COB at the Core

Just the mere mention of the antique National Cash Register on display at Abdo CPA firm in Edina, Minn., elicits a smile from Jay Abdo. Nostalgia will do that.

That cash register symbolizes so much for the Abdo family, whose now robust and varied businesses got their start with a little neighborhood grocery store, Abdo Grocery, on James Avenue in Mankato.

“My Grandma Fadwa Abdo was a Lebanese immigrant, and she had a neighborhood grocery store in a Lebanese neighborhood in Mankato, and both my father and I worked there as kids, mostly selling penny candies,” said Jay, a 1974 accounting major who made change from that cash register too many times to count. “Later, she loaned my father her life savings of $13,000 to start his CPA firm in 1963. That little lady started most of what we’re doing today.”

The Abdos – the late Joe Abdo, his wife Meredith, and their seven children, including Jay, the oldest – never lost that sense of place when it came to Mankato. From Joe’s solo CPA practice in the early 1960s to now multi-million-dollar businesses in the accounting, publishing and banking industries, this community has remained the heart and soul.

“Do I ever have a connection to Mankato. It’s my hometown. Mankato has really, really been important to us,” said Jay, who also emphasized the importance of the University to his father and the College of Business (COB) where he got his start.

Throughout the years and in every division of the Abdo family businesses, COB alums have held leadership positions, working alongside three generations of Abdos and fostering the family’s homegrown, personal work culture, despite the enormous growth.

“Going all the way back to 1963 when Joe was working with local businesses in the Mankato region, the focus was to help business owners,” said Chris Powers, partner and owner at Abdo. “Today, we still have some of those locally owned family businesses as clients who are the fourth generation of their businesses.”

How it all began

Born in Mankato in 1930, Joe was the youngest of 13 children and attended Catholic school before serving during the Korean War and then joining the National Guard. He pursued his love of numbers at then-called Mankato State College on the GI Bill and majored in accounting. He was married with children, so he worked at Schwickert’s while in school, and that company became his first client after graduation. (Three generations later, they still are clients.)

It took Joe eight years to finish college, and his wife and first five children attended his graduation. All five of those kids, plus two more who followed, would end up in Abdo family businesses that stemmed from that day and that degree.

“Yep, I was there that day. I must have been about 12 years old,” said Jay of Naples, Fla.

Joe had already passed his CPA exam before graduation (the first person in the country to achieve that feat), and he started his solo CPA practice in Mankato in 1963, building a client base largely through word of mouth. Jay and his childhood friend, Gerry Eick, joined the firm in the 1970s, which was the start of the firm’s tremendous growth.

“We passed the CPA (exams) together and joined dad’s firm. When we started, it was called Abdo Abdo & Eick. I had an interest in taxation, and he had an interest in auditing, so we were a really great team,” Jay said. “Eventually we continued to grow and hire great people. The growth has really just been mind-

Now called Abdo, LLP, the company has about 200 employees over three locations in Mankato, Edina, and Scottsdale, Ariz. Jay said the firm has been connected in numerous ways with the COB during its entire history.

“Our 60th anniversary is coming up, and we’ve been so integrated with the college over that time,” he said. “Because we were alums, we did a lot of recruiting at Minnesota State Mankato. Our best people come out of the college. It’s been a great partnership.”

Powers, a 1998 accounting graduate, is one of those alums. She had met Eick through a University alumni event and initially started at the company through an internship in 1997. She said the Abdo family’s values and work culture are part of why she’s stayed all these years.

“Right away with the internship I took here, everyone was so helpful,” she said, adding that the company only had about 30 employees at the time. “I liked the people I worked with. It truly was a family business. I could offer a suggestion to the partners, and they would think about it and say, ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s go with it.’”

Witnessing and contributing to the growth has been amazing, she said.

“It feels almost like it’s a different place as it’s grown,” she said. “But we have worked very hard to keep that same culture.”

Venturing OutABDO Publishing

Joe had been on the board of Children’s World book company, which also was a client of his accounting firm. He had invested in the company and made a good profit when it sold. So, upon his retirement in 1981, Joe decided to put the money into starting his own children’s book company, Abdo and Daughters Publishing, with his daughters, Jill (Abdo) Hansen, Lynne Abdo, and Melody (Abdo) Borth. Now called Abdo Publishing, sons Jim and Paul Abdo joined the company in the 1990s.

The business went from a garage operation to a national company with more than 100 employees and the rights to 6,500 titles. The company has an editorial and marketing office in Edina, and a 30,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Mankato and is a leader in educational publishing for schools and libraries.

“The next generation is coming in,” Jay said. “We started a new sub-division of Abdo Publishing, called Abdo Kids, and they’re actually in charge of that. They’re coming up with great content for new books.”

Venturing OutBanking

The banking and finance business is the newest venture for the Abdos, which began by starting BankVista in 1999. Joe and Jay had always been interested in getting into banking and had been invited to invest in startup community banks over the years.

Banks were near the top of referral sources at the CPA firm, which led to them becoming serious about starting their own.

“We thought, ‘Maybe we should start a bank and own our own referral source,’” Jay said. “Dad was very supportive. The bank has done really well, and we’ve got locations in Mankato, Sartell, Minn., and Chaska, Minn. We work strictly with family-owned and closely held businesses.”

Jay credits Christina Bohlke, president of the Mankato market of BankVista, for more recent growth and success. Bohlke earned her finance degree from Minnesota State Mankato in 2001. She left U.S. Bank in 2015 to come to BankVista.

“The opportunity at BankVista gave me the chance to ‘run a business’ versus being strictly a commercial lender,” she said. “One of the big draws was the leadership opportunity at BankVista.”

Bohlke also appreciated the company culture of supporting small businesses and having programs available, as a preferred lender, through the Small Business Administration (SBA) that allows businesses to qualify for lending that wouldn’t traditionally be available. Even though they’re incredibly growthfocused, the Abdo family is also committed to their core, family-friendly and community-centric values.

“They’re great people to work for. You can feel how much they care,” Bohlke said.

Jay is happy their employees feel that way. It goes back to his grandmother’s work ethic and his father’s integrity when it came to business. Those traits have been infused in the fabric of their businesses.

“The most important thing is my dad was one of the most ethical people I’ve ever met,” Jay said. “He was never greedy. He didn’t live beyond his means, and he taught us to save and reinvest in our company so it would grow. … You just keep reinvesting in your company, and you end up making good money, but it’s also really good for the staff because they have the opportunity to grow with us as well.”