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New RedPrairie CEO says company will remain in Wisconsin
Published March 18, 2008 - BizTimes Daily
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Mike Mayoras, the new chief executive officer of Town of Brookfield-based RedPrairie Corp., is bringing a different attitude to leading the high tech company than former CEO John Jazwiec.
For one thing, unlike Jazwiec, he is not threatening to the move the company out of state.
"We enjoy our Wisconsin home," Mayoras told SBT Monday.
In a sign of the company's renewed commitment to Wisconsin, RedPrairie recently initiated a scholarship program with UW-Milwaukee. The company is providing two scholarships valued at $5,000 each per year. Mayoras says it is imperative that a company establish itself within the community that it does business.
"I'm a big believer that organizations really have a responsibly to be, what I term as, responsible employers," he said. "Meaning you can't just be in a community and not be a part of that community especially when your main business is people."
The UWM scholarships are designed to support exceptional students who show potential to make a contribution to science and technology. According to Mayoras, RedPrairie faces the same challenges as a lot of IT companies when attempting to fill IT related positions in their work force.
"We need to participate in helping manufacture those types of skills in every way we possibly can," he said.
When he joined RedPrairie, which provides supply chain management software, Jazwiec shook up the company and pushed it through an aggressive growth period. Revenues soared and the company made several acquisitions.
But Jazwiec also shook up the community with harsh criticisms of the state's business climate. He threatened to move the firm out of state, but also considered moving it to downtown Milwaukee.
Mayoras says plans to move the company out of state have been put to rest. He applauded the work ethic and sense of loyalty of people in Wisconsin as strengths for Wisconsin businesses.
"This organization has done business in the state of Wisconsin long before I got here, and we will be doing business here I'm sure long after I'm gone," Mayoras said. "This is a good solid Wisconsin business. Southeast Wisconsin is part of our long-term plan. It will always be a material part of our business going forward."
In addition, he said the company has no immediate plans to move its headquarters to downtown Milwaukee.
"Our lease in (the Town of Brookfield) is up in 2010, so certainly we are not moving near-term," said Mayoras, who lives in Delafield.
Mayoras was named to replace Jazwiec, who resigned in October. Jazwiec resigned just four weeks after he attracted more controversy when he said his east side home was invaded, and his family was held hostage. Jazwiec did not initially call police to report the incident and instead he called the mayor's office to complain. Ald. Michael D'Amato questioned the "veracity" of Jazwiec's account of the incident. Jazwiec eventually filed a police report, but later he said wanted to have the investigation dropped. About four weeks after the incident he resigned as CEO of RedPrairie saying he wanted to move back to the Chicago area, where he grew up. He said his resignation had nothing to do with the alleged home invasion.
According to Mayoras, the company transition from Jazwiec to him was virtually seamless and despite some of the "negative press" generated from the former CEO's incidents, the company has recovered completely.
"I really have no comments regarding John's personal situation that was reported on," Mayoras said. "I saw it the same way you saw it. I wasn't involved nor was the business. What I can say is that this company is a very proud, strong group of local employees, and obviously you can't help but be affected by anything that is said about your company in the papers. What I can tell you is that this organization comes to work every day excited about what we are doing here and how we are growing our business and serving our clients."
Mayoras joined RedPrairie in March of 2004, and served as president of the Americas. He was responsible for over 50 percent of total company revenue, as well as leading product development efforts for the Americas. Prior to joining RedPrairie, he was President of DigTerra in Indianapolis from August 2001 until January 2004, as well as holding several other executive and senior management positions in sales and operations for various organizations.
Mayoras said he was influenced by Jazwiec's leadership style that created an environment of autonomy.
"John's style was really, 'I need this to happen, you have that background, come in here and make that happen.' His gift of autonomy to this company has allowed me to really form this business and set the direction that we are following today and will be following into the future," Mayoras said. "I like to empower the people around me, set clear direction on where we hope to go, and the things we'd like to achieve as a company, and surround myself with very talented and very capable executives and employees that are able to execute on those broad strategies."
