Bill Oemichen BA, JD

William L (Bill) Oemichen is a Senior Researcher in the Law School and College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and serves on the boards of a number of U.S.-based co-operatives and companies, including the education and insurance arm of the cooperatively-owned $340 Billion Farm Credit System and the board of the nation's highest rated health care provider for quality. 

Oemichen served as a Public Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Policy and he served as an Adjunct Professor in Business Law in the university's School of Population and Clinical Sciences.  He practiced co-operative law at a major Midwestern law firm and served fourteen years as President and CEO of Cooperative Network, the largest state-based co-operative trade association in the U.S. with more than 800 co-operative members operating across the country with a focus on Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Oemichen has also served as Deputy Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner where he worked to create co-operatives, as Wisconsin's chief Consumer Protection official where he regulated co-operatives and other types of businesses, and as Wisconsin Director of the Office of Preparedness & Emergency Health Care where he worked to create disaster response co-operatives. 

He is chair of the board of trustees for Wisconsin's $5.5 Billion College Savings Program and served on the Advisory Board to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on the development of new health care co-operatives funded by $6 Billion in federal funds.  Oemichen is also a governance consultant to the Alberta Community and Co-operative Association and Realize Strategies in Vancouver, BC.  Oemichen is engaged in research on co-operative governance, financing, regulation, and risk identification and mitigation.

Oemichen earned a B.A. in Economics from Carleton College with a Concentration in Science, Technology and Public Policy and a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.