Biz Connections

PAY IT FORWARD

Greg Ryan

Greg Ryan ‘snowblows’ it forward

IT WAS THE FIRST SNOW of winter in Wisconsin, and Greg Ryan’s phone was ringing non-stop.

That’s because Ryan, an engineer by trade, spends the season repairing old snowblowers and giving the good-as-new machines to Milwaukee families for free. It’s what he calls “snowblowing it forward.”

“Every year, people call me right when it’s supposed to snow,” Ryan said with a laugh. “They always start the conversation with, ‘I know you must be busy.’”

Busy is an understatement, Ryan said. By his estimate, Ryan will give away dozens of snowblowers by the end of the 2023 winter season.

Before he became known as “the snowblower guy,” Ryan was president of the now-defunct New Berlin-based ExecPC, which was considered Wisconsin’s largest internet service provider in the 1990s.

“I was entranced by electricity and electronics,” said Ryan, who spent his childhood tinkering with friends’ radios and televisions. “But after all those years as an engineer, and most of that time spent sitting in front of a keyboard, I missed getting my hands dirty.”

It was time for a change, Ryan decided. So, after stepping away from his role at the company in the early 2000s, he returned to what he loved most: small engine repairs that served his community.

With his mobile repair business, Greg’s Small Engines, Ryan quickly earned a reputation in Milwaukee’s Riverwest, East Side and Harambee neighborhoods as the go-to guy for on-site tune-ups. Soon, customers who bought themselves new snowblowers for the season started offering up their old ones to Ryan, and he would then turn a profit by fixing them and selling them on Facebook or Craigslist.

But Ryan found himself more fulfilled when he fixed the machines and gave them away for free, he said.

“There are a lot of people who can’t afford these machines, and especially in Wisconsin, a snowblower is a wonderful thing to have,” Ryan said. “If you don’t have a snowblower and you don’t have a shovel, you may not be able to get to work.”

Working for “Christmas snacks, donations of beer,” and occasionally Amazon gift cards to cover costs of tools and spare parts, Ryan admits the job comes with a sizeable salary slash – but it’s not without a positive payoff.

“I’m actually way happier,” said Ryan, who no longer performs on-site tuneups through Greg’s Small Engines but rather refers customers to two younger men he personally trained. “It’s a terrific feeling to have people happy to see you.”

Demand for his services has been so great that his Riverwest neighbor lets Ryan use his garage for extra space, Ryan said. And by building relationships with so many Milwaukeeans, Ryan’s services snowball into something bigger.

“I’m happy to give you a snowblower,” Ryan said. “But promise to help your neighbor and pay it forward.” n

Greg Ryan

Former president ExecPC Service: Free snowblower donations to Milwaukee families

LELAH BYRON

Reporter

P / 414-336-7121 E / lelah.byron@biztimes.com

GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR

Preparing for closing

This January 1981 photo shows a clerk at the cash register of the TA Chapman Department Store at 401 E. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Milwaukee. The shelves are empty as the store prepares to close. Built in 1885, the department store building was razed in 1982 to make way for the 30-story 411 East Wisconsin Center office building. — Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Public Library / Historic Photo Collection 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120

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COMMENTARY

GE HealthCare rings our bell

THE RECENTLY COMPLETED spinoff of GE HealthCare from General Electric creates a new independent company with about 51,000 employees and nearly $18 billion in annual revenue. It’s a global company with research and development work done in 18 countries and manufacturing operations in 20 countries.

And it’s one of the most important companies in Wisconsin.

While based in Chicago, GE HealthCare has a huge presence in Wisconsin with about 5,200 employees in the state. It has a major impact on Wisconsin’s economy. The company has an $800 million annual supply chain spend in the state, according to Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

Likewise, Wisconsin is very important to GE HealthCare. Earlier this month, when the company marked the completion of its spinoff with a ceremony to ring the opening bell for the Nasdaq exchange, it held the big celebration at its Waukesha facility, not at its Chicago headquarters or any of its other facilities around the world.

