Three top executives, Matthew Cullen, principal of Rock Ventures LLC and CEO of JACK Entertainment LLC, Lon Offenbacher, president and CEO of Inteva Products, and Jake Sigal, CEO of Tome, will be honored for their accomplishments at the Evening of Excellence, hosted by the Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit (MSED), on March 27 at the Gem Theatre in Detroit.
The 23rd annual Evening of Excellence celebrates the outstanding achievements of exceptional marketing professionals and business executives in southeastern Michigan. Proceeds from MSED events support the Detroit marketing and sales community through educational programming and collegiate scholarships.
“Each year we are proud to honor outstanding business leaders who have made a significant impact in their company, their industry and the communities in which they reside,” said Dave Harries, chairman of the MSED Evening of Excellence and president of Spartan Marketing Services.
Cullen will be recognized with the 2017 Herb Everss Lifetime Achievement Award. As CEO of JACK Entertainment and principal of Rock Ventures, Cullen has helped bring hundreds of companies, as well as thousands of new workers and residents into the city and has helped transform the way people view investing in Detroit. To date, Rock Ventures has invested more than $2 billion in Detroit’s central business district with plans to invest an additional $2 billion in the coming years. Prior to his current position, Cullen served as the general manager of economic development and enterprise services for General Motors Corp. He was credited for inspiring General Motors’ purchase of the Renaissance Center and subsequent $500 million in improvements, and was a driving force for the Detroit riverfront development. He also serves as president and CEO of the M-1 Rail Streetcar initiative. The 6.6 mile streetcar, known as QLINE, launched in May and connects the city’s largest cultural destinations, educational and entertainment facilities and employment centers along Woodward Avenue. In 2000, Cullen won MSED’s Marketing Innovator of The Year award and was a recipient of the Executive Leadership Award in 2007.
Offenbacher will receive the 2017 Executive Leadership Award. Since founding Inteva Products in 2008, he has tripled the size of the company, expanding to nearly 50 sites worldwide and growing the customer base exponentially to 90 automakers. Prior to starting Inteva Products, Offenbacher served as business line executive for the Integrated Closure, Cockpit, and Interior Systems business lines at Delphi Corp. Among his previous industry honors, Offenbacher was recently named 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year for the Michigan and Northern Ohio Region and a national finalist for the U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year.
Sigal will be recognized with the 2017 Trailblazer Award. As co-founder and CEO of Tome, a software company located in Royal Oak, Mich., Sigal creates organic opportunities to collaborate with established companies and market leaders spanning a variety of industries. The company was named TechWeek Detroit’s 2017 Startup of the Year. Sigal has made a career out of creating experiences consumer tech users want. Prior, Sigal was founder of Livio, an automotive connectivity company, which he sold to Ford Motor Co. in 2013. Sigal sits on the Consumer Technology Association’s Board of Industry Leaders and is a proud supporter of Techstars. In 2010, Sigal was named to Crain’s Detroit Business 20 in their 20s and in 2014 he received the Detroit Free Press Automotive Leadership Up and Coming Award.
The ceremony will also recognize southeastern Michigan’s top marketing and sales professionals with MSED’s Platinum Award. Judges on the Platinum Awards panel are made up of marketing and sales executives and past award recipients.
For more information on the MSED Evening of Excellence, event sponsorships or advertising opportunities, contact Meeting Coordinators at 248-643-6590 or visit the MSED website at www.msedetroit.org/2018Celebration.
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Founded in 1988, the Marketing & Sales Executives of Detroit (MSED) is a non-profit association of accomplished sales and marketing professionals that recognize the powerful advantage of building and nurturing relationships with their peers and their community. MSED provides the network and resources to advance new thinking, exchange counsel, ideas and new business; and help its members advance their sales and marketing careers. MSED contributions to charities and its own scholarship program help foster the value of the sales and marketing profession in the community.