18 minute read
Inside Track
King engages heart for others in new role
As CEO of Gun Lake Investments, new leader embraces ‘seven grandfather teachings’ to put people first.
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Rachel Watson
rwatson@grbj.com
Although she does not have Indigenous heritage, Monica King has embraced the seven grandfather teachings of the Three Fires Confederacy — love, bravery, humility, respect, honesty, wisdom and truth — in her new role as CEO of Gun Lake Investments.
King started working in an advisory capacity for Grand Rapids-based Gun Lake Investments (GLI) — the economic development corporation (EDC) of the southwest Michigan-based Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, aka Gun Lake Tribe — in 2018 while she was in leadership at the consulting firm DWH in Grand Rapids.
Upon Kurt Trevan’s resignation from his role as GLI’s CEO in July 2021, King became interim CEO. The organization hired her as its permanent CEO, e ective Jan. 1.
GLI is the tribally owned, nongaming investment arm of the Gun Lake Tribe. It manages a portfolio of equity and debt investments in real estate and operating companies and is focused on diversifying the tribal economy, ensuring the financial foundation for the tribe for generations to come.
With more than 20 years of history in finance and operations at companies of varying size and scope, King brings to GLI experience in managing acquisitions, integrations, and infrastructure development and implementation.
She said she was drawn to the mission of GLI — “putting people first” — from day one.
“It’s so much more than just financial returns,” she said. “They really want to be good stewards of the community, and what really resonates with me is the ‘how.’ … Gun Lake and (the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi, which owns Waséyabek Development Company), they lead with the ‘seven grandfather teachings,’ (including) love, bravery, humility, respect. Those are openly talked about in business, and for me, that is amazing. I’m a real empath and empathy is so important — along with respecting and understanding and building relationships. For someone in business to talk about love, that’s normally just a foreign concept.”
King, whose paternal heritage is Chinese, grew up in Kalamazoo in a blue-collar family. Her father worked in various roles throughout his career at the automotive and aerospace supplier Parker Hannifin, and he and her mother emphasized the values of hard work and being a good person. She was the first individual on both sides of her family to graduate from college, earning a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting with a minor in marketing from Western Michigan University after first earning an associate degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community College.
“I ended up taking an accounting class in high school, and I really liked it. I also learned in high school that I was dyslexic … and I stuck with accounting because what resonated with me was always ‘balancing,’” King said. “… I was drawn to numbers, but I also found out pretty quickly in my career that I didn’t want to be a typical accountant (who) did book work all the time. I was a really big ‘people person’ and liked to be out and about.”
Channeling that love of people and being on the move, King gravitated to the operations side of the automotive industry in her work at Eaton Corporation, rising from collections specialist to financial planning manager for a division between 2001 and 2008, a job that involved travel and plenty of people interactions. She said although she gained “structure, discipline and experience” at Eaton, the wear-and-tear of being a woman in a corporate culture within a male-dominated industry took its toll, and she was ready for her next opportunity.
After a brief stint as a cost manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific, she moved on to become director of finance and human resources at Alliant Healthcare Products, a job she held until 2011.
Right around then, a pair of family health crises led King to pivot and begin her foray into consulting, first at Alliant, then on her own. Her mother had a massive brain hemorrhage, sending her into a coma, then six days later her nephew was born prematurely with two rare conditions. Her mom and nephew spent six months in the trauma department and neonatal intensive care unit, respectively, and by the year mark, they had undergone 38 separate surgeries racking up $1 million in insurance claims.
King began speaking out on her family’s experience within the health care system, becoming a vocal patient advocate at Bronson Healthcare and spending long hours at her family members’ bedsides, while also shifting her day job at Alliant into more of a turnaround consulting, project management role.
On the other side of the table during that turnaround project was DWH, the firm at which she eventually would become managing partner and CEO.
In 2012, she left Alliant to start her own firm, M. King Consulting, which provided finance and operational guidance to many industries.
While she was in Grand Rapids working with other clients, she joined forces with DWH on a project, then the firm hired her in 2015 to help transform its operations. She entered as COO and helped diversify the sta , then concentrated on adding all types of transition services, not just turnaround, including growth planning, succession planning, performance improvement and financial advisory services, to expand DWH into a general management consulting firm.
