In Business Madison

Two critical business roles — taking responsibility for the financial health of an organization and managing the talent for a company — are the focus of In Business Madison’s 2026 Executive Excellence Awards.

The awards recognize outstanding leaders in finance and human resources. Professionals were nominated by their peers, and reviewed and selected by magazine staff.

All finalists will be honored at the Edgewater on Aug. 20, where award winners in each category will be announced. Read on to learn more about each honoree.

Read more: https://ibmadison.com/chasing-excellence/

Story by Joe Vanden Plas

Chasing excellence: In Business Madison’s 2026 Executive Excellence Awards IB Madison’s 2026 Executive Excellence Awards focus on taking responsibility for the financial health of an organization and managing the talent for a company

Meet Luke Andersen, SHRM-CP! As HR & Payroll Coordinator at SustainableHR PEO & Recruiting and owner of Waffle Daddy Madison, Luke enjoys helping employees navigate complex workplace questions with clarity and empathy. Outside of work, he spends his time baking sourdough waffles for his microbakery and enjoying board games, horror movies and Dungeons & Dragons.

Read more: https://ibmadison.com/professional-of-the-month-luke-andersen/

Learn about professional of the month Luke Andersen Meet Luke Andersen, HR & Payroll Coordinator of SustainableHR PEO and owner of Waffle Daddy Madison

Matt Scheiber, test lab manager at Trek Bicycle for the “affectionately” dubbed Break Room, watches as sacks filled with sand fling and jerk at acute angles, sag and bang and generally get a bit brutalized.

“It’s a standard test, but it’s crazy to watch that flop around on a test machine,” Scheiber said of these sandbags.

Mounted to a rack test machine, these child-sized sandbags are put on child carriers to represent children.

“That’s actually what’s happening when you’re riding down the road,” Scheiber said. “We’re really concerned about, you know, the safety of some products.”

Scheiber said customizing equipment or building new machines to destroy bicycle parts — to make them safer and stronger — provides something different everyday and every year.

“We have to adapt to all of the new designs that come out, so it may not fit on our test machine, but we have to design a new fixture to interface with them,” he said. “That can be a lot of fun.”

Read more: https://ibmadison.com/trek-breaks-things-so-you-dont/

Story and photography by Louis Livingston-Garcia

Trek breaks things so you don’t It’s all part of creating the safest, strongest, lightest and best product Trek can

Marquis Mason (Solar Alchemist ) said he’s always cared about bettering his community, and when the former Badger footballer and his wife had a set of solar panels installed on their home, he immediately recognized an invisible but critical problem he could help solve.

“It was right around the same time as the (wild)fires in Canada — (the air quality) was really bad that year,” Mason said. “About a month in, we got our first bill (for the solar panels) and had to pay. We were like, ‘That’s not what the developer and installer told us.’”

Ideally, solar panel systems produce more energy than a household consumes each day, but when a household uses more power from the grid than its solar panels generate, the homeowners must pay for the difference. Even utility companies’ fixed connection fees can often be offset if a system produces a large enough energy surplus.

Read more: https://ibmadison.com/playing-a-clean-game

Story by Brittney Kenaston
Photography by Sharon Vanorny

Former UW footballer Marquis Mason's solar panel cleaning company aims to optimize energy output Founded in April 2025, Solar Alchemist offers residential and commercial solar panel cleaning services using manufacturer-approved methods that won’t jeopardize a system’s warranty

Trek Bicycle’s Madone SLR 9 AXS Gen 8 bicycle and its paint scheme show, perhaps in the best way, the creativity, skill and devil-may-care attitude of Trek’s painting operation and its appreciation of history.

Unveiled this year in celebration of the company’s first 50 years in business, the bike’s paint scheme is filled with little graphic designs depicting Trek’s milestones through the decades.

Trek co-founder Dick Burke’s glasses-clad face with a red hat and white beard is instantly recognizable. The red barn where Trek first began crafting bicycles (and its empire) stands tall.

Beers clashing for a cheers are a nod to the Trek name being dreamed up at the Pine Knoll Supper Club; a cow nods to America’s Dairyland and even Herman the Sheep, Trek’s mascot, makes an appearance.

Located at its Waterloo headquarters, Trek’s art department is robust. It is responsible for painting all orders for its Project One custom bike program. Each Project One bike is hand painted and hand built, one by one, to fit a customer’s specifications.

