BizTimes Milwaukee | May 28, 2018

BIZEXPO | MAY 31st | Will you be there?

‘TURNS IT UP TO 11’

plus WISCONSIN IS BECOMING A NATIONAL GOLF DESTINATION 12 ATI’S CUDAHY INVESTMENT WAS YEARS IN THE MAKING 15 MOTHER-SON DUO GOES FROM HOMELESS TO ENTREPRENEURS 24

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BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 24, Number 5, May 28, 2018 – June 10, 2018. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except monthly in January, July and December by BizTimes Media LLC at 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120, USA. Basic annual subscription rate is $42. Single copy price is $3.25. Back issues are $5 each. Periodicals postage paid at Milwaukee, WI and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to BizTimes Milwaukee, 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120. Entire contents copyright 2018 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.

Contents

4 Leading Edge 4 NOW

BY THE NUMBERS 5 BEHIND THE SCENES 6 QUOTE/UNQUOTE 7 BIZ LUNCH 8 BIZ POLL COFFEE BREAK 9 PROJECT PITCH IT 10 THE FRANCHISEE

12 BizNews ‘TURNS IT UP TO 11’

12 W ISCONSIN IS BECOMING A NATIONAL GOLF DESTINATION. 15 MADE IN MILWAUKEE

16 Real Estate 24 Startups & Innovation

COVER STORY

46 Strategies

18

46 INNOVATION Dan Steininger 47 LEADERSHIP Aleta Norris 48 TIP SHEET

50 BizConnections

Special Report

50 PAY IT FORWARD

30 Applause!

52 AROUND TOWN

Meet the winners of the Bravo! Entrepreneur and I.Q. (Innovation Quotient) Awards, the Woman Executive of the Year, the Regional Spirit Award winner and the Lifetime Achievement Award winner, plus all the main stage event panelists for BizExpo 2018.

53 GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR COMMENTARY 54 MY BEST ADVICE

51 PERSONNEL FILE

WE’RE PROUD TO BE

WISCONSIN’S BANK FOR BUSINESS ™

414-273-3507 | townbank.us JAY MACK President & CEO

JOHN JOHANNES Executive Vice President, Commercial Real Estate

DENNIS KRAKAU Executive Vice President, Commercial Banking

biztimes.com / 3

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NOW

Hammes Co. named master planner for Foxconn’s science and technology park

By Arthur Thomas, staff writer As crews begin the work of moving 4 million cubic yards of dirt to prepare the site of Foxconn Technology Group’s massive LCD manufacturing campus, the company is already turning its attention toward planning how the area surrounding its $10 billion facility

will be developed.

To help set a vision for the development, Foxconn has hired Brookfield-based Hammes Co. to create a master plan for the “Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park.”

The Foxconn manufacturing

BY THE NUMBERS M+W | Gilbane recently named

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subcontractors for site preparation work for the Foxconn campus in Mount Pleasant.

All but one of them is based in Wisconsin.

4 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

operation is expected to sit on about 800 acres just south of Braun Road and west of Highway H in Mount Pleasant, but that leaves more than 2,000 acres in the project area to be developed.

“It’s a big undertaking when you’re dealing with this size and scope, but the process one uses stays the same,” said Hammes Co. founder and managing partner Jon Hammes.

Ever since the project was announced at the White House last year, Foxconn executives have discussed their desire to create an 8K+5G ecosystem in Wisconsin that takes advantage of next generation technology in display resolution and cellular data.

The idea for the science and technology park is to attract companies in verticals like education, health care, entertainment, sports, security and smart communities, higher education institutions, and research institutes. Potential suppliers to Foxconn are also expected to locate near the firm.

Foxconn and its general contractor M+W | Gilbane set goals of having 60 percent of construction work for the LCD manufacturing complex performed by Wisconsin businesses and 70 percent of the work hours performed by Wisconsin residents.

The project also has a goal of 10 percent for minority-, woman- or veteran-owned firms, and the same

for workers in those groups.

The first group of 28 subcontractors, announced in early May, made good progress on those goals, with 27 of the firms being based in the state and seven qualifying as minority-, woman- or veteran-owned.

Hiring those subcontractors put the project on a path to meeting its hiring goals, although the $100 million in work represents just 1 percent of the total project. Those efforts took a hit, however, after The Daily Reporter inquired about Vizcaino’s Trucking LLC’s status as a banned contractor by the state Department of Transportation.

Black River Falls-based Hoffman Construction Co. terminated its agreement with Vizcaino’s after being contacted by the Milwaukee construction newspaper.

The hiring of Hammes provided another example of Foxconn hiring Wisconsin firms, but it also highlighted the politics surrounding the project. Many media outlets were quick to point out that Jon Hammes has close ties to Gov. Scott Walker and is a frequent donor to Republican candidates.

He is the campaign finance chair of Walker’s re-election bid.

“I don’t see this as a political subject,” Hammes said. “I see this as business development and growing the economic health of our state and our region.” n

1

BEHIND THE SCENES

LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

BEHIND THE SCENES BistroPlex at Southridge Mall

By Maredithe Meyer, staff writer

A

t Marcus Theatres’ BistroPlex, it’s not unusual for moviegoers to arrive early to their show. In fact, it’s actually recommended that you find your designated DreamLounger reclining seat as early as 30 minutes before the movie starts. That’s because Milwaukee-based The Marcus Corp.’s new theater concept, which opened last June at Southridge Mall in Greendale, doubles as a full-service restaurant.

After purchasing a ticket from a digital kiosk in the lobby, patrons head directly to one of the eight auditoriums – no concession stop necessary. Once they are seated, a server takes their food and beverage orders. On busy nights, the BistroPlex staff – a team of 165 people – serves dinner and a movie to almost 860 guests during a two-hour set of shows. n

1

The BistroPlex serves all-day breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and drinks. The fish tacos are a customer favorite, but for the traditional concession stand-lovers, popcorn, candy and soda are always available.

2

Food and beverage service is available for 30 minutes before and after the movie starts.

When the “push for service” button is pressed, a digital seating chart in the kitchen tells servers at which seat a customer wants to place an order.

3

Kitchen manager Alysia Ramirez cooks in the cinema’s kitchen, which has two lines – each assigned to a different side of the building.

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3

4

5

4

Inside the projection room, an automated machine reads and plays the 80 to 160 GB digital movie file, which is encrypted and stored on a hard drive or streamed on a satellite feed.

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Since 2011, Marcus Theatres have used these Texas Instruments chips that contain 8 million tiny mirrors that shift in different directions to reflect light, projecting a moving image onto the screen. biztimes.com / 5

Leading Edge

@BIZTIMESMEDIA – Real-time news

“ QUOTE

unQUOTE

RO G E R F E RG U S O N J R .

”

PR E SI DEN T A N D CEO, T I A A Roger Ferguson Jr., president and chief executive officer of TIAA, recently visited Milwaukee to give a talk to executives at the University Club downtown. Ferguson is the former vice chairman of the board of governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve and one of three black CEOs in the Fortune 500. He also sits on the board of Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. David Lubar, president and CEO of Lubar & Co., and audience members asked him questions. n “Diversity and inclusion in the U.S. is driven by three things. One, it’s the general sense that it’s the right thing to do. Second is demographics. America’s becoming a dramatically more diverse country… individuals want to see and work with people with which they may have some affinity. The final thing is there is a huge amount of evidence…that inclusive teams make better decisions.”

“We’ve had remarkably quiescent inflation, even as the U.S. unemployment rate has come down to what might be thought of as full employment, and I think there will be over the next period of time a real effort to understand if inflation dynamics have changed or if we’ll likely start to see inflation pick up.”

“(Imposing tariffs) is a new change for the U.S. government, but I think it’s too early to draw any strong conclusions about how this is really going to end up.”

6 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

“This is an unusual experiment to run this amount of fiscal stimulus at this stage in the business cycle and really the economic cycle of the country. If the cycle were to turn, we are at a place where there’s not much room left for fiscal stimulus and…interest rates are also relatively low…so it’s a bit of an unusual position that we’re in.”

“The global economy is going through a period that is being dubbed synchronous growth.

Synchronous growth is not something that’s a medical condition. It’s a positive economic situation.”

“What drove (the U.S. tariff changes) was a recognition that while in an academic, intellectual sense I think all of us would say free trade is a good thing, over the last 50, 60, 70 years, we have ignored some of the negative implications of free trade in terms of industries that have been damaged or gone out of business.”

1

BIZ LUNCH

Lunch

PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

Biz

LE RÊVE PATISSERIE AND CAFÉ A D D R E S S: 7610 Harwood Ave., Wauwatosa CUISINE: French

2

C H E F: Sarah Edith Obear M O O D: Classic French bistro

2

PRICING: Lunch entrees $11-26; dinner entrees $16-28 Le Rêve Patisserie and Café opened in 2008 in the Wauwatosa Village area.

The bistro serves traditional French fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and brunch on Saturdays. Its patisserie serves specialty French desserts including chocolate mousse, fresh fruit tart, French macarons and opera torte – layers of coffee-soaked almond bisquit, chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream.

Owners Andrew Schneider and Therese Hittman renovated the 107-year-old, two-story former bank into a European-style café, complete with leather seating, pendant lighting and a zinc-topped bar.

“Le Rêve is perfect for business lunches or events because we strive to create a traditional French menu served in an approachable, casual environment,” said manager Amy Duncan.

Le Rêve seats 85, and tends to fill up from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch, and from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for dinner. 

12 3

3 The Steak Au Poivre is a 10-ounce hanger steak with a red wine peppercorn sauce, served with green beans and French fries.

The Soupe à L’oignon Gratinée is a classic French onion soup made with cheese sourced from Saxon Farms, which is near Sheboygan.

The Neoclassical Revival-style building was built in 1911, and housed the First National Bank of Wauwatosa until 1955. biztimes.com / 7

Leading Edge BIZ POLL

BIZTIMES MEDIA – Connect

COFFEE BREAK

A recent survey of BizTimes.com readers.

Do you plan to shop at the IKEA store in Oak Creek?

Yes:

Chad Wilkins President | HSA Bank

64% No:

1515 N. RiverCenter Drive, Suite 235, Milwaukee hsabank.com

36%

INDUSTRY: Banking EMPLOYEES: 625 • HSA Bank recently expanded its office space at Schlitz Park in Milwaukee to accommodate its rapid growth. The health savings account market has been growing at 20 percent annually, driven by employers’ efforts to reduce costs.

• Adding 430 employees over the past four years hasn’t been

Share your opinion! Visit biztimes.com/bizpoll to cast your vote in the next Biz Poll.

a challenge. “Being in the middle of this metro area with a lot of transportation access and parking and all of those types of things gives us good access to employees. We’re such a growing company, which gives individuals a lot of opportunities to grow into their careers as we grow.”

• Wilkins lived in Minneapolis for 20 years and moved to Milwaukee in 2014 for his current role. “What attracted me is they were interested in growing the business, investing in it and giving the team here the leeway to go out and do what we needed to do and make that happen.”

• He previously worked in commercial payments at U.S. Bank for 15 years, and then as CEO of health savings account provider Optum Financial Services for five years.

Byline Bank is the #1 SBA lender in Wisconsin* and will work to create an SBA or USDA loan structure to benefit your business.

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8 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

• In his free time, Wilkins rides road bikes and golfs, and he’s currently taking classes at the Milwaukee

Community Sailing Center

to take advantage of Milwaukee’s lakefront.

• Wilkins lives in Whitefish Bay and has two grown children. “They both graduated from college last year and are working and out of the house, which is really exciting.”

• He takes his coffee with cream and sugar, “which in Philadelphia they call ‘regular.’” n

LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Your business is unique.

So are our solutions.

PROJECT PITCH IT LEADERSHIP: Drs. Aamir Siddigi and Danish Siddiqui A D D R E S S: 7001 S. Howell Ave., Suite 100, Oak Creek WEBSITE: remedynow.net W H AT I T D O E S: On-demand video and home health care visits F O U N D E D: December 2015

Doctors bring health care back to the basics

By Molly Dill, staff writer

H

ouse calls may seem like an institution of health care days past, but two local doctors want to change that.

Dr. Aamir Siddiqi, a family practice physician, and Dr. Danish Siddiqui, an OB-GYN physician, noticed their patients were having a hard time connecting with them.

“As health care providers, we have noticed that oftentimes, patients are unable to see their own physician in a timely fashion when they are presented with an acute condition,” Siddiqui said. “They’re usually advised to go to the urgent care or emergency room, only to wait there for hours to be seen.”

So the pair created a digital platform that connects patients to physicians on demand, via video visit or house call. They offer the service both to consumers and employers.

Siddiqi and Siddiqui recently pitched their startup, RemedyNow, on Wisconsin entrepreneurship television show “Project Pitch It.” They earned investment advice, mentorship, introductions to local investors and strategy development from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Lubar School of Business and Stuck LLC. Siddiqui said working with UWM and Stuck has opened up doors to new potential employer clients.

Jerry Jendusa of Stuck, a judge on “Project Pitch It,” said RemedyNow makes sense from an efficiency perspective.

“The doctors are being measured on their throughput, so they have to see as many patients as possible and this is extremely efficient and effective,” Jendusa said.

RemedyNow video visits are $59 and house calls are $199. RemedyNow also just moved in to a new brick-and-mortar headquarters where it will also see patients in Oak Creek.

LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

REMEDYNOW LLC

Drs. Aamir Siddiqi and Danish Siddiqui

“When you go to see a doctor or go to urgent care, ER, whatever, you never know what the cost of that visit is going to be,” Siddiqi said. “You never know how much you’re paying until you’re getting billed.”

Customers can access RemedyNow 24/7 via a mobile app. If patients’ concerns can’t be addressed by video visit, the provider comes to their home.

“We call ourselves the Amazon of health care,” Siddiqui said.

The startup contracts with up to 10 dispatchers and providers to offer on-demand assistance.

RemedyNow currently has about 250 consumer patients and one large employer client, West Bend-based Serigraph Inc. So far, the doctors have been bootstrapping RemedyNow. Now, they are seeking to raise a seed round of up to $1.5 million to fund marketing, sales and an upgraded technology platform. In addition, they want to offer their platform as a white label solution for large hospitals. n

MEET

BETTER. EVENTS THAT WORK

©2018 FOREST COUNTY POTAWATOMI COMMUNITY, WISCONSIN

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FRAN C H I S E E

KATHLEEN VAN MILLIGEN SYLVAN LEARNING INC. THE FRANCHISE: Sylvan Learning Inc., a Baltimore, Maryland-based franchise, provides tutoring services for reading, writing, math, study skills and test preparation at more than 600 brick-andmortar locations and 150 satellite locations.

AUGUST 1994 After spending her career working in the corporate world, Kathleen Van Milligen begins looking for an opportunity to put her English undergraduate degree and master’s in business administration to use. She attends a “discovery day” at Sylvan’s headquarters in Baltimore to learn more about the franchise.

Sylvan has seen a growing demand for ACT and SAT prep services.

SEPTEMBER 1994 Van Milligen buys in to the franchise. She looks at several locations within the franchise territory, which includes Brookfield, Muskego, New Berlin, Waukesha and Wauwatosa.

Sylvan Learning of Brookfield offers tutoring to students as young as 4, through high schoolers preparing for college.

“We decided Brookfield was the best place, the most central location,” Van Milligen said.

JANUARY 1995 Van Milligen opens Sylvan’s Brookfield location.

“When we started, we were serving as young as kindergarten up to high school and we did reading, writing, math and study skills,” Van Milligen said. “Now in today’s market, we still do beginning reading, but our students are as young as 4 and we help college students; a lot of ACT and SAT prep now at the high school level. There is so much more to learn today.”

