Christopher Ilitch
Mike Ilitch was the face of Little Caesars, the Tigers and the Red Wings. With his passing Feb. 10 at 87, his youngest son Christopher, steps more into the limelight.
Detroit News columnist Daniel Howes writes:
The new top guy at Ilitch Holdings Inc. isn’t new.
The youngest son of Mike and Marian Ilitch holds a University of Michigan business degree, but the education of Christopher Ilitch, 51, spans the nearly 30 years he’s worked alongside his parents inside the pizza and entertainment empire they built. Along the way, Chris, CEO of the family company since 2004, learned a few things.
Think big. Be prepared and thorough. Be creative yet humble. Treat people well even as you demand accountability and, yes, performance — be it in the batters box at Comerica Park or the latest quarterly sales report from Little Caesar Enterprises Inc., the multinational pizza company founded in 1959. And do things right.
“We’ve been very focused to make sure we get it just right,” Chris Ilitch told WJR’s Frank Beckmann during the 2014 groundbreaking for the Ilitch family’s District Detroit development. In an update a year later: “And we take it very seriously to make sure we get it just right, we get it perfect.”
