Will Schanen
- Chief operating officer and environmental economist, Rapid Radicals Technology LLC
- Age: 25
With a youth of summers spent sailing Port Washington with his family, Will Schanen, 25, realized his passion for water and currently serves as the chief operating officer and environmental economist for the wastewater treatment startup, Rapid Radicals Technology LLC.
Graduating from Marquette University in 2020, Schanen received a bachelor's in environmental studies and economics. By this time, Schanen had already begun his work with Rapid Radicals as a market research intern. In June of that year, Milwaukee-based Rapid Radicals took him on as a contractor in customer discovery.
"Within 10 minutes of meeting, I could tell that the level of energy he brought to the conversation and would ultimately bring to Rapid Radicals was unique and exciting," said founder and CEO Paige Peters.
Rapid Radicals was founded in 2016 with a mission to transform wastewater treatment. According to the startup's website, billions of gallons of untreated sewage flows into the Great Lakes every year. This outflow is prompted by storms and flooding, which causes sewage systems to overflow. Rapid Radicals is piloting a technology that would treat water in about 30 minutes. Conventional treatment takes about eight hours.
Schanen was the startup's first full-time hire.
Just a few months after Schanen was brought on as a contractor, he advanced to his current position as COO and environmental economist.
Schanen led the startup's efforts in gener8tor Management LLC's startup accelerator program gBeta. He's conducted demand analysis and market research for the startup and supported the implementation of the wastewater treatment company's pilot programs.
His curious spirit, Peters noted, has led to him to pursue continuing education.
Schanen also graduated from the Water Environment Federation's Water Leadership Institute, a program that educates the next generation of leaders in the water industry.
Managing numerous interns, Schanen also began mentoring a pilot project assistant and doctoral student from Marquette. The young C-suiter volunteers with the River Revitalization Foundation, the Urban Ecology Center and the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
"When you're already working for a company whose call to action is to be a radical, the true merit of innovation is how you can engage your community in a way they never have been before," said Peters.
As a self-proclaimed "water nerd," Will Schanen does just that.
