Most would agree that running a business takes guts. It involves stepping into the unknown, taking risks and enduring challenges, all while striving to achieve a vision. As part of our Women in Business Issue this year, we’ve profiled four Milwaukee-area business owners who have charted their own course to success. Tina Chang founded IT
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Tina Chang. Credit: Valerie Hill[/caption]
Most entrepreneurs are driven to start their own business because they desire a deeper level of freedom and control. For Tina Chang, chairman, CEO and owner of Brookfield-based IT firm SysLogic, starting her businesses gave her the freedom and control to pursue a deeper passion: catalyzing change in her community.
Now nearly three decades into her career, Chang has led the spin off of three startups, SysSpark LLC, Cyberspect LLC and WillBridge. Most recently, in 2023, she co-founded Madison-based cybersecurity consultancy Ghostscale.
WillBridge, a public benefit corporation, is the unification of Chang’s passions for technology and nonprofit work. Launched in 2022, the company is designed to help organizations leverage data to create greater social impact. It provides a secure platform for nonprofits, health care systems, educational institutions and government entities to safely share data about the populations they serve and then utilize that cross section of shared data to work toward better outcomes. WillBridge’s DataCommunity platform is currently being piloted with a StriveTogether network member in Muscatine, Iowa.
"My goal of being an entrepreneur wasn’t just about building a company that has value, but also having that company or a portfolio of companies, be great community stewards," said Chang.
Impact driven
Chang considers herself part of an old-school generation of entrepreneurs – those who built their companies from the ground up without any outside funding or support. She left her corporate career at Anderson Consulting, now called Accenture, in her early 20s because she wasn’t getting experience working with up-and-coming technologies.
“I wasn’t necessarily positioned to achieve my goals of wanting to change the modern world with technology for the better,” she said.
Guided by the belief that she could have a larger, continuous impact on her community through entrepreneurship, Chang co-founded SysLogic in 1995. At just 24, she thought she could easily return to corporate work if her own venture didn’t succeed. That idea was quickly dispelled when she realized how closely her employees’ livelihoods were tied to SysLogic’s success.
The challenges the company has faced over the years have shifted as SysLogic has grown from a small startup to a well-established company. Earlier on, Chang’s biggest struggle was winning enough clients to survive with a little-known business name.
Now, selling multimillion-dollar deals that have a larger impact on both SysLogic and potential clients – all while winning confidence from that client’s executive team – are among Chang’s most challenging tasks.
"It's easy to be young and ask for help. When you’re 52, like I am, you're now at this age and have a company profile where you're there to compete," said Chang. "You've got to watch out, because you're actually a threat to your competition.”
When she’s in need of business advice, Chang relies on a portfolio of mentors as opposed to leaning on one single person.
"If you’re going to lead with your own strengths, by being your own authentic self, you've got to find a portfolio of people across the horizon to round you out," she said.
Leading with vision and balance
Throughout her 28 years as a leader and entrepreneur, Chang says she hasn’t changed her leadership style too much, but has worked to improve her own execution. Keeping her leadership style consistent has been the key to maintaining company culture, she said.
"I grew up influencing by painting a picture of opportunity," said Chang. "Now, I'm influencing through vision. If I tried to be visionary when I was 24, some great, experienced person might look at me and say, ‘You're crazy. What do you know?'"
One thing she has perfected during her career is the constant balancing of her work and personal engagements. As the amount of time she’s needed at work – both her own businesses and nonprofits she serves – hits different highs and lows, she schedules her own personal time to fill whatever space remains. She protects her eight hours of sleep at all costs.
As for her nonprofit work, Chang chooses what organizations she dedicates portions of her time to based on which will have the biggest foundational impact on the issues she wants to tackle. She currently serves on the boards of Children’s Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation, the YMCA of Metro Milwaukee and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, among several others.
Being a successful business leader also means being able to promote work-life balance for your employees, Chang said.
She’s made several changes to her work habits – like scheduling emails for early the next day instead of sending them late at night – to make sure she’s not altering the timeline of an employee’s work schedule.
“In today's digital world, when we are always on and expected to be available, a great leader, if we truly believe in work-life balance, is someone who knows how to not just have it for themselves, but how to drive it in others," she said.
Another one of Chang’s strongly held business philosophies is continual succession planning, no matter what phase a business leader’s career is in. She feels at ease having a strong leadership team around her, but she has no intention of ever retiring.
“The idea that I will ever retire is nonexistent in my mind,” said Chang. “I might take a different role within my company. Maybe I’ll be a great salesperson and find a new CEO. I’m humble enough to recognize that when we get larger, I might not be the right person to lead my company.”
