Profiles

John Neis has been with Madison-based Venture Investors since 1985, becoming its managing director in 1997.

John Stollenwerk is credited with building Port Washington-based shoe manufacturer and retailer Allen Edmonds Shoe Corp. into the upscale men’s footwear brand it’s now recognized as

Health care administrator Catherine Jacobson leads Wauwatosa-based Froedtert Health, one of the state’s largest private employer.

Mark Bugher served as director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s University Research Park from 1999 until his retirement in 2013. Bugher is credited with helping develop the park into a hub for early-stage, growth-oriented businesses in the engineering, computational and life sciences sectors.

David Trotter manages the Winnebago Seed Fund, a Neenah-based fund founded in 2016 to make seed investments in Wisconsin startups.

Robert Hillis founded Milwaukee-based Direct Supply in 1985 as the first virtual distributor of medical equipment for nursing homes.

John Zeratsky spent time working for YouTube, Google and VC fund Google Ventures before co-founding his own Milwaukee-based VC fund, Character.

Jerry Jendusa founded New Berlin-based Emteq Inc., a manufacturer of aircraft interior and exterior lighting systems and aircraft cabin management and power systems, in 1995 and grew it into a $100 million company. He went on to sell Emteq in 2014, and the same year co-founded Stuck LLC, now known as Breakthrough Strategies, a business advisory company focused on helping small- to mid-sized businesses grow.

Health care executive Cristy Garcia-Thomas joined Aurora Health Care as its chief experience officer in 2011. She oversees diversity, equity and inclusion, community relations, and charitable giving.

Bill Holst was billed in a 2018 Forbes article as the “world’s most successful caviar entrepreneur.” The third-generation Wisconsin corn farmer and owner of a scrapyard business is also a part owner of Hangzhou Qiandaohu Xunlong Sci-Tech Co. Ltd., a caviar-processing company based in China – the largest in the world.