Meet the Capital
Electric team:

“Honestly, working at Capital has made me look forward to going to work, instead of dreading it. Being a part of this team has also given me the tools I need to grow professionally and as a person.”

Meet the Capital Electric Team: Brian Baxa,
Customer Support Specialist

Brian’s a major asset on our support team, working with a lot of our OEM customers as well vendor-managed inventory and assisting with getting prefab orders out the door.

What brought you to Capital Electric?

I was looking for a career change and heard about Capital from a friend who told me how welcoming the team was and how great they were to work with – definitely put me at ease.

How did you get up to speed with the industry?

My first days were all about getting into the weeds of cabling because my product knowledge was next to nothing. Mike, the President of Capital Electric, put together a course called Cabling 101, where he takes new employees through everything we need to know, getting us up to date on the latest technology and the basics of cabling so we can offer advice that helps customers in the field.

Very, very useful.

Have there been any significant learning experiences or professional growth moments?

Working on a big project like the one we did for the Milwaukee Public School District comes to mind.

For my part, I was involved in supplying cable and prefab fiber as well as creating labels for the fiber cuts, processing sales orders and doing customer support with the project lead at Munger.

Not only was it great to see the project come together, it was rewarding to know we were a part of bettering the education of the children of Milwaukee.

Can you highlight a team success story?

Working together to provide prefabricated racks – and a lot of them – with labels installed and speed pull cables cut to length for a local hospital was a huge team success. 

The whole project required the collaboration of different departments here at Capital.

What challenges have you faced and how’d you overcome them?

One that we face from time to time is discontinued products, sometimes the solution is as simple as tracking down a substitute that gets the job done just as well, if not better.

But sometimes we have to improvise because there’s no alternative up to the task.

For example, the perforated paper we used to produce labels for patch panels was discontinued. Mary Harpster, our Operations Manager, and I improvised a solution in-house to produce those patch labels for customers, saving our contractor customers time, money and stress.

How would you describe the team culture at Capital Electric?

Everyone strives to help each other. Like I came into the field not knowing much about the industry and even after getting up to speed, the team continues to help in my development daily.

And we’re truly a well-oiled machine, every single order goes through everyone's hands so we’re really working together to ensure we deliver exactly what the customer needs.

How do you personally resonate with the values of Capital Electric?

Honesty and kindness are two things I pride myself on, so whether I’m at the will-call counter, with teammates or at one of the many events Capital hosts throughout the year, I’m striving to make people feel welcome and do right by them. Both of which are very Capital values.

Speaking of events, our Annual Brat Fry is coming up! Combines two of my favorite things; grilling tasty food and helping animals in need!

Is there a hobby or passion that’s positively influenced your work?

Weirdly, I’d say that playing fantasy sports translates into paying attention to the details really well.

Whether I’m making trades for my fantasy team or entering a sales quote, an error when entering a quote or order can affect the completion of our customer's projects.

And a bad trade can torpedo my team!

What makes working at Capital Electric special for you?

Honestly, working at Capital has made me look forward to going to work, instead of dreading it. Being a part of this team and working here has also given me the tools I need to grow professionally and as a person.