This Saturday, June 6 marks the 20-year anniversary of the creation of the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance, and this week’s episode of the NEW Manufacturing Insights podcast marks the occasion by having two people in the room who have been in the room from day one: co-host Ann Franz, executive director of NEWMA for 20 years, and Lindquist Machine’s Mark Kaiser, who was one of 12 manufacturing leaders to found the organization.
Kaiser joins Franz and co-host Kate Bruns of Insight in the studio to look back on the organization’s impact — from writing its first four $1,000 scholarship checks and being afraid they would bounce to the more than $60K the President’s Cup Scholarship Golf Outing (held just this week for 2026 at Blackwolf Run in Kohler) brings in annually today.
Franz tears up a little this week talking about the impact Kaiser has made on NEWMA: “I just value this person so much,” she says. “Our organization is what it is because of his leadership. He can never say no to me. His fingerprints are all over the success of NEWMA.”
Take a look back at 20 years, and look at what Kaiser sees as the imperatives of NEWMA going forward, by listening to this week’s episode. Kaiser also shares a little bit of his personal story, including the sale of his company, Lindquist Machine, and his best leadership insight.
Insight journalist Nikki Kallio wrote about NEWMA’s 20th anniversary in the June issue of Insight magazine, which is out now and can be read online here.
NEW Manufacturing Insights is distributed by Spreaker, but it is available anywhere you get audio podcasts, including Apple and Spotify. The podcast is produced by Woodward Community Media and sponsored throughout 2026 by Stoke RGA.
