Austin Ramirez receives Harvard Business School Club of Wisconsin leadership award

Austin Ramirez, the CEO of Husco International, has been named the Wisconsin Business Leader of the Year by the Harvard Business School Club of Wisconsin.

The award honors an executive who has produced business results and positively influenced their community.

This year's awards dinner will be Oct. 29 at the Pfister Hotel. Proceeds from the event fund scholarships for executive directors of nonprofit organizations in Wisconsin to attend a Harvard Business School program in nonprofit management.

Husco is an engineering and manufacturing firm for industries including automotive and off-highway equipment.

Based in Waukesha, with operations in the United States, India, China, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Germany, the privately-held company has shifted more of its resources for the growing electric vehicle market. Under Ramirez, the company has tripled in size to more than $500 million in global sales.

Husco was designated a Global Growth Company by the World Economic Forum and has been recognized as Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year.

Ramirez began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company where he specialized in corporate finance and industrial operations. He was a 2016 White House Fellow on the National Economic Council for both the Trump and Obama administrations. He is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Ramirez earned a bachelor's degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia and a master's in business administration from Stanford where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and Goldman Sachs Fellow.

He is a former USA Swimming National Champion and FINA World Championships gold medalist.

In Milwaukee, Ramirez has shown a passion for urban education. He's volunteered on education-focused boards including Teach for America, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA, and the United Performing Arts Fund. He is a board member of the Kern Family Foundation, one of Wisconsin's largest private foundation, and is a co-founder of St. Augustine Preparatory Academy, a K-12 faith-based school serving more than 2,200 low-income students on Milwaukee's south side.

Ramirez is board chairman of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Area Chamber of Commerce, City Forward Collective. He is co-chairman of Democracy Found, a nonpartisan political reform organization, and has been recognized as one of Wisconsin's most powerful Latinos.

Ramirez is an executive committee member of the National Association of Manufacturers and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. He is a board member of Medical College of Wisconsin, Marcus Corporation and Old National Bancorp.

The Oct. 29 event will begin with a 5:30 p.m. reception followed by a 6:30 p.m. dinner and award ceremony. More information can be obtained by emailing hbsclubofwi@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Austin Ramirez receives Harvard Business School Club of Wisconsin leadership award