10 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

SEPTEMBER 2006 The business moves to its current location at 15060 W. Greenfield Ave. PRESENT Van Milligen has about 30 part-time employees who work with students coming from across the region. After 23 years in business, Van Milligen has begun to see students return to Sylvan, now as parents.

THE FRANCHISE FEE The cost of purchasing the franchise rights to a new Sylvan territory is $24,000. To purchase a new territory and complete a build-out, the cost ranges between $59,000 and $160,000.

“The best thing is when you have a new student come in and they say they came because their aunt came here or their sibling came here or a friend came here and they felt so comfortable and confident in you that they sent them here,” Van Milligen said.

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BizNews FEATURE STORY

Wisconsin is becoming a national golf destination

By Dennis McCann, for wisconsin.golf Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in March at wisconsin.golf, an online hub of Killarney Golf Media covering all things golf in Wisconsin.

As general manager of the new and widely praised Sand Valley Golf Resort, Glen Murray saw all manner of groups make their way to rural Adams County in 2017 – on couples trips, family trips, corporate excursions and, of course, buddy trips.

But there are buddy trips, and then there are buddy trips.

Murray said one that stood out was a group of golfers who flew to Sand Valley for golf before flying out later for a Packers game in Green Bay. They flew back to Sand

Valley for more golf, then winged away again to Minneapolis for more football before returning to Sand Valley for yet more golf.

“The jet set crowd,” Murray said, “certainly travels different than the rest of us.”

Of course, most golf pilgrims who come to Wisconsin travel far more modestly. But travel here they do, in ever increasing numbers, drawn by the rising buzz about our growing stable of bucket-list courses and enticed by a string of televised major tournaments that have teased millions of golf fans with sun-kissed images of centerfold golf courses.

Wisconsin’s steady climb as a golf destination has been decades

in the making.

When SentryWorld opened in 1982 with its signature Flower Hole par 3, it became the state’s first true destination course. Herb Kohler developed Blackwolf Run, raising the bar on high-end golf in the state, and later doubled down with two courses at Whistling Straits. Kohler courses have hosted multiple championship tournaments, including the PGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open. Erin Hills was just five years old when it was named as the site of the 2017 U.S. Open, which took place just as Sand Valley opened the first of two highly anticipated courses. And those are all frosting on a layer cake of travel-worthy courses, including Lawsonia, Northern Bay, The Bog, The Bull at Pinehurst Farms, Wild Rock, University Ridge, the Lake Geneva area and more.

Lots of places in the United

States offer tempting opportunities for golf, but the number and variety of high-end layouts in Wisconsin can stand with – and even above – any other. Last year, Golf Advisor named Wisconsin the No. 1 golf destination in 2017, ahead of such dimple-centric sites as central Florida, Indiana, Phoenix-Scottsdale and – wait for it – Ireland.

“Wisconsin is only getting deeper with bucket-list golf,” Golf Advisor wrote. “Central Wisconsin is set to boom as the Midwest’s next hot golf destination.”

It wasn’t the only lavish praise rained on America’s Dairyland in 2017. At golf.com, in a story naturally headlined “The Big Cheese,” Coleman McDowell said most golf meccas are on either coast, limiting accessibility for many. But not Wisconsin.

“OK, it doesn’t have Pebble Beach. Or any beach at all, really.

So what does Wisconsin have? Ma-

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jor-championship chops, enough sand dunes to give Shivas Irons the shivers and, most importantly, a sweet spot smack in the middle of the country.”

As any good infomercial would say, but wait – there’s more. Golf Channel travel editor Matt Ginella similarly praised our greens and fairways, calling Wisconsin a prime spot for golf groups for its “depth of courses, value, prestige and Lake Michigan…”

The headline on a New York Times travel section story in May of 2017 asked “Can Sand Valley Make Wisconsin the Next Golfing Destination?” Writer Tom Redburn, seemed to think so, quoting Josh Lesnik of KemperSports as saying, “There’s already great golf in Wisconsin. But soon golfers will look to Wisconsin as a place like Scotland or western Ireland, where they can go for a week and, within a short drive, play someplace spe-

Sand Valley

cial every day.”

In the Wall Street Journal – surely the bible for well-heeled business golfers – no question mark was needed for a headline declaring “Wisconsin Becomes a Golf Destination.”

On the eve of the U.S. Open at Erin Hills, the Journal’s Brian Costa wrote, “The newest American golf hot spot has late springs, early falls and frigid winters. It is neither very wealthy nor very populous. Yet in the last 20 years, Wisconsin has

gone from a completely unremarkable golf state to a frequent host of major events and a destination for golf travel.”

The benefits of such attention extend beyond major-tournament sites. Craig Haltom of

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Madison-based Oliphant Companies recently oversaw extensive improvements at Lawsonia’s Links Course and said the resulting increase in play at the venerable Green Lake resort was in part due to the rising attention paid to Wisconsin’s superstar courses.

“What we’re seeing now is that people are coming to Lawsonia for the first time as they’re coming to play Erin Hills, Kohler and now Sand Valley,” Haltom said. “It’s great, and what I think all these places are seeing is the more, the better. ... We’re getting a lot of people in Wisconsin to play those world-class courses. When you stop and think what’s happened in the state the last four or five years, this could be the No. 1 destination for summer golf trips.”

A few years ago, Jason Kauflin created Wisconsin Golf Trips in hopes of riding that wave. Knowing that a U.S. Open televised

around the world in 2017 would draw golfers’ eyes to Wisconsin, and anticipating many would be coming to play as well, he began offering custom golf packages – including tee times, lodging, travel and more – to visiting groups.

And Kauflin said his instinct, that Wisconsin’s higher golf profile would make it a stronger magnet, was spot on.

“The answer is absolutely yes,” he said. “Groups that have not considered us before are putting Wisconsin at the top of the list.”

One big reason is that almost all of Wisconsin’s most highly rated course are public, if also pricey.

But Kauflin said for many longterm buddy groups, that seems not to be a significant barrier. He booked one group of 12 golfers, all from the East Coast, for a trip to Wisconsin that will set them back about $42,000, before food and drink. His average quote is

Whistling Straits and Lake Michigan.

“right around 2,500 bucks a guy,” he said, and bookings for 2018 are already shaping up nicely.

“Going into 2017, a little over a year ago, I maybe had one or two leads on my desk. Fast forward to right now, I’ve got 10 groups booked for 2018. These groups are coming in and spending lots of money. These are world travelers that are finding us for the first time.”

And the attention being paid to Wisconsin isn’t likely to fade anytime soon. Kohler is looking

at building a fifth course along the shore of Lake Michigan. Sand Valley’s second course, Mammoth Dunes, opens May 31 and is already a contender for top golf course listings in the future. A third Sand Valley course is in the works.

And in 2020, the Ryder Cup will be played at Whistling Straits, ensuring once again the eyes of the golf world – not to mention its TV cameras – will be focused on Wisconsin golf. You can’t buy that kind of attention. But these days, Wisconsin doesn’t need to. n

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MANUFACTURING WEEKLY – The week’s most significant manufacturing news → biztimes.com/subscribe

ATI’s Cudahy investment was years in the making THE PLANES FLYING over the ATI Forged Products facility on South Packard Avenue in Cudahy serve as a regular reminder of the mission-critical work completed in the 1.4-million-square-foot plant. They are also a working example of why ATI is investing $95 million to increase its isothermal press and heat treating capacity.

“You can stand here and tell what planes have those engines and what planes don’t, especially when they take off,” ATI Forged Products president John Minich said as he entered one of the plant’s buildings while a Southwest Airlines flight passed overhead.

The engines Minich is referring to are the next generation of jet engines, designed to be quieter and more fuel-efficient. To be more fuel-efficient, the engines need to run even hotter, requiring parts made from alloys that can withstand higher temperatures. ATI uses an isothermal press and advanced heat treating to achieve the unique properties needed for parts to withstand the heat of a jet engine.

The press functions differently than a traditional forge. The die and the material have to be at the same temperature and the forging takes place in a vacuum at more than 2,000 degrees. After being machined, the parts are then tested for any defects and measured in a temperature-controlled room to make sure they meet exacting specifications.

“I used to maybe be concerned about flying,” Minich said. “But after I’ve been exposed to the rigid process control, the rigid specifications and the requirements of our (original equipment manufacturers) and the

(Federal Aviation Administration), I don’t worry about flying.”

Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Technologies Inc. acquired Cudahy-based Ladish Co. Inc. in 2011 for $778 million with the goal of combining its specialty metal production with Ladish’s forging and machining capabilities to create a more integrated supply chain for customers.

Minich, a longtime ATI employee, came to the Cudahy facility a little more than a year after the acquisition closed to help with the integration. He said the combination of continuous improvement efforts, investment in new technologies and restructuring union contracts have allowed the facility “to earn the right to grow.”

Sales from the Cudahy facility will be up 50 percent this year from 2014, even with a net 20 percent reduction in employees, to about 750.

The reduction in staff has come through attrition and retirements, not layoffs, Minich said. About 100 people have been hired in the past two years and the facility had 50 openings as of early May. The Cudahy plant dates back more than 100 years, meaning its layout isn’t designed for modern manufacturing. Still, Minich and his team have worked to optimize the existing floor space. Hundreds of truckloads of scrap have been taken out of the facility as obsolete machinery is removed and storage areas are organized.

“The folks here have the vision of that so I don’t even have to suggest to them,” Minich said. “If it’s non-valueadd, out it goes.”

ATI has also made investments, including $5 million to increase sonic testing capacity and $3 million to upgrade an isothermal press.

Products are processed after being forged in an isothermal press at the Cudahy facility.

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Those improvements allowed the Cudahy facility to win out over North Carolina when it came time for ATI to decide where it would add isothermal press and heat treating capacity.

The expansion plan also is designed to accommodate future growth in the business and technology. The heat treating equipment will be installed in a former storage area where the building can easily be expanded.

“We designed this for the next couple decades,” Minich said, adding the equipment can handle parts and products the company isn’t even aware of today. “If we designed the process for our current product requirements, we could be obsolete very quickly.”

The facility’s business growth is evident in the work-in-progress throughout the plant, not just for jet engines, but for helicopter parts, tank hatches and mining equipment.

Products can take four to 26 weeks to complete, with an average of about 12 weeks.

“For us, inventory turns and cycle time are really, really import-

ant, because you can imagine the value of these products, that’s cash,” Minich said.

He acknowledged his teams continue to work on eliminating bottlenecks in production.

“In our continuous improvement and investments, we are looking at how do we best break those bottlenecks so we can keep the material moving, deliver on time to our customers and take on more business,” Minich said. “That is our No. 1 challenge today.” n

ARTHUR THOMAS Reporter

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Real Estate

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After less than two years, Sendik’s closed its West Milwaukee grocery store on Miller Park Way in April.

Grocery store wars have some retreating

MANDEL GROUP INC. is walking away from its plans for a grocery store to anchor its foodcentric project on the east side of West Allis.

Rather than including a 23,000to 40,000-square-foot grocery store as originally proposed, The

Market at Six Points project will have an additional 55 apartments, said John Stibal, director of development for the City of West Allis.

The $60 million Market at Six Points project has been in the works since Milwaukee-based Mandel was selected in February 2016 by city officials as the winning bid in a request for proposal to redevelop the city’s Six Points neighborhood.

Stibal said while he would like to see a grocery store at the site, he understands why it likely will not happen.

“The grocery store market is so competitive,” Stibal said. “The restaurants and food court area will still be there (in the Six Points development). And the additional apartments will add $5 million in value to the property.”

The retail industry has taken a hit in recent years as buyers have adjusted their shopping habits, and grocery stores have not been immune.

In Milwaukee, where new competitors have entered the market to challenge mainstays such as Pick ’n Save and Piggly Wiggly, supermarket profit margins are thin.

Sendik’s closed its grocery store in West Milwaukee on April 22, less

BIRD’S EYE VIEW: D R E X E L T O W N S Q UA R E There are only two parcels left to be developed at Drexel Town Square, the former Delphi plant turned mega mixed-use development in Oak Creek.

The 85-acre property southwest of West Drexel and South Howell avenues includes a Meijer store, a TownePlace Suites by Marriott hotel, several restaurants and Oak Creek’s city hall and library.

The sites left to develop are part of WiRED Properties’ mixed-use South Main Street, said Doug Seymour, director of community development for the City of Oak Creek.

The last standalone retail lot is currently under construction along South Howell Avenue. It includes a Verizon Wireless store, the area’s second Macaroni and Cheese Shop (MACS) and Stanton Optical.

In August, Rick Barrett, owner of Barrett Lo Visionary Development LLC, will begin construction on the second phase of the Emerald Row luxury apartments.

Phase one included 167 apartments.

16 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

2015 and now has eight stores in the Milwaukee area. Costco and Whole Foods also have been expanding their footprints in the area, and Fresh Thyme Farmers Market has entered the mix with stores in downtown Milwaukee, Greenfield, Brookfield, Kenosha and Menomonee Falls.

Target and Walmart now sell groceries in their stores and Aldi is also expanding in the Milwaukee market, with stores planned in Oak Creek and Glendale.

“Aldi has been extremely active and doing a lot of remodeling, as well,” Treder said.

Aldi’s recent partnership with Kohl’s Corp., which will add the discount grocery store chain in select Kohl’s stores that have been “right-sized,” will also give Aldi access to a new customer base, Treder said.

The increased competition has resulted in some store closures.

From May through July 2017, six Pick ’n Save stores closed due to low sales, affecting 448 employees, and in March 2018, the Cudahy store was closed; it employed 75 people.

At the same time, Pick ’n Save parent The Kroger Co. has been investing in it’s high-performing stores across the Milwaukee market.

“It’s all about location and demographics,” Treder said. “The grocery stores that are well-positioned, are easily accessible and have a good amount of parking will be successful. Consumers want conveniences, good products and a well-run operation.” n

UGLY BUILDING

than two years after opening it.

“Despite a lot of hard work, ongoing investments and the existence of the many intangibles that brought us to this location originally, we simply aren’t seeing the customer traffic and results to warrant continued operation,” Sendik’s co-owner Ted Balistreri said.

In October, Sendik’s closed its Brookfield Location at 13950 W. North Ave., saying the company would focus its attention on other growth opportunities.

Tom Treder, principal at Founders 3 Real Estate Services LLC, said Sendik’s is still a successful company, but with the ongoing grocery store wars, companies need to be more selective about their locations.

Mandel Group was originally attracted to the West Allis site because of the renowned West Allis Farmers Market. Ideally, the developer would still like to sign local restaurant owners who fit with the neighborhood it’s creating, Stibal said.

In September, Mandel Group was talking to developers and operators of brewpubs and owners of small but well-regarded restaurants in the area.

At that time, Mandel Group told BizTimes there were letters of intent with two local operators and it was in negotiations with a grocery store tenant that would have anchored the development with an international market.

Mandel officials recently declined to comment on the project until plans are more concrete.

In addition to the food components, Aurora Health Care Inc. is building a $9 million, 30,000-squre-foot clinic at the corner of West Greenfield Avenue and South 66th Street.

Construction has also begun on 177 apartments, which are being built in two C-shaped buildings surrounding a courtyard at South 66th Street and West National Avenue, Stibal said.

Competition in the grocery industry in the Milwaukee market has been intense for several years, with several new stores opening.

Meijer entered Wisconsin in June

DOWNTOWN COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS Three adjoining commercial buildings constructed in the 1860s in downtown Milwaukee are in need of some TLC. Five years ago, David Uihlein, founding partner of Uihlein/ Wilson – Ramlow/Stein Architects, purchased the buildings at 627-637 N. Broadway with plans to restore them and attract retail or office tenants.

According to the city, the building at 627-629 N. Broadway once housed the famous Marble Hall saloon, and 631 N. Broadway was known as Brodhead’s Building. The spaces have been vacant for well over a decade.

