Bob Thomas, COO of the Michigan Chamber, is joined by his President and CEO, Jim Holcomb, in part 2 of the discussion on the Chamber ‘s role in strengthening the great state of Michigan in a number of different ways!

Bob Thomas, COO of the Michigan Chamber, is joined by his President and CEO, Jim Holcomb, in part 1 of a 2 part discussion on the Chamber ‘s role in helping to strengthen the great state of Michigan in a number of different ways!

Amanda Toy, VP of Membership and Partnerships for the Michigan Chamber, is joined by Jane Hagen, Senior VP & Director of Retirement Plans at Tri-Star Trust – a Michigan-based wealth management firm, to give a rundown on retirement savings – a topic that affects us all even if we don’t want to think about it. We discuss the latest investment market outlook, new federal policy changes for 401(k)s, and tools that can help both employers and employees!

Jim Holcomb, the Michigan Chamber’s president & CEO, takes a ‘behind the scenes’ look at a survey that’s the talk of Michigan’s capital city this time of the year – the MIRS/EPIC-MRA Insiders Survey.

Jim is joined by two great guests who put it together every two years:

• John Reurink, the publisher and co-owner of the Michigan Information & Research Service, otherwise known as MIRS – an in-depth capital news service.
• Bernie Porn, the founding principal and president of EPIC-MRA – a full-service survey research firm based in Lansing.

Sara Wurfel, the Michigan Chamber’s Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, takes a closer look at a host of pending legislation and how it might affect Michigan’s business climate and efforts underway to grow our Great Lakes State’s population. It’s the wonky concept of repealing local preemption laws which is another way of saying that Michigan’s 1,800+ local units of government could EACH set their own rules and regulations.

Joining Sara in the conversation are three special guests who are working every day on these issues and they are:

• Wendy Block, Senior VP of Business Advocacy & Member Engagement for the Michigan Chamber
• Amy Drumm, Senior VP of Government Affairs for the Michigan Retailers
• Marcus Keech, the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Grand Rapids Area Chamber

We’re going international! Jim Holcomb, President & CEO of the Michigan Chamber, is joined by Earl Provost, the Ontario Agent General, to discuss Michigan and Canada’s close relationship and some key projects between our two countries.