Matthew P. Cullen is chief executive officer of JACK Entertainment. Cullen also is a principal of Rock Ventures LLC, the Detroit-based organization that serves and connects entrepreneur and Quicken Loans Founder and Chairman and majority owner of the 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers Dan Gilbert’s Family of more than 100 companies, as well as his investments, real estate purchases, and community activities.
Cullen helps lead Rock Ventures’ efforts to spark development and revitalization in the City of Detroit, which includes Quicken Loans’ national headquarters move to the city in 2010. Since then, the Family of Companies has invested more than $2.2 billion in real estate in Detroit’s Central Business District, which has been a catalyst for attracting new businesses, workers and residents to the city.
Cullen is a 29-year veteran of General Motors (GM), where he was general manager of economic development and enterprise services. In addition to coordinating economic development initiatives in the communities in which GM operates, he created a shared services organization and had responsibility for the corporation’s vast 450-million-square- foot global real estate portfolio.
Cullen was chief architect of GM’s $500 million acquisition and development of the Renaissance Center as the automaker’s global headquarters. Since 2003 he has helped oversee the billion dollar redevelopment of the city’s international riverfront as the founding chairman of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, whose vision is to create more than five miles of contiguous public access and linked parks along the river.
He also serves as volunteer president and CEO of the M-1 RAIL Streetcar initiative. The 6.6 mile streetcar, known as QLINE, connects the city’s largest cultural destinations, educational and entertainment facilities and employment centers along Woodward Avenue. Through a public-private partnership, M-1 RAIL serves as a catalyst for investment, economic development and urban renewal to positively impact Detroit while helping to create a modern, regional transit system.
In addition, Cullen is the chairman of Invest Detroit; vice chairman of the Downtown Detroit Partnership; and serves on the Detroit Zoological Society executive committee. He is also a board member of the Detroit Regional Chamber, Hudson-Webber Foundation, St. John Health Foundation, and Tech Town, and a trustee of the College of Creative Studies and Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. He has previously chaired the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, The Parade Company and the Metropolitan Detroit YMCA, and retains current executive committee membership with all three organizations. For more than 10 years, Cullen served as the governor-appointed chairman of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation executive committee.Cullen earned a degree in economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy. He also completed the Senior Executive Program at Harvard University. A native Detroiter, he resides with his wife Karen and their three sons in the Detroit area.