BizTimes Milwaukee | May 16, 2016

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PAYING IT

FORWARD NATIONAL BUSINESS FURNITURE FOUNDERS INVEST LIFE’S WINNINGS TO HELP STARTUPS

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

GENER8TOR EARNS REGIONAL SPIRIT AWARD PENEBAKER IS BIZTIMES WOMAN EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR Gearge and Julie Mosher

RANKING MILWAUKEE’S CHARITIES

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inside

May 16 - 29, 2016 HIGHLIGHT S Now 4 Ikea will build a store in Oak Creek.

Book Review

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‘The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore.’

Made in Milwaukee

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People and process help power The Industrial Controls Co.

Nonprofit news

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La Causa buys former ManpowerGroup HQ building for $3 million.

Breaking Ground Joe Kirgues and Troy Vosseller of gener8tor.

S P E C I A L R E P O R T:

INNOVATION & TE CHNOLOGY

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Coverage includes a look at the rapid growth of Titan Spine, a report on Gilman Precision’s use of technology and a preview of the Bravo/I.Q. panel discussion at BizExpo, featuring Regional Spirit Award winner gener8tor.

COV E R S T ORY

SPECIAL SECTION :

Paying it forward

A PPL AU SE ! 27

National Business Furniture founders invest life’s winnings to help startups ON THE COVER: George and Julie Mosher — photo by Paul Gaertner - White Dog Photography

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Grand Avenue

Meet the winners of the annual BizTimes Bravo! Entrepreneur and I.Q. (Innovation Quotient) Awards, who have demonstrated unique entrepreneurial vision and drive.

Also, learn about the journey of Paula Penebaker, winner of the BizTimes Woman Executive of the Year Award, and about the Women in Business Breakfast panel, which will discuss mission-driven leadership.

S TR ATE GIE S Mindset Susan Marshall Generation Y Aleta Norris Leadership Karen Vernal Human Resources Daniel Schroeder

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BIZ CONNECTIONS Biz Notes 53 Nonprofit Directory Spotlight 53 Personnel File 54 Glance at Yesteryear 56 The Last Word 58

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Founded in 1995, BizTimes Milwaukee provides news and operational insights for CEOs, presidents, owners and other top level executives at companies in southeastern Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth and Sheboygan counties).

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BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 22, Number 4, May 16 - 29, 2016. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except two consecutive weeks in December (the third and fourth weeks of December) by BizTimes Media LLC at 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120, USA. Basic annual subscription rate is $42.00. Single copy price is $3.25. Back issues are $5.00 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 2016 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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leading edge NOW

Ikea will build a store in Oak Creek

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epresentatives for Swedish furniture retailer Ikea announced recently that the company plans to build a 295,000-square-foot store in Oak Creek. It will be the first location for Ikea in Wisconsin.

The store will be the anchor of a mixed-use development planned by Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., on land the company owns northwest of I-94 and Drexel Avenue in Oak Creek, across South 27th Street from the company’s Franklin campus.

The single-story Ikea store will be built on 29 acres and will also have 1,200 parking spaces. Ikea plans to purchase the land from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. Construction work for the store is expected to begin in the spring of 2017, and the store is expected to open in the summer of 2018. The construction project will create 500 jobs, said Liz Gabor, Ikea’s real estate manager.

Once complete, the store will employ 250 people.

Ikea officials said the retailer has about 206,000 customers in the Milwaukee area who travel to shop at the two

stores in the Chicago area. Ikea has stores in Schaumburg, Ill. and Bolingbrook, Ill. The Schaumburg store, which is closest to Milwaukee, is the largest in the U.S. at 450,000 square feet.

Ikea currently has 41 stores and sales of $4.6 billion in the United States. According to its website, Ikea is hoping to increase its presence in the Midwest. The company will open its second store in Ohio next year and its first store in Indiana. Ikea recently began construction of a 1.25-million-square-foot distribution center in Joliet, Ill. to support its Midwest expansion plans.

The Oak Creek Ikea site is part of 128 acres of land along Drexel Avenue in Oak Creek owned by Northwestern Mutual. In November, the city changed its land use plan so 60 of those acres could be developed.

Betsy Hoylman, spokesperson for Northwestern Mutual, said as of right now, there are no specific plans for the remaining acreage, but the company is excited for the potential development prospects Ikea could bring.

“The Ikea brand name is attractive to business, such as restaurants or other

A rendering of the Oak Creek Ikea store.

retailers that want to be located nearby,” Holyman said. “We are excited by this development and look forward to discussions with interested parties that see the location’s potential.”

The development will be done through Northwestern Mutual Real Estate, the company’s real estate arm, which is one of the largest investors in real estate in the country. Northwestern Mutual Real Estate has a $41 billion real estate investment portfolio, with investments

in commercial mortgages and equity investments across all major property types, including apartments, office, retail and industrial.

Ikea approached Northwestern Mutual in 2015 about building a store on the site.

“We are known for chasing opportunities, but they came to us and said this is what we have for you,” said Oak Creek Mayor Steve Scaffidi. “As you can imagine, we were really excited.”

——Corrinne Hess

SOCI AL M E D I A S T R AT E GI ES

Authenticity is king in marketing to millennials Do you have a hard time relating to millennials? You aren’t alone, and it’s a growing problem for many businesses and marketers. This generation has grown up with technology. They crave the opinions of people they trust, and they don’t hold back in sharing their thoughts about your product with their social networks. So how do you ensure what they are sharing is positive and in line with your brand’s messaging? Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Be authentic. Know what your brand is, and more importantly, what your brand isn’t. Don’t try to make your brand something it isn’t, because millennials will see right through your messaging.

2. Embrace user-generated content. If people are going to take photos/videos of your brand, why not embrace it? In addition to keeping your content fresh, you will gain lifelong brand ambassadors 4

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when you share their content with your audience.

3. Speak to their passion. Millennials want to do business with companies that have a mission, especially if there’s a level of social impact. Show what your business stands for, not just the products you sell.

4. Show, don’t tell. You’ve probably heard that “content is king,” and while it’s become cliché, it rings true, especially with the rise of video. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds are flooded with video, and it’s proving to be the most engaging content.

5. Have a personality. Just like a person, a brand has a personality. It comes through in the way you speak with your audience, not at it. Make sure your brand’s tone of voice

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matches the message you want to convey.

Try integrating these tips into your communication and social media strategies to earn the attention—and business—of this key generation.

——Eric Schad is social media and digital marketing manager at Concordia University in Mequon.

leading edge COFF E E B R E A K

POLITIC AL BEAT

Tommy honored by UW

BY MATT POMMER, special to BizTimes

What was the smartest thing your company did in the past year?

“Invest in our team members. Our success as a professional services firm relies heavily on employing the best talent in the industry. Over the past year, we have made significant investments in our team members by providing training, opportunities to build challenging projects, group engagement and communication, and growth in our lean, quality and safety initiatives. These efforts have resulted in team members advancing their careers and feeling valued while they deliver an exceptional experience to our customers.”

What’s new at your company?

“It’s an exciting time to be in the development and construction industry. Wisconsin has a number of significant projects underway and the revitalization of downtown Milwaukee and the surrounding areas over the next five years will be transformative. As a company, our project management solutions and virtual design and construction expertise allows us to build more efficiently and cost-effectively.”

Aerial Vehicles (drones) to capture 3D models of existing facilities and site conditions can prove beneficial for our customers.”

Do you plan to hire any additional staff or make any significant capital investments in your company in the next year?

“With the increase in work comes job creation and economic growth for our area. We are currently hiring and plan to hire additional team members this year to help deliver our projects.

With a large local presence and national resources, we have the ability to leverage our collective expertise for our customers.”

What will be your company’s main challenges in the next year?

“One of our main challenges is recruiting and retaining the best professional and craft worker talent in the industry. Over the last several years, we have developed strong partnerships with organizations throughout the Milwaukee community, which will allow us to provide local workers and businesses opportunities to build throughout Wisconsin.”

What’s the hottest trend in your industry?

“Prefabrication, virtual reality and lean initiatives are three trends in our industry. We have prefabricated components for a number of years, but recently we’ve been focused on finding opportunities to prefabricate more systems off-site, which enables efficient and safer installation on-site. Virtual reality gives us an opportunity to walk through high-value and revenue-generating spaces with our customers early in the process to make decisions before design is complete.

Also, using Unmanned

Do you have a business mantra?

“Create an exceptional experience for your customers.”

From a business standpoint, who do you look up to?

“I admire a long list of individuals – from renowned leaders to people I’ve personally worked with throughout my career. In general, I have an appreciation for leaders who have a clear vision, are competitive and compassionate, have strong values and inspire those around them. I am fortunate to work alongside many of these individuals on a daily basis.”

Scott Heberlein Vice president & general manager Mortenson Construction 17975 W. Sarah Lane, Brookfield www.mortenson.com Industry: Construction Employees: 265 (Wisconsin); 5,400+ (nationwide) Family: My wife, Sara; daughter, Sidney (12); and son, Luke (9) w w w.biztimes.com

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Former Gov. Tommy Thompson will get an honorary degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is being cited for his dedication to the university and the Wisconsin Idea.

Thompson’s life is both a Horatio Alger-type story and a love affair with the university. He grew up a grocer’s son in Elroy, got bachelor and law degrees at the Madison campus, and enThompson tered a successful career in politics.

Thompson worked as a campus-area bartender to help pay college tuition.

He first ran for the Assembly in 1966, winning an upset victory in the Republican primary. He would serve in the Assembly for 20 years before winning his first of four terms as governor. He would later take a cabinet job under President George W. Bush. Republicans brought him back to the political ring in 2012 as their candidate for the U.S. Senate. He would lose that race to Democrat Tammy Baldwin.

But the University of Wisconsin remains Thompson’s love. He says the research gains there will spur economic growth in all parts of the state. As governor, Thompson provided extra state funding for the Madison campus to promote biotechnology and medical research.

Sixteen years ago, Gov. Thompson came to deliver his annual State of the State message to the Legislature with a test tube of DNA strands in his hand. He called it “the face of the future.”

Thompson continued to play the university champion even after he was gone from the state political scene.

“Going to a university transforms you. The stimulus, the intellectual capacity that you interact with – it makes you a whole different person,” Thompson said.

“It gives you the opportunity and the ability to do just about anything.”

Matt Pommer is the “dean” of Capitol correspondents in Madison. His column is published with permission from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, but does not reflect the view or opinions of the WNA or its member newspapers.

BY TH E NU MBERS

$96

million

Marquette University plans to spend $96 million to build two connected residence hall buildings. They will replace McCormick Hall, which will be demolished.

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leading edge ON TH E C ALEN D AR

MA DE I N M I LWA U K E E

People and process help power The Industrial Controls Company

ARTHUR THOMAS (414) 336-7123 | Twitter: @arthur8823 arthur.thomas@biztimes.com blessing and a curse for ICC. Many new engineers are drawn toward other industries or applications, which makes building a strong team more difficult. That challenge can also be a benefit, as customers have to turn somewhere to find the skillset they need.

“There’s a greater need for the engineering side,” Lavrenz said, adding that increasing safety and electrical requirements help drive business as well.

The Industrial Controls Co. traces its history back to 1982.

Lavrenz started his portion of the business out of his home in 1995 with the engineering firm LAS Automation. In 1998, he moved the business into a building occupied by control panel manufacturer Tenric.

“The line of where one started and one ended became very gray,” Lavrenz said, adding that it was clear he had a lot in common philosophically with his now-business partner Tim Thorn, who ran Tenric.

The two decided to combine their companies in 1999 as Absolute Automation Systems. The partnership generated reasonable organic growth, but over time they decided they wanted to go farther. In 2010, the company was renamed The Industrial Controls Co. to better reflect what it does. ICC also expanded by acquiring Downers Grove, Ill.-based Control Masters Inc. Lavrenz said the company tries to measure results by the success of customers, not its own bottom line.

“Maybe you don’t make as much money, but like I said, in the long run it’s a true partnership,” he said.

Developing those partnerships requires the right people and ICC takes a number of steps to attract and retain the right talent.

Lavrenz said the company has developed an “environment of responsibility,” giving engineers and other front office employees total autonomy over their work day.

“If you have a son or daughter in school and they have a play or a soccer game, we expect you to be there,” he said, adding some work from home a few days a week and everyone knows what work needs to be completed.

ICC has also invested in benefits and in developing new talent, with several interns eventually having joined the staff. New graduates are brought on as part of a CAD team and function as understudies to engineers.

The best engineers wouldn’t be worth anything if their designs weren’t executed properly. While the assembly process is straightforward, Lavrenz said it is also exacting, with weekly metric meetings to address safety, quality, delivery and productivity.

“From a manufacturing side, it’s pretty fundamental. From an efficiency side and a quality control, quality assurance side, we’re really on the upper end of what we do,” he said.

ICC’s focus is on high-quality assembly of control panels. The

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MAY

It’s all about people and process at The Industrial Controls Co. Inc. in Sussex.

Those two elements combine to allow the company to deliver a higher quality product while still being competitive on price.

Industrial Controls designs, engineers and builds control panels and systems for a wide variety of industries, including consumer paper products, food and beverage, oil and gas, transportation, wastewater treatment and more.

Don Lavrenz, president, says the company relies on customers to bring expertise in their particular industries and ICC brings expertise in engineering and building controls.

Relying on its expertise in controls is both a

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2016 BizExpo

ABOVE: Don Lavrenz discusses one of The Industrial Controls Co.’s projects with process improvement manager Donny Lavrenz.

BELOW: The Industrial Controls Co. does a full layout of the control panel to address any potential spacing issues before production begins.

The 2016 BizExpo will be held on Wednesday, May 18, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 1721 W. Canal St. in Milwaukee. The event will include networking with thousands of business professionals, exhibitor booths, business strategy seminars, the annual BizTimes Women in Business breakfast, the annual BizTimes Bravo!

Entrepreneur & I.Q. Awards luncheon and a new after hours event, “From the Locker Room to the Boardroom.” The BizExpo is free with advanced registration, with additional pricing for main stage events. For more information or to register, visit www.biztimes.com/bizexpo.

BOOK REVIEW

“The Gray Rhino:

How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore”

The Industrial Controls Co. Inc. N56 W24842 N. Corporate Circle, Sussex Industry: Composite molding Employees: 50 www.theindustrialcontrolsco.com company works with local metal fabricators for sheet metal needs.

While ICC makes its own wire harnesses, the company relies heavily on vendor-managed inventory for components.

Lavrenz said the idea is to do the things that will generate income and “farm everything else out.” One process that has been brought in-house is the engraving work used for labeling and identification. Lavrenz found that a $20,000 panel would sometimes be waiting for $12 worth of engraving work and figured the company could avoid costly delays by doing the work in-house.

ICC’s processes are built on attention to detail and meeting an established standard. Binders at each workstation detail how a product should be assembled. The quality assurance team checks everything and documents any issues. If similar problems keep popping up, the team sits down to figure out where things are going wrong.

“If there’s something wrong, the first thing you do is look at the process,” Lavrenz said. “Don’t blame the people.”

Get the latest manufacturing news delivered to your inbox every Monday.

Sign up for BizTimes’ Manufacturing Weekly at biztimes.com/subscribe.

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Author Michele Wucker describes a “gray rhino” as a highly probable, imminent threat that can be seen as a dust cloud on the horizon long before the animal comes charging into view.

In her book, “The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore,” Wucker likens the ominous “rhino” to the Lehman Brothers crash of 2008, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the chaos in the Middle East and all of the other disasters we have had advance knowledge of.

Drawing on her background in policy formation and crisis management, as well as interviews with world leaders, Wucker explains how significant crises can be recognized and countered strategically. “The Gray Rhino” uses persuasive stories, real-life examples, and practical advice to show managers, investors, planners and policy makers how change really occurs.

“The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore” is available on www.800ceoread.com for $14.99.

——Corrinne Hess

leading edge NON P RO F IT N E W S

THE GOOD LIFE

La Causa buys former ManpowerGroup HQ building Milwaukee nonprofit La Causa Inc. has purchased a 32,000-square-foot office building in Glendale for $3 million to use as office space for roughly 155 employees in its social services department.

Located in an office park at 5235 N. Ironwood Road near the Oak Leaf Trail and Milwaukee River, the building has been unused for several years and was purchased from AB Data.

AB Data’s corporate headquarters is located directly north of the purchased property. Both buildings once housed ManpowerGroup’s global headquarters. Manpower moved into its current downtown Milwaukee location overlooking the Milwaukee River in 2007.

La Causa is a wraparound service provider that offers a variety of support programs to low-income, predominantly Hispanic families at four locations on the city’s south side and one location in West Allis.

George Torres, president and chief executive officer of La Causa, said the organization’s social services department is currently run out of leased office space at 1212 S. 70th St. in West Allis, and the department’s staff of office workers, case workers, clinicians and psychiatrists could begin using the Glendale building as “home base” by mid-August.

——Ben Stanley

Sled dog race fanatics Each year near their cabin in Grand Marais, Michigan, Northwest Side Community Development Corp. executive director Howard Snyder and his wife, Janice Wilberg, sit by a fire and watch dog teams and mushers slide past into a dark expanse of evergreen wilderness near the shore of Lake Superior.

“It’s breathtaking,” Snyder said.

The UP 200, a dog sled race that spans 250 miles from Marquette, Michigan to Grand Marais and back each February, runs near their cabin. For 20 years, the two have watched and become bigger and bigger fans of the sport.

Though most Wisconsin sports fans dream of great seats at Lambeau Field, Snyder dreams of traveling along the 1,150 mile route of the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska to track the progress of his favorite mushers.

ABOVE: The UP 200 checkpoint near Snyder’s cabin.

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” Snyder said.

INSET: Snyder stands at the starting line of the Iditarod.

“Once you get into the interior, it can be very cold and snowy, and you just don’t have any way to know what the weather is going to be like. We just sort of fell “There’s a fan base that a lot of people in a city like in love with it.”

Milwaukee or Chicago wouldn’t know much about,” Snyder said. “But if you’re in Alaska, it’s the state sport. It’s the He and Janice have been to Alaska for the race twice — Packers of Alaska. And the mushers and the mushing comin 2014 and in 2016 — and watched the dog teams depart munity are like Alaskan royalty.” and return, but haven’t been able to witness the rugged struggle mushers face during most of the race.

