Three people from UWM have been named by BizTimes Milwaukee as Notable Leaders in Higher Education.
Honored were Kaushal Chari, dean of UW-Milwaukee’s Lubar College of Business; Phyllis King, associate vice chancellor of academic affairs; and Matthew Friedel, director of UWM’s Business Innovation Incubator.
The honor recognizes accomplished leaders at universities throughout southeastern Wisconsin who have demonstrated dedication to leadership in higher education and developing the next generation of successful students.
Chari was recognized for his efforts to expand partnerships with industry and bolster new business startups, while also building the college’s reputation in analytics and innovation. Under Chari’s leadership, the Lubar College of Business has expanding tutoring and mentoring, helped rejuvenate the college’s curriculum and developed the Industry Connect project consulting program. He also led the development of the Business Innovation Incubator at UWM, which is currently hosting 10 startups in its inaugural year.
King has had a transformational impact on the Milwaukee area and on those she mentors, according to Laura Schmidt, former chief talent development officer at the MKE Tech Coalition. She is the administrative lead for M-Cubed and an operational lead for the Higher Education Regional Alliance and led the development of UWM’s Tech Ed Frontiers Program. She also was one of the founding steering members of the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute as well as the Connected Systems Institute at UWM and the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin.
Friedel has been helping build a strong tech and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Wisconsin through his work as the director of the Business Innovation Incubator at the UWM and as an angel investor with Milwaukee Venture Partners. A senior lecturer in UWM’s School of Information Studies, Friedel has emphasized teaching advance technology topics and entrepreneurship at UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University.