After completing demolition work to the interior, Uihlein has mothballed the project and says he has “major architectural plans” in store for the properties. He is just not ready to discuss them. Uihlein also owns the buildings at 227, 223 and 219 E. Wisconsin Ave., on the same block.

“These buildings are an architectural asset to the Historic East Side Commercial District,” Uihlein said.

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STORY COVER

‘TURNS IT UP TO 11’

By Molly Dill, staff writer

W

ith a proprietary surface technology and a runway of private equity investment, Titan Spine LLC has, to borrow a phrase from the cult classic film “This is Spinal Tap,” turned its growth up to 11.

The Mequon-based medical device developer was established after surgeon Dr. Peter Ullrich came up with the idea to make interbody spinal implants out of titanium instead of plastic to better encourage bone growth.

It turns out, he was on to something.

Titan Spine launched in 2006 and has since created a sea change in its industry vertical. Over the past 10 years, it has

18 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

grown at a rate of more than 40 percent per year.

More than 70,000 of its devices have been implanted, it has more than 50 patents and the company has grown to $63 million in revenue. Titan Spine recently raised $15 million in a private equity round.

Early days

In 2002, when he was working as a spine surgeon in Neenah, Ullrich was seeking a medical device that wouldn’t damage a portion of the spine called the end plate in an interbody fusion procedure, but there wasn’t one. He had identified a problem.

“We were doing threaded cages. They were titanium cages but

they were round,” Ullrich said.

“Structurally, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me and the cages would tend to do something called subside, which the cage would work its way into the bone.”

He came up with a new design by changing the dimensions of the cage and providing a surface to keep the cage in that didn’t damage the end plate.

So Ullrich contacted his friend at spine and orthopedic biosurgery company Orthovita Inc. (now part of Stryker Corp.) to develop the device, Endoskeleton TA. By 2004, the Endoskeleton had received FDA clearance for use as a vertebral body replacement and Ullrich was using it in patients.

But Ullrich’s product didn’t receive FDA approval at Orthovita as an interbody fusion device.

Ullrich decided to form a new company around his invention, which bought back the business from Orthovita, and Titan Spine was born. He brought on friend Kevin Gemas to manage the business side and Steve Cichy to focus on sales. Ullrich, now chief executive officer, and Gemas went to high school together in Plymouth.

“We became best friends and he went into surgery, I went into football and business, and then we came back together on this idea,” said Gemas, now president of Titan Spine.

Gemas previously owned KWG & Associates Inc., and founded and served as president of College Bound Student Athletes.

The pair started Titan Spine out of an apartment in Sheboygan Falls, putting in their own money, raising money from friends and family, and growing the business organically, investing any profits back into the business for eight or nine years.

While most spinal implants on the market were made of plastic, the Endoskeleton was made of titanium.

“We were like the rebels.

Very few people had titanium

and we were one of the only ones that (used) titanium and we kept preaching our surface technology years earlier,” Gemas said.

Surgeons were used to inserting a plastic implant, then surrounding it with biologic material, such as a bone graft, that would encourage bone growth at the site. But Titan Spine contends the biologics, which can be expensive, are not needed because the proprietary grooved nanoLOCK surface on the devices it has developed is a strong enough encouragement for bone growth.

“We wanted to make a device that participated in the fusion process instead of just being a spacer,” Gemas said.

With its nanoLOCK products, Titan has been able to reduce the amount of time patients are taking opioids and shorten the recovery time, Ullrich said.

“I never had a patient come to me and say, ‘I want a fusion.’ They come because they have pain,” Ullrich said. “The difference I noticed in my practice was these patients got better much quicker, they needed a lot less opioid medications and they could get back to work much quicker.”

While there are some instances with other devices in which small pieces of titanium medical devices flake off in the patient’s body, Ullrich said that hasn’t happened with Titan Spine products because of the design.

“With all other titanium devices that’s true,” he said. “With ours, we start with wrought titanium and everything we do with it is a subtractive process.”

Shifting the market

too stiff in spinal implants.

Titan partnered with academic researcher Barbara Boyan, world-renowned for bone implant interfaces, to research how to further improve its implants and encourage additional bone growth via biomimicry.

“She was looking for a partner in the spine industry and she thought her research would be awesome for doing interbody fusion,” Ullrich said.

“We kind of had an accidental discovery that a certain

em Kevin G Peter Ull

as

rich

type of blasting process, a grit, would produce what the cells saw as an osteoclastic pit.”

When cells see osteoclastic pits, they create bone. So the nanoLOCK surface Titan Spine developed is specially grooved to promote bone growth by mimicking those pits.

“He wanted kind of a roughened surface that would adhere better to the end plate itself,” Gemas said of Ullrich’s invention.

Ullrich and Gemas faced an uphill battle changing minds among doctors, because most felt titanium would be

biztimes.com / 19

CONTRIBUTED

STORY COVER

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Titan Spine’s products are used commonly in cervical spinal fusion procedures, in which herniated discs or degenerative disc disease-affected discs are removed and replaced. The conditions often cause severe leg or back pain in patients.

The company makes two full lines of implants, each a different shape for different applications and surgical approaches. Its implants are installed between vertebral discs in the spine. Titan’s products are distributed in kits, along with the tools needed to clean out the disc space, so a surgeon can choose the type of implant once they’ve examined the site.

“We’re seeing bone growth in just the first week to two weeks and that’s what makes the difference,” Gemas said. “With that, patients can get out of the hospital faster, get to physical therapy sooner and go back to their lifestyle faster. We’re able to get people back to work a lot faster and save a lot of money.”

Titan received FDA clearance for an Endoskeleton device that included its nanotechnology surface, a feature so small it is invisible to the naked eye, in October 2014.

“That was the first time the FDA ever gave the nanotechnology approval,” Ullrich said.

The company has achieved a total of 10 FDA clearances for its products under the 510(k) regulation for device manufacturers, according to the FDA. Another milestone was in June 2016, when Titan was granted a purchasing code for a nanotextured surface on an interbody fusion device from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which applies only to Titan Spine’s devices. Ullrich said this was a milestone for Titan because it demonstrated its NanoLOCK technology was unique and differentiated.

20 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

gy.

“With all the hospitals in the country we’ve got our own purchasing category which CMS gave us, which is very unique,” Gemas said.

“We are at this point the only company that has nanotechnology cleared through the FDA,” Gemas said. “We’re the only nanotechnology fusion device that has (a CMS) ICD10 section X code. What that essentially does is separates us from any other spinal device in the U.S. because of this technology.

No one else has it.”

As Titan was able to demonstrate its products’ effectiveness, it gradually saw more competitors using titanium and an industry shift toward accepting the material. But only Titan uses its proprietary blasting process, a well-guarded secret, which is completed at its manufacturing facility in Brown Deer.

“Most of our implants are manufactured at FDA-approved facilities that we watch over and manage and then it’s all brought in here or it’s being brought in to Memphis for distribution and kitting purposes, and we do all our inspection in Brown Deer and Memphis,” Gemas said.

“We really introduced science into what had, again, been pretty much an industry that has not had a lot of science,” Ullrich said. “There was absolutely no science behind trying to use plastic to combine two pieces of bone together.”

Eventually, Titan was achieving a 45 percent compound annual growth rate.

“It grew dramatically and we just kept adding people and then we, for the first time, went out and got some venture capital about a year-and-ahalf, two years ago and it was the first professional money we got,” Gemas said.

Titan’s leaders intentionally bootstrapped the company for as long as possible so they would have time to do the research.

“Compared to traditional spine companies, we

have had very little funding,” Ullrich said. “Because we were mostly self-funded, I did a lot of the funding myself for a long time, that gave us the opportunity to do the research and find the right surface for cells, rather than try to market something on features and benefits (instead of) science.”

Adam Choe, director of Milwaukee- and Madison-based startup accelerator gener8tor’s gBETA Medtech program, which helps medical technology companies grow, said medical device startups have more nuances that need to be understood and regulations that need to be met to get them to commercialization.

Most new medical device companies take the same path Titan did, Choe said, seeking out government funding or smaller checks before going after venture capital.

“I would say medical device companies generally have longer lead times,” he said. “I really think it does come down to the team, the founder, the opportunity and it sounds very cliché, but good investors can find good deals in the medical sector.”

Cranking it to 11

Texas private equity firm Southlake Equity Group has provided most of Titan’s private equity funding, contributing the entirety of its recent $15 million round.

“We saw in Titan a very disruptive technology in their titanium-based fusion implants that had a very advanced surface technology,” said Tom Keene, managing partner at Southlake Equity. “It was a very disruptive technology in what otherwise was a very mature spinal fusion market.”

Private equity firms began investing in the interbody fusion device space when competitors began switching over to Titan Spine’s titanium material, Gemas said. Interbody fusion devices make up a $2 billion industry, and there are a host of competitors – about 80 of them.

“We’ve got all the names you would recognize from (Johnson & Johnson) to Stryker to Medtronic,

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MOLLY DILL

STORY COVER

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but we also have a lot of smaller outfits and even mid-level companies like ourselves,” Gemas said. “(Titan) really changed the conversation around what is the right product to put in somebody’s spine to promote a successful fusion, which is great for a small entrepreneurial company to have that much of an impact on a very complicated and mature industry,” Keene said.

“When we saw all our competitors switching over to our way of thinking, we thought, ‘Well, this is the time,’” Gemas said. “We need to now really take advantage of that momentum we created. We do not want to get overshadowed or absorbed. So that’s when we sought private equity so we could ramp things up a little faster in the last two years.”

Previously, Ullrich and Gemas had self-funded, raised funding from friends and family, and taken on traditional financing.

“We really liked the fact that the management team were significant owners of the business and had invested heavily to grow it to the point at which we invested,” Keene said.

Sometimes a company’s growth outstrips its profitability, and in order to grow faster it brings on private equity, Keene said.

Because Titan has been growing at more than 40 percent per year for 10 years, the company needed resources to sustain its growth rate, he said.

Titan Spine’s executives declined to comment on whether the company is profitable.

According to SEC filings, Titan Spine’s earlier funding rounds included an initial equity round it expected to raise “between $750,000 and $1.5 million” in 2009; a 2011 round expected to land between $1 million and $1.6 million; and a $2.6 million debt round, also in 2011. The company declined to discuss those rounds.

Attracting that capital while based in Mequon, Wisconsin meant Ullrich had to travel to find 22 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

.

investors.

“I talked to a lot of people,” he said. “People take notice of a company that has a (compound annual growth rate) of 45 percent over the last 11 years.”

Titan Spine has grown from three employees when it was established to 110 now. It has multiple locations worldwide, including a new 20,000-square-foot distribution center in Memphis and a small sales and distribution office for a separate entity, Titan Spine Europe Gmbh, in Laichingen, Germany. Titan established the German company to sell its products in Europe, where the titanium implant technology had been embraced, Gemas said. It now has two product lines: The original Endoskeleton line, and the newer NanoLOCK line with enhanced surface nanotechnology.

Titan’s founders and investors have poured their funds into commercializing the products, and the company has grown to $63 million in annual revenue.

Now, the company is working to grow its product offerings and persuade surgeons, hospital boards and other decision-makers in the health care industry to use them. It’s also converting all its products over to the NanoLOCK surface technology.

Next steps

One of Gemas and Ullrich’s next goals is to expand the technology and apply the nanoLOCK surface to other orthopedic implants.

“Eventually, we’re going to look at orthopedic implementation,” Ullrich said. “It’s a real natural fit.”

“What we really want to do is use our surface technology … and apply it to other orthopedic applications like small joints, foot and ankle, knees and hips,” Gemas said. “There’s all kinds of types of applications that we can apply in just general orthopedics where this surface can help stimulate bone growth and then we can help some organizations to get some clearance for themselves, too, on let’s say a finger joint, which would be cleared for nanotechnology.”

Titan would either form a licensing agreement

and process other companies’ devices with its NanoLOCK surface or begin designing other types of devices itself, Gemas said.

“We would control the technology, we wouldn’t give that up, but we would apply that technology for them and then one thought was license, one thought is there might be some opportunities to design our own, eventually,” he said.

The leaders at Titan Spine are also evaluating the company’s possible next steps financially, be they raising more private equity, selling the company, making an initial public offering, or something else.

Titan is currently converting from an LLC to a C Corp, which will provide flexibility, whatever it decides. The advantage is the company is doing well and doesn’t immediately need additional funding, so it can take its time on a decision, Gemas said.

“We’ve got other options, definitely. We’ll probably look at some more private equity options,” Gemas said. “We’re preparing ourselves to go either way. That next level, we don’t really know what that’s going to be.”

Southlake Equity is on board to contribute follow-on funding if needed, Keene said. He described Southlake’s investment horizon as “theoretically infinite” and said the firm is willing to remain a patient owner without seeking an exit anytime soon.

“Certainly it could be just continue to invest and grow the business, it could be take the company public, it could be something in concert with a larger company, but we’re not in any rush,” he said.

“We’re always evaluating new products that we could introduce to broaden the use of the nanosurface technology and to the extent that new capital is required, we’re ready, willing and able to support the growth of the company.”

“Our ultimate goal is to run the best company in the industry,” Ullrich said. “What happens otherwise, that’s immaterial to what we’re doing.”

Ullrich’s drive to make Titan the best in its vertical has been noted by others in the biomedical industry in Wisconsin. Lisa Johnson, chief executive officer of biohealth industry organization Bioforward Wisconsin, said Titan serves as a shining example for other area startups.

“It took an individual that understood the problem and had to keep doing variations and he was able to get to sales then that attracted the necessary funding,” Johnson said. “I think that’s a message we need to send here in Wisconsin is that so often we talk about how there’s not enough money in this state. That’s a good model for a lot of entrepreneurs, startup companies to hear. It’s about getting to sales, and that attracts further investment.”

Johnson said Wisconsin is a good place to develop a medical device because of the strong manufacturing supply chain and the pipeline of engineering talent coming out of its universities.

“In the medical device industry, investors, they know that the Midwest is very strong in medical devices,” she said. “They’ve really done just an outstanding job of growing that company.” n

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Special Report STARTUPS AND INNOVATION

Karee Upendo, Alex Hart-Upendo and Avery Upendo.

Once homeless, now entrepreneurs Mother-son duo driven to succeed

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Success story #1.

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TO SAY KAREE UPENDO had a difficult childhood would be an understatement. Her mom was an alcoholic, her dad was addicted to drugs and she was removed from her Madison home at 7 to be placed in her grandparents’ custody.

Upendo’s grandmother was disabled, but they raised her and her brother as best they could. By 16, Upendo was pregnant and had emancipated herself, working 40 hours a week while trying to finish high school.

“It was really difficult for me to take care of myself doing things that most kids don’t have to do,” Upendo said. “And then being pregnant and taking care of a whole different human was really scary.”

The father of Upendo’s child had a mental illness and the relationship became abusive.

Eventually, she and her son, Alex Hart-Upendo, were homeless.

“It was a lot of shelter hopping

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when I had Alex,” she said. “We were homeless for two to three years in that transition, bouncing from shelters, staying overnight at friends’ houses, it was really hard.”

The pair were washing off in public bathrooms and moving around a lot.

“One thing my mother told me was that we’re homeless, not helpless,” Alex said. “We just don’t have a home to call ours.”

Alex’s biological father’s mother, Heidi, saw the two of them sleeping in a car in Racine and realized they were homeless. She let them stay with her and get back on their feet.

Fast forward to today, and Karee and Alex are in a much better place. Karee got married and her husband, Avery, adopted Alex.

And both Karee, 29, and Alex, 11, have started their own companies: Karee Couture and Build-a-Bow. Karee’s grandmother had

taught her to sew when she was young, and she had a knack for it.