——Ben Stanley

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leading edge O N T HE M ON E Y

BR EA K ING GR OUN D

GRAND AVENUE

Keep great management in the family Passing control in a family business can be difficult with all the challenges families and businesses face separately.

You may be confident in your own ability to keep your business on top, but how confident are you in its success when you are gone? With careful thought and planning, the torch can be passed and carried by many successive generations.

Developing a mission statement for the business is your first step. This statement covers your business’ values, as well as your family’s beliefs.

A comprehensive mission statement should incorporate the objectives and expectations of each family member. Determine if your children want to actively participate in the family business or pursue outside opportunities. Perhaps you want your children to possess their own real-world experience before coming into the business.

Detailed communication with the family is vital before any planning takes place. The focus should then turn to education.

Family businesses need to put a premium on education for the next generation.

That doesn’t necessarily mean formal education; it can simply mean close familiarity with the family business.

Given a successful business plan, an introduction to the values and mission of the business, and a strategy for maintaining the family dynamic, the next leaders should be well-equipped to take the reins. The final question is when to let go. This is where a forward-looking governance plan comes in.

Adult children are likely used to their parents making decisions about the com-

The new owners of The Shops of Grand Avenue recently unveiled their redevelopment plans for the downtown mall, including up to 120,000 square feet of office space on the second and third floors, which will eliminate the food court. A grocery store is also being sought for the 34,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Linens ’n Things and an urban marketplace is planned on the mall’s first floor.

——Corri Hess pany. The parents, who are likewise used to being in charge, may also be reluctant to relinquish control. A transitional approach will enhance the governance of the business and alleviate many concerns. Another way to develop the next generation in the area of governance is to establish structures, such as family councils or advisory boards.

Ensuring that your business endures requires much more than a great business model. Don’t make the mistake of spending so much time and energy building your business that you overlook planning for its future. Make sure you keep great management all in the family.

——Jennifer Stillman is a banker at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Milwaukee.

2016 Top 10

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Century Fence Company Felss Rotaform, LLC ITU AbsorbTech, Inc. KS Energy Services, LLC Lakeland Supply, Inc. Landmark Credit Union Price Engineering Wisconsin Oven Corporation

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General Admission: $75 per person/$750 for Corporate Table of 10 Alliance Member Discount: $60 per person/$550 for Corporate Table of 10

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Re: Sales “Sales techniques are increasingly becoming passé. So are the people who stress using them, rather than emphasizing the relationship- and value-based side.”

- Jeffrey Gitomer

Re: Export-Import Bank “Our political system cannot function if the losing side refuses to move on and work for the good of the country after controversies like this are resolved. The U.S. ExportImport Bank was reauthorized by a supermajority in Congress in December, so confirming a board member should be simple.”

- Kurt Bauer, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce

Re: Startups in Wisconsin The International Council of Shopping Centers and the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin recently held the state’s only annual retail real estate conference at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

“Wisconsin has a business startup problem. Despite the buzz in Madison and a few other communities, there are far too many places in the state where entrepreneurship is still just a fancy word versus economic action.”

- Tom Still, Wisconsin Technology Council

Do you like the redevelopment plans for the Shops of Grand Avenue?

Yes! I can’t wait for the project to begin!

68%

No. The owners could have come up with a better plan.

8.5%

It looks good, but I doubt they can pull it off.

a benefit for SHARP Literacy Thursday, May 19 at 5:30 p.m.

La Casa de Esperanza, Waukesha Join us for an evening of food and festivities challenging chefs to create new dishes using McDonald's ingredients.

Participating chefs include: Bruce Badke, Distil * Dane Baldwin & Amber Dorszynski, Mr. B's * Andrew Koser & James Ko, Joey Gerard's * Kurt Fogle, Bass Bay Brewery * Steve Perlstein, Hom Wood Fired Grill * Richard Sweed, Artisan 179 * Marco Pollo Global Cluck Truck

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Serving Diverse Tenant Needs

Visit https://mcdonaldsunwrapped.eventbrite.com for tickets or call 414-410-3203 for more information

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W229 N1433 Westwood Dr.

262-513-3750 9

Growing, giving and gaming has been our vision the past 25 years.

Since the beginning, Potawatomi has entertained guests while giving back. From a world-class bingo hall to a premier entertainment destination, featuring gaming, seven restaurants, an event center, theater, hotel and more, Potawatomi Hotel & Casino has been a proud member of this community. We’re celebrating 25 years in the game, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

SPONSORED REPORT

25 Years of Growing, Giving & Gaming Potawatomi Hotel & Casino has spent the past quarter-century “in the game,” entertaining guests while growing and giving back in southeastern Wisconsin. Starting out as a worldclass bingo hall in 1991, the Milwaukee gaming venue has expanded to become the Midwest’s Premier Entertainment Destination, featuring high-energy gaming, award-winning dining, live entertainment, four-star luxury accommodations, meeting spaces and more—all while giving back as a proud member of this community.

tertainment destination in Wisconsin.

Another expansion in 2008 tripled its size, adding several new restaurants, a center bar, more gaming, an off-track-betting room, a poker room and tens-ofthousands of square feet in meeting space.

In 2014, the property changed its name to reflect its most recent addition, a 381-room luxury hotel. With the addition, Potawatomi Hotel & Casino became an all-inclusive entertainment destination, attracting more than 6 million guests annually and offering them more amenities than any other casino in the region.

A Leader in Entertainment On March 7, 1991, a new age of entertainment was born in Milwaukee. On a colder-than-normal late-winter day, Potawatomi Bingo opened its doors to a line of people that stretched around the modest building. The success of that day was an omen of good things to come.

The bingo hall was no more than a pole barn, with picnic table-style seating for about 2,500.

Soon after opening, in 1992, the casino added to its gaming mix by installing slot machines.

Less than a decade after that, the original bingo hall was replaced with a state-of-the-art, 250,000-square-foot casino, complete with additional gaming options, full-service dining and a theater. The casino reopened its doors in the year 2000, and shortly thereafter began welcoming millions of visitors annually—making Potawatomi Bingo Casino the most visited en-

A Leader in the Community Upon opening in 1991, Potawatomi Bingo employed roughly 200 people. Today, Potawatomi Hotel & Casino is one of the Milwaukee area’s top-25 employers with nearly 3,000 team members. More than 85 percent of those team members live in Milwaukee County, and nearly 65 percent live in the city of Milwaukee—evidence that the Potawatomi are truly making an impact in the community. Those employees represent a virtual melting pot with nearly 60 percent being people of color.

Since 1994, Potawatomi Hotel & Casino has helped fund over 500 Milwaukee-area children’s organizations to the tune of nearly $16 million through its signature charity program, Heart of Canal Street. Funds raised have helped put food on tables, roofs over children’s heads, books in their hands and much more.

Additionally, the Forest County Potawatomi Foundation has given tens of millions to hundreds of organizations statewide. Those dollars have gone to help people faced with the most difficult of economic challenges.

Tribal Impact The Forest County Potawatomi continues to build its footprint in Milwaukee through other non- Casino investments. The Potawatomi Business Development Corp. has helped diversify the Tribe’s business holdings and sustain its economic well-being.

The tribe has also made significant environmental impacts. Along with a number of other civic and community entities, it helped clean up the Menomonee Valley, setting the stage for new business, entertainment and green space.

One of the tribe’s most visible and impactful contributions in Milwaukee over the last several years has been the biodigester, located just west of the Casino. The biodigester converts large amounts of food waste to energy—including energy used to heat the casino’s hotel property.

25 Years and Counting…

From a 45,000-square-foot Bingo Hall to a 1.1-million square-foot entertainment destination, Potawatomi Hotel & Casino has a 25-year reputation of growing and giving in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. Its next chapters are sure to be just as successful as those already written.

1721 WEST CANAL STREET • MILWAUKEE, WI 53233 • 1-800-PAYSBIG • PAYSBIG.COM • GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-426-2535 ©2016 FOREST COUNTY POTAWATOMI COMMUNITY, WISCONSIN

biz news Ranking Milwaukee’s charities How local nonprofits stand up to scrutiny

BY BEN STANLEY, staff writer

I

f you’re feeling generous but want to be certain your charitable donation will have maximum impact, it might be a good idea check an organization’s financial health before giving.

Over the years, certain high-profile nonprofit organizations have been accused of misleading their donors about how their money was spent. In some cases, such as a 2014 investigation of the Red Cross by ProPublica and National Public Radio, it was discovered top executives used donations to pay themselves lavish salaries and lied to donors about how much of their contributions would be spent on programming.

To help donors avoid being taken advantage of by unethical or poorly managed organizations, a few watchdog groups, such as ProPublica and Charity Navigator, publish, analyze and rate nonprofits for their efficiency, financial health and transparency.

So how do nonprofits in the Milwaukee area hold up to scrutiny?

In 2015, Charity Navigator completed a market study of what it considered the largest 51 nonprofits in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. To date, the organiza-

tion has rated 55 Milwaukee nonprofits.

Based on the results of the study, if you’ve recently donated to the United Performing Arts Fund or the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, your money was likely well documented and spent efficiently for its intended purpose.

On the flip side, if you’ve given to Christian Life Resources in Richfield or Ways To Work in Milwaukee, what happened to your donation is more difficult to pinpoint.

UPAF was the top-ranked Milwaukee nonprofit, with a score of 96.6 out of 100.

The lowest ranked organization in the study was Christian Life Resources, which received a score of 66.5.

The study on the Milwaukee area is not exhaustive — there are thousands of registered nonprofits in the Milwaukee area — but Charity Navigator only ranks organizations that meet certain criteria.

Among them: an organization must actively solicit donations from the general public (which excludes private foundations), must have reported its fundraising expenses on federal tax forms for the two most recent fiscal years, and must have filed at least seven years of federal tax forms.

Milwaukee area’s highest, and lowest, ranked charities Ranking by Charity Navigator

Top five area charities

Ranking

Score (out of 100)

1. UPAF Four Stars 96.61 2. Greater Milwaukee Foundation

Four Stars

96.46

3. Make-A-Wish Foundation Wisconsin

Four Stars

94.67

4. Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Wisconsin

Four Stars

93.88

5. Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer

Four Stars

93.82

Bottom five area charities

Ranking

Score (out of 100)

51. Milwaukee Jewish Day School

Two Stars

77.55

52. Discovery World Two Stars 77.03 53. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin

Two Stars

73.87

54. Ways to Work

Two Stars

72.05

55. Christian Life Resources

One Star

66.53

See the full list of Milwaukee-area charity rankings by Charity Navigator at www.biztimes.com.

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Compared to other major metropolitan areas studied by Charity Navigator, nonprofits in Milwaukee are well-run, earning an average rating of three stars out of four and an average score of 87.2 out of 100. Milwaukee ranked No. 13 out of the nation’s 30 largest metropolitan areas in average score.

Here’s what the leaders of the bestand worst-ranked Milwaukee charities had to say about their organizations.

UPAF UPAF is an umbrella nonprofit that solicits donations on behalf of 15 local performing arts organizations, including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the Milwaukee Ballet. Since 2012, the organization has increased its annual fundraising total by 18.1 percent and in that same time period, has managed to reduce the size of its small administrative staff by two.

This year, UPAF plans to raise more than $12.2 million.

“It’s part of our mission,” said Deanna Tillisch, UPAF president and chief executive officer, of the organization’s strong financial performance. “We raise dollars to ensure high-quality performing arts, we promote performing arts, and the third part of our mission is to steward the dollars that our donors so generously give us.”

Tillisch took over leadership of UPAF four-and-a-half years ago and right away made it a priority to improve the organization’s Charity Navigator rating.

In 2011, UPAF had a three-star rating and an overall score of 87.9 out of 100. In earlier years, the organization fared much worse, earning a one-star rating and overall score of 65.2 in 2008 and a two-star rating and score of 75.2 in 2009.

Since Tillisch took over, however, the organization has maintained a four-star rating and each year its overall score has climbed — 93.5 in 2012, 94.4 in 2013 and, most recently, 96.6 in 2014. The organization’s 2015 financial information has not yet been evaluated.

“Part of it was just making sure we have the documentation they ask that you

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include,” Tillisch said. “So some of it was retooling and refining; just making sure that we were compliant. But I think it’s also just making sure that we keep our finances under control. We have a very healthy reserve; it’s more than two years of our operating budget. Six months is the rule of thumb.”

Tillisch, who worked for Northwestern Mutual before joining UPAF, credits what she referred to as a “private-sector” financial evaluation process for the group’s success. Here’s how it works: UPAF budgets how much money each of its member organizations will receive based on its annual fundraising goal. Then, each of its member organizations are evaluated on nine different metrics that judge their overall financial performance. Afterward, each group is given a rating on a fivepoint scale.

Although its members are guaranteed a certain amount of money, 25 percent of UPAF’s contribution to each organization is determined by that organization’s rating.

“If we are evaluating our 15 member groups on their financial acumen and performance, we need to reflect what we expect,” Tillisch said. “Our board does consist of a lot of business leaders in the community, so they expect us to be financially sound. And they closely monitor the performance of our organization.”

Christian Life Resources On its website, Christian Life Resources describes its mission: “This organization educates people on what God’s Word has to say about the value and sanctity of human life.”

It’s a pro-life organization founded by members of Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod congregations. The group’s national director, Rev. Robert Fleischmann, said in regard to activism, the group has historically focused on antiabortion efforts, but it now devotes more resources to opposing euthanasia.

The group also operates pregnancy care centers that provide counseling, resource centers for people seeking spiritual guidance on various life issues and a home

for single mothers called New Beginnings.

Since 2007, Christian Life Resources has had a one-star ranking on Charity Navigator. Fleischmann said he suspects much of his organization’s poor performance is related to a large amount of debt it has accrued over the past 17 years.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the group invested around $1 million in a media campaign meant to spread its message, but found itself in tremendous debt after financing a feature film called “Finding Home” in 2003.

“That was a project that majorly got out of control, financially,” Fleischmann said.

Though the original budget decided upon by the group and the film’s director, Lawrence David Foldes, was around $700,000, by the time it was released, the film had cost the organization roughly $2.2 million. Around $1.8 million of the project was covered by a loan from the organization’s biggest backer, the Marvin M. Schwan Charitable Foundation, and an additional $400,000 of debt was racked up with M&I Bank.

Though the Schwan Foundation eventually forgave the group’s debt, it also withdrew all funding about three years ago while grappling with its own massive financial problems, Fleischmann said. The sons of the Schwan Foundation’s founder are currently engaged in a legal battle with its trustees over the organization’s loss of approximately $600 million in off-shore real estate ventures.

Fleischmann said around the same time the organization became indebted due to its film project, it had also started bleeding money trying to manage two mobile medical units it had sent to Ukraine.

“I think I failed in my administrative role, in that I just didn’t have the courage to eliminate friends,” Fleischmann said of the organization’s poor financial decisions over the past 17 years, and his own admission that he stuck with certain projects longer than he should have.

Recently, however, Fleischmann said things have been looking up. Christian Life Resources paid off $60,000 of its debt in 2015, and Fleischmann said he has a plan in place to pay off the rest over the next four to five years.

The group has also begun taking steps to address its low Charity Navigator ranking and posted the results of an independent audit its board of directors commissioned in 2015 from Wegner CPAs to its website. n

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biz news

BizTimes to host Family & Closely Held Business Summit Best-selling author will keynote

BY BIZTIMES STAFF

T

"Whe n Wil liam s its be

DE AN S

side a stran ger o n Flig ht 371 to Ba rbado s, he he leaders of family-owned andshares 12 q is auestio family-owned ns th at hav e guid ed thwholesale distribue fina ncial fortun es of his family for th ree g enera tions ...insi ghtful, tho ught provo king a nd closely-held businesses sometimes powetor of heating, ventilation, air condirful, D eans writes what othe rs ha ve on ly dar ed th ink..." face unique challenges while attempting"Every Famil tioning and contin refrigeration equipment. y committed to the uity of its business should chal lenge its convictions with candid co nsideration of Deans' pow erful a nd proactive to grow their companies and leave a sus- The company started with a single philoso phies of wealth, family and human nature."

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My father and I have both finishe d reading the book and it has al ready shaped nking about our business in the future. Highly recommended."

Media, will feature a panel of four family our thi20 states.Martin Bamford, U K Autho r of Th e Mon ey Tre e business leaders who will talk about their"Every Famil Anguil Environmental is an air y's Business amplifies the impe rative for awareness, difficult conversation s and clean agreem strategies for navigating complex issuesTom D pollution control, water treatment ents in multi-­generational enterp rises. eans' poignant (and humor ous) modern-­day fable is a must read for gating the di fficult transiti and recognizing new opportunities. anyone naviand energy recovery system providons of wealth, owne rship and leadershi p."

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Foundpastries er of t he Fa mily B usines s Inst itute I nc. and all attendees will receive a copy of The bakery was started by Christhe book. tian Olesen and Harvey Holtz.

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real estate Somers Paris

PHOTO COURTESY CARW

Highway K The Amazon fulfillment center in Kenosha.

The Uline distribution center in Kenosha.

Kenosha County communities square off over I-94 land

T

here is a 3.8-square-mile parcel along I-94 in Kenosha County that has prompted a lawsuit among three municipalities.

It started with what some are calling a covert intergovernmental agreement April 7 between the Village of Somers and the Town of Paris that transferred the land from the town to the village.

CORRINNE HESS P: (414) 336-7116 E: corri.hess@biztimes.com Twitter: @CorriHess

The municipalities, located north of Highway K to the Racine County line, straddle the interstate. Somers has about 2,000 acres on the east; Paris has about 2,500 acres on the west.

Officials from both communities believe they could generate $500 million in commercial development over the next 20 16

years on the west side of the interstate and even more on the east.

“We will have some development on the Somers side, north of (Highway) 142 in the very near future,” said David Geertsen, a trustee in the Village of Somers and the director of finance for Kenosha County.

Geertsen would not say who interested developers are, but said there is “significant interest” coming from Illinois.

“It’s not just a continuation of what is happening in Pleasant Prairie,” Geertsen said of the newly-formed agreement between Somers and Paris. “This is a very important step for the economic development of this portion of the I-94 corridor. We want to work together to optimize that.”

Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser, who has been meeting with Somers and Paris officials for more than a year to help orchestrate this agreement, says future development there could become B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

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“Pleasant Prairie light.”

Kenosha County, and Pleasant Prairie in particular, has reaped the benefits of Illinois companies relocating recently.

Pleasant Prairie has attracted numerous businesses to move from Illinois to LakeView Corporate Park.