Jessie Cannizzaro. Credit: Valerie Hill[/caption]
Jessie Cannizzaro grew up around plumbing, but she did not realize how much she loved the work until her early 20s.
Cannizzaro, a master plumber and owner of Wauwatosa-based Milestone Plumbing, was 7 years old when her father, Tom Cannizzaro, brought her along on the job. Tom ran his own plumbing business with the help of Jessie’s mother, Sue Cannizzaro.
Later in life, Jessie Cannizzaro was taking business classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and working at restaurants when Tom had a stroke. Once he recovered enough to return to work, she picked up tools and joined him.
“I was able to get tools in my hand again as a young adult, and realize that I actually really, truly enjoyed the reward that comes from working with your hands and seeing what you’ve accomplished,” Cannizzaro said.
This pivotal moment prompted her to follow in her father’s footsteps. At age 22, she went on to start an apprenticeship working with her dad, which was the first step in her own journey as a plumber.
Because her parents worked side-by-side for almost 30 years, Cannizzaro noticed the way Sue helped Tom, raised her and her sisters and took care of the home.
“I think my work ethic most definitely is modeled by watching how much she did and how well she did it all of those years,” Cannizzaro said.
Forging her own path
Cannizzaro eventually broke away from her dad’s plumbing business to finish her apprenticeship with another plumbing company.
By that time, Tom was older, and the stroke “had taken its toll” on him, she said. It was difficult for her to work with him at times, which put a strain on their relationship.
“My dad did not take it well when he found out I was leaving and going to another company,” Cannizzaro said. “I think from a place of love and wanting to protect me, he told me that he didn’t think I would make it at another company.”
She said her dad, who is now 81, had a more traditional perspective about a woman’s role.
“It was the right path because getting out of his company allowed me to get other experience and build that confidence and figure out how to do things on my own, rather than just being in his shadow,” Cannizzaro said.
Cannizzaro went on to start Milestone Plumbing in 2011 in her basement and garage. But when she told her parents she was starting her own company, Tom was concerned, she said.
She opened her business shortly after the Great Recession, which she said reminded her dad of how money was tight in the late 1970s when he started his own business. He did not want her to go through the same challenges, Cannizzaro said.
“I know he’s incredibly proud now of what our team has built, but in the beginning, he was very skeptical and thought it was just not a good idea, that it was going to be a big mistake,” she said.
In 13 years, Milestone Plumbing has grown from a one-woman plumbing shop to a team of 19 people, she said. Now that she spends more time managing the company, Cannizzaro no longer works in the field full time, but she’ll still “jump in and help” if she’s needed on a job.
Cannizzaro, who is now 43, plans to be part of the team “for many years” to come. She is working to restructure the business so the team can run and grow the business without her for future generations.
“As I look around and see how many people depend on Milestone for a paycheck, that’s a scary thing,” Cannizzaro said. “We need to be set up so that if something happened to me, they would (still) be able to get that paycheck and this business would still be able to thrive under their leadership. So that’s been a major focus for our growth and will continue to be so for the next probably few years.”
Navigating a male-dominated industry
Cannizzaro is no stranger to the resistance women often face when working in male-dominated industries. People used to be “very surprised” when she appeared at their doors as a plumber, she said.
“It still will surprise people when they find out that I am a licensed plumber, but they normally are familiar with who Milestone is, so it isn’t the shock that it used to be,” Cannizzaro said.
As an apprentice, Cannizzaro encountered a client in Waukesha County that seemed confused to see her standing at his door to install new sinks.
“He was like, ‘You’re just dropping those off, right? And then the plumber’s coming to install them?’ And I was like, ‘No, sir, I’m here to put these in,’” Cannizzaro said. “The look on his face said it all, like this man has never been exposed to this type of a situation before.”
He sat on a bucket and talked to her while she worked. At the end of the day, he gave Cannizzaro a wooden pot he had made, which she felt was a sign of “acceptance,” she said.
“He had come into it with one method of thinking in the morning and by the end of the day and watching me perform my craft, he had changed his opinion and had actually accepted me,” Cannizzaro said. “That gift was symbolic of appreciating what I had done for him that day.”
Advocating for the trades
Cannizzaro works to challenge the stereotype that the trades are for people who can’t get into college, she said.
“That’s not true, and I am an example of that,” Cannizzaro said. “I have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from UW-Milwaukee, and I’ve chosen to spend my life in the trades because it is an incredible source of opportunity, and it is something that should be respected as much as any college, if not more.”
Cannizzaro said she advocates for the trades to students in grade school or high school as well as people who are considering a career change.
