Duggan splits up Detroit's top jobs in economic, workforce development

Detroit ― Mayor Mike Duggan on Friday announced he has appointed his senior advisor Hassan Beydoun to serve as group executive of economic development to lead Detroit's Jobs and Economy Team.

Duggan is splitting the role duties previously held by Nicole Sherard-Freeman, who recently left the Duggan administration to serve as chief operating officer of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. 

Beydoun will lead the city's economic development efforts. Last month, Duggan appointed Terri Weems as group executive of workforce and Detroit at Work, which previously had also fallen under Sherard-Freeman. 

The mayor's office said Beydoun will focus on streamlining Detroit's complex web of regulations and permitting and approval processes to remove barriers for business expansion. His salary is $173,000.

"Detroit always has had innovation in its DNA. Hassan has a gift for process improvement and a passion for supporting and cultivating entrepreneurs trying new things," Duggan said in a statement. "His legal and policy skillset is going to add an entirely new dimension to our efforts to grow our city's economy and create more opportunity." 

Weems’ new role as group executive will focus on creating a strategy to reduce poverty, increase employment and prepare Detroiters for a changing economy, the mayor's office said. Her annual salary is $192,000.

Before this, Weems served as the president of Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, the nonprofit organization that serves as the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and Michigan Works Agency. She joined DESC in 2017 as the chief financial officer focused on developing data to help the group make decisions. She has led the workforce strategy for the city for the last several years and helped grow the organization.

Weems is a certified public accountant who at one time spent 15 years in public accounting with PricewaterhouseCoopers, supporting its largest clients both in the United States and abroad. She was also responsible for designing, delivering, and administering several major initiatives across the firm. Weems earned her bachelor of science in business administration and master of science in accounting degrees from Ohio University.

“What I’m most excited about is preparing Detroiters for what the future of the workforce economy will be five and 10 years from now,” Weems said in a release. “We have a community of strong and versatile talent, and my job is to support that innovation. Our strategy is to provide all Detroiters with an opportunity to become highly skilled and compete in an ecosystem that provides financial stability and generational wealth for residents and their families.”

Beydoun said his father and other entrepreneurs in his family have helped him to understand what up-start businesses need to be successful.

"Many complain of barriers they run into when scaling their business and navigating the city’s overly complex web of regulations, institutions, and stakeholders," Beydoun stated in a press release.

“Our policies and processes that too often constrain and overladen enterprise can be reformed to reflect and support a changing economy in which businesses can thrive. Detroit is already one of the fastest-growing hubs for start-ups in the country, but it has the potential to be the world’s premier innovation economy."

Beydoun, 36, is a native of Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood and grew up in the Aviation Subdivision.

Beydoun is a Wayne State University graduate where he obtained a bachelor of arts in philosophy and went on to graduate with honors from the University of Iowa College of Law.

He returned to Detroit to work as an attorney for the Wayne County Prosecutors Office and in January 2013, served as general counsel under the Republican majority in the Michigan House. In that role, Beydoun was an asset in the passage of auto no-fault reform legislation, eliminating driver responsibility fees, accelerating mobility innovation, and expanding expungement laws, the mayors office said.

He was also involved in the legislative components of Detroit’s Grand Bargain and Financial Review Commission that set the stage for the city’s exit from bankruptcy and state oversight. Beydoun has also served as chief counsel for the Legislature’s regulatory oversight bodies and in several investigations, including the Flint water crisis.

He was appointed in 2021 to serve as legal counsel and senior advisor to the mayor. Since then, the office said, he has driven and advised on major initiatives ranging from the Transportation Innovation Zone around Michigan Central to the Joe Louis Greenway and Blight to Beauty. He has also been the lead advocate for the city’s interests and legislative agenda in Lansing.

"My goal is to achieve that by building a more cohesive citywide ecosystem that drives success and equitable change for the community," he said.

srahal@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @SarahRahal_