What does it take to be considered an IB Hall of Fame honoree? Hall of Fame members are selected by their peers for making big impacts on both the corporate climate — by building and leading good businesses — and on the community at large, through their work in non-profits and various other organizations.
Our 2009 Hall of Fame was chosen by the 2008 Executive Hall of Fame class, which includes Jim Bradley, president of Home Savings Bank, Joan Burke, president of First Business Trust & Investments, Clayton Frink, publisher of The Capital Times, president and CEO of The Capital Times Company and board chair of Madison Newspapers; Bill Harvey, chair, president and CEO of Alliant Energy Co.; and David Stark, president of Stark Company Realtors.
It is a particularly fine honor to be selected by one’s peers, a group that can tend to keep a more critical eye on one’s faults, as well as have a genuine respect and knowledge of one’s value.
The 2009 honorees are: Mark Bugher, executive director of the University Research Park; Rich Lynch, president of J.H. Findorff & Son; Marsha Lindsay, president and CEO of Lindsay, Stone & Briggs; Jim Riordan, CEO of WPS Health Insurance; and Tom Zimbrick, CEO of Zimbrick, Inc. Meet the new class!
MARK BUGHER
Director, University Research Park
In Mark Bugher’s office, there is a photograph of him with Arnold Schwarzenegger (his pre-Governor of California days), taken right after a breakfast of apple pancakes at the Governor’s Mansion in Madison. There is also a photograph of Bugher and Tommy Thompson, his former boss and longtime friend, as well as photos of his wife and two grown sons.
There is a basketball signed by Bo Ryan, and a football signed by both Barry Alvarez and Bret Bielema. All of these details illuminate a life lived closely connected to both the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin’s state government.
Despite his current role as director of the University Research Park, where he is deeply rooted to the University of Wisconsin, Bugher himself never finished his own college degree. He attended UW-Madison, then Northland College in Ashland, and finally transferred to UW-Eau Claire — where he dropped out only a few credits short of a degree.
“I got married young,” he explained. “And my wife and I were both in school and both working. At one point we decided one of us would have to go to school and one would have to work and, since she was a much better student, we decided to get her through.”
The decision paid off for his wife, who now has a Masters in Library Science and just retired after 36 years working in public education. The decision certainly didn’t hinder Bugher, either, who’s career track was varied and successful.
Bugher, who was born in Eau Claire, first went to work with his father in Eau Claire real estate, where he stayed for 11 years before joining the staff of former Congressman Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin’s third congressional district (now occupied by Ron Kind).
In 1987, Bugher was asked to join the administration of Governor Tommy Thompson, a family friend whom Bugher got to know well during his time with Gunderson. “I’d run into Tommy on the campaign trail — he was everywhere then — and we became good friends and colleagues,” explained Bugher.
His first position under Thompson was executive assistant to the secretary of the Department of Revenue; a year later he stepped into the Secretary’s position. In 1996, he became the Secretary of the Department of Administration, during which period he chaired the Interagency Land Use Council and the Wisconsin Land Use Council.
Around the time Thompson began making noises about leaving his position to join the first Bush administration, Bugher was approached about becoming director at the research park.
“They wanted someone with an experience in real estate development and someone who had an understanding of the politics between the university and state government, as well as someone who had done economic development in the community,” he said.
Bugher was the perfect fit.
Mark Bugher became director of the University Research Park in the fall of 1999, and during his ten years at the helm of this nonprofit, internationally recognized research and technology park, there has been a big increase in both infrastructure and in the number of companies that reside there.
Tommy Thompson said, “I used to kid Mark all the time that he promised he was going to stay with me, and he left me for the University.”
Thompson, who has known Bugher since the 1960s, said he’d decided early on that if he ever got the chance, he’d appoint Bugher to a position. “People who have been in politics as long as I have know how to judge someone’s character, and I was honored to be able to appoint him.
“If you want an administration to be successful, you have to have the best people you can find, and he was one of them. Mark is exceptional and really deserves this award.”
Another longtime colleague of Bugher, Reed Hall, executive director of the Marshfield Clinic, where Bugher is currently chair of the clinic’s National Advisory Council, agrees with Thompson.
“He’s one of the finest gentlemen that I know. Marshfield Clinic has worked with Mark since he was secretary of revenue for the State of Wisconsin in 1988, and he has been a trusted advisor to the clinic since he joined the clinic’s National Advisory Council in 2000,” Hall said. “He has dedicated his career to public service, which continues today as head of the UW Research Park. In this day of adversarial politics, he is a true statesman, respected by all.”
