The interesting compilation below of the universities from which Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) of S&P [Standard & Poor’s] 500 companies graduated is posted to LinkedIn. The S&P 500 Index is a list of 500 of the largest publicly traded U.S. stocks. UW-Whitewater is referenced twice in the text and is shown as having three graduates listed on the S&P 500: CME Group [“the world’s largest derivatives marketplace], Generac [which has a plant in Whitewater], and WEC Energy Group [parent company of We Energies].
Editor’s note: The following background on the three UW-W students is from Wikipedia and various other online sources.
Terrance A. Duffy, CEO of CME Group, attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater from 1978 to 1980.[1][8] While going to school, he worked nights at a bar called Chuck’s in Lake Geneva, an affluent resort town popular with wealthy Chicagoans.[1][9] There he met Vincent Schreiber, a Chicago Mercantile Exchange trader who convinced Duffy to take up a career in trading and eventually became his professional mentor.[1][8] From CME’s website: “As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group is where the world comes to manage risk. We enable clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities.”
Aaron Jagdfeld was appointed president and chief executive officer of Generac in September, 2008 and is the current CEO.[7] Aaron P. Jagdfeld is based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is the CEO, President, and Chairman of Generac Power Systems and Board of Directors at National Association of Manufacturers. Aaron P. Jagdfeld attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Jagdfeld received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 Award. [From Crunchbase] Generac is well known for its generators, and the company employs hundreds of people at its Whitewater plant.
Scott Lauber was appointed CEO of WEC Energy Group in 2022, having been employed by various parts of the company since 2003. He graduated from UW-Whitewater with a degree in accounting in 1987.
