BizTimes Milwaukee | February 6, 2017

Locally Owned Since 1995

BizTimes MILWAUKEE

w w w.biztimes.com FEB 6 - 19, 2017 n $3.25

CRACK THE CODE COULD BEST PRACTICES FROM OTHER STATES BOOST MILWAUK EE’S STAR TUP SCENE?

Also in this issue:

| Unique event venues thrive in Milwaukee | Proper etiquette critical for corporate events | Understanding audience and purpose key to corporate event social media

Matt Cordio of Startup Milwaukee and Joe Kirgues of gener8tor.

It’s never too early to get involved.

Everything you need to know about Wisconsin’s key industries, innovators, leaders, entrepreneurs and thriving business communities – all in one place.

LIVE | WORK | LEAD | LEARN

In 2017, WisconsinBiz gets a refresh, with a simpler, more streamlined presentation that’s more focused to tell the stories we’re all talking about now.

Showcase your business to Wisconsin’s business and professional elite by participating in the only annual statewide resource guide fostering economic development in Wisconsin.

For advertising and sponsorship opportunities contact Media Sales at 414.336.7112 or advertise@biztimes.com

2017 EDITION

inside

February 6 - 19, 2017 HIGHLIGHT S Now 4 InSinkErator plans to build new HQ in Mount Pleasant.

The Good Life

7

A rug-hooking empty nester.

News 10 Wipfli has appetite for strategic growth.

News 11 Event bookings picking up at Milwaukee Theatre.

Real Estate Spotlight

14

Catalytic Bronzeville project focuses on multiple components.

20

S TR ATE GIE S Family Business David Borst 31 Sales Phil Hauck 32 Leadership Daniel Schroeder 33

COV E R S T ORY

Crack the code Could best practices from other states boost Milwaukee’s startup scene?

ON THE COVER: Matt Cordio, founder of Startup Milwaukee and Skills Pipeline, and Joe Kirgues, co-founder of gener8tor.

— photo by Erich Schroeder Photography

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

COR P OR ATE E V E NT PL A NNING Coverage includes a look at the rise of unique event venues, a discussion on business etiquette and social media strategies for corporate events.

26

Biz Notes 34 Personnel File 35 BizTimes Around Town 37 Commentary 38 The Last Word 39

V I S I T B I Z T I M E S . C O M F O R A D D I T I O N A L S T O R I E S , D A I LY U P D AT E S & E - N E W S L E T T E R S Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . 414-336-7120 Advertising . . . . . . . . . 414-336-7112 Subscriptions . . . . . . . 414-277-8181 Reprints . . . . . . . . . . . . 414-277-8181

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).

Subscription Customer Service: BizTimes Milwaukee, 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120, USA, Phone (414) 277-8181, Fax (414) 277-8191, circulation@biztimes.com, www.biztimes.com

BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 22, Number 23, February 6 - 19, 2017. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except two consecutive weeks in December (the second and third 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 2017 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.

Health Care & Wellness

Higher Education & Research Advertise in these upcoming special reports and get your message in front of area business executives.

March 6, 2017 Space Reservation: February 15, 2017

Contact Linda Crawford today! p: 414.336.7112 e: advertise@biztimes.com

March 20, 2017 Space Reservation: March 1, 2017

leading edge NOW

InSinkErator plans to build new HQ in Mount Pleasant

R

acine-based InSinkErator plans to move its headquarters to a new $24 million, 85,000-square-foot facility in the Village of Mount Pleasant.

InSinkErator, a business of St. Louisbased Emerson, will move 170 of its engineers and professional staff currently working at the company’s Racine facility to the Mount Pleasant building. The company then will reconfigure the Racine facility to add production capacity.

Racine County officials said InSinkErator considered several locations in southeastern Wisconsin and a possible relocation to St. Louis before deciding on Mount Pleasant.

An InSinkErator representative declined to comment further on the project and stressed the company had only submitted plans to the county and village.

The Racine County board of supervisors approved a $4.65 million loan to support the project. The six-year loan has a 0 percent interest rate and requires a minimum investment of $18 million and the retention of 170 jobs during the loan period. It is completely forgivable if the company meets annual reporting requirements, according to Laura Million,

business development manager at Racine County Economic Development Corp.

The Mount Pleasant village board and community development authority also will review a $600,000 tax increment financing grant for the project.

The project falls within tax incremental district No. 1, which was created in 2006.

The village funding is contingent on the company making a $24 million investment and obtaining an occupancy permit, Million said The new headquarters will be located at the southwest corner of Highway 20 and International Drive, just north of Seda North America.

“We are pleased to invest in the community and support InSinkErator’s proposal to locate its headquarters in Racine County,” said Racine County executive Jonathan Delagrave. “Retaining and growing our existing Racine County companies, like InSinkErator, is imperative to fostering a healthy and growing local economy for today, as well as for future generations.”

Construction on the new facility could begin as soon as the spring, depending on land acquisition and the ap-

proval of local incentives.

InSinkErator announced in August it would begin moving some manufacturing out of the Racine facility to free up production space. The company planned to shift machining and die casting to its suppliers while continuing assembly and some stamping in Racine.

Work also was set to move to other Emerson production facilities over the course of three years, although a company spokesman declined to say where.

Emerson has roughly 65 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and another 140 around the world.

In 2014, InSinkErator leased a 160,000-square-foot building in Kenosha to add production and also planned to invest $43.7 million in new equipment and renovations to the Racine facility at 4700 21st St. The $65 million project was to be supported by $15.5 million in Enterprise Zone tax credits from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

The latest report from WEDC shows the company had invested $53.17 million, creating 165 jobs and retaining 897. WEDC spokesman Mark Maley said the agency was pleased the compa-

An InSinkErator garbage disposal.

ny opted to stay in Racine County after looking elsewhere.

“We have had discussions with InSinkErator regarding how the new facility could affect the company’s existing Enterprise Zone contract with WEDC. Since this matter is pending, however, we’re unable to comment further on this award,” Maley said in an email.

——Arthur Thomas

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

Incorporating user-generated content into your social strategy User-generated content is any form of content that is created by unpaid contributors and made available via social media. UGC can include photos, videos, blogs, posts, tweets, testimonials or other media. Adding UGC to your social media strategy is an effective tactic for businesses because it shows your product or service in use, provides authentic and natural testimonials, and involves your fans.

Keep it real UGC is one of the best ways to show real people using your product or service, especially if you don’t have the budget for a photo or video shoot. Asking your social media fans to tag your company in their social media posts or creating a unique hashtag campaign to gather UGC are easy and effective ways to incorporate this type of content into your strategy. Retweet a compelling tweet about your brand, or use Repost App to share a fan’s 4

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

n

Instagram picture of your product.

Authenticity is key Today’s consumers want to engage with brands and companies they find authentic.

That means creating transparent campaigns with real people and genuine content and ideals. It’s about building trust and relatability, rather than passive advertising. People crave stories that are original and compelling and if they don’t find that in your brand, they’ll go elsewhere. UGC is authentic, reliable and honest – and it just works.

Fan love Consumers love to share content about products and services they’re passionate about; whether it’s to build connections with other fans, share their experiences, or enter a giveaway or contest for the chance to win a prize. Fans also love being featured on the social media pages

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

of brands they follow and are likely to share their feature with their friends, further expanding your reach and engagement.

By adding UGC to your social media strategy, you’ll see growth in engaged followers who may even turn into loyal brand ambassadors.

——Amanda Wambold is a senior social media strategist at Waukeshabased branding agency z2.

leading edge COFF E E B R E A K

POLITIC AL BEAT

State tax collection projections upped by $454.6 million

BY WISPOLITICS.COM

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

“We worked with a local customer and city officials to find a way to leverage tax assessment financing for new construction projects in a significant way. This was implemented here in Milwaukee in one of the notable new buildings going up right now, and is now being replicated on a national basis. It’s proven to be pretty innovative and compelling.”

What’s new at your company?

“We are a new company and have quickly grown into 15 markets across the country. We have a lot of new team members that create quite a vibrant work environment. Fundamental to our strategy is the ability to scale across multiple markets – that’s the challenge and the opportunity.”

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

“We are looking to be in 25 markets by the end of the year. Commercial PACE (property assessed clean energy) financing is being legislated in more and more states and we try to stay in front of that and establish a local presence in all these markets. When the dust settles, we are looking to build a competitive advantage by having a local presence on a national basis.”

What’s the hottest trend in your industry?

“The hottest trend in our industry is to leverage PACE financing for homes in California – it’s a multi-billion (dollar) market overnight to pay for things like new windows, HVAC and solar. There is a lot of emphasis on doing this everywhere and it creates

confusion in the marketplace. Our business is focused on commercial projects, which is vastly different in terms of underwriting and further, we obtain permission from senior lenders as part of the process (not the case for the residential market). One of our main challenges is to make sure the banking and finance community understand the distinctions between commercial and residential property assessment funding of building improvements. We are grateful that in Wisconsin, there is only commercial PACE so that confusion does not exist here.”

What was the best advice you ever received?

“Recently, I got some great advice from a priest that I think is worth sharing. It goes counter to most business advice, but an important message in terms of focusing on what's important – and that, for me, is my family. ‘Have the serenity to live in the moment…not the past and not the future.’ - Father Dan Leary.”

What’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you in your career?

“In the dotcom era, I was giving a very important presentation to a lot of important people in a very intimidating environment.

Visualize 15 people in dark suits all on the other side of a formal conference table, and only me on my side. What did it do? I accidentally spilled coffee on myself at the first moment in the meeting – in a bad way. It was ugly, and so were the looks coming from across the table.”

Beau Engman President PACE Equity LLC 731 N. Jackson St., Suite 420, Milwaukee www.pace-equity.com Industry: Commercial real estate finance Employees: 20 Family: Wife, Kathy Engman; Children, Katherine, Audrey and Clara. w w w.biztimes.com

What do you like to do in your free time?

“We enjoy many outdoor activities – as much as we can do, when we can. This includes hiking, camping, boating and tennis.” n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

The Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau gave the budget a boost, both in how much money the Capitol will have to play with in 2017-’19 and the state’s ending balance for 2015-’17.

In November, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration had projected nearly $1.4 billion in revenue growth for 2017-’19.

But the LFB recently upped by $454.6 million the state’s expected tax haul through mid2019. That includes $63.4 million more in the current budget, which runs through June 30.

LFB also is now projecting a gross balance on June 30 of $427.2 million, $322.4 million more than the Walker administration projected in November.

LFB chalked that up to the expected bump in tax collections, $33 million more than anticipated in departmental revenues and a $226 million drop in net appropriations.

In November, the Walker administration reported spending requests from state agencies outstripped revenue projections by $693 million. The higher ending balance for 2015-’17 and the increase in revenue projections would more than wipe that out even before the governor and lawmakers begin paring agency requests.

Walker said in a news release the numbers indicate the state economy “is in the best shape it’s been in 15 years.”

“These growing revenue numbers are a sign that what we’re doing in Wisconsin is working,” he said. “While this is certainly good news, our budget priorities will remain the same. We will increase funding to public education at all levels, continue tax relief and reward work.”

Wispolitics.com is a media partner of BizTimes Milwaukee.

BY TH E NU MBERS

$23.5

Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. has been ordered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to pay $23.5 million to Wells Fargo Advisors LLC for “raiding” brokers from Wells Fargo’s Wichita, Kansas office and hiring them on at Baird.

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

million

5

leading edge ON TH E C ALEN D AR

MA DE I N M I LWA U K E E

1 2 3 4

FEB

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Chinese New Year Celebration

Warehouse-Lighting.com 2805 S. 160th St., New Berlin Industry: Lighting Employees: 16 www.warehouse-lighting.com

Warehouse-Lighting specializes in adding value to light fixtures by equipping them with sensors and other smart technology.

Warehouse-Lighting.com senses a glowing business opportunity Warehouse-Lighting.com has grown over the past dozen years from a two-person operation in owner James Abraham’s basement to a 22,000-square-foot facility in New Berlin with a staff of 16.

As the name suggests, the company manufactures and distributes lights and fixtures for industrial, commercial and residential settings.

When Abraham started, he was working just as a distributor. Over time, he be-

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

gan adding some of his own products under the WareLight brand. Today, the company has started engaging in some light value-added manufacturing, wiring sensors into fixtures.

The latest evolution is one Abraham believes will help Warehouse-Lighting.com generate a lot more business while also saving companies money.

“The future, it’s all going to be sensors,” he said.

The company already uses photo, motion and light sensors to make sure lights are functioning optimally when a room is in use and aren’t wasting energy when it’s not.

“Think of how many people leave your office and they leave the lights on,” Abraham said.

The company has a direct sales model that has it selling direct to contractors or businesses. While eliminating a middle-man helps keep costs down, Abraham said the

6

challenge is developing a “critical mass” of awareness about the company to fuel more sales.

Using building plans and layouts, Warehouse-Lighting works with customers over the phone to analyze a building’s space and energy use. Abraham said a lot of the upgrades to a lighting system are done with one-to-one replacements because that’s where rebates are available.

“A lot of business is based on what those rebates are giving back,” he said, noting that adding sensors usually increases the available rebates.

Warehouse-Lighting sends its products throughout the country and has provided materials for projects at Hilton Garden Inns, L’Oreal, NASA, Intel and Boeing.

“It goes into a little bit of everything,” Abraham said.

Distribution has been stronger on the East and West Coasts and in the South than it has been in the Midwest.

“Some of it could be the rebates and some of it could just be people being more Internet-savvy on picking up products in those areas. You know, (in the) Midwest we are kind of stuck in our ways.”

Steve Phillips, Warehouse-Lighting business development manager, said the potential cost savings are a big driver for businesses.

“A lot of companies that we deal with, especially the ones you can tell are really good at what they do, that’s one of the first things they get after,” he said.

Abraham said about 70 percent of the company’s business comes from retrofitting, updating and replacing existing lights and fixtures.

The sensors already are capable of saving money on energy costs, but Abraham said he sees them becoming even more integrated into a building in the future. That means the lighting system may communicate with the heating system, inside lights could coordinate with outdoor lights or lighting may focus on a path of egress.

Abraham doesn’t see it as a challenge for the business to continue to grow into these more advanced spaces.

“It’s just trying to figure out how they all integrate together,” he said.

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

n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce will host a 2017 Chinese New Year Celebration on Thursday, Feb. 16, from 4:45 to 7:30 p.m. at The Kimpton Journeyman Hotel, 310 E. Chicago St. in Milwaukee. The MMAC’s World Trade Association and its China Business Council will host the event, which will include traditional Chinese entertainment, as well as information about China’s current and future trade relationship with Milwaukee and the role played by Chinese investment and trade in Milwaukee’s economic growth. The honorable Hong Lei, consul general of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago, will discuss the impact of China on U.S. businesses. Cost is $35 for WTA members, $55 for non-members and $15 for students. For more information or to register, visit web.mmac.org/events.

BOOK REVIEW

‘Spark’ Many people believe leaders are the rare few at the upper echelons of a business or other enterprise.

In their new book, “Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success,” authors and military veterans Angie Morgan, Courtney Lynch and Sean Lynch make the argument that anyone can become a leader, regardless of his or her place on the organizational chart, by following seven key behaviors.

When sparks are ignited, actions can shape the future and those people, or “sparks,” become the doers, thinkers, innovators and key influencers who are catalysts for personal and organizational change.

Sparks aren’t defined by their titles; they are defined by their actions, commitment and will, according to the book’s authors.

“Spark” provides readers with encouragement and motivation to become leaders while giving people a blueprint to follow to become a catalyst for change, including identifying and developing “sparks.”

“Spark” is available at www.800ceoread.com for $21.60.

w w w.biztimes.com

leading edge NON P RO F IT N E W S

THE GOOD LIFE

Cream City Foundation chief resigns

A rug-hooking empty nester

Cream City Foundation president and chief executive officer Peter Holbrook has resigned to become the provost of Tiffin University in Ohio.

The philanthropic Cream City Foundation, formed in 1982, supports efforts to improve the quality Holbrook of life for LGBTQ people in southeastern Wisconsin.

Holbrook has led the organization since 2015. Over the past two years, CCF has awarded nearly $230,000 to 45 nonprofit organizations. The group also established a LGBTQ scholarship program that awarded $43,500 to 31 students in its first year.