Gary Wolter, president of MG&E, concurred, saying, “In a partisan age, it is rare to find people who are respected on both sides of the political aisle. Mark is one of these people.
“He is steady-handed and insightful; he gets things done but carries himself with humility. Mark is a go-to person, whose ideas are solicited by city and state policy makers to help address problems.”
Bugher’s good work in his current position has definitely reaped results. With a current count of 115 companies employing approximately 4,000 people, University Research Park has grown from an idea to a full-blown and essential economic development entity, and IB concurs with the findings of the 2009 honors committee: Bugher’s leadership has been essential to this growth.
MARSHA LINDSAY
CEO, Lindsay, Stone & Briggs (LSB)
Marsha Lindsay was almost done with her Ph.D. in Communication Arts when she decided to take a break for a year and earn some money. When she hung out her shingle in 1978, business went so well she never returned to the classroom.
Despite the company’s initial and continued success, Lindsay recalls the small bumps of starting out. “It was very odd for a woman to be starting a business,” remembered Lindsay, “much less an ad agency. I recall going to a bank and they didn’t know how to treat me when I tried to get a loan.”
The bank manager, who Lindsay described as a very well-intentioned man, was very fond of patting her on the head and saying “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” Lindsay said, “I wasn’t offended at the time — I just thought it was odd.”
Lindsay was born in the very small town of Manawa, Wis., and describes her childhood as “idyllic.” She lived next door to the school, knew everyone in town, and had “acres and acres of backyard.”
Her roots are true Wisconsin. Her grandfather, on her mother’s side, was a worldwide champion cheesemaker from Germany. Her father was a lumber broker, and his family built the saw mill in Manawa as well as the electrical power plant. “That’s a quintessential Wisconsin background,” laughed Lindsay. “Lumber and cheese.”
In 5th grade, Lindsay announced she wanted to be an archaeologist. “What I really loved was cultural anthropology,” said Lindsay, “But I didn’t know what to call it then.” In 6th grade, she discovered news, and what she called “the persuasion of communication.”
In 6th grade also, when Barbara Walters hit the air waves, Lindsay found a role model for something she thought she might like to do. “In school, the categories for women were nurse, sales clerk or teacher, all wonderful professions but they didn’t turn me on. So to see a woman involved in news was a wonderful thing.”
During high school, Lindsay got a job at a radio station writing and producing advertising, and that job continued into her time as a student at the UW-Stevens Point. One of her favorite professors in the communications department there was Lee Dreyfus, who ended up having a big impact throughout Lindsay’s early career.
While attending college she switched from radio to TV, and began freelancing at the local NBC news station, writing and producing television ads as well as appearing on-air in a weekly feature. “NBC paid my way through undergrad,” said Lindsay.
Upon graduation, she worked briefly doing advertising for Madison Square Garden Corporation in Chicago, but didn’t care for it, and went instead to graduate school at UW-Madison on the advice of Dreyfus. She earned her Master’s in communication arts and freelanced part-time, which served her well when she left to start her advertising agency.
During her first years in business, she had clients as varied as Morning Glory Dairy and Lee Dreyfus in his campaign for governor. By 1981, she had eight employees.
In the early 80s, she got involved in the United Way, serving on the board and doing pro-bono work for the campaign, beginning a pattern of giving back that continues today.
Carol Toussaint, who has known Lindsay for over 20 years both personally and professionally said, “Marsha’s professional achievements are well documented. Less well known is that Marsha has given the same top level service pro bono to many charitable and educational programs. I recently worked with her on one of these programs, and observed how she motivates everyone to focus on a successful outcome just as she would for any of her clients.”
Since the company’s inception, Lindsay, Stone & Briggs has done over $3 million in pro bono work, for organizations as varied as the Madison Repertory Theater to the men’s shelter at Grace Episcopal Church to the Kidney Foundation.
She is also known for taking time to help out employees. Rob Sax, president of Planet Propaganda, worked for Lindsay from 1992 to 1997 and said of her, “The thing that always stood out for me was the way she really cared about the people she worked with. It always amazed me how much she was willing to go out of her way to help other people. She would drop everything and take time to help them, which I admire.”
He added, “She’s also extremely smart and I learned a ton from working for her. It was basically my master’s program.”
This intellect and ability to teach others served Lindsay well when the company created Brandworks University. Started 19 years ago and still unique in the industry, Brandworks University is a two-day MBA-level executive conference attended by people from all over the world.
