Where philanthropy is a team game
At Bay Tek Games and MCL Industries in Pulaski, a culture of giving back pervades life in the workplace — and beyond.
It’s in the way the businesses give 10 percent of their profits to charitable causes — and in how each month, two employees from each company are randomly selected and awarded $500 for the charity of their choice. Beyond that, says Larry Treankler, chairman of both companies (and second from right, above), employees take the giving spirit home, infusing philanthropy in day-to-day living, as well.
Bay Tek and MCL began supporting UW-Green Bay Phoenix Athletics a number of years ago, and have ramped up their giving to include annual and ongoing support.
“I was watching a women’s basketball tournament game five, six years ago now,” Treankler said. “They were playing somebody they had no business beating, and the way they left everything out there, the sense of shared fate, the passion … I just came away inspired. The way they conducted themselves is very, very similar to the way we try to conduct ourselves as a business.”
That sense of admiration for the “Green Bay Way” only increased when Treankler and some of his colleagues had the chance to tour the Kress Events Center and meet Phoenix coaches and staff.
“Athletics is a great teacher,” Treankler said. “You have to be humble when you win, you have to be gracious when you lose, you have to operate within a team.”
MCL CEO Bob Rupp is a UW-Green Bay grad and former trustee, and Treankler’s daughter, Layne, is an alumna as well. Bay Tek (a leading maker of coin-operated games) and MCL (electrical and mechanical assemblies) employ about a half-dozen UW-Green Bay alumni, Treankler said — and their education stands out.
“They come to us well-schooled in terms of the curriculum they’ve been trained in,” he said. “And to a person, they come to us with something extra. … Each and every one of them is a leader.”
(Photo at top, from left: Shareholder Terry Hansted, MCL CEO Robert Rupp, Chairman Larry Treankler and Bay Tek CEO Gaeten Philppon. Not shown: Shareholder Carl Treankler.)
