New Wilmac president believes Rochester’s tech talent a key for company growth

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As Wilmac enters its 66th year on the Rochester business landscape, new president Steve McDonnell Jr. has ambitious goals for the family-owned company.

While revenue has been fairly steady over the past several years — and that’s always better than declining — he believes growth of 20 percent is well within reason based on the products and services Wilmac offers.

Founded in 1957 as a company that sold dictation machines, Wilmac now offers voice and digital solutions for three sectors: contact centers, financial compliance institutions and public safety organizations (such as 9-1-1 dispatch centers).

The company still sells products made by other firms. But Wilmac also has developed its own software that archives and manages voice recordings, ultimately providing a more pleasant experience for callers that connect with a contact center.

And you want that. Who hasn’t encountered the computerized answering system used by a significant percentage of businesses, from cable and internet providers to insurance companies. You call and you’re immediately asked to listen to the menu — which invariably, allegedly, has recently changed — and then given a series of voice/touch-pad options.

Some systems work flawlessly. Some leave the caller screaming at a computerized bot voice. Wilmac strives to be part of the systems that work flawlessly.

“I know how frustrated someone can be on the other end of the line,” McDonnell said. “It can ruin a person’s day. They can sit on the line for six hours.”

That’s why he said he is passionate about what Wilmac does, and why he believes the future is bright for the firm.

“Now that we’ve developed our own software, we want our name out more in Rochester,” he said.

That effort began with a Wilmac sign going up on the State Street headquarters in downtown Rochester not all that long ago. There had been no sign for the first six-plus decades. The firm also is looking at event sponsorship, ramping up sales efforts with locally based companies, and has implemented an internship program with Nazareth College, Roberts Wesleyan University and St. John Fisher University.

Perhaps most importantly, McDonnell said future growth must include tapping into Rochester’s strong technology base. The company currently has 37 employees.

“The plan is to recruit the majority of our employees from this tech community,” said McDonnell, who took over as company president from his father on Nov. 1. “We can get just as good talent in Rochester to work for us as we can in New York or Toronto (where the company also has offices) and we just haven’t tapped into that yet.

“There are ton of good technology people coming out of RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) and U of R (University of Rochester).”

Of course, talented graduates have options, so Wilmac must offer something those ambitious graduates won’t get from major firms such as Apple or Meta.

“For us, it’s what can we give them that Apple can’t,” McDonnell said. “It’s different ways to move up in a company quicker, you’re more hands-on at a younger age, and it’s staying in Rochester. Not everyone wants to move to a big city these days.”

Wilmac was created in 1957 by William McDonnell and sold dictation machines to lawyers, hospitals and journalists, and did so for about a quarter century.

When his sons, Steven and William, bought the company from their father in the 1980s, dictation machines were becoming as obsolete as the typewriter. So, the business focus shifted to digital and voice technology.

They grew the business from around maybe $1 million in annual revenue in a very good year to the $5 million to $8 million range, which is where growth plateaued, McDonnell said.

Steven Sr. bought out his brother within the past decade, and now Steve Jr. — a 2002 graduate of Fairport High School and 2007 graduate of SUNY Geneseo — is in process of buying out his father.

He said his father and uncle expanded on the foundation created by their father, and he now hopes to do the same. Before joining Wilmac 11 years ago, Steve Jr. worked five years in sales for Xerox Corp. in Boston.

While Wilmac is family run, he said his father preferred family members venture out on their own and work successfully at least two or three years for someone else.

“And that was good because I wanted to get the big corporate experience,” he said. “The training from Xerox was great and I learned so much working alongside experienced sales reps in Boston. It was highly competitive and I got to face rejection plenty.”

When he did join Wilmac, he worked in Manhattan before returning to Rochester in August of 2021 to put the succession plan into motion.

“My father allowed me to put some changes in place starting last January so now we’re going into my first year ready to roll,” McDonnell said.

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