44 | JANUARY 9 • 2020 

here’s to

business SPOTlight

The Community House, a nonprofit resource and destination in Birmingham 
for personal, professional, recreational and philanthropic pursuits, will hold its 
annual Bates Street Society dinner in February. Individuals are inducted into 
the society based on their significant charitable contributions that align with the 
work and mission of the Community House. Among this year’
s inductees are 
Dr. Brian Berman, chairman, Department of Pediatrics, Oakland University 
William Beaumont School of Medicine and pediatrician-in-chief of Beaumont’
s 
Children’
s; Dr. Ora Peskovitz, Oakland University president; Hannan Lis, 
principal, the WW Group Inc.; Keith Pomeroy, owner of Pomeroy Financial 
Services and founding board member of the Museum of Contemporary Art 
Detroit; and Linda Solomon, photojournalist and author.

how we differentiate ourselves 
from car ownership. Our true 
competition is behavior — 
changing the way we think about
integrating multimodal trans-
portation into our lives. For 
example, shifting the instinct to 
drive downtown into taking a 
bus there and a Lyft ride home. 
Beyond that, we’
re going to con-
tinue leaning into our unique 
set of values, which brings to 
market programs like Round Up 
& Donate, where every ride in 
Metro Detroit can be rounded 
up and donated to the Detroit 
Public School Foundation.

6. How has your Jewish identity 
followed you through your 
business success?
My Jewish identity is inextricably 
linked to my personal values. 
Deeply believing in concepts 
like tikkun olam has led me 
to companies like Lyft, which 
has built a business on the 
idea that we can improve lives 
through transportation. My 
values also guide how I interact 
with our communities and my 
team members; for example, 

to embrace the idea of b’
tzelem 
elohim (in God’
s image) means 
you naturally seek out equality 
and act with compassion.

7. What do you miss most 
about living in Michigan?
Most obvious is the community 
of friends we left behind. The 
love of Detroit, the Midwestern 
sensibilities, the closeness of 
the Jewish community — all of 
these things added up to quality 
friendships I know are rare in 
life, especially when you consid-
er my wife and I had only lived 
there as a family for three years.
From a career standpoint, I 
can’
t speak highly enough about 
how open people are to collab-
oration, both in the business 
community and within local 
government. Because of the lows 
Metro Detroit has experienced 
over the years, my sense is there 
is a genuine enthusiasm to 
experiment and try new things 
that might not have been present 
in the past. That’
s powerful, and 
I’
m very bullish on what happens 
from here. One way or the other, 
it will always be home for me. 

continued from page 42

Dr. Ora 
Peskovitz

Keith 
Pomeroy

Dr. Brian 
Berman

Hannan Lis
Linda 
Solomon

FEBRUARY 14-16 
MUSIC HALL

Br
oadwayI
nDetr
oi
t.com | ti
cketmaster
.com
 Char
ge by phone: 800-
982-
2787 | I
nfo: 313.872.1000 
Gr
oups (
10+): Gr
oups@Br
oadwayI
nDetr
oi
t.com (
subject: The New Col
ossus) 

Open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner
Catering and carryout available
Gift certificates 

27925 Orchard Lake Rd., North of 12 Mile, Farmington Hills 
248-489-2280

www.honghuafinedining.com

FINE CHINESE DINING

“A wonderful adventure in fine dining” ~ Danny Raskin