam tooling, vario-therm tooling, rapid prototyping and Web-based management of tooling and process data

International Extrusions Inc., Garden City 48135

Nicholas Noecker president and CEO

72.0

69.0

4.3

185

(734) 427-8700; www.extrusion.net

Manufacturer of aluminum extruded profiles, powder-coat painting and fabrication facilities

Arrow Uniform-Taylor LLC, Taylor 48180 (313) 299-5000; www.arrowuniform.com

Thomas Andris CEO

71.3

72.8

-2.1

435

642

Uniform rental and sales

Gonzalez Design Group, Madison Heights 48071

Gary Gonzalez CEO

71.0

70.0

1.4

430

560

Design engineering, staffing, manufacturing technologies, production systems, other

T.H. Marsh Construction Co., Royal Oak 48073

Ryan Marsh president and CEO

71.0

64.0

10.9

Construction management services

(248) 586-4130; www.thmarsh.com

Synova Inc., Southfield 48075 (800) 799-9625; www.synovainc.com

Tim Manney president

70.0

69.8

0.3

150

2,400

The Colasanti Cos., Detroit 48226 (313) 567-0060; www.colasantigroup.com

Christopher Colasanti president Angelo Colasanti CEO

69.7

102.4

-31.9

General contracting and construction management and design/build; self-perform concrete services

BlueWater Technologies Group Inc., Southfield

Suzanne Schoeneberger president

69.0

59.1

16.7

180

Design, engineering and implementation of custom technology solutions for live events, video conferencing, experiential marketing, interactive displays, lead generation capabilities

162.

The Crown Group Co., Warren 48091

Frank Knoth president and CEO

68.4

65.0

5.2

235

593

Applies coatings to metal and plastic products; moduleassembly work; sequencing, warehousing

163.

Ansara Restaurant Group, Inc., Farmington Hills 48331 (248) 848-9099; www.ansararestaurantgroup.com

Victor Ansara president and CEO

67.8

69.3

-2.1

1,900

2,575

164.

Rodgers Chevrolet Inc., Woodhaven 48183 (734) 676-9600; www.rodgerschevrolet.com

Pamela Rodgers president

67.3

51.0

31.9

Automobile dealership

165.

Auburn Pharmaceutical Co., Troy 48083

Jeffrey Farber chairman, president and CEO

67.0

52.7

27.1

Distributor of generic pharmaceuticals

(248) 526-3700; auburngenerics.com

166. 167.

Market Strategies Inc., Livonia 48152 (734) 542-7600; www.marketstrategies.com

Andrew Morrison chairman

66.6

64.0

4.0

115

1,000

Better Made Snack Foods Inc., Detroit 48213

Salvatore Cipriano CEO

66.4

69.3

-4.2

247

Snack foods

168.

HelloWorld Inc. (formerly ePrize Inc.), Pleasant

Matt Wise CEO

65.4

65.6

-0.3

323

416

Digital engagement agency specializing in mobile, social media and Web campaigns

Atwell LLC, Southfield 48076

Brian Wenzel president and CEO Timothy Augustine VP, corporate services Matthew Bissett VP, power and energy William Henderson VP, natural resources and environmental Daniel McNulty, COO

65.3

65.0

0.5

392

Consulting and construction services

170.

Epitec Inc., Southfield 48033

Jerome Sheppard CEO and Josie Sheppard president

65.0

0.0

600

900

Computer services for staffing and managed services

(248) 353-6800; www.epitecinc.com

171.

MPS Group Inc., Farmington Hills 48331 (313) 841-7588; www.mpsgrp.com

Charlie Williams chairman

63.9

53.2

20.1

110

222

Total waste management and industrial cleaning

172.

Systrand Manufacturing Corp., Brownstown

Sharon Cannarsa president and CEO

63.2

49.8

26.8

260

305

Precision machining and assembly

153. 155. 156. 157. 157. 159. 160. 161.

