The Gaspar family was driving from Sioux Falls to Huron recently when the road trip turned into a reflection on their family business.

They were headed north to honor their mother and grandmother, LaVonne Gaspar, who this year was honored with the Spirit of Dakota award for her decades of leadership in health care and advocacy.

“We had learned shortly before this that our family business also was being considered for an award from the Prairie Family Business Association, so we were preparing to submit some information for it at the same time we were going to celebrate LaVonne,” said James Gaspar, a third-generation leader in the family business Interstate Office Products, which his grandfather Ken Gaspar co-founded in 1971 in Sioux Falls.

“We spent some time as a family talking about successes and challenges, particularly in the last 10 years, and we sent it off, and the following week we got a call that we had been selected.”

The Prairie Family Business Association’s annual Boyd Hopkins Sr. Excellence in Family Business Award was established in 2003 to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of family-owned businesses to the economy and the region.

The award recognizes multigenerational family businesses with practices and policies that positively impact local business, as well as neighboring communities. It has been named in honor of Boyd Hopkins Sr. since 2010.

“We’re thrilled to honor the Gaspar family for their generations of family business success,” said Stephanie Larscheid, executive director of the Prairie Family Business Association.

“This family and their business have evolved, overcome challenges and consistently delivered excellence to their customers, while positioning their family business for the future.”

The first person the family told about the award was their founder, father and grandfather, Ken.

“I said, ‘This award is for you, Dad,’” said Sheila Casiello, CEO and second-generation family business leader.

“We told Grandpa that Grandma had won her award and now he had won his,” James Gaspar added.

For Ken Gaspar, entrepreneurship at first was as much about keeping a job as it was about growing a business. Interstate Office Products was founded by Ken and two of his former co-workers, Lyle Christensen and Garry Scott.

Interstate Office Products – named because it served the tri-state area – opened at 2308 E. 10th St. and grew along with the metro-area business community.

“That first year, we did better than we thought we might,” Ken Gaspar said. “We had some goals from our supplier, Steelcase, to meet, and we just went to work and made it.”

The relationship with industry leader Steelcase has been key from the start, he added.

“If we had waited one more day to have the conversation we needed to have about that, we wouldn’t have gotten it,” he said. “So many times in our life, things were just this close to happening or not.”

That includes his son, Gary, and daughter-in-law Theresa’s decisions to join the business in the early 1990s.

They had been working in corporate finance jobs in the Twin Cities and weren’t considering moving back until fate and life intervened.

“We were about to hire someone in a leadership role, and at the last minute, she turned it down,” Ken Gaspar said. “That evening, Gary called and said they’d talked about it, and if we were still interested, he’d like to move back and come work with us.”

The timing aligned. Gary Gaspar drove back to Sioux Falls the following day to meet with IOP ownership and began helping lead the business into the future. By that point, co-founder Christensen had been retired since the early 1980s, and Gary Gaspar and sister Sheila Casiello began buying shares in the company after Scott retired in 1995. They had acquired almost one-third of it by the time their father retired in 2000. Gary Gaspar became CEO; Sheila Casiello became president.

“In the early 1970s, we hadn’t even thought about becoming a multigenerational business,” Ken Gaspar said. “I can’t believe how they’ve grown the business from the time I retired in 2000 to what IOP is today.”

Today’s Interstate Office Products

With a team of 40, Interstate Office Products has navigated numerous highs and lows in recent years, most critically the passing of Gary Gaspar in 2022.

“It’s still a big hole,” Sheila Casiello said. “And shortly after, Theresa – who had been our longtime CFO – decided to retire, so we’ve seen people transition into new roles. Along the way, everyone did what we always do – which is step up and get things done.”

As a family and a leadership team, “every time we encounter an issue, we just take a pause and step back and look at it and think about how we’re going to get around it or get through it,” added James Gaspar, Gary and Theresa’s son.

In 2022, Sheila Casiello’s  son, Antonio, joined the IOP team, bringing a background in accounting and immersing himself in learning various facets of the business.

“I just tell everyone, ‘I’m here if you need me, so use me,’” Antonio Casiello said. “It’s allowed me to learn multiple areas of the business and add value as the team sees I can help.”

It all has added up to what will become another record year for IOP, James Gaspar said.

“Even though construction in the area overall is down, our market share has grown, and I think we’ve built a reputation for showing we can handle big projects that has allowed us to earn more business,” he said.

IOP values reliability, he added.

“Do what you say you’re going to do,” he said. “Our employees have that expectation of ownership and vice versa, and there’s a trust that exists because we expect people to follow through.”

That’s reflected in the third generation too, Sheila Casiello added.

“If James and Antonio tell our team or tell a customer they’re going to do something, they get it done,” she said. “That builds trust and credibility, and our team understands they’re here to work like everyone else.”

As the third generation comes into the business, Prairie Family Business Association has been a helpful resource.

James Gaspar and Antonio Casiello both belong to Affinity Peer Groups.

“I think they’re great,” James Gaspar said. “It’s a good opportunity to have conversations with peers in similar positions in a family business who understand family dynamics.”

For Antonio Casiello, “it’s been super-positive,” he said. “I learn a lot from the rest of my peers because they’ve been in their business longer than I have, so I’ve been a sponge taking it all in.”

The Gaspar family collectively points to their broader team for their success, including many who have decades of service with IOP.

“It’s just amazing,” Ken Gaspar said. “There’s a lot of talent – a lot of good employees and long-term employees, and their turnover rate is very low.”

 James Gaspar added that his father would have said the same.

“He would be honored by our Boyd Hopkins Sr. Award and would have taken a lot of pride in our team,” he said. “He always recognized the hard work everyone put in and knew it’s not a one-man show but the result of the work everyone is doing to help each other succeed.”

The entire team shares the family’s commitment to excellence, Sheila Casiello added.

“Quality output is very important to them. They’re professionals in their field, and they care about it,” she said. “And likewise, I think they know how much we care about them. You don’t have to be blood to be a part of the family. Everyone is family at IOP.”

To learn more about joining an Affinity Peer Group and other programs that support family businesses, contact the Prairie Family Business Association at fba@usd.edu, or click here and take the next step in ensuring your family business thrives through generations.