Two years ago, Cannizzaro helped create a children’s activity and story book based on the experiences of Milestone team members. The story centers around a girl who learns what a plumber is doing inside her home. At the end of the story, the girl decides that she wants to go into plumbing.
She visits schools to send the message that being a plumber – and working in the trades in general – is a respectable career path that “can bring incredible opportunities,” she said, adding it’s also important to reach parents with her advocacy so they can see the trades as a respectable career path for their children.
“Our parents have such a strong voice in the direction and decisions that we make,” Cannizzaro said. “I think the activity book has been equally as helpful for the parents as it has been for the students, to show that a trade career is a great career path to choose.”
Andrea Bukacek. Credit: Valerie Hill[/caption]
Andrea Bukacek’s career in the construction industry has been one of navigating twists and turns, reassessing what meaningful growth and change looks like and returning to her roots at the company she grew up in.
Bukacek is the third generation – and first woman – to own Bukacek Construction Group, a commercial construction company based in Racine. Entering the role in August 2019, her first few years in the top seat were punctuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruption, labor shortages and higher interest rates.
“It’s been an interesting road since I took over the company, to say the least,” Bukacek said. “There’s always been a new challenge.”
Founded in 1963 by Bukacek’s grandfather, the company was later owned by her father, Nick Bukacek, who, after 42 years of family ownership, sold the company to his employees through an employee stock ownership plan in 2001 and retired in 2005. Andrea purchased the company from the ESOP in 2019.
“Much of the family was integrated into the business, but it was certainly a big part of my upbringing especially,” Bukacek said. “By the time I was looking at purchasing the company, the Bukacek family had not really been involved for many years, since 2005.”
‘Steady and moving forward’
Having grown up in the company, working in the office during summers, Bukacek spent most of her post-college career in the banking industry, primarily working in commercial lending. Seeing that the timing was right – and aspiring to do something on her own – Bukacek went back to the family business and was eager to grow it.
“My thesis was always to grow the company and to gain market share and, when COVID happened, that had to take a step back and it was more about keeping the company steady and moving forward,” Bukacek said.
The shift in perspective has stuck around.
“The goals I had completely changed,” Bukacek said. “At the time of purchasing the company, I was very focused on top-line revenue and realized that’s not really the right way to measure success.”
In recent years, a few of the company’s senior staff, who had been there since Bukacek was a kid, were reaching retirement and the company was about to enter a transition period. The company currently employs around 35 people.
“My goals really became about the organizational structure and organizational growth internally and moving forward as a sophisticated construction company, rather than just the sales mindset,” Bukacek said.
That meant reintroducing Bukacek Construction Group to the market, which was a challenging but gratifying endeavor, Bukacek said.
“When I was growing up with the company in the ‘90s, the builds that I saw were very large builds for us, we had a strong foothold in the community,” Bukacek said. “Fast forward several years and we had lost some of that. A lot of people in Racine knew who we were, our quality, our commitment, but in the surrounding areas we had lost a bit of our foothold.”
“When we got that back, letting everybody in the market know that we had the team, we had the track record, that really meant a lot to me,” she added.
Broadening the horizon
With about 12 years of banking experience and about five years of construction experience now, Bukacek is no stranger to working in traditionally male-dominated industries.
“Both banking and construction are male dominated, but I guess I didn’t really realize I picked male-dominated industries until I started to look back, so being in these spaces has certainly shaped my career,” she said.
Bukacek noted that in banking most people have similar backgrounds, typically a four-year degree and then entering the office. In construction, she’s found that to be different.
“A lot of people either came from the trades and the field, others did get a four-year degree. There’s lots of roads people take,” Bukacek said. “Navigating through that and understanding that not everybody has the same experiences was much different than in the banking industry.”
She also sees that as a potential way to get more women into the construction industry.
Starting in the trades can provide a clear pathway for women entering the industry, where they can stay in the field or eventually move to the business side, according to Bukacek. She also noted the increased popularity of construction management degrees at colleges and universities, which can be another avenue for women eyeing a career in construction.
“Traditionally, a lot of people on the construction management side came from some sort of engineering route, but I think having young adults, young women being aware of these construction management-related degrees is a good opportunity for them,” Bukacek said. “Especially women, I think more women would enter the industry if they knew about those opportunities, understood what the role would look like.”
Chellee Siewert. Credit: Valerie Hill[/caption]
Just a few weeks after the Green Bay Packers’ 2011 Super Bowl victory, 9-year-old Jack Bartosz of Hartland found himself face to face with star quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Bartosz was battling neuroblastoma, a type of pediatric cancer, and Rodgers had recently gotten involved with the Milwaukee-based Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund.
