Our roundup of the latest news from metro Detroit and Michigan businesses as well as announcements from government agencies, including updates about the COVID-19 pandemic. To share a business or nonprofit story, please send us a message.
Buddy’s Pizza Announces Expansion, Hosts Hiring Fair July 28
Buddy’s Pizza announced it will open two new locations, in Clarkston and Okemos, by the beginning of 2022 and is hosting a hiring fair July 28 for its upcoming and existing restaurants.
The Clarkston location (5510 Sashabaw Rd.) will open in late fall and be carryout only. The Okemos store (2010 W. Grand River Ave.) will be a full-service restaurant and open in early 2022. Its 275 seats will sit in 7,000 square feet of space and include a patio and full bar.
In preparation for the new location openings, and to fill additional openings at existing restaurants, Buddy’s will host a company-wide hiring fair July 28 at all locations. Buddy’s is looking to hire close to 500 individuals for all restaurant positions. Those interested in joining the Buddy’s team can visit a location near them between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. for open interviews. Those unable to make it to the hiring fair can submit an application online.
The company currently is offering a $300 signing bonus, health insurance, and competitive wages. Buddy’s also has launched new hiring initiative called Refer a Buddy. Customers can go online and refer a friend or family member for an open position. If the individual who was referred is hired and remains on the team for 90 days, the customer will receive a $200 Buddy’s Pizza Gift Card. To refer a Buddy, customers can visit here.
Those who are interested in working at the Clarkston location can visit the Auburn Hills restaurant at 2612 Squirrel Rd., and individuals looking to work at the new Okemos restaurant can visit the Lansing location at 5924 W. Saginaw Hwy., during the hiring fair.
For more information, visit here.
Citizens Bank Launches Green Deposits for Corporate Clients
Citizens Bank in Southfield has launched its Green Deposits program to allow corporate clients to direct their cash reserves toward companies and projects that are expected to create a positive environmental impact.
The Green Deposits solution gives clients the opportunity to direct deposits to investments in sectors such as energy efficiency; renewable energy; green transport; sustainable food, agriculture, and forestry; waste management; and greenhouse gas reduction.
“Recognizing the increasing desire among clients for socially responsible investing options, our new Green Deposits solution gives clients a sustainable investment vehicle that aligns with Citizens’ own commitment to help create a healthy and sustainable future for all of our stakeholders,” says Michael Cummins, executive vice president and head of treasury solutions at Citizens. “As a financial institution, Citizens recognizes the critical role that the bank can play to help finance a socially responsible future and continues to explore opportunities to support sustainable development.”
Citizens developed its Green Deposits Framework to identify eligible activities within the bank’s portfolio and ensure alignment with best practices and standards. The framework was created in line with eligibility criteria developed with the support of Sustainalytics, a Morningstar company, and leading provider of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research and data.
Citizens is committed to reducing its own operational impact on the environment, understanding and managing the risks and opportunities presented by climate change and resulting regulatory and market changes, and helping our customers plan for and manage climate change impact. To support the renewable energy industry, Citizens provides equity investments through Citizens Asset Finance and has participated in the funding of eight U.S. wind farm projects since mid-2015, with investments totaling approximately $403 million at the end of 2020.
For more information, visit here.
Beaumont Health Announces Changes to Leadership Team
Three leaders at Beaumont Health in Southfield have announced they will leave the health system and the organization is beginning a process to identify and select replacements to guide Beaumont in the years ahead.
Those leaving include COO Carolyn Wilson, R.N., who will leave Sept. 1; Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Wood, who will leave Sept. 30; and Chief Quality Officer Dr. Sam Flanders, who departs Aug. 6.
“We are deeply grateful to Carolyn, Dave, and Sam for their many contributions to Beaumont Health,” says John Fox, president and CEO of Beaumont Health. “As we continue to recover from the pandemic and begin our journey with Spectrum Health, I am confident about the future of Beaumont Health and our mission to provide compassionate, extraordinary care every day.”
Wilson’s duties will be split between Nancy Susick, president of Beaumont, Royal Oak; and David Claeys, president of Beaumont, Dearborn and Beaumont, Farmington Hills. They will serve as interim co-chief operating officers. Both Susick and Claeys have decades of service to Beaumont and deep operational knowledge that will enable them to effectively guide the organization.
