The Honorable Sandy K. Baruah is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Detroit Regional Chamber, one of the largest chambers of commerce in the nation that represents the business interests of a region comprising 5.4 million residents and nine Fortune 500 companies.

Baruah joined the Chamber in 2010 after a distinguished career in Washington, D.C., where he served under President George W. Bush as Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce. Prior to these roles, Baruah was a Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions Consultant for Performance Consulting Group and served both President George H.W. Bush and U.S. Sen. Bob Packwood. After leaving government service in 2009, he was a Distinguished Fellow at the U.S. Council on Competitiveness.

Baruah serves on the boards of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, Launch Michigan, Automotive Hall of Fame, and Detroit Economic Club, among others. He is the past Chair of the Detroit Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He is a contributor to the Harvard Business School’s U.S. Competitiveness Project and a Leadership Circle member of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas. He co-chairs the Great Lakes Metro Chambers Coalition. He is also a former Advisory Board Member of Spain’s Institute on Competitiveness.

In 2016, Baruah was appointed Chair of Michigan’s 21st Century Economy Commission and a member of the Growing Michigan Together Council in 2023.

Baruah earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon and a Master of Business Administration from Willamette University.