HANCOCK COUNTY — As a young teen, Mike Burrow wasn’t exactly thrilled when his dad started making him wake up at 4 a.m. to bottle feed calves, which his dad said would help build character and integrity.
But those who know Burrow best say it was a lesson well learned.
The former farm boy has built a reputation for being a man of integrity as he has served the Hancock County community where he grew up.
His parents raised him to believe that “the only thing you can control is how hard you work, and I’ve always at some level believed that,” said Burrow, 61.
This month marks Burrow’s 10th year as president and CEO of NineStar Connect, and this spring marks his 25th anniversary with the company.
With the company’s roots dating back to 1895, the nonprofit electric, communications and water/sewer cooperative has continued to thrive under his leadership.
Sitting behind his desk at the corporate office on U.S. 40 just east of Greenfield — dressed in blue jeans and a button down shirt — Burrow said he can’t think of anything better than serving the community he’s always called home.
He still owns the 25 acres of Hancock County farmland where his family home once stood, and has lived in the same 19th century farmhouse he and his wife bought shortly after tying the knot in 1988, the same year he graduated from law school.
“I’m proud to be a homer,” he said, referring to his status as a lifelong county resident.
“I was born at Hancock Hospital when it had just 32 beds, and my mom shared a maternity room with three other women,” said Burrow, who grew up just outside Greenfield and graduated from New Palestine High School.
Burrow has only lived outside of the county when pursuing a political science degree at Ball State University in Muncie. He commuted to the Indiana University School of law in Indianapolis while living at home with his parents.
“That’s the only way I could afford it,” he said with a smile.
He’s proud to say his college sweetheart, Charlee, “stuck with me,” and the two have raised three daughters in the farmhouse they thought would be a temporary home.
“Thirty-five years later and we’re still there,” he said.
It seems Burrow has a penchant for longevity.
After two years as a law clerk he joined a Greenfield law firm where he would spent the next 10 years. He eventually became a partner at the firm, known as Wolf & Burrow.
Burrow spent much of his time representing two big clients — Hancock County REMC and the Hancock County Rural Telephone Cooperative.
“A lot of things were going on in the telecommunications world in the 1990s, including deregulation and competition,” he said.
The late 90s was also when the availability of affordable cell phones started transforming the world.
Burrow was in a courtroom in the spring of 1999 when the cell phone in his pocket rang, with a call that would change the trajectory of his career.
The longtime CEO of Hancock Rural Telephone was retiring, and Burrow was being tapped to come on board as the company’s general counsel.
Burrow made the risky decision to quit the firm and join the company which would later become Hancock Telecom. When the president who recruited him left the company 18 months later, Burrow was asked to serve as interim president.
When the new president, Tim Hills, came on board, he kept Barrow on staff and later promoted him to vice president.
Burrow continued in that role when Hancock Telecom merged with Central Indiana Power in January 2011 to form NineStar Connect.
When Hills retired in February 2014, the board asked Burrow to become the new president and CEO.
This month marks Burrow’s 10th anniversary leading the company, and April will mark his 25th anniversary of joining the company back when it was Hancock Rural Telephone.
Burrow admits he can get emotional when talking about the history of how the co-op came to be.
“The founders of our corporation got started in the Great Depression. They couldn’t rub two nickels together,” he said.
“They were a group of farmers who got together out of an inherent belief that the only way their lives were going to get better was to create something that was going to make their lives better,” said Burrow, who says the very thought can make him emotional.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants,” he said.
“Because of decisions made by men and women who came before me, we are reaping their success. I just hope people in the future are able to look back and say the same thing about the decisions we’re making today.”
Burrow recalls a time when a customer voiced his displeasure over NineStar spending millions of dollars to develop smart grid technology for future services.
“I told him, ‘To be honest sir, we’re not doing this for you. We’re installing smart grid technology to benefit customers of the future,” he said.
Burrow’s forward-thinking approach is embedded in his experience as an Eagle Scout.
“One lesson you learn is to always leave things better than you found them. That had a profound effect on me. If I can leave (this company) better than I found it, then I’ve done my part,” he said.
NineStar Connect has more than? Utility customers.
The company started laying the groundwork to offer water and sewer services throughout the county in 2016, and has provided the service for roughly 1,400 homes so far.
Burrow said the company is building the very best infrastructure for future county residents for generations to come, which he said includes replacing in-ground septic and well systems with utility-provided water and sewage services.
“It’s a multi-generational task. It will never happen in my lifetime, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with that first step,” he said.
NineStar Connect traces its roots back to the founding of the McCordsville Telephone Company in 1895.
That company eventually evolved into Hancock Rural Telephone, which later became Hancock County Telecom.
Over the past quarter century, Burrow has been part of the leadership team that has carried the company toward its current success as NineStar Connect.
This co-op has reinvented itself at least two times since I’ve joined it. I know for it to continue to be a success it will have to reinvent itself multiple times in the future,” said Burrow.
“Part of that reinvention is being adaptive enough to be responsive to the needs of the community and the members that it serves,” said Burrow, who is proud of the fact the company operates as a nonprofit utility.
“When we make a profit we give it back to our members,” he said.
Burrow said the company is also committed to giving back to the community through sponsorships, employee volunteer projects and other means.
“We support a lot in the community, but we mostly contribute to quality of life and quality of place,” he said.
Burrow is proud to say the community bank and local hospital, as well as most municipal buildings and every public and private school in the county, is connected to NineStar connect’s fiber system.
“A rising tide lifts all ships. If we can contribute to their success, then NineStar is going to be a success,” he said.
Burrow is no doubt passionate about his job, which he said he feels thankful for each day.
“It’s an honor to be able to lead this organization in this particular arc of its history. I’m just a little bit jealous of some of the things the younger leaders here are going to see in the future,” he said.
