BizTimes Milwaukee

The top executives of the 2013 Future 50 companies recently provided their recommendations about how to resolve some of the most significant challenges facing businesses in the region.

Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc., Wisconsin's largest publicly traded company, announced that its board of directors has elected Alex Molinaroli, vice chairman, to serve as the company's next president and chief executive officer, effective Oct. 1, 2013.

Sensient Technologies Corp. has named Paul Manning president and CEO, effective February 2. Manning is currently serving as president, COO and director of the Milwaukee-based global color, flavor and fragrance manufacturer.

Brookfield-based Pinstripe, Inc. has acquired recruitment outsourcing and talent management company Ochre House, headquartered in London in the United Kingdom.

Private manufacturing companies in Wisconsin pay less than their Midwest counterparts, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

“We don't manage people. We manage the agreements we have with people.”
- Steven Covey

Matt Cordio, the 24-year-old co-founder of the nonprofit group Startup Milwaukee, is part of a growing number of young professionals involved in entrepreneurship in the city. He has taken a leadership role at Startup Milwaukee, which has unveiled new internship and mentorship programs this year, and has continued to host regular meetups and foster discussion through social media within for the community.

Some the Milwaukee area's most robust and dynamic companies are using the principles of design thinking to propel their growth through innovation.

John Caruso has been inspired by elements of design since his earliest days of childhood. Caruso, associate professor of industrial design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD), grew up in a Midwestern household bustling with creativity ignited by a full-time mother, whom he remembers as a frustrated fashion designer.