In 2010, Uline moved its headquarters from Illinois to Pleasant Prairie, west of I-94, and has been rapidly expanding since. The company this year finished a second 1.1 million-square-foot distribution center at its corporate headquarters campus in Pleasant Prairie, and also is building a new 298,000-square-foot office building on the campus. The company also plans to build a 60,000-square-foot office building and a 1 million-squarefoot distribution center on another site at Higheay 142 and I-94 in Kenosha.

Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. built a $250 million distribution center on 165 acres just east of the interstate in Kenosha

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in 2013, hiring more than 1,000 people.

Somers and Paris officials want to attract development to their communities as well. But not everyone views the new partnership between them as a positive step forward for Kenosha County. First, the city of Kenosha was left out of the discussion, which made outgoing Mayor Keith Bosman and incoming Mayor John Antaramian upset.

A lawsuit was filed in April against the Village of Somers by the city of Kenosha and two homeowners living in Paris, who believe the value of their properties will drop significantly, since they no longer have the option of being annexed into the city. The group also alleges various violations of the state open meetings law.

Mars Cheese Castle, which would be located in Somers under the deal, recently joined the suit and filed a separate lawsuit against the Town of Paris, said J. Michael McTernan, the Kenosha attorney repre-

senting the group.

Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder has granted a temporary injunction preventing Somers from annexing the Paris properties. As of right now, no municipal boundaries are actually changing.

Approximately 120 residents live in Paris. On April 29, McTernan filed a petition with more than 75 signatures from Paris residents asking that a referendum be held regarding the intergovernmental agreement.

He does not believe the agreement will stand.

“I don’t know of a large scale developer who would want to come here to get into the middle of a fight between three municipalities and try to develop in the middle of all this,” McTernan said.

Kreuser disagrees, saying the land is currently worth about $30 million and has the potential to be worth $500 million.

If the injunction is lifted and the intergovernmental agreement moves forward, Paris will pay the village $1.25 million this year and would also provide a revolving

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loan fund valued at $5 million to Somers, at a rate of 2.6 percent. Revenue generated from development within the area would be split evenly between Paris and Somers, Geertsen said.

“We want rooftops built with people working under them,” Kreuser said. “This doesn’t just help Kenosha County, it helps unemployment in Racine County; It helps southeastern Wisconsin.”

Questions have been raised about how potential developers will access sewer and water in the newly-formed municipality.

But that appears to have been solved, thanks to a 2015 state budget provision introduced by state Rep. Samantha Kerkman (R-Salem) requiring the Kenosha Water Utility to provide access to neighboring municipalities.

At the time, the legislation had to do with increasing access to the Village of Somers, but Kerkman said it encompasses all of the municipalities in Kenosha County.

“In the past, the city has had trouble having conversations with its neighbors with regards to water,” Kerkman said.

Kerkman is supportive of the intergovernmental agreement, and hopes the city will embrace it. She said the infrastructure is already west of the interstate for the Uline development.

“The city should not do this for free, we want people to pay for what the city provides – but when everybody does well, the region does well,” Kerkman said.

“There could be so much economic development down there.”

McTernan pointed out that the Highway 142 Uline site has been annexed to Kenosha. The city has passed a resolution opting out of the water provision and is not legally obligated to provide water to the communities, he said.

The need to provide services that are not available in the smaller municipalities as they develop, such as equipment if there is a large fire, has the new Kenosha mayor concerned.

So does the fact that the agreement limits Kenosha’s ability to grow. The city is bordered by Pleasant Prairie to the south, Lake Michigan to the east and Somers to

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the north. Its only opportunity for growth was the town of Paris, to its immediate west, since a village cannot be annexed.

“The city’s position is this is not in the best interest of Kenosha, nor do I think it creates a boundary that is sustainable,” Antaramian said. “We have always worked with our neighbors and even if it’s not always smooth, it makes sense. And of course the water is a major issue. The city will have to provide the water, and they will reap the benefits.”

Kreuser said he would prefer to not have water wars and thinks this is an easy issue to solve with a conversation – outside of the courtroom.

“If people want to argue what is right, then we can take it to the Public Service Commission and then to court,” Kreuser said. “I think it’s a fairly easy proposition, or it can be made more difficult. I’m shooting for easy.” n

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FACTS ABOUT HEART DISEASE IN WOMEN o you know what causes heart disease in women? What about the survival rate? Or whether women of all ethnicities share the same risk?

The fact is: Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, causing 1 in 3 deaths each year. That’s approximately one woman every minute!

But it doesn’t affect all women alike, and the warning signs for women aren’t the same in men. What’s more: These facts only begin to scratch the surface.

There are a several misconceptions about heart disease in women, and they could be putting you at risk. The American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement advocates for more research and swifter action for women’s heart health for this very reason.

MYTH: Heart disease is for men, and cancer is the real threat for women FACT: Heart disease is a killer that strikes more women than men, and is more deadly than all forms of cancer combined. While one in 31 American women dies from breast cancer each year, heart disease claims the lives of one in three. That’s roughly one death each minute.

MYTH: Heart disease is for old people FACT: Heart disease affects women of all ages. For younger women, the combination of birth control pills and smoking boosts heart disease risks by 20 percent.

And while the risks do increase with age, things like overeating and a sedentary lifestyle can cause plaque to accumulate and lead to clogged arteries later in life.

But even if you lead a completely healthy lifestyle, being born with an underlying heart condition can be a risk factor.

MYTH: Heart disease doesn’t affect women who are fit FACT: Even if you’re a yoga-loving, marathon-running workout fiend, your risk for heart disease isn’t completely eliminated. Factors like cholesterol, eating habits and smoking can counterbalance your other healthy habits. You can be thin and

“

have high cholesterol. The American Heart Association recommends you start getting your cholesterol checked at age 20, or earlier, if your family has a history of heart disease. And while you’re at it, be sure to keep an eye on your blood pressure at your next check-up.

MYTH: I don’t have any symptoms FACT: Sixty-four percent of women who die suddenly of coronary heart disease had no previous symptoms. Because these symptoms vary greatly between men and women, they’re often misunderstood. Media has conditioned us to believe that the telltale sign of a heart attack is extreme chest pain. But in reality, women are somewhat more likely to experience shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain. Other symptoms women should look out for are dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting, pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen and extreme fatigue.

MYTH: Heart disease runs in my family, so there’s nothing I can do about it FACT: Although women with a family history of heart disease are at higher risk, there’s plenty you can do to dramatically reduce it. Simply create an action plan to keep your heart healthy.

Because of healthy choices and knowing the signs, more than 670,000 of women have been saved from heart disease, and 300 fewer are dying per day. One of the best weapons against heart disease is to get to it before it gets to you. Early detection can make all the difference in a successful battle against the No. 1 killer of women. At Go Red For Women, we encourage women to take the initiative in your own personal heart disease battle so you won’t become a surprised victim later.

We’re encouraging all women to schedule a Well-Woman Visit with their health care provider. It’s an annual check up that gives your doctor the chance to spot the signs of heart disease while there’s still time to take necessary steps to conquer it.

The Well-Woman Visit is also a great opportunity for your doctor to be on the look out for other health concerns. ♥

Everyone knows about men and heart disease, but there’s less awareness among women. They don’t always self-advocate, and because of that their heart issues go undiagnosed or are misdiagnosed. I want to help women become more aware of the risks and learn to self-advocate and understand their symptoms… I just so hope I can help someone else. That’s my true hope.

— Rosemary Brandemuehl, heart attack survivor

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D

Doing your heart good, together.

Here are just a few ways you can show your heart some love:

From keeping your blood flowing to symbolizing love and affection, the heart is a center of vitality in the body.

But in the United States, one woman dies every minute

Know your family history

from heart disease, making it deadlier than all forms of Maintain a healthy weight through a healthy diet

cancer combined.

and regular exercise That’s why, along with the American Heart Association, If you smoke, quit

we’re dedicated to raising awareness about the risk factors for heart disease and educating women about the importance of prevention.

Curb excessive alcohol consumption

aurora.org

— Cindy Moon-Mogush, Aurora Health Care

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special report

startups&innovation

The interior of Titan Spine’s manufacturing plant in Brown Deer.

Titan Spine pioneers regenerative medical device technology

Mequon company plans to ramp-up production, expects big growth

I

n a conference room across the hall from a wall covered in framed patent licenses at the Titan Spine headquarters in Mequon, company president Kevin Gemas digs through a box of spinal implants — some donut-shaped, some long and grooved — and describes them in a way that evokes a diagram of the evolution of man.

The bone-colored, plastic spinal implants are the past, he explains. The rough-surfaced, titanium implants made

by Titan Spine are the future — for a few 22

BY BEN STANLEY, staff writer

key reasons.

The company’s biggest roadblock in the 10 years since it was established has been overcoming a negative image of titaGemas nium devices that currently permeates the market, he says. He much prefers the company’s new problem: scaling.

“That’s our challenge right now,” Gemas said. “We can’t make enough.”

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In February, Titan Spine announced it had increased sales 51 percent in 2015.

Last year, its global sales totaled $33.5 million. Titan, which has 61 employees, more than 400 hospital customers and 110 distributors worldwide, also has a presence in Germany and Spain.

Gemas is a tall, broad-shouldered man. He played linebacker for the Clemson Tigers in the early 1980s and, though he didn’t start, was a member of the 1981 national championship team as a sophomore, donning No. 95.

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He understands the importance of quick recovery from injury. And he, along with his close friend Dr. Peter Ullrich, Titan Spine’s chief exUllrich ecutive officer and the brain behind its innovative line of titanium implant products, hopes their company will change the way surgeons and patients around the world approach spinal implants.

So far, their efforts are working, and their fast growth in the past two years has Ullrich and Gemas brimming with confidence.

“We have set out that we’re going to grow 59 percent this year, but I’ll be very disappointed if that’s all we do,” Ullrich said.

The backbone of the medical device manufacturer’s business is scientific research and data, Ullrich said, which he thinks has already given his company an edge in the market. But it will play an even larger role in the company’s future once its newest and most innovate line of products, which incorporate nanotechnology, hit the market over the summer.

“We really are a company now that’s on the forefront of regenerative medicine through nanotechnology, Ullrich said.”

The science Ullrich was an orthopedic surgeon for 19 years and he felt the plastic, bonecolored spinal devices inserted between vertebrae during spinal fusion surgeries could be improved. What he wanted was a device he could insert between vertebrae that supported the hard, outer edges of bone but had a large, easily accessible opening in the middle for bone grafts.

He eventually developed a titanium prototype that would serve as the basis of the company’s product line.

Some early titanium implant designs that preceded Ullrich’s had a reputation for collapsing and forcing patients to undergo, in some cases, multiple follow-up surgeries.

Ullrich contends the problem stemmed from their design rather than from the material itself, but a negative image of titanium products among surgeons and hospitals persisted, which initially made it difficult to carve out a place in the market.

As Ullrich continued his research to improve his devices, he noticed their use resulted in shorter recovery times for patients. With further research, he and his staff began to notice the texture of an implant’s surface could influence the way the body’s stem cells regenerated tissue — a grooved surface caused the body to begin producing bone material much more quickly, whereas a smooth surface promoted the growth of fibrous tissue.

“The cells that attach to a device are what we call attachment-dependent cells,” Ullrich said. “And we didn’t know it when we started, but if they attach to this…”

He pointed to a smooth, plastic implant sitting on a table before him in Gemas’ office. “…it makes the cells want to produce fibrous tissue. If they attach to that…”

so small, they’re impossible to detect with the human eye.

“We’re talking about atomic-level structures,” Ullrich said. “There’s 100,000 nanometers in the thickness of a piece of

“ We have set out that we’re going to grow 59 percent this year, but I’ll be very disappointed if that’s all we do” — Peter Ullrich

He pointed to a textured, titanium implant. “…it makes them want to produce bone tissue.”

The discovery led Ullrich to develop a device with tiny grooves the size of a nanometer on its surface. The grooves are

paper, so it is nothing that we can sense.

But on the cellular level, that’s meaningful to the cells. What it does is it causes the cells to up-regulate the production of messenger RNAs that code for the other cells all becoming bone cells, too. So this is actually helping create the bone on the

interior cage.

“Cells want to be in a pit, an osteoclastic-like pit,” he continued. “The big thing is whether or not the surface feels safe or not safe. They can become fiber tissue or bone tissue depending on what they sense.”

Among the benefits of the nanogrooves are reduced inflammation, fast bone growth and a dramatically reduced overall recovery time.

“The reparative phase starts within days and weeks,” Ullrich said. “We’re providing an implant that heals much more quickly.”

He used to tell patients to avoid physical activity for at least three to six months after spinal fusion surgery “now, we let them do whatever they want,” he said.

“And it’s a big surgery.”

Titan Spine recently received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin marketing and selling its nanotech device, and plans to ramp-up production at a facility in Brown Deer this year. n

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startups & innovation

Gilman Precision turns to tech to boost sales Manufacturer sees benefits in configurator, Street View

Gilman Precision

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oug Biggs knows potential customers in California, Australia or Germany aren’t likely to get on a plane and travel to Grafton for a tour of Gilman Precision’s facilities. But those customers, and anyone else for that matter, can still get a look at the company’s shop now that Gilman has added the inside of its facilities to Google Street View.

Gilman has also sought to bring elements of e-commerce to its sales, launching an online 3-D product configurator that allows engineers to download CAD drawings of specific linear slides as they are working on projects.

ARTHUR THOMAS (414) 336-7123 arthur.thomas@biztimes.com Twitter: @arthur8823

Biggs, vice president of sales and marketing at Gilman, knows the new technology the company is using won’t create a quality product or improve manufacturing efficiency or lower Gilman’s prices.

“We’re just finding ways to expand our reach through these tools,” he said.

The product configurator and Street View are two of the ways Gilman has tried to leverage technology. The former took about a year-and-a-half to develop, while the latter required about two hours with an area photographer taking pictures.

Grafton

Gilman was founded in 1952 and manufactures linear slides and rotary spindles in a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing space, along with another 20,000 square feet of office space, in Grafton. The spindles are used in spinning applications for everything from blood centrifuges to the oil and gas industry. Linear slides are used to move an object along a single axis of motion with precision.

Biggs noted that salespeople have always invited potential customers to visit the shop, but that isn’t always possible in the aftermath of the Great Recession, as staff sizes have been cut and resources are limited.

“We wanted to express to people that couldn’t come here what we really are,” Biggs said.

He acknowledged some manufacturers may be hesitant to embrace the technology and opt instead to just invite people to visit.

“By doing that you really regionalize yourself,” he said, adding the use of technology will help with sales in Germany.

Biggs’ first effort at virtually bringing people into the facility was through short YouTube videos. The problem was each potential customer had its own area of interest and the videos weren’t targeted enough.

Using Street View allows users to navigate at their own pace and see specific machines they might be interested in, Biggs said.

He added the Innovation: 3D configurator, price was reasonGoogle StreetView able and Google www.gilmanprecision.com has a list of photographers providing the service on its website.

With more than 33,000 variations to its linear slides, the CAD configurator was a different story.

“For us to come up with Gilman Precision wants to bring tours of its facility to potential customers by using Google Street View. something that would be oncommand able to get the customer exactly Gilman has not eliminated its own apwhat they want, when they wanted it, is a plication engineers as it increases access to very, very difficult process,” Biggs said. its product designs. Biggs said the idea is Gilman worked with California-based to work with customers on their schedule.

Catalog Data Solutions Inc. to develop the “We’re making it almost an e-comconfigurator. It allows the user to choose merce feel,” he said, adding that there has the type of slide, measurement system, the been a lot of use during evening hours size, base and saddle length, drive and sur- when customers are likely no longer in face. The program produces a model num- the office. ber, specification sheet, 3-D model and Biggs and his sales team receive reCAD download in 24 different formats. ports on customer activity on the site, Biggs said the goal was to ease the work- which offer insight on how the configuraload, both internally and for customers. tor is being used. In some cases, Biggs can “It really allows engineers to custom- see someone downloading a few different ize a slide for their needs and drop it right options, almost as if he or she is trying to into what they’re designing without ever find the right fit. At that point, Biggs can having to pick up a phone,” he said. call and offer assistance. n

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startups & innovation

Joe Kirgues and Troy Vosseller, co-founders of gener8tor.

Gener8tor earns Regional Spirit Award for leadership in Milwaukee startup community Bravo/I.Q. panelists to discuss entrepreneurial journeys

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ilwaukee isn’t usually where startup and early stage companies choose to locate, particularly considering the abounding success and resources that seem to be available on the east and west coasts for entrepreneurs. Last year, Milwaukee was ranked dead last nationwide in business startup activity.

But a startup accelerator founded in Milwaukee in 2012 is working to change that—and even earned a national ranking that has put this city’s entrepreneurial community on the map.

Since its founding, gener8tor LLC’s 38 portfolio startups have raised more than $75 million in follow-on capital

BY MOLLY DILL, staff writer

and have created more than 400 jobs. And the reputable Seed Accelerator Rankings REGIONAL SPIRIT AWARD WINNER - B RAVO! ENTREPRENEUR | Project pegged gener8tor last year as No. 14 in its ranking of the top accelerators in the country.

18, at the 2016 BizTimes Bravo! Entre- founded the accelerator with Troy VosFor its commitment to building young preneur and I.Q. (Innovation Quotient) seller, Dan Armbrust, Jon Eckhardt and companies and fueling the Wisconsin Awards Luncheon.

Joel Abraham. economy, gener8tor LLC has been named Gener8tor, which also operates in Getting into its 12-week accelerator the 2016 BizTimes Regional Spirit Award Madison, provides first-stage startups program is competitive—gener8tor only winner. The award, which recognizes a with seed capital, applies lean principles accepts five companies in each of its two person or organization that promotes to startup development, creates an envi- annual cohorts—but the program also and advances southeastern Wisconsin as ronment for entrepreneurs to collabo- provides individual attention. Each para place to live, work and play, will be pre- rate and establishes access to later-stage ticipant receives $140,000 in investment sented to gener8tor on Wednesday, May capital, according to Joe Kirgues, who co- capital from gener8tor and its partners. w w w.biztimes.com

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The founders of gener8tor focused from the start on the people running these young companies—the entrepreneurs—and how it could attract them and keep them happy, Kirgues said.

“Our thesis was that we wanted to work with the best entrepreneurs. Why would the best entrepreneurs want to work with us?” Kirgues asked. “The entrepreneurs you want are the entrepreneurs with options.”

