2024 Leadership & Awards
Congratulations to all of the people and businesses that will be honored at this year's Leadership & Awards Celebration on February 27, 2024!
Learn more about the honorees below.
The commercial management and leasing company invested in a solar panel project last year that will generate 30 percent of the energy needed to power the four-story Cambridge Center on the corner of Six Mile and Quakertown.
The environmental focus is a long-term attraction for future tenants, particularly larger companies, said Brady Blain, the vice president for The Blain Group.
“We had a large part of a parking lot that went unused for years so this gave us a chance to redevelop this space,” said Blain, who added that federal solar tax incentives also made the investment worthwhile.
The five rows of double-sided solar panels, which are expected to last about 30 years, are expected to save the company about $20,000 a year in energy costs to support the 125,000-square-foot building.
The Blain Group was established by Brady Blain’s father, James, in the early-1980s when he purchased land, designed, and constructed three office buildings along Six Mile east of Haggerty which includes Cambridge Center, one-story AmeriCenter of Livonia, and two-story Cambridge West. The three buildings are home to 100 full-time and 130 virtual tenants.
These three buildings are part of the company’s 10-property portfolio in Michigan and elsewhere.
This award is presented annually by the Livonia Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability.
Madonna University has emerged as a local leader in the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in recent years with its support of local DEI events and creation of new initiatives on campus.
Groups of school staff regularly attend the Chamber’s inclusion roundtables and diversity and inclusion programs. Last June, Madonna hosted a workshop with the State of Michigan entitled “Focus on Engagement: A Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Engagement workshop about racism.”
In November, the school’s Chief Diversity Officer Jesse Cox was recognized by Crain’s Detroit Business as a notable business leader in DEI. Last month, the school partnered with the City of Livonia’s Human Relations Commission (HRC) to host a Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest for students.
“All of the staff I get to work with truly embody the DEIB vision,” said Rich Glover, the chair of the HRC which presents the DEIB Changemaker Award. “Madonna’s programming is inclusive, impactful and educational.”
Madonna University is a private Catholic university based in Livonia since its founding as a ministry of the Felician Sisters in 1937.
Jane Muszynski, a Certified Personal Trainer will be honored as the Livonia-Westland Chamber’s Ambassador of the Year as the organization’s leading volunteer. As an active Ambassador for the past seven years, she supports the Chamber at grand openings, chamber events, and other duties promoting the chamber and business in the community.
This is the second time she’s won the award, also earning the honor in 2019.
Muszynski earned a Michigan State University degree in retail management and worked in the industry for two decades until she pursued a career change eight years ago when she studied personal training and fitness nutrition and started her own company, Spitfire Training.
She is also the program coordinator for MI Work Matters, a non-profit organization that supports Anastasia and Katie’s Coffee Shop & Café in Livonia. She is an active volunteer for many causes, including Mt. Hope Congregational Church, where she leads a women’s service group and sings in the choir, The Fox Theater as an usher, and she serves on boards for People Driven Credit Union and Livonia Kids & Families.
“A beautiful by-product of being an Ambassador has been the relationships I have built,” Muszynski said. “It’s like having a second family with people who support you personally and professionally, share your passion as a business owner, and encourage you when you need it most.”
Muszynski and husband, Dan, have been married for 25 years and live in Livonia. They have two children, Madison, 23, a graduate of Wayne State University, and Mac, 19, a freshman at Schoolcraft College.
Bob Genord started Foundation Systems of Michigan, a company that fixes cracks in a crawl space or basement – out of his basement in 2007.
By taking time to explain the job of fixing a hidden problem to customers, and doing it well, he quickly grew the business and moved into a larger building three times within five years, reaching its current Livonia site on Schoolcraft near Farmington.
“When a customer sees a crack in their basement wall, it can be scary,” said Marie Lambertson, Genord’s sister and FSM marketing director. “He always took the time to assure a customer that foundation repairs are common and fixable. The time spent to educate customers and ease their worries, helped with referrals, and grow the business.”
The growth continued with FSM as it reached customers across the state. In 2014, it added a Traverse City office, and in 2017, it expanded into another Livonia building to provide 75,000-square feet to serve as its headquarters.
Genord retired and sold FSM in July 2020 to Groundworks, a Virgina-based company that is the nation’s largest privately owned foundation services operation with locations in at least 24 states. Groundworks is the parent company, but Foundation Systems of Michigan maintained its local identity and it continued to grow.
