President of Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company
Richard “Dick” Leinenkugel has built a long history of service and continues serving, now as a member of Marshfield Clinic Health System’s Board of Directors.
He believes in the system’s mission to deliver world-class care “and the backbone of any organization is the leadership and the strategy that’s being put in place, so I was truly honored to be asked to join this board,” he said.
Since becoming a Board member in 2017, Leinenkugel helps provide direction that will benefit health system patients for years to come.
The Chippewa Falls native, the fourth of five children in the Leinenkugel family, has a long career that includes service in the U.S. Marine Corps; sports marketing; his family’s beer business and now as the company’s eighth president; and in state government.
Work started early as he began following his father, Bill, around the Leinenkugel brewery at a very young age. As a teen he gave tours and worked summers in the bottling house.
Leinenkugel accepted the NROTC – Marine Corps Option offer to Marquette University, Milwaukee, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
He trained at Ground Supply Officer’s Course, Camp Lejeune. Arriving at Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe, Hawaii, in 1981, he was appointed Assistant Supply Officer for the Brigade Service Support Group, First Marine Brigade; then later assigned the duty of Supply Officer for MSSG-37. He returned to Hawaii and was OIC, Maintenance Float at Kaneohe, until his discharge in 1984.
Leinenkugel spent three years in the sports marketing business in Chicago, returning to Hawaii each winter and spring as the LPGA Women’s Kemper Open golf tournament director.
In 1987, Leinenkugel joined the family beer business as a sales representative in Chicago and in 1994 became vice president of sales to lead the brewery's expansion into over 40 states. In 1997 he assumed the brewery’s marketing duties for 10 years before being named Wisconsin’s Commerce Secretary for 18 months. He then was Business Development manager with Tenth and Blake Beer and Cider Company.
In 2014 became president of the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, returning to Chippewa Falls where he lives with his wife, Jean. The Leinenkugels have three children.