“It has been my privilege to steward and advance the mission and vision of Cream City Foundation for the past two years,” Holbrook said. “Building a strong board of directors was an essential part of our strategic plan and it uniquely positions the foundation for a successful leadership transition.”

While leading the Cream City Foundation, Holbrook also helped establish a partnership with Marquette University’s Center for Gender and Sexualities Studies.

Board chair Angelique Harris will lead the search for a new president and CEO to replace Holbrook.

In the months since her nest emptied as her youngest child left home for college this fall, Mary Roberts, president of the Wauwatosa-based public relations firm Buzz Monkeys Inc., has been searching for a new hobby to occupy her hours outside the office.

After trying out a few things here and there – she started running and completed her first 10K in September, but gave it up when the weather got colder – she settled on an unusual hobby she had encountered once before: rug hooking.

“I have a good friend of my mother’s who, for my wedding 22 years ago, was into wool rug hooking and made my husband and I this beautiful wool rug for our house as our wedding gift,” Roberts said. “I thought, ‘Wow, is that a cool hobby.’”

Rug hooking is a method of making rugs by using a hook with a wooden handle to pull loops of wool or fabric through a firm, woven base material made of burlap or linen.

Now that she finally has some spare time on her hands after work, Roberts decided to join the Cream City Rug Hooking Guild and give it a shot.

“I love the idea of artistically being able to create my own patterns and concepts,” she said. “There really are a wide variety of things that you can do. I love the creativity and the artistry of it, and the color and the

——Ben Stanley

After a week of hooking wool through the rug base, Roberts’ rug design takes shape. fabrics. I was never much of a painter, but this allows me to have some creative expression. It’s very soothing and very meditative.”

Roberts said she’s currently working on a two-foot by three-foot piece as a birthday gift for her sister.

“If I happen to screw up, I can always get her a gift card,” she said, and laughed. “But so far, I’m happy with how it has turned out.”

——Ben Stanley

Bold Leaders.

Bright Ideas.

Apply Today.

It is time to nominate for the

13th annual Bravo!/I.Q. awards!

Ideal Bravo! Entrepreneur nominees are individuals who demonstrate the best traits of entrepreneurship, including willingness to take risk, drive, perseverance, and more! Ideal I.Q. (innovation quotient) nominees are companies who develop innovative products or services, or those with notably unique and innovative processes, operational structures and/or market strategies.

To submit your nomination visit www.biztimes.com/bravo Past Bravo! lifetime achievement award winners have included: George and Julie Mosher, Gary Grunau, Michael Cudahy, Sheldon Lubar, Fritz and Debra Usinger, Stephen Marcus, George Dalton, Robert Kern, Joseph Zibler & Harry Quadracci Past IQ award winners have included: Agro-Biosciences Inc., Astronautics Corp. of America, Brew City Promotions Inc., Briggs & Stratton Corp., Connected Technology Solutions, Fiserv Inc., Millennium Forms LLC, PKWARE, Seiva Technologies, Wellntel Inc. Presented By:

Sponsored By:

leading edge IN T HE NE I GH B OR H OOD

BR EA K IN G GROUN D

Props Unlimited Events LLC »» Neighborhood: Miller Valley »» Address: 944 N. 45th St., Milwaukee »» Founded: 1987 »» Owner: Rachel Allen Larrivee »» Employees: 3 »» Market: Event props for everything from high school proms to nonprofit galas »» Number of props: More than 2,000 What is your most popular prop?

“Our most popular theme is Hollywood.

What goes along with that is red carpeting and stanchions. Companies that are opening a business, they want to give their customers the red carpet treatment.”

Do you have standing annual reservations?

“We do the Usinger’s holiday windows. My Amazon history is very interesting. I buy a lot of 2T clothes because that’s what size the elves wear. We have 12 Santa chairs, which have lots of repeat customers.”

What are your goals for the business?

“One thing that threw me off is I’ve had two people call me in the past two months who wanted to do ’90s parties. So trying to keep up with what people want and then being able to execute.”

8

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

n

Masonic Center hotel Ascendant Holdings LLC is planning to turn the Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center building in downtown Milwaukee into a 220-room hotel. The hotel rooms would be located in a 14-story tower above the existing threestory, 80,000-square-foot building at 790 N. Van Buren St. The developer is seeking approval for the project from the City of Milwaukee.

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

——Corrinne Hess

n

w w w.biztimes.com

leading edge News

Magazine

Events

The Bubbler

BizInsights

BIZT I ME S ARO UND T O W N

Special Pubs

Subscribe

Advertise

Multimedia

BES T OF THE BIZ BLOG

About

Submit

ON LIN E POLL

Re: State investment in UWM “We have learned what a great university can do for prosperity as we watch the University of WisconsinMadison lead its south central region to high levels of prosperity. For my money, I would make the state’s biggest bet on lifting the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to the status of a world-class urban university.”

- John Torinus, Serigraph Inc.

Re: The state of Wisconsin “We went from a focus on ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ to talking about ‘workforce, workforce, workforce.’

This is my top priority for 2017 and beyond.”

- Gov. Scott Walker

Re: Governor’s Business Plan Contest “Wisconsin is sometimes dinged for its lack of business startups, and the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest is among resources committed to producing more.”

RE/MAX Realty 100 of Hales Corners recently hosted its 18th Annual Children’s Miracle Network Auction.

- Tom Still, Wisconsin Technology Council

Airlines should add direct flights from Mitchell International to what city?

Miami: 37% Nashville: 31% San Antonio: 11%

5% Other: 16%

Indianapolis:

2017 GIVING GUIDE

FEATURED NONPROFIT

Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin (414) 266-6100 chw.org/giving

PHONE: WEB:

Kids deserve the best. At Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, our vision is to make Wisconsin’s children the healthiest in the country. Through excellence in care, advocacy, research and education, we are striving every day to fulfill this vision.

To learn more, visit biztimes.com/giving PRODUCED BY

Expand your perspectives.

Optimize your decisions.

Exchange ideas with other CEOs and business leaders.

See renowned speaker and author Patrick Lencioni address the untapped advantage of organizational health. He’ll dive into the 4 steps to achieving long-term success with a special focus on executive team cohesion and alignment.

Friday, April 28, 2017 7:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Hyatt Regency Milwaukee 333 W. Kilbourn Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53203

Limited Seating! Register now at tecmidwest.com/leadership

w w w.biztimes.com

n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

9

biz news Wipfli has appetite for strategic growth Accounting firm gobbling up smaller companies in key markets

BY MOLLY DILL, staff writer

ccounting and business consulting firm Wipfli LLP has been snapping up smaller accounting firms at a breakneck pace over the past few years, and has no plans to slow down anytime soon.

The company has recently been focused on the Chicago market, and could soon even have a larger workforce in Chicago than at its corporate headquarters office in Wauwatosa.

Like many firms in the accounting world, Wipfli is growing strategically in order to expand the business services it can offer clients, and also to get closer to existing and potential customers.

“There is quite a bit of accounting (firm) consolidation going on, particularly during the past few years. It’s maybe picked up in the last three to five years,” said Dennis Tomorsky, CPA, J.D., CGMA, president and chief executive officer of the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs. “In a lot of cases, I think it’s being driven by CPAs who are approaching retirement age and haven’t really figured out an exit strategy.”

Not only does Wipfli look over the books, but it also consults on topics like IT and human resources; guides companies through mergers and acquisitions; handles employee benefits; performs risk advisory; helps companies go public; and offers a myriad of related services. Those value-added services have been driving its growth, said Rick Dreher, managing partner of Wipfli.

Many accounting firms are moving in the Dreher direction of using the data they already gather to give businesses additional insight about strategies such as increasing profit margins, reducing costs or lowering prices, Tomorsky said.

Money doesn’t necessarily change hands in accounting firm transactions, but the companies are being absorbed into the larger firm, with the promise of a benefit upon employees’ retirement. Wipfli made five acquisitions in 2016 alone, bringing in about $40 million in acquisitive revenue, and it has a second 2017 ac10

MOLLY DILL

A

The Wipfli headquarters is located in this building in Wauwatosa.

quisition wrapping up in the next month or so, with total 2017 acquisitive revenue expected to exceed last year, Dreher said.

“We’re looking for partners that choose to practice with us in the way we practice,” he said.

When Dreher became managing partner 11 years ago, Wipfli had 16 offices in Wisconsin and two in the Twin Cities.

Now, it has more than 1,800 employees at 43 offices in the U.S. and two in India. It is ranked among the top 20 accounting and business consulting firms in the country.

Last month, Wipfli acquired CPA and advisory firm BIK & Co. LLP, based in Chicago suburb Palatine, the third Chicago market acquisition it has made in the past 13 months.

Wipfli now has eight Chicago area offices: downtown; Northbrook; Buffalo Grove; Burr Ridge; Palatine; Vernon Hills; Tinley Park; and Westchester. The plan is to acquire another downtown Chicago firm and then consolidate some offices in the market to serve clients from one location in each cardinal direction, Dreher said.

“Over time, there will be a combining of offices and we are going to work out of multiple locations—we call it our diamond strategy for Chicago,” he said.

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

n

“Chicago is a strategic hub for us. Wipfli’s plan of the future is really around a huband-spoke model.”

While the spokes will house traditional CPA firm services, such as bookkeeping and tax advisory, the hubs will be where consulting associates are located, Dreher said.

“Wipfli, as a firm, earns a little over one-third of our revenue from this consulting space,” he said. “A hub city for us needs to be an airport city.”

Milwaukee, which has fewer airline routes, doesn’t necessarily have to be a hub city, and Chicago will house a significant portion of the company’s Midwest consultants, Dreher said. Wipfli already has a decentralized management structure, with two of its eight management team members in Green Bay, two in Eau Claire, one in Milwaukee, one in Chicago, one in Appleton and one in the Twin Cities.

“Where we’re ‘headquartered’ really doesn’t matter,” Dreher said. “Milwaukee’s headquarters for now and we don’t anticipate changing that anytime soon.

But someday, could Chicago make sense?

Sure, but it’s certainly not required the way we manage our firm.”

The Midwest is a stronghold for Wip-

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

fli. The Wauwatosa office has the most employees, at about 170. The Twin Cities has two offices totaling about 170, Green Bay’s office has 135, Wausau has 100 and Eau Claire has 120, Dreher said. Wipfli now has about 200 employees among its eight Chicago offices.

But the company, which has about $300 million in annual revenue, also is expanding its presence across its nine-state footprint, with seven offices in Montana alone. It expects to grow its top line revenue 15 to 25 percent per year for the forseeable future.

Wipfli’s model is built on personalized service, so it is doubling down on in-person availability with brick-andmortar in its key markets. While it’s more costly to have so many offices, it’s a good long-term client satisfaction strategy, he said. The company serves a total of 45,000 businesses and individuals nationwide.

“If you were going to come to the Midwest new, you wouldn’t replicate what we have today. We just have too many offices on top of each other,” Dreher said. “We just think that is the best way to service our clients and develop a longstanding relationship. We will operate out of more offices than most of our competitors.” n

PHOTOS COURTESY WISCONSIN CENTER DISTRICT

biz news

The Milwaukee Theatre.

Event bookings picking up at Milwaukee Theatre

BY CORRINNE HESS, staff writer

W

ith usage up 49 percent last year at the Milwaukee Theatre, Wisconsin Center District officials are hoping the theater will shed its longtime reputation of being one of the city’s most underperforming venues.

By teaming up with a Los Angelesbased promoter and hosting a wider variety of events at the theater, the district increased the number of contracted events from 39 in 2015 to 56 in 2016 and the number of event days from 51 to 76 year-over-year.

And while there is still room for improvement, district officials believe the theater is finally on the right path.

“Our management team has done an outstanding job recognizing our venues needed better utilization and more cre-

ative ways to use these venues,” said Scott Neitzel, Wisconsin secretary of administration and chairman of the Wisconsin Center District board. “We want to continue to improve that. We’re not there yet, but we are going in the right direction.”

With more than 4,000 seats, the 108-year-old Milwaukee Theatre, 500 W. Kilbourn Ave., is one of the state’s largest and most ornate theaters.

Since its opening in 1909 as the Milwaukee Auditorium, the building has welcomed prominent figures including President William Howard Taft, President Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jerry Seinfeld and David Bowie.

In 2001, the Wisconsin Center District made a $41.9 million investment to transform the auditorium into a modern

Milwaukee Theatre bookings 2014

2015

2016

Event days

80

51

76

Contracted events

37

39

56

w w w.biztimes.com

n

assembly, concert and theatrical venue.

Following a two-year construction project, the building reopened in November of 2003 as the Milwaukee Theatre with 4,087 seats.

But since then, the theater’s performance has been questioned. Critics have complained that so much public money was spent on a venue that hosted few events. Some even called for the building to be demolished.

Russ Staerkel, Wisconsin Center District president and chief executive officer, said one of the theater’s biggest problems has been that when it was renovated, the intent was for the third phase of the convention center to be completed. If that had happened, convention business would have been tied in to the theater, Staerkel said.

“The plan was to host opening night events (at the theater) and incorporate part of the convention at the theater,” Staerkel said. “The completion of phase three has not been done. People say it’s

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

underutilized. Well, yes, I’m never going to argue that fact. I don’t know how many people would try to cross two four-lane thoroughfares of traffic in subzero weather to use the theater.”

Between $24 million and $25 million still is owed on the Milwaukee Theatre for the 2003 renovation project, which will be paid off in approximately 2032, Staerkel said.

The current convention center, the Wisconsin Center, which was built in 1998, is 266,000 square feet, with about 189,000 square feet of exhibit space. A second phase of the convention center opened in 2000, and a third phase was planned to the north but never was completed.

The Wisconsin Center District owns and operates the convention center, the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and the Milwaukee Theatre. When the new Milwaukee Bucks arena opens in 2018, the WCD also will assume responsibility for that venue.

The district and many city stakeholders are again pushing for the third phase of the convention center to be completed and are currently looking at possible funding sources for the $225 million to $240 million project.

In the meantime, the district will continue to attempt to attract more people to the Milwaukee Theatre. In early 2015, the district partnered with California-based Venue Coalition, a “booking advocate,” that works with different venues across the country to drive events.

Jeff Apregan, president of Apregan Entertainment Group/Venue Coalition, believes the Milwaukee Theatre will continue to increase its event bookings.

“There is competition in every market and Milwaukee is no exception,” Apregan said. “There are many venues, plus Summerfest and the other festivals, that affects the decisions artists make for their touring plans.”

Apregan said that the Milwaukee Theatre is a fantastic venue and while 4,000 seats is not perfect for every show, the theater’s ability to be scalable and convert to 2,500 seats makes it great for nearly every artist.

“I’m excited about the venue,” he said.

“The management team is very aggressive and they want to see things happen.

What’s important is getting people in that building and giving them a good experience so they can come back. We’re having a lot of positive experiences and that 11

The Milwaukee Theatre rotunda.

speaks volumes in getting people thinking about Milwaukee.”

The theater has found great success

focusing on urban and Christian shows.

Stand-up comedians Katt Williams and Chris Rock are each scheduled to perform

at the theater in the next few weeks. On April 1, the Men of Christ 2017 Men’s Conference will be held there. The venue also will host Patti Smith and Her Band on March 9, which is likely to sell out.

Other non-traditional events are being held at the theater, including wrestling, dance competitions and graduations. In May, there are five graduation ceremonies scheduled.

Staerkel said the relationship with Venue Coalition and another organization, NiteLite Promotions in Palatine, Illinois, have brought the Milwaukee Theatre a number of events.

“Now we are back on the map,” Staerkel said. “We’ve thrown different events on the calendar, gotten busier and people know we are part of the landscape.”

Staerkel and his team also have reached out to Paul Mathews, president and CEO of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts and Peter Jest, owner of Shank Hall and promotion company Alternative Concert Group, so when a show doesn’t fit at the theater, they can make it

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2017 POTAWATOMI HOTEL & CASINO PRESENTED BY:

• • • • • •

work elsewhere and vice versa.

Jest said the Milwaukee Theatre is a difficult venue because it is so large. By comparison, the Riverside Theater and Marcus Center each have about 2,400 seats and the Pabst Theater has about 1,400 seats.

“It’s hard to find acts that can draw more than 2,500 people,” Jest said. “That’s why there are zero stadium shows and about 11 shows at the Marcus Amphitheater. At the time, (the Milwaukee Theatre renovation) didn’t make much sense. But it is a very nice theater. It’s set up for a good presentation and it is a good thing for the future of Milwaukee.”

