2025 Outstanding Directors: William Fisher
In late 2014, Bill Fisher got a cold call from Irv Aal, head of corporate governance at Winnebago Industries, then headquartered in Forest City, Iowa, just south of the Minnesota border. The company was looking for a board director with an IT background. “Honestly, I didn’t know what board he was even talking about,” Fisher recalls.
Fisher, 71, had built a career primarily at MTS Systems (1984-99) and Polaris (1999-2016) in research and development, IT, and software development. At Polaris he became CIO, led a digital transformation, and eventually led customer service functions. He worked under CEOs Tom Tiller and Scott Wine, who took very different approaches to strategy, yet Polaris thrived under both. Tiller grew the business organically while Wine focused on acquisitions and international expansion. “We created our own markets with innovative products,” Fisher explains.
Winnebago’s motor home business was stagnant. Fisher says Winnebago had benchmarked Polaris and others in the industry and was looking for a director with an IT background. At the time, its board was mostly local to northern Iowa.
Fisher spent some time talking to Wine and Polaris COO Bennett Morgan, who encouraged him. “My background was a good fit for them,” Fisher says. At Winnebago headquarters, Fisher encountered a wall of images documenting Winnebago’s then-60-year history, which reminded him of one at Polaris in Roseau. “I love Midwestern companies; I love manufacturing—building stuff people like to use and enjoy.” He joined the board in 2015 and remains a director a decade later.
“I saw the transformation that took place at Polaris,” Fisher recalls, “and hoped we could accomplish the same thing.”
Winnebago CEO Randy Potts announced his retirement not long after Fisher joined the board, and things got serious very quickly. “[CEO searches are] the most important work a board does, and it makes or breaks companies,” he says.
Unfortunately, the board needed a reorganization and wasn’t optimally positioned for a CEO search. “We decided to be deliberate and not rush, find a CEO who could grow the broader business.” The board found Mike Happe at Toro, who remains CEO of Winnebago today. “We developed a strategy, a focus on plant safety, creating an ESOP, doing acquisitions.”
Fisher says Happe wanted a board with active directors and improved processes. “There’s a natural tension between a good board and a CEO, but Mike recognized the value,” he says.
Fisher’s time at Winnebago has been a time of transformation of the company. It relocated the headquarters to Eden Prairie, and it acquired Grand Design RV and Newmar to move into the hot “towables” market. It moved into boating, purchasing premium brands Chris-Craft and Barletta (pontoons). “The board wanted to grow our market presence, because the RV business was seasonal and highly cyclical,” Fisher recalls.
Board service had not been on Fisher’s radar, but he quickly became a convert. “I wish I had done it 10 years earlier,” he says. “Companies should encourage their executives in that direction. To be around a variety of professionals who want an impact is very energizing. It’s truly the best of the best.”
One of those professionals is John Murabito, the retired chief administrative officer of insurer Cigna, who serves with Fisher on the Winnebago board. “Bill brings a spirit of inquiry and positive challenge,” Murabito says. “He is not shy to ask questions, he’s thorough, and he does his own analysis to find things others don’t.” Murabito says Winnebago’s board has driven a focus on strategy and growth, all via a process incorporating best practices of corporate governance.
Bill Fisher is retired now, but he believes boards should select not just retirees as members but be diverse boards and composed of at least 50% active executives. “It’s a great learning environment and a great networking environment, really,” he says. He recommends board service wholeheartedly, with one caveat: “You have to find a company where you love what they do.”