FSM added a Grand Rapids office in 2021 and Rochester Hills in 2023. The company employs more than 120 people at its Livonia headquarters, and a total of 300 people across its four Michigan locations. Together, they repair at least 5,000 homes a year.
New general manager Jason Matthews said he remains committed to the philosophies that Genord used to build the company.
“We just don’t hire anybody,” Matthews said. “We need people who have quality in the work, can articulate well, and value the customer. It still comes down to customer service.”
For these practices, FSM received the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Ethics in 2023.
In the last year alone, the company gave back with contributions to the Livonia Goodfellows, the Western Wayne location for the Foster Closet of Michigan, donated new shoes to 200 children via the Starfish Family Services program, and provided resources and volunteers to a Habitat for Humanity house build in Howell.
Leda and Ledion “Eddie” Shahu separately fled the corruption and crime that was rampant in Albania in the 1990s to pursue better economic opportunities here in the United States.
They met as co-workers at an Eight Mile Road restaurant, married in 1999 and found a home in Livonia.
Two years later, the couple purchased a diner in a strip center of Five Mile and Middlebelt and opened Leda’s Coney Island with a focus on fresh ingredients as the menu evolved.
“We had worked in restaurants so we thought we would take the opportunity to try it ourselves,” Eddie Shahu said. “I took some business management classes in college in Albania.”
The couple did the cooking, cleaning, building renovations, and often both worked 16-hour days because they only had a budget for one more employee in the beginning. During their 23 years in business, as they assimilated to American life, they started a family that included two busy children involved in travel sports, they endured two bleak economic periods with the Great Recession (2007-10) and Covid-19 (2020-21), and they took in Eddie’s aging parents seven years ago.
The 55-seat restaurant is busy these days with customers who enjoy its homemade breakfast dishes, chicken lemon rice soup, Greek dressing, and hot sauce.
The Shahu’s found time and resources to support the Livonia Junior Athletic League, Stevenson High School, youth hockey, and the Livonia Kids and Families Tour de Livonia event, in addition to frequently providing gift certificates and food donations to various community causes.
With their children, Shaun, 20, a student and football player at Saginaw Valley State University; and Gracie, 17, a senior basketball player at Stevenson, the couple wanted them to learn about community, teamwork, and respect through sports and follow an example they strived to set. They also have a five-year-old son, Luke.
“As parents and in business,” Leda Shahu said, “we say to try, try and don’t give up and always look at the big picture to realize that things are good, and you just keep doing what you are doing.”
The couple said they are grateful for the carry-out business maintained by friends and customers during the prolonged Covid restrictions that enabled their business to survive.
“Our kids were born in Livonia, which has given so much to them and to us, so we want to give back to the community we love,” said Eddie Shahu, who was a professional basketball player and member of the U-21 Albanian national team before he immigrated here.
The building that serves as Schoolcraft College’s social and culinary arts hub underwent an $11 million renovation and expansion between summer of 2022 and summer of 2023.
It was the latest in a series of new building projects on the college campus over the past five years to increase learning and job opportunities for students. Dr. Glenn Cerny, Schoolcraft’s president, added the Vistatech project was designed to meet the growing talent needs of the local entertainment and hospitality industries.
The new amenities include a collaboration studio and demonstration kitchen, additional gathering areas, an expanded Main Street Café, and the new Craft Grille which features craft beers brewed by
Schoolcraft students. In all, more than 10,000 square feet in new space was added to grow the Vistatech Center into a 120,000-square feet state-of-the-art facility.
“We want this to be a workforce community hub,” said Dr. Glenn Cerny, Schoolcraft College’s president. “We want people to come here to meet, socialize and learn.”
The Vistatech Center was originally constructed in 2002 to upgrade facilities to Schoolcraft’s signature culinary arts program and to provide new banquet and conference facilities.
Aristeo – one of the nation’s leading general contractors and the nation’s largest women-owned general contractor – recently expanded its 14-acre Livonia campus with a new two-story, 48,000-square-foot building on Stark Road to serve as its new headquarters.
The new building provides job site support, business functions, new gathering spaces, and historical artifacts for a business that’s been in operation for nearly 50 years.
“Our new building creates a welcoming work environment that showcases our history, and heritage – and it provides space for our growing team,” said Anne Aristeo Martinelli, the company’s chief strategy officer.
The new building opened in January and stretches the Aristeo campus from Farmington to Stark. It serves as the base for 200 office-based employees and nearly 500 out-of-town team members on jobsites across the Midwest and Southeast.