As part of its evolution into growth planning services, DWH took on Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi (NHBP) as a client in the early years of it growing its EDC, Waséyabek Development Company.
“I was one of the first people out on the reservation discussing what was going on with Waséyabek, and that’s when we started working with them, and for me, that opened the relationship up,” King said. “I grew up fairly close to Pine Creek Reservation (home of the NHBP) and was really interested in what Nottawaseppi was doing, and so when we got the chance to help work with their EDC, that was really critical, too, and a pivotal mark in the history of the firm.”
In 2018, considering the fact DWH was working on strategic planning, M&A and other services for Waséyabek, the latter acquired the former, and King continued on as a minority owner and managing partner and CEO for DWH.
The acquisition launched DWH’s tribal practice, and during the past three years, DWH has worked with multiple tribes’ EDCs, King said. One of those was GLI, which was based only a couple buildings away from DWH on Monroe Avenue NW in downtown Grand Rapids.
King met Trevan at this point, and he told her his trust in her grew when DWH became tribally owned.
“Jumping into the tribal practice, trust is huge, and that’s one of the things that I love with Gun Lake, is developing trusting relationships,” she said.
Two years into DWH’s new ownership, Waséyabek and GLI partnered to buy the McKay Tower in downtown Grand Rapids in June 2020.
By then, she had been working behind the scenes in operations for GLI as part of the tribal practice for a couple of years, but with DWH majority owned by Waséyabek, her colleagues teased her at the opening ceremony for McKay Tower, “You’re sitting on the wrong side.”
King continued helping GLI with the operations of its subsidiaries, sta ng, and the implementation of systems and processes, until Trevan announced his departure in July, setting in motion her path to the firm’s top leadership role.
She said GLI has demonstrated since the very beginning that love toward all its stakeholders is “in its DNA.”
“We prioritize people. When we look at investment decisions, it’s like, how are we going to impact the community with this? Is this good for everybody? It’s incredible. We have meetings when we talk through our strategy, and everything is with the foundation of those (seven) teachings,” she said. “The goal is sustainability for the long term. Everything that’s done is with the vision of future generations; it’s not about the now so much.”
She said she appreciates GLI’s community investment, financially and through volunteerism, and especially the way it supports other tribes in the area.
King is proud of the fact GLI already closed two deals in the first quarter of the fiscal year that started in October, and it also has several development projects underway, and this month will begin updating its strategic plan for the next five to 10 years.
On a personal level, King said she will continue to be a lifelong learner, including attending the first-ever “Tribal Governance: Sovereignty through Self-determination,” course at WMU, which the university developed in partnership with members of the Pokagon, Gun Lake and NHBP tribes and which is being taught by Sam Morseau, a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. The course will cover topics such as Indigenous leadership, the path to recognition, nation rebuilding and sustainable sovereignty.
“Over the years, from what I’ve seen, Native American history has not necessarily been presented the best in our schools, so to have a course like this at the college level is incredible,” King said.
MONICA KING
Organization: Gun Lake Investments Position: CEO Age: 42 Birthplace: Kalamazoo Residence: Schoolcraft Family: Husband, Brad, and two kids, Nolan and Natalie Community/business involvement: Junior Achievement of the Great Lakes board member; volunteer with Bronson Healthcare over the years, including serving on the patient family advisory committee, volunteering as a patient advocate, doing public speaking, sharing patient stories and helping with internal projects. Biggest career break: Gaining discipline and experience in the automotive world at Eaton Corporation, starting her own consulting firm, then helping to diversify a turnaround firm, DWH, where she assisted with establishing a tribal practice that eventually led her to Gun Lake Investments.
Monica King said she was drawn to GLI by its mission of putting people first. Photo Courtesy of DWH.
One man’s dream: all the Two Men and a Truck franchises in the region
Kyle Norcutt has been hoping to control the West Michigan territory since 1998.
Chelsea Carter
ccarter@grbj.com
Kyle Norcutt figured he might as well just corner the whole market.