The two were introduced at a Milwaukee Wave game as part of a fundraising event for the MACC Fund. After some photos and autographs in the locker room, Bartosz and Rodgers walked hand-in-hand out onto the field to a cheering crowd.
It was a career-defining experience for Chellee Siewert, who had orchestrated the event as the Wave’s then-vice president of marketing. What struck her most was the impact the young boy ultimately had on Rodgers.
Bartosz died in 2012 following a seven-year battle with cancer, and Rodgers would later write a column in The Players’ Tribune about their unexpected friendship, saying “his passing only strengthened my resolve to make a difference for kids battling cancer.”
“People think the kiddos are the only ones impacted when, in reality, the athletes are human, and they’re impacted as well,” said Siewert, who went on to launch Waukesha-based Capture Sports & Entertainment in 2011 with the mission of helping athletes and entertainers use their platforms to impact lives.
The marketing firm has worked with some of the biggest names in pro sports – including Rodgers, Dwyane Wade, J.J. Watt, Pat Connaughton, Drew Brees and the late Bart Starr – to establish charitable foundations, grow philanthropic impact and develop personal brands.
To date, Capture has helped raise more than $30 million for its clients’ nonprofit organizations, which support causes ranging from cancer research to youth sports to food insecurity. Most recently, the company added Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love to its roster – which has grown to more than 25 active clients – for a season-long campaign promoting his Hands of 10ve Foundation.
Now, nearly 13 years into running Capture Sports & Entertainment as owner and president, Siewert’s ‘why’ remains the same.
“For me, there’s always that moment of when you see the athletes impacted,” she said. “That for me is my ‘why’ because they’re going to be impacted, they’re going to want to continue to do good and it just continues that circle.”
Building momentum
Siewert launched the company – then known as Capture Marketing & Events – in October 2011, shortly after leaving the Milwaukee Wave, where she spearheaded the launch of its foundation as well as a first-of-its-kind charitable jersey program.
The decision to strike out on her own was shaped by both her professional background – which also included stints at Rogers Behavioral Health, the National MS Society and the Metropolitan Builders Association – as well as her role as a mother of two.
“At the time, my kids were at an age that working for a sports team wasn’t conducive to the mom I wanted to be,” said Siewert. “I wanted to be able to take them to school, I wanted to be able to pick them up … and be there in the way that I wanted to be.”
It also helped that she came from a family of entrepreneurs. Her grandfather started four small businesses in his lifetime and her grandmother ran her own interior decorating company.
“I didn’t think it was odd that a woman owned a business because I saw my grandma do it,” Siewert said. “That was always in the back of my mind.”
Siewert’s original business plan was to work with corporations on their cause marketing strategies. But the experience working with Rodgers at the Wave had made a lasting impression, and then, just months after founding Capture, Siewert was introduced to J.J. Watt. The Pewaukee native had started his foundation while playing college football at the University of Wisconsin and, as he prepared to enter the NFL draft, he was looking to grow his impact.
Signing Watt as Capture’s first sports industry client was the “impetus,” said Siewert, for shifting focus from corporate to sports philanthropy. Capture has since worked with the now-retired Houston Texan and his Justin J. Watt Foundation to raise more than $5.4 million to fund after-school athletic programs for middle schoolers.
Part of what underpins Capture’s work is positioning professional athletes and their families for the next chapter. Whether it’s through philanthropic campaigns, corporate endorsement deals or social media strategy, developing an authentic personal brand is crucial to that, said Siewert.
Capture expanded into personal branding about three years ago after clients asked for help with building their digital footprints.
“Athletes understand they are a brand,” said Siewert. “We help them define, what is their brand and how do you continue that brand through all aspects of your life? People and corporations and potential endorsers, they want to know who you are off the field, off the court; they want to know what your values are and the fun things you love to do. And so, for us, it’s being able to find out more about them and sharing that story for them.”
Leading through learning
In Capture’s early days, Siewert intended to keep the company small, with about three or four employees, but that changed as Capture continued to attract high-profile clients.
“I can remember having lunch with one of my mentors and she said, ‘You know what, you’re working with some of the best of the best, you can grow and don’t be afraid of success,’” said Siewert.
Over the past 13 years, Capture has grown to about 20 employees. Most are stationed at the company’s Waukesha office at 2120 Pewaukee Road, with a handful working remotely from Austin, Chicago, Appleton and Washington.
As the company has expanded and evolved, so has Siewert as a leader who’s continuously learning, she said. One of the toughest, most crucial things she had to learn along the way was how to delegate.
“I always say Capture is like my third baby,” she said. “But as you grow, you need to be able to delegate and give up some of the control … and be OK with letting go. And once, I would say, I really learned that, is where we’ve seen the growth.”