Business Notes for July 13, 2025

The Gazette’s Business Notes is a compendium of the week’s promotions, new hires, certifications, added business lines and business events, among other items, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and the rest of the Corridor. Information and photos can be submitted at https://www.thegazette.com/business-notes/submit/

New hires

Susie Thurm has joined the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation as an accountant.

Innovative Captive Strategies (ICS) welcomes Sam Pritchard as a captive executive in the Holmes Murphy Cedar Rapids office, driving growth and strategy for ICS's property casualty group captives. Pritchard brings more than 10 years of politics and government experience, most recently serving as chief of staff to Congresswoman Ashley Hinson.

Appointments

Lorrie Erusha, Cedar Rapids community leader who will retire as president of Mercy Medical Center Foundation in August, has joined the board of directors of the Catholic Foundation in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, an independent, Catholic community foundation based in Cedar Rapids. Erusha and three others join the 13-member board.

Holmes Murphy has announced that Stacy Havel, senior client service consultant, team lead, property casualty, also is now a shareholder.

Other news

Expanded broadband: Mediacom has announced that it has launched multi-gig and symmetrical speed broadband services to nearly 1,200 households located in Fairfax and Bertram. The network improvements will allow Mediacom to ramp up from the one- and two-gigabit offerings currently being offered, to speeds of 10 gigabits and beyond in the coming years. Because this new technology uses Mediacom’s existing fiber network architecture, it was not necessary to dig up yards to add equipment or bury cables.

Small Business of the Week: U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has announced Edd the Florist of Wapello County in southeast Iowa as her small business of the week. After emigrating from Germany, Margaret and Karl Wilz purchased the shop in 1956 to pursue the American dream. Their son Hans is now the owner, and has expanded the business to also provide gifts and gourmet foods for the Ottumwa area and beyond. The business is approaching its 70th anniversary. Ernst, chair of the Senate’s Small Business Committee, is naming one exceptional small business of the week in each of Iowa’s counties during this congressional session.