The Grand Rapids native and longtime multi-unit franchisee became the sole owner of all Two Men and a Truck locations in West Michigan after closing a 2021 deal.
The September purchase of the Grand Rapids South franchise was a long time coming for Norcutt, who has owned more than 25 Two Men locations across the United States since 1998. Today, his franchise group owns 10 Two Men and a Truck locations across the country, and Norcutt said the 2021 deal, which also included two northern Indiana acquisitions, is likely to account for 25% of Empire Franchise Group’s total sales, with Grand Rapids adding roughly $2.5 million and the two Indiana locations adding an estimated $6 million to total revenue.
After co-purchasing his first franchises with a childhood friend in North Carolina more than two decades ago, Norcutt later returned to his Michigan roots after becoming the sole owner of the Kalamazoo moving franchise in 2001, which also provided him the opportunity to move back to Michigan. His current portfolio of franchises includes locations in Colorado, Utah, Washington and Indiana, but the Grand Rapids native long hoped for his homecoming, which would later involve him becoming the sole owner of all locations in the West Michigan territory.
Two Men’s West Michigan footprint, all of which are now owned by Norcutt, include Kalamazoo and its Battle Creek satellite o ce, Grand Rapids North consisting of Comstock Park and Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids South in Wyoming and Two Men Lakeshore, encompassing Holland and Spring Lake.
After living in Kalamazoo for 10 years and purchasing the Grand Rapids North franchise in 2007, Norcutt made his move back to Grand Rapids and has been living full-time in his hometown since 2012.
Norcutt’s multi-unit ownership over the years has a orded him a broad understanding of franchise growth, how to maintain customer service and provided him a skillset of how to motivate his team to find a path to success. The acquisition of the Grand Rapids South franchise has now a orded the company a more streamlined customer service and marketing model and better opportunities for employees.
“The beauty of having the whole market, it does make it a little bit easier for marketing and we have some call sharing between our locations,” Norcutt said. “So, if a customer calls any of our customer service reps at any of the four locations in West Michigan, they answer the call and schedule the estimates and book the jobs, and then we kind of look for the most e cient way to get those jobs done. So, if somebody let’s say is in Hudsonville, we can kind of share that between any of the three locations, you know, the lakeshore (and) the two Grand Rapids locations. It just kind of makes everything a little more e cient for the customer and just works out really well.”
Norcutt said his Two Men and a Truck franchises always have looked to promote and encourage growth opportunities from within, and said that the bigger West Michigan footprint also gives some opportunity for his employees to move up into di erent management positions.
“And then we have a corporate o ce that we call Empire Franchise Group that’s based in Grand Rapids, … that’s kind of our management group that oversees all of our franchises. So just having a little bit bigger presence in West Michigan makes that easier, not just for managing, but for promoting from within and giving some other people some (additional) opportunities.”
Prior to the recent acquisition, Norcutt estimates that Empire Franchise Group operated with around 225 employees across the seven nationwide locations. He said the Grand Rapids and northern Indiana locations brought approximately 50 new employees to his team who were employed under the previous owner. The acquisition also added approximately 25 trucks to his fleet, and Norcutt said the business currently operates with roughly 100 trucks. One of his focuses as the company’s growth continues is trusting his location managers and giving them plenty of room to make their own decisions.
While Norcutt has focused on a smooth transition for the business and employees staying under his leadership, he’s also seen benefits for customer service operations as a whole amid any potential impacts from COVID-19.
Norcutt said he looks forward to continuing to expand services at select franchise locations, including mobile storage and junk removal. In the fall of 2020, Norcutt’s group opened a new o ce on Dodge Court NE in Comstock Park o ering newer storage services that would piggyback on the storage space o ered at the Grand Rapids South location, which the team anticipated the eventual acquisition of.
“We’ve started rolling out bringing mobile containers out to customers’ houses, and we can load those up and then store them back in our warehouse,” he said. “Then we’ve had a junk removal service that we’ve kind of been rolling out over the last year, too. So, it’s just extra services that we provide on top of the moving services that are usually services people need when they’re moving.”