Founded in 1977 as a small excavating contractor, Aristeo had humble beginnings and grew into a full-service general contractor. Today, is ranked in the top 10 nationwide in the manufacturing and renewable energy industries, and top five in automotive.
Aristeo has been headquartered in Livonia since 1980, and its leadership team includes multiple team members raised in Livonia, including Martinelli and her sister, company president Michelle Barton.
The popular Grand Rapids-based restaurant chain opened a new location on Haggerty Road in Livonia in July 2023.
HopCat was founded so patrons could come to one place and have access to dozens of on-tap craft beers that are brewed in this state and taste the “Michigan beer rainbow.” Additionally, HopCat has
many large televisions which makes it a popular place to watch games, and it has gathering space for private parties.
“A lot of our core fans live in strong suburban communities like Livonia,” said Michele Ary, HopCat’s brand manager. “It was a great opportunity for us to renovate an existing site with a lot of character that was close to our customers who enjoy drinking Michigan beer.”
The company invested to acquire and renovate a former Irish pub that was closed for several years to make way for HopCat’s bright and lively look and drive more action to the busy Haggerty Road dining corridor. As part of its grand opening activities, HopCat donated $12,000 to a Livonia Public Schools elementary school program.
The original HopCat location opened in Grand Rapids in 2008. Including the new Livonia location, HopCat has nine locations in Michigan, with plans to open a 10th location in Clinton Township in the spring. HopCat also has a location in Nebraska.
After 29 years of work in a hospital lab and medical equipment sales, Cheryl Doelker was looking to start her own business when her college-age sons made her aware of a popular sandwich shop on campus.
This led to Wayne County’s first Jimmy John’s Restaurant on Six Mile near Newburgh in Livonia, opened by Doelker and her husband, Jeff, in 2001. While bringing customers in was important, Doelker also found it important to mentor the young people who worked in her shops.
“I felt a responsibility to support the many kids who are working their first job here,” she said. “I wanted a strategy where we trained and mentored our young staff so they would have a good first-job experience. I guess I am a teacher, deep down.”
The focus on customer service, mentoring and community involvement enabled the Doelkers to grow their business to nine locations: Five in Livonia, two in Canton, one in Plymouth and one in Northville. As the business grew, they grew their support and involvement in the community. They often provided sandwiches and gift certificates to school and youth events, and other charities that helped those in need. During Covid closures, they provided food for first responders and children who didn’t have access to school meals.
They made contributions to numerous local charities such as Emily and Griffin Foundation, PB&J Foundation, Livonia Symphony Orchestra, Livonia Kids and Families, and Livonia Save our Youth.
In recent years, Cheryl Doelker often volunteered at various career and mentoring programs, Tour de Livonia bike ride, events that supported Livonia and Clarenceville schools, and as an active leader and
volunteer for the Livonia-Westland Chamber of Commerce. The family business was recognized as the Outstanding Large Business of the Year in 2018.
“The community was so good to us, so we wanted to give back,” she said. “We were always interested in helping young people because they were such a part of our success.”
It became a family venture when the couple’s twin sons, Dan and Rich, began working with them to grow the business after college graduation. “Watching our kids, and all the kids who worked and grew here, was rewarding,” she added.
The couple were high school sweethearts from their days at Westland John Glenn High School and lived in Livonia for 30 years. They also have two grandchildren.
After 22 years in a business that involved hiring and mentoring 1,800 teen workers, the Doelkers sold their nine Jimmy Johns franchises last fall to pursue retirement from work, but not from community involvement.
John Del Signore has been a successful entrepreneur by providing good times and good food at several Livonia locations for 60 years.
He was born and raised in Italy and lived his early years in Venezuela where he joined other relatives in working in construction. He returned to Italy in 1958 to marry his beloved Lina but left a short time later to go to Michigan to work at a cousin’s restaurant, then later another place in Livonia. Lina joined him four years later.
In 1964, the Del Signores sold their home to finance their first business, DiGiovanni’s Pizzeria, near Six Mile and Farmington. After four years, they sold the pizzeria and later purchased a small restaurant called Italian Hut on Plymouth Road.
In 1974, they demolished this site and constructed a new, larger restaurant named for their hometown, Fonte d’Amore. It became one of Livonia’s signature restaurants with its variety of fine Italian dishes and distinct atmosphere for 38 years before they sold the business.
