First generation group's goal is to create a family business

By Pamela Cotant

Mark Courchane and Matt Uselman were best friends who became brothers-in-law.

Together they founded Wind River Financial with Phil Ingwell, a friend who lived across the street from Uselman as a boy. All three worked together at Starlight A&W in Monona when they were in high school.

Back together again, they are friends who can also act like brothers -- a relationship that is shaping Wind River Financial at 5305 Buttonwood Drive in the

American Center business park.

The three work together in various capacities. Uselman is president and works with the managers of the sales, marketing and client service teams. He also works on leader and organizational development.

Courchaine is vice president of operations. He's responsible for all operational aspects, including business underwriting, cardholder security, technology support, point of sale equipment training and deployment and product development and financial management.

Ingwell is manager of conversions. He handles conversion of third party partners, which includes banks, credit unions and associations. He also oversees implementation of point of sale solutions and customer care for new clients.

The company is keenly aware of its position as a first-generation family business and the opportunity it has to set the right course.

The three owners of Wind River Financial, which now provides credit card processing to 3,900 businesses and 32 financial institutions in Wisconsin, are members of the Family Business Center of the Wisconsin School of Business.  They are taking what they have learned about running a family business to heart.

"What we're trying to build is a business that is sustainable over multiple generations,"  Uselman said. "We're trying to learn how to avoid problems that other family businesses have encountered."

The three prongs for sustainability are strategic planning, an outside advisory board and a family council, he said.

The family council

A family council allows companies to:

• Keep business and family issues separate
• Clarifies roles
• Sets up trainings
• Establishes a framework for making decisions
• Sets policies on how family members will interact with the business

The council works out family issues and communicates them to the board.

"The family can speak with one voice to the advisory board," Uselman said.

One of the programs at the Family Business Center is for children of company owners and it addresses the expectations and challenges that come with that role.

Family internships created

For the last three summers, internships have been set up for Uselman and Courchane's older children to expose them to several areas of the business. The interns have included Courchane's two sons, Paul, 20, and John, 19, and Uselman's children, Peter, 24, Tim, 21, and Anna, 18.

Courchane also has two daughters, ages 13 and 16. Ingwell has a daughter in grade school.

The older children are taking divergent paths in college, studying in areas ranging from European history to communications. If they don't wind up working at Wind River, the family council can help them establish roles that will allow them to be involved at some level.

The Family Business Center advises members to have their children take first jobs that are not at the family business, which among other things, will help with employee relations later on.

"There's not that sense of entitlement. You've earned your stripes," Uselman said. "Ownership doesn't entitle you to employment."

The first job outside of the company also will establish that "you're actually here because you're going to add value to the company, Courchane added.

Similar career paths

Not only friends and relatives, Courchane and Uselman took similar paths.

Courchane and Uselman graduated from Queen of Apostles High School and then enlisted in the Army where the served for four years and were stationed together in Germany. They went on to UW Madison where Uselman got a degree in finance and Courchane got one in economics.

Courchane, who married Uselman's sister Grace in 1985, worked at M&I Bank and became general manager of its credit card branch.

Uselman then went to work at First Wisconsin Bank where he went on to manage the institutional trust business for Firststar.

When Uselman was looking for a new job or a business he could start, the two were hanging out when Courchane threw out the idea of starting a business together.

They continued to talk about the idea when they'd get together, did research and figured out who else they would need to bring in to make it work.

Ingwell was a natural choice, especially given his relationship with the brothers-in-law.

"That is a little unique from other outside partners," Courchane said.

Opened office in 1999

The three opened an office on the other side of Highway 151 in 1999. The company moved to larger quarters just over a year ago and now employs about 20 people.

Visitors to the company's office immediately get a sense about the company. The front entrance opens to a lobby with a north woods lodge motif. The laminate floor, which resembles rough hewn pine, leads to a conference room with the same d?cor. It's part of the company's decision to soften the corporate world.
Wind River attempts to create a balance between life and work. A wellness program will start soon, Uselman said.

The company also gave employees the chance to donate money to charities they chose and that led staff members to volunteer at the organizations because they saw a need.

Building an organization that can last through generations and creating the kind of office culture you want are some of the benefits of family ownership, Uselman said.

"It's very rewarding to be involved in a family business," he said.

Pamela Cotant is a Madison freelance writer.

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