Junior Achievement Announces Area Leaders Being Inducted into the West Michigan Business Hall of Fame
For Immediate Release
MEDIA CONTACT
Laura Lutterbeck
Chief Marketing Officer
Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes
616-575-9080 | michigangreatlakes.ja.org
Junior Achievement Announces Area Leaders Being Inducted
into the West Michigan Business Hall of Fame
Junior Achievement to Induct Laureates at Dinner and Ceremony supported by Title Sponsor SpartanNash
Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 2025 – Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes, Inc. (JAMGL) announces that Steve Downing, President and CEO, Gentex Corp., and Tony Sarsam, CEO, SpartanNash will be inducted as laureates in the West Michigan Business Hall of Fame. Awardees will be honored at the dinner and ceremony on October 27, 2025, at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. John & Nancy Kennedy will also be honored with an Edward J. Frey Distinguished Achievement Award. Title sponsor for the event is SpartanNash.
The Junior Achievement West Michigan Business Hall of Fame honors prominent business leaders who possess a record of outstanding business achievements in West Michigan, have earned the respect of the local community and who serve as a role-model, particularly to local youth.
“These two inductees are truly deserving of this honor,” said Bill Coderre, President and CEO, JAMGL. “Steve and Tony will join an incredible group of leaders who have demonstrated hard work, vision and success in their respective industries earning the respect of their peers and the larger community. We are thrilled Steve and Tony have been chosen by the laureate selection committee to join this group of remarkable West Michigan business giants as laureates in the JA West Michigan Business Hall of Fame.”
Steve Downing is the President and CEO of Gentex Corporation. Downing joined Gentex in 2002 as a financial analyst and then served in various roles in commercial management including Director of Commercial Management until his promotion in 2012 to Vice President of Commercial Management. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing cost accounting, quotation development, forecasting, strategic partnerships and new business development.
Downing continued to advance at Gentex with a promotion in 2013 to Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance, while still maintaining responsibility for all commercial management activities. In June of 2015, he was promoted again to Senior Vice President with added responsibility for Gentex’s business development and sales function. In 2017, he was named President, Chief Operating Officer, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Downing was named Chief Executive Officer in January 2018.
Prior to joining Gentex, Downing worked for a private company executing activity-based costing, price modeling and control, and financial statement consolidation. He graduated summa cum laude from Liberty University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance.
Tony Sarsam is CEO of Spartan Nash, where he leads 20,000 associates serving food retailers in all 50 states as well as the U.S. military both domestically and abroad. Sarsam joined SpartanNash in 2020 and has since focused on building a strong people first culture as the company renews its commitment to growth, operational excellence, customer service and innovation.
With more than three decades of experience in the food industry, Sarsam has come to understand every side of the consumer-packaged goods business – from the plant floor to the C-suite. Before joining SpartanNash, Sarsam served as CEO of Borden Dairy Company and Ready Pac Foods. At Borden, he led the company through a major corporate restructuring and subsequent sale that preserved employment for all frontline Associates during a time of significant industry consolidation. His leadership at Ready Pac helped the company grow by more than 60% and establish a dominant 80% share of the complete meal salad category. Tony’s success at Ready Pac attracted great interest and culminated in the sale of the business to Bonduelle in 2017.
Prior to leading Ready Pac, Sarsam was President of the Nestlé USA Direct Store Delivery Company, where he created and led the world’s largest frozen direct store delivery network, serving Nestlé frozen pizza and ice cream businesses. He has also served as Executive Vice President of Sales and Operations at Dreyer’s, which was acquired by Nestlé. Sarsam began his career at PepsiCo, where he started as an Associate Engineer and progressed through a series of leadership roles, including Plant Manager, Director of Finance, Region Vice President for Sales and Distribution, and Group Vice President of Go to Market Strategy.
Sarsam is an independent director for Mission Produce, Inc. and serves on the board of four nonprofit organizations, including The Food Industry Association (FMI), The Right Place, West Michigan Policy Forum and Arizona State University Foundation.
He holds a Bachelor of Science, Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University and a Master of Science in Management from Stanford. Sarsam resides in Grand Rapids, with his wife and children.
The induction ceremony will be conducted, and awards presented at the 2025 Junior Achievement West Michigan Business Hall of Fame, a black tie (optional) dinner on October 27 at Frederik Meijer Gardens, with receptions starting at 6:15 PM. Independent Bank is the presenting sponsor. For more information and to sponsor tables or purchase tickets, please contact Jay Ediger at 616-575-9080, ext. 2227.
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Pictured: Steve Downing and Tony Sarsam
About Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes, Inc.
Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes (JAMGL) is the nation’s 23rd largest JA chapter and an area office of JA USA, the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs. The organization offers programs to help prepare young people in Mid, West, Southwest and North Michigan for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and are empowered to own their economic success.
Visit michigangreatlakes.ja.org for more information.