Staying positive when someone you love is so far away from you is no easy task, but professional meeting facilitator Bill McGinnis, a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder in MIlwaukee, and his dog Comet are doing just that and then some.

McGinnis’ long term girlfriend, and Comet’s “best friend,” Julianna, was deployed by the U.S. Air Force to Iraq in July of 2009. In search of a way to stay connected to her, and keep her connected to friends in the Milwaukee area, McGinnis began setting the stage for his online children’s book titled "The Adventures of The Comet Dog - Missing Someone is Hard."

“I originally decided that using the dog to visit a lot of the places she would go to would be a fun way for her to stay connected to the area and her friends back home,” McGinnis said.

What started out as a small project to keep his girlfriend amused has turned into something much larger, which has involved McGinnis coming up with a back story to how Comet becomes the lovable super hero The Comet Dog.

“It has become so much more than just the story,” McGinnis said. “We get to tell this story through the innocent eyes of a dog, but we are hoping that through this effort we can also help children understand something about why people they love can’t always be around.”

The online book, available at www.TheCometDog.com, is written as imagined from Comet's perspective and takes readers to various locations while he searches for his best friend.

“I think the subject is applicable to everyone,” McGinnis said. “It goes beyond those who have family members or friends that are in the military. It goes beyond individuals who live in Milwaukee. I think missing someone is hard for a lot of people, and we’re hoping that The Comet Dog and his adventures can provide some hope, and teach people about commitment, love, duty and sacrifice.”

According to McGinnis, the project has also led him to form “Team Comet Dog” which participated in the annual Susan G. Komen run/walk for breast cancer awareness in September, and has also led to raising funds for pillows to send to wounded soldiers at a hospital in Iraq.

“Throughout this program we learned that soldiers being transported from the main medical unit in Iraq to the hospital in Germany are not supplied with pillows for the flight,” he said. “We decided that injured soldiers should have everything that they need in order to feel comfortable.”

Through negotiations with individuals who believe in his cause, McGinnis has managed to get the cost of sending a pillow to Iraq down to just over $3, he said.

”Right now, there is no place to make donations on the website, but individuals as well as corporations have been contacting me,” he said.

Julianna is a nurse practitioner, stationed at the main medical unit in Iraq, and was recently surprised by a delivery of more than 1,500 pillows and their cases for the wounded soldiers. 

“The pillows weren’t something I ever intended to do, but the project just keeps growing, and I like to let it go where it wants to,” McGinnis said. “It’s definitely something we will continue throughout the project. I have been working on this for about seven months. Of course, I didn’t start taking any of the pictures until after Julianna left, but now she knows about it and loves checking the updates and sharing the story with her patients.”

McGinnis updates the website with the story of Comet's adventures, but also sends Julianna 8x10 photos of the pages which she shares with her patients at the medical unit, he said.

The story will end when Julianna comes home, McGinnis said, but for now fans of The Comet Dog can check out his story on his website, www.TheCometDog.com, his Facebook page or they can follow him on Twitter @thecometdog.

“The Comet Dog sends out tweets and Facebook reminders when he updates his story book,” McGinnis said. “Right now we are doing that just about three times a week.”

Upcoming chapters of The adventures of The Comet Dog - Missing Someone is Hard, will showcase The Comet Dog in many prominent and high profile situations as he searches for his friend, McGinnis said.

BizTimes Reporter, Alysha Schertz sat down with McGinnis and The Comet Dog in Milwaukee’s own Veteran’s Park. Click on the video below to view a webcast of that interview.

Evil spirits and spooky hauntings are top of mind for a lot of individuals around Halloween, but recognized psychic and professional exorcist Jeffrey Seelman of Brookfield-based Starclear has made spirits and negative energy a part of his business. Seelman has been recognized as a professional exorcist, and specializes in clearing negative energy from a person’s life. “I have been doing this since 1992,” Seelman said. “I clear individuals, home owners and business owners of negative emotional energy that is in their environment.” According to Seelman, he and his partner Amy Lamb have ‘cleared’ many of the buildings in the Milwaukee area, but his business has taken him to international heights as well. “There are many old building in the Milwaukee area,” Seelman said. “There is quite a lot of history to them, but also quite a bit of accumulation in emotional energy.” For a price, Seelman can come to your home or business and conduct a ‘clearing’ of the emotional energy in the space. The two are also able to consult over the phone or via customized or pre-recorded audio files that essentially teach the individual what needs to be done throughout the clearing. Seelman and his colleague, who is also a professional psychic, have cleared restaurants, taverns, churches, hotels, office buildings as well as many homes in the Milwaukee area, and just recently took his work outside of the Milwaukee area. “Up until about three years ago all my work was done locally,” Seelman said. “Now I’ve gotten some national attention, as well as done some work in Russia and other parts of the world.” Seelman has been featured on various broadcast stations and radio programs, including E! Entertainment Television’s Doomed to Die? 13 Most Shocking Hollywood Curses, which was filmed a few years ago, but has repeat broadcasts every year including one on Friday, Oct. 31 at 4p.m. According to Seelman, he was consulted as an expert to discuss complications on the set of the movie The Exorcist, which reportedly experienced some uncommon occurrences, injuries, and even deaths to cast members while filming.