When she was struggling to make ends meet, Karee would go into shops like Tiger Lily in Madison and wish she could buy the clothes.

“Every time I went in there they had clothes that were really different,” she said.

She would take a picture of an outfit she liked and then try to sew it herself. And she got really good at it, so friends started asking her to make them clothes.

“I wasn’t really confident in my work at the time to take on jobs for other people, but finally I was like, ‘You know what, I could make some side money doing this and save some money for Alex’s college. Why would I not do this?’”

Karee asked.

At the same time, she was working 60 to 70 hours a week in automobile sales.

“People started calling me Mrs.

Alex Hart-Upendo with Karee, Avery and Aven Upendo.

Couture. I was really exhausted, truthfully,” she said.

In 2015, Karee decided to chase her dreams. She quit her job and officially launched Karee Couture, creating unique dresses and outfits she sells via e-commerce. So far, Karee has funded the business through apparel sales but hasn’t yet turned a profit.

“My husband is the only one that works right now,” Karee said.

Alex saw how Karee had persevered to establish her business, and at the age of 9, came up with an idea for his own company. Alex uses the sewing skills his mom taught him to make custom bow ties for his online retail company, Build-a-Bow.

| CUW.EDU

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26 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

“It was a definite example because it inspired me to start my company,” Alex said. “You and my dad are really awesome. You guys work hard a lot and that really inspires me.”

“His bow tie designs were really revolutionary and I thought to myself, this could really be something,” Karee said.

She looked for a mentor for Alex and found another young bow tie entrepreneur, Jake Johnson of BeauxUp, who had been on “Shark Tank.” Pretty soon, Alex was being featured on Harry Connick, Jr.’s TV show and he was receiving a huge influx of orders, including from celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Steve Harvey.

Alex, who was bullied for his high IQ, uses his bow ties to bring awareness to bullying and reclaim the word “nerd.” He has sold more than 7,000 bow ties, from traditional to loud patterns, in materials as unique as feathers and leather, for both humans and dogs as far away as Turkey and the Phillipines. Alex also wrote a book about bullying and offers workshops to make bow ties for different causes.

Build-a-Bow has been funded with a loan for the startup costs.

“We’re still in the red a little bit, but we just signed some huge deals that are pretty lucrative,” Karee said. “We built our brand on sweat equity. We enter every competition we can think of for entrepreneurs. We show up to every networking event that there is.”

The pair can’t talk about their lucrative deals until June, they said, but they expect Build-aBow’s revenue to more than double to $80,000 this year because of them. And the pair has had plenty of other success so far.

Last year, Build-a-Bow beat out four other startups to win Gateway Technical College’s Launch Box business pitch contest, along with $5,000 in seed money. The Launch Box program also provided 12 weeks of business coaching, through which Alex was able to increase sales by 30 percent.

“At that time, my bow tie prices were $5 to $8. My mentor sug-

Avery, Alex and Karee at New York Fasion Week.

gested that I should change my prices,” Alex said. “After changing it, I suddenly, surprisingly, gained more customers. The reason why I got more customers was because my prices were so low, customers thought there was something wrong with my product.”

And last month, Build-a-Bow was one of three companies chosen to represent Wisconsin at the national SCORE American Small Business Championship, which included an expense-paid trip to Reno, Nevada for the competition, SCORE mentoring for a year and national publicity.

Karee has let Alex manage the business on his own to help him learn, she said.

“I don’t force him or his ideas for his brand, even if I think he’s making a not-so-great decision,” she said. “You don’t learn to be successful from just being successful. You have to fail.”

Alex agrees: his mom has never pushed him into his entrepreneurial pursuits. He would rather do this than play soccer.

“People don’t think of me as a regular boy because having your own company, making your own bow ties doesn’t exactly get you cool points at school,” he said. “I’d rather be doing my company than doing anything else.”

Both Karee and Alex are driven to succeed and grow their enterprises even larger. Alex plans to be on the Fortune 500, Forbes 30 Under 30, and create more jobs in Wisconsin by opening a brick-andmortar shop in Racine.

“I plan to turn my company into a franchise,” he said. “I’m thinking about publishing another book on the tricks from the trade that I’ve learned about entrepreneurship.” n

M AY 31 , 201 8 | 14 TH A N N U A L B I Z E X P O

BIZTIMES.COM/BIZEXPO

Bravo! Entrepreneur & I.Q. Awards

Bravo! Entrepreneur winners 38

Kate Brewer Erik Dorfner

30 Lifetime Achievement Award: Tim Keane

39

Dave Durand Todd Muderlak

32 Regional Spirit Award: Jeremy Fojut

40

Troy Vosseller Faye Wetzel

41

Chris Widmayer Kay Yuspeh

28 Bravo! I.Q. panelists lead fast-growing ventures

Women in Business 33 Women business leaders charted their own paths to success 36 Woman Executive of the Year: Juli Kaufmann

I.Q. (Innovation Quotient) winners 42

AddeoFit Containers Up

43

Design Fugitives Francis Investment Counsel

44

Hamacher Resource Group LLC HED Inc. Milwaukee County House of Correction

Tim Keane

45 Remedy Analytics WorkWise

Bravo! and I.Q. Awards winner profiles by: Alysha Schertz Photos by: Kat Schleicher Photography

Jeremy Fojut

Juli Kaufmann

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BRAVO! ENTREPRENEUR : PANEL DISCUSSION

Elmer Moore

Kurt Heikkinen

Dave Durand

Entrepreneurs of fast-growing firms cite culture as key to success

BY MOLLY DILL, staff writer

Hiring employees who have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset can work wonders when it comes to business growth.

“It’s the difference between, ‘I don’t know how to do that,’ and, ‘I can figure out how to do that,’” said Elmer Moore, executive director of Scale Up Milwaukee and founder of Milwaukee Denim Co. That’s one thing Moore and other entrepreneurs of fast-growing companies will outline at the Bravo! Entrepreneur & I.Q. Awards during a panel discussion about their secrets to success.

The panelists who will join Moore are: Kurt Heikkinen, president and chief executive officer of Montage Talent Inc.; Dave Durand, CEO of Best Version Media LLC; and Joseph Taylor, partner at Penrod Software LLC. The Bravo!

Entrepreneur & I.Q. Awards, which honor Milwaukee’s top entrepreneurs and innovators, will be held May 31 at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino as part of BizTimes Media’s BizExpo.

“What’s the net that you put under someone to make them comfortable?” Moore asked. “In a fixed concept, there’s actually no failure. The growth mindset is not only exposure to failure, it’s guaranteed failure.”

The trick is figuring out how to make failure less painful, but 28 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

also more uncomfortable, so the employee progresses out of it, Moore said.

“Employees do need and do deserve some boundaries and some framework to affect decisions,” Heikkinen said. “What we have done over time is give them those boundaries and that framework.”

Montage has been growing at a 50 percent annual clip. But Heikkinen said it’s important not to pursue growth at all cost, since some clients would not be a fit for Montage’s client profile.

“Who are the target markets we will serve, what does the core set of problems look like and what does a zebra look like, where zebra is our ideal client profile?”

Heikkinen asked. “Growth for the sake of growth can actually be destructive to the business.”

Moore agreed, citing the fact that in manufacturing, a growing business like Milwaukee Denim needs to be careful not to sell more product than it can actually afford to fulfill.

“You can grow yourself to death pretty easy,” he said.

In his work at Scale Up Milwaukee, Moore has seen a number of companies come to the conclusion that hiring is the most important aspect of their growth, he said.

“In the very beginning when

we started in engaging companies, asking them what they need to grow, the answer was uniform and the most obvious answer, which is money,” Moore said.

“Working with them for many years, it’s turned out that the best resource, biggest asset and biggest opportunity all relates to human capital.”

It would be challenging for any company to grow without hiring.

And hiring the right talent can be a challenge.

Culture has been the key to finding the right talent at Penrod, Taylor said.

“We spend just as much time understanding technically what people can do as we do how they’ll fit in culturally,” he said.

Penrod asks interviewees about 100 questions, some of which relate to its culture, such as work-life integration, taking vacation and individual responsibility.

“We make sure they understand that hiring, firing and promotions are all a reflection of our culture and living up to that culture,” Taylor said. “We’re also more than willing to admit that we’re not the right fit for everybody and that’s OK.” Finding the right people and putting them in the right seats on the bus helped Penrod achieve 990 percent three-year growth

Joseph Taylor and $5 million in 2016 revenue, according to the most recent Inc. 5000 data.

Durand said two things have fueled Best Version’s growth: having a scalable program, and having a strong culture that can grow with the company.

“We have a simple thing that is duplicable and we have the systems within our company that can multiply that,” he said. “It doesn’t all of a sudden just happen to us,” Durand said. “We very deliberately calculate how that growth is going to happen and how we’re going to capture it.”

The culture at Best Version is just as deliberate, with three pillars – strong professional will, compassionate heart and fun-loving spirit – built on a foundation of humility. The company’s name stems from its mission to advocate for its employees becoming the best version of themselves, Durand said.

“One of the things you cannot measure in Myers-Briggs tests and all the tests employers do to see if an employee’s going to be good, is you can’t measure virtue in those things,” he said.

While Best Version has grown rapidly to nearly 500 publications across the U.S. and Canada, Durand tries to retain that entrepreneurial mindset he started with.

“In a corporate world, most often, people can use ‘or else’ as the reason for something,” he said. “But entrepreneurs usually lead with the possibility of ‘What if? What’s possible? How great can the next day be?” n

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BRAVO! ENTREPRENEUR : LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER

Tim Keane

Sharing ideas with other entrepreneurs keeps Keane excited

BY MOLLY DILL, staff writer Tim Keane has met hundreds of entrepreneurs. While he doesn’t provide all of them with funding, the angel investor does try to help each one.

Keane is founder and director of Brookfield-based Golden Angels Investors, an angel investment group that helps fund early-stage startup companies in southeastern

Wisconsin and across the country.

He also is a successful entrepreneur and longtime entrepreneur in residence and instructor at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

“I get to talk to people all day long,” Keane said. “I get two or three emails a day of, ‘Can I come and talk to you about this or that?”

And he loves those emails, because Keane embraces the chance to meet new people who are just as full of ideas as he is.

“Getting to sit down with people and talk about their ideas is very gratifying,” he said.

For his assistance in nurturing the Milwaukee entrepreneurship and innovation communities, Keane will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Bravo! Entrepreneur & I.Q. Awards luncheon at BizExpo on Thursday, May 31 at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.

In 1984, Keane left his secure corporate job as manager of mar-

keting and communications at GE Healthcare to form a startup, Retail Target Marketing Systems Inc., which specialized in retail marketing data.

Edward Carroll, longtime senior vice president of marketing at Boston Store, gave Keane and his co-founders a chance to prove their concept at the retailer. RTMS was one of the first companies to bring data and analytics to retail marketing.

“We came in to work every day determined to figure out how we could make more money for those guys,” Keane said. “It was really a shame to see them fail. We were there through their last bankruptcy.”

Keane grew RTMS to more than 200 employees. In 1999, Keane sold the company in a two-step transaction, first to Experian and then to Metavante Corp. (now FIS) for more than $20 million.

In 2001, Keane became entrepreneur in residence and began

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teaching entrepreneurship courses at Marquette University, a role he retained until 2014. In 2002, Keane formed Golden Angels Investors.

“The original idea was I was at Marquette and it was going to be an alumni activity to get people interested in entrepreneurship to talk about entrepreneurship,” Keane said.

In 2006, it had evolved into what it is today: a member invitation group of accredited investors who seek out early-stage startup investments.

Now, in addition to his work at Golden Angels, Keane is president of Keane Consultants, his data analytics and strategy consulting practice, director of technology commercialization at Marquette, and president of startup co-working spot Workspace at the Bishops Woods office park in Brookfield.

He’s also a director for First Business Bank, sits on the boards of several growth-stage firms, and is

a limited partner in several venture and private equity funds. On top of all his other roles, Keane cohosts a WUWM radio show about Milwaukee entrepreneurship called “How Did You Do That?” with Kathleen Gallagher, executive director of technology advocacy nonprofit Milwaukee Institute.

But he loves teaching and mentoring, so Keane didn’t stop there. Last year, he launched Golden Angels Advisors, a new membership group for young and mid-career professionals who want to learn more about investing in startups. It has grown to about 180 members.

“When I was running the company, I lived in Waukesha and the company was there. I don’t think I knew anybody in Milwaukee because I was working all the time,” Keane said. “Now, it’s hyper focused for short periods of time, because I’m coaching. I’m not playing so much anymore. The

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FIRS T B USINESS B A NK

biggest kick I get out of all of this, is that I’m really grateful for having people to talk to.”

Keane holds a bachelor’s in journalism from Marquette and a master’s in education from Seattle University. He said being in the classroom was one of the greatest joys of the past 15 years of his life because he loves talking to young people about their ideas.

“I would put 12 or 15 hours into preparing for a two-hour class every week and I loved it,” he said.

Among the biggest success stories Keane says he’s invested in have been Milwaukee-based EMSytems, which was sold to Intermedix in 2010; Madison-based PerBlue Inc., which was acquired by GREE International Entertainment for $35 million in 2016; and Milwaukee-based Promentis Pharmaceuticals, which last year raised $26 million to fund its second phase of clinical trials.

And there have been other

startups that failed, but that comes with the territory.

Managing through risk in the hopes of earning a reward have been a common theme of Keane’s career, from making payroll in the early days at RTMS to investing in brand new companies that have a

“ ...I’m coaching. I’m not playing so much anymore.”

— Tim Keane, Golden Angels Investors

high probability of failure.

Through it all, Keane’s mantra is “gratitude is an attitude.” “(Entrepreneurship is) a team sport for sure,” he said. “I’m incredibly grateful for all the people that helped along the way.” n

Thanks Milwaukee!

Thank you to the BizTimes and the Milwaukee community for your continuous support, encouragement, and this recognition. Together, we continue to help entrepreneurs succeed and grow businesses in Wisconsin.

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Tim@GoldenAngelsInvestors.com biztimes.com / 31

BRAVO! ENTREPRENEUR : REGIONAL SPIRIT AWARD WINNER

Fojut champions Milwaukee via talent attraction efforts

BY MAREDITHE MEYER, staff writer It’s no secret that Milwaukee in recent years has been tagged with a list of discouraging distinctions – Milwaukee is slow to embrace new ideas; Milwaukee’s startup culture is non-existent; Milwaukee is segregated; Milwaukee is impoverished; Milwaukee can’t retain young professionals, etc.

And, for that reason, Milwaukee might be a tough selling point for local business leaders trying to attract new talent from outside the state.

But Jeremy Fojut chooses to see past the city’s challenges and focus on its assets. He helps others do the same as he spreads a different narrative about his hometown: Milwaukee is simply “unfinished.”

Fojut is the co-founder and chief idea officer of NEWaukee, and he is the recipient of the 2018 BizTimes Regional Spirit Award, which will be presented at the May 31 Bravo! Entrepreneur & I.Q. Awards luncheon during BizExpo at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.

Newaukee, which describes itself as a social architecture firm, organizes events and offers corporate branding and talent retention services, all focused on its mission of enhancing the employee experience by connecting people in new ways.

When Fojut founded the organization in 2009 with chief

executive officer Angela Damiani, it functioned as a volunteer-run young professionals group. The founders both had full-time jobs and ran NEWaukee on the side.

But eventually, they realized the group wasn’t serving the city’s greater needs, and they decided to rethink their vision.

“We started building programming that we thought was just different – it was based more on experience than just building events, and we realized the programs were gaining traction,” Fojut said.

Encouraged by positive community feedback, NEWaukee solidified its mission and established itself two years later as a for-profit organization. Its focus on human connections and the employee experience has since sparked programs such as Make it in Milwaukee and Milwaukee Concierge Services – two talent retention initiatives that welcome out-of-state employees to Milwaukee and integrate them into the community.