In 1988, the family opened Laurel Manor Banquet and Conference Center on Schoolcraft Road, which became one of metro Detroit’s largest banquet facilities. It is managed today by the couple’s son, Luciano, with semi-retired support from John.
The success of the businesses led to expansive philanthropy through the years. They also developed a popular annual wild game dinner which raised money for the Tino Del Signore Foundation, named
for the couple’s late son. This provided support to local hospitals, veteran causes, drug treatment programs, renovations to the couple’s hometown church in Italy, and many churches, schools, charities, and non-profit organizations in and around Livonia. John Del Signore was an active member of the Livonia Rotary Club for many years.
“Livonia has been our city: We grew up here, we grew our family here,” he said. “It has been great to us.”
John and Lina Del Signore, who have lived in Livonia since 1966, will celebrate their 66th wedding anniversary on March 9. Their four children led to eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
John Hiltz basically grew up learning how to make communities a better place.
He started working on road projects during summers as a high school student at the Livonia company his great uncle started, and his father grew. John took OHM Advisors, a community advancement firm focused on engineering, architecture, and planning, to new heights during his 12-year tenure as CEO.
The Redford Bishop Borgess High School alumnus earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Michigan and started working full-time at OHM in 1983 where he worked his way through the ranks until he became CEO in 2008. Under his leadership, the company grew from three offices in two states and 180 employees to 18 offices in four states and more than 650 employees. He also evolved into a respected voice advocating for the importance to invest in infrastructure improvements in the states OHM serves.
He left the CEO role to be board chair in 2020, and recently stepped down from that role and full-time work and now serves as a semi-retired consultant for the company.
Along the way, he shared his time and resources by helping his community and advancing his industry. He finished an interim term on the Livonia Board of Education, chaired fundraising efforts for the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan, served on the Livonia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Marywood Nursing Care Center Board, Plymouth Road Development Authority, and several trade industry boards.
He continues his role as chair of the Livonia Community Foundation Board and support for the Cornerstone Schools, both organizations he has served for many years.
In professional and volunteer ventures, Hiltz has long advocated for collaboration and mentorship to help people achieve career success and communities thrive.
“It is my belief that if you’ve been blessed in your life and career, you should give back and make it a better place for tomorrow by putting in the effort today,” Hiltz said. “As you get older, you want to support a good community and a good industry.”
John and his wife of 39 years, Debbie, have lived in Livonia for more than 30 years. The couple have three grown children and six grandchildren.
Often at a charity event in Livonia, you will see Holli Kerkhof peddling raffle tickets to support the cause of the day. As she approaches people with a smile, she will remind them they are gathered for a reason.
She is also selling drink tickets at Livonia Spree, handing out supplies to children in need, passing out hygiene and food packages to veterans, volunteering time to help causes like D.O. It For Denny and Seedings Braille Books, serving as Livonia-Westland Chamber of Commerce ambassador, and leading the PTA at Coolidge Elementary School.
This omnipresent volunteer found joy in helping others as a tribute to friends and neighbors who came to her family’s aid after her father lost his job one fall. She was the oldest of six children in her family who received holiday meals and gifts that year thanks to the generosity of others who rallied to support them.
Shortly after her graduation from Wayne Memorial High School, Kerkhof started working at credit unions and volunteering for Relay for Life cancer fundraisers. She has been the Livonia branch manager for Community Choice Credit Union since 2010.
Her job is to find business, and in the process, she finds causes to support. She is a member of the Livonia Lions and Livonia Rotary clubs. She coordinates an annual effort, with credit union help, to donate backpacks with school supplies to 400 students.
“It seems like one thing always leads to another,” she said. “So many groups have needs, and I like to get my hands dirty and help them if I can.”
Community awareness is a philosophy for the Kerkhof family, who have lived in Livonia for six years. Her husband of 18 years, Kory, started a woodworking business in 2020, Kerkhof Creations, where a percentage of sales from the wood furniture he builds goes to a pet charity. Holli and her 10-year-old son Ben make dog toys and blankets to support the same charity.
Kerkhof met D.O. it for Denny founder Sami McKay, the 2023 recipient of the Livonia First Citizen Award, who said the duo has become friends through their volunteer projects since 2018.
“I am so thankful for the light Holli brings to this community,” she said.
She long engaged in random acts of kindness, where she would often buy multiple items sold to benefit a charity and give them to others: Some friends, some strangers.
