Stacey Huels joined Miniat Holdings LLC in 2021 as chief operating officer and is now President. Stacey has been on the Miniat Holdings Board of Advisors for over a decade and has provided guidance to the company’s management with a specific focus on financial and legal matters for many years. Stacey is married to Sara Miniat Huels and has three adult children.

Stacey spent over 25 years in banking, primarily with and lending money to entrepreneurs and private equity backed and family businesses. With the goal of becoming an entrepreneur himself, Stacey founded First Focus Capital Partners LLC (FFCP) in 2013 to make private investments in closely held companies.

In 2016, through FFCP, Stacey co-founded TRU ENTERPRISES LLC, a startup company in Beloit, Wisconsin to co-pack low acid aseptic beverages, primarily protein supplement drinks. He, Sara and Dave Miniat were TRU’s primary investors. After just 27 months, TRU was approached and subsequently acquired by Lyons Magnus, a Fresno, California-based beverage company that is backed by Paine Schwartz Partners, a private equity firm based in New York. After the purchase by Lyons Magnus, Stacey served as the president of Lyons North Division until October 2020, at which time the company had over 180 employees. 

Prior to First Focus, Stacey was Chairman and CEO of the Wintrust Financial Corporation (WTFC) subsidiaries Wheaton Bank and Trust, Glen Ellyn Bank and Trust and Naperville Bank and Trust. Stacey successfully led his team from a $25 million single location branch in 2004 to over $750 million in assets and five locations when he left in 2013 to start FFCP. Stacey continues to serve as a board member of the Wintrust subsidiary.

Prior to joining Wintrust, Stacey worked for J.P. Morgan Chase and predecessor companies for 13 years where he served as the Director of Capital Markets in their Debt Syndications Unit, as well as Division Head and First Vice President of American National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago working primarily with privately held companies.

Having grown up on a grain and dairy farm, Stacey still maintains his agrarian roots by managing his family’s farms that they have owned since the late 1800’s. He attended the University of Illinois-Champaign Urbana where he received a bachelor of science degree.