For more haunted Milwaukee Stories visit www.MilwaukeeGhosts.com which features information, and tours of Milwaukee’s most legendary haunted places, including The Third Ward which was formerly called the Bloody Third. Milwaukee Ghosts Tours and Investigations offers haunted tours of the Third Ward most Fridays and Saturdays from May through Nov. at 7 p.m. or by special appointment May through November. The cost is $10 per person.

ProHealth Care invites the public to attend its 30th Annual Diabetes Update Anniversary Celebration featuring guest speaker Jerry Mathers, who starred as The Beaver on the hit 1950s TV show Leave it to Beaver. The event will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 4 from 6 to 8:15 p.m. at Country Springs Hotel & Conference Center in Waukesha.

Mathers was diagnosed with type two diabetes early in the 1990s. He took preventative measures, lost 45 pounds and is one of the leading lecturers on living and dealing with diabetes.

He will share his story and tips about diet, exercise and the proper treatment of diabetes. Cost to attend the event is $10. To register, go to www.prohealthcare.org or call (800) 544-2745.

In an effort to recapture a favorite summer past time, Milwaukee’s Intercontinental Hotel will offer Indoor Bocce Ball on Tuesday nights from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday night now until Dec. 1. Bocce Ball is open to the public and is located near Clear, the first floor lobby bar.

For more information about bocce ball at the InterContinental Hotel, visit InterContinental Milwaukee's Facebook page

The Mountain Top at Grand Geneva Ski Resort in Lake Geneva recently revealed a special Facebook fan page promotion for the resort’s opening weekend.

Anyone who becomes a fan of Grand Geneva’s fan page before opening weekend will receive a free ticket redeemable any day during opening weekend.

“We just launched our Facebook fan page and decided this was not only a way to build that fan base, but also to fill the ski hills and celebrate opening weekend,” said Courtney Nobilio, the resort’s marketing manager.

According to Nobilio, the resort’s scheduled opening day weekend is set for Dec. 4-6.

“We really wanted to get people in the doors to experience the Grand Geneva packages we offer,” Nobilio said.

The resort launched its Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and its YouTube channel at the same time and plans to offer additional deals and promotions throughout the season including room night packages, vouchers and other discounted rates. Visit the Grand Geneva Resort’s Facebook page to collect your free voucher for opening day weekend.

UNITS Mobile Storage of Milwaukee will kick off a city-wide Fun-raiser today at 10 a.m. at a Units Mobile storage unit outside of Leff’s Lucky Town, 7208 W. State St., Wauwatosa. The event will be held in anticipation for the Packers vs. Vikings game on Sunday, Nov. 1. At the “Farve Away but not Forgotten” event UNITS will collect an entire mobile storage unit full of Brett Favre clothes and memorabilia for underprivileged children from the Milwaukee Boys & Girls Club. Children and employees of UNITS mobile storage will also release dozens of balloons in to the air to represent the city letting go of Favre.

Name: Josh Kozinski

Title: President

Company: Sky High Marketing

Company address: 2000 Pewaukee Road, Suite R, Waukesha, WI. 53188

Company web site: www.skyhighmarketing.com

Industry: Marketing

Education: B.S. in Business Management – Upper Iowa University

Family:  Wife, Rachel, and three children, Kylie, Caleb, and Kara

Hobbies and Interests: Travel, sports, real estate, business

Favorite book and/or movie: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Favorite musician/band: U2

Favorite place to visit/vacation: Mexico

Favorite local restaurant: Joe Armellis in Stone Bank

Words to live by: “Work Hard. Play Hard.”

What is your core philosophy for doing business? “Every day provides an opportunity for your business to move forward or backwards.”

Who is your role model and why? “Too many to mention. I believe in having a lot of mentors in your life and pulling different lessons from each of them.”

MSOE vp of academics to retire

Dr. Roger Frankowski, Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) vice president of academics, announced his plan to retire July 31, 2010, after 42 years of service at the school. Frankowski was appointed vice president of academics in 2002, after serving as chairman of the general studies department for 21 years. He joined the MSOE faculty in 1968 as an instructor and subsequently was promoted to assistant professor, associate professor and professor.

 “I would like to congratulate Dr. Frankowski on a wonderful career, and thank him for his dedication to MSOE,” said Dr. Hermann Viets, MSOE president. “He is an outstanding leader and teacher and has made an everlasting impression on this institution.”

During his career, Frankowski also served as the North Central Association-Higher Learning Commission (NCA-HLC) liaison, the faculty representative to the NCAA, chairman of the athletic appeals committee, and as an advisor to Tau Omega Mu and the Foreign Students Association. Frankowski’s work with students has been recognized with two MSOE awards: the Oscar Werwath Distinguished Teacher Award in 1981 and the Outstanding Mentor Award in 1991. He also received the following awards: Salgo-Noren Outstanding Educator in 1973, Outstanding Educators in America in 1974 and Outstanding Young Men in America in 1972.