“In order to make a great place, people have to connect to it,” Fojut said. “You have to have their perception change, and I think the only way you can change a perception is through an in-person experience, as opposed to seeing something online.”

Milwaukee-based Aurora

From Milwaukee.

To the World.

Health Care Inc. last year utilized NEWaukee’s Make it in Milwaukee program to recruit potential employees from colleges across the Midwest. Students applied to win a free, three-day trip to Milwaukee to tour the city and learn about Aurora and its employment opportunities.

The students were interviewed at the end of the program, and when Aurora offered jobs on the spot, every student who received an offer accepted the position.

Aurora will partner with NEWaukee again this year to recruit another cohort of students through Make it in Milwaukee, which will run from May 29 to June 1.

For companies attracting upper-level talent who may not have the same ease of mobility as a young post-grad professional, NEWaukee last year launched its Milwaukee Concierge Service and currently runs the program with five area companies.

During a candidate’s interview process, he or she is given a twohour private tour of Milwaukee and its surrounding neighborhoods.

When the candidate accepts the

Jeremy Fojut

position, NEWaukee directs him or her to necessary resources for settling into a new city and home.

“This is so much better than a relocation service because we really know the city and we don’t have a vested interest in where they move or what house they buy,” Fojut said. “We want to make sure they land in a place that is representative of them.”

Attracting out-of-state professionals to grow the community, Fojut said, is one way NEWaukee chases its vision of a “finished” Milwaukee. n

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WOMEN IN BUSINESS : PANEL DISCUSSION

Margaret Farrow

Kim Metcalf-Kupres

Women business leaders charted their own paths to success

BY LAUREN ANDERSON, staff writer Margaret Farrow never set out to be “the woman who got elected” or “the woman to hold office.”

It was true when she ran for

Elm Grove village board and later became the first woman to serve as village president, when she ran for state assembly, state senate,

Coreen Dicus-Johnson

Laurie Benson

and ultimately, when she went on to become the first woman to serve as Wisconsin lieutenant governor in 2011.

“I wanted to prove to them that I was no different than them … I came out of local government, so I knew budgets, I knew infrastructure, I knew education because I raised five sons,” Farrow said. “I wasn’t just there for women. I was

there for everyone.”

While clear disparities exist regarding the proportion of women holding senior management positions, serving on boards and holding public office, Farrow said she has found success by simply being the best person for the job.

Her credentials stood on their own. Gender was peripheral to the matter, she said.

biztimes.com / 33

Farrow will join three other women business leaders on May 31 at the BizTimes Women in Business breakfast panel during the BizExpo at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, sharing their journeys toward attaining professional success. Panelists will discuss their experiences of leading through change, including issues related to culture, diversity, equality, innovation and philanthropy. The conversation will be moderated by Kimberly Kane, founder of Kane Communications Group.

Coreen Dicus-Johnson, who became president and chief executive officer of Menasha-based Network Health in 2016, grew up in a home where there were “no limitations” placed on what she could be, and her career journey has been a “jungle gym” of seizing one opportunity after the next.

“It’s never been a slide,” she said.

An attorney, Dicus-Johnson previously held executive leadership positions with Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, as well as positions with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wis-

consin. She credits various mentors with helping open doors for her throughout her career.

Still, Dicus-Johnson acknowledged, not all women have been afforded the same opportunities, reflected in the stories now being highlighted in the “Me Too” movement.

“My heart breaks for those who haven’t had what I have had in my career because I have been incredibly blessed to work for amazing people that gave me opportunities both to succeed and fail,” she said.

Kim Metcalf-Kupres, who retired in the fall as vice president and chief marketing officer for Johnson Controls International plc after 23 years at the company, spent her career in traditionally male-dominated industries. But, she never felt that it limited her success.

Rather, Metcalf-Kupres, who currently serves on the Oshkosh Corp. board, said she took a winding path throughout her career and positioned herself as a lifelong learner.

“If you’re not reinventing yourself and staying current, particular-

ly with technology and disruption, you’re going to be obsolete,” she said. “The old philosophy of come to work every day, do a good job and good things will come just doesn’t apply anymore. If you’re not actively managing your own continuous education process and becoming a lifelong learner, you’re going to be challenged.”

Dicus-Johnson said she’s continuously been called upon to lead organizations through change, whether navigating the introduction of BadgerCare while working in the insurance industry or leading organizational change when a company is sold.

“I said, ‘This is how I can make my mark,’” she said. “You can’t be afraid of what that change brings and what that opportunity is.”

When enacting change, Laurie Benson, executive director of Nurses on Boards Coalition and co-founder and former CEO of Madison-based tech firm Inacom Information Systems, stressed the importance of building trust.

“If you’re bringing forward a

new way of doing business with your customers, before you try to change things, (assess) what is the level of trust?” Benson said.

“Everything is better if we move at the speed of trust.”

Dicus-Johnson said it’s important for women to recognize their own role in shaping their careers.

“You can empower yourself,” she said. “Regardless of what’s going on. You have a choice today.

You can see the opportunity or you can see the barrier or the wall.

But that is your choice. There (are) four women here who have had to chisel their path in different times, in different industries, with all the complexities, but we figured it out.”

Metcalf-Kupres said it’s incumbent upon more seasoned professional women to mentor and advocate for younger women to ensure they don’t experience barriers to their success.

“It shouldn’t have to be so hard … Plants grow through concrete, but they shouldn’t have to all the time,” she said. “There should be fertile soil.” n

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WOMEN IN BUSINESS : WOMAN EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

Juli Kaufmann

Kaufmann invests in underserved Milwaukee neighborhoods

BY CORRINNE HESS, staff writer Juli Kaufmann considers herself a neighborhood activist who became an accidental developer.

For the residents living in Walker’s Point, Lindsay Heights and Sherman Park, the accident has

been a godsend.

Kaufmann left her work in nonprofits in 2005 to launch Milwaukee-based environmentally-friendly residential construction firm Pragmatic Construction LLC. One of the company’s first projects was a house which was a prototype for Pragmatic in which Kaufmann and her family lived. Pragmatic did not survive the housing crash so Kaufmann, a serial entrepreneur, started her current company, Fix Development LLC. Entrenched in Walker’s Point, Kaufmann wanted a higher quality of life for her family; 2005 Walker’s Point was not the Walker’s Point of today.

A vacant lot at West Bruce Street and South Second Street kiddy-corner from her home bugged her.

“It was the neighborhood dog poop lot,” Kaufmann said. “I was motivated by green issues and

I wanted a building that could contribute to the environment and the neighborhood.”

So Fix Development took on its first development, the $7.5 million Clock Shadow Building, a four-story commercial building that pushed the envelope for environmentally-friendly, sustainable design. It was a challenging project.

“Had I known in advance how it would almost kill me… Ignorance is bliss,” Kaufmann said. “I had very little experience. But it helped set me on the path I am now on and showed me what I want to be when I grow up.”

Through her work at Fix, Kaufmann has married her previous experience in the nonprofit world with real estate. The goals for her development projects are not just to make money, but also to provide environmental, social and cultural benefits that improve the communities where they are

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built. Typically she takes on projects in economically challenged neighborhoods of Milwaukee that need investment.

Because of her work, Kaufmann will receive the BizTimes Woman Executive of the Year Award at the Women in Business breakfast during the BizExpo conference on May 31 at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.

Susan Lloyd, executive director of the Zilber Family Foundation, a private grant-making institution that serves the Lindsay Heights, Clarke Square and Layton Boulevard West neighborhoods, said Kaufmann’s “quadruple bottle line” approach of being socially just, environmentally and economically sustainable, and sensitive to preserving the culture of the neighborhood, sets her apart from most commercial real estate developers.

“I think of her as one of Milwaukee’s shining lights and one

of Milwaukee’s most innovative entrepreneurs,” Lloyd said. “She is disrupting the most traditional real estate model, which is centered on financial return.”

With her latest projects, Kaufmann has partnered with a neighborhood leader and gotten community buy-in (in some cases just $1,000 per person), so the community owns the project.

“In divested neighborhoods, there are tons of passionate community activists,” Kaufmann said.

“They are in the best position to know what is best, but don’t have the financial resources. I bring the real estate experience and the partner brings the credulity.”

Kaufmann is currently working on several projects, including Sherman Phoenix with JoAnne Johnson-Sabir in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood. The $3.5 million project will convert a former BMO Harris bank branch, that was burned during civil

unrest in 2016, into an entrepreneurial and wellness hub that will house about 20 businesses.

She partnered with nonprofit Walnut Way Conservation Corp. on The Commons, a redevelopment project in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood that created a hub of health and wellness tenants including Outpost Natural Foods, the Milwaukee Center for Independence and Aurora Health Care - Integrative Medicine Group.

Kaufmann is also partnering with Riverwest business owner Carolyn Weber to purchase the former Centro del Nino School, 500 E. Center St., to open the city’s first hostel-style hotel.

In addition to Fix Development, Kaufmann is the co-founder of Fund Milwaukee, a local investment group that seeks to match unaccredited local investors with opportunities to support local entrepreneurs. The effort has raised

more than $1 million in local capital to date, funding dozens of local businesses like Purple Door Ice Cream and The Tandem restaurant, both of which occupy Fix Development projects.

“ I think of her as one of Milwaukee’s shining lights and one of Milwaukee’s most innovative entrepreneurs.”

— Susan Lloyd, Zilber Family Foundation

Kaufmann says she is driven by projects that inspire her as a Milwaukee resident.

“What I do today is a continuing evolution,” she said. “I use real estate as a tool for social change.” n

The Tough Job Press Est. 1892

Milwaukee, Wis.

BOOTS ON THE GROUND F. Mayer Boot & Shoe Co. Builds Factory in 1892

JP Cullen Establishes Local Construction Company in 1892

The six-story red brick structure has seen several additions in the years leading up to 1912.

former, F. Mayer Boot & Shoe Co. for new Milwaukee Office space. Once renovations are

Mayer occupied the building until 1934 but it remained in use as a shoe factory until 1938. Since then many others have occupied the space, from musicians to artists even a daycare and school.

126 years later - fifth generation, family owned, construction company, JP Cullen, renovates the

complete, the Fortress Building will also feature 25,000 sqft of commercial lease space and 132 apartments. For a sneak peek of what the new space will look like visit: www.jpcullen.com/fortress/

biztimes.com / 37

KATE BREWER President and owner, Greenfield Rehabilitation Agency Brookfield grawi.com Employees: 521 When Kate Brewer started at Greenfield Rehabilitation Agency 14 years ago, she helped grow the company from having contracts with 17 skilled nursing facility partners to more than 50 today. Greenfield Rehabilitation provides physical, occupational and speech therapy services in Wisconsin and the Midwest.

Brewer has been instrumental in expanding the business to include home health services, outpatient services and pediatric therapy.

38 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

Her passion to lead and grow the company has created hundreds of jobs for therapy professionals and has provided physical, occupational and speech therapy services to children and seniors who need it to enhance their function and quality of life.

The company currently employs approximately 521 people.

“Kate works diligently to foster a warm corporate culture for her team, despite employees being spread out across the state of Wisconsin,” said Michelle Poole, executive vice president of Greenfield Rehabilitation Agency. “Kate’s transition into ownership of the business during her time with Greenfield Rehab has allowed her to create a dynamic and growing therapist-owned and -operated company that has been leading the way in rehabilitation services for over 50 years.”

In 2016, Brewer led the acquisition of Rehab Resources, a business that provided physical, occupational and speech therapy services to children.

The move was a landmark moment for Greenfield Rehabilitation that served to strengthen and diversify the company and prepare it for continued growth in the future.

“The diversification has opened new doors for growth and brought a new perspective and dynamic to the company,” Poole added.

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRAVO! ENTREPRENEUR : AWARD WINNERS

ERIK DORFNER Owner and brewmaster, Westallion Brewing Co. West Allis westallionbrewing.com Employees: 6 Erik Dorfner, owner and brewmaster of Westallion Brewing Co., dreamed for a long time of opening his own brewery and giving back to his hometown of West Allis. In 2017, Dorfner and his wife, Kimberly, opened Westallion Brewing Co. with a nod to the city’s rich history.

The pair transformed an old abandoned building located at 1825 S. 72nd St. in West Allis, and now employ six full-time workers.

Dorfner’s leadership abilities came from time spent serving in the U.S. Marine

Corps while leading a patrol in Iraq.

It was in Iraq that Dorfner also realized his love for a great brew.

He returned home and started homebrewing on the weekends while working full-time on his career.

He sent his beers to homebrew competitions all over the country and won several awards before leaving his corporate gig for a job in the warehouse at Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery.

“I realized Erik would never be fulfilled career-wise unless he followed his passion,” Kimberly said. “Fortunately, Lakefront Brewery hired Erik and he started initially loading trucks in their warehouse.

I had never seen him more happy.”

He worked in the warehouse for about a year before gaining the opportunity to work in the brewhouse, she said.

Two years later, in 2017, Erik left his job at Lakefront to form Westallion Brewing Co. in the heart of downtown West Allis.

According to Kimberly, Erik’s vision for the brewery was always about embracing West Allis’ rich history and branding its business and its beers to honor the city.

DAVE DURAND CEO and co-founder, Best Version Media Brookfield bestversionmedia.com Employees: 100 Dave Durand founded Brookfieldbased Best Version Media at a time when some claimed print media was dead.

Today, the company has nearly 500 community-based publications in all 50 states and Canada, and is among the 20 fastestgrowing media companies in North America.

Durand is a best-selling author, radio personality, and a professional speaker and trainer to more than 150,000 people.

He is also a co-founder of an international multimillion-dollar nonprofit company and

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

founder of The Durand Leadership Group, an association of experienced business leaders who come together to learn and share ideas.

Durand has been named one of the top 100 Minds in America on the topic of personal development in Leadership Excellence magazine, and is also routinely a highly rated executive on Glassdoor, a website and job board where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management.

Best Version Media currently employs 100 people in its Brookfield office, and the company works with hundreds of publishers all over the globe to produce its publications.

Locally, Best Version produces publications for Brookfield, Whitefish Bay, Bayside, River Hills, Pewaukee, Delafield, Waukesha, Elm Grove, Muskego and others.

More than 1.5 million people read BVM publications, and this year, Durand launched a brand new social media platform called Myopolis.

Myopolis is one of the only social media platforms that categorizes individual posts and allows a user to filter them accordingly.

While BVM has been successful, Durand continues to follow his passion for disruptive entrepreneurship.

TODD MUDERLAK Founder and president, Xela Innovations LLC Glendale purleve.com Employees: 8 Sixteen years ago, Todd Muderlak left his home and his job in sunny California to run his father’s one-person product development company in Milwaukee.

Muderlak Design innovated several products in a variety of industries, but had a strong focus on commercial washroom and kitchens.

In less than two years, Muderlak grew the company to eight employees and increased its revenue.

He and his father, Ken, are responsible

for innovating several pieces of automatic commercial washroom equipment, including auto flush, air care dispensers, soap dispensers, auto faucets and hygienic door handles.

In 2008, Todd closed Muderlak Design and transferred its team to a new company, Xela Innovations, which would focus on innovating and manufacturing its own line of commercial washroom products.

Today, Xela has more than 60 patents, customers all over the globe, and is generating millions of dollars in revenue. In the past five years, the company has innovated and fully engineered more than 12 new products.

Muderlak also developed a creative asset agreement to purchase a no-water urinal company over a five year period. The agreement led to a number of new water conservation products and the sale of the no-water urinal throughout the world.

According to Scott Krizek, Xela Innovations investor, Muderlak brings endless energy, positivity and enthusiasm to his role as leader.

