ILITCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director, Marketing & Communications
Job Titles:
- Director, Media Relations
Job Titles:
- Vice President Corporate Communications
Job Titles:
- Manager, Ilitch Charities
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Entertainment Marketing
Job Titles:
- Founder and Chairwoman, Ilitch Holdings, Inc.
Marian Ilitch is a leading entrepreneur in the food, sports and entertainment industries. As a first-generation American, the daughter of Macedonian immigrants raised on grit and hard work, Marian has been recognized as one of the most successful businesswomen in the country.
Marian started out in the food business as a young girl filling napkin containers and salt and pepper shakers in her father's restaurant. She graduated from Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan, and attended Dearborn Community College where she studied liberal arts and completed an accounting course.
Marian's first paying job was at SS Kresge in Dearborn. Before marrying her husband and lifetime business partner, Mike Ilitch (1929-2017), Marian worked as a reservation clerk for Delta Airlines in Detroit - Mike's hometown. She was captured by the hustle and bustle of working downtown during Detroit's prime.
Mike Ilitch was a once-in-a-generation entrepreneur and champion for Detroit.
He and his wife, Marian, invested their family savings in 1959 to open the first Little Caesars store in Garden City, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. That single mom-and-pop pizza shop grew into the third largest pizza chain in the world with stores in more than 27 countries and territories worldwide, including in each of the 50 U.S. states. The success of the business was built upon the exceptional quality and value of the Little Caesars menu and Mike's marketing savvy and imaginative ideas in production.
Locally in Detroit, Mike has been honored for his efforts in the community with the Joe Louis Brown Bomber Jacket Award, the Distinguished Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award, the Shining Light Regional Cooperation Award and the Edward H. McNamara Goodfellow of the Year Award. He was also given the key to the city.
Mike Ilitch was a remarkable American success story. In 2012, he wrote, "Develop a love for all people; be humble; work hard. I guarantee you will be successful in life." He did just that and had a life well lived.
Job Titles:
- Director, Public Relations