Staerkel is hoping all of the venues in the city succeed because it’s good for the community.

“In Milwaukee, there are a lot of places for people to spend their entertainment dollar,” Staerkel said. “Four or five years ago, the economy wasn’t so great.

Now, the economy is a little bit better and that all ties in. We have a new vision and we’re bringing in what people want to see in Milwaukee.” n

Build a new customer base Strengthen your market position Promote your expertise Enhance your company’s profile Meet qualified decision makers Get the edge on your competition

RESERVE YOUR BOOTH TODAY! | BIZTIMES.COM/BIZEXPO

innovations Verlo bounces beyond mattresses

M

ilwaukee-based Verlo is no longer just a mattress company, but also is focused on developing new products and services that help people sleep better.

“Verlo’s very committed now to not just selling mattresses – that will always be a core part of our business – but also being innovators in the category of sleep; that’s where we see the future of the business going,” said Kathy Thornton-Bias, Verlo president and chief operating officer.

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

industry has seen a resurgence, partially driven by consumers, “but also kind of changing how we’ve historically done business.”

“There’s been kind of an evolution happening in what was typically considered a very commodity-based product and now mattresses, the product, and sleep, the idea, are actually very popular, not just with consumers but with investors,” she said.

A new retail concept, a revamped ecommerce platform, a focus on sleep wellness and shipping mattresses in boxes are all examples of how the Thornton-Bias company is shifting its focus. But perhaps no example suggests Verlo is going beyond its role as traditional mattress retailer more than the introduction of what the company describes as the world’s smartest alarm clock.

The device, called SmartWake, is a small disc about the size of a hand that is placed under a mattress and connected to a power source and to a smartphone.

It monitors things like movement, respiratory rate and heart rate. A user programs the timeframe during which he or she would like to wake up and the device sets off the alarm when the data suggests

Verlo Mattress Milwaukee Innovation: SmartWake alarm clock www.verlo.com

the user is sleeping the lightest.

“Sleep is a big deal and waking up at the right time can really help propel your day,” said Scott Baitinger, Verlo chief marketing officer.

SmartWake was developed with Israel-based monitor maker EarlySense. Verlo designed the user experience and interface on the SmartWake app, while EarlySense provided the hardware and the back-end technology.

Verlo initially began its search for a sleep monitoring partner at the International Sleep Products Association trade show.

“A lot of the stuff when we started a year-and-a-half ago on this path was really early stage development,” Baitinger said.

EarlySense’s technology has primarily been used in hospitals and health care facilities, and the company was just venturing into consumer products when Verlo connected with it. Baitinger said that background gave the company confidence in the partnership.

“While our device is not FDA cleared, because it’s not a medical device, it was created by someone who has done that a lot, which is very valuable, because I think at the core, you need the confidence that the device is collecting the right Baitinger data,” he said.

It can be used by multiple people in the same bed, although each person needs his or her own sensor, and also sorts through animals sharing the bed.

“It basically takes out all the bad data and just leaves you with a pure stream of data,” Baitinger said.

The device sells for $199, which Baitinger said is less expensive than similar technology from other manufacturers.

“I think there is an opportunity because, ultimately, if this can make you feel better, just waking up smarter and actually being confident in the data that’s waking w w w.biztimes.com

n

Verlo designed the user experience for its SmartWake app and partnered with Israelbased EarlySense for a sensor that goes under the user’s mattress.

you up, you see it pretty quickly,” he said.

In addition to developing a sleep monitor and alarm clock, Verlo also is expanding into shipping mattresses in boxes. The Verlo-To-Go program compresses the mattress, flipping and rolling it to a size at which it can be shipped across the country for $45 instead of the $300 Metz it would typically cost, said Tom Metz, vice president of product development at Verlo.

“It’s just incredibly economical to ship mattresses in boxes,” he said.

Many other mattress makers have launched similar offerings, partially in response to startups like Casper. But Metz said the technology to compress mattresses has been around for roughly a decade.

It’s been within the past few years that the flipping and rolling has been added.

“They’re a significant percentage of the industry,” he said of box-shipped mattresses. “They’ve captured the attention

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

of the industry, for sure. No one believes that they’ll ever take over, because people always want to try before you buy, always, so brick-and-mortar stores like this are never going away.”

Verlo’s model comes with a zipper and the ability to adjust and exchange foam pieces inside the mattress, giving the user some of the customizability on which the company prides its factory stores. Metz said the company has started to push for more innovations in the past few years.

“We’ve really ramped that up in the last three years, since (Marcus Investments) has taken over the company. We’re really pushing the envelope a lot more and really incorporating some of the ideas that we’ve been thinking about,” Metz said.

For now, the Verlo-To-Go concept is limited to foam mattresses, but Metz said it is possible to shrink spring models down as well and the company hopes to launch that later this year. n 13

real estate

A rendering of The Griot.

Catalytic Bronzeville project focuses on multiple components

G

arfield Avenue Elementary School in Milwaukee closed 11 years ago.

But in certain rooms, it appears it could have been filled with children yesterday.

Walking the hallways of beat-up wooden floors that line the 130-year-old structure in the city’s Bronzeville district, visitors notice the building still smells like a school.

A welcome sign on a second-floor bulletin board encourages adults to prepare children for today and CORRINNE HESS P: (414) 336-7116 E: corri.hess@biztimes.com Twitter: @CorriHess

tomorrow. The office still has newspaper clippings on a board and papers in the filing cabinets.

Inside the classrooms, student quizzes hang on walls and textbooks are piled on 14

desks. The library is filled with children’s books – Dr. Seuss was an obvious favorite.

But not all parts of the school are intact.

Paint is peeling from around most of the windows and water fountains have been ripped from the foundation and shattered.

Maures Development Group LLC, led

by Melissa Goins, has eyed the property since 2014. In January, redevelopment of the Garfield Avenue Elementary building finally began with a two-phase, $16.6 million project Goins believes will be catalytic for the neighborhood.

The building, located at 2215 N. Fourth St., is situated among the Bronzville cultural district along North Avenue, the stable residential neighborhood of Halyard Park and the trendy Brewers Hill neighborhood, and is just one mile north of the site of the new Milwaukee Bucks arena and all of the development that is planned to accompany the project.

“This is the time and this is the place,” B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

n

Goins said.

Goins was selected in 2015 by the City of Milwaukee to purchase the Garfield School property with a partner, St. Paul, Minnesota-based affordable housing developer CommonBond Communities Inc. She parted ways with CommonBond in late 2015 and instead contacted Josh Jeffers, a fellow developer and president of Milwaukee-based J. Jeffers & Co., with whom she had hit it off a few years ago.

“She was looking for someone with historic glutton for punishment tendencies and immediately, Jeffers came to mind,” he joked. “Within the course of a 45-minute conversation on the project, I was immediately on board. I thought this building had really good bones and was a candidate for conversion. You can’t save every historic building, but I knew this had a lot going for it.”

Jeffers has specialized in converting historic buildings, including the Mackie

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

Building, 225 E. Michigan St., from offices into apartments and restored the Mitchell Building, 207 E. Michigan St. He was the perfect addition to the project, adding the historic restoration element Goins did not have on her resume, she said.

Goins previously partnered with Northbrook, Illinois-based Brinshore Development LLC to build two affordable apartment projects in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood – the 36-unit Franklin Square and the 24-unit Heart and Hope Place.

Franklin Square was phase two of Teutonia Gardens, a 24-unit affordable apartment development at 2709 N. Teutonia Ave. Now, with “Milwaukee talent collided,” as Goins and Jeffers say, the two could move forward on the Garfield school project.

The project includes the conversion of the former three-story school into 30 affordable apartments. The third-floor gym will be kept intact and used as community space.

The first floor of the school will include a joint leasing office that also will be used for the project’s other component, The Griot, which will include the reopening of America’s Black Holocaust Museum on the first floor. The museum has been closed since 2008.

The Griot, a nod to West African storytellers, will include four floors of new construction adjacent to the school, on a site occupied by the former Grant’s Soul Food restaurant at 411 W. North Ave. and the former America’s Black Holocaust Museum at 2235 N. Fourth St., as well as vacant parcels at 2226-34 N. Fifth St. On the upper levels will be 41 apartments. Goins and Jeffers are talking to cafes and other possible tenants for the remaining 2,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor.

The sale of the former school building closed on Jan. 6, and construction began immediately. The project is expected to be completed in October.

Goins credits the City of Milwaukee for helping the project come to fruition by committing to it financially. The project will receive $1.4 million in city funds (including tax incremental financing and grants), plus a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Milwaukee Area Workforce Funding Alliance and the nonprofit Northcott Neighborhood House also have helped finance the project.

“The city has been a key partner in the project, providing financial assistance from multiple resources,” Goins said.

The only financing the developers are waiting on is $250,000 from Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.’s Community Development Investment Grant Program, which will allow them to begin construction on The Griot.

Historic tax credits make it necessary to save the original construction of portions of the school, such as the width of the hallways and large, open stairwells.

This makes the project possible from a financial standpoint but is less efficient, Jeffers said.

For example, the 53,000-square-foot former school building will have about 29,000 square feet of rentable space once renovated.

The end result will be a unique apartment building that still resembles a school, which it operated as from the time it was constructed in 1887 through 2006, Jeffers said.

Over the next 10 months, hauling out

and donating thousands of pounds of classroom materials and turning a building that served as a school for 130 years into housing will be a challenge Goins and Jeffers are not taking for granted.

“The Griot has its own issues with the DNR and building demo, but that is way easier than sending in construction crews and saying, ‘Leave that molding here and you can move this wall but not that one,’” Jeffers said. “Rehab is definitely harder than new construction and adaptive reuse is the farthest end of the spectrum. It’s definitely harder, but it’s rewarding, too.”

Goins has two sons and a 17-monthold daughter. Jeffers has an 8-month-old son. When the two are up in the middle of the night with their babies (and worrying about the project ahead of them) they are often able to calm each other down because of their different expertise.

“This is a first for me. I’ve only done houses, not historic or adaptive reuse,” Goins said. “Both professionally and personally, we fill in the gaps of knowledge and experience. And we really get along,

The former Garfield Avenue Elementary School will be transformed into 30 apartments.

too – we laugh a lot.”

Said Jeffers: “I’ll text her at midnight having a panic attack and think we’re sunk and she’ll have a contact or a solution. This

BOY

S& GIRL

S CL UB

S OF GRE

ATE R

MISSI

AUK

1558 N. Milwa 6th Stree ukee, t WI 532 (414) 12 267-81 00 boysgir lsc

TOTAL EMPL ANNU OYEE S: 750 AL RE VENU YEAR E: $26 ESTAB ,808,4 LISHE 82 D:

1887

Boys SERV & ICE 44 loc Girls Clubs AREA ati of memb ons in the Greater Mil ers and are wa every serves a with mo ukee has day. re more than 5,0 than 43,000 00 kid s

GOAL S Our vis fabric ion is to bu ild by en suring the com child tha the aca munity’s partn t walks thr ers, vol ough demic and social and Boys FUND & Girls unteers, ge our doors. career suc economic RAIS With the nerou and sum cess Clubs ING/ s of of Boys EVEN teens mer progra Greater donors an help of com every & TS d Mil at throu Girls Clubs and tee 44 locati mming to waukee pro committed munity gh of ons. Wit more raise out the yea Greater staff, ns vides receiv buildi fun Mil e aca hin the saf than 43,00 after-sch ng aren’t ds to sup r to engage waukee ho demic 0 childr ool deser programs ety port ou limite sts spe the pu of sup ves a en an d G.I.R.L cial eve future and access port, fre the Clubs, .S in No to our An r programm blic in ou e meals childr d nual MV of un Ca to vem ing. Eve r mission nts mp rol en limite be Wh d possi e models. , character opport itcomb/M r, YP Prom, P Gala in Ma nts includ and Every bilitie unitie ason. e but y, Celeb and Lum child s. s, All for mo rat  Con VOLU re inf events hav berjack Bru ing tributio NTEE ormati e tick  Gra ns ....... nch at et R OP nts ....... on ple ..............

The Clu  Uni .............. ..............

PORT ase vis and sponso ted it our needs bs have a rol rship UNITI  Inve Way .......................................... ..................... we are ong ..44% ES stment e for .............. .............. bsite.  Ser volun vice & Distribution ..................... .........42% teer ros oing, and skilled and ..............

Rental .............. we wit com ter h pro are ...5% Fees ....... . We ....... mit .............. .................... activit jects rangin offer one always lookin ted voluntee 5% GIVIN ..............

-time ies wit .........4% G OP and rec g to expand rs. Our or cre h Club g from Clu PORT ati b EXEC Makin comple ng a one-timyouth. If you beautifica urring opp our UNITI g UTIVE ort tio and inc a financia ES LEAD our Vol te the Volun e opport are intere n to literac unities l gift, ERSH ste un atten y ways luding the untee tee din IP r Coord r Inquiry ity for you d in volun ind Clu teerin r com they ne ividuals can bs in est g a specia For inator g pany, ate pla l event, BOAR at (414) m on our ed to ple wil ns websi ase work help give D OF l cre 267-81 te or Club me are just volunteerin DIRE 11. contac people ate a ripple toward pro g Christo mbers a few of CTOR ducti t pher eff be the come the res ect S S. Abe Barry tomorr in the comve futures. le ource K. Alle You s ow’s lea n munit Bevan y as tod r investme Jack A. K. Bak ders. er Enea James ay’s you nt Peter T. Bar ng ry, III Feig David Vincen A. Bau Edward in mgarte Jerome Preside t Lyles A. Flyn David n nt & CEO M. n L. Bec William Janzer Susan hthold ★ Jeffrey Fitzhug Thoma Ela A. FUND

ING

GIVING GUIDE

Board

20 17

Don’t wait! Shine a spotlight on your favorite nonprofit in the 2018 Giving Guide today!

GI VIN

CES

Thoma s M. Bol ger Elizabe th Bre nner Brian Cadwal lader Tonit Calawa y Tina M. Chang G. Spe ncer Coggs Russell M. Dar row, Jr.

34 G GU ID

E | ww w.

biz tim

WWHHOO’S ’SWWATA CTHCHINING GOOUURR KKIDIDSS AFATFETRE RSCSHCHO OOL?L?

SOUR

s H. Ben tley, III Linda Benfiel d William R. Ber tha

Chair

For more photos, see the online version of this story at www.biztimes.com.

EE

ON The mi ssion those of who ne Boys & Gir ls ed us most, Clubs of Gre to rea lize the ater Milwa uk ir full poten ee is to ins tial as pir produ e and em ctive, powe r respo nsible all young peop and ca ring cit le, especia izens. lly

lubs.o facebo rg ok. @bgcm com/bgcm ilwauk ilwauk ee ee

Didn’t make it in this year?

Now accepting reservations for 2018.

MILW

has been a really great experience.” n

es .co

m/ giv

Alexan h Fox der P. Fraser John Galani s Nan Gar detto David Gay Charles B. Gro esc Bronso n J. Haa hell se William C. Han sen Thoma s J. Jack Her Hauske, Jr. bert Renée Herzing Kather ine Charles Hust V. Jam es

ing

Joerre Craig Jorgens s en Tracey Jouber t Sarah Wright Kim Michae l Lappin ball Steven L. Lau ghlin Keith R. Mar dak Mauree n A. McG Daniel innity F. McK eithan, Robert Jr. L. Mik ulay ★ Brian Morell o★ Cory L. Net tles Keith D. Nos busch Wayne C. Old enburg Guy A. Osborn

★

Richar d R. Pie per, Sr. James ★ DEN R. Pop OTES EXEC p Robert UTIVE LEADERSH John B. Pyle W. Spl IP s David ude F. Rad Mary tke Ellen Kristine Stanek Mara A. Rap Swan pé Bethan Alfonzo y M. Rod Thurma Mark enhuis Sabljak Harris n Turer Richar John d C. Sch Utz lesinge Allan H. Seli Gordon r g J. Weber John S. Shi Gregor ely y Wesley Thelma Arthur A. Sias W. Wig Patrick chers James Sinks B. Wig Daniel dale Madonn Sinykin a William Guy W. Scott Smith s Wrobbe Judson l★ James Snyder L. Ziem Thoma er Anne s L. Spe Zizzo ro Diane Zore

A SU PP

LE ME

NT OF BIZ TIM

ES MI LWAU

KE E

WW EE

RE anadn AA R.EE.a d ps in Eca irpair artasrt sin tiaotino hcdhadyaayft psro aeftr es ant ath pg rora te rcshcoh gm thireB ram min iroB ool,oth m frefree l, o sy&s G thuosu str m e emae gin, g , sutrcu yo &irGls asn lsa, ls tu c lslu tu re th, e resdp irC C W adnsdosf okfid d threere soprtosrt blu. b ksid is siso .W ithitah sm le s oemth cacda fisnfidnsdasfe ein thging alegaugeuse aty fety , te m su s, cteh edmeic forfoe spuppop cnhonloo ic rvevry ery rt gloygla kidkid y blasb o,rt, at ath te asn thC elu Cblu. b adnd .

