Philip H. Power founded The Center for Michigan in January 2006, a think-and-do tank aimed at improving the policy and political environment in Michigan.
Power was appointed to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Executive Committee in 2000 and currently serves as vice chair. He also chairs the Finance Subcommittee and is a member of the Policy Subcommittee.
For nearly forty years, Power was founder, owner and chairman of the board of HomeTown Communications Network, Inc., a group of 62 community newspapers and 24 telephone directories throughout Michigan and around Cincinnati, Ohio. Initially an entrepreneurial effort, the corporation came to be recognized as among the very best of its sort in the country while at the same time retaining its roots as a family company. Taken together, his newspapers won more state and national awards for excellence than any other group in the country. In March 2005, Power sold the assets of his company to the Gannett Company. His award-winning column continues to appear regularly in his former newspapers.Power graduated from the University of Michigan in 1960. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Public Service by Eastern Michigan University in 2003 and a Marshall Scholarship to Oxford University in England in 1962, where he earned an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Power was appointed a Regent of the University of Michigan in 1987; he was elected to the office in 1990 and served until 1998. He received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award from the University of Michigan Alumni Association in October 2000.
Power is chair of the Michigan chapter of The Nature Conservancy, president of the Power Foundation, and is a member of the board of the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor. He helped found the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce in 1991, serving as its chair until 2005 and is now a member of the board.
He resides in Ann Arbor with his wife, Kathleen. They have two sons, Scott T. Sutton M.D., who practices internal medicine in Denver, and Nathan E. Power.