Bill Cushwa

Founder & CEO, BEARACADE

Bill Cushwa brings more than 25 years experience driving organizational improvement and implementation of best practices, particularly in the area of sales, fundraising, and customer/donor relations. Bill has a unique blend of hands-on corporate expertise and an entrepreneurial mindset. In business and in the community, Bill has the ability to build consensus and launch successful initiatives. In addition to being a member of the City of Hudson’s School Safety and Security Consortium, Bill is a founding member of the Keep Hudson Safe Initiative, a collaborative effort of community leaders focused on initiatives, programming, and actions that will increase the safety of the Hudson community, with particular emphasis on children within all schools. Bill serves on the Akron Children’s Hospital Foundation Board of Directors, the Haslinger Center for Pediatric Palliative Care, and is a mentor to local schools for the National Lemonade Day program in Northeast Ohio. Additional community involvement includes serving the City of Hudson as Charter Review Commission member and chairing two ad hoc rezoning committees. Bill also serves as a trustee on the board of two private foundations focused on community and educational scholarships.

News mentions

Bearacade Door Control Enforces Equal Working Opportunities For Manufacturing Employees

Bearcade’s ships its injected molded piece to Hattie Larlhan, an organization that serves individuals with disabilities BEARACADE Door Control System employs developmentally disabled people on the manufacturing side. Helping Individuals With Developmental Challenges: “From the beginning, Dave Soulsby and I wanted to create meaningful opportunities for developmentally disabled people who were looking for work in the manufacturing sector,” said Bill Cushwa, Founder and CEO, BEARACADE Door Control Systems who is based in Hudson, Ohio. “Every single device and order has a significant impact on the lives of some very unique individuals.” Shipping Process: “The main molded piece of the BEARACADE unit is molded by Design Molded Plastics, the same company that molds helmets for Riddell football,” adds Dave Soulsby, Founder and President, BEARACADE Door Control. “From Design Molded, our injected molded pieces are shipped to Hattie Larlham, a nonprofit organization that provides medical, residential, recreational and work training services to 1,500 children and adults with developmental disabilities. At Hatties’s Assembly division, we employ 20-25 developmentally disabled adults via a vocational training program for subassembly of the other component parts (reflective sticker, anchor pin, lanyard, wall hook, alignment stopper, etc.). Once assembled and packed, the team at Hattie Larlham’s fulfills orders and ships the completed BEARACADE directly to our customers after we’ve send them order information.” Ensuring School Safety: The inability to effectively barricade classrooms and offices in workplace violence situations made Ohio natives Bill Cushwa and Dave Soulsby take action. The men formed National School Control Systems, worked with school administrators and safety forces, and patented the BEARACADE® Door Control System as a way to protect those most vulnerable. “We have also sold to churches due to their open access, multiple rooms, vacation bible schools, and offices,” says Bill Cushwa, Founder and CEO, BEARACADE® Door Control Systems. “We have sold to government, business, and nonprofit entities for offices that are concerned about active shooters, domestic violence issues, and disgruntled employee situations.”

Experts sections