Props for past conferences, where Lindsay delivers the keynote every year, are scattered around her office and reveal something else about Lindsay’s personality: a sense of fun. There are giant red boxing gloves (for the 2008 conference with the theme: “Are You Prepared to Take on this Economy?”), a golden egg, a Dennis the Menace statue, a large gold medal. She also has a female pirate figurine, a fake ear that can be used as a paper clip, and a rubber chicken from a client in London. She laughs recalling how it had to go through customs.
Lindsay also has a tall purple and silver wizard’s hat sitting on the edge of her desk, decorated with sparkling stars and moons. “That’s to remind me that our true mission here is to transform,” she explains. Certainly, Lindsay has transformed the ad world.
RICHARD LYNCH
President, J.H. Findorff & Son
In Rich Lynch’s office, a 12-foot long photograph of the Madison skyline sits atop his bookshelf to serve as both inspiration and as a reminder of the past. “I like to look back and see how the skyline has changed,” he explained. “This is a great city to live in. We’re really lucky to be here.”
Lynch has played a big role in shaping that skyline during his 25 years at Findorff, the company responsible for such major projects as the Monona Terrace, the Overture Center, Epic Systems’ grand campus, and the American Family Children’s Hospital. Currently, the company is hard at work on what will surely be a new major landmark — the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on University Avenue.
Lynch was born in Evanston, Ill. and grew up in nearby Prospect Heights. His father was an engineer and contractor/developer, and during high school and college, Lynch worked for him as a laborer. “I remember the accomplishment I felt of seeing things come together and how rewarding that was,” said Lynch, who was the only child of five to follow in his father’s footsteps.
When he first got to college, Lynch didn’t realize that construction and development was his calling. He liked science too, so came to school with the goal of going into medicine.
“I wanted to be in a field where I could help people,” he explained. “But being a doctor required so many years of school and I was anxious to get out and do things.” It soon became apparent that architecture and construction were a better fit, and he earned his degree in Construction Administration.
His first job out of college was for a local contractor, an Italian family no longer in business. Lynch stayed for nine years, and went as far up the ladder as he could without being part of the family.
This goal of wanting to be a leader and owner of a company led him to Findorff. He started as a project manager and estimator for the Rayovac world headquarters on the beltline (now Spectrum), and worked on other large projects such as CUNA Mutual, Edgewood College, the Monona Terrace and the McClain Center. Now, as president and owner, Lynch is still extremely involved in all of the company’s projects and activities, which range from the large and complex down to very simple, such as building dental clinics or replacing doors on the Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital. “Our company is based on relationships,” said Lynch of Findorff’s wide range. “Our work is based on references and repeat business.”
Lynch puts a lot of stock in the relationships he forms with his co-workers and employees, too. Of Findorff’s culture, Lynch said, “It’s really a learning environment here.”
He also encourages employees to give back to the community, something he strongly believes in. “It’s a core value of our company,” he explained. Findorff is involved in helping with Meals on Wheels and Habitat for Humanity, to name of few of the charitable organizations the company helps support.
Findorff also has fundraisers every few months such as “Burgers for a Buck day,” during which burgers are cooked on the Findorff grill outside and sold to the employees for a dollar. This year, the money raised went toward helping the helicopter crew at UW Hospital.
A more recent lunch was a turkey dinner and holiday festival. Those funds went to the Second Harvest food pantry.
Lynch practices what he preaches to employees, and spends much of his time working to better the community. In 2009, he will be vice chair of the United Way Campaign, and is scheduled to be chair in 2010.
Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison Inc. (DMI) has known Lynch for 10 years and admires the way he runs Findorff — as well as the work he did as past chair and board member of DMI. “He is a definite leader who leads by example, and is continually thoughtful. He’s so dedicated to community and he gets the big picture,” she said. “When he’s working on a project, he really keeps an eye on what the mission is. He has the ability to bring people back to the conversation about what we are trying to do, and he does it with such tact and grace it just makes you want to work beside him on any project. I have a tremendous amount of respect of him and his company.”
David Walsh, partner at Foley & Lardner and outside counsel for Findorff, who has known Lynch both professionally and personally for 15 years, echoes Schmitz’s sentiments. “Rich is very professional and extremely responsible, and he really cares about the community. His word is his bond. On top of this, he does his job and he does it well. He has a wonderful company.”
How will this company fare during the difficult economic downturn? “We’re just going to stay on track and do good work,” said Lynch, adding, “But we’re being smart and competitive and aggressive. We’ll get through this. We know that, and it will be achieved through our relationships in the community.”
