NOVO1, a long-time participant in Customer Interaction Solutions' Top 50 Teleservices Agencies Ranking (NOVO1 ranked at #25 in the domestic inbound category and #15 in the outbound categories in this year's rankings), has announced that its CEO, George Dalton, was honored as the winner of the Small Business Times Bravo! Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award. NOVO1 is based in Waukesha, Wisconsin and until recently was known as Call_Solutions. Customer Interaction Solutions extends sincere congratulations to Mr. Dalton.
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SBT Announces Expo Award Winners
George Dalton, the venerable founder of three successful Wisconsin businesses, has been named the winner of the first Small Business Times Bravo! Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award. Dalton, who recently celebrated his 77th birthday, began his entrepreneurial journey as one of the co-founders of Midland National Bank in Milwaukee 1964.
From there, he was selected to create and run Midland Data Processing, which he ultimately acquired and relaunched as Fiserv Inc. in 1984. Dalton served as chairman and chief executive officer of Brookfield-based Fiserv for 16 years. Under Dalton's leadership, Fiserv became a publicly traded, global company with revenues of more than $1.4 billion. Dalton helped Fiserv identify, acquire and assimilate 92 other companies to fuel its growth.
Dalton retired from Fiserv in 2000. However, his retirement would not last long. Just five months later, at age 72, he founded Call_Solutions, a highly specialized customer contact marketing business in Waukesha. Call_Solutions changed its name to NOVO 1 Inc. last fall, when the company first became profitable. The firm has acquired 15 other companies and today employs more than 2,500 people, with annual revenues of more than $70 million.
In nominating Dalton for the award, F. Kevin Kasper, corporate senior vice president of NOVO 1, said, "George Dalton has been on an entrepreneurial journey practically all of his life. Actually, George didn't ever want to retire & He said retirement was like watching the grass grow, and if he didn't stay busy, it was likely to be from under the grass looking up. "Very few entrepreneurs get a chance to create two companies, let along three. George is one of the rare ones," Kasper said.
The Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards and the IQ (Innovation Quotient) Awards will be presented to the winners at the first Wisconsin Business & Technology Expo, to be presented by Small Business Times April 20-21.
The Wisconsin Business & Technology Expo, will take place at the Wisconsin Expo Center at State Fair Park in West Allis. More than 150 businesses and organizations have reserved exhibit booths at the two-day event, which will feature the awards, keynote speakers, business seminars and an after-hours networking opportunity.
Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), will lead a discussion on regional cooperation in business on Wednesday, April 20. The Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards luncheon will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Kevin Gilroy, senior vice president and general manager of Hewlett-Packard's small and medium business segment, will be the keynote speaker on Thursday, April 21, when the IQ Awards will be presented at a luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
All of the award winners will be profiled in a special publication to be distributed at the Expo and in the April 29 edition of Small Business Times.
The winners of the 2005 Small Business Times Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards are:
* Dennis Backhaus, Spiros Industries, West Bend
* Paula Hare, Hare Strigenz Design, Milwaukee
* James Lindenberg, World Class Wire & Cable Inc., New Berlin
* Scott Mayer, QPS Companies Inc., Brookfield
* Robert McNamara, FJA Christiansen Roofing Co., Inc., Milwaukee
* Chris Schmus, ProDriver Leasing Systems Inc., Greenfield
* Matthew Tharaniyil, Bloom Consultants LLC, Wauwatosa
* Gregg Tushaus, Tushaus Computer Services Inc., Wauwatosa
* Neal Verfuerth, Orion Energy Services Ltd., Plymouth
* Regional Spirit Award: Russ Reynolds, Batteries Plus LLC, Hartland
* Lifetime Achievement Award: George Dalton, NOVO 1 Inc., Waukesha
The winners of the 2005 Small Business Times IQ (Innovation Quotient) Awards are:
* Business: Avicom Marketing Communications, Waukesha
* Construction & Commercial Real Estate: Whitnall Summit Co., West Allis
* Consumer: Kangaroo Brands Inc., Milwaukee
* Insurance & Financial: Mitchell Bank, Milwaukee
* Manufacturing: KAO Inc., Racine
* Medical & Health: Everbrite LLC, Greenfield
* Nonprofit: Wisconsin Foundation for Independent Colleges, Milwaukee
* Software: Webcom Inc., Milwaukee
* Technology/Internet: ARI Network Services Inc., Milwaukee
* Telecommunications: The Frantz Group, Grafton
The award winners were selected from dozens of nominations submitted to SBT. An independent panel of businesspeople judged the nominations. The judges included: Michael John, vice president of corporate communications, Menasha Corp.; John Emory Jr., managing director of Emory business Advisors LLC; Jo Hawkins Donovan, founder of Hawkins Donovan & Associates Ltd. and an SBT columnist on executive coaching; and John Beckwith, senior vice president of State Financial Bank.
Additional information about the Wisconsin Business & Technology Expo is available at www.biztimes.com/expo.
