Profile on: Mike and Brian McCoy, co-owner of McCoy’s Building Supplies During the early part of their careers, Mike and Brian McCoy, owners of McCoy’s Building Supplies, applied a simple formula for success: hard work followed by more hard work. This, along with an innovative approach to selling building supplies, allowed the Galveston-based...

Profile: Jim Blankemeyer, Chairman of the Metokote  Corporation It’s no secret that starting your own company can be tough, sucking up all of your time, energy and attention and causing you to neglect other things, such as family and friends. That’s exactly what happened to Jim Blankemeyer, Chairman of the Metokote Corporation. Thankfully,...

Patricia Fong was enjoying a typical workday at Amcore Investment Group on January 27, 2002 when she received a phone call that would change her life forever. The call was from her eighteen-year-old daughter, Megan, who was a freshman at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. An outstanding tennis player, Megan had earned a full athletic scholarship...

Profile on: Lavonne Kruse, determined to be successful. Can you imagine spending the first decade of your life thinking the woman who raised you was your mother, only to discover she was actually your grandmother? Perhaps the only thing that might shock you more would be discovering that your real mother was someone you had grown up believing...

Profile on: Frank Schrimsher, co-owner Schrimsher Properties For the longest time, the Schrimsher brothers - Steve, Frank, and Mike - owners of Schrimsher Properties, were brothers by blood only. That is, they were siblings, but they weren’t really friends. As such, each was trying to make it on his own; pursuing a separate vocation. But within...

Profile on: Gene Birdwell, of Birdwell Construction and Remedial Construction Services Who hasn’t dreamed of leaving the humdrum of their day-to-day job and starting their own business? That’s exactly what Gene Birdwell of Houston, Texas did in 1978. He had been working in the construction industry for 20 years when he finally decided to give...

Profile of:  Six Manthei Partners, of Manthei Ventures What happens when you have six family members - two sets of three brothers, to be exact - all helping to run the same company? Team concept “We fight regularly,” says Tom Manthei, President of  Manthei Inc., whose leadership team also includes Tom’s brothers Dan and Tim and...