Marketplace Governor's Awards Winners Named

Twenty-one Wisconsin businesses received top honors in the 2015 Marketplace Governor’s Awards competition, which recognizes outstanding businesses owned by minorities, women and service-disabled veterans.The awards were presented by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) on Friday at Marketplace 2015, the Governor’s Conference on Minority Business Development, which was held at the Potawatomi Expo Center in Milwaukee. Awards were given to minority-owned business enterprises (MBE), women-owned business enterprises (WBE) and service-disabled veteran businesses (DVB).“The businesses represented in the Marketplace Governor’s Awards competition demonstrate a healthy entrepreneurial spirit in Wisconsin,” said Mark Hogan, chief executive officer of WEDC, which organized and hosted the Marketplace conference in partnership with statewide minority business development stakeholders. “I congratulate the winners as well as the finalists for their successes and thank all participants in this year’s conference for their commitment to sustaining a strong and diverse Wisconsin economy.”The Outstanding Business Awards recognize businesses that show overall business excellence in sales, product, customer relations, employment and management. The Rising Star Awards were given to businesses operating less than five years that have demonstrated strong growth potential.The winners are as follows:Wangard Partners Inc. of Wauwatosa (MBE); Great Lakes Power Vac LLC of Waukesha (WBE); and Applied Fab and Machining of Wausau (DVB) each won an Outstanding Business Award in the large business category. Wangard is an innovative, full-service commercial real estate company committed to excellence in development, investment brokerage and management, syndication as well as property and asset management. Great Lakes Power Vac provides industrial and environmental cleaning services to the manufacturing, construction, municipal, engineering, roofing, utilities and power plant industries. Applied Fab and Machining specializes in custom metal manufacturing and assembly for the original equipment manufacturing and military markets. Runners up in the Outstanding Large Business category included KL Engineering with offices in Madison, Green Bay and Menomonie (MBE); Hurt Electric Inc. of Menomonee Falls (MBE); IBC Engineering Services Inc. of Waukesha (WBE); and Share Corp. of Milwaukee.View the full press release as recently posted on the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation's website.