More than half of the company’s Wisconsin employees are based in Waukesha. By having its spinoff and Nasdaq bell-ringing ceremony there, the company, “shows their commitment to this region and growth potential that we have here,” Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow said to WISN-TV Channel 12, a media partner of BizTimes Milwaukee.

“The pride and commitment of our teams and our legacy in Wisconsin runs deep,” a GE HealthCare spokesperson told BizTimes Milwaukee. “Waukesha is an important flagship location for the business and our team members. Many of the executive leadership and cross-functional teams who support our segments, for example, supply chain, quality and regulatory, digital, marketing, etc., are based in Waukesha. These teams work closely with the product research, development and engineering teams and are responsible for delivering on our care pathway and precision innovation strategy, which is key to our success.”

In 2020, the company announced plans for a major investment in its West Milwaukee facility and said it planned to move 1,500 jobs to that facility and its Wauwatosa location. Most of those jobs were to be moved from Waukesha.

The company later listed its 561-acre campus in Waukesha for sale but, by the end of 2021, changed its mind and pulled the Waukesha campus off the market to keep operations there.

Meanwhile, the company moved forward with improvements to its West Milwaukee facility. It added more than 200 production jobs there, invested more than $60 million in the facility and plans to add a 40,000-square-foot expansion.

“(The West Milwaukee facility) has received more investment than any of our other med tech manufacturing sites globally,” the company spokesperson said. “We plan to continue investing in manufacturing capacity at this site to meet continued global demand.”

Having GE HealthCare maintain a huge presence in Waukesha and still expanding in West Milwaukee is a best-case scenario for the region. n

ANDREW WEILAND

EDITOR

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Tony Bugher

5 MINUTES WITH… TONY BUGHER

President of Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co.

In December, Chippewa Falls-based Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. unveiled plans to open a brewery, bar and restaurant at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The J. Leinenkugel’s Barrel Yard will open in March, taking over the former Restaurant to be Named Later space in left field. BizTimes Milwaukee reporter Ashley Smart caught up with Leinenkugel’s new president Tony Bugher to discuss the planned brewpub concept. Bugher explained how the Barrel Yard will allow the company to hone its focus on innovation and expand brand awareness. Below are portions of their conversation, edited for length and clarity.

ON WHAT MAKES THE BREWPUB A GOOD PARTNERSHIP

“The opportunity to really talk to consumers on a consistent basis. When you think about a baseball season, you’re talking about 81 home games. That’s 81 opportunities where you’ve got thousands of fans, and we want to hear from them. Plus, this type of setup gives us the opportunity to play around with different (beer) recipes and styles. That’s something that’s pretty hard for us to do frequently at our bigger operations.” INTRODUCING MORE INNOVATIVE BEERS

“(The brewpub) will be very similar to the setup we have in Chippewa Falls with our pilot system at the Leinie Lodge. This system is a little bit smaller than that. It’s a three-barrel system. We’ll have all the fan favorites there like Summer Shandy and Juicy Peach, but the cool thing about this system is it will allow us to brew different styles. We can play around with new recipes. Like I said, we want to hear from the fans and hear their ideas. We’ve got the capability to brew them now and the flexibility to turn things around quickly. That’s the most interesting and exciting thing for me.”

SEEKING INSPIRATION FROM SIMILAR CONCEPTS

“There is a Terrapin brewery at the Atlanta Braves’ stadium that I had spent a lot of time at. It’s called the Brew Lab. I was able to get a lot of eyes on it and see how they operated and understand customer dynamics. Certainly, a lot of inspiration came from that and visiting other stadiums, too. The design is going to feature a lot of historical cues from Leinenkugel. (Customers are) going to be able to see the brewing process, too. It’s also going to be very open and modern.”

FOOD CONCEPTS

“We haven’t completely landed on that right now. We’re working on it. What I think you can expect is something better than what you get at just your general concession stand, but you can’t expect artisanal food. It’s going to be food that you would want to have at a baseball game, but it’s going to be better than the standard hot dog, pretzel or Cracker Jacks. That’s kind of our baseline.” n