Dick DeVos
Richard Marvin DeVos Jr. is an American businessman, author, and former politician. The son of Amway co-founder Richard DeVos, he was CEO of the multi-level marketing company from 1993 to 2002. In 2006, DeVos ran for Governor of Michigan but lost to the then-incumbent Democrat Jennifer Granholm. In 2012, Forbes magazine listed his father as the No. 351 richest person in the world, with a net worth of approximately. DeVos is the husband of Betsy DeVos, the former United States Secretary of Education in the first Trump administration.
Family and early life
DeVos was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Helen June and Richard Marvin DeVos. His grandparents were Dutch immigrants. DeVos is a graduate of the Forest Hills public school system.He was involved in the family business, Amway, even as a child. "I still remember when it was in the basement of our home when I was growing up," he later said. "I remember the offices being down there and people working down there." As boys, he and his brother Doug were "tapped as mini-hosts", assigned to greet attendees at Amway's annual conventions, and they "helped out with everything from clearing plates during gatherings to ferrying guests to play tennis or waterski. That evolved to speaking in front of groups and even giving product demonstrations." DeVos later said that "It was kind of like a Junior Achievement atmosphere contained inside of Amway.... We just hung around the company. It was your social activity."
DeVos received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Northwood University. He later paid to attend, but did not complete, the Harvard Business School and the Wharton School's Executive Study Programs. DeVos has received honorary doctorates from Grove City College, Central Michigan University and Northwood University, as well as distinguished alumni recognition from Northwood University.
His wife, Betsy DeVos, is the former chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party and the former Secretary of Education under President Donald Trump. She is the daughter of billionaire industrialist Edgar Prince, and sister of Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince.
Business activities
Amway
DeVos began working with Amway Corporation in 1974, holding positions in various divisions, including research and development, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and finance. In 1984, he became one of Amway's vice presidents, with overall responsibility for the company's operations in 18 countries. Under his leadership, the company opened numerous new markets and tripled foreign sales to exceed domestic sales for the first time in company history.According to one source, "When Dick DeVos became vice president of Amway's foreign operation in 1986, sales outside of the U.S. accounted for about 5 percent of overall sales. When he left the position six years later, they had grown to 50 percent of annual sales."
Orlando Magic
When the DeVos family acquired the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic basketball franchise in 1991, DeVos's father, Richard DeVos became president and CEO of the team. On October 21, 2005, it was announced that DeVos would become part owner as his father split ownership evenly between his children.Larry Guest of the Orlando Sentinel wrote in a September 1991 column that "civic and business leaders in Grand Rapids" considered DeVos "admirable, amicable, compassionate, honorable, community-conscious, intelligent", but that they wondered whether DeVos, who was about to begin running the Orlando Magic, was "strong enough...to make the tough decisions necessary as the chief operating officer overseeing... an NBA franchise?" Guest answered yes, calling DeVos "a business and political specialist experienced far beyond his 35 years on this globe" and noting that he had "recently attracted more than a million votes, more than any other Republican on a statewide basis, to win a seat on Michigan's Board of Education." Guest quoted DeVos as saying that in making business decisions, he hopes "to be seen as tough, but also fair.... I'm not a control-oriented individual, but I expect results and I expect meticulous, detailed management."
Amway/Alticor
DeVos left his positions as president and CEO of the Orlando Magic in January 1993 to rejoin Amway as its president, succeeding his father, Amway co-founder Rich DeVos. Under Dick Devos, the firm expanded operations to more than 50 countries and territories on six continents.In 2000, DeVos oversaw a significant corporate restructuring that created Alticor, the new parent company of predecessor Amway, as well as other subsidiary companies. In a 20-month span, Alticor cut over 1,300 jobs during this restructuring, with 400 of them being buyouts and early retirement.
Job cuts were one of several cut backs made during the corporate restructuring of Amway in order to expedite the return to profitability and prevent further downsizing or the possible loss of the company.
DeVos and his brother, Doug DeVos, are "credited with taking the company global, and setting industry standards as they moved into those markets."
DeVos retired as president of Alticor in August 2002. In that fiscal year, Alticor reported sales of $4.5 billion, primarily through its more than 3.5 million part-time sales force and its complementary e-commerce channel. After retiring from Alticor, DeVos returned to become president of The Windquest Group.
The Windquest Group
The Windquest Group is a privately held investment management firm with holdings in technology, manufacturing, and other sectors.A 2010 article reported on a Windquest venture called The Green Machine, which "converts waste heat that's the byproduct of a manufacturing process – in liquid or gaseous form – into electricity."
DeVos explained that "Some time ago Windquest brought on a specialist in alternative energy.... We knew this was going to be an important part of our future, but also an opportunity." He explained that sustainability is "not just an environmental concept, it's also an economic one. If a particular business approach is not economically viable it will not be sustainable." Windquest was not interested in "glitzy and glamorous" ideas, he said, but in "technologies that were environmentally sound and economically sustainable" and thus more likely to be widely adopted. He expressed concern "that some of the new products in the marketplace are either too dependent on tax incentives or subsidies" and not genuinely "viable and...competitive".
The Green Machine is produced by the ElectraTherm Company and distributed by Windquest in collaboration with Pro Services. "It's a three-legged stool", DeVos explained. "ElectraTherm provides the core technology, Pro Services provides the installation ability and the knowledge of the customers' needs and Windquest then provides both financing and high-level business acumen."
