MSU board member’s organization faces scrutiny for giving business access to state officials

A nonprofit organization led by a Michigan State University trustee is being scrutinized for its role in potentially helping big business gain special influence with state officials.

On Oct. 26, the Detroit News reported that some of Michigan’s largest businesses had quietly helped finance Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s foreign trade missions while reaping billions in incentives and other financial benefits from her administration.

Those businesses may have been able to cozy up to the Whitmer administration, the News reported, thanks to their seats on the board of the Michigan Economic Development Foundation, or MEDF. Trustee Rebecca Bahar-Cook is the executive director of the foundation.

Reached by The State News on Tuesday, Bahar-Cook said her work as a university trustee and the scrutiny on the MEDF are “wholly unrelated.”

MSU Spokesperson Amber McCann declined to comment, saying the MEDF is “not a university-affiliated entity in any way, shape or form.”

Companies that contributed $25,000 or more to the MEDF got seats on the organization’s board. Those board members, in turn, were invited to private events attended by Whitmer and Quentin Messer Jr., a member of Whitmer’s cabinet and CEO of the state’s economic development agency.

Many of the companies that contributed enough to get seats on the board were either utilities, whose ventures often require approval from Whitmer appointees, or businesses that had received or sought large subsidies from the state.

The MEDF has financed parts of the foreign trade missions organized by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation — the state agency focused on bringing jobs to Michigan — including the governor’s recent trips to the United Arab Emirates and Japan. 

While past governors have used the development foundation to cover some costs of foreign trips, critics of the MEDF are wary of how the arrangement could create a secretive path for influence by those with financial matters before the state government.

On Monday, a former general counsel for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce filed a complaint with the state, calling for the Attorney General to investigate the MEDF for failing to register as a lobbyist.

In a statement to The State News, Bahar-Cook maintained that the MEDF does not engage in lobbying and that its work is “fully within the scope of our charitable mission and complies with all state and federal laws and regulations.”

“MEDF is an independent, not-for-profit organization that exists to support economic development efforts that bring new investment, jobs, and opportunities to Michigan,” Bahar-Cook said. “We support programs and events that strengthen Michigan’s business climate, help attract and retain talent, and keep our economy growing.”

The heightened scrutiny of Bahar-Cook’s nonprofit highlights the multiple hats that trustees often wear as business executives, nonprofit leaders, or professors at other institutions, in addition to their roles as stewards of the university.

Jim Finkelstein, a George Mason University professor emeritus who studies higher education, said that’s not an uncommon arrangement since trustees aren’t paid for their work.

“Trustees, sometimes, the only thing they get out of this usually is a meal at the board meeting, and it’s usually provided by the contractor on campus, which, as we all know, is not the best food in the world,” Finkelstein said.

Beyond her role as a first-year trustee, Bahar-Cook is the CEO of fundraising firm Capitol Fundraising Associates, and serves on the Capitol Area Michigan Works! Workforce Development Board, the Capitol Region Community Foundation Board, the UM Health Sparrow Specialty Board, and is the president of the Rotary Club of Lansing.