This practice reached another level of intensity after a family tragedy six years ago when her 22-year-old stepson, also named Kory, took his life. Enduring this heartbreak directed her attention to mental health issues, and she realized that any kind gesture could discourage a distressed person from making such a final decision. This motivated her to pay the bill for someone in a drive-through line and do favors for others.
“We do this knowing that every little gesture can make a difference,” Kerkhof said.
To expand this effort, she coordinates people around World Kindness Day in November to cover tabs at grocery stores, restaurants, and providing treats to first responders.
“If you do enough ordinary things, they can have an extraordinary impact,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of money, so we try to incorporate giving back into everyday life.”
Elementary Educator of the Year
2023-2024
Amy Chapman-Pinta
Amy Chapman-Pinta is a 24-year veteran educator in Livonia Public Schools, where she has served the past nine years as an Elementary Support Teacher at Grant Elementary School.
As an EST, she provides caring and personalized support to students who have a variety of needs, including medical issues that can have an impact on a child’s school day. When she is not managing medical plans for students, she provides academic, social-emotional and behavioral support. For many students at Grant Elementary, she is their “go to” trusted adult at the school. She makes them feel safe, cared for, and is truly committed to their physical wellbeing as well as their emotional and academic growth.
Amy is known as a “floor sweeper,” who stands at-the-ready to jump into any situation and offer her assistance. As an EST, Amy wears many “hats” at Grant Elementary, which is exactly how she prefers to contribute to her school community. In all that she does, Amy is nurturing and has a gift for pouring confidence and positivity into every student with whom she works. Her philosophy in working with children is to “listen, help, care, teach, respect, and love.”
Secondary Educator of the Year
2023-2024
Terri Bennett
Terri Bennett is a 32-year veteran teacher in Livonia Public Schools, having taught Mathematics for 31 at Franklin High School.
She is known for not only her teaching expertise, but also for her ability to weave life lessons and build strong relationships with students in her classroom.
Terri is an advocate for all types of learners, from Advanced Placement Calculus students to Algebra 1 students who need extra support. Although she has been teaching various mathematics courses for more than three decades, she is constantly revamping her instructional practices by utilizing technology to engage her students in their learning. She is known to go out of her way to ensure her students are learning. She builds relationships with students, so they know that they are cared for and that she has great confidence in them as learners and as human beings. Many students have called her their “best teacher, ever!”
Terri’s teaching philosophy centers around the connections she makes with her students. She instills the confidence they need to be successful in mathematics, while always searching for that “lightbulb moment” in her students. She knows that those moments only come after her students feel supported and heard.
Support Staff of the Year
2023-2024
Krystal Reid
Krystal Reid is in her sixth year serving as a paraprofessional in the Western Wayne Skill Center program at Garfield Community School. Working in the Skill Center program allows Krystal to daily utilize her natural empathetic, respectful and caring qualities with her students, all of whom have special needs and are in the age range of 18-26.
She is known as a paraprofessional who can always be counted on to give her best effort in a way that bolsters her students’ confidence, sense of security and their dignity as they work to achieve greater independence each day.
Krystal approaches her work with the simple philosophy, “Every student, every day, no matter what.” She goes above and beyond to support the needs of her students by building skills in them with a gentle hand of support and encouragement. She is known for being dedicated, empathetic, respectful and creative.
Even after six years in her role, Krystal continues to “learn on the job” and seeks new ways to connect, support and inspire the students with whom she works each day. Her colleagues call it a privilege to work with her and many say that they have become better teachers by working alongside Krystal.
Gabrielle Hart, Clarenceville High School
Gabrielle Hart, or known as Gabby, is a dedicated educator with 14 years of teaching experience, including more than three years at Clarenceville High School, where she serves as a Spanish teacher. Known for her unwavering availability to colleagues and students, Gabby's compassionate approach fosters strong relationships in the classroom. She demonstrates genuine care and love for her students, especially those requiring extra support. Remarkably, Gabby is also a proud alumna of CHS, adding a special connection to her role as an educator.
Paige Engberg, Grandview Elementary School
Paige Engberg has been teaching in the Clarenceville School District for 25 years and is currently a second-grade teacher at Grandview Elementary School. If you looked up the word patient in the dictionary, you would find a picture of Paige. This quality is highlighted in Paige’s achievements in being an English Language Learner and teaching children to speak English when it is not their native language. Paige’s dedication knows no bounds as she can be seen working hard into the night on Fridays and, even on the weekends, to prepare for the school weeks ahead.