Read more: https://ibmadison.com/treks-painting-department-a-labor-of-love-science-and-outrageous-techniques

Story and photography by Louis Livingston-Garcia

Trek’s painting department a labor of love, science and outrageous techniques The paint department employs 43 people, including painters, decalers, finishers and team leads who produce about 5,000 bikes annually

WATERLOO — On weekends, Trek Bicycle President and CEO John Burke and his wife Tania go for 110-mile bicycle rides.

They pedal from Madison to Mazomanie, from Mazomanie to Spring Green, from Spring Green to Sauk City and then home.
“It’s the old dairy roads,” Burke said, explaining why it’s so easy and enjoyable to hit the bike trails for riders in Wisconsin. “If you take a look, there’s shoulders on the road, they’re safe to ride. They’re all over the place, and they’re amazing.

“And other states don’t have this.”

That accessibility and “the beauty in this state” makes the round-trip excursion one of the best rides in the world, he said.

Since 1997, Burke has led the company his father Dick co-founded 50 years ago, maintaining Trek’s headquarters in a bucolic part of the state. While Trek has been a key player in fostering the local biking culture in Wisconsin, it has also blossomed into a global brand worth around $2 billion in 2024 and has grown fans around the world. Just as kids can be seen riding Trek bikes in Madison neighborhoods, top-tier athletes ride Trek bikes in international races like the Tour de France.

Read more: https://ibmadison.com/trekking-the-world/
Story and photography by Louis Livingston-Garcia
Portrait of John Burke courtesy of Trek Bicycle

Over 50 years, Trek’s influence spans rural Wisconsin roads to the hills of the Tour de France Despite challenges, Trek is still working toward the goal of hitting 100 years

The August issue of In Business Madison is live!

On the cover, Trek Bicycle CEO John Burke reflects on the power of cycling, the company's enduring values and how he's still striving to move the business forward. Inside, read about Lisa Johnson's tenure leading BioForward Wisconsin, Madison's growing quantum industry, the rise of fractional professional services, The Forward Festival 2026, this year's Executive Excellence honorees, workforce development challenges and more.

Read here: https://online.fliphtml5.com/nehfa/oixg/ =1



Photograph by Sharon Vanorny
Photo Illustration by Jess Carter

“I’m kind of a very going-with-the-flow kind of guy, and that’s also kind of how this started,” Rhett Cisler, owner of new coffee cart Radical Coffee, said.

“My plan right now is to do this season, and then if it goes well, do next season. I think a little shop would be really cool to have eventually, but yeah, no plans for now for that. Just kind of seeing if it happens.”

Radical Coffee launched on April 22, Earth Day.

His coffee cart pours espresso, cortados, flat whites and more at the Wednesday Dane County Farmers’ Market on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in downtown Madison, as well as at public and private pop-ups around the city.

Cisler’s coffee comes from the idea of showcasing single-origin flavors, using Kin Kin coffee, a small-batch roaster in Madison. When it comes to flavors, he uses syrups made by a friend of his who owns Bouquet, a California company that sells flavors like butter caramel or vanilla fleur de sel.

Read more:

Radical Coffee pushes single-origin delicacy, experimentation Owner Rhett Cisler finds early success with new coffee cart

The Forward Festival, an event made by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, returns with 56 events planned throughout Madison the week of Aug. 17-21.

Billed as Wisconsinʼs largest technology and entrepreneurship festival, organizers expect more than 5,000 attendees for this yearʼs 16th annual gathering.

The five-day festival features locally organized events to connect entrepreneurs and through those connections, inspire innovation. Everyone from business operators to foodies will be part of bringing the technology and startup communities together to interact, share ideas, pursue venture capital and network.

As part of a unique structure, the individual events aren’t organized by event planners but by local entrepreneurs who serve as event hosts.

Read more: https://ibmadison.com/growing-the-entrepreneurial-ecosystem/

Story by Joe Vanden Plas

Forward Fest is growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem Billed as Wisconsinʼs largest technology and entrepreneurship festival, organizers expect more than 5,000 attendees for this yearʼs 16th annual gathering

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If you're organized, collaborative and excited about sales, marketing, events and connecting with Madison's business community, we'd love to hear from you.

Learn more and apply today: https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/portal/41E82EC60AAD792EC7018E3AB22DE8D2/jobs/329239