Mike and Marian Ilitch on Thursday announced a future succession plan for their Detroit-based pizza, sports and entertainment empires that says their youngest son, Christopher Ilitch, will eventually replace them in their respective roles.
The announcement contained few surprise, as Christopher Ilitch, the sixth of Mike and Marian's seven children, has been at the helm of the family's holding corporation — Ilitch Holdings — for more than a decade. He and his sister, Denise Ilitch, were once copresidents of Ilitch Holdings until she resigned from the family business in 2004 after a chilly estrangement with her brother and mother.