(586) 779-8787; www.propergroupintl.com

(248) 548-6010; www.gonzalez-group.com

48075 (248) 356-4399; www.BlueWaterTech.com

(586) 575-9800; www.thecrowngrp.com

(313) 925-4774; www.bettermadesnackfoods.com

Ridge 48069 (248) 543-6800; www.helloworld.com

(248) 447-2000; www.atwell-group.com

169.

Township 48183 (734) 479-8100; www.systrand.com

Custom software development, maintenance and support, SAP technologies, SAP enterprise applications, SAP performance management, mobile applications development for financial and telecom verticals, cloud enabling of organizational resources

Restaurant

Market research consultancy

This list of privately held companies is an approximate compilation of the largest companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties that do not have stock traded on a public exchange. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analysis and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area office. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available. B Plastics News. LIST RESEARCHED BY GARY PIATEK, CAMILLE PIPPEN

Continued on Page M66

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CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS

CRAIN'S LIST: PRIVATE 200 Ranked by 2013 revenue

Continued From Page M65 Rank

Company Address Phone, website

Top executive

Revenue ($000,000) 2013

Revenue ($000,000) 2012

Percent change

Detroit area employees Jan. 2014

Worldwide employees Jan. 2014

Secure-24 LLC, Southfield 48033 (800) 332-0076; secure-24.com

Mike Jennings CEO

$62.9

$54.0

16.5%

Managed hosting, enterprise cloud computing and IT outsourcing for large organizations and mid-market companies.

173. 174. 175.

National Food Group Inc., Novi 48377-2454

Sean Zecman president and CEO

60.5

56.9

6.3

Food distribution, opportunity buys, commodity processing

(800) 886-6866; www.nationalfoodgroup.com

Frank Rewold and Son Inc. , Rochester 48307 (248) 651-7242; www.frankrewold.com

Frank Rewold president and CEO

60.1

65.7

-8.5

Construction management, general contracting, design/ build

176.

Benlee Inc., Romulus 48174

Greg Brown president and CEO

60.0

62.5

-4.0

Manufacturer of roll-off trailers and trucks as well as a scrap metal recycling, electronics recycling, cardboard recycling

177.

Motor City Stampings Inc., Chesterfield Township 48051 (586) 949-8420; www.mcstamp.com

Judith Kucway CEO and CFO

59.3

51.1

16.0

275

Stamping plant, automotive welding, assembly, dies and prototypes

178.

Danlaw Inc., Novi 48375 (248) 476-5571; www.danlawinc.com

Raju Dandu chairman and CEO

58.0

30.0

93.3

146

300

Cloud-based, connected-vehicle telematics solutions and embedded electronics to OEMs and tier-one suppliers

SHW Group LLC, Berkley 48072

Marjorie Simmons president and CEO Kevin Rettich director of engineering

56.6

51.7

9.5

288

Architects, engineers, planners and interior designers

(248) 336-4700; www.shwgroup.com

180.

Domestic Linen Supply & Laundry Co.,

Bruce Colton president

56.0

55.0

1.8

615

Facility management and textile rental

181. 182.

Morpace Inc., Farmington Hills 48334

Frank Ward chairman and CEO

55.6

49.8

11.6

148

198

Market research and consulting firm

(248) 737-5300; www.morpace.com

Buscemi Enterprises Inc., Roseville 48066 (586) 296-5560; www.originalbuscemis.com

Paul Buscemi Jr. president

53.9

47.3

14.0

630

Franchisor of party shops

183.

Advantage Management Group Inc. (The Manors), Southfield 48075

Kelsey Schwartz and Reginald Hartsfield owners

53.0

57.0

-7.0

560

Skilled-nursing homes

184.

Medcart Specialty Pharmacy, Livonia 48150

Eddie Abueida and Ed Saleh co-CEOs

52.0

35.0

48.6

Specialty pharmacy services

Productions Plus - The Talent Shop, Bingham

Margery Krevsky president

51.0

37.0

37.8

Full-service talent management agency

WorkForce Software LLC, Livonia 48152 (877) 493-6723; www.workforcesoftware.com

Kevin Choksi CEO

50.4

30.3

66.5

284

441

Complete workforce management platform for large employers with complex needs such as time and attendance, scheduling, absence and leave management and employee fatigue, along with powerful reporting and analytics to connect the dots between labor activities and business results

Pratt & Miller Engineering & Fabrication Inc.,

Jim Miller president

50.0

0.0

240

260

Engineering company providing automotive-based programs and manufacturing solutions

179.

