Great Northern CFO Mark Radue will retire in February after a 36-year career in finance and accounting.
Radue has provided financial leadership, strategic vision and management support for business initiatives the last five years at Great Northern Corporation — a company that designs, manufactures and distributes packaging solutions and point-of-sale display programs for industrial, commercial and retail products.
Radue began his career in public accounting at Arthur Andersen after receiving his B.A. in accounting/information systems from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He moved into financial roles for two companies in the flexographic packaging industry in Central Wisconsin before moving to Appleton in 1996 for a job as partner with Grant Thornton.
Before Great Northern, Radue was employed with Oshkosh Corporation for nearly 14 years. As executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Radue focused on strategy, mergers and acquisitions.
Radue has seen the role of a CFO evolve over his career, from “being a participant in the strategy to leading the strategy,” he says. “There was this old view of the financial function as reporting historical results. We need to do that as part of our job, but the value in that is taking those learnings and applying them to guide future decisions. It’s more forward-looking, using financials to identify threats and opportunities.”
Reflecting on his career, Radue is most proud of his contributions when it comes to “people and processes.” He says building and developing teams, as well as establishing sustainable and strategic business practices, have been the most rewarding parts of his career.
“Those are the types of things that hopefully will add value long after I’m gone,” Radue says. “Sure, there’s individual things I’ve done that add value at the time, but to me it’s the enduring things that leave more of a legacy.”
