Kevin Kerrigan's has been Michigan's new car czar more than three weeks. But the U.K. native, whose job is to grow the state's automotive industry, has barely had time to step foot in his Lansing office.
Since he succeeded Nigel Francis on Nov. 17, Kerrigan joined Gov. Rick Snyder on a six-day trip to China that yielded new investment for the state. He currently is on a similar trip to South Korea. If things go according to plan, his whirlwind schedule will continue.
"There's so much interest in Michigan and the resurgence in the auto industry," he said in an interview. "The first thing this autos office needed to do was create a strategic plan. We did that, and my job is to turn that into operations."
Kerrigan, who works through the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said he'll measure success on the number of jobs and amount of investment he can bring to Michigan.
According to the MEDC's website, the Great Lakes State has added more than 13,526 automotive manufacturing jobs in the past four years. Automakers and suppliers have invested $10.6 billion over that same time period.
"I think the biggest challenge is there are so many opportunities," Kerrigan said. "But jobs is absolutely the No. 1 measure we look at right now."
He's already off to a good start. During the trip to China, he helped secure a deal with aluminum wheel-maker Citic Dicastal, which will build a $140 million plant in Greenville in early 2016 that will create 300 jobs.
Kerrigan said he'll try to score similar agreements with companies in countries like India, Germany and Japan.
Mike Finney, president and CEO of the MEDC, said, "The automotive world is a very big world. So often, we thought everything centered around Michigan. The perspective Kevin brings is that the world is much bigger and we have to understand what's going on in Europe and Asia, to really position Michigan favorably."
Snyder created the auto office and appointed Francis to lead it in September 2013 with a mission to strengthen the relationship between the state and its largest economic driver.
During his tenure, Francis, an auto industry veteran of 20-plus years, implemented a long-term growth plan and went on numerous trade missions to Asia and Europe.
Francis resigned from the office last month and took a job as vice president of corporate planning for Detroit-based supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Inc.
"He was a hard-charging business executive who understood the industry and was very technically sound," Finney said. "Nigel brought a perspective based on his engineering background that that allowed us to take a deeper look at where the sector was going from a technology standpoint."
Francis was known for being open and accessible to media and business leaders alike, and Kerrigan promised to follow that same path.
He plans to travel often, meet with the CEOs of Detroit automakers and meet many other executives at the North American International Auto Show in Januaary.
"I've been in business my whole life," he said. "One of the cardinal rules is that if you take over a position that is successful, you don't change anything."
mmartinez@detroitnews.com
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Source : http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2014/12/11/kevin-kerrigan-car-czar/20224193/
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