BizTimes Media LLC has announced the winners of its 2012 Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards and IQ (Innovation Quotient) Awards.
The 2012 BizTimes Bravo! Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Sheldon Lubar, founder and chairman of Lubar & Co. in Milwaukee.
Past recipients of the Bravo! Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award have included Fritz and Debra Usinger of the Usinger family, Stephen Marcus of The Marcus Corp., George Dalton of Fiserv Inc., Robert Kern of Generac, Joe Zilber of Towne Realty and Harry Quadracci of Quad/Graphics Inc.
Lubar is a director of several public companies, including Crosstex Energy, Star Gas, Approach Resources, and Hallador Energy as well as other private companies. Previously, he served as chairman of Christiana Companies, Inc., chairman of C2 Inc. and a director of MassMutual Life Insurance Co., U.S. Bancorp, MGIC Investment Corp., Ameritech Corporation, Weatherford International, Grant Prideco and other public companies.
During his career, Lubar has held governmental appointments under three U.S. Presidents. President Jimmy Carter named him commissioner of the White House Conference on Small Business in 1979-80. President Richard M. Nixon appointed him assistant secretary, Housing Production and Mortgage Credit, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration, and director of the Federal National Mortgage Association, in 1973-74. He completed this service under President Gerald Ford.
Lubar served as a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and as its president. In 1991, Lubar served as co-chairman of the Governor’s Conference on Small Business. He was trustee and acting chairman of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and president of the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Lubar continues to inspire and prepare young entrepreneurs by supporting the Lubar School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Regional Spirit Award
The 2012 Bravo! Entrepreneur Regional Spirit Award will go to the Balistreri family, which owns and operates Sendik’s Food Markets (the Red Bag Sendik’s).
Based in Whitefish Bay, Sendik’s Food Markets traces its roots to 1926, when members of the Balistreri family, as new immigrants to America from Santa Elia, Sicily, began peddling quality fruits and vegetables by horse drawn wagon on the northeast side of Milwaukee. Thomas Balistreri opened the Whitefish Bay location in 1949.
Tom was joined in the business by his two sons, Ted and Tom Jr. and, in the early 1970s, the brothers took over the operation. In 1975, the store expanded to include groceries, meat, deli, dairy, bakery and wine and spirits. During this time of growth, the store’s reputation for quality products and customer service grew, drawing customers from all over Milwaukee and surrounding communities.
In 2001, Tom, Jr., sold his interest in the Whitefish Bay Sendik’s to Ted’s sons, Ted, Patrick and Nick. The three brothers, along with their sister, Margaret Harris, have continued to expand the business.
Sendik’s employs more than 1,500 associates at its 10 locations in Whitefish Bay, Wauwatosa, Mequon, Grafton, Elm Grove, Franklin, Greenfield, Germantown, New Berlin and West Bend.
Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards
The Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards honor bold and dynamic company leaders in southeast Wisconsin.
The 2012 Bravo! Entrepreneur winners are:
- Sarit Singhal, CEO and president, Superior Support Services, Inc.
- Lori Zindl, president, OS inc.
- Michael Coakley, managing partner, C.H. Coakley & Company
- Jim Haertel, president, Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery
- Michael Kopper, president, Centrisys Corporation
- David Kasinskas, president and owner, Graphics Systems Corporation
- Kyle Weatherly, president, Solaris
- Michael Malatesta, founder and president, Advanced Waste Services
- Kitty Tierney, owner, Impressions Day Spa
IQ (Innovation Quotient) Awards
The winners of the IQ Awards, which celebrate innovations in business, are:
- Bruno Independent Living Aids, Inc., Oconomowoc
Created the Chariot, a vehicle lift to transport scooters, wheelchairs, and power wheelchairs on small and mid-sized cars. - Cilio Technologies, Brookfield
Developed a web-based platform for managing installed sales orders for retail home improvement stores and manufacturers. - Custom Service Hardware, Cedarburg
Invented a single-hinge “invisible door” used for secret rooms in a home. - Johnson Controls, Inc., Milwaukee
Created Panoptix, a system of cloud-hosted building efficiency applications. - SHARP Literacy, Inc., Milwaukee
Developed The Eight Building Blocks of SHARP, combining art and literacy to enhance the reading and writing skills of first- through fifth-grade students. - ZoomShift, Milwaukee
Developed a web-based staff scheduling tool for restaurant managers and staff. - GE Healthcare, Waukesha
Created the Vscan, a portable handheld ultrasound device. - Zero-Trace LLC, Milwaukee
Developed an ozone-emitting cleaning device, eliminating odors, bacteria, viruses and mold in a relatively short period of time. - Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin, Wauwatosa
Created CarpeNovo, a custom-designed DNA analyzing software system. - Perfect Cross LLC, Nashota
Developed RapidForce Kinectic Performance Systems, shortening the gap in adhesive muscle support products.
The winners of the Bravo! Entrepreneur and IQ Awards will be honored at a luncheon to take place at the BizExpo on Thursday, May 17, at Potawatomi Bingo and Casino Expo Center. For additional information, visit www.biztimes.com/bravo.