Frankowski is a member of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, American Society for Engineering Education, Society for Technical Communication and licensed in the Association for Psychological Type. He has served on the Executive Board of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) of Southeast Wisconsin, the Bucyrus-Erie Scholarship Award Committee, and the MSOE Athletics Hall of Fame Committee.

Friberg will be new president of Columbia St. Mary's Hospital

Deborah Friberg has been named to the new position of executive vice president of Columbia St. Mary's Inc, president of Columbia St. Mary's Hospital Milwaukee and president of Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Institute. She will begin in her new roles in January 2010.

With the move, Friberg will be renewing her ties to Milwaukee and to Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Institute. She currently is executive vice president and chief operating officer of North Carolina's WakeMed Health & Hospitals, which serves the central and eastern regions of that state. Previously, she was vice president of professional services and programs at Sacred Heart in Milwaukee.

Friberg's most recent efforts led to a $108.5 million expansion on the WakeMed Raleigh Campus and the addition of a new women's hospital in Raleigh, N.C.

"Deborah brings very strong operational and leadership experience from her service at WakeMed, an outstanding health care system. As we transition to our new Milwaukee Hospital, I am confident that she will help us to solidify Columbia St. Mary's position as the health care leader in our community,” said Leo Brideau, who remains president and chief executive officer of Columbia St. Mary's Inc.

Friberg earned her master's degree in business administration at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her bachelor's degree in science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Ahrens succeeds Williams as COO at The PrivateBank

PrivateBancorp Inc. announced that C. Brant Ahrens has been named chief operating officer, replacing John B. "Jay" Williams, who continues as chairman of The PrivateBank Milwaukee.

Ahrens joined The PrivateBank in October 2007 and most recently served as chief strategy and marketing officer. He will continue to oversee those departments and will add oversight of the human resources, operations and information technology groups to his responsibilities.

"Brant is one of the architects of our strategic growth plan and has a deep understanding of our business objectives," said Larry Richman, president and chief executive officer. "We are pleased that he is taking on this important leadership role as we continue to build the infrastructure necessary to support our long-term growth aspirations."

Prior to joining Chicago-based PrivateBank, Ahrens was group senior vice president and head of LaSalle Bank's Financial Institutions Group.

Ahrens is on the board of directors of the Illinois Bankers Association and is chairman of the associates board of the Brain Research Foundation.

EDWC Hires New Executive Director

Economic Development/Washington County (EDWC) announced that Christian G. Tscheschlok has been named the organization’s new executive director, effective Dec. 7.

Tscheschlok is a certified economic developer with more than 13 years of urban and rural economic development and redevelopment experience. His background includes national and international expertise in economic development organization leadership, business recruitment and expansion, entrepreneur consultation, community development, financial packaging, incentive negotiation, project management, workforce development, public relations, lobbying and education.

Since June 2007, Tscheschlok has served as vice president of the Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corporation where he provides direct consultative services for business and community projects. His prior experience includes serving as the first director of the Rock Falls, Ill. Community Development Corporation.

“I’ve been impressed with the accomplishments of Washington County businesses and the commitment of the EDWC Board to leverage the county’s assets into new opportunity,” said Tscheschlok, “I look forward to hitting the ground running and leading the organization to next level success.”

Hospitality & Entertainment

Sundance Vacations named Sean Agnew as sales director of the Brookfield sales division. Agnew was previously employed at the Downers Grove (Ill.) Sundance Vacations sales office and has been employed by the wholesale travel company since 2005.

Insurance

Acuity, Sheboygan, announced the following promotions within its firm: Jennifer Hamacher was promoted to senior commercial field underwriter, and Jason Heidl, Robert Nienhuis, and Kyle Peterson have each been promoted to senior commercial underwriter.

Legal Services

The personal injury law firm of Pitman, Kyle & Sicula, S.C., Milwaukee, recently announced that Gail Brown and Terese Halfmann have joined the firm. Attorneys Brown and Halfmann are both nurse attorneys - licensed Wisconsin attorneys and registered nurses - and are on the firm's Nursing Home Abuse Team.

DeWitt Ross & Stevens S.C. added Olivia Kelley to the litigation, business and tax groups in its Brookfield location.

Real Estate

Inland Companies, Milwaukee, hired Joe Eldredge as a sales associate for their brokerage department. He has more than 15 years of experience in residential and commercial real estate with a strong background in sales, marketing, development and acquisition.

NAI MLG Commercial welcomed back Rachel Quest-Schmidt as the vice president of its Brookfield brokerage team.

“Banks didn’t cause this recession as so many believe. We also were not bailed out as so many claim. We didn’t make irresponsible subprime loans to people who didn't have the capacity to repay them. We didn’t speculate in investment instruments we didn’t understand, like credit default swaps and other derivatives. And we are doing our best to meet the demand for loans to qualified borrowers. We understand our vital role as the foundation of economic development and job growth in every corner of Wisconsin and our nation. We want to make prudent loans to businesses in the communities we serve because if those businesses don’t succeed, neither will we.”

~ Joint statement by Wisconsin Bankers Association president and chief executive officer Kurt Bauer and Community Bankers of Wisconsin president and CEO Daryll Lund.

Read the full Milwaukee BizBlog: Anger at banks is misplaced