Jeff Rusinow, who founded Milwaukee’s first angel network and who has been a part of six successful startup exits over time, was inducted into the Wisconsin Investor Hall of Fame during a Nov. 4 dinner tied to the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium.
Rusinow was elected by a group of state investors that included the past three inductees: Dick Leazer, a founder of Wisconsin Investment Partners; George Mosher, a Milwaukee “super angel” investor; and Roger Ganser, a co-founder of Venture Investors LLC.
Rusinow founded Silicon Pastures in 2000 after spending 22 years in retail management, holding senior positions at Macy’s, Gimbel’s, Hudson Bay Co. and Kohl’s Department Stores.
He has directly invested in more than 35 startups, including six successful exits, and he is president of ETR Group, which previously owned and managed the world’s largest Christmas-specific portal on the Internet, Christmas.com.
Rusinow is a founding donor of BrightStar Foundation and serves on the investment committee of the Wisconsin Super Angel Fund. He is the lead angel investor in three recent graduates from Gener8tor, a Wisconsin-based accelerator, and he serves on the board of the American Bird Conservancy and the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.
