Hank Meijer is executive chairman of Meijer, Inc. in Grand Rapids. He joined the family retail business at the age of 11 as a grocery clerk.
After serving as a reporter for a Detroit-area newspaper group, he became editor and later publisher of a weekly newspaper in Plymouth, Michigan. He rejoined Meijer in 1979 as assistant advertising director.
In 1984, he published Thrifty Years, a biography of Hendrik Meijer, the company’s founder and his grandfather. His biography of Michigan Senator Arthur Vandenberg was recently published by the University of Chicago Press.
Hank is vice-chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. He also serves on the executive committee of the Food Marketing Institute and is a trustee of the National Constitution Center and The Henry Ford. He is a member of the University of Michigan’s President’s Advisory Group and the Ford School of Public Policy board of advisors and chairs the board of the Kettering Foundation.