C-Suite Stars: Here are the Milwaukee Business Journal's top finance executives for 2024

Leadership is one of those nebulous terms that gets tossed around a lot, even though it can be hard to define.

What's a little bit easier is to see it in practice — and across the greater Milwaukee area, there are men and women who are demonstrating leadership every day.

Celebrating the leadership shown by a range of executives is the motivation behind the Milwaukee Business Journal's C-Suite Stars awards program. This program — which is somewhat modified from previous years — honors leaders across several executive functions, including human resources, finance, marketing, legal and top executive.

Any of the executives being honored are also eligible to be considered as Executive of the Year, an honor that focuses on an individual who has — in addition to a stellar track record — had a major impact upon the business community in 2024.

Selecting these winners is never easy. They come from a variety of industries and company sizes, and their accomplishments may be entirely behind the scenes or play out on the public stage.

In every case, though, these are the people who have demonstrated true leadership, shaping not just the future of their organization but helping move the broader community into the future.

We'll be celebrating all of these honorees at a special program Dec. 12, and we invite you to take part in the event.

So far, we've announced honorees who shape the culture of their organization internally and those who help the world understand why they're a local success story.

Now, we're recognizing the executives who make sure the bottom line is where it should be — and help set the strategy to make sure that number keeps on going on. The top finance executives we're honoring have a variety of responsibilities under their purview, using everything from their knowledge of the markets to their understanding of accounting to make their organizations as strong as they can be.

This year's top finance executives are:

• Nick Bickler, chief investment officer at Three Leaf Partners
• Mark Behrens, chief financial officer at Johnson Financial Group
• Michelle Goetsch, chief financial officer at Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast

Congratulations to these honorees, and please stop back throughout the week as the other winners are unveiled.

As seen on Milwaukee Business Journal