Doug DeVos

Doug DeVos (born October 6, 1964) is an American businessman and sailing champion. He serves as co-chairman of Amway's board of directors with Steve Van Andel.[1] DeVos serves as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Constitutional Center[2]

Doug DeVos
DeVos in 2019
Born (1964-10-06) October 6, 1964
Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
Known forAmway Co-Chairman of the Board
Spouse(s)Maria DeVos
Parent(s)Richard DeVos
Helen Van Wesep
RelativesDick DeVos (brother)
Dan DeVos (brother)

Early life

Doug is the youngest son of Helen June (Van Wesep) and Amway co-founder Rich DeVos, who, with Steve Van Adel's father Jay Van Andel, started Amway in Ada, Michigan, in 1959.[3][4]

DeVos played quarterback at Purdue University as an undergraduate student and is a graduate of Purdue University[3]

Doug started at Amway early in his working career. He took on various responsibilities and roles before being named the President in 2002.[4]

Amway

Doug DeVos served as President of Amway from 2002-2018[5] and was co-CEO with Steve Van Andel in what was called the Office of the Chief Executive until the end of 2018. The current CEO of Amway is Milind Pant[2].

In 2018, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appointed DeVos as a member of the US-India CEO Forum. The Forum explores ways to expand business relationships between the USA and India.[6]

Direct selling industry

From 2014 to 2017, DeVos served as chairman of the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, a global trade organization representing more than 60 national direct selling associations.[7]

In 2012, he was inducted into the United States Direct Selling Association Hall of Fame along with his brother, Dick DeVos.[8]

Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation

Doug and his wife Maria established their foundation in 1992.[9] The stated mission of the Foundation: "The Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation is committed to helping youth, families, and the community in greater Grand Rapids obtain the resources and tools to achieve their full potential".[10]

Notable Areas of Significant Foundation Support

Capitalism, Conservative Politics and Christianity

Grand Rapids Community Causes
  • Grand Rapids Public Schools
  • Amplify GR
  • ICCF
  • Grand Rapids Student Advancement Foundation
  • Believe 2 Become
  • First Steps Kent
  • K-Connect
  • Kent Services Network
  • Leading Educators Inc.

(Assessed by the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy in 2019 based on 2015 – 2017 990 documents)[11]

Sailing

DeVos has teamed with John J. "Hap" Fauth and Roger Penske to lead the New York Yacht Club's 2021 entry into the America's Cup, sailing's flagship competition. The entry marks the club's return to the historic race after a 15-year absence. The New York Yacht Club first won the America's Cup in 1851.[12]

Along with his Quantum Racing team, DeVos won the 52 Super Series Championship in 2018, the world's leading grand prix monohull yacht racing circuit.[13] DeVos and Quantum also won the championship in 2013, 2014 and 2016.[14] In 2019, DeVos and Quantum finished in third place.[15]

He is also a majority owner of Quantum Sails, a leading sail manufacturer based in Traverse City, Michigan.

Awards

In 2016, Devos was honored by the "He Played Football" award from the Joe Tiller Chapter of the National Football Foundation. The award is intended to provide recognition to a former football player from the Northeast Indiana region who went on to become highly successful in life after football.[16]

Advocate for criminal justice reform

In 2019, Doug DeVos supported an effort in Michigan to bring about criminal justice reforms. New measures have been under consideration such as making it easier for ex-offenders and residents to have their criminal histories expunged from the public record. DeVos mentioned the loss to the community when people are not welcomed back after they paid their debt to society. He was quoted as saying, “You lose the people who’ve made these mistakes, and you lose the opportunity for them to become productive members of society,” DeVos said. “Not just an employee, but a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a neighbor. These are people in our communities.” [17]

Christian ministries involvement

Doug DeVos has been involved with speaking at and supporting various Christian ministry leadership causes. For instance, he spoke at the Christian Leaders Institute banquet on September 4, 2019.[18]

DeVos was also the former co-chair (along with Christian film and media producer Billy Zeoli) of Gospel Communications International. Gospel Communications International developed the BibleGateway.com website and also trained and hosted hundreds of evangelical ministries on the internet beginning in 1995. Gospel Communications International both sold the BibleGateway.com website and ceased operations on December 15, 2008.

Personal life

Doug is married to Maria and they have four children.[19]

gollark: Idea for an instruction set: x86-64 MOV, but no other instructions.
gollark: I guess so. ARM SoCs for phones already have the high/low-powered cores dichotomy.
gollark: I think what would be pretty good is having CPUs with a few high-single-thread-perf cores, like we have now, some lower-powered cores, and a lot of parallel processing ones (like GPUs).
gollark: ARM is improving *really* fast.
gollark: I mean, RISC-V is kind of good but I think more complex instructions might actually be a good idea, to keep the CPU execution bits happy and fed with stuff to do.

References
  1. "Amway announces new CEO". MLive.
  2. "Board of Directors Page". National Constitution Center.
  3. "Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation". Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation About.
  4. "Inside Amway: Van Andel And DeVos Family Ties". 62 CBS Detroit.
  5. "Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation". Doug and Maria DeVos About.
  6. "American members of the US-India CEO Forum announced". Business Standard.
  7. Associations, Amway; World Federation of Direct Selling. "Amway President Doug DeVos Named Chairman of the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations". PR Newswire. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  8. "Press Release". dsa.org. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  9. "Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation". About Doug and Maria DeVos.
  10. "Apply at Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation". Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation.
  11. "Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy". Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy webpage.
  12. Kuriloff, Aaron (August 15, 2018). "New York Yacht Club Has Sights Set on the America's Cup". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  13. "Quantum Racing 52 Super Series Champions for 2018, Luna Rossa Win Valencia Title › 52 Super Series – Pure Performance". September 22, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  14. "The 52 Super Series › 52 Super Series – Pure Performance". January 3, 2014. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  15. "Final Results – 2019 52 Super Series". Scuttlebutt Sailing News.
  16. "He Played Football". Joe Tiller NFF Chapter. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  17. "West Michigan business leaders push for criminal justice reform". MLive.
  18. "Convention and Doug DeVos Dinner Report!". YouTube.
  19. "About Doug DeVos". Bio page at Amway Website.
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