Sandy Pierce is still trying to find ways to give back to the city that raised her.
That’s why the now-retired banking executive continues to sit on numerous Detroit and Michigan boards — and, every Thanksgiving, bakes 550 pies for the community.
Pierce is a Michigan State University trustee who also chairs the Detroit Economic Club, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy Board and the Henry Ford Health Foundation Board. She was previously chair of the Detroit Financial Advisory Board, which oversaw the city’s recovery after its bankruptcy, and continues to serve on the ITC Holdings Corporation Board, and the boards of the Penske Automotive Group, Barton Malow, New Detroit Inc., the Detroit Regional Chamber and The Parade Company.
“I decided that if I was ever fortunate enough to have resources and a position in the corporate world, because of all the opportunities given to me, and the education I was able to obtain, and the jobs I was able to get, that I would give back to the community that raised me,” Pierce said. “And Detroit raised me, and so that was my motivation for getting involved. It wasn’t to benefit myself.”
For her service to the community, Pierce is a Detroit News 2026 honoree for Michiganian of the Year.
Pierce was born the youngest of 10 children. Her parents, who had just an eighth-grade education, owned a bar on Chene Street.
Her mom started the pie tradition. Back then, it was about 20-30 lemon meringue, chocolate, apple and pumpkin pies. When her mother passed away in the mid-1990s, Pierce decided to take on the responsibility herself.
“It’s grown a little bit since Mom and I started it,” she noted.
Now, Pierce starts baking the crusts (all from scratch, of course) in August. In November, she hosts pie-filling days, where top city officials, other elected officials and corporate executives come together to help her fill the pies. Pierce stuck with the chocolate, apple and pumpkin varieties, giving up the lemon meringue. She gives away all but a dozen or so. She has two freezers just for pies.
“It’s really a special time, and it’s a special tradition now,” she said.
Pierce was the first of her siblings to go to college, attending Wayne State University.
“I was fortunate because I had good grades and we had a very modest income, so I was able to go to college on scholarships and grants,” she said.
She lived at home to save money and had two jobs, one at the Wayne State bookstore and another as a teller at what was then the National Bank of Detroit. That sparked her interest in banking and customer service.
She was turned down for the bank’s management training program, told by a recruiter she didn’t have what it took.
“She said I could not make it in management because I was too nice,” Pierce said. “So that really kind of motivated me even more to prove her wrong.”
She applied to the bank’s commercial lending training program and was accepted, promising to earn a master’s degree in finance at the same time to boost her resume. She completed her advanced degree, again from Wayne State, and the training program simultaneously.
“Once I became a commercial lender at National Bank of Detroit, I started to really understand that relationships were really important and understanding customers on a personal as well as a professional level,” Pierce said. “And that drove me, and so I was really promoted quite quickly.”
Pierce would go on to become vice chair of FirstMerit Corp. and chair and chief executive officer of FirstMerit Michigan. In 2016, she joined Huntington Bank after a merger with FirstMerit.
She became chair of the Huntington Bank Michigan and served as senior executive vice president of Huntington National Bank. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed her to the Michigan State Board of Trustees in December 2022 to complete the term vacated by Pat O’Keefe, which ends Jan. 1, 2029.
“The companies that I was with, the banks, always part of their value system was being part of the community and giving back to the community,” Pierce said. “… But what drove me personally was to give back to the community that raised me, and so I hold that till this day.”
Sandy Pierce
Age: 68
Occupation: Retired bank executive
Family: Husband Tom, three children, six grandchildren
Education: Wayne State University, bachelor of business administration and marketing, master of business administration and finance
Why honored: For service to the community, including serving on at least 10 boards in Detroit and across Michigan.
jpignolet@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Sandy Pierce determined to give back to Detroit, a city that raised her
Reporting by Jennifer Pignolet, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jennifer Pignolet, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