With a focus on finding the best people rather than the best product or technology, and a commitment to structuring investments to benefit the entrepreneur rather than the investor, gener8tor has set itself apart on the Wisconsin startup scene.

It helps that both Kirgues and Vosseller are attorneys who can help write the language of the investment documents.

As University of Wisconsin Law School students, they learned the concept of law in action, or looking at the contracts not just in and of themselves, but in the larger context of how they are applied to society,

Kirgues said.

“Entrepreneur-friendly investment documents, for example, is actually a great way to obtain investor-friendly returns,” he said. “By taking harsh investor-friendly terms too early, such as liquidation preferences, we can actually jeopardize our opportunity for success by dissuading later stage venture capitalists from working with the company.”

The company has also established itself as a committed community member that wants to build up local companies to make Wisconsin better, Kirgues said.

And it has leveraged that pride of place to garner national investments through the University of Wisconsin alumni network.

“The reason we did it was in part to strengthen this community, not just to make money,” he said. “We could engage the community to create wealth and jobs by investing in the brightest people in our region.”

Kirgues will participate in a panel discussion among young and successful Milwaukee entrepreneurs at the Bravo/I.Q.

luncheon.

Dominic Anzalone, founder and chief executive officer of RentCollegePads. com; Joe Scanlin, cofounder and CEO of Scanalytics; and RichAnzalone ard Yau, CEO and cofounder of Bright Cellars, will also share their tales of entrepreneurial ambition and tenacity.

Yau knows something about creating jobs in the community. He moved Bright Cellars, a wine subscription service he co-founded in 2014, from Boston to Milwaukee to participate in the gener8tor program last year and then decided to stick around.

“We were both able to finance the company and have access to great talent while we were here,” Yau said. “We said, ‘Hey, we have all the pieces (to grow).’”

Bright Cellars became the first tenant in Ward4, a co-working and private office space for startup companies in the Historic Pritzlaff Building near downtown Mil-

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waukee. The company has grown from three employees to 17 since it moved to town. One lesson he’s learned, Yau said, is to hire employees with an eye to how Yau they will grow with the company and become leaders.

As a San Francisco native who launched Bright Cellars while he was at MIT, Yau could easily have chosen one of the coastal startup communities.

“It’s interesting to see that really there’s an entrepreneurial spirit in Milwaukee that even though it’s earlier on, even though it’s a less developed startup community, the experience, the talent is all here,” he said. “The road most traveled is not necessarily the cheapest, most effective or most efficient way.”

Like Bright Cellars, Scanalytics is based in Ward4. The community atmosphere allows the entrepreneurs to bounce ideas off each other—and off gener8tor and CSA Partners, which have both invested in the two companies and are located in Ward4.

“For us, it was about community and integration with other likeminded companies,” Scanlin said. “Our last spot we were a little bit more…it was a little bit Scanlin more disparate.”

Scanalytics, which now has 14 employees, has created sensor-laden floor mats that track consumer and human behavior and can be applied in a variety of situations.

Scanlin advised would-be entrepreneurs to take the leap and get started right away, and also to remember to delegate.

“I used to take on probably more than I could handle,” he said. “It’s not about missing the winning shot, it’s knowing that your teammate was wide open. We certainly didn’t need to grow our headcount, we had the talent, but I was trying to do more things quantitatively and qualitatively at the time than I probably should have.”

The Bravo/I.Q. Awards luncheon will be held May 18 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee. The awards are part of BizTimes Media’s annual BizExpo.

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Wom en in B u si n e s s 36 Women in Business panelists are motivated by their missions

38 Penebaker is BizTimes Woman Executive of the Year

Br a v o ! E n t r e p r e n e u r Aw a r d s 25 Regional Spirit Award: gener8tor

28 Lifetime Achievement Award: George and Julie Mosher

41 Dale Helgeson

BizTimes Woman Executive of the Year: Dr. Paula Penebaker

Mark Irgens Juli Kaufmann William Mortimore

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Andrew Seter John West

I . Q . ( I n no v a t io n Q u o t ie n t ) Aw a r ds 44

Agro-Biosciences Inc. Astronautics Corp. of America

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Bravo! and I.Q. Awards winner profiles by: Alysha Schertz Photos by: Paul Gaertner, White Dog Photography

Bravo! Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award winner: George & Julie Mosher

Bravo! Entrepreneur Regional Spirit Award winner: gener8tor

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B RAVO! E NT RE P RE NE UR - L IFETIME ACHIEV EMENT AWARD WINNER • COVER STORY

PAYING IT FORWARD NATIONAL BUSINESS FURNITURE FOUNDERS INVEST LIFE’S WINNINGS TO HELP STARTUPS

BY MOLLY DILL, staff writer

the 2016 BizExpo on Wednesday, May 18, at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.

EARLY LIVES George, who grew up in Boston, decided he wanted to go to Harvard Business School before he knew where he wanted to go to college.

His father died in World War II in a German prisoner of war camp and his mother remarried.

“She put all her aspirations for her (first) husband really into me,” Mosher said. “And so I was strongly encouraged by my mother and my second father and I became entrepreneurial.”

“My second father was the type who would take sandwiches to work and I liked hot food. So I felt like if I was going to eat well, I needed to have my own money,” George said.

He worked hard for that money. In his youth, George drove an ice cream truck and owned a small company that helped free drivers stuck in the snow.

George did end up attending Harvard for both his undergraduate and business degrees. He went to work for Look Magazine in New York for two years before getting an offer in 1963 to take over a small

E VEN T S P O N S O R S :

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PAUL GAERTNER | WHITE DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

G

eorge Mosher, 76, is a septuagenarian now, but it hasn’t slowed him down any. Ever the businessman, he still wears a neatly pressed suit and keeps up his habit of meeting a different person out for lunch each day.

His wife, Julie, 71, has returned to health following a 2008 lung transplant and bustles spryly around the house, making coffee for George. The two love to play board games together, with a stack of four favorites sitting on a side table in their dining room, ready to use.

In the game of life, the couple has won.

Having founded and grown Milwaukee’s National Business Furniture to $130 million in revenue, they sold the company in 2006 for $85 million.

But after that, they didn’t just move to Florida and relax.

The Moshers are sharp and active, traveling to see friends, investing in young companies and donating their life’s “winnings” generously. Few people would consider them retired.

For their business success and generosity to the Milwaukee community, the Moshers will receive the 2016 BizTimes Lifetime Achievement Award. The award will be presented to the Moshers at

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COVER STORY • LIFETIME ACHIEV EMENT AWARD WINNER - BRAVO ! E N TR E PR E N E U R

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George and Julie Mosher in their home on Milwaukee’s lakefront. w w w.biztimes.com

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B RAVO! E NT RE P RE NE UR - L IFETIME ACHIEV EMENT AWARD WINNER • COVER STORY

MOLLY DILL

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A snapshot of the Moshers from their National Business Furniture days.

mail order company called Business and Institutional Furniture Co. in East Troy.

He resisted at first, not knowing much about the Milwaukee area, but eventually acquiesced and moved to town, managing the company that had never turned a profit. He was able to make it profitable in about a year.

Julie was born in Racine and grew up in the Quad Cities. In her senior year of high school, the family moved to Minnesota.

“They didn’t teach French at that school (in Minnesota),” she said. “I had taken it at the school I was in in the Quad City area. Instead of that, they put me on the school newspaper to help edit that and also gave me theater, which I had never ever had before.”

She attended the University of Minnesota for college, where she majored in elementary education with a minor in studio art.

After college, Julie came to Milwaukee in 1966 to teach first grade. She became 30

roommates with her sister, who was already living in Milwaukee, and several other teachers.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT The Moshers knew each other for less than two months before they were engaged, but neither of them finds this fact odd. It was simply meant to be, they say.

Julie and her roommates were headed out for that quintessential Wisconsin tradition, Friday fish fry, at a bar called Darby’s next to the SafeHouse in downtown Milwaukee, and George happened to be doing the same.

The rest, as they say, is history. They were married on Dec. 31, 1966. The couple has three children, Karen, Holly and Robert.

The Moshers are about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. After having worked and lived together for half a century, they still enjoy each other’s company and still operate in a partnership.

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“I call it the amoeba approach. Both people have to change and meld into each other, sort of like the ocean washing away the jagged edges of the rocks,” George said. “Frankly, it gave us more to talk about because we were working together in the company and had more in common. Instead of me having my hobbies and her having her hobbies, we had common objectives.”

BUSINESS ACUMEN From 1965 to 1972, George grew Business and Institutional from $750,000 in revenue to about $2 million. Having hit his stride, George grew it to $8 million by 1975. The majority owners of the company, which was then based in Milwaukee, took notice and wanted to renegotiate his contract so he made less money, said George, who owned 34 percent of the company.

He wasn’t having that, and instead contacted about 40 vendors with whom he had formed good relationships and

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started his own company, National Business Furniture, one floor up in the same building, at 322 E. Michigan St. B&I eventually bought out George’s ownership stake for $250,000. But the company never achieved the same level of success as it had under his leadership, and NBF eventually acquired B&I. Roger Dirksen, a good friend who worked at what was then Heritage Bank, loaned the Moshers $50,000 against their Whitefish Bay home, which they needed to get National Business Furniture off the ground, George said.

“My opinion was that George was one of the smartest business guys I ever met,” Dirksen said. “Part of the genius of his business was he never wanted to own the real estate and he never wanted to carry inventory.”

While B&I had focused on churches and schools, George decided to go after the office furniture market at NBF. The pair founded the business in 1975.

It took about three years to get to the $3 million mark, and then NBF doubled every five years thereafter. The company never had a loss with George at the helm.

“We were early on to adopt an 800 number,” George said. “Telephone calls used to be expensive. Selling to schools, only the minister would really have the right to make a long distance call, so the 800 number was important.”

The use of credit cards also provided a level of security for customers making catalog orders, which helped that model take hold for NBF. “Office furniture was pretty much bought locally, and when people had a catalog just for the occasional purchase it just made it easier,” George said.

The Moshers both have an acute eye for detail. But they focus on different, complementary details.

George, who served as president, is all about the numbers. At National Business Furniture, he knew all of the sales numbers – down to the individual salesperson – backward and forward. Those numbers guided his decisions, so he felt they were very important.

“Good accounting is key,” George said.

“When you have the right numbers, you make the right decisions. When you have the wrong numbers you make the wrong decisions. And if you don’t have any numbers, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Julie, on the other hand, has an eye for design and the softer details. As vice

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B RAVO! E NT RE P RE NE UR - L IFETIME ACHIEV EMENT AWARD WINNER • COVER STORY

MOLLY DILL

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When he retired from National Business Furniture, George Mosher received this frame full of mounted photos of his career from employees. He displays it proudly here on his dining room table.

president, she excelled at pioneering the National Business Furniture catalog and its distinctive style. While some furniture retailers simply took a picture of a piece of furniture on a flat background, Julie was concerned with colors, accessories, lighting and layout in a way that was ahead of her time.

“She brought the magic of understanding that how presentation looks matters,” George said. “I think the male personality thinks of shopping as comparing product X and product Y. Women buy everything like men buy cars. ‘Does this look like me?

Is it the right price point? Is this how I 32

want to present myself?’”

Eventually, she led NBF in doing its own photography “because we wanted it to look different.” And was instrumental in the decision to print it in full color, as opposed to the two-color catalogs competitors were printing.

“We had a color cover on it, too, which really made people take notice,” Julie said.

Julie sometimes woke up at 2 a.m. to go over the catalog editing and layout, finishing her work as the children woke up so she could get them ready for school and send George to work with the mock-ups.

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times until it was right,” said Kent Anderson, now the president of NBF. “Everything was very much perfect and she insisted on that in all the work product that went to customers.”

The catalog, which grew from 32 to 400 pages over time, was a key driver of NBF’s success. Even as the company acquired online-only furniture retailers, the catalog still drove a spike in sales when it landed on people’s desks. It became a point of differentiation as more companies moved to online only sales.

“When you’re in an office and the catalog kept arriving, people felt more and

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more comfortable buying office furniture from a catalog,” George said.

“The catalog, it’s much easier to see the quality of the product. The Internet, you’re always asking yourself, ‘What’s behind this company?’”

George kept statistics – he knew the lifetime value of a client, what it cost to get a new client, how well a desk would sell if it was in one corner of a page versus another and how many orders a salesperson took in a day, Dirksen said.

“It really was a team effort,” Dirksen said. “George was sort of the numbers guy and Julie was into the soft stuff. What did the furniture look like and where to place it in the catalog. She also had a very good feel for people.”

NBF worked closely with vendors to institute drop shipping directly to the customers before many other furniture retailers did so. It was more cost effective and the product arrived in better shape, George said.

“What would happen is people would try and compete with us and they were not able to do it successfully,” he said.

As a result, NBF acquired a number of businesses over the years: Alfax Wholesale Furniture, a distributor of church and school furniture; Office Furniture Center, located in Boston and Chicago; Factory Direct Furniture in Milwaukee; and OfficeFurniture.com, an Internet office furniture company.

CULTURAL NORMS The Moshers set up a generous bonus system to reward employees for the company’s success, which was predicated on their being at a senior level of proficiency in their position, which usually occurred after three years.

They also established a list of more than 80 company norms, which they called Mosher Maxims. Among them: Verify numbers; hire carefully; do not blame people; pay above average wages for above average work; employees must take full responsibility for their jobs; we must conduct business with the highest code of ethics and honesty; simplicity and efficiency are major keys to NBF’s success; continually ask yourself, “Is this function or process necessary?”

On one occasion, Anderson had to

PAUL GAERTNER | WHITE DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

George and Julie Mosher.

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travel to Los Angeles to hire a new accounting manager there, and George made sure to give him a Zagat’s guide to the best restaurants in LA so Anderson would be well-fed and taken care of while he was out there, he said.

“He just wanted to make sure his people were taken care of and treated right,” Anderson said. “We pretty much had an open checkbook when it came to staff training or any kind of seminar you might need to go to.”

NBF famously displayed a full-size traffic light in its office. If a vendor who was visiting the office had done a good job, he or she would walk in to a green light. If the vendor was doing a mediocre job, it got a yellow light. And if it did a bad job…well, George wasn’t afraid to let the vendor know with a big glaring red light. “(George) understands people in a really good way,” said Tim Keane, director of Golden Angels Investors in Milwaukee, who has known George since about 1989.

“He understands motivation. He gets how all the analytics work. He did imaginative things, like there was a quiet hour every day where people couldn’t have meetings, so it gave people an opportunity to stop and think.”

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While companies like Office Depot, Staples and OfficeMax became competitors for NBF, they never figured out how to sell furniture, George said. They sold furniture kits. NBF’s core customer was a medium-sized business that had a little bit of extra cash and wanted to make the office look nice.

EXITING THE BUSINESS When Julie became sick, George quickly sold the business for $85 million to German company Taack in 2006, so the two could travel to the best doctors and receive her eventual diagnosis – idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. NBF’s annual sales were $130 million when the Moshers sold it.

“They had thought I maybe had three to five years to live,” Julie said. But the doctors, thankfully, were wrong.

George stayed by Julie’s side as she underwent a lung transplant and the grueling recovery that comes with such a major operation.

George had groomed Anderson to take over, and had also trained and mentored a group of leaders who were able to smoothly transition into their roles. “(George’s) style is very hands-on and very much an expert in everything that is

COVER STORY • LIFETIME ACHIEV EMENT AWARD WINNER - BRAVO ! E N TR E PR E N E U R

going on in the company,” Anderson said.

“He could’ve sat down and done anybody’s job, really, because he started it and grew it from the ground up.”

George took an office at 250 E. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Milwaukee, from which he conducts his business today. He now mentors entrepreneurs and invests in early stage companies in Wisconsin through Silicon Pastures and Golden Angels.

“George likes it when the company is a business, not a dream,” said Teresa Esser, managing director of Silicon Pastures.

“He invested in a woman because she knew exactly how much (a customer) was going to order. She knew her business inside and out. She knew her numbers.”

Notable early investments were BuySeasons.com, on which George received an 8x return and Prodesse, on which he received a 10x return.

He advises entrepreneurs to focus on the customer instead of chasing every possibility that comes along.

“Focus first on finding your first initial customers, work with them to de-

velop your product, and then go out and raise money,” George said. “You have to have a product that somebody wants.

Become an expert on what you’re doing.

Don’t scatter yourself.”

George has invested about $30 million in 240 investments.

He was also one of eight inaugural founders of Brightstar Wisconsin Foundation, a venture philanthropy firm to which each founder donated $500,000.

“He doesn’t miss much,” said Tom Shannon, president and CEO of BrightStar. “If there are little nuances that most people don’t pick up on, he seems to pick up on them.”

From the design of an annual report to the ins and outs of a potential investment’s quarterly earnings, Mosher isn’t shy with his opinion, Shannon said.

“He’s a very unique and reflective thinker,” he said. “You always want George’s insight because you just don’t know what that will be.”

“If we can develop companies here, then that creates careers that keep people

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here in Wisconsin,” George said.

The Moshers have also generously donated to several organizations about which they feel passionate, including the transplant program at Froedtert Hospital.

The large donation they made to Froedtert went toward HEPA filters to clean the air in the ICU and a piece of equipment that helps resuscitate damaged organs to ready them for transplant.

“It’s a very generous donation that really allows us to continue to provide exceptional care for our patients, specifically our transplant patients, at our hospital through cutting edge technology and allowing us to have this state of the art equipment,” said Alice Archabal, chief development officer for the Froedtert Hospital Foundation.

“A lot of people my age have decided to move to Florida,” George said. “I feel like I earned my money in Wisconsin. I don’t mind paying my taxes in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is home.”

There’s a sense that other people helped them along the way, and the

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Moshers are in a position to do something to give back, he said.

A 60-60 MARRIAGE George describes the Moshers’ relationship as a 60-60 marriage. Each spent time both on the business and on raising their family. Julie made the decisions and led the efforts at home, while George did the same with the business.

The very fact of Julie’s confidence in his plan to start a business as they were raising a young family was a marvel, he said.

“At some point, George came home and said, ‘I think I’m going to leave my job and start this company,’” Keane said.

“I know a lot of people whose spouses would say some polite version of, ‘What are you crazy?’ Julie not only said, ‘I think that’s a great idea,’ but she was an integral part of the whole thing.” 

