40 | MARCH 12 • 2020 

GLOW PATH continued from page 39
Gilbert Is Back in Action

Q

uicken Loans Inc. 
founder Dan Gilbert 
spoke late last month 
at Crain’
s Annual Newsmaker 
of the Year luncheon. It was his 
first time addressing the public 
since suffering from an isch-
emic stroke nine months ago.
The 58-year-old Detroit 
entrepreneur was inaugurated 
as the first member of Crain’
s 
Newsmaker Hall of Fame.
“A leader’
s job is not to cre-
ate more followers — a leader’
s 
job is to create more leaders,” 
Gilbert said. “I think we had 
the honor of doing that in our 
family of companies, which is 
why it could continue in my 
absence.”
According to Crain’
s, Gilbert 
spent eight months at a reha-
bilitation facility in Chicago 
and continued physical and 
occupational therapy at home. 
According to the report, 
Gilbert’
s speech is clear, yet he 
is still experiencing paralysis on 

his left side.
Gilbert 
is now back at work 
about two days per week. He 
is using a wheelchair and has a 
service dog in tow.
“The award is really for 
everyone, not just the guy that 
happens to be the leader of the 
food chain,” Gilbert said.
Real-estate developer and 
philanthropist Stephen Ross 
was also honored as Crain’
s 
Newsmaker of the Year and 
is partnering with Gilbert on 
the University of Michigan 
“Innovation Center” slated for 
Downtown Detroit. 

ALLISON JACOBS DIGITAL EDITOR

business SPOTlight

here’s to

Jessica Goldberg, 18, of Farmington Hills was 
named one of Michigan’
s top youth volunteers of 
2020 by the Prudential Spirit of Com-
munity Awards, a nationwide program 
honoring young people for outstand-
ing acts of volunteerism. As a state 
honoree, Jessica will receive $1,000, 
an engraved silver medallion and an 
all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., 
where she will join the top two honorees from each of 
the other states and the District of Columbia for four 
days of national recognition events. During the trip, 10 
students will be named America’
s top youth volunteers 
of 2020. Goldberg, a senior at North Farmington High 
School, built a support network for the siblings of 
young people dealing with mental illness, providing 
them with support groups, social events, networking 
opportunities, an advocacy voice and other resources.

Volunteers for Israel has announced that Ed Kohl of West 
Bloomfield is the publisher of the Volunteers for Israel Volunteer 
Connection newsletter to be issued quarterly to all Volunteers for 
Israel veterans and applicants. As publisher, he will solicit, edit, 
approve articles and the publication. Volunteers for Israel is asso-
ciated with Sar-El, a nonprofit organization that administers the 
program in Israel at which volunteers spend one-to-three weeks 
living and working on a non-combat IDF army base alongside 
Israelis and other volunteers from around the world.

Sib4Sib, a support network for the siblings of 
people who struggle with mental health or have 
developmental or cognitive differences, hired 
Breanne Ott of Huntington Woods as its first 
executive director. She has a decade of nonprof-
it management experience, most recently with 
the American Cancer Society. Her goal is to en-
sure that each child feels nurtured, understood, safe and, above 
all else, to count on Sib4Sib as their “home away from home.”

SHOOK Research and 
Forbes have named Paul 
A. Toby and Paul J. 
Monacelli, both senior 
vice presidents for wealth 
management at UBS 
Financial Services Inc., as 
2020 Best-State-Wealth 
Advisors for Michigan. 

Dan Gilbert 
accepting his 
award Feb. 21 
in Detroit

WDIV SCREENSHOT

ens of orders. 
Now they are going to 
market. 
“We’
re talking to big box 
stores — Menard’
s, Home 
Depot, Lowe’
s,
” Alex says. 
“
And we’
re working with land-
scape architects to get them 
to specify our materials with 
their clients.
”
Glow Path has already built 
a patio for a West Bloomfield 
home. They are now targeting 
markets in California, Arizona 
and Nevada. 
The owners envision sev-
eral possible uses for their 
products. One is to illuminate 
public spaces. 
“City plazas, parks, amuse-
ment parks, retirement com-
munities, college campuses, 
Las Vegas casinos and hos-
pitals are perfect examples 
of potential clients,
” Eckhous 
says. “It’
s a unique product 
and serves in many ways as 
an alternative to low-voltage 
lighting.
”
No electricity is needed, 
and because the material is 
nontoxic, it’
s environmentally 

friendly. “Theoretically, you 
could eat it.
” 
The luminous stones could 
also, the owners say, help peo-
ple navigate benighted side-
walks, curbs or steps. There 
are marine applications, too: 
swimming pools, fish tanks 
and koi ponds. 
“We may also eventually 
provide other sizes for accents 
and borders, and designs like 
arrows,
” Eckhous says. 
Wherever the possibilities 
take them, the Glow Path guys 
plan to stick to their values. 
“We share the perspective 
that you should treat people as 
you’
d like to be treated, with 
respect and honesty. And that 
you’
ll likely get that returned 
to you if you commit to it,
” 
Eckhous says.
Alex adds, “The good part 
about all this is it’
s going 
to be here for a long, long 
time, even after we leave this 
world. It’
s going to be here, 
and people are going to see 
the effect we’
ve made on the 
world — that we’
ve made the 
surface glow.” 

