Lakeland adds five to Board of Trustees
Lakeland University added five members to its Board of Trustees, a group of regional and state leaders that includes two Lakeland graduates.
Lakeland’s new Trustees are:
Michael J. Klein
Klein is a strategic human resources executive with 20 years of diverse experience. He is a business leader with the proven ability to facilitate effective corporate decision-making thanks to extensive human resource experience with organizational restructuring, policy deployment, values alignment, succession planning and strategic alliance development.
Klein is an accomplished negotiator with the ability to communicate effectively across all levels of an organization, and a strong systems and process oriented executive that has continuously delivered results through benchmarking and deployment of best practices.
He has a master of business administration from Keller Graduate School and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He is involved in numerous community organizations.
Julia Klimkovich
Klimkovich is a dynamic business and finance executive who leads Sargento’s financial planning and analysis (FP&A) across the enterprise which includes consumer products, food service and ingredients, operations and SG&A. In her role, she drives comprehensive processes for developing financial plans and analysis while partnering with operational and business leaders across the organization. She is passionate about creating strong partnerships to drive performance, strategic growth, and margin optimization initiatives.
Klimkovich joined the Sargento family in 2015 as a senior manager, operations finance. In 2018, she was promoted to director, operations FP&A. Throughout her time at Sargento, her vision and expertise have uncovered significant financial insights that have enabled growth and improved profitably in an increasingly inflationary environment.
Prior to Sargento, Klimkovich held various leadership positions at Johnson Controls and Associated Bank in Milwaukee. She has a bachelor’s in finance from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from Marquette University. She is a mother of a gregarious teenaged daughter and believes that women and girls should be empowered to achieve their dreams.
Barbara A. LaMue ’95
LaMue is president & CEO of New North, Inc., an 18-county regional economic development corporation in northeast Wisconsin whose mission is to be a catalyst for regional prosperity for all through collaborative action.
Prior to this role, she served as vice president of business and community development for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). In addition to working with companies and communities on growth strategies and investments, she directed downtown and minority business development and has over 25 years of senior leadership experience in economic development.
LaMue has a master’s in public administration from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and a bachelor’s in business administration and economics from Lakeland. She is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), a designation granted by the International Economic Development Council that is the industry gold standard for excellence in the profession. She also received her Economic Development Finance Professional certification through the National Development Council.
She has extensive board service in a variety of areas. She is a recent past president of the Mid-American Economic Development Council (representing 12 Midwestern states). She currently serves on the boards of the Transportation Development Association, the Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corporation, Wisconsin Procurement Institute, On Broadway District, Wisconsin Innovation Board and the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).
She is also a commissioner with the Brown County Harbor Commission and has been appointed by governors of both parties to serve on various state commissions.
Barbara M. Logan Smith '96
Logan Smith, who began her career in education as a teacher and administrator with Milwaukee Public Schools, has developed the leadership capacity of students, parents, educators, administrators and business executives for more than two decades.
Before joining Teach for America, she served as vice president of the Efficacy Institute, a national nonprofit focused on increasing academic achievement and character strength for all students.
Logan Smith has led adult learning experiences for more than 15,000 people and witnessed the powerful effects of positioning others to understand the influence of mindsets and behaviors and their effect on outcomes. Her goal as an educator and executive is to inspire, challenge and create measurable change for the participants and their organizations. She has a passion for leading experiences that enable people to recognize, celebrate and illuminate their brilliance.
She received a bachelor’s degree in K-8 education and psychology from Lakeland, where she won several awards. She has a master’s in curriculum & instruction from UW-Milwaukee and completed a Ph.D. in leadership for the advancement of learning and service at Cardinal Stritch University.
Andrew Steimle
Steimle is a founding partner of Steimle Birschbach LLC, a boutique law firm with offices in Sheboygan and Manitowoc that concentrates in legal matters pertaining to business, real estate and estate planning. He has been practicing law in Northeast Wisconsin since 1995, and his practice focuses exclusively on business and real estate matters. He acts as outside general counsel to several firms, many with international operations.
He has experience in representing clients in large business mergers; the sale and purchase of businesses, divisions and product lines; preparation and review of all types of business agreements; the purchase and sale of real estate; formation of legal entities; securing conventional and non-conventional financing; negotiating leases; and providing guidance and drafting of various business succession plans.
In 2020, he was named chairman of the board for County Bancorp, Inc., the parent company for Investors Community Bank. He had served on the County Bancorp, Inc. and Investors Community Bank board of directors since 2008 and has been active on various committees since joining the board. He also has extensive experience as a board member and volunteer in numerous community ventures.
Steimle has a bachelor’s in finance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a juris doctorate degree from Marquette University Law School.
