On Oct. 15, Detroit Regional Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Sandy K. Baruah filled in for Paul W. Smith as a guest host of WJR 760 AM’s Focus With Paul W. Smith, interviewing several prominent business, community, and government leaders in the Detroit Region.
Hear what the interviewees had to say below.
Tina Freese Decker is President and Chief Executive Officer of Corewell Health, a leading integrated health system that strives to provide simple, affordable, equitable, and exceptional care and health insurance coverage to millions of Michigan residents. She leads more than 60,000 colleagues who are passionate about the relentless pursuit of better health for their communities.
Michigan’s healthcare system remains a vital resource for residents, with Medicaid and Medicare providing essential coverage and access to preventive care. However, ongoing uncertainty around federal cuts and policy changes is creating stress for providers and patients alike. Health leaders are adapting by expanding telehealth and primary care options. Still, the loss of premium tax credits and reduced reimbursements threatens affordability. It could drive more people to rely on costly emergency services, which is an unsustainable solution in the long term.
“Our ER physicians and team members are amazing, but we should use them for emergency-type services,” she said. “There are a number of ways that we can provide access to [primary] care, especially around the prevention and overall health of an individual. And I encourage you to connect with a primary care physician or their team to understand your health needs.”
Listen to the full conversation with Decker below.
Trevor Lauer is Vice Chairman and Group President for DTE Energy, responsible for leading DTE’s growth, business development, regulatory and corporate, and government affairs organizations.
During his time with Baruah, Lauer discussed the increasing energy demands of today and tomorrow, particularly from data centers. He said DTE is preparing for such demands by maintaining positive relationships with the Michigan Public Service Commission, as well as reviewing energy rate cases, which help consumers increase efficiency.
“Our forecast [will continue] to grow about 2% but then we have programs where we help customers reduce energy … and essentially we wipe out that 2% of growth every year,” he said. “If and when [mega data centers] come to Southeast Michigan … we’ll start to see load growth that we haven’t seen since we introduced air conditioning in the United States back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.”
Listen to the full conversation with Lauer below.
Rachel Stewart is the Chief Executive Officer of Gardner White, the fourth-generation leader of the 112-year-old, family-owned and -operated furniture company. As one of the only female leaders in the furniture industry, Stewart’s dynamic approach to business and community has established her as a respected and admired leader, innovator, and trailblazer.
Stewart says in retail, “you’re going to innovate or you’re dead,” and she is focused on creating experiences that are “worth getting off the couch for so you can go get a new couch.” This includes collaborating with leaders in the furniture and retail sectors and thinking creatively about how to attract her future employees to Michigan, many of whom have lived out of state.
“[Detroit] is now a positive connotation. It’s a great place to live and work, and people are seeing it,” she said. “We have a lot of opportunity to talk about the [Michigan] lifestyle, and I think that’s what gets people here … there’s a lot going on here, and I think we need to hone in on our sales pitch.”
Listen to the full conversation with Stewart below.
John Walsh is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Michigan Manufacturers Association (MMA), one of the state’s leading advocates dedicated to securing a prosperous future for Michigan manufacturers through effective advocacy, meaningful education, and strategic business services.
Michigan’s manufacturing base remains “strong,” being the top American state in vehicle production and exports, as well as engineer concentration and business-funded R&D. However, many across the industry are still struggling with the uncertainty around tariffs and how they are consistently changing. Walch is seeing MMA members and the industry pivoting by “buying up,” moving into more domestic production, and building relationships with new foreign partners, although these quick fixes are not sustainable in the long term.
“If I have to sum it up: it is a lot of scrambling and our manufacturers are pretty good at it, but it’ll catch up to us,” he said. “We want open trade; we want opportunities around the world; we want manufacturing to come home. So, the quicker the Trump administration can negotiate a set tariff, it’ll be better for us, for the whole world.”
Listen to the full conversation with Walsh below.
Stephanie Brinley is the Associate Director of Autointelligence at S&P Global, responsible for developing content, including news, events, interviews, and product introduction summaries, as well as special research reports that appear across S&P Global Mobility services.
The consumer adaptation to EVs continues to be an “on-again, off-again” journey. There has been a 9% growth in EV registrations from January to August 2025 – not at the pace that experts estimated in 2021 and 2022. Remaining more optimistic than some of her industry peers, Brinley said that it takes time for consumers to learn about EVs and assured that it is okay to not have everyone on the bandwagon.
“Really, we don’t have the capacity to be at a 70% EV market tomorrow. I think, to some degree, it’s okay that it will take some time to get consumers on board with this,” she said. “Some people adapting slowly [to EVs] doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen or that it’s not progressing well.”
Listen to the full conversation with Brinley below.
Wafa Dinaro is the Executive Director of the New Economy Initiative (NEI), a project of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. In this role, she leads the program and grantmaking activities for entrepreneurship-based donors of the Community Foundation. She also cultivates public support for inclusive entrepreneurship and small business development-related initiatives.
When asked about the state of small businesses in Michigan, Dinaro said that Michigan has thriving and robust businesses that create communities and characters within those communities. However, they have been missing two key elements to ensure success.
“… what small businesses, in fact all businesses, love is stability and predictability, and there’s a big loss of [that] here in the last six or seven months with tariffs and policies coming down from the federal government,” she said. “We’re hoping we can get back to having some stability so small businesses can predict their costs, can predict what their needs are going to be so that … businesses can continue to grow, scale, and start up.”
Listen to the full conversation with Dinaro below.
As a dedicated public servant, community advocate, and trailblazer, Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield has earned widespread admiration for her unwavering commitment to uplifting her constituents and fostering positive change. Her journey in public service began with a steadfast dedication to grassroots activism, where she championed causes close to her heart, from social justice to economic empowerment.
With less than a month until Election Day in Detroit, Sheffield discussed some of her mayoral plans to bolster Detroit’s successes. This includes strategically revitalizing Detroit’s still-lagging neighborhoods by partnering with foundations and the business community, expanding the Strategic Neighborhood Fund, and focusing on commercial corridors to spur economic development. She also discussed maintaining the essential “nonconfrontational” relationship between the Detroit City Council and the Mayor, as well as the “huge advantage” she has by having established relationships with existing Council members.
“The success we see in Detroit is because of that collaborative partnership,” she said. “And as Mayor, I know how important it is to build upon that relationship and how my success is also going to be contingent on my ability to work with the City Council. We will ensure that we have respect, that I’m listening, [and] ensuring that Council is centered in that decision-making process.”
Listen to the full conversation with Sheffield below.
Dorian Grey is the Detroit Regional Chamber’s new Senior Director of Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, overseeing the Chamber’s renowned Leadership Detroit program, the Detroit Policy Conference, and other Chamber initiatives related to supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs in the Detroit Region.
Since 1979, Leadership Detroit has challenged emerging and existing leaders to bring about positive change in the Detroit Region. Each cohort participates in nine months of informed leadership programming. Grey has hit the ground running as the program’s new leader, receiving plenty of insight from many of its 2,500 alumni as well as Chamber Board members and staff to see how this prestigious program can “remain unique and curated for the current times.”
Applications for the 2026-2027 Leadership Detroit program will open in February 2026.
“Every session [is being] tweaked and changed, even up until that session comes because we are in a time where our business, economic, and even academic communities are changing every day,” he said. “We’re making sure that this is the premier leadership program to make sure our leaders are aware of our community and the trends here in our market.”
Listen to the full conversation with Grey below.