For more information call or email 414.336.7112 or advertise@biztimes.com

View the 2017 edition at www.biztimes.com/giving

A SUPPLEMENT OF

SHAPING THE FUTURE 2017 Conference Agenda February 23rd, 2017, Hyatt Regency - Milwaukee

7:00-8:00 am

Continental Breakfast, Registration, Networking

11:30-12:15 pm Lunch - TBD Table Topics

8:00-8:30 am

Opening Remarks

12:15-1:30 pm

8:30-9:30 am

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Tracks: Growth, Operational Excellence, Human Capital Management, C-Suite Essentials, Technology & Innovation, Wisconsin Manufacturing

Michael Stull, senior vice president, Manpower-North America 9:30-10:15 am

Networking & Exhibits

9:45-10:15 am

Strategic Briefing

10:15-11:30 am BREAKOUT SESSION #1 Tracks: Growth, Operational Excellence, Human Capital Management, C-Suite Essentials, Technology & Innovation, Wisconsin Manufacturing

16

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

BREAKOUT SESSION #2

n

1:30-2:00 pm

Networking & Exhibits

2:00-3:15 pm

BREAKOUT SESSION #3

Tracks: Growth, Operational Excellence, Human Capital Management, C-Suite Essentials, Technology & Innovation, Wisconsin Manufacturing 3:15-4:15 pm Networking Reception & Prize Drawings

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

special event coverage

Shaping the future • Feb. 23rd, 2017 • manufacturingmatters.org

Welcome to the job skills revolution

A

ccording to Michael Stull, Senior Vice President for Manpower North America, assisting job seekers in becoming more employable, developing relevant skills and building careers while connecting businesses with the best-matched talent has never been more important.

“The industry and the world of work is changing faster than we’ve seen in our company’s nearly 70-year history,” Stull said.

Job seekers with the most in-demand skills increasingly will have greater opportunities in the workforce and advance further in their careers, he added.

Stull leads the Manpower brand in North America, where the company currently has 70,000 people on assignment on any given day across 320 branches in the United States and Canada. He is based at ManpowerGroup’s corporate headquarters in downtown Milwaukee.

Stull will be the keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s Manufacturing Matters! conference on Feb. 23 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Milwaukee.

Stull also has been instrumental in driving ManpowerGroup’s digital transformation in North America to enable higher-value relationships between employers and job candidates.

“Companies have become consumers of labor instead of builders of talent,” Stull said. “As such, employers are expecting employees to be productive on day one, while individuals have become more responsible for developing their own skills.”

Prior to taking on his new role, which became effective in December, Stull led ManpowerGroup’s global marketing across 80 countries and all brands for five years. He played a lead role in leveraging technology solutions and third-party relationships to enhance and modernize experiences for candidates and clients.

The traditional work model, where employees were hired and put on a specific, and often narrow, career path, is outdated, he said.

“Today, the path is a much broader labor market,” Stull said.

Workforce challenges must be addressed, especially the struggle to find qualified workers to fill open positions.

A critical shortage of workers contin-

BY RICH ROVITO

ues, but labor participation rates aren’t rising, a sure sign that a skills gap continues to exist, Stull said.

“We continue to need to figure out how to get across the divide,” he said.

Employers have been developing in-

coverage program offering eligible U.S. associates the opportunity to pursue a college education along with valuable career coaching. MyPath provides associates with assessment, guidance, development and education alongside career opportunities

“ Companies have become consumers of labor instead of builders of talent.”

— Michael Stull triguing solutions to their workforce needs. Retailers with varying seasonal demands, for example, are engaging in collective work programs.

Manpower’s staffing services have been evolving to meet market demand, as well. Traditionally, Manpower primarily focused on finding candidates to fill jobs.

“With the Internet, candidates and employers both have access to almost everything that is out there,” Stull said. “The value is now in the assessment piece. The closer we can get to a one-to-one fit between an employer and a job candidate, then everyone is better off.”

Finding an appropriate match leads to more predictable performance, Stull added.

Although there is a high volume of digital information and services available to match employers and job seekers, the “human touch” remains a needed element, Stull said. Guidance often is needed in terms of education and professional development as job seekers look not only for a current job but also a path to their next job.

“We love putting people to work and helping them get ahead,” Stull said. “We think of ourselves as providing a workforce opportunity for them.”

ManpowerGroup’s annual Talent Shortage Survey also provides valuable insight into the labor market. It asks employers in 42 countries which roles they are struggling to fill and to identify skills gaps. As a result, ManpowerGroup knows what employers want, and which skills are needed for employees to move on, move up and earn more.

Manpower also recently launched MyPath, which includes its full college tuition w w w.biztimes.com

n

with Manpower in the United States.

This encourages Manpower’s associates to improve and expand their skills by achieving college degrees while they work. As these individuals add skills, businesses will have access to a

wider pool of quality talent.

Stull also pointed to how digital technology has changed the way candidates look for jobs and how employers search for candidates.

“People want to do a lot of stuff on their own,” Stull said. “Much of what we do is more convenient in our mobile world, especially when it comes to things like seeing if someone is interested in a job. The other big piece with digital is leveraging the underlying data to provide a better overall experience. We know employees’ preferences and their situations and where they will be more successful.”

Cultivating skills and connecting individuals with these skills to the jobs that need them most will be keys to success in the imminent job skills revolution and Manpower is well situated to assist both organizations and individuals. — RICH ROVITO

Make your challenge our challenge...

We provide solutions.

Luck is not a strategy. Invest in the core pillars embraced by today’s most successful organizations.

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

Strategy | Leadership | Talent Management | Process Improvement For more information on maximizing your organization’s bottom line, contact CBPS at 262-695-7828 or cbps.info@wctc.edu.

n

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

17

Shaping the future • Feb. 23rd, 2017 • manufacturingmatters.org

TPI aims to boost manufacturing productivity by 40 percent

W

BY RICH ROVITO isconsin manufacturers

are being called upon to lead the charge to improve productivity, to boost the state’s economy.

“Productivity equals prosperity,” said Lee Swindall, vice president of sector strategy development with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).

The WEDC has joined the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP) and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) to address drains on productivity.

Together, they have launched the Transformation Productivity Initiative (TPI), a diagnostic assessment and strategy implementation with the goal of reaching a dramatic 40 percent productivity improvement within 18 months.

“It’s very ambitious,” Swindall said. “But we’ve been literally flat in manufacturing productivity since 2004. I was flummoxed.

We have a major productivity problem.”

What’s more, the combination of ris-

ing real wages and declining productivity is a recipe for inflation, he added.

The manufacturing sector is being targeted because it is responsible for almost 19 percent of the state’s total GDP, and manufacturing employment makes up over 16 percent of the state’s workforce.

But Wisconsin ranks 33rd in productivity performance, according to Swindall.

“We have a responsibility to do this.

We need to start attacking it now,” he said.

Various diagnostic pathways will be examined through the TPI program, including supply chain management, enterprise resource utilization, technology, human capital management and return on new investment.

An initiative already underway showcases a successful effort to boost productivity. The WMEP’s Profitable Sustainability Initiative recognizes the connection between sustainability and efficiency.

Swindall noted that PSI had its early skeptics, but has proven highly successful.

“Many of the companies we approached early on about PSI said you aren’t going to achieve much,” Swindall said. “But it got companies to change. We know there are opportunities there with TPI.” The beta phase of the program is expected to be completed within a year “I detect unusually high enthusiasm for this,” Swindall said. “I’m gratified that the world is waking up.”

The TPI diagnostic tool will be modeled after the one used in the PSI program, said Randy Bertram, program manager for the WMEP and member of the TPI Steering Team.

“It’s a big project and there’s a lot of work to be done,” Bertram said.

The program’s aim is to increase productivity in order to drive economic growth, said Enno Siemsen, a professor and Executive Director of the Erdman Center for Operations and Technology Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“The United States has seen a decade or more of relatively flat growth. We’ve also seen little GDP growth,” he said.

If the program is successful with manufacturers, it could be expanded to the service sector or health care.

“This initiative is critical if Wisconsin Siemsen and the Milwaukee region are to remain globally competitive,” said Pat O’Brien, executive director of the Milwaukee 7, an economic strategy group for the seven counties in Southeast Wisconsin, which also is involved in the initiative.

“Boosting business productivity, especially in our manufacturing sector, through TPI can make Wisconsin a national leader in productivity growth and .................................. TPI continued on page 19

EXPERIENCE WITH PERSPECTIVE At First Business, we boast our years of experience all the time. But it isn’t just bragging. Experience is what allows us to do everything from navigating clients toward success, to helping local universities produce business-savvy graduates ready to shape the future of our community. And no matter what issues your business faces today, you can be confident knowing you have a partner who’s faced it down a time, or two, (or a hundred), before.

DAVE VETTA President & CEO, First Business Bank - Milwaukee

WE ARE BANKING. FOCUSED. firstbusiness.com/learnmore

Member FDIC

special event coverage

Presented by:

of Growing Businesses

Forecasting Economic Trends

Walmart commits $250 billion to American-made goods

I

BY RICH ROVITO

n 2013, Walmart, the world’s largest

retailer, made a bold commitment to purchase an additional $250 billion in products supporting American jobs over 10 years.

Based on data from Boston Consulting Group, it’s estimated that one million new U.S. jobs could be created through this initiative, including direct manufacturing job growth of approximately 250,000 and indirect job growth of approximately 750,000 in the support and service sector.

“We are fully invested in this work because it is good for everyone involved. It both allows us to give our customers the products they want at a better price, and it positions us to help our suppliers move jobs back to the United States,” said Joe Quinn, senior director of public affairs and government relations for Walmart.

“Our core customer makes it clear that, when possible, families want to buy products that are made in this country.

And by making this work a priority we are increasing overall awareness of why it matters so much to communities.”

Quinn will provide an update on the initiative during a break-out session at the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s Manufacturing Matters! conference on Feb. 23 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Milwaukee.

He will also offer a look at the retailer’s work with both large and small manufacturers in the effort to bring production and jobs back to the United States.

Sourcing more products domestically has also allowed Walmart to lower its transportation costs and be quicker to react to consumer demand, he added.

“As consumers tastes or desires change, the closer you are to your source of production the quicker you can change,” Quinn said.

Walmart spends $4.4 billion annually with suppliers in Wisconsin and supports 68,000 supplier jobs in the state, according to the company.

TPI................................................ from page 18

position us for a prosperous future.”

Scott Lucas, president and COO at Racine Metal-Fab Ltd., said efforts such as lean manufacturing can boost

“Wisconsin is a state with a great work ethic and a long history of understanding manufacturing,” Quinn said.

He noted that one of Walmart’s major Quinn Wisconsin suppliers is Kimberly-Clark Corp., which produces paper-based consumer products, including diapers, toilet paper and facial tissue, at its manufacturing complex in Neenah.

Feedback from consumers has shown support for Walmart’s program, with research showing that where a product is made is second in importance only to price, he added.

“You’ll see more and more products made and assembled in the United States,” said Quinn.

Walmart’s pledge also includes sourcing “new to Walmart” manufactured goods domestically and reshoring the manufacturing of goods it currently buys by facilitating and accelerating the efforts of its suppliers.

To underscore its commitment, Walmart hosted a U.S. Manufacturing Summit themed “Investing in American Jobs.” The event, open to current and potential suppliers, included an open call for new U.S.-made products.

“We are in this for the long haul,” Quinn said. “There was a time when Walmart had a different relationship with its suppliers.

Now, it’s certainly more of a partnership.”

The evolving relationship also creates more opportunities for small and midsize manufacturers to do business with Walmart, Quinn said.

“It used to be that if Walmart liked your product, you had to gear up your production for 3,000 stores immediately.

“Now, if you have a barbecue sauce that is made in Milwaukee, we might just start with 300 stores.” — RICH ROVITO productivity.

“Wisconsin is a big manufacturing state that has grown a little stale,” Lucas said. “I think Wisconsin manufacturers need to be re-energized through a good project like this.” — RICH ROVITO w w w.biztimes.com

n

Plan for growth and improve your odds in uncertain times

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Harley Davidson Museum - 500 W. Canal St. | 7:30 -10 AM

Featuring Brian Beaulieu, CEO of ITR Economics Gain a competitive edge by understanding what comes next. Hear from one of the country’s most informed economists - Brian Beaulieu – who will dissect major economic trends and indicators so you can capitalize on opportunities and avoid pitfalls. His team has a long-term 94.7% accuracy rating when forecasting economic events.

The discussion will include: • 2017 – What does the short game look like?

• Economics of the coming labor shortage • Changes for China and Europe and the impact on the U.S. • Indicators that spell a great depression for 2030 • What WI business can expect and which trends to capitalize on Member: $97 Non-Member: $127 Table of 10: $900 Fee includes parking and breakfast

Register at www.mmac.org/events.html Deadline to Register: Monday, March 6, 2017

2017 Media Partner:

2017 Platinum Sponsors:

The Charles E. Kubly Foundation (414) 477-9959 charleskublyfoundation.org

PHONE: WEB:

The Charles E. Kubly Foundation seeks to better the lives of those affected by depression by increasing public awareness of the disease and its devastating effects, eliminating the stigma associated with it, supporting suicide prevention programs and promoting improved access to quality mental health resources within communities.

2017 GIVING GUIDE

FEATURED NONPROFIT

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

To learn more, visit biztimes.com/giving PRODUCED BY

19

cover story

Joe Kirgues of gener8tor speaks with Matt Cordio of Startup Milwaukee.

20

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

n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

CRACKE THE COD COULD BEST PR AC TICES FROM OTHER STATES BOOS T MILWAUKEE’S STARTUP SCENE?

F

BY BEN STANLEY, staff writer

ERICH SCHROEDER PHOTOGRAPHY

LORENCE, ITALY IN THE EARLY 15TH CENTURY was a textile manufacturing city of around 50,000 to 60,000 people. It was about one-fourth the size of Venice, Milan, Paris and London. A large portion of its economy and workforce depended upon the making and trading of wool. It was not considered at the time to be of any particular significance culturally or artistically.

w w w.biztimes.com

n

Yet over the next century, it would become the epicenter of the European Renaissance and stage the rise of the most prominent artists and intellectuals of the era.

One reason: they found a generous and reliable financial backer in the Medici family. The Medicis were a band of Italian merchants who had risen to political prominence in Florence during the 13th and 14th centuries.

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

21

“This family rises from being a bunch of wool-makers to becoming the pope’s bankers, and then goes on to finance, in a period of 100 years, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Machiavelli, Galileo – these unbelievable names that set off the Renaissance,” said Joe Kirgues, co-founder of the nationally-ranked Milwaukee-based startup accelerator gener8tor. “Is it that all of those amazing people just happened to be born in that same city at the same time, or is there something about what they did as it relates to their money and their financing that allowed all these people who would’ve been anonymous in any other city to become, historically, some of the names we associate with being the best artists ever?”

“What macro things do you do to produce a city where good things happen?”

These are questions that have been weighing on Kirgues’ mind, he said, although the context in which he’s asking them is quite different.

Rather than artists, he and a handful of other entrepreneurs have been trying for the past several years to create a bustling ecosystem of technology startups in Milwaukee. But it’s been a difficult code to crack.

A similar narrative to that of Florence during the Renaissance began to play out in the San Francisco Bay area in the second half of the 20th century. Stanford University’s decision to begin leasing out land in the 1950s for use as an office park for hightech companies, such as The HewlettPackard Co., laid the groundwork for a flood of innovations and tech startups that followed in the 1970s and 1980s.

