The apple didn’t fall far from the tree

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 3, 2017

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree

40 UNDER 40 MIKE SHAW  

At first reluctant to follow his dad’s path, Mike Shaw realized all the ‘cool things’ he was working on

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

Growing up, Mike Shaw admired his dad’s work ethic and watched him build a company that does business with clients around the globe.

However, Shaw, as a teenager, swore he wouldn’t go into his dad’s line of work.

“It’s always hard to work for family,” he said. “When you’re younger, you always want to do your own thing. That was probably my biggest agenda at the time.”

Today, Shaw is the vice president at Power Parts International, a company his father, Roger, founded in 1988, according to the company’s website. “Most of the time it’s great,” Mike said. “I get to talk to my dad every day. I like the company he built.

“I enjoy it. It was a good move.”

Mike, 34, is originally from Mequon, but lives in the town of Jackson. In addition to his responsibilities at Power Parts, he is also the part-time manager at the West Bend Airport.

At Power Parts, the company builds induction heating and melting systems.

“If you want to heat treat or melt precious metals, gold, silver, steel, you name it, we make the systems to do that,” Mike said.

As an example, Mike said if Quad/Graphics prints magazines or catalogs, Power Parts would make the parts for the printer.

Most of their business is done with oil companies, including clients in South Korea, Brazil and Mexico. The company has two plants, one in West Bend and one in Houston. Between the two plants, there are 26 employees.

Mike has been with the company, officially, for five years, including nearly the last three as vice president. Unofficially, he’s been with the company since he was little.

“I always knew what my dad did,” Mike said. “It was one of those things where it always intrigued me seeing what he does. He’d always bring home cool things all the time, projects he was working on.”

One of those cool items was a shell casing for a Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter. That item sits on the top of a cabinet in Mike’s office at the company’s headquarters, 742 S. Indiana Ave., West Bend.

“He helped manufacture how to heat-treat that,” Mike said.

As he went through high school, Mike wanted to try something different as he searched for a career. When he was 16, he started doing landscaping and excavation. He went to college to study horticulture.

“It was a great industry to be in,” Mike said. “I loved it.”

Unfortunately, the downturn in the economy made that line of work difficult and it took its toll on him.

“People weren’t building homes so we weren’t doing any excavation,” Mike said. “Landscaping suffered, too. And everybody was doing it.”

Eventually, he realized the opportunity he had with his father’s company and decided to give in.

The company’s day-to-day operations go through Mike, everything from making sales calls to organizing the staff’s responsibilities. In his tenure, Mike has been instrumental in expanding the company’s product line.

Mike’s position at Power Parts also helped add more usefulness to the West Bend Airport.

He took over as the parttime manager almost two years ago. Before that, he plowed the runaways at the airport. But since he took over, he’s overseen several projects to help the local economy.

For example, Power Parts needs to get a part to Houston. If it chose to fly out of General Mitchell in Milwaukee, which includes the nearly hour drive, getting through security check points and the flight, that is about a six-hour process.

But if Power Parts utilizes the West Bend Airport, that time is cut in half, saving time and money. It’s because of that, several other companies followed suit and has made the airport a greater economical tool.

Mike has also helped get more energy-efficient lights installed on the taxi way, saving the airport money.

Mike stays busy and he has his father to thank for that.

“Seeing how hard my dad worked all the time, how committed he was, that really kind of made me kind of a workaholic,” Mike said.

“He was a great mentor,” he added. “I learned a lot from him.”