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C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 6
MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN: FINANCE
Renee Tabben
Market executive, West Central Michigan, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and market president, Grand Rapids market, Bank of America Corp. Career ladder: Tabben earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s J. L. Kellogg School of Management. Financial career began after working as a musical theater performer, with temp work before joining Dean Witter Reynolds in 1997 and Morgan Stanley in 2000. She joined Merrill Lynch in 2008. Tabben, who is 44, rose to Merrill Lynch Wealth Management market executive for West Central Michigan before adding the role of president for Bank of America’s Grand Rapids market in March. Power metrics: Bank of America is the nation’s second-largest full-service bank, with $1.6 billion in assets, 220,000 employees and 4,700 branches as of Dec. 31, 2015. On the personal wealth side, she leads more than 130 financial advisers in
the Grand Rapids, Portage, Muskegon, Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Saginaw and Traverse City offices. Super power: Her continuous optimism, which is rooted in her mother’s decision to enroll her in the Optimist International Oratorical group. “Call it naiveté or Midwestern attitude, each day I believe it’s going to get better,” Tabben said. Biggest setback: Tabben landed what she thought was her dream job in her late 20s, only to have it eliminated after nine months. “That experience taught me a very valuable lesson: Change is constant and you need to be ready for it.” Why did you get into the financial services field? “The importance of financial security and being fluent with fundamental building blocks of wealth wasn’t important to me until my sister suffered a dramatic car accident in California. I was working in Ohio at the time and for the first time in my life, the financial situation of my family prevented me and my parents from being able to immediately be with my sister.“ Advice for women seeking success: “Be brave and embrace change. Don’t wait for someone to show you the path to success. Define what success looks like and design a plan to get there. To quote Steven Sondheim, ‘Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.’ Be sure to be ready to seize the opportunity when she shows up!” Kevin Polzin
Mary Petrovich Executive chairman, AxleTech International; senior operating executive, The Carlyle Group, Troy
Jody Vanderwel
President, Grand Angels, Holland Career ladder: Vanderwel earned a
bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She was an attorney in private practice and joined Grand Angels in 2005 after more than 12 years at Zeeland-based office furniture maker Herman Miller Inc.; Vanderwel is the daughter of former Herman Miller Chairman and CEO Max De Pree. At Herman Miller, she served first as corporate counsel and later as vice president for corporate giving. Vanderwel, 66, is also on the investment committee for Grand Angels’ second fund, GA Venture Fund II, launched in 2015. Power metrics: Holland-based Grand Angels, which is focused on life sciences, business-to-business technology, advanced manufacturing and advanced agriculture companies, has invested nearly $20 million in 35 Michigan early-stage companies since its creation in 2004. In 2015, the Angel Resource
Institute named Grand Angels a “Top 3 Angel Group in the Great Lakes Region” based on its 2010-15 deal flow. Big win: “I just completed 14 years on the Priority Health board, with four years as chairman. It was a great board when I got there, but I left it a better board. Not that I take all the credit — we did it together — and I think we will continue to build a stronger and a better board.” Board/community
connections:
Board member: Baker Publishing Group, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, Calif.), Michigan Strategic Fund, Michigan Venture Capital Association, and advisory boards for the Michigan Accelerator Fund I and Northern Trust West Michigan. Power lesson: “Leadership is the opportunity to work with a group of people to achieve the purpose, goal or mission of an organization and, in that context, to help the people you work with achieve their potential and their own professional goals. I’ve always worked with people on my work teams to help them understand where they want to go in their careers and what they need to do to get there, and then help prepare them for the next steps to take, while they’re on my team and beyond. People have done that for me, so I’ve tried to do what’s been modeled for me.” Surprising fact: “I really knew absolutely nothing about angel investing when I was approached to join Grand Angels. When I took the job, it
Sandra (Sandy) Pierce Vice chairman, FirstMerit Corp.; chairman/CEO, FirstMerit Michigan, Southfield
was a real learning curve and as Grand Angels grew, I grew. The biggest surprise was just how risky it is — when you write off that first failed investment, you realize this is not a sport for the faint of heart.” Best mentor: “My dad was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and my mom (Ethel De Pree) was really in many ways his partner, his support and the source of a lot of wisdom. They gave me two very different and effective models of leadership management and organization. It shaped who I am and what I am in a very positive way.” Changes you have seen in how women wield power in Michigan or in your industry over the last 10 years: “I’ve seen a
