The Fox Cities Chamber is excited to announce the winners of the 2015 Business Awards. The goal of the awards program is to recognize and reward businesses and organizations in the Fox Cities that help make this a vibrant, innovative and dynamic community. The awards are given based on leadership, dedication and achievement.

Business of the Year

The Business of the Year Award recognizes businesses for outstanding performance, growing and/or increasing jobs; increasing sales; overcoming adversity; and community contributions. This year’s winners are:

Large Employer, Manufacturing Category – Menasha Corporation

Small Employer, Manufacturing Category – Alpha-Prime

Large Employer, Service Category – McClone

Small Employer, Service Category – Midwest Restoration

Rising Star

The Rising Stag Award recognizes relatively new “Up and Coming” small businesses with a unique blend of vision, energy, perseverance, and skill.  It is for ventures that have been in business less than five years, and have gotten off to a strong start with the potential for growing into a prosperous enterprise in the future. This year’s winners are:

Manufacturing Category – R3NEW, LLC

Service Category – Nutritional Healing

Wholesale/Retail Category – Green Gecko, Inc.

Company Innovation

Today, more than ever, innovation is recognized as the key to long-term success. Innovative companies identify opportunities, and execute creative-thinking and calculated risk-taking to bring innovation to the marketplace. The Company Innovation award acknowledges organizations that take risks around their marketing and promotional practices that have ultimately improved revenue, communication, customer relationships, market share or visibility.

This year’s winner is:

Small Employer – AeroInnovate

Exemplary Marketing and/or Performance

The Exemplary Marketing and/or Performance award recognizes organizations that have taken risks around their marketing and promotional practices that have ultimately improved revenue, communication, customer relationships, market share or visibility. This year’s winners are:

Large Employer – Fox Valley Technical College

Small Employer – SOAR Fox Cities

Corporate Citizen / Corporate Leadership

The Corporate Citizen/Corporate Leadership Award recognizes organizations with a philosophy of giving and community involvement that have made significant differences in the health and well-being of the Fox Cities. The award encourages and supports corporate social responsibility and community leadership. This year’s winners are:

Large Employer – Innovative Services, Inc.

Small Employer – Stellar Blue

On Wednesday, June 10^th, the Fox Cities Chamber is hosting an awards luncheon at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton, where the winners will be recognized for their achievements. General admission is $25, and tables of 10 are $275. Visit www.foxcitieschamber.com to register for the luncheon.  Join us and celebrate with your peers.

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Rosegirls Wax Melts

Rosegirls Wax Melts are wax melts customized by you. Choose from over 200 different scents to create your own unique blend. We specialize in helping our customers create scented wax melts with numerous choices for scents and combinations, rather than the boring, stale single scented candle/wax options are that available on the market currently.

Remix Concrete Products

Remix Concrete utilizes waste porcelain for specialized concrete mixes. Remix concrete offers up to 70% post-consumer products, lightweight concrete, heat/fire resistance, cold resistance, LEED certified concrete. Remix can be utilized as ANY concrete product. It can be used on a highway, decorative concrete, building block, roof tile, stucco, and many other uses. The porcelain creates a barrier in the concrete to stop the filtration of heat and or cold temperatures. Utility Patent pending.

Putzer Cliff Innovations

When this product was invented its sole purpose was to eliminate the danger of having one’s safety/eyeglasses/goggles fog up. After much research and numerous conversations with DIYers and construction professionals it was found that the mis-use or non-use of the dust mask was occurring. It soon became clear that people were not wearing the dust mask because it was ultimately hindering their vision or was too cumbersome to wear while working. There was also the notion that it was a hassle to wear a dust mask for just a few minutes. The Zwilter Filter is a non-cumbersome ready when you need it, easy in easy out product. The user can make the easy choice where, when and how to use the dust filter.

Bill-Ray Home Mobility, LLC

Selling independence to seniors! Few people have the interest or finances to leave their comfortable homes and require help to remain there. Mobility issues can be the worst in the bed area as getting in/out of bed can be dangerous for both the person and caregiver. “Friendly Beds” is designed as a heavy duty innovative bed mobility system allowing people to “help themselves” for improved safety, independence, self-esteem, and strength conditioning.

DevLo

DevLo is a company that means “Device Location.” The objective of DevLo is to connect people to their most valuable items through their location. The product is a card composed of a GPS receiver, micro-controller, SIM card holder (and SIM card), and a battery. A command from a phone initiates the GPS receiver and obtains the device’s location, then the information is sent from the device’s SIM card back to the users phone number. DevLo is the first device to truly find anything, anywhere.

