Leadership

Gary LaCourt

Chief Executive Officer

Background

I’ve been in business for myself since the age of 16. Serial entrepreneur and veteran of 12 start-ups, most but not all winners, but all of them fun and amazingly educational.

Business Philosophy

  1. Take care of your customers like they were your mother.
  2. If you don’t have your people’s hearts you’ll never have their minds. People won’t care about you or your company unless they believe you care about them. They won’t believe you care about them unless you really care about them.
  3. Energy, creativity and execution trump industry knowledge early in a start-up. If after 24 months you can’t clearly, cogently and powerfully articulate why someone should buy from you rather than anyone else, get out of the business, all the energy in the world won’t save you.
  4. Don’t run out of cash!

Interests

Cars, bars, cigars, guitars, and a bunch more that don’t rhyme. I got my pilots license before my driver’s license and if it rolls, floats or flies, I can drive it. 

If someone wrote a book about you, what would the title be?

Dream Expansively, Execute Relentlessly

Bernie Czerwinski

Chief Operating Officer

Background

Thankful for my supportive family, with strong military and spiritual roots, which forged my life’s perspective and love for country.  Unique business foundation of large corporate, private equity and entrepreneurial experiences.  Created, grew and sold four companies along the way.   Forever indebted to my three amazing, caring business mentors: Tom Burr, David Shelby and my Father, who shaped my acumen and reasoning.  I try to be to others what they were to me.

Business Philosophy

  1. Serve to enrich the lives of others.  Elevate those around you.
  2. Learn from your mistakes.  Own them, wear them as a badge of honor; they will help make you great.
  3. We are only limited by our own ambitions.  Be courageous!
  4. Adapt, improvise and overcome.  Semper fidelis!

Interests

Spending time with family.  Coaching sports, playing sports, anything sports relate.  Love a good steak!  Always interested in warm weather, a beach and appreciating nature.  Seeking to increase spiritually.

If someone wrote a book about you, what would the title be?

Finish the Race

Brittany Bozmoski

Chief Marketing Officer

Background

I started my career at Harley-Davidson. My job was to find ways to improve efficiency in the product development cycle via Six Sigma and interpersonal collaboration. “Value Engineering” might be an uncommon path to marketing, but I got an extraordinary education on how company culture relates to and drives brand development. Leading teams through cost-cutting projects is a quick way to learn what matters most to employees, and what employees perceive to matter most to customers. That’s how I fell in love with the power of brand marketing. I shifted my career to advertising and joined one of Milwaukee’s most storied ad agencies, Laughlin Constable. I was lucky to help win and impact a portfolio of companies and causes, such as the Lung Cancer Alliance, El Camino Hospital and Bon-Ton. I learned how to market a brand to its many constituencies through omni-channel marketing. But in my heart, I longed to be a visceral part of a great and meaningful company brand. That’s why I joined Forever Companies.

Business Philosophy

  1. Care personally, challenge directly.
  2. Collaborate early and often.
  3. A bad idea executed well is worth more than a great idea executed poorly.
  4. Hire people smarter than you.

Interests

Painting when I can. Gifting like Leslie Knope. Spending time with family, especially my niece Penelope. Learning and teaching yoga. Experiencing Milwaukee. Lounging with Odin (my Frenchie). Dabbling in film and voiceover.

If someone wrote a book about you, what would the title be?

Smart Answers to Dumb Questions: How To Experience Life Change By Asking Stupid Questions

Ken Licau, CPA

Director of Accounting

Background

Had the good fortune of having great mentors, including my CPA managing partner father, in both “big” and mid-sized public accounting firms. My mentors encouraged me to maintain a focus of operational and financial continuous improvement, not only in my clients’ companies, but in myself personally. This philosophy was essential to my successes in the private sector, leading small business turn-arounds and large business growth initiatives. I’m grateful that I was trained to be well rounded,  see true stories in numbers. I especially love cash management, and have fun managing resources efficiently and effectively.

Business Philosophy

  1. Do the right thing and you will succeed…eventually!
  2. Cash is king. Customer is queen.
  3. Never get complacent. There is always room for improvement.
  4. Numbers don’t lie.

Interests

Life is great, in that it presents life stages, each with unique possibilities. For the past 25 years, raising my four incredible children and giving them each the opportunity to become their best selves – whether it I was coaching football or helping backstage at their performances – all took priority. This new chapter in my life is about living my life. I look at the Forever Companies as a lifestyle brand, and the contagious energy here aligns perfectly with things that bring joy in my life: music, travel, most anything active, and helping others. I love that what we do here brings joy to others, and helps others experience their lives more fully.

Josh Averbeck

Director of Digital Marketing & eCommerce

Background

Numbers, specifically large sets of data always made sense to me. When I started my career, I was bound and determined to focus my high-energy, action-focused personality to use quantitative analysis and emerging technologies to drive growth and forge competitive advantages.  I have also deeply focused on learning various coding languages and technologies. This combination of marketing experience, technical knowledge, and data analysis ability has allowed me to succeed at driving profitable growth in a disruptive eCommerce company.  I’m now focused on utilizing new technologies and new disciplines to give us the competitive edge we need to beat century-old competitors.

Business Philosophy

  1. Understand the end user first
  2. Hypothesize, test, pivot, repeat
  3. There’s always an opportunity, you just need the right data set and the right set of eyes to find it.
  4. Get action, do things, be sane, don’t fritter away your time. Create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody – Teddy Roosevelt

Interests

Spreading Joy, Laughing, Travel, Restaurants, Cooking, Bicycling, Guitars, Boats, Lakes, Wakeboarding, Cars, History, Learning, Technology, Wisconsin Sports, Baseball Statistics. More than anything I like being mentally and physically active.

If Someone Wrote a Book About You, What Would the Title Be?

Finding Joy: Perseverance, Nerding Out, and Simple Pleasures