Similarly, Bill Gates and Paul Allen’s 1979 decision to move Microsoft Corp. from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the Seattle area transformed the economy of the Pacific Northwest. Once known primarily as a lumber, shipping and airplane manufacturing hub, the presence of Microsoft began attracting talented tech workers and, as a result, venture capital investors to Seattle. Now, it has a thriving startup scene and is home to other giant corporations, such as Amazon and Starbucks.

“In every case, it’s hard to look at it and not think the money had something to do with it,” Kirgues said.

Seeking reinvention Enter Milwaukee: Lake Michigan, the U.S. Bank Center, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Allen-Bradley clock, City Hall.

22

Neighborhoods of century-old Cream City brick buildings, some renovated and others still vacant, line its rivers.

Beer made it famous and manufacturing made it prosper.

It’s a city of roughly 600,000 people in a metropolitan area of around 1.57 million, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate. It’s home to seven Fortune 500 companies, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Milwaukee Bucks and what is billed as the world’s largest music festival.

Over the past five years, a slew of construction projects have driven a downtown resurgence However, that resurgence has not been accompanied by significant job or population growth.

As the nation moves toward a knowledge-based economy driven by technology and the number of manufacturing jobs nationwide continues to erode, Kirgues and others in the city’s small community of local entrepreneurs and investors are confronting a stark reality: Milwaukee does not have the mechanisms in place to build and sustain a healthy startup scene. And that puts it at a competitive disadvantage.

Gener8tor is ranked among the top 16 startup accelerators in the country, according to the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project. Formed in Milwaukee in 2012 by Kirgues, Dan Armbrust, Troy Vosseller, Daniel Bader, Joel Abraham and Jon Eckhardt, it now also has offices in Madison and Minneapolis. Twice a year, the organization selects a group of five startups from a pool of more than 600 applicants from around the country to participate in its core 12-week accelerator program and invests up to $140,000 in each of them. It’s had some success.

The 49 companies that have completed the program have together raised more than $100 million in follow-on financing.

A little more than half – about 53 percent – have raised more than $1 million in financing or have been acquired.

But so far, much of that success has come from recruiting entrepreneurs and startups from elsewhere. And aside from a few standouts – such as Bright Cellars and Lumanu, two startups formed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates that moved to Milwaukee from Boston – most of the successful companies that come through the program move on to different locations.

Milwaukee has seen a relatively small amount of organic startup growth. There B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

n

ERICH SCHROEDER PHOTOGRAPHY

cover story

1

are two basic narratives behind healthy startup ecosystems in the Midwest, Kirgues said.

No. 1: A city lucks out and a recruited or organic tech startup emerges and becomes very successful (think Microsoft in Seattle). That startup grows rapidly and serves as a “lighthouse” organization, a beacon that attracts top-tier talent who eventually form a cluster of startups around it.

No. 2: A city’s top companies and business leaders come together to form an investment vehicle for startups that attracts out-of-state investment.

“Neither of those two working recipes for Midwestern startup ecosystems are functioning here (in Milwaukee) at the moment,” he said. “Nor do we have the research capability of Madison or Ann Arbor (Michigan).”

Matt Cordio, founder of nonprofit Startup Milwaukee and tech corporate recruiting firm Skills Pipeline, has a similar view.

He’s been trying to build a more cohesive, active startup community in Milwaukee for years, and recently organized the city’s first Startup Week, a week-long series of networking and educational events intended to foster connections among investors and entrepreneurs.

Cordio is frustrated with what he sees as the local business community’s overemphasis on real estate investment and under-emphasis on startup investment.

“The biggest challenge in Milwaukee, I think, is there seems to be some riskaverseness towards the future and toward technology and startup investing,” Cordio said. “I hope that can change, because I think that if we don’t embrace technology as the future, how are we going to

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

1. Krista Bergan and Marisa Raymonds of Chicago-based OfficeLuv work in a private office space at Ward4.

compete with the rest of the country?

The last century was defined by manufacturing; this century is going to be defined by technology.”

There are many complex social, cultural and economic conditions at play when it comes to building a thriving industry cluster, and they are hard to nail down or replicate.

There are, however, strategies being employed to solve the startup puzzle that have been working in other cities around the Midwest with similar economies, histories and geographic features to Milwaukee.

“One of the most common misconceptions is that this is zero-sum,” Kirgues said. “We can all get wealthy.”

Michigan In 2006 and 2007, Michigan was bleeding manufacturing jobs at a historic rate. The state had experienced its longest job-loss streak since the Great Depression – six straight years.

Business Leaders for Michigan, a group of top executives from 80 of the largest companies and universities in the state, including General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, began discussing job growth through entrepreneurism.

“The conclusion we reached was that Michigan was a region with great technology development, and a really talented workforce, but we were an underserved area in the area of startups and venture capital,” said Chris Rizik, chief executive officer and fund manager of the Re-

ERICH SCHROEDER PHOTOGRAPHY

2

naissance Venture Capital Fund. “So we ended up being an exporter of technology and tech jobs when, really, we had the ingredients here to be a pretty robust startup community.”

They decided to put together a regionally-focused venture fund of private dollars called the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund. Rizik, who by that time had about a decade of experience in venture capital under his belt, would lead it.

But their goal wasn’t to invest in local startups. They wanted to have a larger impact.

“The idea was to create a fund of funds; a fund to invest in great venture funds around the country, with the idea that you could leverage a limited amount of money into a larger impact,” Rizik said.

He and the members of BLM thought they could do more good for the state’s economy if they attracted investment money from the outside – venture capital

firms and angel investors from out of state who have historically had their eyes fixed on places such as Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest.

These investors seemed to be ignoring Midwestern states when searching for tech startups in which to buy a stake.

Rizik felt Renaissance could change that by using a sure-fire method to turn the eyes of fund managers: give them money.

“There are a number of state-funded fund-to-funds,” Rizik said. “Just about every Midwest state has one. But in our view, there were some flaws in the way those were structured.”

Most government-formed fund-tofunds were created with too heavy a focus on local economic development, he said.

They weren’t structured in a way that was appealing to top-tier investors from out of state. They were clunky. The funds also were built defensively, he said.

The Renaissance Venture Capital w w w.biztimes.com

n

2 & 3. Stephen Schaller of RotoPremierLeague. com uses a standing workstation at Ward4.

3

Fund was structured with no financial strings attached. The venture capital firms that received contributions didn’t have to invest it in Michigan, they just had to invest it wisely. But, they’d have to come to Michigan to get it. And while they were there, Renaissance Fund and other Michigan business leaders would introduce them to good local investment opportunities they felt were being overlooked.

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

If the VCs chose to invest in the Michigan startups, great. If they didn’t, the fund and its contributors would still likely profit from the firms’ other investments.

Renaissance raised $45 million for its first fund in 2008, and invested it all in outside venture capital funds.

Rizik estimated that for every dollar the Renaissance Fund invested in that first round, it attracted $23 of investment to 23

Michigan from out of state. He estimated it’s attracted more than $800 million.

According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights tracking venture capital-backed investment deals over the past two decades, there were a total of 157 VC deals in Michigan totaling $1.3 billion between 2000 and 2007. From 2008 through 2016, after the Renaissance Fund became active, there were 336 deals for a total of $1.7 billion. A closer look at those numbers reveals a telling detail.

Right as the Renaissance Fund was launched, the Great Recession hit and investment dropped across the country.

From 2008 to 2011, Michigan saw 114 deals for $615 million. From 2012 to 2016, however, activity skyrocketed. In that fouryear timeframe, Michigan saw 222 deals for a total of $1.2 billion, nearly matching the total amount raised from 2000 to 2007.

If Rizik’s estimate of $800 million is accurate, the Renaissance Fund’s first $45 million pot was responsible for bringing in about 47 percent of the state’s total VC-backed investment deals since its inception.

The first fund was so successful, the group went back and raised $80 million for a second fund in 2012. It’s too early to tell exactly how much investment the second fund has brought in to Michigan just yet, he said.

But the eye-popping success of the Renaissance Fund’s first round caught the attention of a major Midwestern corporation in a city similar in size and economic makeup to Milwaukee.

Cincinnati A representative from Procter & Gamble Co., a multinational consumer goods company based out of Cincinnati that 24

1

2

3

4

posts billions in annual sales, reached out to Rizik in 2012, right as the Renaissance Fund was raising its second round.

The Cincinnati business world had just been shaken up by a big move: Chiquita Brands International Inc. had decided to move its banana division to Charlotte, North Carolina, where it was promised $22 million in state and local incentives.

A group called the Cincinnati Business Committee, similar to the Business Leaders for Michigan, had been meeting to discuss the city’s future.

The CBC is an association of executives from the city’s 30 largest corporations, including Procter & Gamble, Kroger Co. and Western & Southern Financial Group. The Cincinnati area hits above its weight class in terms of large corporate headquarters. It’s home to 10 Fortune 500 companies. Weissmann referred to them as “Big Cos.” Group members debated the value of betting on future job growth through Big Co. relocation to the Cincinnati area, accomplished by offering the types of incentives that drew Chiquita to Charlotte.

They viewed competing over existing Big Cos as a losing situation because it was so unstable – if a company is going to B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

n

CONTRIBUTED

CONTRIBUTED

cover story

1. A lounge area at the Union Hall building, Cincinnati’s startup hub. 2. A group of entrepreneurs using the co-working space at Union Hall in Cincinnati’s Over-The-Rhine neighborhood. 3. Cintrifuse spokesperson Eric Weissmann. 4. Cintrifuse chief executive officer Wendy Lea.

go wherever it can get the best tax breaks and deals, then Cincinnati would be constantly scrambling against other Midwestern cities for a larger share of what already exists, rather than organically creating its own wealth.

And they were right. In 2015, Chiquita, just three years after its move to Charlotte, picked up again and moved its banana division, along with 300 jobs, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Instead, the CBC in 2012 decided to hedge its bet on new company creation and called on Rizik to help it set up a fund that would eventually become the Cintrifuse Syndicate Fund.

When Chiquita left “that woke everybody up,” said Cintrifuse spokesperson Eric Weissmann.

The CBC commissioned a report from McKinsey & Co. to identify what it needed to begin fostering innovation and a bustling startup community.

“They said, for a city your size, you should have a lot more venture capital coming in,” Weissmann said. “For some reason, VCs don’t find you attractive.

Fix that.”

Though Cincinnati’s venture fund is run essentially the same way as the Re-

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

naissance Fund, it differs from its Michigan counterpart in two big ways: it’s focused specifically on Cincinnati as opposed to the entire state, and it’s wrapped under the control of Cintrifuse, the larger nonprofit organization that operates a co-working space and an array of other startup support services.

Cintrifuse is based out of a building in Cincinnati’s Over-The-Rhine neighborhood called Union Hall, along with two other major players in the Cincinnati tech scene: a top-10 nationally-ranked accelerator called The Brandery and CincyTech, a leading Midwest seed-stage investor.

In addition, Cincinnati also has an incubator called HCDC and a top-ranked private seed-stage venture capital firm called Queen City Angels.

“What you’re seeing now is really this revitalization of the city and the city core,” Weissmann said.

Cintrifuse launched its first fund in 2012 and raised $57 million from 16 investors. Like the Renaissance Fund, Cintrifuse money comes with no strings attached. However, it does ask that the VCs come to Cincinnati at least once a year.

In Ohio, there were 282 VC-backed deals for a total of $2.75 billion from 2000 to 2007, according to the report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB insights.

During the Great Recession, from 2008 to 2011, investment dipped, and the state saw 162 deals for $584.4 million. But from 2012 to 2016, it skyrocketed to 355 deals for $1.6 billion. Ohio, with its bounty of

St. Louis In many ways, St. Louis’ economy and history are mirror images of Milwaukee’s.

The Missouri city has a strong manufacturing history, a potent German immigrant influence and a storied beer industry tradition.

But right now, it has something Milwaukee doesn’t have: an incentive program to import startups and entrepreneurs.

In 2012, a program called Arch Grants, named for the famous St. Louis Gateway Arch, was formed. Each year, it distributes $50,000 equity-free grants to 20 startups that agree to set up shop in St. Louis for one year.

“There are definitely early indications that there’s good stuff happening,” said Arch Grants executive director Ginger

Imster. “We’re getting companies that are receiving national attention from other accelerators. You just hope that one or two really talented folks can attract others, and that has a cumulative effect on building density and reputation.”

Arch Grants, like Cintrifuse, is a nonprofit organization. But rather than investing in VCs to attract out-of-state investment, it’s investing directly in startups and entrepreneurs. The idea is to get a cauldron of ideas, entrepreneurs and companies brewing in St. Louis that will eventually draw outside investors, and as a result, more talent.

Arch Grants doesn’t have the same quantity of cash as the Renaissance Fund or Cintrifuse. It relies on fundraising.

Imster said Arch Grants raised about $2.2 million last year through private contributions. Roughly half of that money, between $1 million and $1.2 million, was distributed to startups in the form of $50,000 grants. The rest of the money went toward staff salaries, programing and organizing large-scale events to give their companies more exposure.

Missouri, from 2000 to 2007, saw 136 VC-backed deals for a total of $1.96 billion, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights report. Following the same trend as other states in the Midwest, investment activity dropped from 2008 to 2011 and the state took in only 69 deals, for $571.7 million. Since 2012, however, investment in the state has rebounded in a big way: 167 deals for $1.1 billion.

“It’s attracting talent to the city,” Milwaukee’s Matt Cordio said of the Arch Grants program. “St. Louis is not a place that you think a high-growth entrepreneurship is flourishing, technology is flourishing, but Arch Grants has really helped rebrand the city as moving into the 21st century innovation economy and being competitive.

“I think a similar program in Milwaukee would do the same thing.”

Wisconsin According to the same report tracking VC-backed deals, investment in Wisconsin has been lacking. The state had only 103 VC-backed deals from 2000 to 2007, for $888.3 million. During the Great Recession, from 2008 to 2011, Wisconsin notched a mere 66 deals, for $267.8 million. Although activity has picked up significantly since 2012 – 139 deals for $680.5 million – the state is pulling in about half w w w.biztimes.com

n

ERICH SCHROEDER PHOTOGRAPHY

large cities compared to most Midwestern states, probably doesn’t have Cintrifuse to thank for all of that investment, but the clear uptick of VC-backed investment in Ohio since its formation is notable.

“I see the Midwest uniquely able to pull this off,” said Cintrifuse CEO Wendy Lea. “I think they’re tired of being called the flyover country.”

Lea moved to Cincinnati from San Francisco about two years ago. She had been leading a startup based in San Francisco that had secured Procter & Gamble as a client.

“While here, I got to meet some of the leaders of the ecosystem,” Lea said. “She eventually got involved as a mentor at The Brandery and grew more familiar with the local startup scene. By the time Cintrifuse was forming and seeking a CEO, she had already started transitioning out of her leadership role at her previous company.

And Cintrifuse was looking for someone with an outside perspective.

“I’m addicted to the potential of people and businesses, and now regions,” Lea said. “I think the Midwest is ripe for the picking. You’ve got lots of points of light, but to truly rise above the rest, there needs to be a band and bond of all the entrepreneurial entities so we’re not just vying for our own attention. We need to be truly collaborating in a way that will bring more energy and interest to the Midwest as a whole.”

While both the Renaissance Fund and Cintrifuse have enjoyed success in recent years using the fund-of-funds model, another city, located on the Mississippi River, has been employing a different approach.

5

the venture capital activity of Missouri, despite having a roughly equal population.

Wisconsin has about 5.75 million residents, while Missouri has a little more than 6 million.

And more of those deals have been happening in Madison, or even Beloit, than in Milwaukee.

“The most frustrating thing I hear from the Chicago venture community is they debate whether to drive through Beloit or Milwaukee on the way to Madison,” Kirgues said. “And to be truthful, more venture money is in Beloit. (They have) Comply365, Acculynx and FatWallet. I can’t name three venture-backed (startups) here. I think Comply took in $10 million alone. That’s more than any startup here. I can’t name one.

“Beloit beat us. They didn’t just beat us, they beat us hard.”

There have been some positive developments in Milwaukee in the past two years. Aside from Cordio’s inaugural Startup Week in November, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele decided to bet on local startups on his own.

