Howard Handler grew up in suburban Detroit, earning a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the University of Michigan after graduating from Southfield-Lathrup High School. After working as a top marketing executive for sports and entertainment brands ranging from MTV to the The Madison Square Garden Co. and “Saturday Night Live,” he became chief marketing officer for Major League Soccer.
“I never lost my connection to Detroit,” Handler said recently. “But I also never dreamed of coming back.”
But come back he did, in 2019 as president of 313 Presents, the joint venture of Pistons Sports & Entertainment and Olympia Entertainment that comprises seven major entertainment venues.
Handler joins a panel of arts and entertainment leaders on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in a free one-hour Detroit Homecoming webcast focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected performing arts in metro Detroit. A second panel will focus on the major planning initiative to connect the cultural institutions in Midtown Detroit to create, as one planner describes it, as “The Smithsonian of the West.”
Handler is one of a handful of “boomerangs” participating in Detroit Homecoming VIII programming this year. The Homecoming begins with weekly webcasts and live on-stage programs Sept. 23-26.
Handler said he was recruited for 313 Presents by Len Perna, a one-time senior marketing executive for the Ilitch organization who led marketing partnerships, licensing and new business development for the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, the Fox Theatre, Meadow Brook Amphitheatre and other sports and entertainment properties.
After a stint with the Dallas Stars hockey team, he founded a specialized talent recruitment business for sports, entertainment and media, TurnkeyZRG.
While at MTV, Handler played a central role in the launch of “Beavis & Butthead,” “The Jon Stewart Show,” “The Real World” and the Peabody Awards-winning “Choose or Lose” voter awareness campaign. He was also recognized as one of America’s Top 100 Marketers by Ad Age, a Crain Communications Inc. publication.
On Tuesday’s webcast, he’ll join Omari Rush, executive director of CultureSource; Yuval Sharon, newly minted artistic director of Michigan Opera Theatre; and Robin Terry, chairwoman and CEO of the Motown Museum. Author Rochelle Riley, now arts and culture director for the city of Detroit, moderates the conversation.
Following that panel, Darin McKeever, president and CEO of the William Davidson Foundation, leads a discussion of plans for the cultural district. Speakers include Anya Sirota, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Michigan and a member of the team that won the design competition for the Midtown plan; Sue Mosey, president of Midtown Inc.; and Neil Barclay, CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Detroit Homecoming was created in 2014 and is produced by Crain’s Detroit Business. It’s supported by area foundations and companies and its fiduciary, the Downtown Detroit Partnership.
To register for Tuesday’s free webcast at 4 p.m., use this link: https://cometinteractive.brand.live/c/detroit-homecoming-2021-home. Registering also gives a viewer access to the Aug. 31 webcast featuring a conversation about the Ford Foundation’s re-engagement in Detroit and with the namesake Ford family. Foundation President Darren Walker and Henry Ford III, who joined the foundation board in 2019, will speak. The Foundation’s interest in workforce issues will segue into a second panel focused on job attraction and job training in Detroit.
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