Dykema Chairman Emeritus Rex Schlaybaugh, Jr. Named to Advisory Board of Demmer Center for Business Transformation
Center’s Ambition: Help Michigan Manufacturers Become More Domestically and Globally Competitive
Press Releases
10.25.12
DETROIT—Dykema is pleased to announce that Rex Schlaybaugh, Jr., Chairman Emeritus of Dykema and member of the Firm’s Corporate Finance practice, has been named to the advisory board of the Demmer Center for Business Transformation. The Demmer Center, housed within Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business, provides consulting, advisory and educational services—as offered by university faculty members and students—to help Michigan companies transform into strategic, lean competitors.
The task of the advisory board, on which Schlaybaugh and 10 other leaders from Michigan’s business and academic communities serve, is to provide strategic counsel and advice to the Demmer Center, helping facilitate its mission to make Michigan manufacturing firms more competitive in both domestic and global markets.
A key initiative for the Demmer Center in the coming year will be to partner with a select number of Michigan firms to advance lean systems thinking and subsequent process improvement by placing lean apprentices (graduate students from the Broad College of Business) in those companies to work on continuous improvement projects.
Schlaybaugh notes, “There’s no question that in today’s fiercely competitive marketplace, companies need to weed out inefficiency and ramp up productivity. The Demmer Center Lean Initiative provides real-world opportunities for students, who are schooled in lean systems thinking, to help Michigan companies transform themselves into powerhouse competitors.”
In addition to his Corporate Finance practice, Schlaybaugh—who has been with Dykema for over 35 years and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for 10 years—serves on several corporate boards (John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Sealine International), is a member of the Board of Directors of the Detroit Economic Club and Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, and is a Commissioner on the Michigan Natural Resources Commission.
