LANSING – Calling it a model of collaboration, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Governor-elect Rick Snyder held a joint press conference Monday to announce new leadership at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Named as the chief executive officer of the MEDC was Michael Finney, current head of Ann Arbor SPARK and long-rumored to be Snyder’s choice to succeed Greg Main, whose contract with the development company ends December 31.

Granholm and Snyder used the almost unprecedented occasion of the joint press conference to praise the efforts of the MEDC and to praise each other for their efforts to rebuild Michigan’s economy.

The only bit of disagreement between them came as Snyder said he would push for more

“economic gardening” to boost corporate development in the state, while Granholm said the state needed to do both economic gardening and hunting to ensure it does not miss companies interested in the state.

Doug Rothwell, the first CEO of the MEDC, now head of Business Leaders for Michigan and head of the Snyder transition team, was named by Snyder to be the new chair of the MEDC’s executive committee.

In addition, Granholm and Snyder both named 10 appointees to the MEDC board. Granholm said the entire board agreed at its last meeting to submit their resignations so the two could name a new board jointly.

Granholm said she could have named an entire new board, but that the joint appointments allowed the state to start at a new page economically.

And Snyder said the joint appointments were “an illustration of people working together and how we can win together.”

The two collaborated on the list of appointees, Granholm said, and added that she “really appreciated the signal the governor-elect is sending.”

Throughout his campaign, and in the six weeks after the election Snyder has talked about changing the state’s attitude toward boosting development and called for differing sides to come together to boost the state.

And he praised Granholm’s efforts to help the state build it’s economy. “The governor has been very productive working to reduce unemployment,” he said. “Now we have to step that up.”

Snyder, who was the first chair of the MEDC board in the 1990s, said Finney and Rothwell would represent great leadership of the organization in its effort to push the state’s effort to rebound.

Snyder co-founded Ann Arbor SPARK and before the November 2 election Finney was viewed as the most likely successor to Main. He came to that post after being the president and CEO of the Greater Rochester Enterprise in New York and had been vice president of emerging business at the MEDC.

Named by Granholm to the MEDC board were Mary Lou Benecke of Dow Corning Corporation, D. Jeffrey Noel of Whirlpool Corporation, Kalamazoo Valley Community College President Marilyn Schlack, Chris MacInnes of Crystal Mountain Resort and Spa, Jeff Metts of Dowding Industries, Thomas Lewand of Bodman LLP, Stryker Corporation chair emeritus John Brown, Haifa Fakhouri of the Arab American and Chaldean Council and Flint Mayor Dayne Walling.

Named by Snyder to the board were Christopher Rizik of the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, Liabeth Ardisana of ASG Renaissance, Greg Northrup of West Michigan Strategic Alliance, John Rakolta of Walbridge, Detroit corporate and civic affairs executive Kirk Lewis, Stephen D’Arcy of the Detroit Medical Center and Partner Quantum Group, Stephen Forrest of the University of Michigan, Robert Collier of the Council of Michigan Foundations and David Armstrong of Greenstone Farm Credit Services.

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