{"id":17339,"date":"2025-06-18T14:15:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T19:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/business\/?p=17339"},"modified":"2025-06-19T12:30:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T17:30:30","slug":"alumni-news-june-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/business\/alumni-news-june-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni News, June 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Of the 19 people with ties to UWM who have been named to this year\u2019s\u00a0<strong>Milwaukee Business Journal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/milwaukee\/news\/2025\/02\/28\/power-players-leaders-questions-answers.html\">Power Players list<\/a><\/strong>, more than 40 percent are Lubar graduates or honorary degree holders. Congratulations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Nick Bauer (\u201900 BBA Finance)<\/strong>, Managing Partner, Operose Advisors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>DeVona Wright Cottrell (\u201906 MBA)<\/strong>, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of GMR Marketing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Steve DeCleene (\u201993 BBA Business)<\/strong>, President, Neumann Companies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sheldon B. Lubar (\u201988 Honorary Doctorate)<\/strong>, Founder and Chairman, Lubar &amp; Co.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Eric Schmidt (\u201907 MBA),<\/strong>\u00a0President, CG Schmidt, Inc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dave Spano (\u201988 BBA Business)<\/strong>, President &amp; CEO, Annex Wealth Management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mary Ellen Stanek, (\u201984 MBA)<\/strong>, Founder and Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer Emeritus, Baird Advisors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jeff Yabuki (\u201924 Honorary Doctorate)<\/strong>, CEO Investcloud, Chairman Motive Partners<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kayla Lokker (\u201924 BBA, Business Administration)<\/strong>, founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/biztimes.com\/company\/easy-wear-jewelry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Easy Wear Jewelry,<\/strong><\/a> won a $10,000 cash prize from \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/biztimes.com\/company\/project-pitch-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Project Pitch It<\/strong><\/a>\u201d for her innovation to help people who struggle with traditional jewelry clasps. Kayla invented Easy Clasp, a retractable jewelry attachment that makes it easier to fasten necklaces, particularly for individuals who have mobility or dexterity challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Of the 19 people with ties to UWM who have been named to this year\u2019s\u00a0Milwaukee Business Journal\u00a0Power Players list, more than 40 percent are Lubar graduates or honorary degree holders. Congratulations! Kayla Lokker (\u201924 BBA, Business Administration), founder of Easy &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3012,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lubar College of Business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/business\/alumni-news-june-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumni News, June 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Of the 19 people with ties to UWM who have been named to this year\u2019s\u00a0Milwaukee Business Journal\u00a0Power Players list, more than 40 percent are Lubar graduates or honorary degree holders. 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