Abele built a startup hub, Ward4, at the Pritzlaff building in Walker’s Point that opened in 2015. He modeled it after Chicago startup hub 1871. In addition to gener8tor, Ward4 is home to Startup Milwaukee, the Abele-backed venture CSA Partners and a number of gener8tor grads, including Bright Cellars and Scanalytics.

In addition, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. announced last month it’s planning to form a venture fund called Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures that will make $50 million in investments in finance-focused tech startups over the next few years.

The company said it decided to in-

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

5. Joe Scanlin of Scanalytics utilizes a creative bench workspace in Ward4.

crease its focus on early-stage companies after its acquisition of New York Citybased personal finance software company LearnVest in 2015.

Milwaukee also opened its Global Water Center in Walker’s Point in the summer of 2013, a seven-floor building with 25 tenants that includes a mix of international corporations, academic institutions, startup businesses and support organizations.

Forming a cohesive startup community and attracting significant venture capital investment, however, is still a work in progress.

Cordio and Kirgues both feel Milwaukee needs to attract investment and create more mechanisms to encourage homegrown entrepreneurism.

“We just haven’t been able to bring that ecosystem-like formula like they have with Cintrifuse or Arch Grants to Milwaukee, and we haven’t been able to bring a lighthouse in here,” Kirgues said.

He said he’s hoping one of his gener8tor companies, like Bright Cellars or the homegrown southeastern Wisconsin startup Scanalytics, can turn the kind of success that inspires entrepreneurial growth.

But until then, he feels the city’s business community needs to draw up a more cohesive and aggressive strategy.

“The public should feel comfortable judging the business community by its commitment and willingness to reinvest in its best and brightest,” he said. “There should be a more robust discussion on whether that is best done through private equity, or real estate, or venture capital, or bank financing.” n 25

special report

corporate event planning

Cuvee in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward had so much success as an event space the owners decided to close it to the general public.

Unique event venues thrive in Milwaukee

W

hen Tracy Johnson began planning the Real Estate Alliance for Charity’s winter gala several months ago, she wanted a unique venue that had a casual feel, but also could accommodate several hundred people.

Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin, has spent 20 years working in the association business, with leadership roles at TEMPO Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors Association.

She knows her way around planning an event.

26

BY CORRINNE HESS, staff writer

Johnson ended up choosing Turner Hall as the site for the Feb. 25 gala, a first for her.

“I’ve never worked in such a raw space before,” Johnson said, adding that Turner Hall, which is typically used as a concert venue, does not have its own tables, chairs or stemware. The caterer Johnson hired is doing all of that work, she said.

“My goal is to not spend time coordinating 50 vendors,” Johnson said. “If I can do that in an empty space, it’s perfect. And if these newer non-traditional venues present themselves as a one-stop shop, they will give the traditional ones a run for their money.”

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

n

Over the past several years in Milwaukee, there has been a surge in the development of non-traditional event spaces for meetings, fundraisers and weddings that appear to be filling a gap left by traditional banquet halls and hotel ballrooms for corporate clients and brides who are looking for something more unique.

When Kris Gorski opened Cuvee at 177 N. Broadway in the Third Ward in 2007, it was a champagne bar that also hosted events. About 18 months ago, Gorski decided to close Cuvee to the public because the venue had gotten so busy with events. Guests typically are interested in the Cream City brick and the historic feel

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

the loft-style space provides, Gorski said.

“We get a ton of people from Chicago,” she said. “What they are finding is in Chicago, the prices are five times more than Milwaukee and there is no parking, so they get a lot more for their investment.”

In April, Saz’s Hospitality Group became the exclusive planner and catering service for South Second, a new event venue at 838 S. Second St. in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood.

South Second can accommodate up to 350 guests in a restored 6,000-square-foot former manufacturing facility and includes an outdoor patio space and private mezzanine lounge.

INSPIRED EVENTS FROM 10-250 RAISING THE BAR ON STYLE AND HOSPITALITY IN MILWAUKEE’S THIRD WARD

Suite414 opened less than a year ago at Schlitz Park in downtown Milwaukee.

w w w.biztimes.com

n

The Pfister Hotel

rojo

rojo

o roj

red ro

d

red

rojo

ro jo

red

d e r

rojo ed

r

rorjeod

red

rojo

d re red

red

red

red

rojo

rojo

rojo red

rdojo jo re red ro

re

rojored red

red

rojo d

rojo

rojored rojo red red red red rojo

red red

rojorreodjo

Friday, May 12

redrojo

®

re

jo

red

Go Red For Women Luncheon rojo ojo rd red

“People are looking for something different and it’s up to the people they are working with to come up with new ideas and create something different,” Bartolotta said. “If you have someone who takes for granted that every event is the same, then nothing is going to change.”

Bartolotta said many corporate clients are looking for venues that will excite their millennial employees. That can be accomplished several ways, she said.

A longstanding trend in dining has been food stations. But the most recent development is ramen bars.

“Red Light Ramen (the East Side restaurant next door to Ardent, both operated by chef Justin Carlisle) opened and now everyone wants to play off it,” Bartolotta said. “And of course lighting is everything. When you see some of these venues during the day, you can’t imagine how magnificent they can look with the right lighting.”

Johnson, who still often uses The Grain Exchange and The Pfister Hotel for many of her events, believes there will be a place in the city for both traditional and the newer, unique venues.

“In real estate, we like to showcase our space all over the city,” Johnson said.

“Having worked with associations for 20 years, the better the economy is, the more people want to spend on events. I do believe it’s an evolution. But people are always going to love The Pfister and The Grain Exchange.” n

red

Kristal Kaiser, marketing director for Saz’s, said the project has been so successful the venue is already booking into 2018.

“I think at this point, people are looking for something unique and memorable,” Kaiser said. “Anyone can host a ballroom, but more and more people are looking for something that stands out so they can make it their own.”

Suite 414 opened nine months ago as a bar and lounge that can seat 80 people on the fourth floor of Schlitz Park’s historic Stock-House building in downtown Milwaukee.

The development was going to be used as a business space, but instead has been transformed into an event locale that is booked an average of 30 times a month, said Arnie Spella, general manager of Suite 414 and Schlitz Park’s The Brown Bottle restaurant.

“We can do anything here — beautiful furniture can fill the entire space, or we can do a seated lunch,” Spella said. “It isn’t like anything the city has to offer; upperclass with a pedestrian feel.”

For more than a decade, Bartolotta Restaurant Group has been offering catering at several of its locations, including The Grain Exchange, Pier Wisconsin at Discovery World and recently, Downtown Kitchen at the U.S. Bank Center.

Maria Bartolotta, general manager and director of catering for Bartolotta, said the recent increase in competition makes Bartolotta better.

310 E. CHICAGO STREET MILWAUKEE, WI 53202 www.journeymanhotel.com Reservations: (888) 536-9008 | Hotel: (414) 291-3970

red

For Corporate Sponsorship opportunities, contact Katie Connolly at

414.227.1461 | katie.connolly@heart.org locally sponsored by

©2017 MWA American Heart Association. TM Go Red trademark AHA. Red Dress trademark DHHS.

2017_MKE_GRFW_Ad_4.6875x5.5.indd 1

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

1/27/2017 3:08:18 PM

27

corporate event planning

Proper etiquette critical for corporate events

L

BY MAREDITHE MEYER, staff writer

eave the phone in the car. Drink a tonic without the gin. If you’re on time, you’re late. Wear a suit. All are rules of thumb for corporate event etiquette, a practice that applies to the event’s host just as much as to the attendee.

No one knows the ins and outs of minding those business event Ps and Qs quite like Jennifer Bartolotta, chief executive officer of Train-2-Gain. For 13 years, Bartolotta, also director of Milwaukeebased Bartolotta Restaurant Group’s philanthropic arm, Care-a-lotta, has trained employees of all ages – and from various sizes of companies – in professional development and etiquette.

At well-established area companies, such as Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. and Rockwell Automation Inc., her two biggest clients, she emphasizes the impor-

tance of etiquette for the greater purpose of protecting the company’s brand.

“What do I need to know to be a really gracious host or guest so I can deliver on a company’s investment in me?” she encourages her audiences, usually comprised of newly hired millennials, to ask themselves.

The host sets the event’s tone, starting with an invitation that should be tailored specifically to the guest.

“I would invite to dinner a CEO of a company who is retiring in five years differently than I would invite a millennial,” Bartolotta said.

For a smaller event, think a phone call or a written note versus an e-invitation or text message.

She also suggested sending a followup invitation via email that includes the host and venue information – down to

every last valet and coat check detail.

During the actual event, it is the host’s job to generate conversation, announce his or her order, order and start the meal first, exhibit basic table manners and arrange to take care of the bill prior to the event.

Bartolotta advises her clients to think of their guests as their favorite grandmothers, ensuring that they always feel safe and comfortable in the event setting.

On the other hand, guests should be active participants at the event, but should always be mindful of the host. Their end goal is to represent the company in the manner in which that brand was built.

“When in doubt, follow the host,” Bartolotta said.

This rule applies to things like using the correct fork for salad or ordering a meal from an appropriate price range. If

Celebrating 60 Years 1957—2017 Whether you are planning an all day meeting for 5 or a conference for 300 let the War Memorial Center be the host. With our modern banquet hall, unique meeting rooms, built in AV, flexible set-up, on site parking, extensive catering list, and our 48,000 sq. ft. plaza overlooking Lake Michigan your event will come to life.

750 N Lincoln Memorial Drive Milwaukee, WI 53202 414.273.5533 events@warmemorialcenter.org 28

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

n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

the host orders lobster bisque and surf and turf, it gives the guest permission to order any meal from the menu.

“Your job is to be social. Be mindful of what you say and how you make people feel,” said Jordan Boomer, senior talent development consultant at Baird. “Do your homework, show thoughtfulness and take care of things in advance.”

Boomer works with Baird’s newly hired financial advisors, who take Bartolotta’s etiquette course as part of an extensive training process. As Bartolotta’s client for the past four years, Boomer has seen the impact of consistent etiquette on representing Baird’s brand.

As a professional, he values event guests who clearly research the host and vice versa.

Researching the companies and even

Jennifer Bartolotta speaks about business etiquette at a Train-2-Gain class.

the accomplishments of those at the event allows for open-ended questions that will keep conversations informed and intentional—and hopefully, away from taboo topics including politics, race, sex and offcolor jokes.

Bartolotta strongly advises against alcohol during corporate events, especially for young, newly hired employees who are transitioning from a college social setting.

Instead of a cocktail, order club soda or tonic water in a short glass with lemon or lime. Even if wine is served with dinner, Bartolotta suggests only taking one sip before leaving it on the table for the rest of the night.

“Don’t ever put yourself in a situation that will affect your reputation,” she said about alcohol consumption. “You could make a mistake that could be careerending.”

Tardiness is another etiquette faux pas that is best avoided by following the rule: If you’re on time, you’re late.

Dionne Grayson, executive director

of Milwaukee-based youth leadership nonprofit Lead2Change Inc., holds the same standards for the organization’s high school students – they must always be 15 minutes early because “if you are early, you have already ruled out half your competition.”

Lead2Change’s career readiness program has partnered with Bartolotta for the past two years for its “etiquette boot camp.” The program aims to train youth in professional development, career goalsetting and workforce preparation.

Although the high school demographic is quite a bit younger than Train2-Gain’s usual millennial audience, advising the youngest generation in proper business event etiquette may give them an edge when they finally enter the professional world.

As for the curious, tech-savvy millennial generation, Bartolotta sees a real need for an improvement in social skills and etiquette to set them apart in a highly competitive professional environment. n

Sales, visits reach record highs at Milwaukee Public Market The Milwaukee Public Market in the Historic Third Ward continues to find success, reaching recordbreaking sales and customer visits in 2016.

Total vendor sales increased about 10 percent last year to $15.82 million, up from $14.35 million in 2015, according to operators. The sales figures are more than double total sales in 2010.

Customer visits were up about 11 percent, with

1.54 million people visiting the Public Market in 2016, up from 1.39 million the previous year.

In addition to several eating establishments, the market, which opened in 2005, also hosts public cooking classes and private events on the second level.

The Public Market is owned and operated by the Third Ward Business Improvement District #2. w w w.biztimes.com

n

MAY 24, 2017 | POTAWATOMI HOTEL & CASINO PRESENTED BY: RESERVE YOUR BOOTH TODAY! | BIZTIMES.COM/BIZEXPO

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

29

corporate event planning

Understanding audience and purpose key to corporate event social media

W

ith nearly seven in 10 American adults using social media, there are clear opportunities for businesses to take advantage of new ways to connect with customers and clients.

Not only has the use of social media skyrocketed – when the Pew Research Center began tracking adoption in 2005, it was 5 percent; now, it’s 69 percent – so, too, have the number of platforms and options. While Facebook dominates the market, other platforms, like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat, all have potential roles to play in social media strategies at corporate events.

With a plethora of platforms and new features, sometimes the hardest part is deciding what not to do, said Marc Whitney, account supervisor at Brookfield-based public relations and marketing firm The Ritterbusch Group.

“There’s a finite amount of time,” he said of events.

Whitney tells clients to focus on their message and audience. If the goal is to drive awareness about the company, the messages should be kept broad. If the goal is to target specific clients, the message needs to be tightly focused around specific product lines, offerings or pages on the company website.

“That conversation needs to take place ahead of time so that you’re making the

best use of your time when you’re on site,” Whitney said.

Social media also doesn’t have to wait until the day the event starts. Joe Martinez, senior manager, paid media and community at Milwaukee-based digital marketing agency Granular, said creating a Facebook event or using the site’s paid advertising can help drive attendance at events. The ability to specifically target certain areas or interest groups is among the best features of the paid advertising option.

“We usually use more wider interest categories to promote ahead of time,” Martinez said.

After casting a wider net and generating some traffic, Martinez said he switches to a more targeted message. That means layering interests with very specific geographic areas. He’ll also create a different set of ads closer to the event to create urgency, including some that stress the limited number of seats available or days left to register. Updating those ads on a daily basis can keep them from getting stale, he said.

At the event itself, there are plenty of options for companies to increase their engagement with attendees. Ideas for each platform include: »» Twitter: Companies should create a unique hashtag to promote the event ahead of time and then use it

on all posts during the event and to gather user-generated content, said Amanda Wambold, senior social media strategist at Waukesha-based branding agency z2. She also said Twitter provides an opportunity to live-tweet photos, quotes from speakers or behind-the-scenes information.

She suggested mentioning specific companies or individuals who will be at the event. Whitney said it’s a good idea to tweet out a booth number so clients can find you at trade shows. »» Facebook: Whitney said Facebook works particularly well for companies looking for consumer recognition, with many friends and family engaging on the platform. Wambold suggested using Facebook Live for question-and-answer sessions, product demos and launches, speeches and interviews.

“Live video also allows viewers to ask questions directly and offers the opportunity for your company to answer those questions in live format, or respond to the comments later on,” she said.

Whitney cautioned that if you’re using live video at an event run by someone else, it is a good idea to check if there are any restrictions on its use beforehand.

Social media use by age group Ages n 19-29

100% 90%

n 30-49

80%

n 50-64

70%

n 65+

60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Twitter

Source: Pew Research Center survey, March 7 - April 4, 2016

30

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

n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

BY ARTHUR THOMAS, staff writer

»» Instagram: The platform falls into the “pretty pictures category,” Whitney said, adding “there’s absolutely a place for that.” Wambold said it also presents an opportunity for live video or to create Instagram Stories to show brief behind-the-scenes videos. »» LinkedIn: The networking and job searching site is the most businessoriented of the platforms. Whitney said it is a good place for thought leadership and the “why” of what a company does. »» Snapchat: Geofilters, overlays that can only be accessed in certain locations at specific times, offer a great opportunity for events, Wambold said, noting companies can incorporate a brand logo or trademark for attendees to use. But Martinez and Whitney cautioned that it works best at larger events and those that skew toward a younger demographic.

“It all depends on who your audience is,” Martinez said.

One option that works at events across a number of platforms is to run contests, Martinez and Wambold said. The idea is to pick a winner from among those who engage with your brand on a particular platform. It could be for the best photo from the event, best takeaway, a random winner from among those who shared or commented on a post, or those who answered a question.

Whitney said it is important to be strategic and to realize the amount of power those on the receiving end of a message now have.

