What are you looking for?
Wheel and deal on the Exchange »
View larger photo
Last summer Detavio Samuels planned to move to New York City from New Jersey.
Then he got a call from Robb Chavis, vice chairman of legal operations and IT at GlobalHue, a Southfield-based multicultural marketing firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles.
Samuels, 27, certain the job was in the Big Apple, was excited. When Chavis, told him he’d call the next day and to “keep an open mind,” Samuels expected a low-ball offer.
Instead, he heard: “I want you to come work in Detroit.” “I was shocked,” said Samuels, who’d never been to Michigan and yet “thought it was a terrible state.”
At the time, Samuels was working in global marketing for Johnson & Johnson. “I had a really cool job, traveling to Spain and Belgium, Brazil and Colombia,” he said. The Denver native attended Duke University before getting his MBA at Stanford University.
As a marketing supervisor for GlobalHue, he would have more responsibility and impact. “Those words are important to me,” Samuels said. So he decided to visit.
His first impression? “The airport. It made me feel like Detroit was a real city.” He was also encouraged by how “normal” Farmington Hills was, where he stayed with Chavis and his wife.
But the company itself is what sold him. “The office is incredible — TVs everywhere, video games, creative ideas on the walls. I loved the young, multicultural professionals working together.” A welcome change from Johnson & Johnson’s “very corporate, white, 45-years-old and two kids” culture.
“It made me feel I’d be able to make friends and be okay.”
While Samuels rents a “sexy” loft downtown, he’s tempted to buy.
“Coming from New York and New Jersey to see a house for like $150,000 … I thought I’d stumbled on greatness.”
One thing he’s not willing to part with: his New York City cell phone number.
“I’m not getting rid of it,” he said. “It’s like a brand.”
Comments: