This section honors our staff’s selections for southeastern Wisconsin’s corporation, chief executive officer, small business, family-owned business and community leader(s) of the year.
Past winners include: Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., Foxconn Technology Group, Direct Supply Inc., Coakley Brothers Co., Access HealthNet LLC, Rinka Chung Architecture Inc., WEC Energy Group Inc., Gehl Foods LLC, Steinhafels Inc., Generac Power Systems Inc., Uline Inc., Bartolotta Restaurant Group LLC, Milwaukee Blacksmith Inc., Aurora Health Care Inc. CEO Dr. Nick Turkal, Sherman Phoenix co-creator and entrepreneur JoAnne Johnson-Sabir, Rev Group Inc. CEO Tim Sullivan, Milwaukee Bucks president Peter Feigin, Allen Edmonds Corp. CEO Paul Grangaard, Badger Meter Inc. CEO Rich Meeusen, the Baumgartner family, the Ramirez family and Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce president Tim Sheehy.
This year’s winners are: Klement Sausage Co., which lost its iconic sponsorship of the Milwaukee Brewers’ Famous Racing Sausages, but pivoted to numerous other community sponsorships and is expanding and improving its plant on South Chase Avenue in Milwaukee; Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin CEO Peggy Troy, who is leading the highly-respected facility through a $265 million expansion and renovation project; Michels Corp., which announced plans for a new 400-employee regional office in Milwaukee anchoring a $100 million mixed-use development; Good City Brewing LLC, which is adding a brewery and taproom near the Fiserv Forum and acquired a building in the Century City business park to establish a major operation on the city’s northwest side; and Michael and Amy Lovell, who are on a mission to make Milwaukee a trauma-informed community.
Read all about what these organizations and leaders accomplished in 2018:
Corporation of the Year: Klement Sausage Co. Inc.
Family-Owned Business of the Year: Michels Corp.
Community Leaders of the Year: Mike and Amy Lovell
Small Business of the Year: Good City Brewing