Finalists for EY Entrepreneur of the Year
GBX Founder among finalists for EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 Midwest award.
Village of Mukwonago — Bruce Neumiller’s vision for Gearbox Express in 2011 is exactly what the local business has become in 2015: a rapidly expanding wind turbine service company.
“We started the business from nothing and built it into a fairly successful company,” said Neumiller, who founded the Mukwonago-based enterprise alongside Brian Halverson and Brian Hastings. “We had been in the business, in the industry and saw the opportunity to really do something different.”
The company remanufactures readily available wind energy gearboxes for utilities when their wind turbine gearboxes wear out or fail. Its current 43,000-square-foot Mukwonago facility opened in 2012.
Neumiller is now a nominee for the Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 award, an honor presented by Ernst & Young LLP, a global organization specializing in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.
The award program recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities, according to a news release from Ernst & Young LLP. Neumiller is one of dozens of business leaders from Illinois and Wisconsin in the running for the award’s Midwest region.
Collectively, this year’s Midwest finalists generated more than $17.4 billion in revenue and provided more than 25,000 jobs by the end of 2014, according to Ernst & Young LLP.
Neumiller said he doesn’t know who nominated him for the award, but so far he’s submitted an application for the award, has hosted a formal site visit and will undergo an in-person interview May 19 in Chicago.
Austin Ramirez of Waukesha’s HUSCO International, and Ted Balistreri, Nick Balistreri and Margaret Harris of Whitefish Bay’s Sendik’s Food Markets LLC also made the list of finalists.
The winner of the award will be announced at a June 17 gala at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers in Chicago.
Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur of the Year national program, which will announce its winner Nov. 14 in Palm Springs, California.
The Mukwonago company periodically offers two-day courses that provide training about wind turbine drivetrains throughout the year. The course covers terminology training, best practices training and hands-on practice for its students — a service offered since the company’s inception.
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