real increase in the number of women who are in the venture capital space as a venture partner, an entrepreneur or providing services and coaching entrepreneurs helping them be successful. The increase has changed the tenor of the community in a positive way. I’m also very encouraged to see the growing number of young women in entrepreneurial programs in our colleges and universities. Entrepreneurship is reshaping Michigan’s economy and angel investing is crucial for companies looking to break into these high-risk, high-reward fields.” Next big goal: “To work hard to have a successful fund so we establish the platform for raising fund III.” Ann Tappan
Mina Sooch President/CEO, Gemphire Therapeutics, Northville; co-founder and managing director, Apjohn Ventures, Kalamazoo
Career ladder: Petrovich, 53, started her career in manufacturing at General Motors after earning an engineering degree at the University of Michigan. After getting an MBA from Harvard University, she worked in finance at Chrysler and later at AlliedSignal Inc. She ran other manufacturers before landing in the private equity industry in 2002. Power metrics: She works for the global private equity giant Carlyle’s industrial group, which owns businesses with sales from $1 billion to $10 billion. Petrovich is now chairman of Carlyle’s recently reacquired AxleTech International, which has 600 employees with operations in Troy; Chicago; Oshkosh, Wis.; Osasco, Brazil; St. Etienne, France; and China and India. Special skill: She relishes taking battered businesses and repairing them. “I am highly sought and highly regarded by men. They don’t hire me to meet quotas; they hire me because I’m the best.” Big win: Spinning off AxleTech International from Meritor in 2002. AxleTech had no profits and $100 million in revenue. Carlyle bought it for $5 million. In five years, Carlyle grew it to $600 million in revenue and $120 million in profits. Carlyle sold the business for $300 million, but recently reacquired it. Board connections: Executive chairwoman of AxleTech International, which is owned by The Carlyle Group, and member of the WabCo audit committee and chairman of the Woodward compensation committee. Surprising fact: Has played in three straight U.S. National Amateur (Golf) Championships. Quote: “I speak a lot to women’s groups. I hear women who are competing with men ask, ‘How can I be the best woman in the industry?’ I say, ‘You need to think of being the best — period.’ Women should shoot to be the best, regardless of race or sex.”
Career ladder: Pierce started her career in 1978 as a bank teller at National Bank of Detroit while attending Wayne State University. After graduating, she held roles in marketing, commercial banking, retail banking and wealth management at NBD and its successor organizations FirstChicago NBD, Bank One and J.P. Morgan Chase. After 27 years, Pierce joined Royal Bank of Scotland to manage its Charter One subsidiary in the Midwest from 2005 to 2012. She came to First Merit in 2013 upon its acquisition of Citizens Republic Bank. Power metrics: As vice chairman of FirstMerit Corp., Pierce, 58, has direct responsibility for retail branches, the mortgage company, bank cards, facilities, wealth management and marketing. She also is chairman and CEO of FirstMerit Michigan and accountable for all FirstMerit activities in the state. For 2015, the company, which is being acquired by Huntington Bank, had 4,500 employees and assets of $25.4 billion. Big win: “When I realized my professional success was because of my background not despite it, which eradicated my fear of failure and allowed me to chart my own path.” I recently learned: “To use my 17-year-old son’s Hoverboard (which, believe me, is not easy, and I don’t go fast).” Board and community connections: Board chairman, Henry Ford Health System; chairman, Detroit financial advisory board, 2012 through 2014; vice chairman, Business Leaders for Michigan; board member and past chairman of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce; board member at Detroit Economic Club; board member, Downtown Detroit Partnership, College for Creative Studies, Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and United Way, Southeast Michigan. Surprising fact: “I grew up on Chene Street in Detroit in the flat above my parents’ bar. I’m the youngest of 10 children and the only one to go to college.”
Career ladder: India-born Sooch, 48, earned her MBA from Harvard University in 1993 and shortly afterward became global account manager, strategy consultant for Monitor Group in Cambridge, Mass., and Chicago. She was an entrepreneur in residence at Ann Arbor-based North Coast Technology Investors LP in 2001 and 2002 and became co-founder and managing partner of Kalamazoo-based Apjohn Ventures in 2003, where she still serves as a managing director. She co-founded Plymouth Township-based ProNAi Therapeutics in 2004, which produced a drug for patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Sooch served as its CEO from 2011 until it launched a $158 million IPO in April 2014. After ProNai, Sooch became CEO of Northville-based Gemphire Therapeutics Inc., an early-stage cardiovascular drug development company, which went public in a $60 million offering in April. Power metrics: Gemphire, which has eight employees, has so far raised $15 million in equity capital. The company is developing a cardiovascular drug called gemcabene to lower levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol, and of triglycerides, which is fat in the blood. Gemcabene is taken orally once a day. Super powers: Persistence and passion. She follows the see-an-obstacle, show-a-solution approach. “(I) remap a new plan if there’s a challenge.” Big win: Over a decade, she nurtured ProNAi through a lot of ups and downs, “dark days and great days.” In April 2014, ProNAi set the record for the largest venture capital round in state history, $59.5 million. Last July, ProNAi had an IPO of $158.4 million. She’s gratified to see its drug in clinics treating cancer patients.
Marti Benedetti
Marti Benedetti
Vickie Elmer