Dr. Jeff Ditkoff has been appointed as Beaumont’s new chief quality officer. Ditkoff currently is the chief patient safety officer at Beaumont, Royal Oak.
The search for replacements also will also include identifying the next president of Beaumont Health, as Fox plans to leave the organization following a successful integration with Spectrum Health later this year.
EZaccessMD Introduces At-home Mobile Health Services in Michigan
EZaccessMD, a national mobile telehealth provider bringing at-home diagnostics and imaging to employees’ homes or work within two hours, has partnered with HomeTeam Mobile Diagnostics. The partnership is designed to reduce barriers to receiving quality health care across southeast Michigan.
EZaccessMD is the first and only provider in the nation to offer both tele-consults with a U.S. Board Certified Physician — and an in-person diagnosis — with mobile technicians and equipment promptly sent directly to a patient’s home. EZaccessMD patients, and their family members, have access to more than 80 percent of urgent care services, including rapid COVID and other lab testing, X-ray services, and ultrasounds — all in their home or workplace.
“Accessibility to quality health services continues to be a critical barrier for communities nationwide, amplified only further by COVID-19,” says Lois Irwin, president of EZaccessMD. “We work with employers to ensure their workforce has an unparalleled level of health care convenience at their fingertips, while saving companies the cost of expensive medical claims — a win-win that’s key to hiring and workforce retention.”
The pandemic has led to an increase in popularity of telemedicine services over the last year.
“We are beyond proud and excited to bring an unprecedented level of affordability and access to healthcare for employers and their workforce across southeast Michigan,” says Michael A. Kaszubski, CEO and managing partner of HomeTeam Mobile Diagnostics. “The pandemic has accelerated the use of and knowledge about telemedicine services, and with workforce challenges greater than ever before, now is an ideal time for employers to consider elevating their employee health care options.”
EZaccessMD’s mobile health care services already are available to employers in the greater Grand Rapids, Flint, Saginaw, Ann Arbor, Lansing, and Port Huron areas.
Detroit and Lansing Black Business Owners Receive $25K Grants
The Coalition to Back Black Businesses, launched in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, American Express, and the nation’s four leading Black chambers, announced it has awarded $25,000 grants to 25 Black-owned small businesses, three of which are in Michigan.
The grant recipients in Michigan are:
Tiffany Nordé — Owner of Lansing-based Dancing with the Nordés, which offers urban-style line-dancing, Detroit-style ballroom, and Zumba classes that allow people to express their culture while drawing attention to their health.
Dennis Talbert — Chief visionary officer of Detroit-based Be-Moor Radio, a new communications company designed to reach and impact the millennial generation.
Sean Harness — Founder of Detroit-based Harness Innovation, a micro-business that uses Fortune 500 best practices to provide impactful wealth-based strategies to help the everyday professional thrive mentally, physically, and financially.
Bundled Announces Automated Corporate Gifting Service
Commerce Township-based Bundled, an online gifting company, now offers technology that helps corporations automatically send gifts or “bundles” of Michigan-made products to its employees and clients.
Bundled’s fulfillment software is fully customizable to integrate and communicate with a corporation’s customer relationship management system or human resources software. For any pre-determined occasion, Bundled is automatically alerted and a personalized gift is then shipped to the recipient’s address.
“Birthdays, work anniversaries, and professional milestones will never go unrecognized,” says Chelsea Gheesling, co-founder of Bundled. “Our automated technology does all the leg work for corporations. Thoughtful gifting is so much easier when you don’t have to worry about the details. Bundled handles them all so employees feel appreciated.”
During each point in the production process, Bundled sends gifting updates via email to the salesperson or HR representative, and when the bundle arrives at its destination, an email is sent to confirm that the gift was received.
Bundled currently gifts for more than 30 corporations, including the Detroit Pistons, DTE Energy, Stryker, PNG, General Motors Co., and Quicken Loans.
To date, Bundled has shipped some 7,000 gifts via its automated gifting service for Rocket Pro TPO alone.
“Assuming it would take about five minutes to place a single online order, we estimate that we’ve saved Rocket Pro TPO more than 35,000 workday minutes since 2019,” says Courtney Taylor, co-founder of Bundled. “Not to mention, corporations that have used our automated gifting system have seen customer satisfaction scores skyrocket.”
