Founding Executive Director
A passionate advocate for Detroit’s revitalization efforts, Deirdre Greene Groves is the founding executive director of The Collaborative Group, a non-profit organization with a mission of bringing together the intellectual capital of the region’s top talent to collaborate on business and philanthropic efforts aimed at spurring economic growth, job creation, and overall prosperity in the region. With a diverse background in urban planning, community development, and nonprofit management, Deirdre is building a new model for urban revitalization through the Collaborative Group’s first initiative, Challenge Detroit. By attracting and retaining top talent from Detroit and across the country to live, work, play, give, and lead, the program’s goal is to change perceptions about Detroit and its surrounding region.
In Challenge Detroit’s inaugural year, Deirdre successfully recruited 30 diverse companies to provide jobs for program participants and forged partnerships with10 organizations for team challenges focused on social impact projects. Her work garnered the recognition and support of government, business and community leaders, and the program’s inaugural year attracted national attention and hundreds of individual applicants from across the country.
Prior to launching The Collaborative Group and Challenge Detroit, Deirdre focused her career on real estate development, construction management, and community planning efforts, working for Mosher Dolan, Inc., a boutique construction and development firm.
Deirdre is a member of The B.I.N.G. Institute Emerging Leaders Roundtable, chair of the Communications Committee for the Urban Land Institute Michigan (ULI) Young Leaders Group, and participant in the UM/ULI Real Estate Forum Planning Committee. In addition, she sits on the board for The Work of Art and contributes her time to the Highland Equestrian Conservancy.
Deirdre holds a Bachelors of Construction Management from Michigan State University and a Masters of Urban Planning & Real Estate Development from the University of Michigan.
