Flash back to 1994, and you could probably fit everyone outside of the aerospace sector in Phoenix who knew about numerical simulation and 3-D printers around one dining room table. While the technology has now entered the mainstream, that wasn’t the case back when Eric Miller and his partners were launching PADT (Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies) 23 years ago. The … [More]
David Richardson: Shifting Course to Meet Evolving Needs
For nearly 30 years, nonprofit credit counseling and debt management agencies such as Phoenix-based Take Charge America have helped consumers nationwide repay millions in credit card debt while educating them about the path to long-term financial independence. The core of the business model has remained largely the same, yet with the introduction of newer technologies and … [More]
Chuck Vermillion: Back on the Entrepreneurial Scene with AccountabilIT
After successfully growing OneNeck IT Services for nearly 14 years and, with his co-founders, selling it in July 2011 for $95 million, Chuck Vermillion was ready to jump back into the entrepreneurial world. “I learned that when you have great entrepreneurial success, it’s unquestionably the most satisfying professional experience you’ll ever have,” says … [More]
Jeff Herzog Goes ZOG Digital
In 1998, Google forever changed the way organizations did business. By launching its revolutionary search algorithm, it made content available to anyone’s fingertips. Google quickly dominated the Internet, guiding users through a virtual ocean of information they sought with astonishing speed and precision. While Google is the undisputed king of search, one man stands apart … [More]
Jim Reavey: Melding Two Companies into a New Vixxo Brand
As Vixxo, the data-driven facilities management company is only a few months old. But launching the new brand was a very purposeful strategy, says CEO Jim Reavey. The former president of FM Facility Maintenance — with which First Service Networks integrated to form the new entity — explains that the goal was to have a brand and culture that would be created from the bottom up, … [More]
Heidi Jannenga: WebPT Niche Co-Creator
Heidi Jannenga co-founded WebPT, an electronic medical record (EMR) platform for physical therapists, with her soon-to-be husband in 2008. Before launching WebPT, she worked full-time as an athletic physical therapist managing three clinics. She describes the inception of WebPT as serendipitous. In 2007, she realized the largest expenses at her clinics were transcription and … [More]
Tim Riester: Leading the Marketing Rhythm
For more than 27 years, Tim Riester and his advertising agency, RIESTER, have been successfully creating and revitalizing brands, launching products, changing consumer behaviors and motivating people to care about issues that matter. If you ask Tim Riester why his company is so successful, he points to the strategic nature of his clients and the talents and work ethic of his … [More]
Charles A. Touché: Embracing Change as Path to Innovation
It’s often said that change is the only consistency in life. And in the insurance industry, this adage is true now more than ever. An evolving economy, rapid emergence of new technologies and a rocky healthcare landscape are among the industry’s most difficult issues to navigate. It’s Charles A. Touché’s ability to adapt to such change — quickly and fearlessly — that has helped … [More]
Chuck McLane: Accounting for CBIZ Growth
A strong focus of CBIZ’s Phoenix office is its not-for-profit practice. In fact, shares lead managing director Chuck McLane, “some of our success here has led to similar approaches in other CBIZ offices.” His office’s approach includes identifying the not-for-profit organizations in the Valley that have a meaningful purpose and are able to attract to their boards the leadership … [More]
Rob Donat: Enhancing Fleet ROI
“Any vehicle that has a phone number on it is potentially valuable to a company like ours,” says Rob Donat, founder and CEO of fleet tracking company GPS Insight, which provides sophisticated tracking solutions that help companies with fleets add value to their operation — more efficient dispatch and routing being one of many advantages. When he moved to Scottsdale from … [More]
Jeffrey Martin: Creating an Industry for Natural, Renewable Rubber
Fifteen years ago, Jeffrey Martin co-founded the Yulex Corporation with Dan Swiger after learning about a technology licensed from the United States Department of Agriculture to extract natural rubber latex from the guayule plant. Yulex’s mission is “to protect and improve the planet and its people by providing pure and improved plant-based products, which promote the … [More]
John Lines: Adding Value in Auction Innovation
Supply chain end-of-life for one business may be just the beginning for another, and John Lines’ Phoenix-based Surplus Asset Management helps make that connection as businesses remodel or close. “We sell a grocery store chain, and that allows little mom-and-pop bakeries or pizza or grocery stores to open up for a huge savings over new equipment,” says Lines, founder and CEO of … [More]
Daniel Lieberman, M.D.: Creating a Shorter Route to Relieving Pain
A notable feature in surgeon Daniel Lieberman’s recently opened Phoenix Spine Surgery Center gives visual manifestation to his innovative approach to healthcare: It’s the patient experience delineated in a clearly marked path in the tile floor. As one visitor expressed it to him, “This makes you feel like the whole thing is under control, and that allows you to really … [More]
Brian Cassidy: Developing Niche Market Expertise
As one of the principals of architecture firm CCBG Architects, Inc., Brian Cassidy stays busy working on a variety of different projects. A passion of his now is adaptive reuse of old structures in the heart of Downtown Phoenix, and the firm is a leader in the movement to take old buildings that are still architecturally sound and transform them to a new purpose into something … [More]
Blue Sky Pest Control: Building Strength from Small Decisions
The creepy-crawlies of the Arizona desert are no match for Curtis Whalen and Nathan Woolf, owners of Blue Sky Pest Control. The Phoenix-based company has experienced aggressive growth since opening its first office in the Phoenix metropolitan area in 2003, and now has more than 65 employees and a second location in Gilbert. This growth advanced even during the economic … [More]
Erik Olsson’s Growth Strategy: Character
To Erik Olsson, when he came on board with Mobile Mini, Inc. two years ago as president and CEO, the company seemed somewhat complacent in its success. “It was a little bit of a sleeping giant, although it was a great business in itself and had done well for many years. But even though it had been public for 20 years, the company had always been run by the family of the … [More]
Trish McCarty: Innovating Education
As founder and CEO of StarShine Academy, a K-12 charter school in Phoenix, Trish McCarty feels strongly that her most important customers are the students, some of whom are just 5 years old. “Our main customers are our children, and the second-most important customers are our teachers,” she says. McCarty was inspired to open StarShine Academy in 2002 because she was deeply … [More]
Eric Roudi: Seeing the People Side of Commercial Cleaning
Eric Roudi realized in the early 1980s something that others at the time had not: The cleaning business is really a people business. It’s a people business in the sense that clients who own commercial buildings have needs and requests they’d like to convey to someone they know and trust. It’s also a people business in terms of how Roudi recruits those who will interact with … [More]