Political activities and activism
Political activities prior to 2006
In 1990, DeVos won election to the Michigan State Board of Education, and resigned two years into his eight-year term, citing his return to Amway as CEO as the reason. In 1996, DeVos was appointed by Governor John Engler to the Grand Valley State University Board of Control.School vouchers
DeVos and his wife became co-chairs of the Education Freedom Fund in 1993. The Fund provides private scholarships to low-income families in Michigan with wishes to attend schools of their choice. When the Children's Scholarship Fund provided $7.5 million to the Education Freedom Fund, the DeVos matched the grant, and their foundation covers all of the administrative costs of the organization.In 2000, DeVos was the co-chairman of the "Kids First! Yes!" campaign committee, which sponsored a ballot-initiative that would have amended the Michigan constitution to allow vouchers and tuition tax credits for private K-12 education. The initiative lost, with 69% of voters opposing the measure.
The Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation has also given money to groups like the American Education Reform Council, Choices for Children, and Children First America, in addition to funding Christian schools in the West Michigan area.
2006 gubernatorial candidacy
On June 2, 2005, at Mackinac Island, DeVos announced his candidacy for governor of Michigan. He is still considered to be the wealthiest man to run for statewide office in Michigan's history. As of October 27, 2006, the DeVos campaign had spent $39 million, of which nearly $35 million was DeVos's own money.An article published on August 3, 2005, quoted DeVos as saying that the main issue for Michigan voters was the state's economy. "We're fighting with Mississippi for the highest unemployment rate in the country. We have the lowest personal income growth, the lowest business start-ups in the country. We are the only state that has not moved to positive ground when it comes to actual numbers of jobs in the marketplace," he said. He also suggested that tourism "is one of the businesses and industries that has a bright future for Michigan, and is exciting." Criticizing Granholm's economic policies, he said that in her place "I would have sent a very different signal to the entire regulatory infrastructure of the state, and would have taken steps to make this state more business friendly." Granholm, he said, "has talked about wanting business, but all of her actions and the actions of all the regulatory agencies and government agencies in this state have continued to create difficulties for business. I hear it from business people everywhere I go in this state."
In an interview given during the campaign, DeVos said: "It's all about jobs. Jobs are the number one issue in Michigan right now. Our state does not have a climate for job creation. Job-killing taxes like the SBT punish job makers for creating jobs, providing their employees with benefits, and investing in new technology. Taxes like the SBT and Michigan's personal property tax hurt manufacturers more than any other tax. They've got to go if we want to help manufacturing and bring jobs back to Michigan." He also spoke of the need to "work on trade issues to make sure that Detroit's automakers can compete fairly both here in the United States and around the world."
Thomas Bray of RealClearPolitics reported on June 21, 2006, that incumbent Jennifer Granholm was "in deep trouble," with DeVos surging "to a 48–40 lead...in a Detroit News/WXYZ-TV poll." In other polls, the two candidates were "in a dead heat," and, to some observers' surprise, DeVos was leading "48–40 among union households." Bray's conclusion was that "the DeVos ads are striking home with their message: that the Michigan economy is in a shambles, that Granholm has failed to develop a strategy to resurrect the state and that a hard-nosed businessman who owes nothing to anybody is just the guy to sort things out."
An October 2006 article in Human Events argued that the Michigan governor's race was "shaping up as a classic style vs. substance confrontation," with Granholm, "a charismatic and attractive former aspiring actress who can deliver a speech and charm a crowd with the best of them," representing style, and DeVos representing substance. While lacking Granholm's "flashier qualities," DeVos's "business background...ideally suits him to address the state's most vexing economic issues." The article noted that DeVos was interested in job creation in what was "perhaps the least business-friendly state in the country." While Granholm argued that jobs had been moved to China and India, DeVos pointed out that "Michigan jobs have...gone to Ohio, Indiana, and other states with less punitive tax policies, and this governor fails to recognize that."
A November 3, 2006, article noted that DeVos's plan for turning around Michigan's "economic stagnancy and increasing unemployment" was called the TurnAround Plan. It called for action on four fronts: "creating an attractive job climate, overhauling state government, diversifying the economy, and conquering the international marketplace." DeVos planned to create "a pro-jobs tax structure while supporting small business growth to increase jobs," and described his credentials as follows: "I've made tough decisions, I've turned around a struggling business, and I've helped an entire city turn around."
He also called for an increase in "funding for secondary and higher education," for a streamlined health-care system "that utilizes technology to reduce hospital errors by making medical records more efficient," and for " strong anti-crime measures, specifically against child predators." The article noted that debates between DeVos and Granholm had "done little to help either's cause, though they did have an effect on the polls," with support for both candidates dropping and the number of undecided voters increasing. "Whether it has been Granholm's campaign morphing images of DeVos into President Bush, or DeVos's ads including compromising footage of the governor's speeches, neither candidate has found a way to gain an advantage."
The article also pointed out that "newspapers have divided their support along party lines, with the Detroit Free Press endorsing Granholm and The Grand Rapids Press siding with DeVos." Among DeVos's supporters was Lee Iacocca, who had been actively campaigning for him. He had also received endorsements from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Farm Bureau.
On November 7, 2006, DeVos was defeated by Democratic incumbent Jennifer Granholm by a 14-point margin. He congratulated the re-elected Granholm via phone after the results were in. Granholm was quoted as saying she "admired his tenacity and his passion for Michigan".
According to a CBS reporter, DeVos's loss was widely attributed to his performance in his first televised debate with Granholm. "Granholm went for the jugular talking about an investment he had in a nursing home," and "DeVos's lackluster response opened the door that led to his eventual loss." Years later, DeVos said: "I learned I needed to be better at expressing my opinions more directly and forcefully....My mother taught me to be respectful and polite, but sometimes I took that advice too far."