ABOUT US
The Detroit Regional Partnership is a regional economic development nonprofit serving Southeast Michigan’s 11-county region.
Founded in 2019 by a group of business and philanthropic CEOs, the organization is laser-focused on marketing the region to out-of-state and international companies to attract investments and jobs.
The Partnership offers no-cost site location assistance and other services to domestic and foreign companies planning new or expanded facilities.
It is a single point-of-contact to companies as they explore and invest in the Detroit region.
The Partnership is organized as a public-private, 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation funded jointly by the 11-county governments of the region, the city of Detroit, and leading private-sector businesses.
SERVICES
The Detroit Regional Partnership offers confidential, no-cost assistance to domestic and international companies seeking to explore and invest in the 11-county Detroit region.
The DRP specializes in helping companies understand and access the competitive advantages of our ecosystem. Whether a company is looking to establish a single-person sales office, headquarters, manufacturing operation, or tech center, we stand ready to act as your single point-of-contact to the network of assets and partners that support a company’s facility location decision.
SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT
The Detroit Regional Partnership is your one-stop guide to the Detroit region of more than 5.4 million residents, 2.7 million workers, 348 communities, and 300,000 companies. Our team can quickly execute an NDA and begin working on your behalf to bring all the benefits of the Detroit region to your project.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Once our team is engaged by a client, we can help with single issues and requests, or act as a comprehensive, project manager helping to address a broad set of challenges and next steps through a project’s life cycle.
Our philosophy is to serve as a neutral broker for the region, who is available to help each client understand the different municipalities, assets, programs, and partners and to bring them all together into a comprehensive solution to expedite investment and ensure a successful project.
Executing an investment project requires more than just data, land, workforce, and incentives. It requires technical experts that can help companies address issues that arise through a project’s progression ranging from legal incorporation, tax environment, visas, government permitting to project financing. The Partnership has a vast partner network of such experts that can be engaged at a client’s request.
At the end of the day, all projects will require a physical location from which to operate. With today’s robust business climate, finding appropriate real estate requires an expert team that understands the dynamic, local real estate market. The Partnership can help you quickly survey the type and cost of real estate in our region or go the next step in conducting a comprehensive market assessment, arrange tours, and provide a guided site location experience.
The Detroit Region and State of Michigan are dedicated to ensuring companies the most competitive business climate from which to conduct business. At times, this requires the support of state and local incentives. Our team acts as a consultant for our clients, helping them understand the tool box of available incentives, mapping their project requirements to programs for which they qualify, then bringing the proper approving agencies to the table, and working as a team to negotiate a comprehensive incentive package to make the project successful in our community.
There is no question that talent is the driving force behind today’s business location decisions. In the early stages of a project, our team can help you understand the profile of our workforce and talent pipeline providing the necessary data to benchmark our community to ensure it meets your project needs. This vetting process might also include connecting clients with other like companies and HR professionals in our market to hear directly from experts.
Once a company chooses to locate here, our team then helps get clients connected to our local workforce development community, to develop and implement robust talent recruitment and retention strategies.
We know that the best way for someone to understand the advantages of the Detroit region is to get them here on the ground, to see and experience it first-hand. The DRP supports the visit of any client, site consultant, delegation, partner, or investor who is interested in exploring and understand our community and the opportunity it presents for successful investment. Reach out to our team to arrange your visit to the Detroit region.
REGIONAL DATA
The DRP specializes in helping companies understand the competitive advantages of our ecosystem through data. Our team stands ready to address any data requests: industry business cases, cost of doing, workforce availability – skills and costs, customer and supplier ecosystem, and more. See the data center for some of our prepackaged data sets.
The Team
Leadership & Administration
Maureen Donohue Krauss
President & CEO
Tesia Mamassian
Operations Manager
Jessica Schatko
Investor Relations Manager
KaBao Yang
Administrative Coordinator
Marketing
Tamekia (Ashford) Nixon
VP, Marketing
Latrisha Jackson
Marketing Manager
Sarah Osen
Marketing Coordinator
Business Development
Justin Robinson
SVP, Business Development
Alan Weber
VP, Global Investment & Trade
Kent Spencer
VP, Business Development
Will Butler
Sr Business Development Manager
Carlotta Gmachl
Business Development & Trade Manager
Connie Loh
Business Development Manager
Marisa Kuhn
Business Development Coordinator
Ayesha Miah
Project Coordinator
Research
Angela Ladetto
VP, Business Intelligence and Research
Jessica Worley
Research Manager
Julia Anderson
Research / GIS Coordinator
Strategy & Partnerships
Gabe Rodriguez
SVP, Strategy & Partnerships
GOVERNANCE
The DRP consists of both a 501-C3 and a 501-C6, and we have governing bodies for each.
Currently, we have a small interim board that consists of senior leaders in the business community and senior public leaders in our region. Our Board is currently chaired by Gerard M. Anderson, CEO and Chairman of DTE Energy.
We also convene the Regional Partner Council that consists of members from our 11-county region and the City of Detroit that assists in driving forward our economic development agenda.
Board Members
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Gerry Anderson (Chairman) – Executive Chairman, DTE Energy
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Sandy Baruah – CEO, Detroit Regional Chamber
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Matt Cullen – CEO, Bedrock
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David Coulter – Oakland County Executive
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Mike Duggan – Mayor, City of Detroit
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Warren Evans – Wayne County Executive
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Mark Hackel – Macomb County Executive
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Chris Ilitch – President and CEO, Ilitch Holding Companies
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Wright Lassiter – President and CEO, Henry Ford Health Systems
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Chip McClure – Managing Partner, Michigan Capital Advisors
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La June Montgomery Tabron – President and CEO, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
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Cindy Pasky – President and CEO, Strategic Staffing Solutions
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Ray Scott – President and CEO, Lear Corporation
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Ray Telang – Michigan Managing Partner, PwC
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Gary Torgow – Chairman, Chemical Bank
