SPARTAN TRUSTEE

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July 9, 2025

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Alum brings lifelong lessons from Notre Dame to the Navy and his new role as a Michigan State University trustee.

Michael Balow, a 1990 graduate of Notre Dame High School, was elected in November 2024 to serve an eight-year term on Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees, earning nearly 2.5 million votes. A seasoned real estate executive and former U.S. Navy officer, Balow credits his high school years at Notre Dame with laying the foundation for a life of service, leadership and community involvement.

“Notre Dame was just so integral in preparing me for life,” Balow said. “I’ve always believed that you build a life — and a career is only part of that. Family, faith, friends, community — ND enabled me have such a rich and broad outlook.”

Currently a vice president at CBRE, Inc. in Southfield, Mich., Balow brings nearly two decades of experience in Southeast Michigan’s commercial real estate sector. His career has included developing industrial land, brokering office building transactions, and underwriting investments for institutional clients. Before his corporate life, he served seven years on active duty as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy, including deployments with the Pacific Fleet and later as an instructor at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy.

Educating the whole person

Balow’s professional track record also includes roles with Johnson Controls and Toll Brothers, as well as a 14-year stretch at Ashley Capital, where he worked on redevelopment projects that gave new life to former industrial sites across Michigan.

Through all of it, he said, the principles instilled at Notre Dame — especially the Marist Fathers’ commitment to educating the “whole person” — remained a guiding force.

“They were able to combine the Catholic faith, art and science in a way that put those three things in harmony,” Balow said. “It allowed us as students to grow into thoughtful adults ready to contribute to our communities.”

While at Notre Dame, Balow was active on the basketball team for four years and played football and baseball as a freshman. He remembers specific teachers and mentors who shaped his thinking and sparked a curiosity that would carry him through the U.S. Naval Academy and beyond.

“So many names come to mind — Mr. Raymond ("draw the diagram!"), Mr. Vachon (The Canterbury Tales), Mr. Kelly's English classes, Mr. Rice, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Borton, Mr. Kotarski, Fr. Kiselica and his classes on Western Civilization and the New Testament,” he said. “They each played a role.”

Loved Notre Dame

That preparation proved invaluable as he moved on to the Naval Academy, which he attended with another Notre Dame alum, Dave Chlebnik ND’89. “The academy taught us to have a life of service, which was building on what ND had already taught us,” Balow said.

That call to serve has echoed throughout his life — from his volunteer leadership at St. Lazarus Church in Detroit and the Plymouth-Canton Steelers Football Club to his current role as an MSU trustee. “There’s great honor in doing things for people who will never be able to pay you back — to pay it forward,” he said.

Balow and his wife, Debbie, live in Plymouth Township and are the parents of three daughters. Their oldest is a 2023 graduate of MSU’s Broad College of Business and earned a varsity letter as a swimmer, adding another chapter to the family's Spartan ties.

Summarizing the role Notre Dame High School played in his life, Balow is quick to express gratitude.

“I loved my time at Notre Dame,” he said. “It literally got me ready for everything that came next.”

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.