Biography for Rob Fowler
As president/CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM), Rob Fowler is a registered lobbyist representing small business before the Michigan Legislature. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Small Business Association and serves on the board of the newly created nonprofit organization MiQuest, whose mission is to make Michigan the State of Entrepreneurship. In October 2013, he was appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to serve on the Board of the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and currently serves as board chair. SBAM, which was founded in 1969, serves more than 23,000 member companies from all of Michigan’s 83 counties. A leading voice for growing the state’s entrepreneurial community through a strategy known as “economic gardening,” SBAM helps Michigan’s small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. Fowler joined SBAM in 2000 and was vice president of the subsidiary corporation, Small Business Insurance Services, until July 2003, when he became president. Before moving to Michigan, he was the executive director of the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE) in Cleveland, Ohio from 1995 to 2000. A former lobbyist for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce for ten years, he served as executive director of the Indiana Small Business Council and was on the staff of the Indiana Lt. Governor for two years.
He is the former chair of the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement of Mid-Michigan and has served as chair of the Business Advisory Committee of the Michigan Hospital Association. A graduate of Ball State University with a degree in political science, Rob and his wife Lisa live in Haslett with their son Reid and daughter Emma.