Birmingham’s Simon Group Holdings announced that Brig. Gen. Doug “Odie” Slocum joined the team on June 10 as an executive advisor to the CEO and president.
Slocum will provide all the enterprise with business development, leadership, and safety expertise by building relationships, developing talent and leadership, and exploring initiatives to further excellence at all levels. He will also be working with The Sam and Nada Simon Foundation to help promote their initiatives, which include giving back to the military and first responders. Initially, Slocum will focus on business development, leadership training, and organizational safety.
“Odie has a proven track record of leading people and organizations to new levels of excellence by focusing on positivity, spurring innovation, and building partnerships,” says Sam Simon, company founder, CEO, and chairman. “I believe Odie is a perfect fit for our team. His focus on people and positivity perfectly align with our organizational core values.”
As a retired brigadier general, Slocum comes to Simon Group with more than 35 years with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Air National Guard. He is a career fighter pilot with more than 4,100 hours flying F-4, F-16, and A-10 aircraft. In Slocum’s last assignment, he was the commanding general of the 127th Wing and Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Under his leadership, the men and women of the base earned accolades that included being only the third Air National Guard Wing in history to receive the Meritorious Unit Award for “outstanding devotion and exceptional performance.”
He also served as the Air National Guard’s director of safety, where he created several proposals including a program that addressed human error in aircraft maintenance. Through this initiative, the U.S. Air Force saw a 76 percent decrease in preventable mishaps that saved more than $78 million. Slocum was inducted into the Air Force Safety hall of fame in 2013 for this initiative.
Slocum is known in southeast Michigan for expanding partnerships and initiating projects bringing together coalitions from across the community, state, and nation. He is the recipient of DTE’s 2019 Environmental Steward of the Year Award, Macomb County’s 2018 Economic Partner of the Year, and was inducted into the Macomb Hall of Fame in 2017. He is also an educator and public speaker.