Sizzle

About 17 million students enrolled in universities today go out on a regular basis, and what if you could get the most out of your night, every night, using data that is already out there? What if by simply opening your phone you could tell which bars, clubs, or parties had the most people there, or the best drink specials, or the most singles? What if you could see pictures of the inside before you even get there? Well we’re Sizzle, and we turn what if’s into what the hell happened last night.

Princeton Audio, LLC

Introducing – The Site:1 the worlds first portable, constructed like a musical instrument and engineered to never technologically obsolete.  Princeton Audio, LLC uses the time-tested techniques of woodworking artisans and master builders of musical instruments in the making of speakers and headphones.

Ultimate Natural Goose Decoy

This product brings new, realistic movement to decoys. It has fully articulated motion across the entire bird, which mimics a live bird more realistically. The head is able to move up, down, left, and right. The mouth opens and closes and the neck of the bird has full motion, from fully erect to feeding position while moving left and right The decoy is also capable of rearing up, keeping the neck in true position and opening and flapping the wings whether the body is up or down. These realistic movements will bring in much higher volume of birds.

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He joined the SECURA, a mutual property and casualty insurer,in 1997 as President and CEO and was named chairman of its board of directors in 2004. From 1972 to 1979, he held underwriting management positions at Milwaukee Mutual and Allstate Insurance. He worked as vice president of casualty operations at Wisconsin Employers Group from 1979 to 1983, and then moved to West Bend Mutual where he was senior vice president of marketing from 1983 to 1997. Bykowski is a graduate of Marquette University.

Active in the insurance industry and community, he has served on the board of directors for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) from 2003 to 2009, which included a 2007-08 term as board chairman.

Join us in celebrating with him at the Event: Celebrating Business on Nov. 5.  Click here to reserve your tickets.

The post Congratulations John Bykowski- Fox Cities Chamber Business Hall of Fame inductee appeared first on Fox Cities Chamber Blog.

Jim Beré was an entrepreneur before launching start-up Alta Resources, which is a customer management business process outsourcer based in Neenah.  First a product manager at Kimberly-Clark, Jim took a risk by walking away from the comfort of his secure job to make his own mark. His success or failure would be just that: his own.  If it didn’t work out, he’d learn a lot and move on.  There’s a name for that concept; entrepreneurs today call it “fail fast.”

Jim’s first venture, Ameritel Corporation, began in 1982 and was so successful that it was acquired in 1990. Five years later, he was back at it, cofounding what is now Alta Resources. At that time, Jim’s second start-up was one of few of its kind occupying the outsourcing-market space, putting Jim and his team at the cutting edge of what has become a megatrend. Keeping that trend at their backs as competition began to fill the space required them to stay innovative. Fast forward 19 years.

What once took the form of product and service innovation has grown to incorporate process innovation, as Alta Resources moved from start-up to the preferred partner of Fortune 500 and 100 clients. Now innovation incorporates identifying how to culturally create an environment for continuous improvement, such as becoming a Six Sigma Green Belt organization, and knowing and living your organization’s Guiding Principles.

One of those Guiding Principles that Jim is especially passionate about is Community.  The entire Alta Resources team gives back and makes a difference, particularly by embracing United Way, and Jim is proud to see Alta Resources as one of the Fox Cities’ top contributors annually.  Jim is on the Leadership Giving Committee for United Way Fox Cities. Also, for many years, he was involved with World Vision, having served on World Vision International’s board of directors and having been chairman of the board of directors for World Vision U.S.; World Vision is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization dedicated to providing community-based relief and development programs globally.

So, what does success look like to an original entrepreneur? Jim adds, “There’s a fine line between success and failure.”  Ultimately, he says, “Success is getting someone to believe in and find value in what you are selling. In the beginning, you only get one chance, and we delivered client results in a way that enabled us to succeed.” “I’m also really proud of the jobs we’ve created,” Jim reflects. Alta Resources is now home to a budding campus, which also serves as the company’s headquarters and houses its support departments, in downtown Neenah and is one of the area’s premier employers (nearly 3,300 people companywide at the end of 2013, with more than 1,600 based locally).

One of Jim’s resounding messages is, “Powerful things happen with teams.” He explains, “While I am receiving this award, ‘I’ didn’t build Alta Resources. ‘We’ built Alta Resources together.”

Jim has returned to his roots of entrepreneurship with his involvement in a new venture, the Alta Resources Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), a partnership with the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh College of Business and the Small Business Development Center. The mission of the CEI, which just received the 2014 “Emerging Center Award” from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, is to inspire, educate and develop entrepreneurial leaders through world-class education; cutting-edge research; and applied preparation, mentorship and public recognition. Beyond the financial contribution, Alta Resources will provide mentorship and networking opportunities for UWO students. A goal of the partnership is to help break down barriers to success that young entrepreneurs often face due to lack of support from an established network.  As a seasoned entrepreneur, Jim is able to offer expertise, resources and connections to students ready to launch and develop their business ideas, which, in his words “is very exciting.”