The organization also has instilled charitable giving and community impact into its core values, putting an emphasis on donating its resources and time to the communities it serves. In anticipation of its largest charitable event of the year, Movers for Moms, Two Men and a Truck has partnered with four local nonprofits for 2022, including SAFE Place of Battle Creek, YWCA West Central Michigan in Grand Rapids, Resilience in Holland and Alpha Grand Rapids. Starting in March, Two Men
Kyle Norcutt’s purchase of the Grand Rapids South territory made him the sole Two Men and a Truck franchisee in West Michigan. Courtesy Two Men and a Truck
Construction firm helps Leestma
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construction division and he plans to ramp up hiring again in the spring.
The city of Muskegon already has approved some of Leestma’s Adelaide Pointe plans, including a $12 million development agreement, $35 million brownfield plan and his Planned Unit Development design.
Beginning in February, Leestma said his company Adelaide Energy is scheduled to install a number of solar panels in the Midwest. Adelaide Energy was formed in 2018 and since then has “deployed more than 1.25 million watts of solar on Leestma Management’s properties,” he said.
Leestma said he expects the construction division to grow when begins allowing customers within his client portfolio to use its services.
“I would anticipate that probably in the next year or two we’ll be able to start looking at other types of construction jobs that would normally be competitively bid amongst some of the more established construction companies out there,” he said.
Essence rolls with changing times
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— and as commercial real estate agents look to fill spaces that independent restaurants lack the startup capital to lease. He said he doesn’t view this as a negative, because there should be enough business for everyone as the city grows.
“I think it will be a short-term trend. … Over time, it’s hard to compete against a good local restaurant that’s in any good downtown market, because it’s hard to create and manufacture a culture from Dallas or Florida,” he said.
Berg said he believes if restaurants focus on their core values and shift their perspectives from resistance to acceptance, they will be able to weather this “painful” time for the industry.
“Adversity is inevitable; learning and growing from adversity is not. … It is within our control to reap the benefits, not just the pain, of adversity,” he said.
To become a state-licensed electrician, individuals are required to have 8,000 hours of on-the-job training and be enrolled in an apprenticeship program. Courtesy Hoekstra Electrical Services
Electrical company invests in own apprentices
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Hoekstra Electrical Services creates program to fill its talent pipeline.
Danielle Nelson
dnelson@grbj.com
A commercial electrical, controls and automation services company launched an in-house apprenticeship program.
After partnering with Grand Rapids Community College, Holland-based Hoekstra Electrical Services decided to create its own electrical apprenticeship program that trains its workers to become licensed electricians.
Denny Bouma, operations director at Hoekstra Electrical, said to become a state-licensed electrician, individuals are required to have 8,000 hours of on-the-job training and be enrolled in an apprenticeship program. Afterward, they’ll become eligible to take the state’s electrical examination.
Hoekstra Electrical Services’ apprenticeship program is a four-year curriculum that started last fall with 27 individuals, ranging from recent high school graduates to experienced apprentices, all of whom were recently hired or been with the company for a short amount of time.
Since the fall, Bouma said they’ve added more individuals to the program, which provides the opportunity to learn all aspects of the trade through hands-on labs, free on-site electrical classes using a nationally recognized curriculum called Mike Holt’s Electrical Apprenticeship Curriculum, diversified learning from on-the-job training directly in various markets and one-on-one mentoring.
Bouma said the hands-on experience includes working alongside journeyman electricians to do a variety of electrical work on-site, including service calls, power outage restoration, electrical troubleshooting or a large project that includes doing electrical work on a commercial building under construction.
Twice a month in the evening, students go in-house to work on labs, review materials and study electrical codes. The classes are taught by licensed journeyman electricians who are part of Hoekstra Electrical Services.
“We wanted to take our 19-plus years of learning and knowledge and teach one of the top curricula out there,” said Lee Hiler, one of Hoekstra’s journeyman electricians and a project manager who is helping to launch the new program. “We desired to invest more into our apprentices and be able to customize the learning and build relationships and encourage each other along the way. This program also allows us to give back and be involved in our community by providing electri-
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