Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award
2011 Recipients
Katina Kravik '97
Katina Kravik, who graduated in 1997 with a degree in English, will receive the Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award, which acknowledges special achievements and great promise of alumni who are within 15 years of their graduation from UW-Eau Claire.
Kravik is chief executive officer of Northwire Technical Cable, an Osceola-based business that has been in her family for four decades. Kravik, who began working for the company in 2007 and was named CEO in 2009, is the third generation in her family to own and lead the company, which was founded in 1972 by her grandfather.
After graduating from UW-Eau Claire, Kravik spent 10 years in Montana working in various aspects of land development. She returned to Wisconsin in 2007 to join the family business.
With production in Wisconsin and New Mexico, Northwire, an innovative solutions provider in the design and manufacture of technical and retractile cables and assemblies for diverse applications in life science, energy, industrial, government, machine vision, architectural lighting and consumer electronics, is a global leader in the industry. In 2010, Northwire was a finalist for the Design News Best New Product. In 2010, Northwire was nominated for the Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Award in two categories. It has been featured internationally on the Discovery Channel's "How It's Made" program and nationally on CNN, MSNBC and other media.