“Engage with your audience and ask them how they want to be communicated with,” he said.

“It always comes down to knowing who your audience is and that’s something that’s forgotten about,” Martinez said.

Whitney also said it is important to realize a corporate event wouldn’t take place without attendees and everything doesn’t have to be about social media.

“There is something to be said for human contact,” he said. n

strategies The Trump family business New perspective comes to the White House

D

mill taxpayer, it is understandable when laymen hear of such things, they consider these actions abhorrent. We must put into context the fact that Walt Disney parlayed bankruptcy into commercial success after years of failed prospects. While I find bankruptcy repugnant, the reality is it is perfectly legal and history is replete with success coming from such early failure.

Trump, from early on, has been diversified, with holdings in the United States LEV RADIN / SHUTTERSTOCK, INC.

onald Trump is now the 45th president of the United States and his family will have the wheel of the family business. The name Trump is more a brand than a specific business, but it is a family legacy that now has been passed on to the next generation. Regardless of your political persuasion, it is important to look at the factors surrounding this family organization and learn lessons from what has been a rise of fortune.

that any president-elect give up all their business holdings is not reasonable. If it were, what businessperson would ever run for elected office?

There is a reasonable expectation of distance and oversight to be expected of anyone who assumes the highest office in the land.

But we should not judge this transfer of power as something suspicious. Those of us in family businesses and involved with family businesses should champion this move as the appropriate transition of authority from one generation to the next.

It will be interesting to watch this family business evolve under the next generation and equally so to see if Trump children from other marriages, such as Barron,

DAVID B O R S T FAMILY BUSINESS grow up to be in the family business. It will be interesting to see this family business transition and morph under the watchful eyes of the world. Just as so many other things presidents are involved with become sacrosanct in America, it will be good to have a family business preeminent. n David Borst, Ed.D., is executive director and chief operating officer of the Family Business Legacy Institute, a regional resource hub for family business. He can be reached at davidb@fbli-usa.com.

President Donald Trump and several members of his family, (from left) son-in-law Jared Kushner, son Eric Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, wife Melania Trump and son Donald Trump Jr.

Trump took over the family real estate business from his father. His mother and all four grandparents emigrated from Europe, were of German and Scottish ancestry and like so many immigrant families, worked hard to establish themselves in the U.S. The original family name was not Trump, but Drumpf, anglicized like so many Teutonic families looking to shed their European roots. Milwaukee and Wisconsin are replete with such name changes, particularly after World War I, as being German was seen as being less than patriotic to our adoptive nation.

Much has been made over the six business bankruptcies: Trump Taj Mahal (1991), Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino (1992), Plaza Hotel (1992), Trump’s Castle (1992), Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (2004), and Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009). These were not personal bankruptcies, but in essence were overleveraged real estate deals that went badly.

Trump took advantage of the bankruptcy laws and the ability to loss carryforward in business, which presumably explains his potential ability to avoid personal taxes.

As this is not afforded to the run-of-the-

Football League and a failed attempt at taking over the Buffalo Bills NFL franchise. His pageants have created scandal, and his appearances on WWE wrestling were a missed opportunity to cast doubt on his credibility. While diversifying, he maintained a steady tie with his family and his devotion and confidence in his children was on display during his television show, “The Apprentice.” Don Trump, Jr., Eric, and Ivanka all had significant facetime on the show and looked to be legitimate confidants of their father.

They each have contributed to the running of parts of the Trump empire, with Ivanka having branched out into her own line of products.

With the Trump ascension to the presidency, it is not surprising the family is being asked to step in to control the Trump holdings. It should come as a surprise to nobody that this is the step being taken and we should not be suspicious any more than we are when a parent passes the business on to the next generation. The truth is the children were actively involved in the Trump business before his presidency. To demand w w w.biztimes.com

n

N88 W13901 Main St., Menomonee Falls

Real Estate Management

2212 E. Moreland Blvd., Waukesha

Serving Diverse Tenant Needs

OFFICE SPACE WAREHOUSE SERVICE CENTER INDUSTRIAL RETAIL SPACE Locations in Brookfield, Pewaukee, Hartland, Waukesha, Menomonee Falls, Mukwonago, Wauwatosa, Oconomowoc, and New Berlin.

www.geraldnell.com

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

3400 Intertech Dr., Brookfield

262-513-3750 31

strategies

describe a change that appears to be “too much” or threatening. Instead, try recommending little steps that minimize the likelihood of facing a major threat. Make the first few steps look easy.

Now, use a visual The Greek derivation of video is “to understand” as well as “to see.” Of the five senses, visuals have a stronger impact and get to the brain 30 times faster than any other type of stimulus. You will create more effective, intensive, long-lasting framing if you include a visual like a video, photo or illustration.

Never say it if you can show it.

In Minuto’s presentation to TEC CEOs, he gives each member a prop (a banana, golf ball, crayon, mock turtle, etc.) and periodically asks one to tell a quick story about how the prop relates to the TEC member’s business solution.

Near the end, in a separate exercise, he tells them to listen carefully as he recites 10 emotional words and then write a list of the ones they remember. The only ones they typically remember are those at the beginning and the end. Even though they were emotional words, people couldn’t retain them easily.

Then, he asks them which member told a story using which prop. They remember all of them!

How to get to ‘yes’ faster The art of persuasion

T

he process of influencing a prospect to eventually make a decision to buy from you is called framing.

You want everything you do in the sales process to “frame” your service in the best light possible. You know what you want to do. But how you do it can make all the difference.

It’s all in understanding how the brain reacts and using that information to your advantage, says Dean Minuto, a leading expert in sales and the art of persuasion. He has studied brain responses and applied them to business marketing techniques.

Don’t rely solely on logic It’s reasonable to think you can convince prospects by reciting a list of benefits you’ll provide. But don’t rely on your numbers and logic.

You must appeal to emotions and feelings. When you do that, the mes32

A few other insights sage goes quickly to the part of the brain called the amygdala, linked to both fear and pleasure, and drives the emotion deeper into memory.

When you provide numbers and logic, however, the prospect’s thoughts go to the neocortex, where they are immediately slowed.

The amygdala is most interested in “self,” especially the self ’s survival.

That’s why it reacts instinctively to anything about the prospect, especially if you say his or her name.

Begin your framing with the person’s name, and then answer the question she’s thinking: “What’s in it for me?”

Caveat: Since fear is an emotion, you might assume you can alert the prospect to the pain or a problem that can occur by not using what you’re offering. But that’s the wrong approach. Fear usually results in a “fear, flight, freeze” attitude. The only time fear works is when you remind B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

n

PHIL HAUCK SALES prospects of a negative they are intensely aware of, and immediately follow it with the solution or benefits you will provide.

That gets her attention quickly and emotionally. If you do it right, it also relieves anxiety and keeps her alert.

Explain the change that’s needed Be careful here. Make sure you understand the risk the prospect is feeling about the current situation, as well as the complexity or unlikelihood that your solution will work.

If the prospect thinks your solutions are risky, it could spark the “fear, flight, freeze” reaction. So you don’t want to

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

People’s attention will drag about halfway through your presentation.

You can keep them alert by injecting what Minuto calls “pattern interrupts.”

These can include using their names periodically, moving around, picking up something and repeating the positives about your solution.

People love “maps,” which you can use as props. Give participants a map or handout that leads them through the sequence of your ideas and leaves room for their own notes.

At the end, the most powerful words to get their attention are “In conclusion …”

What kinds of visuals can you use?

And can you give your prospect a prop to keep, along with a story about the positive change you will provide?

You can access more of Dean Minuto’s ideas at Yescalate.com. n Phil Hauck chairs three TEC CEO groups in northeast Wisconsin. He can be reached at PHauck1@gmail.com.

EVAN EL-AMIN / SHUTTERSTOCK INC.

strategies

President Donald Trump

What to expect from Trump A look at his leadership characteristics

R

ecently, I was the guest on the “All Business” radio program on WTMJ-AM 620. I was interviewed on the topic of leadership.

Much to my surprise (but delight), one of the first questions was, “What kind of presidential leader will Donald Trump be?” On the program, I did not have enough time to fully elaborate on my reply, so I thought I would do so in this column, especially given the Trump administration is now in office and getting started.

What can we expect from Mr. Trump in his new role?

At the outset, I should let readers know I am no Johnny-come-lately to the issue of presidential personality. I have read extensively on the topic beginning in elementary school (I was Abraham Lincoln for my third grade Halloween party). The topic has long fascinated me. I own literally hundreds and hundreds of presidential biographies (much to my wife’s dismay).

Later, given my education, training and experience as an industrial-organizational psychologist, I continued to read in the area with increased insight and interest.

While there have been many books written about presidential personality, a handful have attempted to get “inside the heads” of the presidents from a psychological perspective. The first book of that kind with which I am familiar was Richard Neustadt’s 1960 book, “Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents.” As the book implies, Neustadt emphasized the roles power and authority play in presidential performance.

In 1972, James David Barber wrote his seminal book, “The Presidential Character: Predicting Presidential Performance in the White House.” This book was more psychological in nature. Barber posited a two-factor typology in which presidents varied by temperament to the extent that they were: 1. Active versus passive and 2. Positive versus negative. Four basic “types” were, therefore, possible: 1.

Adaptive (positive and active), 2. Compliant (positive and passive), 3. Compulsive (negative and active), and 4. Withdrawn (negative and passive).

In 1996, Stanley Renshon wrote the book, “Psychological Assessment of Presiw w w.biztimes.com

n

DANIEL SCHROEDER LEADERSHIP dential Candidates.” Renshon highlighted “character” as a foundational element. He outlined a basic model of character and emphasized that presidential performance is primarily a function of decision judgment and political leadership as driven and influenced by character. Ultimately, Renshon’s book explored the issue of “psychological suitability” (Is it possible to discern, prior to the election, if a candidate is psychologically suited to be president?).

In 2004, in their book, “Personality, Character and Leadership in the White House: Psychologists Assess the Presidents,” Steven Rubenzer and Thomas Faschingbauer, proposed a model for predicting presidential performance based on statistical analysis of presidents’ personality characteristics (measured via evaluation of writings, speeches, etc.) and performance in the Oval Office. Six characteristics were most predictive in their

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

study: 1. Character, 2. Neuroticism, 3. Extraversion, 4. Openness to experience, 5.

Agreeableness, and 6. Conscientiousness.

The core of their book was the series of descriptive categories within which they slotted the presidents, including: Dominators, Good Guys, Actors, Maintainers and Philosophers.

The June 2016 cover story of The Atlantic was titled, “The mind of Donald Trump: A psychologist’s guide to an extraordinary personality.” In the article, Dan McAdams, using the framework utilized by Rubenzer and Faschingbauer, took a long, hard look at Mr. Trump. McAdams discussed, at length and with vivid illustrations and examples, Trump’s disposition, mental habits, motivations and self-conception. It is a fascinating article that explores him from the inside out; I highly encourage BizTimes readers, if they have not already read it, to track it down.

In tracking down McAdams’ article, readers, though, had better brace themselves for his conclusion. In his article, as he analyzed Trump, McAdams compared Trump to our nation’s past presidents. To whom was Trump most similar in terms of his temperament? McAdams’ conclusion was that Trump combines the disagreeable, suspicious, thin-skinned and “gotcha” tendencies of Richard Nixon with the venturesome, bold and daring traits of Andrew Jackson. In other words, Richard Nixon x Andrew Jackson = Donald Trump.

Yikes!

Trump’s unpredictable and unconventional path to the presidency is exactly what got him there. It is why his backers find him appealing. It is why political insiders from both parties find him unsettling.

What can we expect from President Trump in the White House? The guess here is we can expect more of what we have seen so far. For as Tom Griffin, the owner of the Menie Estate in Aberdeen, Scotland, the real estate property Trump sought to purchase in 2006 to build a luxury golf resort, observed after meeting with him, “It was Donald Trump playing Donald Trump.”

Trump’s presidential “act” is about to unfold. Stay tuned. It is likely to be a wild ride. n Daniel Schroeder, Ph.D. is president and chief executive officer of Brookfield-based Organization Development Consultants Inc. (www.od-consultants.com). He can be reached at 888.827.1901 or Dan.Schroeder@ OD-Consultants.com.

33

biz connections CA L E NDAR

NONPROFIT DIRECTORY

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce’s Council of Small Business Executives will host FLSA Overtime Rule: What you need to know on Tuesday, Feb. 7, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the University Club of Milwaukee, 924 W. Wells St. in Milwaukee. Jim Chiolino of the State Department of Workforce Development, Jill Sopha of Sopha Mediation LLC and Mark Goldstein of Goldstein Law Group S.C. will discuss the future of the FLSA. Cost is $39 for MMAC members and $59 for non-members. For more information or to register, visit web.mmac.org/events.

SPOTLIGHT

The Waukesha County Business Alliance will host The Art of Networking on Wednesday, Feb. 8, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the WCBA office, 2717 N. Grandview Blvd. in Waukesha. The free workshop will help professionals understand the art of networking and build their toolbox. Mervyn Byrd, director of sales and leadership development at the Alliance, will present. For more information or to register, visit www.waukesha.org/events.

The South Suburban Camber of Commerce will host a Chamber Networking Breakfast on Wednesday, Feb. 8, from 7 to 9 a.m. at JB’s on 41, 4040 S. 27th St. in Milwaukee. Each attendee can give a 30-second introduction on herself and her company, and can distribute brochures, door prizes and promotional merchandise. Cost is $15 and pre-registration is appreciated. For more information or to register, visit business.southsuburbanchamber.com/events.

MKE Sales Accelerator will host an “Align” Sales Workshop on Thursday, Feb. 9, from 1 to 4 p.m. at C2, 700 W. Virginia St., Suite 602, Milwaukee. The workshop is aimed at helping salespeople drive their sales faster with tools to target their efforts, connect with more prospects, get through more doors and get more meetings. Cost is $149. For more information or to register, See the complete calendar of visit www.mkesalesaccelerator.com. upcoming events & meetings.

www.biztimes.com

BIZ NO T ES Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. Baird Advisors, the fixed income management division at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., has been named a finalist for the Morningstar 2016 Fixed-Income Fund Manager of the Year Award. The recognition was bestowed on the fixed income team, led by Mary Ellen Stanek.

Other members are Gary Elfe, Charles Groeschell, Warren Pierson, Jay Schwister, Dan Tranchita and Sharon DeGuzman. The team was recognized for its management of the Baird Core Plus Bond Fund. Established in 1988, the Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year award recognizes portfolio managers who demonstrate excellent investment skill and the courage to differ from the consensus to benefit investors.

Milwaukee Academy of Science and CESA #1 Humana Inc. has recognized Milwaukee Academy of Science in Milwaukee and Cooperative Educational Service Agency #1 in Pewaukee with its Total Health Thriving Together Award for their efforts to build cultures of health and wellbeing for their employees. The school districts obtained two of the best wellness engagement rates in the country, getting at least 80 percent of employees and family dependents involved in improving their personal health behavior. Tresca Meiling, manager of development and community engagement, received the award on behalf of MAS, which is an independent charter school with about 1,000 students from K4 to 12th grade. CESA #1 is an educational agency that provides services to 45 school districts in six southeastern Wisconsin counties. It incorporated wellness initiatives for

34

its employees about four years ago, including a Wellness Committee that develops health resources for staff.

Artisan Partners David Samra and Dan O’Keefe of the Global Value team at Milwaukee-based Artisan Partners have been nominated for Morningstar Inc.’s International Stock Fund Manager of the Year award. Samra and O’Keefe were recognized for managing Artisan International Value Fund.

The pair, which also manages the Artisan Global Value Fund, has been nominated for this award in six of the past nine years, and has won twice.

Established in 1988, the Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year award recognizes portfolio managers who demonstrate excellent investment skill and the courage to differ from the consensus to benefit investors.

Spano Pratt Executive Search Spano Pratt Executive Search of Milwaukee has been named among the nation’s Top 50 Nonprofit and Higher Education Search Firms by Hunt Scanlon publication Executive Search Review. It is the only Wisconsin-based firm to have been nominated and selected. Spano Pratt has completed several high profile search projects to help governance boards seeking new leadership and a variety of clients in the nonprofit and higher education sector. “We’re excited to be included in this prestigious group of search firms and also about the future as we continue our high-impact work in assisting our clients with the important job of deciding who leads,” said Jamie Pratt, founding partner of the firm.

