Director of Strategy and Operations / Age 31
ChemDirect
During the seven years Autumn Siudzinski worked at Paper Transport, she built and maintained key customer relationships while also quickly shifting roles as the company grew 20% each year. She also led and created many of the company’s nonprofit initiatives and partnerships.
Siudzinski then “took the leap to a startup in the TitletownTech ecosystem, ChemDirect, because I wholeheartedly believe the product can make a real difference for our planet right now,” she says.
Among her accomplishments at ChemDirect, which helps build a more sustainable chemical industry by connecting manufacturers directly to buyers, Siudzinski helped lead the company through a Series A funding round, scaling the company to 25 employees.
Siudzinski earned her MBA from UW Oshkosh and is concerned about the increasing rate of homelessness in the region, particularly combined with recent inflation. “We’re not doing our job as a society and neighbors if we’re not actively working to fix this,” she says.
She supports organizations including Red Cross, NEW Community Shelter, Syble Hopp School, House of Hope, Run for a Reason and My Team Triumph, for which she’s run hundreds of miles.
In fact, Siudzinski has run four marathons, with the Chicago Marathon in her sights this year. “I’m definitely not a health nut, though — I couldn’t live without pizza, chocolate or Diet Coke,” she says.