Muderlak has been a member of The Water Council since its inception and has an office in the Global Water Center. He continues to innovate in water conservation, and looks to continue to add Internet of Things technology to several of the company’s products.

Congratulations! from the strategic partners behind Dave Durand, Best Version Media

Congratulations on your well-deserved recognition!

From your partners at Town Bank.

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biztimes.com / 39

TROY VOSSELLER Co-founder, gener8tor Milwaukee/Madison gener8tor.com Employees: 25 For Troy Vosseller, being an entrepreneur runs in the family. His father was an entrepreneur and from early on, Vosseller had aspirations to do the same.

From his dorm room at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vosseller and a friend formed the “Sconnie” brand, first selling T-shirts.

The brand has since evolved into a full-fledged store on State Street in Madison, Sconnie Beer and a Sconnie Bar near Camp Randall Stadium.

In 2012, Vosseller co-founded Madison- and Milwaukee-based gener8tor,

now a nationally-ranked accelerator that invests in high-growth startups.

Today, the organization has locations in Madison, Milwaukee and Beloit, and is in the process of expanding farther, to northeast Wisconsin, Minneapolis and beyond.

Recognizing the organization primarily served just one stage of innovative startups, Vosseller and his team established gBETA in 2015. The gBETA program is for early-stage startups and ideas not eligible for the traditional program. gBETA has expanded to include Madison, Milwaukee, Beloit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, northeast Wisconsin and also gBETA Medtech to support and foster ideas in medical technology.

Under Vosseller’s direction, gener8tor has helped create thousands of jobs in the companies it has worked with, formed many strategic partnerships, and helped raise millions of dollars in financing.

Vosseller and his team have helped shape Wisconsin’s startup landscape, and through perseverance and commitment have helped put Wisconsin on the map as a place to grow ideas and innovations.

The organization regularly supports startup organizations through its growing network of experienced mentors, technologists, corporate partners, angel investors and venture capitalists.

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

BRAVO! ENTREPRENEUR : AWARD WINNERS

FAYE WETZEL Founder and CEO, Faye’s Mequon fayes123.com Employees: 20 Faye Wetzel has been in the retail business for 27 years, and in a time when many retail stores are struggling to win over customers from their online counterparts, Faye’s boutique had its most successful year ever in 2017.

For Wetzel, the success stems from marketing.

Prior to opening Faye’s in 1991, Wetzel was an executive vice president at a marketing and advertising firm in Milwaukee.

She welcomes industry changes and thrives on the challenge those

changes present for a business owner.

Wetzel started her business after being frustrated with shopping choices in Milwaukee. She founded the company with the goal of providing “distinct and surprising” fashion to girls and women in the city.

Under Wetzel’s direction, buyers from the store regularly attend markets in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Las Vegas to ensure new looks and the best in fashion are available at the store.

The internet remains the store’s biggest competitor, but exceptional customer service and relationships with clients keep Faye’s above the fray, Wetzel said.

“Knowledge of the Milwaukee lifestyle and building relationships with our clients are what set us apart,” she said. “We understand that being comfortable and confident in what we wear has a lot to do with our level of self-confidence as women.”

Wetzel has been instrumental in leading Milwaukee’s “local” movement.

“Our ‘be loyal, shop local’ campaign resonates far beyond the walls of our two stores,” Wetzel said. “We have been very inclusive, encouraging the community to shop ALL local businesses.”

Congratulations! from the strategic partners behind Faye Wetzel, Faye’s Women’s Boutiques

Congrats on your award. We are proud to be your strategic business partner.

SVA CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

Nancy Mehlberg 262.641.6888

SVAACCOUNTANTS.COM

40 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

CHRIS WIDMAYER CEO, Penrod Software LLC Milwaukee penrod.co Employees: 60 When Chris Widmayer and his co-founder Joseph Taylor started their company back in 2012, they knew no matter what they did, it would center on customer service.

Milwaukee-based Penrod is a cloud consulting agency and a premier Salesforce partner. The company develops and implements cloud solutions for clients and helps them engage with their customers through a variety of different CRM solutions on the Salesforce.com platform.

“When Chris and I started Penrod, we

Congratulations! from the strategic partners behind

Kay Yuspeh, Elite Sports Clubs

Congratulations Elite Sports Club!

We are honored to be your strategic partner!

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

wanted how we value our people and our customers, even our most difficult ones, to be our main competitive advantage,” Taylor said.

Penrod has implemented several strategic employee engagement initiatives, including employee mentorship programs, process development and career growth opportunities, that contribute to the best-inclass work environment for its employees.

In 2017, Penrod implemented a team-based, capacity-measured process that is now used for every professional service project the company takes on.

The process starts with presales engagement and measures the estimated capacity of the project. This allows Penrod to successfully match the project to an available team.

The system creates a professional service environment where there is reduced burnout, higher quality deliverables and a consistent client experience throughout the entire engagement process.

The new process allows the company to predict revenue per team and drive gross margins higher.

Widmayer, Taylor and their 11-member executive team have driven Penrod to become the second-fastest-growing Salesforce implementation partner in the marketplace.

KAY YUSPEH CEO and owner, Elite Sports Clubs Brookfield eliteclubs.com Employees: 400+ Kay and Richard Yuspeh purchased their first sports club back in 1986. At the time, The Highlander, as it was called, was only a tennis club. Kay Yuspeh had visions of making it much more.

That first summer, she broke ground on an outdoor pool. Eventually, she would grow the business to include innovative programs, cutting-edge equipment and a top-notch professional staff.

Today, Elite Sports Clubs has grown to more than 400 employees, and more than

15,000 members across five locations in Brookfield, Mequon, Glendale and River Glen.

Over the years, Yuspeh was instrumental in transforming the clubs into full-spectrum health and fitness facilities. She is responsible for the management and purchase of each club and personally takes responsibility for the design, remodeling, marketing, programming, staff development and member retention efforts. She is hands-on.

Early on, Yuspeh maintained focus on the clubs’ tennis programs, the backbone of the original Highlander. With the help of Randy Stolpe, Elite Sports created the largest professional tennis program in the state, with more than 40 teaching professionals and a total of 35 indoor and five outdoor courts.

In 2017, Yuspeh opened “The Quad” at Elite Sports Clubs’ River Glen location. The unique, innovative approach to family fitness provides 30,000 square feet of space and opportunity for people of all ages to be active in a healthy, safe and supervised environment.

She saw an opportunity in the marketplace to reinvent the space, which previously housed tennis courts, to serve a broader audience.

The Quad is open to all Elite Sports Clubs members and the general public.

Congratulations

Tri City is proud to congratulate Kay Yuspeh of Elite Sports Clubs on being recognized with a BizTimes Bravo!

Entrepreneur Award.

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262.439.8866 VCGINC.COM

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www.tcnb.com 414-325-1140 biztimes.com / 41

Sarah Addeo

ADDEOFIT Glendale addeofit.com Innovation: Fitness studio model Sarah Addeo lives and breathes fitness.

In 1996, she opened Milwaukee’s very first fitness studio – Motion Fitness.

Today, Addeo has taken her passion for fitness and formed AddeoFit, a oneof-a-kind facility with six fully functional fitness studios in one location.

Addeo and her husband, Eric, spent five years developing the concept and

opened the 14,000-square-foot space in Glendale in February 2017.

The facility offers 125 classes per week in indoor cycling, barre, yoga, kickboxing, cardio work, zone workouts, athletic training and personal training.

The company currently employs 12 certified instructors trained by Addeo herself.

Addeo began her career in New York City with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dance company. There, she combined her passion for dance and for fitness to create one-of-a-kind workouts. She moved to Los Angeles, and was approached to manage and teach at an elite gym in West Hollywood.

There, Addeo continued to develop her signature classes, and even gained a loyal following from some Hollywood celebrities.

After moving to Milwaukee, Addeo established a following of devoted clients, as well. All of her students, according to Eric, love being fit, healthy and educated. In addition to the variety of class offerings, AddeoFit strives to educate people of all ages to be happy, healthy, strong members of the community.

“The financial impact is really beyond measure,” Eric said. “The business is profitable, but AddeoFit’s true value and real impact is in the healthy people they help.”

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

I.Q. [INNOVATION QUOTIENT] : AWARD WINNERS

Thomas Daugherty & Lyle Stoflet

CONTAINERS UP Milwaukee containersup.com Innovation: Modified shipping containers The shipping container trend has been sweeping the country, and Milwaukee-based Containers Up has brought innovation to the industry. The company specializes in rentable, modified shipping containers for special events and venues.

While the container trend is widespread, Containers Up is one of the only companies to offer the containers as rentable units.

The company launched in February 2017, and since then has expanded from one container to eight and has orders for several more this summer.

Containers Up offers a variety of different layouts, but most popular is its container bar.

“We’re setting trends in the world of event spaces,” said Angie Daugherty, digital marketing manager for Containers Up. “Our product offers a new way to host a venue for weddings, parties, festivals, interactive trade show experiences and pop-up shops.”

Containers can also be used as mobile restaurants, marketing kiosks, learning centers, temporary office space, storefronts and meeting space.

The rental units give customers the ability to create a location or venue anywhere, Daugherty said.

Customers can reserve containers to be dropped off at a designated location and set up in approximately 30 minutes. Daily rental fees start out at $450, plus delivery.

Containers Up can also create custom shipping containers to meet the needs of its customers.

The company recently expanded operations to Nashville, Tennessee, and has plans to continue its expansion in 2018.

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KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

Tuan Tran, Justin White & Paul Mattek

DESIGN FUGITIVES Milwaukee designfugitives.com Innovation: Tech-driven fine art installations Milwaukee-based Design Fugitives is responsible for transforming professional spaces all over Milwaukee and beyond.

The company is comprised of artists, designers, fabricators and architects, who utilize next-generation design tools, innovative fabrication techniques, and engineering know-how to create techdriven fine art installations and designs.

In Milwaukee alone, Design Fugitives’ work can be seen at Marquette University,

Johnson Controls International plc, Direct Supply Inc., Sojourner Family Peace Center, 833 East and even the Hank Aaron State Trail, among other spots.

Design Fugitives is led by Paul Mattek, Justin White and Tuan Tran. The three graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with master’s degrees in architecture at a time when traditional architecture jobs were scarce.

In 2009, Mattek, White and Tran, along with four other recent graduates, founded Design Fugitives. Today, the company employs 11 people and prides itself on pushing the envelope with design and architecture.

Design Fugitives typically works with wood, metal and plastics, and specializes in atrium sculptures, 3D wall coverings, ecclesiastical art and LED fixtures.

For employees, each project becomes an opportunity to grow and learn new skill sets. The company has invested in continued training in welding, LED system design, digital modeling and 3D printing.

The use of CNC technology and digital modeling helps Design Fugitives maximize productivity and deliver complex pieces in an effective, time-efficient manner.

The approach not only decreases cost for clients, but also allows for prototyping, flexibility and design evolution.

The Francis Investment Counsel team.

FRANCIS INVESTMENT COUNSEL Brookfield moneyadviceatwork.com Innovation: MoneyAdvice@Work service A focus on wellness in all facets of life is important for today’s employers. Employees demand such focus. Brookfield-based Francis Investment Counsel’s MoneyAdvice@ Work service and app provides a unique opportunity for employers to offer salesfree financial education and advice as an employer-sponsored benefit.

Employees can use the mobile app to connect with a professional financial advisor, and also aggregate accounts, track their personal financial goals, complete educational modules and learn their money

personality. They can also get quick answers to common questions through the use of financial tools, calculators and daily content.

The app was launched in March, and leverages technology to reach companies that may not have had access to financial wellness offerings in the past due to cost or geographic complications.

Historically, firms would hire on-site financial advisors to come to the workplace to discuss the financial needs or concerns of staff. The use of the MoneyAdvice@Work app decreases organizational costs by eliminating production interruption and the need for on-site events. It also grants equal access to the benefits regardless of shift schedule, plant location or role in the company.

According to Francis Investment Counsel, most organizations are just beginning to understand how best to offer meaningful financial wellness benefits. MoneyAdvice@ Work provides an opportunity for employees to leverage technology, but also the advice of a real-life financial advisor.

“The enhancement of the employeeadvisor relationship through this technology will drive interactions, engagement and positive changes in financial wellbeing,” said Anne Loppnow, business development consultant with Francis Investment Counsel.

Congratulations! from the strategic partners behind

Congratulations! from the strategic partners behind

Design Fugitives

Francis Investment Counsel Congratulations to the Money Advice @ Work Team on an innovative vision well-executed!

N OB LE A PPLIC A TIO NS

You certainly take innovation to new heights.

We’re proud to be your partner. Congratulations!

Steve O’Brien 608.535.9350

NOBLEAPPLICATIONS.COM

TO BIN & HA NSON, S.C.

Tobin & Hanson, S.C. Certified Public Accountants Since 1940

5309 N. 118th Court Milwaukee, WI 53225

Congratulations on your well-deserved recognition!

From your partners at Town Bank.

T O WN BANK | WINT RUS T CO M M E R C I A L B A N K I N G

414.464.3100 TOBINCPA.NET

Jay Mack

414.273.3507 TOWNBANK.US

biztimes.com / 43

Bruce Boulieu, Dawn Vogelsang, Cari Sass, Colleen Volheim and Dave Wendland.

HAMACHER RESOURCE GROUP LLC Waukesha hamacher.com Innovation: ShelfPics, Digital Photograph For more than 35 years, Waukeshabased Hamacher Resource Group LLC has been reinventing the consumer health care retail industry.

Today, the company represents a growing spectrum of resource solutions for distributors, manufacturers, retailers and industrial facilities in the health care industry.

According to the company, the prescription business has become even more challenging, but Hamacher provides solutions to pharmacies that help maximize opportunities in the front-end store.

One such product is ShelfPics.

ShelfPics is a full-size, wall-mounted device that gives consumers and pharmacists the ability to view and interact with digital photographs of over-the-counter pharmacy products available in a retail location.

The interactive device allows consumers to identify health care items that may help in the prevention, cure or maintenance of their health condition, and allows the pharmacy to proactively market inventory that would otherwise be hidden behind the pharmacy counter. Pharmacies can broaden their product offerings without the need for a larger footprint, and using the device also reduces the risk of theft of specific overthe-counter products and supplements.

Since December, Hamacher has installed the ShelfPics device in three Hayat Pharmacy locations in the Milwaukee region, and early reports have been favorable.

“Consumers are pleased to know they can get these non-prescription items from their Hayat Pharmacy, when before they may not have realized their availability,” said Dave Wendland, vice president of strategic relations at Hamacher.

“The pharmacists have engaged in more dialogue about non-prescription treatments and improvements to prescription compliance by adding an over-the-counter product.”

KAT SCHLEICHER PHOTOGRAPHY

I.Q. [INNOVATION QUOTIENT] : AWARD WINNERS

Paul Ludwig

HED INC. Hartford hedonline.com Innovation: HED CANect Since 1986, Hartford-based manufacturer HED Inc. has provided a comprehensive line of electronic control solutions for mobile equipment applications in a variety of industries.

The company’s HED CANect Telematics portfolio is a complete hardware, software and web services offering for vehicle original equipment manufacturers and end customers.

While traditional systems provide fleet-level track and trace capabilities, CANect can be customized to integrate directly

M AY 31 , 201 8 | 14 TH A N N U A L B I Z E X P O

WWW.BIZTIMES.COM/BIZEXPO

Bravo! Entrepreneur & I.Q. Awards

Bravo! Entrepreneur Winners

28

Bravo! I.Q. panelists lead fast-growing ventures

38

Kate Brewer Erik Dorfner

30

Lifetime Achievement Award:

39

Dave Durand Todd Muderlak

32

Regional Spirit Award:

40

Troy Vosseller Faye Wetzel

41

Chris Widmayer Kay Yuspeh

Tim Keane Jeremy Fojut

Women in Business 33

36

Women business leaders charted their own paths to success

Woman Executive of the Year: Juli Kaufmann

Tim Keane

I.Q. (Innovation Quotient) Winners 42

AddeoFit Containers Up

43

Design Fugitives Francis Investment Counsel

44

Hamacher Resource Group LLC HED Inc. Stormwater Solutions Engineering LLC Milwaukee County House of Correction

45

Remedy Analytics WorkWise

Bravo! and I.Q. Awards winner profiles by: Alysha Schertz Photos by: Kat Schleicher Photography

Jeremy Fojut

ORDER YOUR REPRINTS!