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

n

Peace Learning Center of Milwaukee Inc. 3224 N. Gordon Place, Milwaukee | 414.350.4721 www.plcmke.org Facebook: Peace Learning Center of Milwaukee Inc.

Year founded: 2002 Mission statement: To be a catalyst in our community for nonviolent conflict management and respect for self, others and the environment.

Primary focus: Providing opportunities for school children, teens and adult staff to learn and practice nonviolent conflict management skills through daylong workshops and follow-up sessions; to strengthen classroom communities through empathy and tolerance; to build healthy communication skills to de-escalate conflict, minimize classroom disruptions and empower students to manage conflict independently.

Other focuses: Train professional educators and student teacher candidates in ways to implement peace tools in classroom management and school environments. Engage in violence prevention community conversations and action.

Employees at this location: One part-time executive director; six part-time staff Key donors: Top five donors for 2016 (listed alphabetically): »» Annette J. Roberts and Joan R. Robertson Fund for World Peace, World Law and Peace Education »» Milwaukee Friends Meeting »» North Shore Presbyterian Church »» Pieper Electric Inc./Ideal Mechanical »» Weiss Family Foundation Executive leadership: »» Tara Serebin, executive director

Board of directors: »» Kim Apfelbach, chair, community volunteer »» Molly Zillig, vice-chair, principal assistant corporation counsel for Milwaukee County »» Robert Ferriday III, treasurer, retired CFO of United Way of Greater Milwaukee »» Shazia Ali, secretary, program manager, Quality Initiatives, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology »» Cassie Cibik, educator, Milwaukee Public Schools »» Terrell Moore, undergraduate admissions counselor, Marquette University »» Paul Moriarity, educator, community volunteer »» Mary Mowbray, community volunteer, environmental educator consultant »» Kate Pfister, educator, Shorewood Public Schools »» Chris Yoder, educator, West Allis Public Schools (liaison to Milwaukee Friends Meeting) Is your organization actively seeking board members for the upcoming term?

Yes. Fund development and community outreach roles.

Ways the business community can help your nonprofit: »» Financially sponsor an interested school in participating in PLC workshops. »» Provide in-kind services such as graphic design, printing or other. »» Provide board members. »» Provide promotional opportunities and partnerships.

Key fundraising events: • Annual donor appeal (November) • Holiday cookie fundraiser (December) • Annual spring fundraiser (Spring-TBD)

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

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

biz connections PER SO NNE L F I L E

■ Architecture

Morales Griswold Milwaukee-based Rinka Chung Architecture has named Steve Morales associate principal and Chad Griswold principal.

■ Building & Construction MSI General Corp., Oconomowoc, recently added Tim Luetzow to its team as an estimator within the estimating department.

Brookfield-based Hunzinger Construction has added Shawn Durkin to the team as an assistant project manager. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities where he earned a BAS in construction management with a minor in architecture.

■ Education

Submit new hire and promotion announcements to www.biztimes.com/submit/the-bubbler

Aurora Health Care has hired Jessica Bauer to serve as president of Aurora Sinai Medical Center and Aurora St. Luke’s South Shore. She succeeds Carolynn Bauer Glocka, who is retiring after many years of service to Aurora.

■ Insurance Amy Campbell has been named assistant vice president-customer experience at West Bend-based West Bend Mutual Insurance. In this role, she will be responsible for ensuring West Bend continues to provide an excellent customer experience for both its independent insurance agents and its policyholders.

Paterson

Polaski

Sean Paterson and James Polaski have been named vice presidents at Robertson Ryan & Associates in Brookfield. Paterson is a leader in the insurance industry and volunteers by serving on many professional insurance-related committees. Polaski has been an insurance professional since 1983. He will continue to own and service his client book and serve as a vice president at Robertson Ryan.

Pirozzolo-Mellowes

Kohout

■ Health Care Blaire Berridge recently joined the New Berlin-based HNI Risk Services team as an account associate. She will be responsible for the day-to-day processing of new business and renewal business. Berridge also will be accountable for delivering customer service and communication with the team.

Impola Brooks Foley & Lardner LLP has named Rebecca w w w.biztimes.com

n

■ Professional Services Peter Jordan, an

partners in the firm.

DeWitt Ross & Stevens S.C., Brookfield, has named Deborah Meiners partner.

Meiners practices in the areas of litigation, construction litigation, labor and employment Meiners and title insurance litigation. Additionally, the firm has added Elizabeth Neal to the firm as a member of its intellectual property group.

■ Manufacturing The Industrial Controls Co. Inc., Sussex, recently added Jim Fackelman to the team. He has spent his 40-year career in operations, manufacturing, engineering and materials. Fackelman has spent the past 17 years consulting in a variety of industries with a focus on initiatives such as lean manufacturing and value stream mapping.

Max Weiss Co., Milwaukee, added to its customer service team with the hiring of Maxwell Furstenau as sales estimator.

Furstenau, a U.S. Army veteran, brings knowledge of materials, plus machining and engineering processes, to his front-end project interaction with customers.

Marketing & ■ Public Relations

■ Legal Mallach Fayle Carroll University, Waukesha, has hired Jake Mallach as front-end developer and Greta Fayle as administrative assistant in the office of communications and marketing. In his new role, Mallach will support communications and marketing initiatives, as well as information technology services, with web development, design and programming.

Pirozzolo-Mellowes, Jason J. Kohout, Matthew Impola and H. Holden Brooks

Jurkowski Miller West Bend-based EPIC Creative hired Michael Jurkowski as media coordinator and Jaclyn Miller as senior account manager. Jurkowski will be responsible for developing media plans, securing ad placements, and working closely with media vendors and the account management team.

Miller will be responsible for managing marketing programs for business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients.

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

experienced trade show exhibit craftsman with a background in architectural design and planning, joined Brookfield-based Exhibit Systems as a designer.

The Tribute Companies Inc., Hartland, recently added Maggie Attoe to its sales team as regional sales manager for the western region that includes Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Clark Iowa; and Eric Clark as regional sales manager for the eastern region, which includes Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

■ Real Estate

Seifert

Blankenship Knight Barry has added Maggie Seifert and

Leah Blankenship,

commercial title officers, and Amy Lund, commercial business development coordinator, to its Milwaukee Lund office. They will work on title underwriting for commercial projects.

■ Retail

Smith Dulka Milwaukee-based Hal Leonard has promoted Brad Smith to vice president of musical instrument products and Trish Dulka to vice president of communications and advertising.

Smith joined Hal Leonard in 1993 developing custom products for musical instrument manufacturers. Dulka started at Hal Leonard in 1989 as an advertising coordinator and became advertising manager in 1999.

35

biz marketplace PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Lobby furniture | Cubicle panels | Office chairs | Carpeting

Fresh Start for Winter!

Call Mark today: 414.610.9507 | meyercarpetcleaning.com

HERE’S MY CARD GALLERY

SEWER CLOGS?

Having Printer Problems? We can HelP!

We have the solution!

High pressure water jetting

Leaders in Environmental, Safety and Resource Recovery Services.

CALL US NOW: 414.963.9696

• Full Service Provider • Award Winning Services • Recycling Alternatives • New Recycling Center

262.790.2500

www.enviro-safe.com

414.213.9617 | www.MIP4U.com

www.qcs1.com

Football shirts

with an Attitude!

Check out our website for exciting new designs Order or call today 262-510-8963 www.greenbaypackertshirts.com 0310-0117

SHA RE YOUR P RODUC T/SERV IC E OR ADD YOUR BUSINE SS CARD.

ADVERTISE IN THE BIZ MARKETPLACE TODAY! 24 Hour Emergency Service (262) 650-0770

Contact our advertising group for rates and specs. advertising@biztimes.com or 414-336-7112

www.dillettmechanical.com 36

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

n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

biz connections

BIZTIMES AROUND TOWN n

1

2

3

4

5

6

IBAW Breakfast The Independent Business Association of Wisconsin recently hosted a breakfast with Mark King, owner of Outward Focus, on “What it Means to be Optimistic: Powerful Principles that Make a Difference,” at the Wisconsin Club in downtown Milwaukee.

7

1

Robert Gross of Gross Automation and Wayne Breitbarth of Power Formula LLC.

2

Sue Kohlmann of Kohlmann Management Group and Bob Genc of Abacus Business Leaders LLC.

3

Tony Haning of JLL and Jeff O’Connor of CJM Lighting and Electrical Inc.

4

Keith Barry of M3 Financial and Jerry Wick of Custom

8

Data Too Mail.

5

Jeffrey Luczak of North Shore Bank and Julie Tonkovitz of AT&T Wisconsin.

6

Daniel Hansen of Waukesha State Bank, Katie Ross of Xorbix Technologies Inc. and Scott Seroka of Seroka.

7

David Drumel of Staff Electric Co. Inc. and Craig Coursin of Stier Construction Inc.

8

Mary Stark of Waddell & Reed and Wendy Lapp of CH Coakley & Co.

9

King discussed management strategies for business owners and executives.

Photos by Molly Dill

You can see these photos and other business people in the news by clicking Multimedia on the navigation bar at …

9

www.biztimes.com w w w.biztimes.com

n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

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

37

biz connections

n GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR VOLUME 22, NUMBER 23 FEBRUARY 6 - 19, 2017 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

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

SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR OF SALES

Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE

Maribeth Lynch mb.lynch@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Molly Lawrence molly.lawrence@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Maggie Pinnt maggie.pinnt@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Lena Tomaszek lena.tomaszek@biztimes.com SALES INTERN

Salimah Muhammad salimah.muhammad@biztimes. com

REPORTER

Ben Stanley ben.stanley@biztimes.com INTERN REPORTER

Maredithe Meyer maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com

MacArthur Square

PRODUCTION & DESIGN GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Alex Schneider alex.schneider@biztimes.com ART DIRECTOR

Shelly Tabor shelly.tabor@biztimes.com

This image, taken by James Conklin circa 1940, shows the widening of West Kilbourn Avenue near North Eighth Street in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee County Courthouse, still in use today, can be seen in the background. Eighth Street and Kilbourn Avenue no longer meet, and this site is now MacArthur Square.

— 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

Still plenty to look forward to for state’s sports fans – and businesses

I

am still in a funk about the Green Bay Packers’ loss in the NFC Championship game. The team had a great run and overcame a ton of adversity. But it’s always tough to get so close to the Super Bowl, only to be denied.

I can only imagine how Wisconsin sports bar owners and Packers apparel vendors feel.

Despite that disappointment, Wisconsin sports fans – and area businesses – have a lot to look forward to later this year.

The region will host two major national sporting events.

The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship is coming to Milwaukee again in March. The tournament provides a great boost to Milwaukee hotels at what is normally a slow time of the year.

Area hotels normally do great in the warm 38

weather months, but have much lower occupancy rates while the weather is cold.

I would love to see my Wisconsin Badgers return to the BMO Harris Bradley Center, where they started their Final Four run in 2014. But downtown businesses would probably be better off if teams with large, passionate fan bases (such as the University of Kentucky) traveled here and spent their money at hotels and restaurants. Many local fans will just go home after the game, making less of an economic impact.

This will be the fourth time Marquette University and the Bradley Center have hosted the NCAA tournament since 2004, which has been great for Milwaukee. Hopefully, the tournament continues to return on a regular basis at the new arena. You would think so. The planned “live block” could be a great pre-game and B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

n

post-game setting during the tournament.

An even bigger event will come to the area this summer. The U.S. Open will be played at Erin Hills in Washington County from Jun 15 to 18. It will be the first time the event, perhaps the biggest of the professional golf majors, is played in Wisconsin.

Since the late ’90s, Kohler Co. has hosted the PGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open several times at its Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run golf courses. Those events brought thousands of visitors to Sheboygan County and invaluable international exposure for the area and those golf courses, considered some of the best in the nation.

Now it’s Erin Hills’ turn. The U.S. Open also will bring thousands to area hotels and restaurants, and will put the golf course and the Kettle Moraine area on the inter-

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

w w w.biztimes.com

ANDREW WEILAND Editor BizTimes Milwaukee

national map. The TV shots of Holy Hill as a backdrop to the course will be priceless.

Visit Milwaukee says the U.S. Open will have a $60 million economic impact on the Milwaukee area, and the United States Golf Association says the economic impact on southeastern Wisconsin will be $125 million. That’s huge, obviously.

The exposure from these tournaments has done wonders for the reputation of the Kohler Co. golf courses and Erin Hills.

Wisconsin is surprisingly becoming a major destination for world-class golf.

Just wait. The much-anticipated opening of Sand Valley Golf Resort in May near Nekoosa will provide yet another bigtime golf attraction for the state.

Now if only I could fix my lousy swing. n

ERICH SCHROEDER PHOTOGRAPHY

the last word

Invest in new tools to remain competitive

Paul Schulz Vice president Max Weiss Co. 8625 W. Bradley Road, Milwaukee Industry: Metal forming and fabrication Employees: 30 www.maxweiss.com

Paul Schulz is vice president at Milwaukee-based Max Weiss Co. He says even though capital investments can be costly and time consuming, they also are necessary to keep up with the competition.

“On the surface, our business seems simple. We bend metal. You’ll find our products in stadiums, marine vessels, trucks, rail lines and lots of buildings.

“The reality is more complex. Our customers build these things. All the pieces have to fit together perfectly. They need component parts – angles, tubes, pipes, channels, beams – bent to exacting dimensions of curves and radii. We have to meet their precise needs; if not, a competitor will.

“Enter our newest capital investment: the DAVI Angle Roll MCP 32. This 45-ton behemoth represents technology’s cutting edge in our industry, with full CNC capa-

bilities, Internet interfaces, and other features that only someone in the metal forming and fabrication business could truly love. We had to build a concrete-lined pit in our shop floor to accommodate it.

“Why invest more than half a million dollars and nearly a year of research and process into this acquisition? Simple: competitive necessity. If you aren’t keeping up, you’re falling behind. As customers’ needs evolve, so should your ability to meet them.

“This incredibly powerful, multi-faceted machine strengthens our ability to deliver products fast, at high quality and at a price our customers want. It adds another

w w w.biztimes.com

n

F ebr ua r y 6 - 19, 2 017

n

level to our production capabilities, which will ultimately grow our business.

“Every market is competitive. Companies need to continually adapt to be in a place where they can best serve their customers. Strategic thinking ensures survival and, ideally, thriving … even if, occasionally, you have to dig a pit to get there.” n

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

39

WELLNESS SUMMIT HEALTH CARE SAVINGS

BOTTOM LINE GAINS

Presented By:

It’s official: government studies show that well-designed wellness programs have a return on investment of $1.50 to $3 per dollar spent in increased productivity and reduced healthcare costs.

How can your company boost performance through happier employees? Join BizTimes as we present insights and learning around this important subject. Area experts will share challenges and success stories, then roll up your sleeves for three short roundtable sessions where you’ll gain actionable ideas to start or improve your own successful wellness program.

Agenda 7:00 - 7:30 | Registration and Networking 7:30 - 9:30 | Breakfast and Program 9:30 - 11:00 | Roundtable Discussions

WELLNESS SUMMIT HEALTH CARE SAVINGS

BOTTOM LINE GAINS

THE HAPPINESS FACTOR Why employee wellbeing boosts the bottome line Friday, March 17, 2016 | 7:00 – 11:00 AM

WELLNESS SUMMIT Potawatomi Hotel & Casino

HEALTH CARE SAVINGS

BOTTOM LINE GAINS

REGISTER TODAY www.biztimes.com/wellness

Sponsor:

During breaks | Interactive Wellness Fair

Speakers • Eliz Greene, Job Stress Researcher/ Motivational Wellness Speaker (1) • Jerry L. Halverson, MD, DFAPA, Medical Director, Rogers Memorial Hospital-Oconomowoc and FOCUS Adult Mood Disorders Program (2) • More speakers to be announced

(1)

(2)

Following the presentations, roundtable sessions will include topics such as: • • • • • • • • • •

Financial Health Wellness 2.0—wellness program best practices Health Insurance in the Age of Repeal and Replace Building a Healthy Workpalce Culture while Improving Your Bottom Line Beyond Meditation-Handling Stress Movement at Work-walking desks, fitness classes, and more How to pursue a happy, healthy life—simple ways to slow down and reconnect The latest in Ergonomics Drug testing policies and procedures HR updates