DETROIT – Sometimes as entrepreneurs and creatives we are so busy working we don’t take time out to celebrate our growth and success. We hope these entrepreneurs celebrated their success at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards earlier this week.
EY hosted their 30th award’s anniversary, selecting twelve entrepreneurs form the Michigan and Ohio region. Many of the winners were from Michigan. They celebrated last week at a black-tie gala on June 23rd at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
“EY has had a tremendous history in honoring outstanding entrepreneurs during the past 30 years,” said Angie Kelly, Assurance Partner and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Program Director for Michigan and Northwest Ohio. “This year’s winners have not only taken their companies to the top, but they have also acted as mentors to their employees and made impressive contributions to their communities.”
Meet the winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 Michigan and Northwest Ohio Award include:
- Dale Watchowski, CEO, American House Senior Living Communities (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
- Mark A. Jones, President and Co-Founder, and David N. Gahm, CEO and Co-Founder, AmeriFirst Home Mortgage (Kalamazoo, MI)
- John Lowery, President, Applied Imaging (Grand Rapids, MI)
- Dr. Shri Thanedar, CEO and Owner, Avomeen Analytical Services (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Cory Steeby, President and Pat LeBlanc, Chairman, EBW Electronics (Holland, MI)
- Dan Musser, President, Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island, MI)
- Donald Hicks, President and CEO, LLamasoft, Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Julia Owens, President and CEO, Millendo Therapeutics, Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Laurent Bresson, President and Global Chief Operating Officer, Nexteer Automotive (Saginaw, MI)
- John Pigott, Chief Innovation Officer/Strategic Business Development and Randy Oostra, President and CEO, ProMedica/ProMedica Innovations (Toledo, OH)
- Michael VandeMaele, CEO, Pro Services, Inc. (Portage, MI)
- Amy Peterson, Co-Founder and CEO, and Diana Russell, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Rebel Nell (Detroit, MI)
Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year national program. Award winners in several national categories, and will be announced at the culminating event of the Strategic Growth ForumTM, the nation’s most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies. The US Entrepreneur Of The Year Overall Award winner then moves on to compete for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in Monaco, June 2017.
The EY program is sponsored nationally by SAP America, Merrill Corporation and the Ewing Marian Kauffman Foundation. They seek to reconize, guide and support scaling companies around the world. For more information, check them out at: ey.com/us/strategicgrowthmarkets, or follow news on Twitter @EY_Growth
Amanda Lewan is Editor of Michipreneur.Com