One thing Lynch loves about his job is the tangible product produced. “You can take your family and stand it the place you’ve built. It’s difficult to turn over projects to the clients sometimes because they [the projects] become your home for a year or two. When you have to hand over the keys, it can be pretty emotional.” This emotion keeps Lynch deeply rooted to the construction industry and the community.
JIM RIORDAN
CEO & President of WPS
One could say Jim Riordan became interested in the health care industry when he got his first Gilbert Chemistry Set. “It was red metal and you opened it up and it had chemicals and tools and beakers stacked inside,” he remembered fondly. This was when Riordan was ten years old, and soon after receiving the gift he and a few buddies accidentally set someone’s father’s work bench on fire while conducting an “experiment.”
“We’d made this reddish green concoction in a beaker set on this work bench. I remember it foamed over the sides of the beaker and when it hit the wooden bench, it burst into flames,” he recalled.
Luckily, the boys thought fast, dampened a towel and put out of the fire by covering it up. “Then we scraped it off and did a touch up job,” said Riordan.
A few years later, during high school, Riordan got a job working at the local, small town pharmacy, and he liked that quite a bit, especially working with people.
This interest in chemistry and working with the public converged when he went to college first at UW-Eau Claire, then UW-Madison where he earned his pharmacy degree.
According to Riordan, at this time (the 1960s and 1970s), being a pharmacist involved combining chemicals in the actual store to create drugs and compounds, harking back to Riordan’s chemistry set days. He also enjoyed, as he had in high school, the contact with customers. He worked at Rennebohm’s and remembers seeing Governor Knowles come in for a cup of coffee and the paper.
In 1973, Riordan joined WPS as a pharmacy consultant, with the intent of only staying a few years. “This is when a pharmacy benefit was added to a lot of insurance policies, and companies weren’t yet used to working with these.” He thought he’d help set up a program to handle these new claims, then go back to being a pharmacist.
Thirty-six years later, Riordan remains at the company he quickly grew to love, and has headed it up for the past 18 years. “I’ve done everything but sales here,” laughed Riordan.
Riordan was born in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. His mother worked with the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation and his father was a newspaper journalist. Two of Riordan’s uncles were pharmacists, which also helped to plant the seeds of his future. Another key component growing up was being taught by his mother to give back to the community. “She really instilled in me that this was important,” said Riordan.
One of his first opportunities to give back came when the owner of Rennebohm’s encouraged Riordan to join the Jaycees. Riordan most remembers a project that was unique for its time, that involved going out to the Dane County Home and spending time with the elderly residents there, playing charades or music. “I really saw the results of this program firsthand,” said Riordan. “And the changes it made in people.”
In 2009, Riordan will be campaign chair for the United Way Campaign (he’s been the co-chair for the past two years). Another organization to which Riordan is strongly committed is Project Lead the Way, a national not-for-profit educational program that helps give middle and high school students a rigorous
ground-level education to develop strong backgrounds in science and engineering.
Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, said, “I admire Jim’s effort to help provide the right science and math education platform to as many people as possible. As long as I’ve known Jim, he’s been very active in community affairs and quite passionate about education in general.”
Chamber president Jennifer Alexander also had high praise for Riordan. “He is a ‘talks least-says most’ and ‘brags least-does most’ kind of guy. He is a smart, wise, and talented businessman with a heart for the community. I love having him on the Greater Madison Chamber Board!”
Riordan’s passion for the community shows in his office decor. A professional-looking painting of a wooded scene created by an adult with disabilities in Very Special Arts hangs besides Riordan’s desk.
He has a red cribbage board in the shape of the state of Wisconsin made by a group of students at MATC. There is a giant pink piggy bank that will get passed to the next person to chair United Way and a United Way “Best Foot Forward Award” on Riordan’s desk, which features a New Balance Tennis shoe glued down and painted gold.
On the wall hangs a photo collage with one picture featuring Riordan on the Harley he was able to get donated for the United Way Campaign prize this year, an award that dramatically increased participation.
Beside all of these items is one unrelated to community involvement, but tied, instead, to his family and childhood: a simple and very old white vase.
Riordan lifts the vase with a smile and explains that this is the most unique item in his office. “This was my grandmother’s” he said. “And I used to have a very soft rubber ball that I practiced shooting baskets with, into this vase over and over.
“When my mother passed away, I found this vase in her house and remembered throwing that ball — back in the 1950s. And when I picked up the vase, I felt something roll around inside,” he demonstrates, then completes the story. “The same ball was still in there all these years later.”