Get the latest local business news delivered to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the BizTimes Daily at biztimes.com/subscribe.

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Women in Business panelists put ‘why’ at the forefront of leadership

BY ALYSHA SCHERTZ, for BizTimes

K

athryn Campbell can remember the moment everything became clear for her. She had worked for Milwaukee-based Brady Corp. for 16 years when her daughter asked one day what the company did.

“Finally, I could tell her in a way she actually understood,” Campbell said. “We help airplanes land safely. We connect moms to their babies in the hospital. And it just hit me. Overwhelmingly, I knew this is what it means.”

Brady Corp. had clearly defined the “why” of the business. Everything was clear, she said.

Now, as director of investor relations

at Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls Inc., Campbell admits the “why” is a big reason she decided to make the move to the multi-industrial firm.

Campbell is one of five panelists who will discuss mission-driven leadership, its affect on a company’s bottom line, and the generation demanding something more from the businesses they work for and buy from at the 2016 BizTimes Women in Business breakfast, which will be part of the BizExpo on Wednesday, May 18, at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.

For Mary Lou Young, president and chief executive officer of United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County,

Strong leaders build strong companies

Organizations that invest in training and development see returns in higher revenue and stronger employee engagement.

The Center for Business Performance Solutions can help you create an effective leadership development plan for your business.

Kathryn Campbell

For more information on maximizing your organization’s bottom line, contact CBPS at 262-695-7828 or cbps.info@wctc.edu.

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Debra Kessler

mission-driven leadership is a way of life.

“Nonprofit organizations are driven by mission and (missiondriven leadership) is an add-on,” Young said. “A business runs on stellar financials Mary Lou Young Shontra Powell and controlled operations. Focusing the team on the mission behind the product is in addition to keeping the business solid and sustainable.”

“People in general, but even more evident in the younger members of the workforce, want to know they are having a significant impact and are part of something bigger than the tasks they are doing,” said Debra Kessler, chief financial ofMODERATOR: Kimberly Kane ficer of TJ Hale Co. in Menomonee Falls.

“They need to believe in a goal.”

Campbell, Kessler, and Young will join Powell said. “The challenge is keeping it Linda Gorens-Levey, partner at General front and center each and every day.”

Capital Group; and Shontra Powell, chief Together, the panelists will discuss operating officer of ASQ, on the panel. their own paths to mission-driven lead“The clarity of the connection between ership, the challenges they’ve faced along the mission and people’s real work is more the way, and how companies and organiimportant to everyone; the population of zations are thinking beyond the products talent wants to work for more and believe and services they offer to focus on why they can do good and learn to be good,” they offer them. 

Visioning & Strategic Planning | Team Performance | Continuous Improvement

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Penebaker is BizTimes Woman Executive of the Year

BY BEN STANLEY, staff writer

P

aula Penebaker, president and chief executive officer of YWCA Southeast Wisconsin, is the recipient of the 2016 BizTimes Woman Executive of the Year Award.

She will be presented with the award at the Women in Business breakfast at BizExpo on Wednesday, May 18, at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino.

“It feels great,” Penebaker said of receiving the award. “I was just very surprised. I had no idea.”

Penebaker started her career with the YWCA in 1999 as the organization’s chief human resources and facilities officer and quickly rose through the ranks. She was

appointed executive director in 2005 and later, president and CEO of the agency.

She has also served on the YWCA USA board of directors.

“The fact that I was able to stay with the organization through a really difficult time financially and work closely with a really good, dedicated group of staff that were eager to see the organization rebound, and with a board that was dedicated to the turnaround and the organization, is something I feel really good about,” Penebaker said of her 17 years with the YWCA. “The fact that we were able to be successful in the last 10 years with that background makes

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me feel really good about my time with the agency.”

Before coming to the YWCA, Penebaker worked for 13 years in the Management Systems Division at Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati.

She moved to Milwaukee in 1991 and began working at First Wisconsin Bank as a member

Paula Penebaker

IT.

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W OM E N IN B USINE SS

of the human resources department’s training and development staff in 1992. By the time she left the company, she had been promoted to vice president and diversity manager.

Penebaker is a member of the Milwaukee Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Inc., the Milwaukee Chapter of The Links Inc. and the Rotary Club of Milwaukee. She serves on the board of directors of Professional Dimensions and as a trustee for the Public Policy Forum and the Milwaukee County Federated Library System.

Penebaker said her leadership philosophy is built around honesty.

“I just believe in being honest and forthright in dealing with people and in my interactions,” she said. “And from being led by others, I can see that it helps when people feel that you have confidence in what you’re trying to do, but yet, the humility to ask for direction when you may not.”

Previous recipients of the BizTimes Woman Executive of the Year

Award have included: Dr. Eve Hall, president and CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin; Nanette Gardetto, founder of Baptista’s Bakery Inc.; Maria Monreal-Cameron, former president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Wisconsin; Gail Lione, a former Harley-Davidson Inc. executive; and Cynthia LaConte, president and CEO of Dohmen.

In response to Penebaker receiving the award, LaConte praised the choice.

“In a city facing systemic issues with racism, poverty and segregation, there is a quiet force doing something about it – Paula Penebaker,” LaConte said. “Paula has dedicated the last 17 years to advancing the YWCA’s mission of ‘eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all’ … Paula may fly under the radar to some, but I have not met a more inspirational and influential member of this community.” 

Dr. Eve Hall speaking at 2015 BizExpo Women in Business event.

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AWARD WINNERS - BRAVO ! E N TR E PR E N E U R

BRAV O ! ENT RE P RE NE UR AWAR D

BRAV O! ENT REPRENEUR AWA RD

DALE HELGESON

MARK IRGENS

President and CEO

CEO and manager

DP Electronic Recycling Inc.

Irgens Partners LLC

Elkhorn

Milwaukee

www.dpecycle.com Employees: 16

www.irgens.com Employees: 100

When Dale Helgeson started DP Electronic Recycling Inc. in 2010, he knew exactly what he didn’t want to do. There were electronic recyclers in the market, but he saw a lot of opportunities in the industry to just “be better.”

“I saw a lot of opportunity that wasn’t being taken advantage of. I knew I could do it better,” Helgeson said. “There are a lot of challenges and problems in recycling and I wanted to build a company that would tackle those problems and find solutions.”

DP Electronic Recycling provides data destruction, asset management and e-waste recycling services for businesses and consumers.

It recycles anything that plugs into a wall or requires a battery.

Within the next 10 months, the company will move its headquarters to the Whitewater University Technology Park. Its new 150,000-squarefoot, $12.5 million facility is custom-designed to include a state-of-the-art Cathode Ray Tube recycling facility, in addition to new electronic shredding technology and expanded data de-

Opportunity was everything for Mark Irgens, chief executive officer and manager of commercial real estate development firm Irgens Partners LLC. He got his start in real estate as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the class “Introduction to Real Estate and Urban Land Economics,” under the tutelage of professor James A. Graaskamp.

“I really liked it. He inspired me,” Irgens said.

After college, Irgens worked in several positions, first as an analyst and then as a commercial loan officer. He helped finance an office project for Boldt Construction, and at the age of 27, approached the company about establishing a real estate development branch.

“They were interested in development, but didn’t have a formal division. There was a common interest at the time,” he said.

In 1998, Irgens and three partners purchased the assets of the company, hired the people who worked in that area of the business and established Irgens Partners LLC. “I always wanted to be involved in control-

Dale Helgeson struction areas.

Currently, DP Electronic Recycling employs 16 individuals, with plans to add 120 employees when the new facility opens.

Cathode Ray Tubes are commonly found in televisions and computer monitors.

DP Electronic Recycling currently processes CRT and recycles it into environmentally safe products, including ceramic tiles.

“For me, it’s a solution-driven business,” Helgeson said. “A lot of people don’t want to tackle these problems because it’s time consuming and can be expensive and you don’t know the hurdles until you get into it. But for me, I have a drive to do more; a drive to make a difference for the environment and keep things out of our landfills. I have a drive to be better.” 

BRAV O ! ENT RE P RE NE UR AWAR D

BRAV O! ENT REPRENEUR AWA RD

JULI KAUFMANN

WILLIAM MORTIMORE

President

CEO

Fix Development LLC

Keystone Insights Inc., dba Project Foundry

Milwaukee

Milwaukee

www.fixdevelopment.com Employees: 1

www.projectfoundry.com Employees: 8

For Juli Kaufmann, work is about more than just turning a profit. For Kaufmann, it’s about sustainability and having a direct impact on the community.

She spent nearly 20 years in the corporate world before ultimately founding Fix Development LLC in the Walker’s Point neighborhood of Milwaukee.

“It was my interest in change and community development in my neighborhood that led to Fix (Development),” she said. “In the broadest sense, I want the planet to be healthy, no matter where I live. I was seeing a trend – the disinvestment of my neighborhood – and I really wanted to switch that trajectory.”

Kaufmann wanted to be the change for her community; she wanted to help develop the area with service businesses that would really enhance life in the neighborhood.

Fix Development was established with a mission of achieving a “Quadruple Bottom Line” which, for Kaufmann not only means economic stability, but also environmental stewardship, social equity and cultural continuity.

“That’s what motivates me. It’s about more

As chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Project Foundry, William Mortimore hangs on to memories of what his own project-based learning curriculum did for him. Though he followed a somewhat traditional education track, his eyes were opened and he became an instigator of his own education at 13, when a teacher told him he could accomplish anything he wanted.

While attending classes for his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, Mortimore and a friend launched his first startup company. Though more of a product than a business, the pair still sold more than $4 million worth and Mortimore got the bug for doing this work, he said.

He later moved to Milwaukee to help a friend run a skilled nursing facility, and in 1987 formed Merge Healthcare in the basement of his Muskego home.

Over 18 years, Mortimore led the Milwaukeebased company to become a worldwide health care IT vendor, employing more than 600 people worldwide and eventually reaching the $1 billion mark on NASDAQ. “That was a very interesting ride,” Mortimore said. “It taught me a lot about who I am.”

Juli Kaufmann than just the bottom line.”

Fix Development has embarked on several projects – all community-based, all sustainable and all transformational for neighborhoods throughout the city.

“The community approach is key to obtaining the Quadruple Bottom Line,” Kaufmann said.

“It works for me.”

Fix Development is currently working on several additional projects, including The Historic Walter Schmidt Tavern Development in Milwaukee’s Lindsay Heights Neighborhood and the 5 Wise Workshop in the Silver City Neighborhood.

The Walter Schmidt project is currently under construction, and Fix Development is working with neighborhood resident Jeremy Davis to complete the project. Kaufmann hopes that by learning the process and partnering with community members for operations and funding, the project will become their asset and additional projects can emerge using the same model.  w w w.biztimes.com

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Mark Irgens ling my own destiny,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s just a matter of seizing the opportunities in the cards you’ve been dealt.”

Irgens was informed of the opportunity in January, and by April he and his partners had put together the financing for the project.

The company experienced some early success and paid off its debt relative to the purchase of the company in just a few short years. Since then, Irgens Partners has experienced a steady growth trajectory, he said.

The organization has undergone an evolution over time to include additional office locations, expanded divisions and market managers.

Today, Irgens employs more than 100 people nationwide and has offices in Milwaukee, Phoenix and suburban Chicago. It is one of the most prominent commercial real estate development firms in the Milwaukee area and recently completed a new downtown office building. 

Bill Mortimore and Shaen Krukowski After stepping away from that business, Mortimore got involved in management advisory services for several health care IT companies, but soon discovered his talents and desire for the operation and direct involvement in companies, he said.

It was his wife, Camille, a long-time educator, who led them to working with Project Foundry, he said.

Project Foundry, which originally began as a way to facilitate the mission of former Milwaukee-based nonprofit Homeboyz Interactive, is designed to support project-based learning environments. The Software as a Service is used to seamlessly manage teaching and learning in a project-based environment.

Today, Project Foundry serves more than 30,000 students at 200 schools in 25 states. 

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B RAVO! E NT RE P RE NE UR - AWARD WINNERS BRAV O! ENT REPRENEUR AWA RD

BRAV O ! EN TRE P RE NE UR AWA R D

CORY PASSINEAU

TOM PALZEWICZ, MANAGING PARTNER JIM PALZEWICZ, FOUNDING PARTNER

President and owner

C&D Automated Systems LLC

ActionCOACH

Allenton

www.cdautomated.com Employees: 21

Elm Grove

www.actioncoachofelmgrove.com Employees: 14 Jim Palzewicz became an entrepreneur out of necessity – an “accidental entrepreneur,” he says.

Yet after 12 years in the coaching business, he and ActionCOACH managing partner Tom Palzewicz continue to successfully serve businesses all over southeastern Wisconsin.

In 1983, two years after he graduated from college, the company for which Jim was selling went out of business and he found himself without a job. To service the company’s abandoned clients and to pay the bills, Jim founded his own computer consulting firm.

Unfortunately, according to Jim, he couldn’t find the resources to help him scale the business and was forced to walk away.

He returned to the corporate world before realizing he could do more.

In 2004, Jim and Tom discovered ActionCOACH, and realized it was just what Jim and other businesses in the Milwaukee area needed to effectively grow and scale their companies.

Together, they decided they would launch an ActionCOACH franchise in the Milwaukee area.

Tom and Jim Palzewicz “There are more and more resources available for startups in this area,” Jim said. “That’s great to see, but our niche is and always has been helping existing companies grow their business.

That has really been driving our growth.”

Tom joined the firm in 2005 after a successful career in the banking industry.

ActionCOACH of Elm Grove has been named ActionCOACH America’s Firm of the Year two years in a row, and was also named Global Firm of the Year in 2015, out of 1,000 ActionCOACH offices worldwide.

In 2007, Chris Carmen joined the firm as partner.

Last year, ActionCOACH served 115 clients and helped them create more than 260 jobs.

“In four years, our goal is to be serving more clients and helping them create more than 1,000 well-paying jobs per year,” Jim said. 

In 1995, Cory Passineau, president and owner of C&D Automated Systems, was working fulltime and running his business from his basement.

He learned the automation industry by doing, and eventually committed full-time to C&D in February 1996.

Since that time, C&D Automated Systems has grown from a one-person basement operation to a 28,000-square-foot complex in Allenton. The complex also includes a brand new, 14,000-square-foot addition along with new conference rooms, accounting and other offices, includes a state-of-the-art “clean environment” for assembly, food, dairy and pharmaceutical industry needs.

The company prides itself on being an extension of its clients’ businesses. It provides complete automated solutions for businesses, including robotic packaging and assembly systems, automated control panel systems, conveyer systems, feeder bowls and lifts. The company specializes in taking projects from concept to completion and does everything from design, manufacturing and fabrication to installation,

Cory Passineau training and ongoing service in-house.

Passineau has added six new positions at C&D within the past year and has positioned the company for continued growth.

He works closely with area technical colleges and high school manufacturing programs to train Wisconsin’s future workforce.

“I find it amazing that he has come this far from where he started,” said Gilbert Zamorano, estimator/sales manager at C&D Automated Systems. “He has worked very hard over the years and he is the quintessential small business owner, entrepreneur and a model citizen of Wisconsin.” 

Selling a small business?

Set yourself

free.

We’ve Built Our Business To Be An Extension Of Yours Thank you to our employees and customers for helping us win the 2016 Bravo! Entrepreneur Award

Whether you’re looking to buy a small business or sell one, talk to Ridgestone Bank about an SBA or USDA loan. We’re the #1 SBA lender in Wisconsin and offer debt and equity structuring expertise. We know how to help you enjoy significant monthly savings, increased cash flow, low equity requirements and longer terms. So, when you’re ready to buy your dream business—or sell it to someone else seeking their dream—come chat with the experts at Ridgestone. We’ll make success happen for you.

Allenton, WI • 262-629-1535 • cdautomated.com

Contact a lender at 262.789.1011 or at Ridgestone.com 42

B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

We truly appreciate the support of our customers, strategic business partners, family and friends.

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AWARD WINNERS - BRAVO ! E N TR E PR E N E U R BRAV O ! ENT RE P RE NE UR AWAR D

BRAV O! ENT REPRENEUR AWA RD

ANDREW J. SETER

JOHN WEST

CEO

Founder and CEO

Sensia Wellness

BomBoard LLC

Milwaukee

Whitewater

www.sensiawellness.com Employees: 12

www.bomboard.com Employees: 3

Dr. Andrew J. Seter is certified in internal and occupational medicine, but he’s built his company by meeting the health care needs of businesses throughout southeastern Wisconsin.

Two decades ago, Seter established Sensia Healthcare, which provided workers’ compensation services, work injury treatment, pre-placement exams, drug testing and other health-related services for companies.

“We were providing some wellness services, but the majority of our work was reactionary,” he said.

In 2012, Seter sold the occupational medicine side of his business to a national firm and turned his focus to wellness. It retained the Sensia name and became Sensia Wellness.

“I think it’s fair to say (American society) spend(s) a significant amount of money on disease and not nearly enough on prevention,” he said. “Through my experience with corporate health care, prevention is at the core of a lot of workplace issues.”

Sensia Wellness provides on-site health and wellness services for companies throughout the area, including blood pressure screenings, cho-

John West was a platoon commander in Vietnam before returning home upon being wounded. He launched two high-tech companies and ran them for more than 30 years before selling his second company to Boeing and entering retirement.

West and his wife moved to rural Wisconsin, but after a few years of retirement bliss, West’s entrepreneurial spirit struck again.

From the time he was a small child, West had a fascination with boats, so he took that fascination and invented a new, high-performance, portable watercraft. BomBoard LLC was born.

“It took me quite a few years, and several different prototypes, to arrive at our current model for BomBoard,” West said. “What we’ve developed is totally unique to the industry, and we’re poised to really take advantage of an untapped market.”

According to West, BomBoard is a smaller, lightweight, high-performance watercraft capable of reaching speeds of 40 miles per hour; but it’s the portability that really sets the device apart.

“It’s completely modular. It separates into six different pieces that can be transported in the

Andrew Seter lesterol screenings, smoking cessation programs, weight loss programs and even health assessments.

“It comes down to identifying the risk in your workplace population,” Seter said. “By providing a significant amount of educational resources and services in a convenient, easy-toaccess manner, we can significantly reduce and address those risks.”

Sensia works with small- to medium-sized companies and can provide a scalable portfolio of services so companies feel comfortable at any level budget, Seter said.

The company has also developed its own inhouse software that serves as the central component to the services it offers, Seter said.

