Photo credit: Kurt Nagl, Crain’s Detroit Business
Crain’s Detroit Business
May 27, 2025
David Eggert
Business, government, and nonprofit leaders are set to gather for a Mackinac Policy Conference that organizers hope will help Michigan navigate a “unique” moment — the impact of President Donald Trump’s trade policy on its signature auto industry and its relationship with Canada.
Behind that overarching uncertainty, a still-growing number of candidates to be Michigan’s next governor and U.S. senator and Detroit’s next mayor will be aiming to use the conference to make their cases and make connections.
The lineup includes Ford Motor Co. Executive Chair Bill Ford Jr. and Pat D’Eramo, Chief Executive Officer of Martinrea International Inc., a tier 1 supplier based near Toronto. It also features U.S. ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra, a former Michigan congressman; Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the U.S.; political scientist and author Ian Bremmer; and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President and Chief Executive Officer Austan Goolsbee.
“I don’t think there’s an organization in Michigan, whether it’s business or government, education, media, philanthropy, that is not dealing with some level of disruption due to the regulatory uncertainty, including tariffs, the geopolitical tensions and disarray, challenges to political and cultural norms, changing dynamics in education and the workforce and a host of macro and micro issues that organizations are dealing with,” Kelly Services Inc. President and Chief Executive Peter Quigley, the conference chair, said while previewing the conference for reporters.
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