Juli Kaufmann

Bravo! Entrepreneur & I.Q. Awards Sponsors:

Event Partner:

Women in Business Event Sponsors: Supporting Sponsors:

Event Partners:

biztimes.com / 27

27-37 MAY 28 Applause.indd 27

5/21/18 5:23 PM

Awards, cover stories, special reports, advertisements, feature stories, whatever your interests may be. We’ll provide reprints of any published material.

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Mark Ratzmann

MILWAUKEE COUNTY HOUSE OF CORRECTION Franklin county.milwaukee.gov/HOC Innovation: Zero landfill initiative/recycling program Two years ago, the Milwaukee County House of Correction launched its zero landfill initiative. The program includes robust recycling, compost and vermiculture efforts at the Milwaukee County House of Correction in Franklin.

“It’s a great program,” said Mark Ratzmann, correctional officer. “It’s good for the inmates, and it’s good for taxpayers in the community.”

with the vehicle control system, offering much more detailed data collection.

The CANect system gives customers local and remote monitoring capabilities, diagnostics, prognostics, maintenance and asset control. With CANect products, the vehicle control system can even be updated remotely.

HED primary markets include vehicles and OEMs in the aerial platform, agriculture, fire and rescue, military, boom truck, refuse, telehandler and construction industries.

According to Brad Wagner, regional sales manager for HED, the system allows customers to go beyond just location tracking.

“HED’s CANect portfolio provides them with a complete picture of how the vehicle or equipment is operating currently and in the past to make more informed decisions about future product designs and improvements, more informed business decisions around things like equipment utilization, fuel usage, operator efficiencies and maintenance schedules,” Wagner said.

HED launched the CANect platform in January, and expects to see aggressive growth as more OEMs and customers look to develop a better understanding of their equipment as it is used in the realtime environment, Wagner added.

In the first year, the program stripped down and replaced all the computer stations in the county and recycled the material for revenue.

Instead of the process costing $5 per computer, the department earned $10,000 in revenue and diverted landfill waste.

Inmates at the House of Correction have the opportunity to work in exchange for time off of their sentences. According to Ratzmann, inmates who work at least 24 hours in a week can earn one day off their sentence, which also saves taxpayer dollars.

The HOC collects electronics and devices from county agencies, and also improved the internal HOC recycling program.

“We set out recycling bins throughout the facility, and we’ve cut our dumpster pick-ups from three to two a week,” Ratzmann said.

“That’s $17,000 in savings right there.”

Last month, the HOC received approval from the City of Franklin to begin composting, as well. The initiative will allow the HOC to compost using waste collected from places like the Milwaukee County Zoo. The compost and the HOC vermiculture (worm farming) program support the Hunger Task Force farm and other nonprofit organizations like Zachariah’s Acres and Oconomowoc Groundworks.

Worm castings and nightcrawlers are also donated to veterans’ healing camps and inner city youth fishing clinics.

Scott Martin

REMEDY ANALYTICS Milwaukee remedyanalytics.com Innovation: PharmaLogic In just five years, Milwaukee-based Remedy Analytics has grown from five employees to 35 and more than $10 million in revenue. The company’s proprietary PharmaLogic technology scans an employer’s prescription drug program to

identify what is broken, what is costing them, and then determines how to fix it.

The mission of Remedy is to ensure employers only pay the actual cost of health care, instead of billions in excess that result from contractual loopholes.

PharmaLogic algorithms provide actionable guidance for employers that was once not attainable.

According to Scott Martin, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Remedy Analytics, the average employer with fewer than 10,000 employees saves 18 to 24 percent off its total drug spend using PharmaLogic. Employers with more than 10,000 employees experience an average of 9 to 16 percent savings, he said.

These savings occur with zero benefit, formulary or clinical program changes for the employees.

Remedy currently works with several of the most well-known employers in the technology, financial services, telecommunications, utilities, media, insurance, retail and government industries.

10, the newest version of its CRM software, which showcases complete sales, marketing automation and customer service functionality in a responsive user interface, all for one flat fee.

According to Wayne Wedell, president and chief executive officer, the OnContact CRM is available in a cloud or on-premise solution, complete with built-in marketing automation, contact center and mobile functionality, and businesses that utilize the CRM software typically experience improved proficiency.

New features in OnContact CRM 10 include enhanced analytics, statistical analysis, open web platform, global search functionality, and integration with native device features including contact lists, calendars and geolocation.

Over the past six months, since the launch of the new OnContact CRM 10 in July 2017, WorkWise has experienced a 30 percent annualized growth in sales compared to the previous six months. The company expects the growth trend to continue.

The WorkWise team

WORKWISE Menomonee Falls workwisesoftware.com Innovation: OnContact CRM 10 Menomonee Falls-based WorkWise has been helping companies achieve new levels of success for more than 15 years. The company is a leading developer of enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management software, and also provides implementation and support services.

Since WorkWise acquired the OnContact CRM product line in 2013, the company has grown 54 percent.

WorkWise has spent three years researching and designing OnContact CRM

THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2018 • 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. POTAWATOMI HOTEL & CASINO EVENT CENTER

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Architecture / Engineering Business Services Communication Construction Education Finance / Banking Government Health Services Insurance

J __ K __ L __ M __ N __ O __ P __ Q __ R __

Law Manufacturing Miscellaneous Services Real Estate Retail Social Services Utilities Wholesale Other ______________________

2. What category best describes your position within your organization?

A __ Owner / Chairman / Partner B __ CEO / President C __ COO / CFO / CIO / General Manager / Other Officer

E-mail

ADMISSION & EXPO EVENT FEES Expo Pass Only

(includes access to show floor & all seminars)

Women in Business Breakfast Bravo! & I.Q. Awards Luncheon

$20.00 $ ___________ Fee waived with any paid Expo events

$45.00 $ ___________ $55.00 $ ___________

D __ Senior or Executive VP E __ VP / Manager / Director / Supervisor F __ Other ______________________

3. What is the number of employees at this location?

A __ 1 - 4 B __ 5 - 9 C __ 10 - 19

G __ 250 - 499 H __ 500 +

D __ 20 - 49 E __ 50 - 99 F __ 100 - 249

4. Please Indicate your company’s sales volume: A __ B __ C __ D __

Less than $500,000 $500,000 - $999,999 $1 - $4.9 million $5 - $19.9 million

E __ F __ G __ H __

$20 - $99.9 million More than $100 million Do not know Do not wish to answer

biztimes.com / 45

Strategies INNOVATION

Innovate or Die Understand the problems your customers face We have all heard the old refrain: “You can’t sell ice cream to Eskimos.”

Don’t tell Todd DeMonte, because he currently sells dehumidifiers in the arid state of New Mexico to solve greenhouse operators’ mold problems growing medicinal marijuana plants.

The company he heads, Therma-Stor LLC, has grown under his leadership to become the largest manufacturer of dehumidifiers for both the business and consumer markets in all of North America.

Make no mistake about it, humidity is a big problem in our life, whether it’s in our own homes or for those that operate greenhouses or industrial plants. The Therma-Stor team prides itself on asking customers to try its units and make up their own minds about the quality of the offering.

What does DeMonte credit for his company’s success? He points to his experience at a Mercedes dealership in the 1990s. Mercedes was under pressure to compete against Lexus, so it drove its costs down but sacrificed quality, to the detriment of the brand.

As a result, DeMonte believes delivering quality to customers is paramount.

His team adheres to the philosophy that customers have challenging problems, but they don’t know what the product solutions would be.

A horse and buggy owner would never think to ask for the invention of a car.

DeMonte’s team feels it is in the “translation business.” His employees listen carefully to a variety of sources about Therma-Stor products, from customers to sales reps to people using 46 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

competitors’ products.

They spend their time understanding the problems those customers face and then translate those problems into opportunities their equipment could solve.

Take the marijuana example. In the indoor facilities that grow legal cannabis, it’s necessary to control the lights. When the lights are on, humidity levels can easily be maintained. However, when the lights go off, humidity levels rise, creating serious problems such as powdery mildew, spider mites and a whole host of other things that will ruin the harvest.

Anyone in business is flooded with feedback from customers and the market, so the question always becomes: what can our team do about it?

DeMonte historically segmented the company’s various product ideas and evenly distributed investment across their various brands. He said he got that idea by trying to treat his kids equally.

Unfortunately, the family makes a lousy metaphor for a successful business. Because we love our kids, we don’t fire them!

So instead, Therma-Stor developed a product innovation process that speeds up customer response through various gates to evaluate products. It begins with an analysis of their core competencies, as well as the potential for sales of the product, before anybody engineers or manufactures anything.

We all hear about “The Lean Startup” methodology by Eric Ries, but that applies primarily to software development. Jeff Bezos throws money at his software engineers to innovate. That’s not so easily replicated in the mechanical engineering world, where sometimes it’s hard to get ahold of raw materials or parts from the supply chain to test a product.

As a result, Therma-Stor can compress the testing process and that, in turn, allows it to focus on those projects it knows will create the most value.

That process has accounted for the tremendous growth of the company to become the leader in segments focused on efficiency, capacity or size.

Therma-Stor’s team delivers the most efficient dehumidifiers in the world.

DeMonte hires most of his engineers from the Madison area, where his plant is located.

Many are University of Wisconsin graduates.

This proves that “Made in the USA” is still a viable option.

We do not have to figure out how to sell ice cream to Eskimos to achieve the kind of results Todd’s company has achieved. It starts with a keen, careful listening process, and then turning customers’ problems into solutions that delight them. As proof, most of its growth comes by word-of-mouth, and Therma-Stor tracks that

by ZIP code.

Innovation begins with careful listening and interpreting the needs of the customer. n

DAN STEININGER Dan Steininger is the president of BizStarts and the president of Steininger & Associates LLC, which helps companies drive new revenues through innovation. He can be reached at Dan@BizStarts.com.

LEADERSHIP

Invest in your frontline leaders I recently attended a conference and had the opportunity to hear from more than a dozen senior-level talent development professionals, primarily of Fortune 100 and 500 companies. Each of the speakers shared current initiatives and best practices in their organizations.

One of the topics that most captured my attention was the impact of underinvestment in frontline leaders. These are your frontline supervisors (both new and seasoned), your official team leads and even your emerging leaders (not yet in a leadership role). A question was asked of the audience: “To what degree does your organization have a healthy leadership pipeline?” »» My organization has a robust pipeline: 5 percent »» My organization is building a leadership pipeline: 48 percent »» My organization is not where it needs to be: 48 percent You can see there is progress to be made.

Additionally, 86 percent of CEOs confirm developing new leaders is the No. 1 talent challenge, according to a 2014 Deloitte survey, right along with inability to find talent. The combined leadership shortage and talent shortage represent the biggest barriers to growth. The fact also remains that ineffective leadership remains a key reason for losing the hard-sought talent.

WHY ARE FRONTLINE LEADERS CRITICAL? They have the greatest impact on your brand. Your frontline leaders will typically di-

rect the work of 60 to 70 percent of your frontline workforce. Your workforce is collectively responsible for meeting customer expectations and interacting with customers in a way that makes them feel valued. This is the customer-facing part of your brand. Internally, your frontline leaders impact the employee experience more than anyone else. Your brand is talked about in a variety of situations outside of work and will be couched in a realm of positivity or in negativity. Positivity will help you in your talent attraction efforts. Because of the importance of the relationship your employees have with their leader, they are more inclined to talk negatively if their own leader is ineffective, regardless of the organization.

They provide a competitive advantage. Developing frontline leaders is a differentiator. This is what makes you different in your customers’ minds, in your employees’ experiences and in the minds of your potential recruits. Yet consider that organizations fail to select and promote the right candidate nearly 87 percent of the time. It will likely not be a surprise to anyone reading this that the key criteria (used by most companies) for promotion into supervision is high performance.

High performance does not equal effective leadership. As a result, many organizations are innocently creating a competitive disadvantage because of their supervisor selection process.

They help reduce cost. Without effective leadership, most organizations struggle with low engagement and turnover. Low engagement results in lost productivity, to the tune of $500 billion per year across the U.S. And for frontline employees who leave, the cost of turnover is conservatively 16 to 20 percent of their salary. This will translate typically to $3,500 to $15,000 per employee. Far too many decision-makers still battle the investment in leaders, while at the same time investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital investments. Here is a simple scenario: A 300-employee company with 30 percent turnover will experience a cost of turnover to the tune of $350,000 to $1.5 million. If turnover can be improved by 20 percent through improved leadership, this is a savings of $70,000 to $300,000.

They drive positive results. We’ve seen

time and time again: a frontline leader who is equipped with the language, skill and approach for interacting with employees will impact results in measurable ways. Here are some examples from organizations that have invested in the development of their frontline leaders: »» “Our total recordable incidents decreased by 66 percent in one just year.” »» “Employees were production bonus eligible in 2017 for the first time in two years (production in 2015 and 2016 was not sufficient to qualify employees for bonuses).” »» “A shift supervisor utilized new skills to turn around his lowest performing employee’s productivity. Within three weeks, this employee went from productivity between 20 percent and 40 percent to 104 percent productivity.”

Why are organizations underinvesting in their frontline leaders? I don’t have the answer for sure. The question that so many decision-makers ask is, “How much will this cost us?”

Investing in your leaders is not supposed to be inexpensive. The question that needs to be asked is, “What will happen when we invest in our frontline leaders?” n

ALETA NORRIS Aleta Norris is a co-founding partner of Brookfield-based Living As A Leader, a leadership training, coaching and consulting firm. You may send questions to her at anorris@livingasaleader.com. biztimes.com / 47

Strategies

Tip Sheet Develop inner agility

I

n an age of fast-paced technology that is changing at an even faster rate, the business world faces constant disruption and uncertainty – and those who lead the industry are responsible for guiding their companies through this digital transformation.

In an article from McKinsey & Co.’s McKinsey Quarterly, authors Sam Bourton, Johanne Lavoie and Tiffany Vogel discuss the “cognitive

and emotional load” business leaders carry as they attempt to navigate their companies through a time of drastic change.

For a company to successfully adapt to disruption, its leaders must be comfortable and creative with uncertainty. Bourton, Vogel and Lavoie suggest five personal practices to develop this skill.

1. Pause.

Take a moment each day to stop thinking and stop doing. This will give the brain some space for sound judgment, free-flowing thoughts and efficient, yet intentional, decisions and actions.

2. Ignorance is bliss.

Listening, thinking and decision-making while surrounded by the unknown can lead to the birth of original ideas or major breakthroughs. Great ideas can come from unexpected places, especially if you recognize and use your ignorance to keep an

PRESENTS:

2018

open mind.

3. Shake up your questions.

When solving a problem or discerning a complex situation, change the nature of the questions you ask of yourself. Making a question more challenging, or even simplifying it, allows your brain to step out of its box and into a new, open space that will promote original ideas.

4. It’s about the journey, not the destination.

Ditch the mentality of figuratively moving from point A to point B and instead, pinpoint a general direction to work toward.

5. Put your solutions, and yourself, to the test.

There’s no time like the present to jump into this ever-evolving digital world. Think of yourself as a “living laboratory,” open to experiments and adapting to the environment, leading an agile, ever-changing company. This will help your current leadership responsibilities seem exciting and not so terrifying. n

Nominate Today!

