Excellence in Partnerships
Wayne Hoover, CFI, Owner / Vice President of CFI Programming, Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates
“Believe it or not, I started with WZ straight out of college,” said Hoover. “I had no experience, but Dave Zulawski and Doug Wicklander were willing to take a chance on me as an undercover coordinator and investigator. By 1994, I had become a trainer for WZ while also serving as police commissioner for North Aurora Police. In 1997, I became a partner at WZ, and in 2002, I began managing the CFI designation program. From there, Shane Sturman and I bought WZ from Doug Wicklander in 2009 and from Dave Zulawski in 2015.”
When building business partnerships, Hoover feels that sincerity is the most important quality you can have in a relationship. “Being sincere in what you can and cannot accomplish helps build trust,” he said. “But you must also be a connector. If you don’t have the answer or the service that helps your partners, go find it for them and share it, so they know you’re there to help them be successful.”
Hoover also has some advice for young leaders working their way up the career ladder. “When I look at the things that are most important to me—my family both at home and at WZ, and all of my partners in the field that help me work at being the best person I can be—there are many things that come to mind: faith, love, commitment, integrity, finances, and relationships, just to name a few. But there are three words that I truly believe encompasses all of these areas and can help everyone become successful in whatever it is they are doing: work at it! Work at your job. Work at your relationships, both at home and at work. Work at your finances. Work at whatever it is you find to be important in your life. If you’re willing and able to do that, everything else usually falls into place.”
Nominations Are Encouraged
The LPM team is privileged to have a front-row seat to the very best in the loss prevention industry, providing a unique opportunity to present positive, productive ways to promote loss prevention, build successful and constructive partnerships, educate and inform the LP community, and support the thought leadership that drives us forward.
The LP Magazine “Magpie” Awards are a means to celebrate industry accomplishments on an ongoing basis, recognizing the loss prevention professionals, teams, solution providers, law enforcement partners, and others that demonstrate a stellar contribution to the profession. Wayne Hoover is among our November–December 2018 recipients.
We want this to be your program. Those of you working as LP practitioners witness these exceptional performances on a regular and ongoing basis, and we strongly encourage you to provide us with nominees for each of the award categories. We encourage creative nominations and want the program to cast a positive light on the many tremendous contributions of the loss prevention community. Nominations can be submitted via email to excellence [at] LPportal.com.
Find out who else has been recognized in the November–December 2018 issue – check out “LPM “Magpie” Awards: Applauding Excellence.”