Sensia continues to add functionality to the already robust software, and hopes to eventually license the software to other corporate wellness providers. 

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John West back of a car,” he said.

BomBoard has three issued and two pending patents for the modularity of the product.

With the product priced at less than $4,000, West hopes to target a younger watersport enthusiast who may not have the storage or budget for a traditional watercraft, he said.

West envisions the BomBoard on the watersport circuit, and has already started shooting video demonstrations and recruiting ambassadors for the sport.

The company is currently manufacturing several pre-production prototypes for testing and hopes to have the final product available direct to consumers in spring 2017. 

Introducing the Sensia Wellness Portal Software • 24/7 Confidential Access to Employee Portal • Comprehensive Health Risk Assessment Reports • Customizable Incentive Program Design and Management • Goal Setting and Educational Materials • Provides Communication, Goals and Education Materials • Personal and Team Fitness Activity Tracking FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Ashley Johnson, Sales Director P: 414-988-7208 E: ajohnson@sensiawellness.com or visit our website: www.sensiawellness.com

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I.Q. [INNOVAT ION QUOT IE NT] - AWARD WINNERS

I.Q . [INNOVATION QUOTIE NT] AWA R D

I.Q. [ INNOVAT ION QUOT IENT ] AWA RD

AGRO-BIOSCIENCES INC.

ASTRONAUTICS CORPORATION OF AMERICA

Wauwatosa

www.agro-biosciences.com Innovation: Microbial solutions Executives at Wauwatosa-based Agro-BioSciences like to think big, but on a small scale – as in, microbial.

The company uses the latest advancements in molecular biology to identify the microbial elements of food and then uses that information to advance three divisions of the company: human probiotics and wellness; bio-protection; and agriculture.

According to Tom Rehberger, president of Agro-BioSciences, the company is currently working on research that identifies microbial properties of antioxidant-rich foods and determines which bacteria need to be present in the body to fully take advantage of those antioxidants.

“We’ve all been taught how beneficial antioxidants are, and yet only 20 percent of people can fully bio-transform any one of these molecules,” Rehberger said.

Agro-Biosciences hopes to be able to feed an individual the right bacteria to help that person obtain the full value of those antioxidants.

This research is the first of many platforms being developed, Rehberger said. With several phases of clinical trials ahead for the company, he doesn’t

Milwaukee

www.astronautics.com Innovation: RoadRunner Electronic

Dr. Seth Wenner, Samantha Anderson, Ean Hutchison, Becka Kangas, Eric Vang expect the market will see these products before 2018.

Even in its infancy, Agro-Biosciences is already a success within the agricultural livestock industry.

The company can provide a better understanding of an operation’s flock or herd, identifying which microorganisms are hurting or enhancing production. It can also create custom solutions for an operation and work with food producers to create better tasting, healthier and safer food options for livestock.

Approximately 10 to 15 percent of producers in the broiler industry and 50 to 55 percent of producers in the turkey industry are currently using Agro-BioSciences microbial products.

Additionally, Agro Biosciences Inc. is working to identify naturally occurring and specific bacteria that could prolong or maintain the shelf life of foods. 

Flight Instrument

Nearly 50 years ago, Astronautics Corporation of America’s co-founders, Nate Zelazo and Norma Paige, created the company with the desire to push the boundaries of technology while also designing and manufacturing reliable and cost-competitive products.

Today, Astronautics continues that mission with the release of the RoadRunner Electronic Flight Instrument.

Aircraft are equipped with several electromechanical flight instruments, each with its own function.

The new RoadRunner Electronic Flight Instrument from Astronautics is a modern digital upgrade that replaces two flight instruments previously used by pilots—the Attitude Director Indicator and the Horizontal Situation Indicator, according to Ryan Eggert, Astronautics product line manager.

These instruments provide the pilot with information about the aircraft orientation, straight and level, banked left or right or pitch.

“Roadrunner provides pilots increased situation awareness and safety systems within their

Thank you to the hard working team at Agro BioSciences, Inc. for making us one of Milwaukee’s most innovative companies!

Agro BioSciences, Inc | www.agro-biosciences.com BizTimes IQ Awards Ad.indd 1

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Justin Peters, Tiffany Nickens, Dan Barks, D. Eyton Zelazo, Joel Phillips, and Ryan Eggert primary field of view, all within one product,” Eggert said.

More than 150,000 commercial and military aircraft fly with Astronautics’ instruments on board.

According to Eggert, the RoadRunner Electronic Flight Instrument was a natural progression for the company.

“It was an ‘easy upgrade,’ providing the functionality and reliability of the electromechanical instruments along with new features, such as enhanced safety options to alert the pilot to traffic, terrain and weather,” Eggert said.

The RoadRunner requires minimal modifications to the instrument panel of the aircraft. It’s designed as a drop-in upgrade.

“The upgrade can be implemented in an afternoon versus days,” Eggert said. “One of the key enablers of this benefit is using the existing analog signals as data sources – operators are not required to replace the existing aircraft sensor systems with modern, digital sensors.” 

AWARD WINNERS - I.Q. [ INNO VATI O N Q U O TI E N T]

I.Q . [INNOVATION QUOTIE NT] AWA R D

I.Q. [ INNOVAT ION QUOT IENT ] AWA RD

BREW CITY PROMOTIONS INC.

BRIGGS & STRATTON CORP.

Milwaukee

Wauwatosa

www.brewcitypromotions.com Innovation: Patented creative apparel

www.briggsandstratton.com Innovation: Quiet/no oil change mower engine

Clothing and textiles is not an industry people automatically associate with innovation, and yet Milwaukee-based Brew City Promotions Inc. continues to innovate and drive company growth.

The family-run business started back in 1986 and has grown from a small apparel operation to a world-class design and innovation firm that offers innovative apparel and promotional items on a B2B basis for the corporate and retail industry.

Brew City has patented two apparel products: a sweatshirt that contains a lined and insulated pocket that holds bottles; and its newest patent pending product, the Pop Top Tee, which contains a rubber encased bottle opener directly in the fabric.

In addition to creating custom clothing with these designs for its direct to consumer market, Brew City has sold these products wholesale to national brands like Walt Disney World, Nordstrom, Miller Brewing Co., Budweiser, Corona, The Gap and others.

“In an extremely competitive field, it is very difficult to differentiate your company

For some lawn mowers, changing the oil can be a hassle.

And the loud roar of your neighbor’s lawn mower at 7 a.m. on the one Saturday you had an opportunity to sleep in can be really annoying.

Wauwatosa-based Briggs & Stratton Corp. has developed a state-of-the-art, revolutionary mower engine that solves both of those problems.

In February, Briggs & Stratton launched its first self-propelled mower that utilizes both Briggs & Stratton’s Quiet Power Technology and its Just Check and Add feature.

The mower engine, currently available on several brands of self-propelled mowers, is 60 percent quieter than a standard walk-behind mower and never needs an oil change.

“We’re really very focused on user-driven problem solving,” said Rick Zeckmeister, vice president of marketing for Briggs & Stratton. “We do know that even the people who enjoy yard work want it to be easier and less of a hassle. These pieces of innovative technology do that for them.”

According to Zeckmeister, the new engine runs cooler and has an advanced air filter and debris management system. These features pre-

George Keppler from other competitors,” said George Keppler, vice president and co-owner of the company.

“These products have pulled us to the top as innovators.”

According to Keppler, it’s not common to obtain patents on apparel, and most people in the industry were shocked when the company did it, but Keppler believes these products have driven Brew City’s success and helped its employees think, work and sell more creatively.

These products have added revenue to the company’s bottom line, but they’ve also added revenue through new accounts with representatives interested in seeing what else the company is working on. 

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Rick Zeckmeister vent oil from breaking down the way it does in a traditional mower engine, so the only thing the consumer has to do is check and refill the oil.

Advanced engineering techniques were used to adjust the blade shape and lift, design an advanced acoustic muffler, and adjust and maintain the engine speed – all factors contributing to noise on a traditional mower engine, Zeckmeister said.

All while maintaining the strength and power of a traditional Briggs & Stratton engine.

The quiet mowing feature was released approximately three years ago, and the oil change feature was released last year. February marked the launch of the mower engine with both features included.

The engine is designed and engineered in Milwaukee, and manufactured in Poplar Bluff, Mo. The company plans to expand the features to additional mower models, applications and brands in the near future. 

THANK YOU! To our sponsors, attendees and speakers of the 2016 M&A Forum.

The theme for this year’s event was “Hold ‘em or Fold ‘em”: Understand when to grow your company - and when to sell it. Keynote speaker - Uline CFO Frank Unick, shared the Uline story of rapid growth and key lessons learned about talent development, cash pressures and guarding the company culture.

Two panels followed the keynote presentation. The panels were “The psychology of growing your business or deciding to sell” and “Who is your ideal buyer”? Following the panel discussions were informative breakout sessions.

Presented By:

Sponsored By:

Supported Sponsor:

Partnered with:

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I.Q. [INNOVAT ION QUOT IE NT] - AWARD WINNERS

I.Q . [INNOVATION QUOTIE NT] AWA R D

I.Q. [ INNOVAT ION QUOT IENT ] AWA RD

CONNECTED TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

FISERV INC.

Menomonee Falls

Brookfield

www.connectedts.com Innovation: A ntibacterial/disinfecting

www.fiserv.com Innovation: CardValet

touch screen system

Menomonee Falls-based Connected Technology Solutions has long been known for its innovative approach. The company continues that pattern with the release of its new antibacterial/antimicrobial UV-C disinfecting touchscreen system.

“We’ve integrated a UV-C light into the kiosk that is activated when the user steps away from the kiosk,” said Sandra Nix, president and chief executive officer of the company. “In 30 seconds, the light moves across the screen and peripheral devices and penetrates the cell walls of any germs, bacteria or viruses and completely sterilizes it.”

Developed initially for heavily regulated, health-conscious sectors like health care, Nix expects this technology to become the standard throughout the industry.

“Consumers are becoming more and more health-conscious, and hospital systems are focused on reducing and eliminating hospital-born illnesses. This is a great first line of defense for them to contain and eliminate the transmission of any illnesses,” Nix said.

CTS has facilitated more than 300 million patient check-ins at health care facilities through-

Sandra Nix out the country.

The CTS Healthcare kiosks represent more than 95 percent of all U.S. welcome health care kiosk deployments, and the company has launched a retrofit kit for those facilities to take advantage of the new UV-C light capabilities, Nix said.

Facilities can install the new technology in less than 30 minutes with an on-site CTS technician.

“We have a history of differentiating ourselves and we’re always looking ahead to see where our clients are going to be putting their resources,” Nix said.

The company also manufactures private label custom enclosures and kiosks for industry leaders in markets such as food service, retail, locker rentals, public charging stations and social media photo kiosks. 

In a world of constant communication, financial consumers expect instant, real-time information.

CardValet from Fiserv is a card management and fraud mitigation tool that empowers cardholders to control when, where and how their debit and credit cards are used.

“CardValet provides real-time peace of mind and safeguards cardholders’ accounts by allowing them to customize their experience,” said Jayne Berthelsen, senior vice president, product and market development at Fiserv. “Screens are easily navigable and controls are intuitive.”

Launched a little more than a year ago, more than 365 financial institutions and 15,000 cardholders are currently using the CardValet application.

The app, available on Android and iOS, allows users to manage and track specific types of debit card transactions, quickly detect unauthorized activity, turn on and off card use capabilities – ideal for when a card is lost or stolen – and even set spending limits.

Shared card information is also available

Jayne Berthelsen for parents using secondary cards for dependents or business owners deploying company credit cards.

CardValet is powered by Fiserv, but is activated through specific financial institutions.

Clients are responding positively by adopting CardValet as part of their overall card program, Berthelsen said.

“In a world that is moving faster than ever before, Fiserv solutions such as CardValet help financial institutions remain at the center of their customers’ financial lives,” she said.

“CardValet is a prime example of how Fiserv is meeting the demand for compelling and relevant financial services that are in step with the way people live and work today – financial services at the speed of life.” 

AWARD WINNERS - I.Q. [ INNO VATI O N Q U O TI E N T]

I.Q . [INNOVATION QUOTIE NT] AWA R D

I.Q. [ INNOVAT ION QUOT IENT ] AWA RD

MILLENNIUM FORMS LLC

PKWARE INC.

Elkhorn

Milwaukee

www.millenniumforms.com Innovation: Permanently colored stainless steel

www.pkware.com Innovation: SmartCrypt

Thirteen years ago, Walter Hauk founded Elkhorn-based Millennium Tiles LLC. The company specialized in the production of stainless steel tiles used primarily in the roofing industry.

The company was later renamed Millennium Forms to reflect the ever-expanding product line manufactured by the company.

Millennium Forms is the only company in the United States, and one of only three companies in the world, that can permanently color stainless steel.

The company uses a process known as Light Interference Color, which is an electrochemical process that thickens the naturally-occurring chromium oxide on stainless steel.

The clear oxide layer acts like a prism, refracting light and creating color.

Millennium Forms uses LAB color measurements, in a 3-D space, to achieve various colors, including natural, pewter, wheat, bronze, blue, slate, burgundy, purple, peacock and green, among others.

The company has installed Millennium Forms stainless steel all over the world, including Singapore, Alaska, Oregon, Kansas and even right

Information is a valuable commodity.

Companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars annually trying to prevent hacks and leaks of sensitive information.

“Data breaches are on the rise, despite the thousands of dollars, products and vendors that exist around enterprise security,” said Miller Newton, chief executive officer of PKWARE. Milwaukee-based PKWARE is doing its part to protect companies from malicious attacks, snoops and employee mistakes with the release of SmartCrypt, an enterprise encryption key management solution.

Companies must take a different approach to enterprise security, Newton said.

SmartCrypt is management software that is easily embedded and integrated into a company’s existing system and workflow.

“We’ve been in this business doing data encryption and compression for more than 30 years,” he said. “We sat back and realized the only way we were going to solve this problem is to persistently encrypt sensitive information every place it is used, shared and stored. You have to armor the data, but do it in a way that

Walter Hauk here in southeastern Wisconsin.

The exterior of the new addition on the Milwaukee Art Museum is adorned with Millennium Forms stainless steel panels in a variety of bronze colors.

According to the company, the LIC process creates more artistic variables in color than a uniform static color of paint.

Millennium Forms products turn stainless steel into art and buildings into pieces of art that can change colors depending on the light and angle with which they are viewed, said George Cibon, marketing coordinator.

Over the past year, Millennium Forms has tripled in sales. The company has restructured to reduce waste and improve its processes, facilities and the skills of the employees who work there. 

I.Q . [INNOVATION QUOTIE NT] AWA R D

I.Q. [ INNOVAT ION QUOT IENT ] AWA RD

SEIVA TECHNOLOGIES

WELLNTEL INC

Milwaukee

Milwaukee

www.seivatechnologies.com Innovation: S ensor-embedded

www.wellntel.com Innovation: Groundwater level sensing system

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Tammy McCormack, Miller Newton, Timothy Kohler, Matt Little and Joe Sturonas

doesn’t interrupt an individual’s workflow.”

PKWARE has re-invented encryption in a way that no one thought possible. SmartCrypt is high-performance, multi-platform and infinitely scalable for any business, Newton said.

SmartCrypt applies persistent encryption to data at every point before it is exchanged with outside partners.

This enables small, medium and large organizations to retain control over their sensitive information, regardless of how many times that information is copied, backed up or forwarded, Newton said. 

smart fitness apparel

Andrew Hampel, co-founder and chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Seiva Technologies, got the idea for his company when a friend of his was rehabbing a torn ACL. He teamed up with Sam Wesley, co-founder and head of marketing, to develop proprietary sensors they could embed in compression garments to measure the internal biometrics of muscles.

The sensor-embedded garments measure up against medical grade adhesive electrodes traditionally used in these settings, Hampel said.

“We’ve found that our sensors are as good, if not better than, the traditional electrodes. The quality of the signal from our garments is on the elite level,” he added.

Seiva Technologies is currently working with several athletes to continue to test the garments in various situations, Hampel said.

The sensors allow athletes and coaches to determine which muscles are being used, whether it’s an efficient movement and if an athlete is compensating with other muscles during motion.

Currently, there’s a detachable hardware piece connected to the garment that operates with a Bluetooth antenna to feed real-time data

Andrew Hampel, Nick Henson and Sam Wesley to a PC, Wesley said.

Seiva is working on converting the technology to a mobile application that will be available on Apple iOS in the next few weeks, he said.

Seiva Technologies currently uses its internal team of employees, the resources available in the Milwaukee startup community, and local textile and hardware manufacturers for the business.

“We’re extremely grateful for the support we’ve gotten from the community,” Hampel said.

While the idea for Seiva stemmed from the physical therapy and rehab space, the company is currently focused on the athlete development market.

Seiva hopes to expand testing in the physical therapy and rehab space in the future.

“We see a lot of opportunity for physicians and rehab specialists to work with patients remotely while still receiving real-time data and information,” Wesley said.  w w w.biztimes.com

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Lack of information regarding groundwater resources can lead to catastrophic expenses for home and property owners. More than 44 million Americans depend on private well water, and more than $1 billion is spent each year on emergency groundwater services. Additionally, the current technology on the market designed to provide the kind of preventative information home and property owners need is both complicated and expensive.

Milwaukee-based Wellntel, co-founded by Nick Hayes and Marian Singer, was designed to change all that.

Wellntel provides groundwater level information directly to the consumer.

With Wellntel, users can see day-to-day what’s happening with their groundwater – if the well and pump are running as they should or if they need attention from an expert.

The Wellntel device consists of simple sensors at the top of a well and uses solar power to collect daily real-time groundwater level data.

Users can see how levels in the well change seasonally or annuallyand which direction the water level is heading, and make changes to consumption in order to improve efficiencies.

The Wellntel user can view his or her data

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Nick Hayes and Marian Singer

through a secure website or smartphone app and set parameters for email or text updates.

Today’s consumer is informed, and Wellntel can provide the type of information consumers are looking for without the need for expensive experts, contractors and specialists. 

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June 2, 2016 7:00 - 11:30AM Italian Conference Center PRESENTED BY:

GROWTH LEADERSHIP & CULTURE NEXT GENERATION LEGACY DE AN S

"When Willia m sits besid e a str anger on Fl ight 3 71 to B arbad os, he shares 12 qu estion s that have guided the fi nancia l fortu nes of his family for th ree ge nerati ons...i nsight ful, th ought provo king a nd power ful, De ans w rites w hat ot hers h ave on ly dar ed thi nk..."

