Capitalist tool.

• Author: Held, Shari
• Position: Cambridge Capital Management President Jean Wojtowicz - Cover Story

Jean Wojtowicz manages a group of capital companies which have helped create and save thousands of Hoosier jobs.

When Jean Wojtowicz tried a few years ago to explain to her then-preschool-age daughter exactly what she does for a living, she said, "Well, Jenny, businesses come to me looking for money. When I can give them their money, it makes their dreams come true."

Wojtowicz (pronounced "wo-TOE-itz") works her own special brand of financial wizardry for Indiana companies needing to obtain non-traditional financing. To the hundreds of Indiana firms her businesses have assisted and the thousands of Hoosiers whose jobs were retained or created as a result of her company's efforts, what she does may seem like magic.

A sense of accomplishment is what drives Cambridge Capital Management Corp., the Indianapolis firm she heads. "We meet with a company and they lay out their dreams. If we are able to provide them with the tools to make their dreams come true, that is fantastic," she says. "When we come back one year later and see how wonderfully they have succeeded, that's probably the greatest sense of joy in what we do."

Cambridge Capital Management, which Wojtowicz launched in 1983, has become an exemplary success. In 11 years, the 37-year old entrepreneur's company has expanded to manage five different investment companies. Employees of Cambridge Capital Management "staff" the five companies on a contractual basis. While the nine-person staff of Cambridge is by no means large, the company continues to grow steadily and just doubled its office space and added new employees.

Indiana Statewide Certified Development Corp.--which Wojtowicz helped from 11 years ago and of which she is executive director--has the most visibility of the companies she manages. Owned by a group of more than 100 Indiana banks, the corporation has been responsible for creating or saving more than 11,000 jobs in Indiana. Its focus is loaning money to businesses for building and equipment needs.

The minimum project amount for a loan through Indiana Statewide Certified Development Corp. is $125,000, with a cap of $750,000 or 40 percent of the proposed project. The loans typically are set up so half of the funds come from a bank, 40 percent from the development corporation and 10 percent from the borrower. That 40 percent from the Indiana Statewide Certified Development Corp. is raised through the sale of government-guaranteed bonds, an arrangement made possible by the U.S. Small Business Administration. There are just under 400 SBA-sanctioned certified development companies, and Indiana Statewide is the 11th largest in loan volume.

The second company under the Cambridge umbrella is the Indiana Community Business Credit Corp., created in 1986 to lend money to businesses in a higher category of risk. It works in a field known as "mezzanine" financing--loans that fall "between" owner equity and senior bank debt--and offers loans for projects starting at $200,000. Typically, the loan amount is split between the...