November 19, 2022 - Oldenburg Group founder Wayne Oldenburg will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BizTimes Media Innovation + Entrepreneurship Forum on Dec. 8 at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee. Click here to register.

Oldenburg founded Oldenburg Group Inc. in 1981. The company was a manufacturer of mining equipment, commercial lighting and military products. In 2006, Oldenburg sold its coal mining equipment business to Joy Global Corp. (now Komatsu Mining) for $140 million, but kept its division that made machines used in hard-rock underground mining. In 2016, it sold its underground mining equipment and defense businesses to a New York-based private equity firm.

Wayne Oldenburg

Oldenburg kept its commercial lighting equipment division, Glendale-based Visa Lighting. He continues to serve as chief executive officer of the company, which supplies performance engineered products that are used in the architectural lighting industry.

Oldenburg is also past-president of ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis, a nonprofit organization that provides support of people affected by breast cancer; the organization was founded by his late wife, Melodie Wilson. For years, Oldenburg has provided rent-free space in Visa Lighting Inc.’s Glendale office building to three nonprofits: ABCD, Girls on the Run and SHARP Literacy.