For more information, visit here.
Landgrid by Loveland Technologies Rebrands to Regrid
Detroit-based Landgrid by Loveland Technologies, a provider of nationwide land parcel data in the United States, has rebranded to Regrid.
Regrid provides property boundaries, addresses, ownership, assessment information, land use, and additional location context for more than 150 million land parcels covering 99 percent of U.S. residents, one of the largest land and spatial information databases in existence.
Visitors to Regrid.com can see this information in a free map viewer and mobile app, and business customers can license the dataset for use in their own apps and databases.
Regrid grew up in the civic technology and open data communities of Detroit, where it conducted citywide property surveys like the White House-supported Motor City Mapping project, tax foreclosure research and prevention, and other public-spirited work.
It has since gone national now serves hundreds of thousands of site visitors, app users, map makers, and data licensors in industries spanning real estate, insurance, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, logistics, government, and the general public.
“Land is fundamental, and many industries and communities need to know how land is subdivided, owned, used, inhabited, and networked into economies and ecologies,” says Jerry Paffendorf, CEO of Regrid. “We’re excited to provide that in a fresh, accessible way as Regrid.
“Our mission is to be the household name and service you think of first when you need to know about land and location information, whether that’s an individual property, or the fabric of the entire U.S. It’s important work, and it’s also endlessly interesting.”
Village of Rochester Hills Art Fair Returns
The 17th Fine Art Fair at The Village of Rochester Hills will return July 31-Aug. 1 with more than 50 hand-selected U.S. artists and other metro Detroit community organizations participating.
Sponsored by the nonprofit Creative Arts Council, this juried art show is curated by the people who established the Village Fine Art Gallery located in the Village of Rochester Hills. From ceramics to painting and everything in between, artwork in nearly every media will be featured and available for purchase.
“The beautiful and relaxed atmosphere of the Village of Rochester Hills continues to be the perfect setting to view some remarkable artwork and meet the artists who created them too,” says Donna Beaubien, executive director of the fair and owner of the Village Fine Art Gallery. “Along with enjoying the exciting fine art and fine crafts, patrons of all ages and identities can stroll the tree-lined streets and visit the over-50 intriguing shop and restaurants at the village.”
The Fine Art Fair will conduct its first Coupon Hunt, which will encourage guests to search for $25 and $100 artists vouchers hidden in plastic eggs around the village’s streets. These coupon vouchers are only redeemable at artists’ booths during the Fine Art Fair. Further, Barnes & Noble at The Village will again feature free children’s art activities and storytelling in The Village’s Fountain Park throughout the two-day event.
The Fine Art Fair at The Village will be open July 31, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 1, noon-6 p.m. Fair admission and parking are free.
For more information, visit here.
UnitedHealthcare Donates $750K to Michigan Nonprofits
UnitedHealthcare, headquartered in Minnesota, is awarding $750,000 in Empowering Health grants to four community-based organizations in Michigan to expand access to care and address the social determinants of health for uninsured individuals and underserved communities.
In total, UnitedHealthcare is donating $11.4 million through Empowering Health grants across 18 states and the District of Columbia. The grants will assist individuals and families experiencing challenges from food insecurity, social isolation and behavioral health issues, and support local health promotion and health literacy efforts.
Grant recipients in Michigan include:
Gleaners Community Food Bank – $270,000 to expand the unique School Food Mobile Pantry Program and to create a Playbook for developing long-term, successful relationships with school districts to reach out to food-insecure families and provide healthy food and nutritional education with the goal of increasing educational success.
Forgotten Harvest – $223,000 to expand the Forgotten Harvest mobile pantry program in metro Detroit.
Kids’ Health Connections – $140,000 to expand FitKids360, a healthy weight education program, and pilot FitFamilies, a healthy lifestyle program for the whole family, to additional communities in the Detroit area.
Access Community Health and Research Center – $117,000 to expand services within the integrated treatment unit to serve individuals with coexisting diseases and substance abuse disorders.
“Social and economic factors have a profound impact on achieving and maintaining good health,” says Dennis Mouras, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Michigan. “Through Empowering Health grants, we’re working with local organizations to provide Michiganians with greater access to essential resources in high-risk and high-need communities so they can live healthier lives.”