"Every Family committed to the continuity of its business should challenge its convictions with candid cons ideration of Deans' powerful and proactive philosophies of wealth, family and human nature."

Dr. Joh n Ward , Chica go Profes sor, Sc hool o f Busin ess, K ellogg Unive rsity "Once in a while you read a book that you just have to re commend to others.

My father and I have both fin ished reading the book and it has already shaped our thinking about our busine ss in the future. Highly recom mended."

Martin Bamfo rd, UK Author of The Mone y Tree "Every Family's Business am plifies the imperative for aw areness, difficult conversations and clean ag reements in multi-­generation al enterprises.

Tom Deans' poignant (and hu morous) modern-­day fable is a must read for anyone navigating the difficul t transitions of wealth, owne rship and leadership."

Jim W arner, Colora do Author of Asp iration s of G reatne ss "Deans convinces readers th at businesses are temporary economic organizations always movin g toward obsolescence;; that the key to preserving generational wealth means a bandoning the longevity of a business as a fundamental goal. With his e ntertaining style he leaves yo u questioning everything you thought you k new about succession planni ng."

Sandy Cardy, Toron to Author of The Cotta ge, Th e Spid er Bro och an d the S econd Wife "In thirty years Deans won't j ust be remembered as a bes t selling author, but as the person who remin ded every entrepreneur that gifting a business will destroy wealth and famil ies with blinding speed -­ a cl assic in the making."

Don S chwerz ler, Atl anta Found er of th e Fam ily Bus iness I nstitut e Inc.

The morning starts with an inspirational keynote from Tom Deans, New York Times best-selling author of Every Family’s Business, followed by a panel discussion featuring family and closely-held business owners.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: TOM DEANS

All attendees will receive Tom’s New York Times best-selling book “Every Family’s Business”

PANELISTS:

Scott Larson – President/COO, Gustave A. Larson Deborah Anguil – COO, Anguil Environmental Eric Olesen – Owner & President, O&H Danish Bakery Theodore Perlick Molinari, Component Assembly & Brewery Fittings Supervisor, Perlick Corporation

Ev ery Fa mi ly' s Bu sin ess

Having successfully run his father’s business and helping to sell it at peak value before the 2007 crash, Tom has emerged as a leading global expert on family business dynamics.

Author of #1 Best Seller Willi ng Wisdom

:

10 Books Business Owners Should Read

Every Family's Business 12 Common Sense Questions to Protect Your Wealth

$22.95 US

"This book is a must read for anyone serious about prote cting their wealth, securing their retirement and building an inspiring legacy ...."

THOMAS WILLIAM DEANS Ph.D.

LARSON

ANGUIL

OLESEN

PERLICK MOLINARI

Then it’s time to roll up your sleeves. Choose four of 20 roundtables on the themes of the day.

ROUNDTABLE PRESENTATIONS: - Successful Habits of Family Business Successors.

- Eight key areas that drive value in your business.

- Family dynamics: The Parent/Child relationship in the Family Business.

- Leadership Development in the Family and Closely-Held Business.

- Current State of the Merger and Acquisition Market.

- Does the Next Generation love your business enough to buy it?

- Innovation Strategies and Next Generation Entrepreneurs.

- Re-thinking Sales & Marketing to Scale Your Business now.

- Dividing The Family Cake. What’s “Fair”?

- Preparing the Next Generation: What do they really need to know?

- FLSA Overtime Changes. Is Your Business Ready?

- Family & Corporate Philanthropy: How you can make a difference?

- Whether by acquisition or organically, how do I fund & finance my growth?”

- The Changing Landscape of Cyber Security.

- How informed, involved, and invested are your strategic advisors in your business?”

- The role private equity can play in your business.

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strategies The passive voice of failure Why are some people more resilient than others?

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omething struck me the other day as I was reading yet another article about the declining nature of American society, from politics, to education, to economic challenges, to crumbling communities. Such articles are frequently filled with hand wringing and a catalog of reasons things don’t work.

People with good intentions don’t have the power to change things. People with nefarious intentions have the power to maintain the dysfunctional status quo and prevent others from gaining access.

People are too busy to recognize how broken things are, so nothing much happens. People are so worn out from hearing about all the things that don’t work, they have no energy to go beyond indignant but ultimately feeble protests. The

find something that appeals to the people you are trying to win over to your point of view. Every “no” makes the distance to an ultimate “yes” that much shorter.

These are all action-oriented possibilities. None of them is likely to offer immediate success, but when you continue moving forward with persistence and confidence that a solution is out there somewhere, you change the energy of a problem. Passivity robs everyone of energy. It is a virtual throwing up of the hands; an admission that you are not capable of meeting this particular challenge. Not now, not ever. When you stop, convinced that you have no other option, you have failed.

This type of failure is uncommon.

Maybe it seems like people have punted on the biggest challenges of our time, but

period of time—maybe a lot of time— during which you took little steps, learned small techniques and practiced portions of bigger strategies until you gained mastery. Small wins set up larger ones. You progressed from a tricycle to a bicycle with training wheels to a racing bike that takes you to places you can’t go by car. You didn’t quit the first time you fell off your big bike and re-arranged the skin on your leg. You hurt, healed and practiced with temporary caution until you exceeded that level of skill.

The same is true of life’s more serious challenges. If you are willing to endure the bumps, bruises and embarrassments of finding a new way forward, swallow your pride to engage in a different conversa-

S US A N M A R S H A LL MINDSET tion or lay down your insistence on being right, you will begin to find energy where there was once the passivity of failure. n Susan A. Marshall is an author, speaker and the founder of Backbone Institute LLC (www.backboneinstitute.com), which has the tagline, “Never grow a wishbone where a backbone ought to be,” and which has a mission to create a stronger, more confident future, one person or team at a time. She can be reached at (262) 567-5983 or susan@ backboneinstitute.com.

“ But here’s the thing about failure.

It’s temporary. A setback.”

underlying and consistent message is that people are powerless.

This is not true. However, when a cloud of failure hangs over a group of people, a system, a community or indeed, a country for long enough, the belief that you, I, we or they are powerless begins to feel like truth. At this stage, passivity settles in and inertia grinds us down.

The passive voice of failure sounds like this: “I couldn’t because…,” “He wouldn’t let me,” “She didn’t want it,” “Nobody listens to me,” “They shut me out.” Of course, there are a million variations on the theme and it’s likely you have used one at some point during your life.

I certainly have.

But here’s the thing about failure. It’s temporary. A setback. An invitation to have a different conversation, find a different ally, discover an alternative route or

watch and listen more closely and you will find people everywhere reimagining their futures, refusing to succumb to the passivity of failure. They may pause for a while to rest, reflect and reconsider, but they come back to fight another day.

How do they do it? What special gifts do they have that you don’t? Why are some people more resilient than others?

For answers to these questions, think about how you have built competence, strength and confidence in the things you do well. Did you suddenly think yourself to artistic proficiency? Did you simply stand up one day and deliver an incredible speech? Did you lay out a detailed spreadsheet with precision and accuracy the first time you tried? Did you have a perfect “difficult conversation” the moment you decided it was necessary?

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strategies

The post-boomer workforce

What the generational shift means for employees, employers and leaders

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ruce Tulgan, author of “Not Everyone Gets a Trophy” and “It’s Okay to Be The Boss” has published a white paper titled “The Great Generational Shift: The Emerging Post-Boomer Workforce.”

I will highlight information provided

by Tulgan, the results of his tracking this transformation for more than 20 years.

Tulgan writes, “This is the post-Baby Boomer shift that demographers and workforce planners have been anticipating for decades. It is not only a generational shift in the numbers in the workforce, but an epic turning point. This is the final stage of a historic period of profound change globally and a corresponding transformation in the very fundamentals of the employer-employee relationship.”

The white paper, along with a variety of resources, is available at www.rainmakerthinking.com.

Highlights from the white paper:

»» The workforce is aging on one end of the spectrum and getting younger on the other. In the middle there is a gap, with the prime age workforce shrinking. »» By 2020, Boomers will comprise less than 20 percent of the Western workforce. »» By 2020, second-wave millennials (born 1990-2000) will be greater than 20 percent of the Western workforce.

This is referred to as the youth bubble. »» During this era of change, we are experiencing a changing labor market, a changing workforce, a changing workplace, a changing nature of employment and changes in the very nature of work. »» The myth of job security is dead. Employers are more likely to undertake major organizational changes that eliminate jobs regardless of length of service. There is also a trend toward

hiring fewer full-time employees and more contingent workers. As a result, the number of traditional employees is diminishing while the percentage of contingent workers is increasing. This is a fundamental change in employment practices. »» More employees are being managed by short-term project leaders instead of “organization chart” managers. »» The free-agent mindset is the prevailing workforce mindset. Employees no longer labor quietly and obediently.

Most work anxiously to take care of themselves and their families and try to get what they can from their employers, one day at a time. »» There is no going back to the workplace of the past where the default presumption was long-term, full-time and on-site—a one-size-fits-all hierarchical career path.

On a daily basis, we encounter leaders in organizations who continue to focus on the preservation of the way it’s been.

After all, this is what feels right. The energy currently expended on preservation needs to shift toward reinvention.

Tulgan shares what the shift means for employers and for workers. Below is a brief excerpt:

For employers:

»» Dedicate resources to support knowledge transfer of the exiting baby boomers. »» Be prepared for a disproportionate number of young workers who will not hesitate to make suggestions, special requests and demands. »» Successful employers will maintain core groups of key talent and critical long-term stakeholders, combined with an increasing number of fluid/ flexible ways to employ people (onsite, off-site, telecommuting, consultants, temps, vendors, etc). »» Successful organizations will offer many different career paths and “dream job factors:” Flexible work conditions, pay-for-performance, coaching-style leadership and lots of flexibility.

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A LETA N O R R IS GENERATION Y

For employees:

»» Older workers are experiencing rapid change, while younger workers have never known the world any other way. »» Most workers today assume that most employment relationships will be relatively short-term and transactional. »» Individual workers of all ages want, expect and often request greater flexibility in work conditions. Workers want flexible location, flexible dress, flexible work conditions.

For leaders, managers and supervisors:

»» Managing people will keep getting harder as workers expect more. »» They will be required to spend more time with young workers who need more guidance, direction, support and coaching. »» Recognize that millennials will not give their best efforts to a leader who is perceived as weak or disengaged. »» Millennials will make specific requests related to assignment of tasks, training, scheduling, work location, work space, guidance, coaching, raises, benefits, etc. »» To be effective, managers must be strong and highly engaged, conducting structured communication to provide guidance, direction, support and coaching.

I will reiterate, as I often have, that too many organizations are still viewing this as a topic of intrigue or as a problem to be solved. These challenges are here to stay, and reinvention is necessary. I encourage you to view this white paper in its entirety. n 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. To read all of her columns, visit the knowledge portal at www.livingasaleader.com.

strategies what else we might do in the future.”

Gary has no idea the impact he had on me and on Maureen. I was struck by what it must be like to work with a leader who manifests an ability to meet people where they are. A simple, and yet not so simple, act of kindness demonstrating extraordinary customer care. Courageous. Determined. Focused.

I have shared this story with staff at the hospital and with family and friends.

We have all agreed that Houlihan’s at the Commons in Geneva, Ill., will be our preferred restaurant for nourishment…body and soul!

Lessons from cancer, Disney… …and a take-out order

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ho would anticipate leadership lessons from an animated Disney movie and a take-out order at Houlihan’s in Geneva, Ill.?

Or from cancer? Maybe.

We have all been touched by the devastating disease and we have witnessed our brothers, sisters, parents and friends standing with courage and faith as they faced the challenges in the impossible world of doctors, chemotherapy and radiation; uncertainty and terror. We have been inspired by their response to the impossible: Courageous. Determined. Focused.

Several weeks ago, my sister, Maureen, was diagnosed with cancer after having an MRI for what was thought to be a torn rotator cuff. How does that happen? You are healthy one day, full of energy and fire, and the next…your world is turned upside down.

Maureen is a creative, witty, talented, compassionate woman. She is an entrepreneur with a soul. She has made a difference in the lives of hundreds of men and women, even as she has followed her dreams, believing in possibilities when others doubted.

As chief executive officer and owner of Global Women’s Leadership Forum, Maureen leads her organization in supporting Women’s Business Resource Groups for the advancement of all women in the workplace. She is the 2015 recipient of the Innovation Award in Entrepreneurial Ex-

cellence from the Chicago Business Ledger and the recipient of the Dr. MLK Jr. Award for Accelerating Women in Leadership from the Illinois Commission on Diversity and Human Relations.

MOF are the initials following Maureen’s signature. She’s not much impressed with titles, yet this one matters most to her! It represents her greatest work: Mother of Four. Her children are grown now. Yet while raising them, Maureen founded two other businesses before Global with the support of her husband, Dan, who was also working full time.

She was enjoying her adult children and her beautiful granddaughter; her business; traveling across the country; and influencing senior leaders in Fortune 500 companies.

In early February, without warning, Maureen learned that she has fast-growing, aggressive Lymphoma. The doctor’s recommendation: fast and aggressive treatment.

I was with Maureen and Dan when they received the news. Once the initial shock subsided, Maureen said, “Let’s get this done.” Courageous. Determined. Focused. Every step of the way. The treatment protocol is five days in the hospital with chemotherapy 24 hours a day, one week at home, and back in the hospital to repeat this cycle a number of times. Even with setbacks, Maureen’s mantra continues: “Let’s get this done.”

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KAREN VERNAL LEADERSHIP

Houlihan’s: A leader with compassion and empathy One evening last week, while staying with Maureen in the hospital, I went to Houlihan’s to pick up dinner for us.

I asked the bartender for a recommendation for one of two dinners that Maureen thought she might enjoy. I let her know that Maureen was in the hospital undergoing tough chemotherapy.

While waiting for our take-out order, a man approached me, shook my hand and said: “I am so sorry about your sister.

My name is Gary Smith. I am the manager here. What kind of cancer?” he asked.

When I answered, he said, “Me too.” In that moment, he was a vision of hope for me: healthy, happy, whole. He asked for my name and Maureen’s, promising to pray for both of us and our families. And then he said, “Dinner is on us. Let us know

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‘Zootopia,’ an animated Disney movie with leadership lessons After my time in Illinois with Maureen, I looked to find an entertaining movie to enjoy with my husband. We decided on “Zootopia” at the recommendation of a friend and colleague.

The film was enjoyable and engaging and we were struck by the number of “leadership lessons” throughout. Judy Hopps, an energetic, optimistic bunny, is the protagonist in the movie. Against all odds, this rabbit fulfills a lifelong dream and becomes a cop in Zootopia. She struggles to be taken seriously by her boss and peers. Judy is Courageous. Determined. Focused.

The movie ends with Judy offering a message to her colleagues that I am certain Maureen and Gary would celebrate. And perhaps it holds an invitation for all of us: “Real life is messy. We all have limitations. We all make mistakes. Which means, hey, glass half full! We all have a lot in common. And the more we try to understand one another, the more exceptional each of us will be. But we have to try. So no matter what kind of person you are, I implore you: Try. Try to make the world a better place. Look inside yourself and recognize that change starts with you.

It starts with me. It starts with all of us.”

To Maureen and Gary: thank you. You inspire us with your Courage, Determination and Focus.

To Maureen: I love you. Let’s get this done. n Karen Vernal is the president of Vernal Management Consultants LLC, a Milwaukee-based leadership and organizational firm dedicated to “igniting the spirits and skills of leaders.” The company is one of two firms in the nation to be certified in Emotional Intelligence through the Institute for Health and Human Potential. For more information, visit www.vernalmgmt.com.

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strategies

Defining the ideal mentor Prescriptions for developing more women

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eaders who remember my January 11 and April 4 columns will recall that I emphasized the important role mentoring plays in career development programming for women. Many, many women have never had the opportunity to be mentored.

Some of you might be wondering, “Just what is a ‘mentor,’ anyway?”

A mentor is a trusted guide who invests in the development of another person. In business, a mentor is typically a seasoned expert who is willing to guide, nurture and invest in the growth and development of a less seasoned colleague, a mentee.

Mentoring is a foundational leadership role associated with the Interpersonal or Human Relations domain of leadership

(Technical/Subject and Strategic are the other major leadership domains). Interpersonal/Human Relations competencies relate to the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to coordinate and facilitate the work of others. Team building, performance coaching, conflict resolution, etc. are important tools that create a work environment of peak performance and maximum motivation and job satisfaction.

Specifically with regard to the mentor role, three skills are foundational: Understanding self and others; communicating effectively; and developing employees. Let’s explore each of these skills in more detail.

employees are surveyed regarding the characteristics they seek in their leaders.

To be an effective mentor, self-awareness is foundational. In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Polonius, the counselor to the king, observes, “To thine own self be true.” This is a very eloquent way of saying, “Don’t play games with yourself; don’t kid yourself.” Leaders and mentors who are true to themselves are accurate self-assessors.

They know where they excel and where they struggle. They work hard to make greater use of their strengths while simultaneously trying to make their weaknesses irrelevant.

Understanding self and others

Communicating effectively

Trust and authenticity are typically among the highest rated factors when

Communicating effectively as a mentor is more than being an eloquent discussant when sharing one’s experience, insights and observations. Being an effective mentor means being an effective listener and an effective provider of feedback. Effective listening means active listening, or listening for meaning and understanding.

Effective feedback provision involves delivering messages that are receiver/mentee-

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DANIEL SCHROEDER HUMAN RESOURCES opment). Mentors need to be effective referral agents on behalf of their mentees (operating as door opener to others inside or outside the organization who can be of assistance to the mentee). Ultimately, they need to be strong evaluators of the progress of their mentees (affirming gains that have been made and identifying those that warrant ongoing attention).

I hope you are beginning to understand that operating as an effective mentor does not “just happen.” Mentoring is more than simply serving as the nominal sponsor of an inexperienced employee and getting together over coffee every so often to see how things are going. Mentoring, done well, is a complex role that draws upon a variety of skills and techniques, the rudiments of which I touched upon above.

“ Being an effective mentor means being an effective listener and an effective provider of feedback.” centered, that reflect understanding and offer relevant and learning-oriented insights and impressions. Effective feedback is guided by the 5:1 “magic ratio” (five positives for every one corrective message).