Join us in celebrating with him at the Event: Celebrating Business on Nov. 5.  Click here to reserve your tickets.

The post Jim Beré honored as Entrepreneur of the Year appeared first on Fox Cities Chamber Blog.

Kathi Seifert is a coach, resource, and an avid supporter of multiple community organizations, who works very hard to help those in need.    One of the ways she shares her knowledge and leadership skills is through mentoring girls basketball players at Menasha and Kaukauna schools, where she made an impact on young people in a way that builds their self-confidence, helps them stand taller, and feel committed to doing well as players and as a team.

She has  mentored dozens of young professionals looking for career advice, which has ranged from helping them position themselves better for the job market or thinking through career opportunities, to helping build their self-confidence in dealing with tough situations professionally.

Kathi also helps non-profit organizations succeed by  assisting them with goal setting and  strategic priorities and recruiting stronger board members who are business minded, which she feels is essential for all non-profit organizations and leaders need to be business focused to maintain financial sustainability while delivering against their respective missions.

Several years ago, Kathi and Anne Marie Werner started  an organization called PWN (Professional Women’s Network), which focused on helping professional women new to the area (transferred here with their spouses/partners) meet other professional women and possibly find job opportunities.  Over the course of a few years, women found new friends and supporters and over a dozen women found new career opportunities, which, Kathi says, ” was terrific!”

When Kathi isn’t mentoring individuals, she is often speaking  to groups of women, who are looking for advice on work/family balance, how best to work in a male dominated career environments and  how to strengthen their leadership capabilities.

What motives Kathi to give so much back to individuals, businesses and the community? “Personally, I feel very blessed to have very supportive family members and friends, work environments, and mentors along the way who have helped me with my personal journey. ”  Kathi says.  “I have learned a great deal over the years that I wish to share with others who are looking for advice.  I enjoy helping others and feel rewarded when I see individuals grow in self-confidence and better achieve their full potential, and when organizations are more focused on driving results.”

Looking back, Kathi considers her most influential mentor to be Jack Besser, who was a Senior Vice President at Kimberly-Clark.  “Early in my career at KC, it was a very male dominated environment.  Jack took me under his wing (like a daughter) and he gave me feedback on how I was doing, how I interacted or presented in meetings, how I should dress, and the importance of meeting with customers to hear and understand where they are coming from.  He would make sure at KC events, that I sat at the head table with Darwin Smith, the Chairman and CEO  of KC at the time, which was a bit frightening, but provided great opportunities to listen to Darwin  share his highest priorities for KC.” She recalls. “His advice to me and other new KC’ers, was that the “Harder you work, the luckier you get”, which is as true today as it was back in the 70’s/80’s.”

Join us in celebrating with her at the Event: Celebrating Business on Nov. 5.  Click here to reserve your tickets.

The post Kathi Seifert Earns Joyce Bytof Exceptional Mentor of the Year Award appeared first on Fox Cities Chamber Blog.

Kathi also been a mentor to many young entrepreneurs in our community, giving advice and guidance to ensure they grow to be leaders and successful organizations within the region.

In addition to her incredibly caring attitude toward others and our community, Kathi has used her talent, enthusiasm, and passion to positively touch thousands of lives.

Join us in celebrating with her at the Event: Celebrating Business on Nov. 5.  Click here to reserve your tickets.

The post appeared first on Fox Cities Chamber Blog.

Join us in celebrating with her at the Event: Celebrating Business on Nov. 5.  Click here to reserve your tickets.

The post Congratulations Leota Ester-Fox Cities Chamber Business Hall of Fame inductee appeared first on Fox Cities Chamber Blog.

Jason’s dream is for his company to have a major impact on the community.  He aspires to follow in the footsteps of business leaders that have had a significant impact on the community and to bring economic prosperity to the area.  he has witnessed business owners turning their attention to the community when they are at peace with their finances.

Congratulate Jason on his LinkedIn page.

Join us in celebrating with him at the Event: Celebrating Business on Nov. 5.  Click here to reserve your tickets.

The post Jason Henderson earns Young Professional of the Year honor appeared first on Fox Cities Chamber Blog.

Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce supports The Future Wisconsin Project

Don’t miss this chance to influence the direction of Wisconsin and show that the Fox Cities is passionate about our future! The Fox Cities Chamber is organizing a Fox Cities Table for the event, and we’d love to have you join us. Please register here, then let us know you’ll be joining our table by emailing Linda Myers at lmyers@foxcitieschamber.com so we can count you in!

The Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce is joining with the State Chamber of Commerce and five other state organizations to embark on a 20-year strategic economic plan for the state.  The Future Wisconsin Project is designed to make the Badger State the most competitive state in the nation

Why is this project necessary? Twenty years ago, there was no iPad or WiFi.  There were no social media directors or cloud computing services.  And words like blog, Google, millennial, and staycation didn’t exist.

Baby Boomers were not turning 65 at a rate of 10,000 a day.  The number of incoming kindergartners still exceeded the number of graduating 12^th graders in Wisconsin.  The unemployment rate was holding steady at 4.5%.  And troubling demographics and Wisconsin’s business competitiveness were not front page news.

However, what if . . .

. . . 20 years ago, when we knew there was a severe labor shortage coming . . . and we did know . . . we had put a plan in place to address it?

. . . 20 years ago, we had branded the state . . . not as cheeseheads from the frozen tundra but as entrepreneurs from the state of innovation . . . as an attractive place for the next generation?

. . . 20 years ago, everyone . . . Republicans and Democrats alike . . . had agreed on a set of measures and goals that would ensure Wisconsin’s economic competitiveness?

. . . 20  years ago, we had established an academic and career plan, and work experiences . . . for every student . . . to guide them and their parents in selecting a meaningful career track?

. . . today, we decided not to let history repeat itself?

A Georgetown University study suggests Wisconsin will add 317,000 jobs this decade.  The Applied Population Lab at UW-Madison says we will add 15,000 working age people between now and 2030.Since 1997, the number of kindergartners has not been replacing our graduating seniors.Wisconsin will double its 65-year-old and older population in the next 25 years, from 750,000 to 1.5 million.

Do you see the problem yet?

• How about our loss of college graduates every year?  14,000.

• How about the economic uncertainty caused by political swings in the past 10 years?

• How about the skills gap we have seen throughout Wisconsin as students pursue degrees that do not lead to careers, while jobs go wanting skilled applicants?

Now, are you ready for the good news?  We can overcome all of these challenges.  That’s why we are participating in The Future Wisconsin Project. And we want YOU to participate, too!

To ensure prosperity for the communities of Wisconsin, and rewarding and high-paying careers for our citizens, the Badger State must be positioned as a leader in the following areas:

• Talent Development, Attraction and Retention
• Business Competitiveness
• Global Engagement
• Government Effectiveness
• Life Quality
• Entrepreneurial Spirit

These six areas are known as the Competitive Quality Indicators (CQIs) – areas of focus that are critical if Wisconsin is to be a competitive place to do business 20 years from now.  With the cooperation of the University of Wisconsin System, Wisconsin Economic Development Cooperation, the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Wisconsin Technical College System and the Department of Workforce Development, as well as our long-time partners among local chambers of commerce, we are positioned to effectively plan for the future.

More than a year in the making, the project has seen Wisconsin businesses, educators, and leaders begin the discussion of ensuring a competitive state.  Advisors with expertise in the six focus areas have been identified to react to ideas generated by hundreds of Wisconsin citizens.  And a culminating event has been planned for December 3 in Milwaukee to organize and prioritize the initiatives we will take forward together.  This process will be repeated every year to ensure Wisconsin’s competitiveness.

This year, the WMC Foundation has presented to business and educators at all 16 technical college campuses reaching nearly 1,000 people; written guest columns and done media appearances; engaged the local chambers of commerce; identified advisors for each of the six critical areas; and finalized a game plan through the end of the year.  We are excited about The Future Wisconsin Project because it will bring with it the power of the state’s business community, higher education, economic development, public and private sector, and an estimated 3,000 Wisconsin citizens.

Though there are barriers to overcome such as increasing venture capital, filling the skills gap, infrastructure problems, a state image problem, issues in some urban communities, and obstacles for growing jobs and the economy, we have great strengths.  The Badger State boasts business diversity, a strong work ethic, a high quality of life, great business and education partnerships, good schools, an improving business climate, and a “can do” attitude.

Whether you are Democrat, Republican or Independent, whether your party is in the majority or the minority, we must define and measure business competitiveness and strive to make Wisconsin irresistible to employers and employees alike.  It starts by having a WISconversation.

Join us at the event on December 3 to include your voice!

The post It’s time for a WISconversation appeared first on Fox Cities Chamber Blog.

Walter has served as past Chairman of the Board of ThedaCare and Chairman of the ThedaCare Center for Health Care value. Walter was also Chairman of the Community Foundation of the Fox Valley Region and was the recipient of the Walter L Rugland Community Service Award.

Walter was the founding Director of Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and Secretary/Treasurer until 2014. He was the Chairman of the Board of the Fox Cities Building for the Arts. is the past Chairman of the Board of the Community Blood Center. Walter’s committment to bettering our community is admirable.

Join us in celebrating with him at the Event: Celebrating Business on Nov. 5.  Click here to reserve your tickets.

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