The city of Milwaukee has always been home for Noah Fenceroy. It’s where he grew up, and it’s where he returned after earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas. It’s where Fenceroy says he was mentored by his father, his brother, and other male members of his family—a luxury he knows isn’t afforded to everyone in his community.
The senior legal counsel at ManpowerGroup is also aware of the reputation his home city has garnered over the years. The Brookings Institute ranked it as the country’s most segregated city, and Fenceroy says too many are given the impression that Milwaukee may not be the place to come for career prospects and a fair shot at improving their lives. Fenceroy wants to change their minds.
Over the past ten years, Fenceroy has worked on behalf of ManpowerGroup to put people to work in Milwaukee and locations all over the world, helping 275,000 people find jobs in the US every year. “The work I do is extremely rewarding,” Fenceroy says. “I know that I’m impacting individuals’ lives, and because of that work, I’m able to positively affect the community where I grew up.”
Fenceroy is especially proud of ManpowerGroup’s partnering with the Milwaukee Urban League to offer the MyPath program, a suite of career enhancement offerings that fast-tracks motivated individuals to increasingly senior roles. Established in 2018, the MyPath program is open to associates—those actively working on a job assignment through the company. The program has the goal of upskilling 130,000 US workers through certification, on-the-job training, and accelerated education programs, helping carve out new and evolving roles for a quickly transitioning work environment rooted more in technology than ever before.
“This is an absolute game changer,” Fenceroy says. “It’s a way for ManpowerGroup to assist individuals with structuring their own career paths who may never have even thought about their lives this way before.”
“I want young people who go off to college in an effort to better themselves to want to come back home and make a difference here.”
ManpowerGroup’s collaboration with the Milwaukee Urban League is no surprise. Fenceroy has sat on the board for six years, maxing out his term limit and serving as board chair for almost three years. “That was probably the most rewarding opportunity I’ve had outside of work to help support the city of Milwaukee,” Fenceroy says. “As much as I feel I’ve grown professionally, I don’t think there is anything that’s made me stretch and grow as much as being board chair of that organization. I’m extremely fortunate to be part of an organization like ManpowerGroup that encourages and supports me in such endeavors.”
As Fenceroy’s time on the board recently came to an end, he’s subsequently joined the board of the Jewish Family Services. “It’s another organization that has a profound effect on the community in helping those with physical and emotional or mental health issues, those who struggle to take care of themselves, and others who need help finding housing,” Fenceroy says. His tenure with the organization is recent, but Fenceroy is confident he’ll find new ways to help serve those in Milwaukee who are most in need.
Fenceroy says he’s motivated by a desire to reverse the narrative that his home city has had written—and in some cases helped write—about itself. “I want to change the narrative of how Milwaukee is viewed and seen nationally,” Fenceroy says. “We want to be a community where people of color can come and excel and succeed. I want young people who go off to college in an effort to better themselves to want to come back home and make a difference here.”
The lawyer’s own commitment to returning home ultimately meant sacrificing what he initially thought would be a career in sports broadcasting. “I wasn’t willing to move every two years and go wherever the work was,” Fenceroy admits. “I wanted to build a home base and be able to affect a community that I know and love.”
That dedication to changing the lives of those in Milwaukee has spread to Fenceroy’s wife and son, both active members of the community. Fenceroy believes the positive role models he had growing up granted him opportunities that he, in turn, feels is incumbent on him to pass on to those who may not have had the same blessings. And that starts with ManpowerGroup. “What attracted me to coming here is that we are in the people business,” Fenceroy says. “Helping people provide for their own families was a big reason I came here, and it’s a reason I’m still here ten years later.”
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Husch Blackwell:
“We would like to congratulate Noah on this well-deserved recognition. Noah is an innovative and thoughtful lawyer, and it is our absolute pleasure to call him a friend and client.”