2018 Awards Categories

Call for Nominations BizTimes Media presents the fourth annual awards program to salute southeastern Wisconsin’s best corporate citizens and most effective nonprofit organizations.

The awards will shine a light on excellence in philanthropy and nonprofit leadership. The recipients of the awards will be saluted at a breakfast program on November 2nd, 2018.

Nominate the people and for-profit organizations who are making a positive difference in the community by donating their time, talent and treasure. Nominate the nonprofit organizations that are making the region a better place to live, work and play. Self-nominations also are encouraged!

48 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

Corporate Citizenship Awards • Corporate Citizen of the Year • Next Generation Leadership • In-Kind Supporter • Corporate Volunteer of the Year • Lifetime Achievement Nonprofit Organizations, Leadership & Support Team Awards • Nonprofit organization of the year (Small & Large Categories) • Nonprofit Collaboration of the year award • Nonprofit Executive of the Year • Social Enterprise

Submit your nomination at biztimes.com/npawards Nomination deadline: September 6, 2018 Event date: November 2, 2018

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biztimes.com / 49

BizConnections PAY IT FORWARD

Keith Mardak a longtime Boys & Girls Clubs supporter Keith Mardak Chief executive officer Hal Leonard Corp.

Nonprofits served: Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis Service: Board member, philanthropist

50 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

dren’s Hospital of Wisconsin to endow a chair at the hospital. The gift stems from the philanthropists’ personal connection to the hospital. When their granddaughter was four years old, she received care at CHW for a brain condition that ultimately required surgery.

“She recovered miraculously and lost nothing but a little peripheral vision,” Mardak said.

“She is now a sophomore at Marquette … We saw what Children’s did for her and we hope that this endowment can do a lot more for other kids.”

Another recent gift – a $2 million challenge grant he issued in October to Glendale-based nonprofit ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis – reflects Mardak’s ties to the organization, which trace back to his decades-long friendship with its founder, the late Melodie Wilson Oldenburg, and her husband, Wayne Oldenburg. Mardak’s recent pledge, the largest single contribution to the organization in its history, will help ABCD expand its peer-topeer support services. n

LAUREN ANDERSON Reporter

P / 414-336-7121 E / lauren.anderson@biztimes.com T / @Biz_Lauren

HAL LEONARD CORP.

WHEN A BOYS & GIRLS CLUB on Milwaukee’s north side was on the brink of closure at the start of the school year, Keith Mardak swooped in at the eleventh hour.

To see it shutter its doors, he said, would have been a tragedy.

Mardak, chief executive officer of Hal Leonard Corp., and a 24-year board member of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, and his wife, Mary Vandenberg, had helped open the Daniels-Mardak Boys & Girls Club at 4834 N. 35th St. with a $1.5 million gift in 2014.

That gift was followed a year later by an additional $5 million contribution from the philanthropists to establish an extended learning day program in partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools at the clubs, and additional donations over the years that brought the programming of First Stage, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music to the club’s youth.

So when a lease dispute threatened to close their club, Mardak and Vandenberg gave $300,000 to subsidize a portion of its operating costs and keep the doors open.

“It’s all about kids,” Mardak said. “The club is doing an incredible job of reaching those kids. Anything we can do to interest kids into music and academics is important to us.”

It’s that kind of personal connection that drives Mardak’s giving.

Take, for example, the couple’s recent $1.5 million gift to Chil-

PERSONNEL FILE BANKING & FINANCE

BANKING & FINANCE

CONSTRUCTION

HEALTH CARE & WELLNESS

First Business Financial Services Inc., Milwaukee

Waukesha State Bank, Waukesha

Greenfire Management Services LLC, Milwaukee

Rogers Memorial Hospital Foundation, Oconomowoc

Greenfire Management Services LLC has promoted Mike Timmers to director of operations. In his new role, Timmers will be responsible for the successful completion of all construction projects from inception to final payment. He will also work closely with all Greenfire Project Management teams. Timmers previously served as senior project manager.

Rogers Memorial Hospital Foundation has named Marty Vogel vice president of principal gifts. In this role, Vogel will focus his efforts on cultivating and stewarding both existing and new philanthropic partners as a means of growing financial support for patients and programs throughout Rogers Behavioral Health.

Barnett

Kohl

First Business Financial Services Inc. has hired Errol Barnett and Ross Kohl as SBA business development Flanagan officers and Jim Flanagan as senior vice president of commercial banking in First Business Bank’s Milwaukee office.

Barnett joined First Business Bank with more than 30 years of banking experience ranging from commercial lending to correspondent banking and special asset management. Kohl joins First Business Bank with more than 25 years of experience in small business administration and commercial lending. Flanagan has more than 30 years of commercial lending experience helping local businesses reach their goals.

Waukesha State Bank has hired Mike Kurth as a mortgage consultant. Kurth comes to Waukesha State Bank from Quest Home Loan Center, where he served as a mortgage loan originator. He has 20 years of residential lending experience, specializing in construction, rehabilitation and low down payment loan options.

BANKING & FINANCE

Ziegler Investment Banking, Milwaukee Ziegler Investment Banking has hired Aaron Schroeder as senior vice president on its investment banking team in senior living finance. Schroeder is responsible for providing investment banking services to not-for-profit senior living providers in the Midwest region, as well as credit, covenant and deal structuring oversight for the national senior living practice.

BANKING & FINANCE

First Federal Bank of Wisconsin, Brookfield First Federal Bank of Wisconsin has hired Kathy Branton as vice president of commercial lending. She has been in the financial industry for more than 30 years and has held positions including operations manager, market manager and business banker.

CONSTRUCTION

Moore Construction Services, Menomonee Falls Moore Construction Services has hired Abby Tanner as project coordinator. Tanner has six years of experience in customer service and sales. Her responsibilities include project support, contract administration, marketing services and general office administration.

HEALTH CARE & WELLNESS

Submit new hire and promotion announcements to: www.biztimes.com/personnel

American Red Cross of Wisconsin, Milwaukee American Red Cross of Wisconsin has hired Justin Kern as the new regional chief communications officer. He joins the Red Cross following roles at SecureFutures, PKWARE and news outlets in Wisconsin and New York.

INSURANCE

David Insurance, Milwaukee, Racine

MacNeil

Tighe

David Insurance has hired Michael MacNeil as managing director of its Milwaukee office and Jennifer Tighe as a multi-line sales executive. MacNeil has spent the past 30 years working in the technology sector, supporting Fortune 50+ customers to understand and resolve their business needs, manage their business risks and protect their investments. Tighe has spent the majority of her 20 years in the insurance industry gaining the knowledge and experience necessary to provide the correct coverage to protect her clients’ personal and business needs.

biztimes.com / 51

BizConnections VOLUME 24, NUMBER 5 | MAY 28, 2018

GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR

126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120

South side police station This photo, taken circa 1937, shows a police station on the south side of Milwaukee. Above the doors of the station is the year 1886. The Milwaukee Police Department was established in 1855, and by 1888 had 181 officers. Today, the MPD has seven districts covered by approximately 1,800 officers.

— This photo is from the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Photo Archives collection.

PHONE: 414-277-8181 FAX: 414-277-8191 WEBSITE: www.biztimes.com CIRCULATION: 414-336-7100 | circulation@biztimes.com ADVERTISING: 414-336-7112 | ads@biztimes.com EDITORIAL: 414-336-7120 | andrew.weiland@biztimes.com REPRINTS: 414-336-7128 | reprints@biztimes.com PUBLISHER / OWNER Dan Meyer dan.meyer@biztimes.com

SALES & MARKETING

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Mary Ernst mary.ernst@biztimes.com

EDITORIAL EDITOR Andrew Weiland andrew.weiland@biztimes.com MANAGING EDITOR Molly Dill molly.dill@biztimes.com REPORTER Lauren Anderson lauren.anderson@biztimes.com REPORTER Corrinne Hess corri.hess@biztimes.com REPORTER Maredithe Meyer maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com REPORTER Arthur Thomas arthur.thomas@biztimes.com

DIRECTOR OF SALES Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Molly Lawrence molly.lawrence@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE David Pinkus david.pinkus@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Maggie Pinnt maggie.pinnt@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com SALES INTERN Amanda Bruening amanda.bruening@biztimes.com SALES INTERN Tess Romans tess.romans@biztimes.com

ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Sue Herzog sue.herzog@biztimes.com

PRODUCTION & DESIGN GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alex Schneider alex.schneider@biztimes.com

Independent & Locally Owned

ART DIRECTOR Shelly Tabor shelly.tabor@biztimes.com

— Founded 1995 —

COMMENTARY

Too close for comfort Hopefully the Foxconn project is a big success that creates a massive number of jobs and business opportunities and transforms Wisconsin’s economy for the better.

But it’s fair to raise concerns when close supporters of Gov. Scott Walker are benefitting from this deal.

Walker brokered the deal, approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature, in which state taxpayers will provide a $3 billion subsidy to Foxconn. Local incentives for the project and planned infrastructure improvements total another $1.5 billion.

The massive Foxconn project is going to create up to 10,000 construction jobs and will involve numerous subcontractors in the state.

That’s great. But how are those firms being selected, and what is their connection to Walker?

Foxconn and the joint venture general contractor M+W | Gilbane recently announced 28 subcontractors for the site preparation work for the $10 billion Foxconn LCD manufacturing 52 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

complex in Mount Pleasant. The contracts for those subcontractors are worth $100 million.

The good news is 27 of the 28 subcontractors are Wisconsin companies, though a Daily Reporter report revealed one of those firms is banned from doing work with the state Department of Transportation (that firm, Vizcaino’s Trucking LLC, will be replaced).

Even more concerning, leaders of some of those subcontractors have been campaign contributors to Walker, according to the state’s official Campaign Finance Information System.

One example is Tim Michels, the co-owner and vice president of Brownsville-based Michels Corp., which was picked to do aggregate and underdrain work for the Foxconn site.

Michels, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, has donated $27,500 to Friends of Scott Walker since 2010, according to CFIS records.

In fairness, it probably would not be easy to find construction firm executives in Wisconsin who are not Walker supporters and many of them have likely contributed to his campaign.

But considering the subsidy Walker negotiated for Foxconn, it’s certainly noteworthy when his financial backers get opportunities to work on the project.

But the biggest red flag so far is the decision

by Foxconn to name Brookfield-based Hammes Co. as the master planner for its Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park. Hammes has significant experience master planning large real estate development projects and is certainly qualified for the job. But its founder and managing partner, Jon Hammes, is the chairman of Walker’s re-election finance committee.

That’s not just close, it’s inner-circle close.

And it’s too close for comfort for the politically-charged, heavily subsidized Foxconn project.

It just doesn’t look good.

For a firm led by such a close Walker supporter to be selected for a Foxconn contract raises legitimate questions about its appropriateness and gives critics of the Foxconn deal more ammunition. The Foxconn deal is already controversial enough for Walker as he seeks re-election. Why make it even more so? n

ANDREW WEILAND EDITOR

P / 414-336-7120 E / andrew.weiland@biztimes.com T / @AndrewWeiland

YP Week

AROUND TOWN

Milwaukee Young Professionals Week featured more than 30 seminars, workshops, discussions and social events geared toward the millennial workforce. NEWaukee organized the week, which ran from April 20 to April 28 at various locations.

BizTimes Milwaukee was a sponsor of YP Week.

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1.

RITA DEMERIT, NICOLE BEHNKE, ANGELA DAMIANI and MADDY DAY, all of NEWaukee.

2.

KYLE KORNACKI, ANNA REINERIO and PAT CATES, all of Stamm Technologies.

3.

JEREMY FOJUT of NEWaukee, MATT CORDIO of Startup Milwaukee and MASON NEDDY of ECDG LLC.

4.

HEATHER DUNN, BARB WRIGHT and MARY TRAUT, all of West Bend Mutual Insurance Co.

5.

BREE BOETTCHER of GMR Marketing, TRISTA MULVEY of The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. and KIM MURRAY of Schober Schober & Mitchell S.C.

6.

IVAN MORENO of The Associated Press and KATHARINE FOLEY of Bader Rutter.

7.

STEVE GLYNN of Beko U.S. Inc., KRISTIN SETTLE of VISIT Milwaukee, and JEN KUHN and MIGUEL JASNIEWSKI, both of Untitled Creative Studio.

8.

AMANDA HALL of Top Floor Digital Marketing Services, JESSAMYN AMEZQUITA of Kohl’s Corp. and KELLY WALLSCHLAEGER of Mueller Communications.

9.

HANNAH GARSOMBKE of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. and BREA HOPGOOD of Aurora West Allis Medical Center.

Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Conference

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MRA held its annual Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Conference on April 10 at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.

10. KALI ERICKSON and NANCY VANG-LEE, both of Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., GUSSIE DANIELS of Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast and MARGO FRANKLIN of Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin.

11. KRISTIN ARNOLD, DALE MATTHEWS and BELINDA CAMPANELLI, all of Generac.

12. WANDA MONTGOMERY of Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and LESLIE GALLOWAY SHERARD of Rockwell Automation Inc.

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13. KELLY STUEBER, ADRIENNE SMITH, and KARA WIESNER, all of Froedtert Health.

14. LUISA HERRERA, BEN REVAK and RENAE SIGALL, all of UW Credit Union.

15. KEN VOGEL of United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County and CARRIE DIENER of Employ Milwaukee Workforce.

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16. TAMARA WATKINS and GRADY CROSBY, both of Johnson Controls Inc. 17. CHARLIE MOORE and DIANE STIEGHORST, both of Froedtert Health.

Photos by Maredithe Meyer

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biztimes.com / 53

BizConnections MY BEST ADVICE

up on time and with a purpose.”

LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

“ Show

DAVID BR A ATEN Chief executive officer Partnership Bank Cedarburg Industry: Banking mypartnershipbank.com Employees: 72

54 / BizTimes Milwaukee MAY 28, 2018

I ENDED up having a mentor in college and he said a couple of things to me that resonated in my life. The first one was: ‘To be the best, study the best.’ Once you study the best, you’re able to create a gap analysis to figure out what you need to do more of or what you need to do less of.”

“I went to that same mentor when I was coming out of college and said, ‘How am I going to be successful in the workplace?’ He said, ‘Dave, it’s really simple. No. 1: Show up on time and with a purpose.’ It’s the 80-20 rule.

Twenty percent will show up on time and with a purpose and 80 percent won’t. But he said, ‘Don’t stop there. No. 2 is: When you raise your hand to say you’re going to do something, do it.’ Twenty percent of the people who raised their hand will do what they say they’re going to do and 80 percent won’t. By sheer math, you are now in the top 4 percent.

AGE: 51 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Braaten graduated from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in 1989 and joined Menomonee Falls-based Strong Capital Management. In 1994, he was named the director of U.S. and international trading.

In 1998, he was named president of Strong Investments and one of four co-CEOs. In 2005, Braaten co-founded Next Generation Wealth Management Inc. Braaten joined Partnership Bank parent Partnership Community Bancshares as president and chief operating officer in 2009. Since 2016, he has been CEO of Partner-

ship Bank, in addition to president of the holding company.

IN THE NEWS: Partnership Bank recently expanded and upgraded the business relationship center at its Cedarburg location, a response to the growth of its client base.

The business also recently received the Torch Award for Ethics from the Better Business Bureau of Wisconsin. n

Every Organization Needs Great Leaders.

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Don’t miss your opportunity to be part of the area’s best leadership training program. Customized leadership modeling, exposure to other leaders and strategy, discovery sessions, case-study application, and guest CEO speaker forums are just some of the tools we use to make you the leader you want to be. What you experience will positively impact you, your organization and every facet of your life. Sign up today. biztimesleadershipacademy.com

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