Susan Sherer began a hospitality career in 1980 with Hyatt Hotels. Eight years later Sherer join the national sales team of Westin Hotels in Detroit.  Living in downtown Detroit Sherer spent 12 years working on promoting Detroit as a destination for corporate and convention events.  After serving in nearly every capacity of the hotel business including General Manager.  Sherer moved to the Detroit Convention & Visitors Bureau. In 2000, her assigned role was to lead the convention sales effort but she quickly shifted to special projects and as Tourism and Economic Development Advisor Sherer crafted the winning bid and presentation for Super Bowl XL in Detroit. In May of 2001 Sherer was appointed to Executive Director of the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee.  With an $18 million budget, Sherer led a staff of 30 spanning operations, transportation, communication, event management, and finance.  Understanding what was at stake hosting a Super Bowl in Detroit Sherer formed a work group of civic and corporate leaders which later launched the planning for the Lower Woodward Improvement Program.  Detroit Economic Growth Corporation took the plans and executed a large scale revitalization program which invigorated the central business district. Having plans underway to improve the environment Sherer led the effort to finance and create a large scale event as the backdrop for Super Bowl XL.   Later the Motown Winter Blast was created and launched in 2005.  Attendance in 2006 including fans, guests, and locals was just short of 1 million. With over 450 million media impressions from 2000-2006 the conversation in both the national and local media around Detroit shifted from negative to positive.  Suburbanites flooded downtown and together the region celebrated not only Super Bowl XL but also the tipping point of our central city. Susan and her husband are student partners at Cornerstone Schools in Detroit and she is an active member of Grosse Pointe Baptist Church.  She serves on several Detroit area committees including the 2004 Arnold Palmer Turning Point Golf Tournament, 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Detroit Local Organizing Committee, Major League Baseball 2005 All Star Game, Lower Woodward Improvement Program, Detroit Regional Gateway Advisory Council and others. Sherer recently received the Greater Good Award from National Association of Women Business Owners and the Spirit of Detroit Award from the City of Detroit. "Last week's success was the result of a lot of heart and a lot of work from top to bottom, from the Ford family, whose name is synonymous with Detroit, to Roger Penske, whose name is synonymous with racing, to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose name is synonymous with politics, and Susan Sherer, who proved that women can do everything." - February 7, 2006, Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press Columnist "Still, with a budget of just $18 million spread over six years, the host committee couldn't rebuild sidewalks or dress up dilapidated buildings on its own. Rather, Sherer has parlayed her considerable skills to motivate and excite turf-conscious agencies and organizations to cooperate for the common good." - January 31, 2006, Mike Hodges, Detroit News "A consummate team player, Penske spent much of his speech thanking all those who had made the Super Bowl XL effort a success, including Susan Sherer, his executive director at the host committee, and Bill Ford, chairman and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., whose family owns the Detroit Lions and built Ford Field, which attracted the NFL's championship game." - February 9, 2006, John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press "Congratulations to the movers and shakers -- Roger Penske, Susan Sherer, the Ford Family, Mayor Kilpatrick, Dennis Archer, Jon Witz, Bob Gregory, Al Fields -- the list goes on and on. And congratulations to the volunteers and the community who made it a truly rewarding experience." - February 6, 2006, Click on Detroit, Local Channel 4, WDIV "That's not by accident. The Super Bowl Host Committee, chaired by Roger Penske and managed by Executive Director Susan Sherer, has changed the way many people think about Detroit. Sherer and members of her staff have worked hard courting the national media and getting them to see past the city's problems. They traveled to New York and other media hotbeds to meet with reporters and tell them about the changes happening in Detroit… Credit Sherer, her staff and the business community from around the region for rallying behind that message and telling it uniformly." - January 28, 2006, The Detroit News