Forté – Career Profiles

A professional figure skater for 10 years, from the tender ages of 6 to 16, Natasha Vora says operating a store with furnishings marked by exotic woods and textured material may not give her quite the same opportunity for self-expression that executing a double axel to music from Madame Butterfly in a kimono-style costume once did, but it's expressive nonetheless. In fact, Vora sees a number of parallels between her figure skating past and her home decor present. The artistic expression that helped her develop a passion for figure skating has also influenced her selection of Asian-style furnishings and textiles at Indocara, her Madison store. Full Story 

Answering the Sirens' call doesn't always mean floundering on the rocks, as Faith Dey and Alison McWilliams of Siren Fitness proved when they founded their business almost two years ago. The two entrepreneurs met in a fitness class and soon discovered they were kindred spirits in their vision of creating a fitness boutique to empower women. Full Story 

Admittedly, the term “philanthropreneur” is made up, but it’s an accurate description of the 25-year-old successful engineer from Nigeria who gave up the archetypal American dream to establish the nascent non-profit organization (NPO), Poverty Stops Here (PSH). After graduating from Vanderbilt with a degree in computer engineering and landing a well-paying job with National Instruments, Efosa Ojomo planned to turn his newly-purchased Madison home into an “MTV Crib” and to buy, with cash, a BMW to go with it.

But a nagging voice in the back of his mind kept asking, “Why do I need these things?” Full Story 

From cauliflower-laced macaroni to chocolate chip cookies à la broccoli, Shannon Payette Seip and her business partner, Kelly Parthen, are riding a growing wave of concern about childhood obesity by slipping fruits and vegetables into not-so-obvious places at their hip and healthy kids' café in Middleton. Full Story