I Love My Job: Cary Matthews & Mike Dungan
By Kate Helbig

Mike Dungan and Cary Mathews delight in their reputation as “the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers” of Business Interiors and Environments, Inc. BIE specializes in earth-friendly, people-safe, forward-thinking, sustainable business practices, services and products. Mike and Cary share the same title: Vice President of Sales – Mike is located in the Cleveland office, Cary in Akron. The similarity ends there.

“We come from different backgrounds and have exceptionally different personalities,” Cary says. Mike provides the precise, analytical, logical factor in this incredibly successful team, while Cary brings her expressive creativity and people skills, engaging BIE clients in dialogue as she and Mike offer solutions to those seeking help for their workplace needs. “Mike and I share mutual respect, fondness and a great synergy,” Cary explains.

“We complement each other really well,” Mike adds.

Before joining BIE, Mike spent eight years in procurement for a Fortune 500 firm, a job he characterizes as a dog-eat-dog world of take and demand. He was okay with it until he got married and started a family. “Once I settled down, my goals and ethics changed; I realized I didn't love that job anymore.” Cary had a degree in music and was getting home at 5 a.m. after late-night gigs when she heard about BIE from a friend. Both Mike and Cary credit BIE's unusual company culture with making their jobs lovable.

BIE was founded by current president and CEO Robert Jones in 1973. With 50 employees in two offices, BIE has positioned itself on the cutting edge of the growing earth-friendly movement in office design. Before he hired Cary and Mike, Jones told them that he expected them to give 110 percent to their job, but only if they led a balanced life. “He wanted us to get involved in church, community, raising rare dogs – whatever we felt passionate about,” Cary recalls. “I was amazed. I never had a prospective employer tell me I had to have balance in my life.” In following his “boss's orders,” Mike enjoys camping, hiking, fishing and boating with his family. Cary loves gardening, spending time with her menagerie of pets and occasionally playing back-up guitar with a local band.

Serving national and international clients, BIE's overall focus is office planning and design, furniture sales and installation, in addition to full-facility maintenance. But that description does not quite do the company justice. For example, it offers a linoleum product made of wheat that is formaldehyde-free, cubicle walls that can be composted because they are made of corn cobs, and bamboo counter tops that are biodegradable. The paints and carpets used do not create fumes. Old carpeting is removed and recycled for new-carpet manufacturing.

“BIE is riding the wave of the new earth-friendly movement,” Mike explains. “Our materials and furniture are sustainable – almost edible in some cases. We want to offer products that are biodegradable, that give new life. We don't want our products to clog landfills. We are on a journey toward sustainability, which is a goal we may never fully achieve, but it is a goal worth pursuing.”

But BIE's sustainable furniture is not the whole picture, either. “We engage our clients in a high-level discussion about their business strategies,” Cary explains. Although some clients are initially confused about the connection between their business strategy and their need for desks, chairs and conference tables, Mike and Cary show them how it is indeed a crucial one.

“We don't sell desks over the phone,” Mike says. “We must have face time with our clients to understand them, to fully learn what they do.”

“If we understand their business strategies, then we know how better to position people, resources and technology to fulfill that business strategy in what BIE calls a workplace ecology,” Cary says. The company shies away from leaving its signature on a workplace. “Good design should say everything about the client and nothing about us,” Cary adds.

Not only does the BIE company cultivate stress balance for employees, it takes its own advice. In 2004, BIE relocated to its current home at East 20th Street and St. Clair Avenue, a former machine, tin and stove shop. It made immediate friends with the many artists who live and work in the neighborhood and became a member of the Red Dot Project that connects Northeast Ohio businesses and artists in order to bring art and sculpture to Northeast Ohio workplace environments. BIE has an unusual, multi-window, high-ceilinged open space that also serves as an art gallery. BIE clients often purchase art right off BIE's walls. The company also hosts area business meetings.

BIE recycles, contracting with Abitibi Paper Retrieval to recycle its cardboard boxes into new cardboard. BIE donates the proceeds to St. Martin de Porres Charter School in Cleveland and to the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank in Akron. “It's another way we try to give back to the community,” Mike says.

Both Mike and Cary laugh when asked why they love their jobs. They say it is because of BIE's commitment to balanced living, as well as the teamwork among the staff that is the foundation of the company's success. They explain the satisfaction they feel from doing something worthwhile, such as promoting sustainability in the workplace and stewarding the earth's resources, and note that giving back instead of taking from the community is personally rewarding as well. Then they add their own private joys.

“I love it here because BIE is worth loving, and because it is easy for my sales people to be successful,” Mike says. “This is a great place to work.”

“I cannot wait to get to work in the morning,” Cary says. “Through this work I have become aware of my talents. And I love “the hunt,” meeting clients, discovering their passion for what they do and then being a catalyst in connecting them to the right business interior – for them. It allows my creative passion to thrive. For me, that is just a blast.”

“We sell fun and we make money for the company!” Mike adds. They look at each other, nod and laugh again.

Mike Dungan lives in Greene, Ohio with his wife, two sons and a rambunctious dog. He can be reached at mdungan@bie1.com. Cary Mathews lives in Chagrin Falls, Ohio with her husband, two dogs and two cats. She can be reached at cmathews@bie1.com. Contact BIE at www.BIE1.com, (216) 621-3660 or (330) 253-9189.