ACG Detroit | Are EVs Losing Their Charge?

Steven is a senior restructuring and management consulting professional with over 20 years of experience in providing turnaround, reorganization, M&A, and financial advisory services to distressed and underperforming companies. He specializes in insolvency/bankruptcy matters, turnaround and crisis management, profit enhancement, mergers and acquisitions, business valuation, raising of debt/equity capital, and liquidations both in and out of court. Steven has also served as an interim chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief restructuring officer, chief operating officer, treasurer, and court appointed receiver for several middle market clients.

Relevant Examples of Experience

• Serves as a Member of the Board of Directors at Riveron.
• Automotive Industry Practice Group Leader.
• Partner in Charge of the Michigan Market.
• Member of the Board of Directors of two privately held Tier 1 and Tier 2 global automotive suppliers.
• Former President of the Board of the Detroit Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA).
• Frequently interviewed and quoted in business publications including the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the Associate Press, Bloomberg, Crain's Detroit Business, the Detroit Free Press, Automotive News and several others

Education/Certifications

• Master of Business Administration University of Michigan
• Bachelor of Science in Accounting Michigan State University
• Certified Turnaround Professional
• Named People to Watch: Business Professionals Making Their Mark Turnarounds & Workouts

A seasoned and strategic business professional, Pina Bennett has comprehensive experience across a broad range of strategic leadership roles. An inclusive thinker, Pina looks to developing solutions that are collaborative to drive long term business growth and create sustainable outcomes. With 25 years of experience in the consumer goods and energy industries, Pina has core competencies in building strategic partnerships, a focus on customer satisfaction, contract negotiation, business planning, lean & Six Sigma leadership, process optimization, productivity improvement, product & brand management, project management and building motivated cross-functional teams that exceed expectations.

As director of DTE’s Electric Marketing organization, Pina is responsible for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles across all segments of transportation within DTE’s service territory, for bringing to market customer-centric products and services which support customer affordability and for communicating with external customers regarding the various rate tariffs that the company offers. Pina joined DTE Energy, 15 years ago, as the program owner for the Outdoor Protective Lighting business, a part of DTE’s Electric Sales & Marketing organization and has held various roles of increasing responsibility throughout the enterprise, including being responsible for $56M of revenue that helped offset customer rates as manager of DTE’s Joint Use business that facilitates third-party attachments to DTE assets. She has been one of the architects behind DTE’s annual strategic planning process and has been a Chief of Staff (business advisory role) to DTE executives for most of her career at DTE, providing strategic oversight and organizational accountability for business success.

Prior to joining DTE Energy, Bennett was a professor at an MBA institute in India, where she taught most of the marketing and advertising courses. Her international experience also includes working as a product manager for an engineering firm in Singapore.

Bennett holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science degree. She is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. She has significant experience in strategic and operational planning, change management, event planning, project management and designing and implementing highly successful marketing strategies and promotional campaigns. Bennett is consistently recognized for exceptional organization and planning abilities balanced with interpersonal and talent-development skills. Pina has served on the boards of the Energetic Women Conference (affiliated with the Midwest Energy Association) and the Council of Asian Pacific Americans (CAPA) as the President, Vice President, President Elect, Executive Director and the Communications & Marketing committee chair. She currently serves as a consultant to the Structure & Operations Committee for 313 Connect (United Way of Southeastern Michigan) and is a board member with Micah 6 and CAPA.

Mark is an experienced commercial business attorney and serve as Chair of the Firm’s East Asia Practice Group with more than 25 years of experience in representing multi-national companies in a variety of industries, including automotive, retail, technology, industrial and manufacturing. His experience includes advising foreign companies in the areas of foreign direct investment in the United States, business formation, Greenfield investment, international trade, commercial transactional matters, and dispute resolution. In his role as International Practice Group Chair, he serves as general counsel to companies throughout Asia and Europe, directing the firm’s resources to better assist his clients.

 

Clay is a Senior Vice President for PNC Bank, working with their Native American Finance Division where he focuses on financing both gaming and non-gaming economic development efforts for Tribes across the lower 48.  Prior to the Native American Finance role Clay worked for PNC Business Credit where he financed LBO's, dividend recapitalizations, ESOPs, high growth, turn-arounds and cyclical businesses seeking flexibility and durability. He has spent nearly 20 years in Banking and finance and has also gained considerable experience serving as Treasurer of the Board for Waseyabek Development Company (a tribally owned economic diversification company) and as Managing Director for DWH, LLC a boutique Financial Advisory firm focused on M&A growth and succession strategies as well as turnaround and restructuring strategies. Clayton earned his bachelor's of science in Accounting from Western Michigan University’s Haworth College of Business and his MBA from Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business.