Inducted 2017
Editor and Publisher
Mary Kramer
Mary L. Kramer is the group publisher of Crain’s Detroit Business and Crain’s Cleveland Business.
Born in Grand Rapids, Kramer is a graduate of Grand Valley State University. She has 16 years of reporting and management experience at daily newspapers. They include the Kalamazoo Gazette, Grand Rapids Press, Ann Arbor News, Greenwich (Connecticut) Time and Buffalo (New York) Courier-Express.
Kramer joined Crain’s Detroit Business in April 1989 as editor. The publication covers business news in the five-county metropolitan Detroit area.
In 1990, Kramer was named associate publisher on top of her editorial responsibilities. In 1994, she was named a vice president of the parent company. Since 2005, she has been publisher of Crain’s Detroit Business, responsible for sales, circulation and editorial operations.
In 2012, she was named a group publisher, with additional oversight for Crain’s Cleveland Business. Even with expanding leadership responsibilities, she remained a journalist and a mentor to others.
Active in a number of organizations, Kramer is a former president of the Alliance of Area Business Publications, a national trade association for regional\ business publishers.
Her volunteer roles include many that support higher education. In 2013, she began an eight-year term as a member of the Grand Valley State University Board of Trustees and she is also a trustee of the Skillman Foundation.
She is a trustee of the Detroit Institute of Arts and a member of the Detroit Regional Chamber, Metropolitan Affairs Coalition and United Way of Southeast Michigan.
Kramer is the first woman to be elected president of the formerly all-male Detroit Athletic Club. She holds honorary doctorates from Grand Valley State University, Walsh College, Alma College and Central and Eastern Michigan universities.