Facebook connection leads friend and his business home

14 years ago

Facebook connection leads

friend and his business home

By Kathy McCarty

Staff Writer

    PRESQUE ISLE — Much like Paul Harvey’s famous radio commentaries, where listeners learned there was more to a tale, so too there is more to the story of how BalanceBPO wound up in the Star City. The following is ‘the rest of the story,’ as explained by the man who was instrumental in making company co-founder Tim Lavin aware of the empty facility on Greenhill Drive and what possibilities the future might hold here for his business. 

    “It all started two years ago when Tim and I reconnected on Facebook. We spent some time catching up with each other’s lives,” said Mike Willette, of Presque Isle. “We hadn’t seen or talked to each other in almost 19 years.”
      Willette said Lavin mentioned at the time that he was contemplating a new business startup.   
    “After months of chatting, Tim asked me whatever became of the old MBNA building. I gave him the history and he asked me to let him know if the place ever became open,” said Willette.
    Willette said about a year and a half later, around May 2010, he heard the site — occupied at the time by Connect North America — would possibly be vacant.
     “I was leaving the gym at UMPI and noticed a young girl talking to her friend and she seemed pretty sad. The conversation was about her mother who had just lost her job. Being my nature, I had to know what she was talking about. She told me her mom just lost her job at Connect North America and that they were closing,” said Willette.
    Curious, Willette said he called Connect North and a company official confirmed the closing.
    “Instantly, Tim came to mind. I went directly home and called Tim to let him know that the building might be available very soon,” said Willette, noting timing was of the utmost importance.
    Had Willette been a day or two late in contacting Lavin, BalanceBPO might never have made its way to Presque Isle.
     “They (company officials) would have signed a deal with a site in Kellen, Texas, and we would have been left out of the equation. Our conversations ensued, and I convinced Tim and his partners to fly up here,” said Willette.
    Willette connected Lavin and his partners with Duane Walter, Northern Maine Finance Corporation —owner of the Greenhill Drive building.
    “What ensued was over two weeks of negotiations. Tim was sold immediately, but it took a bit more to sell the partners,” Willette said.
     A tour around the County changed all of the doubt, according to Willette, noting he and Lavin “sold the people and the culture to them (the partners).”
     Looking back on what’s transpired, Willette said if he’d taken the back stairway out of the gym, there wouldn’t have been a BPO grand opening this month. He also credited his wife, Pam Willette, for his getting reacquainted with Lavin.
    “Had my wife Pam not convinced me to get a Facebook account, Tim and I never would have connected and BalanceBPO would have had their upstart somewhere other than Presque Isle,” he said.
    Circumstances have been somewhat surreal for Willette, who also serves as state representative for the community BPO now calls home.
     “For me, being able to lure a business to my district and having the founder of that business be one of my best friends from my childhood is just so surreal. For lack of a better word, it’s ‘awesome.’ From a legislative standpoint, it’s the high point of my political journey,” said Willette. “To be able to do this for my constituents and friends in my community gives me such joy. It’s hard to put into words.”