Greater Milwaukee Foundation: Serving youth, community leads to Foundation honor

Contact: Jeremy Podolski, Marketing and Communications Manager

jpodolski@greatermilwaukeefoundation.org

414.336.7048

Serving youth, community leads to Foundation honor

Milwaukee, WI – June 16, 2014 – For his enduring commitment to advancing the community, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation will recognize retired GE Healthcare executive Leon P. Janssen as the 2014 recipient of its William C. Frye Award. He will receive the honor at the Foundation’s 99th annual meeting and civic awards presentation Wednesday, June 18, at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee.

Much of Janssen’s service to the community has focused on education and increasing opportunities for area youth. He has been active with United Way in Waukesha County, SaintA’s family and educational services, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Arts in Education (ACE) program. As a mentor, he has helped teams at Marquette University prepare for business plan competitions and University of Wisconsin-Madison prepare for health care engineering competitions.

Now an executive consultant focused on coaching hospital executives in GE management practices, Janssen retired from GE in 2004 after a 34-year career with the company. Most recently, Janssen was the executive vice president and general manager of global funding operation in GE Healthcare, responsible for delivering integrated healthcare project development and funding solutions to customers in emerging markets worldwide.

A Green Bay native, Janssen is a graduate of the mechanical engineering program at UW-Madison.

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation bestowed the first William C. Frye Award in 1956, and it continues to honor individuals whose volunteer efforts have served to better the community. Frye was a prominent civic leader, a former chairman of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation Board and retired president of Rex Chainbelt Company.

About the Greater Milwaukee Foundation

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation is a family of more than 1,200 individual charitable funds, each created by donors to serve the local charitable causes of their choice. Grants from these funds serve people throughout Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties and beyond. Started in 1915, the Foundation is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the world.