Inside: - UW-Milwaukee

Alumni Profile
Driving Growth
Strategies
Margaret “Peggy” Kelsey
Vice President, Finance –
Corporate Treasury and
Business Development
Modine Manufacturing Company
Executive MBA, 2006
Talking about Modine Manufacturing’s global presence as
she stands in front of a semi-trailer truck inside the
company’s giant wind tunnel is just part of another day
for Margaret “Peggy” Kelsey (EMBA ’06).
The Sturgeon Bay native is equally at ease on the fl oor of the
company’s state-of-the-art testing facilities as she is sitting in her
offi ce discussing her new role as Vice President, Finance-
Corporate Treasury and Business Development.
Modine is a diversifi ed global leader in thermal management
technology and solutions with 2006 revenues of $1.6 billion. The
company’s heating and cooling technologies are used in light,
medium, and heavy-duty vehicles, HVAC equipment, industrial
equipment, refrigeration systems, fuel cells, and electronics.
Head quartered in Racine, Modine employs approximately 8,500
people at 34 facilities worldwide. Kelsey has played a key role in
the company’s expansion globally, including acquisitions in Korea
and England.
Kelsey sees tremendous opportunity for her areas of responsibility
— which include treasury operations, risk management, and
business development — to impact Modine’s growth strategies.
“We don’t just support those strategies,” she stated. “We’re a
strategic partner in the process that drives them.”
A self-described “forest person, not a tree person,” Kelsey approaches
decisions from a strategic vantage point. “I think like a lawyer,” she
said. “I tend to see the whole picture, play it out fi ve steps down the
line, and plot strategy accordingly. That’s how my brain works.”
Peggy Kelsey joined Modine in April 2001 as Senior Counsel and
was promoted to an offi cer the following year. Prior to Modine,
she was a partner specializing in product liability litigation in the
Milwaukee offi ce of Quarles & Brady, LLP. She received an
undergraduate degree in history from Mount Mary College, a
law degree from Georgetown University, graduating magna cum
laude, and her Executive MBA from UWM in 2006.
Shortly after she joined Modine, Kelsey’s mentor encouraged her
to pursue an MBA to enhance her business acumen. The idea
kept surfacing as she contemplated her career goals and the path
it would take to reach them.
Now — a year out of the Executive MBA program and recently
promoted to her new executive role — Kelsey says that her EMBA
not only provided her with substantive information for making
decisions, but the “business antennae” to identify and understand
issues better at the corporate level.
Most signifi cant, she says, was the insight she gained into leadership
through the program, which challenged her to reassess who
she thought she was as a leader. “I have really been able to put
that to use to make myself a more effective leader for the company.”
While her professional successes stand out, it’s her personal
accomplishments that mean the most to Kelsey and keep her
grounded. The mother of a 14-year old daughter and twin
11-year old sons, she’s an executive by day, but just plain “Mom”
at night — a title she wears proudly. She is also quick to point
out that she owes much of her success to her husband, Mike, who
left his cooking career to become a “stay at home dad.”
“It sounds cliché,” she said. “But my kids and family are what’s
most important to me.”
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