Bob Guenzel - Ann Arbor

Robert E. "Bob" Guenzel is a former Washtenaw County Administrator, who retired in 2010 after serving in that role since 1994. He serves on the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board – he was first appointed by the city council in 2010 for a term ending August 15, 2014, then reappointed in August 2014 for a term ending May 31, 2018.

Bob Guenzel at the May 5, 2010 meeting of the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, his last meeting before retiring as county administrator. (Photo courtesy of The Ann Arbor Chronicle.)And at its Sept. 29, 2014 meeting, the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority board voted to appoint Guenzel as interim CEO of the AAATA, starting when current CEO Michael Ford steps down. Ford is taking a job as CEO of the southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority (RTA), starting Oct. 20. Guenzel will hold the AAATA job on a part-time basis until the board selects a permanent CEO.

Prior to becoming county administrator, Guenzel had served as Washtenaw County's first corporation counsel. He was previously a trial attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, Seventh Region, Detroit. He also was a former Ann Arbor Assistant City Attorney, and was in private practice as the managing partner for the law firm of Harris, Guenzel, Meier & Nichols.

Guenzel has been involved in a wide range of community activities and organizations, including the United Way of Washtenaw County, where he was campaign chair and a past president of the board. He was a co-convener of the County Task Force on Homelessness and the community’s Blueprint to End Homelessness, including the development and construction of the Robert J. Delonis Center in Ann Arbor.

He is on the board of directors of The Ark, a nonprofit concert venue, and is a past board president. He is president of the board of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance, and has served on the boards of Nonprofit Enterprise at Work (NEW), Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce, the Washtenaw Health Plan, the Criminal Justice Collaborative Council, and the Success by Six initiative.

He also served as chair of the former Washtenaw Development Council (WDC), and was formerly on the board of directors for Ann Arbor SPARK, the local economic development agency that replaced the WDC. He was the convener for the Wireless Washtenaw Initiative, Washtenaw Area Teens for Tomorrow (WATT) youth development enterprise, and the Literacy Coalition of Washtenaw County. He was formerly a board member for the Alliance for Innovation, based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Guenzel has a bachelors of business administration from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School.

He lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, Pam Guenzel, an artist.