Chief Executive Officer

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Specialty Industrial Manufacturing

Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Industry: Specialty Metals / Engineered Products / Industrial Manufacturing

Compensation: Competitive Executive Package + Annual Bonus + Long-Term Incentives

The Opportunity

Our client, an established, highly engineered specialty steel foundry and industrial manufacturing business, is seeking a dynamic, commercially driven Chief Executive Officer to lead its next phase of growth, operational excellence, and long-term value creation.

This is an outstanding opportunity for an accomplished manufacturing executive who combines a proven ability to accelerate revenue growth, expand strategic customer relationships, and lead complex manufacturing operations with strong financial discipline and hands-on leadership.

The company serves technically demanding markets, including defense, nuclear, power generation, chemical processing, oil and gas, and other critical industrial applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Revenue Growth & Commercial Strategy: Develop and execute strategies to accelerate organic growth, secure new strategic accounts, expand market share, and strengthen sales performance.
• Executive Leadership: Provide strategic direction across sales, operations, engineering, finance, quality, and organizational development.
• Operational Excellence: Improve manufacturing efficiency, throughput, productivity, on-time delivery, quality, and profitability.
• Financial Performance: Maintain full P&L accountability, driving margin expansion, cash flow, disciplined capital allocation, and sustainable financial performance.
• Customer Engagement: Personally develop and maintain relationships with major industrial customers, leading complex commercial negotiations and strategic business development initiatives.
• Organizational Development: Build and mentor a high-performing leadership team, establish accountability, and create a performance-driven culture.
• Strategic Growth: Collaborate with ownership and the Board on long-term planning, capital investments, market expansion, and potential acquisition opportunities.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience within industrial manufacturing, engineered products, specialty metals, machining, metal casting, or closely related industries.
• Demonstrated success driving significant organic revenue growth and margin expansion within a B2B industrial manufacturing environment.
• Proven executive-level P&L ownership and financial leadership.
• Strong commercial background, including direct customer engagement, strategic account development, and leadership of sales organizations.
• Experience overseeing complex manufacturing operations and delivering measurable operational improvements.
• Ability to lead organizational transformation, develop executive talent, and build accountable leadership teams.
• Comfortable operating in technically sophisticated manufacturing environments with demanding quality and engineering requirements.
• Experience serving defense, nuclear, energy, chemical, pump and valve, or similar industrial markets is highly desirable.
• Bachelors degree in engineering, business, operations, or a related field preferred.

Direct foundry experience is highly valued but not mandatory. We welcome exceptional industrial manufacturing executives with relevant technical, operational, and commercial leadership experience.

Leadership Style

We are seeking a decisive, hands-on, results-oriented executive who is equally comfortable engaging major customers, collaborating with ownership, and spending time on the manufacturing floor.

The successful candidate will bring an entrepreneurial mindset, strong commercial instincts, operational discipline, and the ability to translate strategic initiatives into measurable financial and organizational results.