TOM ZIMBRICK
CEO of Zimbrick, Inc.
Tom Zimbrick is IB’s first legacy Hall of Famer. His father, John Zimbrick, was honored in the magazine’s 2006 Hall of Fame. Although Tom took the helm of Zimbrick, Inc. when he became CEO in 1999, he still considers his father an essential sounding board, adding, “He’s a great mentor, and a tough act to follow.
Tom is a tough act to follow in his own right. On top of all the work he has done to make Zimbrick a good company, he has long been focused on improving and helping the community, as well.
Tom Zimbrick was born in Milwaukee, but only lived there for three years before his family moved to Madison, where his father eventually bought the Buick Opal dealership in 1965. Tom began working for the family business in sixth grade, cleaning parts bins for Christmas money.
He attended UW-Madison, where he received an undergraduate degree and Master’s in business, then worked for Pacific Gas & Electric for three years in San Francisco. He left California to earn a law degree at SMU in Dallas, then practiced law in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he met his wife (also a lawyer).
When his father turned 62, it was time to either sell or grow the business, and he asked Tom and his brother Mike if the two sons would like to return and join the family business. “The Godfather gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” laughed Tom, who returned to Madison and began selling cars at Isuzu, moving up the ranks to his current position, where his dedication to the company is appreciated by many employees.
General Sales Manager Kendall Dahmen said, “Tom is very in-tune with his employees and takes his role as an employer seriously. Very much a family man himself, Tom understands that his employees have families, as well as hopes and dreams for those families. He understands that his decisions impact a lot of lives.”
Tom also spends a lot of his time trying to positively affect lives in the greater community. He became involved in the United Way of Dane County 16 years ago and, according to Leslie Ann Howard, president of the United Way of Dane County, Tom has had a huge impact on the organization.
He chaired the United Way Campaign in 1998 and Howard said he was called the “ten million dollar man” because he helped to raise that amount during his chairmanship. She laughed, “He was always saying ‘Don’t call me that! Don’t call me that! Because he didn’t want to jinx it. That was a big goal and a big stretch that year.”
Howard said Tom not only helped to raise money, but also improved the way they evaluated the campaign’s success. ” The leadership report we use today is largely due to Tom. His constant question of ‘how do we know how well we’re really doing?’ pushed us in that direction at the strategic level.”
Howard was also greatly impressed by the way Zimbrick chaired the task force that laid out the “agenda for change” in 2000. “He was instrumental in the campaign and his ideas were also crucial to our whole new way of working. He’s had a tremendous impact.”
Howard is looking forward to Zimbrick’s tenure this year as chair of the United Way board. “Tom is just one of the most thoughtful and compassionate and effective people that I’ve ever worked with. Our community is built on families like the Zimbricks, and Tom is carrying that on into the future.”
Londa Dewey, president of the QTI Group, met Tom when they were both on the United Way board, and she also had positive things to say about his work with the organization. “When I think of Tom, I think of someone who is very strategic, enthusiastic and generous.”
As a company, Zimbrick also raises money for the United Way, securing $229,000 for the 2008 campaign through the efforts of company employees. Many employees of Zimbrick also serve on key committees in support of United Way programs.
In addition to this, Zimbrick provides monetary donations and in- kind support to numerous local organizations as well as scholarships to MATC students, and work study programs for high school students.
This is, of course, a difficult time for the auto industry, and Zimbrick worries that there will be casualties, but not the ones you usually hear about. “All the dealerships, in the small towns especially, are very involved in the community,” he explained. “They support the little league and provide cars for the parades.” He worries that in addition to lost jobs, there will be smaller ripples felt throughout towns that people might not expect.
Tom Zimbrick turns in his chair now and looks out his office window at the beltline, as if gazing toward those towns. His office is a clean modest space with a lighthouse print by Edward Hopper, a photograph of a golf course in Ireland, where Zimbrick has played a couple of times. There’s a signed print by an Albuquerque artist, and the famous photo of dogs playing cards. “That’s a reminder to have fun,” Zimbrick explained with a smile.
One of his favorite photos in the room is a picture of him and his family with their arms around Paul McCartney. He tells the story of visiting London, then going over to Abbey Road. Paul McCartney just happened to be walking toward them. McCartney, who doesn’t usually pose for photos, allowed one to be taken with the entire family — Zimbrick, his wife and three kids.
There is something about Tom Zimbrick that exudes good will and kindness, which can be seen and felt in the way he lives his life.
Perhaps Paul McCartney felt it, too.
