A 'Michigan Matters' Look At The Motor City
By Carol Cain
CBS 62 Detroit
Find out what motor racing legend Roger Penske, quintessential car guy Bob Lutz, UAW President Bob King, GM President Mark Reuss, Ford COO Mark Fields, Gov. Rick Snyder, actor Danny Glover and other notables think about the road ahead for the Motor City in a special "Michigan Matters" taped at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) which airs 11:30 a.m. Sunday on CBS 62.
Also appearing: Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of the WPP, which owns tons of advertising / marketing / communications agencies across the globe, Rod Alberts, executive director of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, Jim Seavitt, chair of the NAIAS, Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
The Michigan Matters crew included Emmy winning chief videographer Paul Pytlowany, CBS videographer and Emmy winner Tim Sargent, Tony Chiudioni, Stephen Hilton, Meagen Mazur and Troy Frisby.
Thom Connors, regional vice president of SMG and general manager of Cobo Center, provides viewers a tour of the $300 million renovations taking place at Cobo including the fabulous new atrium.
AM radio personalities Buck and Coop also appear (well, half the team) and gave their High Five Fav's at the show in a way only Buck and Coop can!
Jeff Gilbert, award-winning autobeat reporter at Newsradio 950, shared thoughts on cars and trends coming out of the annual auto show.
Also appearing -- John McElroy, of AutoLine, and Olivier Francois, Chief Marketing Officer, Chrysler Group LLC, who talks about Detroit's resurgence and Chrysler's. Francois is the mastermind behind Chrysler's Super Bowl ads featuring rapper Eminem and actor Clint Eastwood. Chrysler is taking a deeper dive into the Motor City's heritage as it has hooked up with iconic Motown founder Berry Gordy. He is appearing in new commercials for the car maker.
Zeng Qinghong, general manager of GAC Group, was the only Chinese automaker to present new cars at the show. He talked about why it was important to be in Detroit.
And Tom Watkins, CEO of TDW & Associates, talked about globalization and its impact on autos and the show. Wang Xia, Chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Automotive Sub-Council, which puts on auto shows in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, talked about growing connections to Detroit.
Jack Hollis, vice president of marketing at Toyota Division, discussed the importance of their research and development centers in Ann Arbor to the Japanese automaker.
Carla Bailo, senior vice president of R&D Americas at Nissan North America, also talked about their R & D center in Michigan as well as products at NAIAS.
Longtime auto analyst David Cole, chairman, AutoHarvest, highlighted the challenges of finding enough trained workers for auto jobs of the future, a theme that also resonated with Gov Snyder and Carla Bailo.
You can catch the conversation by watching "Michigan Matters" 11:30 a.m. Sunday on CBS 62.
Carol Cain is the Emmy winning Senior Producer and Host of "Michigan Matters" airing 11:30 a.m. Sundays on CBS 62. She writes about politics and business in Sunday's Detroit Free Press. She can be reached at clcain@cbs.com or 248-355-7126.