185. 186.

(734) 722-8100; www.benlee.com and www.raleighscrapmetalrecycling.com

Farmington Hills 48334 (248) 737-2000; www.domesticuniform.com

(248) 569-8400; themanors.net

(877) 770-4633; www.medcartpharmacy.com Farms 48025 (248) 644-5566; www.productions-plus.com

Type of business

187.

New Hudson 48165 (248) 446-9800 ; prattmiller.com

187.

American Plastic Toys Inc., Walled Lake 48390-0100 John Gessert president and CEO (248) 624-4881; americanplastictoys.com

50.0

51.0

-2.0

185

300

Manufactures and distributes injection-molded plastic toys

Evans Distribution Systems Inc., Melvindale 48122

John A. Evans president John W. Evans chairman

49.6

44.0

12.8

286

700

(313) 388-3200; www.evansdist.com

Warehousing and distribution, transportation, contract packaging, quality inspection, staffing and other logisticsrelated services

189.

Mars Advertising Inc., Southfield 48033-7496

Ken Barnett CEO

49.6

38.7

28.2

352

527

Advertising agency

191.

Wade Trim Inc., Detroit 48226 (313) 961-3650; www.wadetrim.com

Frank Tymowski and Douglas Watson CEOs

48.8

43.0

13.6

108

291

Consulting engineering and planning services

TAG Holdings LLC, Wixom 48393 (248) 822-8056; www.taghold.com

Joseph Anderson Jr. chairman and CEO

48.0

50.0

-4.0

120

Module and component manufacturing for various industries including aerospace, defense, automotive, sports and recreation vehicles, mining, construction and other heavy vehicles

192.

Industrial Control Repair Inc., Warren 48092

Paul Gutierrez president and CEO

48.0

47.0

2.1

154

184

ICR repairs electronic and mechanical industrial equipment as well as purchasing and selling refurbished industrial electronics, robots, and machinery.

194.

Kirco Manix , Troy 48084

Douglas Manix president

47.0

35.0

34.3

Design and build, construction management

Kasco Inc., Royal Oak 48067 (248) 547-1210; www.kascoinc.com

Stephen Kassab president Michael Engle vice president

45.2

47.6

-5.1

Construction management, design/build, construction program administration

196.

Arrow Strategies LLC, Bingham Farms 48025

Jeff Styers founder, president and CEO

45.1

38.0

18.6

345

415

Staffing firm specializing in placement of professionals in the information technology, engineering, professional, and healthcare services industriesStaffing Agency

197.

Malace & Associates Inc., Troy 48098

Larry Malace president

44.5

34.5

29.0

700

1,500

CEC Controls Co. Inc., Warren 48093

Robert Scheper president Michael Palo vice president

44.5

40.6

9.7

136

162

(586) 779-0222; www.ceccontrols.com

Olga's Kitchen Inc., Troy 48084

Jonathan Fox president and CEO

44.0

49.0

-10.2

102

1,171

Harley Ellis Devereaux Corp., Southfield 48033 (248) 262-1500; www.harleyellisdevereaux.com

Michael Cooper managing principal, Detroit office Gary Skog chairman and CEO

43.5

37.1

17.3

110

230

189.

192.

195.

197. 199. 200.

(248) 936-2200; www.marsusa.com

(586) 582-1500; www.icrservices.com

(248) 354-5100; www.kircomanix.com

(248) 502-2500; www.arrowstrategies.com

(248) 720-2500; www.malacehr.com

(248) 362-0001; www.olgas.com

Integrated staffing company Manufacturer of electrical controls systems including design and build of industrial automation, vision, maintenance monitoring systems, error proofing as well as water and wastewater process systems Casual dining restaurant chain Full-service architecture, engineering, planning, interior design, landscape architecture, construction administration, and more

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