Developing employees This skill area is where the rubber meets the road regarding effective mentoring. To do well here, mentors need to be strong assessors. They need to make accurate observations regarding their mentees’ strengths and developmental areas. Mentors need to be strong sources of information for their mentees (point them to resources to be used for devel-

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Is your organization willing to a make a commitment to developing a focused program of career development for women, the group of employees that is forecasted to be the majority of new entrants to the workforce over the next decade? If so, then your organization will want to make a focused commitment to building a mentor development program targeting the skills explored in this column, so effective mentors are aligned with emerging mentees. n Daniel Schroeder, Ph.D., is president of Brookfieldbased Organization Development Consultants Inc. (www.

OD-Consultants.com). He can be reached at (262) 8271901 or Dan.Schroeder@OD-Consultants.com.

biz connections CA L E NDAR

NONPROFIT DIRECTORY

The Greater Brookfield Chamber of Commerce will host Business After 5 on Thursday, May 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel Milwaukee/Brookfield, 18155 W. Bluemound Road in Brookfield.

The event will offer business networking. Cost is $10 for members who are pre-registered and $15 for first-time guests and members at the door. For more information or to register, visit: business.brookfieldchamber.com/events.

SPOTLIGHT

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce’s Council of Small Business Executives will host its 7th Annual Brewers Outing on Wednesday, June 1, from 11 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at Miller Park’s Gehl Club, 1 Brewers Way in Milwaukee. The event will include networking, food, drinks, prize drawings and other fun during an afternoon of baseball. Cost is $119 for members. For more information or to register, visit web.mmac.org/events.

BizTimes Media will host the Family and Closely Held Business Summit on Thursday, June 2, from 7 to 11:30 a.m. at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago St. in Milwaukee. Successful family business owners will share their strategies for navigating many of the complex issues related to growing a successful and sustainable family and closely held business. Tom Deans, New York Times best-selling author of “Every Family’s Business,” will give the keynote address. Cost is $50. For more information or to register, visit www.biztimes.com/family.

The South Suburban Chamber of Commerce will host a Chamber Networking Breakfast on Wednesday, June 8, from 7 to 9 a.m. at Chili’s Franklin, 6439 S. 27th St. in Franklin. The breakfast offers an opportunity to network with members of the chamber, which serves Oak Creek, Franklin and surrounding communities. Each attendee can give a 30-second introduction about his or her company. Cost is $15. For more information or to register, visit: See the complete calendar of business.southsuburbanchamber.com/events. upcoming events & meetings.

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BIZ NO T ES Onkol Milwaukee startup Onkol has received a 2016 Edison Gold Award in Health and Wellness- Safety & Health Monitoring. Onkol makes a remote monitoring system used by children to keep track of their elderly parents’ health. Its Onkol hub simultaneously links a wide variety of third-party home and health monitoring sensors directly to family members, professionals and data platforms using Internet of Things technology. The Edison Awards recognize excellence in new product and service development, marketing, design and innovation. It is one of the most prestigious accolades a company can receive for innovation and business success. Nominees were judged by a panel of more than 3,000 business executives, including past award winners, academics and leaders in the fields of design, engineering, science and medicine.

Marcus Hotels & Resorts Four of Marcus Hotels & Resorts’ properties have earned AAA Four Diamond Awards for 2016.

The divison of Milwaukee-based Marcus Corp. garnered recognition for The Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee for the 40th consecutive year; for the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva for the 18th consecutive year; for the Hilton Milwaukee for the fifth consecutive year; and for the Skirvin Hilton in Oklahoma City for the ninth consecutive year. Fewer than 6 percent of the nearly 28,000 hotels approved by AAA make

the Four Diamond list. Hotels at this level are committed to providing every guest with a personalized experience and attentive service in comfortable, high-quality surroundings, according to AAA. They typically offer an extensive array of amenities and guest services.

Bader Rutter Brookfield-based Bader Rutter has received three Global ACE Awards from the Business Marketing Association of New York. The awards, which recognize B2B marketing excellence, were for: FumigationFacts.com, a website it created for Douglas Products of Liberty, Mo.; a RebelEX herbicide direct mailer it created for Dow AgroSciences of Indianapolis; and a runner-up award for collateral system work for Zoetis of Florham Park, N.J.

The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. The Bon-Ton Stores Inc., which is based in Milwaukee and York, Pa., has raised $50,000 for the Soles4Souls nonprofit, which fights poverty by collecting and distributing shoes and clothing.

Bon-Ton operates the Boston Store, Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Herberger’s, Elder-Beerman and Younkers retail stores nationwide. The company donated $1 for every pair of shoes sold in select stores on March 19, and from April 6 to 26, gave customers a special shoe department offer in return for a $3 donation to Soles4Souls. The organization has distributed more than 26 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries since it was founded in 2006.

To have your business briefs published in a future issue of BizTimes Milwaukee send announcements to briefs@biztimes.com. w w w.biztimes.com

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UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation 10701 W. Research Drive, Milwaukee 1 855-MY-UHCCF / 1 (855) 698-4223 | www.uhccf.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/uhccf Year founded: 1999 Mission statement: The UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation is a 501(c) (3) charitable organization that provides medical grants to help children gain access to health-related services not covered, or not fully covered, by their parents’ commercial health insurance plans.

Families can receive up to $5,000 annually per child ($10,000 lifetime maximum per child), and do not need to have insurance through UnitedHealthcare to be eligible for a medical grant.

Since 2007, UHCCF has awarded more than 10,000 grants valued at more than $29 million to children and their families across the United States. Families can apply for a grant at www.UHCCF.org.

Primary focus: The foundation embraces and supports the concept of facilitating access to health-related services that have the potential to significantly enhance either the clinical condition or the quality of life of the child and that are not fully covered by the available commercial health insurance plan. The foundation provides financial assistance toward the family’s share of the cost of medical services.

Employees at this location: 430 Key donors: UHCCF’s funding is provided by contributions from individuals, corporations and UnitedHealth Group employees.

Executive leadership: Matt Peterson, president Board of directors: »» David S. Hefner »» Jack Wickens »» Thomas P. Barbera »» David S. Wichmann »» Jeannine Rivet

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Is your organization actively seeking board members for the upcoming term? No Ways the business community can help your nonprofit: »» Tax-deductible donations will directly fund medical grants and can be made online at www.uhccf.org. Donations are used for grants to help children and families in the region in which they are received. »» Businesses and individuals can help families by participating in UHCCF’s Grins2 program and donating a Grins to Go gift bag to one of the participating organizations across the country. Each Grins to Go drawstring bag is filled with an assortment of popular toys and activities designed for boys and girls between the ages of five and 12. One child receives a dose of laughter and inspiration through the gifts he or she finds inside the bag, and another child will be impacted through a UHCCF medical grant, made possible by the funds raised by those who purchase the bag for a personal donation or via corporate giving. Learn more at http://www.uhccf.org/grins2program/.

Key fundraising events: Children’s books -To help raise funds for its child medical grant program, the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation publishes children’s books and sells them, along with other fun child toys and products, at uhccf.org/ shop and on Amazon.com. Proceeds from the books and toys fund grants that help families pay for children’s medical expenses not covered, or not fully covered, by their parents’ commercial health insurance plan.

Get the latest nonprofit news delivered to your inbox every Friday. Sign up for BizTimes’ Nonprofit Weekly at biztimes.com/subscribe.

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biz connections PER SO NNE L F I L E

■ Architecture Continuum Architects + Planners, Milwaukee, has added Jamie Wanek as a senior project architect to its architectural team.

Wanek is a registered architect with more than 15 years of experience and specialties in health care, multi-family housing and mixed use, among others.

■ Banking & Finance Sarah Fowles joined Associated Financial Group as senior human resources consultant. In this role, she is responsible for helping employers reward employees and enable them to plan for financial and physical security through retirement, health and welfare plans. She also helps companies design compensation solutions for executives, owners and high-performers.

Citizens Bank, Mukwonago, hired Stefanie Bonesteel as marketing officer. Bonesteel, a veteran of community bank marketing, will oversee the bank’s marketing function, including branding and engagement initiatives that drive understanding of the bank’s full range of products and services.

Submit new hire and promotion announcements to www.biztimes.com/submit/the-bubbler

diverse market segments, has joined Wallner Builders, Butler, as its design facilitator.

■ Education Shane Schickowski has been hired as front end web developer for Carroll University, Waukesha. In this role, he will support communications and marketing, as well as information technology services, with web development, design and programming.

■ Engineering Michael Kren has joined R.A. Smith National, Brookfield, as a structural engineer in the structural services division.

■ Health Care Nicole Knapp, the owner of Knapp Chiropractic & Wellness Center, Brookfield, has recently completed the requirements for Webster Certification and is acknowledged by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association as proficient in this specific chiropractic protocol.

■ Legal Services

■ Building & Construction Emily Hoefler, an administrative and marketing professional with experience in

Joseph Campbell has joined the Milwaukee office of Ogletree Deakins as an associate. In his practice, Campbell represents management in a full range of employment law matters.

Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, Milwaukee, has announced that Matthew Brown has rejoined the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group as an attorney in its Waukesha office.

Boyle Fredrickson, S.C., Milwaukee, promoted Scott Kanalakis to non-equity shareholder.

Kanalakis joined Boyle Fredrickson in 2012. His practice focuses primarily on patent prosecution, litigation and opinion matters, with a strong emphasis in electrical engineering, software and computer technologies.

■ Marketing & PR Judi Murphy has been named president and CEO of Murphy Associates, Brookfield.

Murphy co-founded the regional public relations and marketing strategy firm with her husband, John Murphy, in 1992 and has more than 20 years of experience in public relations, marketing strategy, personal branding and thought leadership.

Zizzo Group, Milwaukee, hired Craig Trindl as a new account supervisor. With more than 15 years of experience, Trindl has a background in marketing planning, project management, new business development, budgeting and overall team leadership.

Award­-winning journalist Lisa Manna has joined Edge Messaging LLC, Brookfield, as a

communications specialist. Manna began her journalism career in small media markets in the Midwest before anchoring the weekend and then morning newscasts at Green Bay’s ABC affiliate.

■ Professional Organizations Adam Brown has been selected for board membership with the United States Sign Council.

Brown will serve a three-year term on the USSC board of directors and provide strategic direction to the trade association. Adam is president of Sign Effectz Inc., a Milwaukeebased custom sign design and build company.

■ Real Estate GSF Mortgage, Brookfield, added Jackie Jones as a mortgage loan originator. She joins TeamGO with 13 years of mortgage and real estate industry experience.

■ Technology Ethoplex, Germantown, a locally-owned internet service provider, has added Glen Van Wie, business development executive, to the company’s sales team. Van Wie was hired to meet the needs of the company’s growing client base and to focus on customer satisfaction and retention initiatives.

Scott Kwiatkowski joined the WorkWise Software sales team as an ERP account executive. He has a background in sales and business and will be focused on selling to new accounts.

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ADVERTISE IN THE BIZ MARKETPLACE TODAY! Contact Kevin Gaschk for rates and specs. kevin.gaschk@biztimes.com or 414-336-7132 w w w.biztimes.com

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May 16 - 29, 2016

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Request a FREE no obligation flat roof evaluation

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B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

SPECIALZING IN FLAT ROOFS AND SINGLE PLY SYSTEMS Phone: (414) 351-4609 Toll Free: (877) 704-0714 Battsroofing.com

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biz connections

n GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR VOLUME 22, NUMBER 4 MAY 16 - 29, 2016 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120 PHONE: 414-277-8181 FAX: 414-277-8191 WEBSITE: www.biztimes.com CIRCULATION E-MAIL: circulation@biztimes.com ADVERTISING E-MAIL: ads@biztimes.com EDITORIAL E-MAIL: andrew.weiland@biztimes.com REPRINTS: reprints@biztimes.com PUBLISHER / OWNER

Dan Meyer dan.meyer@biztimes.com DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Mary Ernst mary.ernst@biztimes.com DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

Jon Anne Willow jonanne.willow@biztimes.com ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Sarah Sinsky sarah.sinsky@biztimes.com

EDITORIAL EDITOR

Andrew Weiland andrew.weiland@biztimes.com MANAGING EDITOR

Molly Dill molly.dill@biztimes.com REPORTER

Corrinne Hess corri.hess@biztimes.com REPORTER

Arthur Thomas arthur.thomas@biztimes.com REPORTER

Ben Stanley ben.stanley@biztimes.com

SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR OF SALES

Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE

Maribeth Lynch mb.lynch@biztimes.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Amber Stancer amber.stancer@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Kevin Gaschk kevin.gaschk@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Maggie Pinnt maggie.pinnt@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com

PRODUCTION & DESIGN GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Alex Schneider alex.schneider@biztimes.com ART DIRECTOR

Shelly Tabor shelly.tabor@biztimes.com

INTERN REPORTER

Castalia Park

Maredithe Meyer maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com

This photo, taken circa 1925, shows the Menomonee River at Castalia Park in Wauwatosa. Castalia Park, once home to beverage manufacturer Castalia Bottling Works, is now known as Jacobus Park and is part of the Milwaukee County Parks System.

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

Additional images can be viewed online at www.mpm.edu

Independent & Locally Owned — Founded 1995 —

COMME NTA R Y

Wisconsin wants Ikea…badly

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hen BizTimes Milwaukee broke the news on our website that Swedish furniture retailer Ikea plans to build a store in Oak Creek, reader traffic on our site exploded to record levels.

The story immediately went viral as media outlets throughout the state rushed to catch up with our reporting.

ANDREW WEILAND Editor BizTimes Milwaukee

While we were working on the Ikea story, I knew it would be big deal. But I didn’t know it was going to be THAT big of a deal.

The reader reaction to the story proves that Ikea has a cult-like following and there is a huge pent up demand for the retailer to build a store in Wisconsin.

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For years, Ikea-loving cheeseheads have had to make the drive to the Ikea store in Schaumburg, Ill., while enduring the Chicago-area traffic and tolls.

That will soon be a thing of the past.

Ikea says it will break ground next year on a 295,000-square-foot store along I-94, at South 27th Street and Drexel Avenue in Oak Creek. The store will open in 2018.

Oak Creek has been going through a major transformation in recent years, attracting several significant developments, most notably the mixed-use Drexel Town Square project that is creating a downtown the city never had before at Drexel and Howell avenues.

But Ikea would bring something Oak Creek, and the entire south side of the metro Milwaukee area, has not had: a major destination retailer. Because of the popularity of Ikea, it is reasonable to expect that shoppers from throughout B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

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the region and even the state will come to the store in Oak Creek.

There will likely be additional retailers and restaurants that will want to be near the Ikea store and will build stores in Oak Creek and Franklin, providing an economic boost to that area. The Ikea store is expected to anchor a major mixed-use development planned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., which owns 128 acres at Drexel and South 27th Street.

Some national retailers with locations in most major metro areas of the U.S. have avoided the Milwaukee area for years.

Maybe that’s because of our frugal culture, or maybe it’s because we are too close to the Chicago area and the stores there.

May 16 - 29, 2016

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But now, the Milwaukee area’s underretailed reputation finally appears to be changing. The addition of Nordstrom, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and others in recent years, plus the future openings of Von Maur and Ikea, demonstrate that more national retail chains see opportunity here.

It will be very interesting to see how these stores perform over the long haul. n

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biz connections

Who cares about the watercooler?

NEWaukee hosted “Who Cares About the Watercooler?: Reviving Meaningful Conversations Within the Workplace� on April 28, as part of its weeklong, statewide YP Week programming.

Milwaukee Urban League Young Professionals president Sean Lowe kicked off the event, which focused on perceptions and substantial conversations in the workplace. The afternoon was completed with an interactive workshop, networking opportunities and lunch provided by the Rumpus Room.

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Sean Lowe, Milwaukee Urban League Young Professionals president, addresses the group to start the event.

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Maggie Beckley of Aurora Healthcare and Ashley Hines of the Medical College of Wisconsin.

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Tiffany Henry and Sean Lowe of Milwaukee Urban League Young Professionals.

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Annie Hernandez, Alex Boschult and Dane Gagnon of United Way of Greater Milwaukee.

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Alvin Hill and Leah Powers of Milwaukee Center for Independence and Jason Mandel of Building Service Inc.

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Kathleen Keller of Marquette University with Vanessa Schoenecker and Halley Shaw of ManpowerGroup.

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Agnes Vongehamsay of BMO Harris Bank, Rich Visotcky of Joint Insights and Ashanti Cook of Small Business Legal Services.

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About 30 attendees enjoyed a lunch provided by the Rumpus Room before the event started.

Photos by Maredithe Meyer

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May 16 - 29, 2016

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ERICH SCHROEDER PHOTOGRAPHY

the last word

It’s OK to pass on a bad deal and stay focused on the fundamentals Mark Irgens is the chief executive officer and manager of Irgens Partners LLC, a developer, investor and operator of commercial office, mixed used, health care and industrial properties in Milwaukee. It is sometimes better to skip a bad deal, he says.

“A rewarding aspect of being in the real estate development business is having the opportunity to create buildings and space that can help define a place for people. It can also be daunting, though, with the permanency of every project and the challenge to meet the expectations of yourself and those being served.

“It is rarely a straight line from initial idea to successful outcome. Often, there are challenges and obstacles that require patience, attention to detail, understanding, creativity and flexibility. In some cases, there is no overcoming economic and other challenges that keep a 58

project from getting off the ground. It is sometimes better to skip a bad deal, be patient and follow good fundamental business practice. It’s only a matter of inches between success and failure. When a worthwhile opportunity presents itself, the key is to move with certainty and steady quickness—‘Carpe diem.’

“Years ago, Irgens’ leadership developed guiding principles that have allowed our team to realize mostly successful outcomes. They include: »» Establishing and nurturing long-term relationships »» Fostering a work culture of creativity and innovation »» Managing growth and seeking future opportunities »» Providing profitable, sustainable and responsible solutions to challenges.

“Successful partnerships rely on the ability to listen

B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

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May 16 - 29, 2016

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Mark Irgens Chief executive officer and manager Irgens Partners LLC 648 N. Plankinton Ave., Suite 200, Milwaukee Industry: Commercial real estate Employees: 100 www.irgens.com

to the goals, vision and objectives of a client. Successful outcomes materialize when all the of options that present themselves in a project are uncovered and considered.

“These principles have allowed Irgens to meet many challenges and build projects for people and the communities we all live in.” n

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2016 E D I T I O N

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