President & Chief Executive Officer
Phone:
517-241-1400
Email:
burtonm8@michigan.org
As CEO, Mark A. Burton is charged with implementing and executing MEDC’s core mission of advocating for business development, job awareness and community development with the focus of building a strong and vibrant Michigan economy.
Burton entered this role less than a week before the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic in Michigan. Since that time, he has led a robust and comprehensive effort to provide relief and support to Michigan small businesses, communities, entrepreneurs and workers facing the negative impacts from the virus. Under his leadership, MEDC has created or repurposed nearly two dozen statewide relief and recovery programs, several of which have been recognized and replicated by national peers.
Burton remains committed to helping guide the organization – and Michigan – through a post-crisis economy by focusing on enabling equitable and long-term economic prosperity for all Michiganders.
Burton was most recently Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Chief Strategist who played an instrumental role in shaping her agenda to close the skills gap, provide every Michigander with a path to a good paying job and to improve the state’s core infrastructure. In a nearly 20-year career, he has also held various other positions across state government, started and ran a small business and worked in the philanthropic community.
Burton received his Bachelor of Science from Northern Michigan University, his Juris Doctor from Michigan State University College of Law and is a graduate of Oxford University’s International Human Rights Law program.
