“Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”  -Steve Jobs.

On behalf of your team of Senior Officers and staff, we’re here to help you, your business and our industry, and we look forward to your participation, feedback and support.

I am humbled to serve as your 2025 President. As I’ve started visiting locals across the state for Board Installations and member events, I reflect on a recent trip to the U.P. for their Wild Game Dinner. While there, I had the opportunity to tour Marquette with former HBAM President LR Swadley. I love the “I built that” tours along with the sharing of stories, challenges, and successes of our industry. Each of our stories is unique but have similar threads, and I look forward to hearing your “story” this year.

As housing issues continue to rise, we need to be strong for the industry. We have a solid foundation, but our work is not complete. As we continue to navigate code and industry challenges, I encourage you to harness your passion for our industry. Although we face obstacles - I am optimistic about the future.

Our leadership and staff work diligently to set our industry up for success. For example, Bob Filka was recently honored at the NAHB Convention as State Executive Officer of the Year, Jason Orvosh, HBAM Past President, won YP of the Year, and Sarah Foster EO of the HBA of the U.P. was recently installed as NAHB Regional Director. 

During 2025, we will continue to focus on efficiencies to maximize our efforts. I see HUGE opportunities to harness your knowledge and skills. We need your engagement and input to strengthen our voice. More big ideas require more action, and we’re going to leverage your treasured knowledge and put that to work. This will allow us to solve issues for the long-term and work together more efficiently to get more results.

Let’s continue to build upon what HBAM Past President Rich Kligman and Senior Officers started. Please financially support one or all of the 4 pillars of the HBA of Michigan – Our Legal Action Fund, Skilled to Build Michigan Foundation, Friends of Housing Political Action Committee and the NAHB Build PAC. We need to be ready to financially support housing champions now and in the years to come.

In addition to financial support, we can also build strong coalitions within your communities that will add to our voice, educate legislators on the issues you are facing, and most importantly, answer the call when asked to reach out.

We cannot do this alone. We are stronger together.

Thank you,

Aaron Hovestadt
2025 HBAM President