2025 GUEST SPEAKERS
David Di Rita, a founder and principal of the Roxbury Group, has over 30 years of legal and corporate transactional experience. He specializes in complex real estate development projects that utilize both public and private financing.Prior to co-founding Roxbury Group, Di Rita was a corporate attorney and real estate executive, holding senior roles at major companies including Johnson Controls, Visteon Corporation, and Tower Automotive, as well as positions at law firms Dickinson Wright and Foley & Lardner. A graduate of the University of Michigan with business and law degrees, he currently serves as President of the Detroit Entertainment District Association and is on the Board of Directors for the downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone.
DAVID DI RITA
The Roxbury Group
Jason Lee is the President and CEO of Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan (JASEM). He is responsible for leading and managing the strategy, fund development and operations for the regional non-profit organization. Jason Lee works feverishly to transform the lives of the most disadvantaged and disconnected members of the region through entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and workforce readiness exposure and training.
JASON LEE
Junior Achievement of Southeastern Michigan
Mike Duggan is a lifetime Michigan resident who was born in Detroit.
After graduating from Law School at the University of Michigan, he became an attorney for Wayne County and then served for 14 years as Deputy Wayne County Executive. During that time Mike chaired the stadium authority and was responsible for building Comerica Park and Ford Field, the downtown stadiums for the Tigers and Lions. He also oversaw the construction of the McNamara terminal and the modern Metro Airport that serves Southeast Michigan today.
After 3 years as Wayne County Prosecutor, Mike was hired as the CEO of the Detroit Medical Center in 2004 as that hospital system was facing bankruptcy. Mike turned the huge 8 hospital system around by improving care and offering the nationally-celebrated 29 minute ER guarantee. If a patient wasn’t seen by a doctor within 29 minutes of entering the emergency room, they received 2 tickets to a Tiger game. The DMC system grew from 11,000 employees to 14,000 under Mike’s leadership, serving more than 1 million patients a year.
In 2013 as Detroit was heading toward bankruptcy, Mike left DMC to run for Mayor of Detroit. He employed a very unusual campaign strategy – each night he attended meetings in the homes of any Detroit neighborhood that invited him. 250 house parties later, he shocked many political experts on election night by carrying 92% of all Detroit precincts.
Today, Mike Duggan is the second-longest serving Mayor in Detroit’s 200 year elections history. He has the record for the largest back-to-back landslides ever in the city, winning re-election in 2017 with 72% and again in 2021 with 75% of the vote.
National columnist George Will has named Mayor Duggan, “the most accomplishing politician in America.”
Last year the National Management Association inducted Mike into the National Management Hall of Fame in St. Louis.
And Fortune Magazine ranked Mayor Duggan as #20 on their list of “50 greatest world leaders.”
Mayor mike duggan
City of Detroit
Todd Sachse is the CEO of Sachse Construction. Todd formed Sachse Construction in 1991 on the foundation of a systematic approach to project management, and the principles of doing the right thing and pursuing excellence by constantly raising the bar. Over the past 29 years, he has developed a loyal clientele of high-end customers who require detailed expertise in design and construction. As a result, Todd has driven Sachse Construction to successfully complete millions of square feet of commercial, institutional, multifamily, and industrial projects throughout all 50 States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
TODD SACHSE
Sachse Construction
PAST SPEAKERS
