Northwest Indiana Business Magazine

Northwest Indiana’s Leading Regional Business Magazine Since 1991

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Diversity in Leadership

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Great leadership knows no gender or skin color Local women and minority professionals bring a wealth of perspective to the workplace. Great leadership knows no gender or skin color. Exceptional leaders inspire and encourage us to dig deeper and think beyond the status quo. They are visionaries and advocates. They work tirelessly for the benefit […]

Entrepreneurial Excellence

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Winners of the annual Northwest Indiana E-Day Awards It’s a daunting task to select the special individuals who receive Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards. Each year, the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center (NW-ISBDC) asks a 10-member steering committee to sift through countless nominees and identify the best of the best. The process has been going on […]

Rick Dekker

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CEO works to empower customers, local students and his community. The vacuum technology industry is not something that the average person thinks about on a daily basis. Rick Dekker, CEO of Dekker Vacuum Technologies Inc., is the first to agree with that statement. “We receive calls daily about vacuum cleaner repair,” laughs Dekker, “but we […]

Jeff Strack

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Leader of Strack & Van Til started as a stock boy and bagger. by Barbara Eastman One of Jeff Strack’s fondest childhood memories is going to visit the grocery store founded in 1959 by his German-born grandfather, Ernie Strack, and his partner, Nick Van Til. Jeff’s dad worked in the business and started bringing Jeff […]

Honoring Innovation

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Society of Innovators shines the spotlight on the region’s big thinkers. by Jerry Davich Similar to when atoms collide at high speeds, something remarkable happens when ideas collide at innovative speeds. “The spark of genius happens,” says John Davies, managing director of the Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana. “Everything begins with an idea. Everything. […]

James Muhammad

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James Muhammad helps Lakeshore Public Media cut debt, add programming. by Barbara Eastman James A. Muhammad, president and CEO of Lakeshore Public Media (LPM), grew up in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He went to Stillman College on a choral music scholarship and traveled the country performing with the college choir, but majored in communications. His parents were fans […]

Pioneer Packaging

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Service and ingenuity are the keys to this pallet manufacturer’s growth. Entrepreneurs know to always be listening so they’ll hear when opportunity knocks. What about when an opportunity goes “moo”? Yes, Wade and Susan Kohler of Pioneer Packaging answered that opportunity, too, when they got into the business of livestock bedding. It’s a perfect–but not […]

Paco’s Custom Clothiers

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Quality lands thousands of customers across the country. by Michael Puente On August 17, 1999, Paco Fernandez resigned from his job at the Chicago clothing company where he had worked for 28 years. At the time, the native of Tampico, Mexico was living in East Chicago. He set out to start his own clothing company […]

CEO Profile of John Phair

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John Phair leads Holladay Properties in creating headlines and jobs across much of Indiana. by Michael Puente Hardly a week goes by when Holladay Properties isn’t in the news. Whether it’s opening new commercial complex to construction of a new hotel location, Holladay Properties is involved in many business dealings across the northern part of […]