Category Archives: 2013 Mackinac Policy Conference

The Detroit News: May 23, 2013

Next week, education and business will merge on Mackinac Island, as both educators and businessmen acknowledge the vital link between the two. A look at the agenda of this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference, put on by the Detroit Regional Chamber, makes it clear that the business community gets that if education doesn’t work in Michigan, the economy won’t work either. When the two intersect, that’s what will energize the state’s economy.

Crain’s Detroit Business: March 22, 2013

More than 600 business leaders from West and Southeast Michigan have been telling Lansing since 2008, through the annual West Michigan Policy Forum Conference, that business taxes have to be cut, state bureaucracy needs to be reduced, health care providers should be rewarded for prevention, Michigan should be a right-to-work state, and the state’s road repair fund is as broken as the streets it is supposed to pay to fix.

Michigan Chronicle: May 21, 2013

Gov. Rick Snyder isn’t that concerned right now about his re-election prospects. At least that is what the governor wants people to believe even as Democrats scramble to look for a suitable and stately candidate who can stake a claim on the state’s highest office.

The Observer & Eccentric: May 20, 2013

Since launching their juice business in downtown Plymouth with just $13,000 barely a year ago, Caitlin James and her sisters have propelled it to perhaps Michigan’s biggest economic stage. Drought, which cold-presses, bottles and sells organic, raw fruit and vegetable juices from a kitchen on Forest, experienced serious growth in its first year and has attracted regional and national media attention.

Detroit Free Press: May 19, 2013

During his tenure as President George W. Bush’s Secretary of Commerce, Cuban-born Carlos Gutierrez was the Bush administration’s point man on immigration reform. Gutierrez, a former chairman and CEO of Kellogg, advised GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on outreach to Hispanics, but he was dismayed by the anti-immigrant tone of Romney’s campaign.

Detroit Free Press: May 19, 2013

If you could improve the economic and financial well-being of minority Americans and increase employment opportunities without enacting new legislation or creating new taxes, would you do it? Most people answer yes. Next week, when I address the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference, I’ll detail two proposals addressing minority employment and access to capital that will not require new legislation or increase taxes.

Crain’s Detroit Business: May 10, 2013

Tackling the state’s gap between employer talent needs and the skills of the workforce is bubbling to the top as a priority for discussion at this month’s Mackinac Policy Conference. The conference this year is focused on three topical pillars: talent, education and culture change.