Jake Bisenius: 2026 Distinguished Achievement Award recipient

BSME ’96
CEO, AmCap Incorporated

A mechanical engineer and principled leader in commercial real estate who creates lasting value through innovation, investment service and a positive corporate culture.

In many suburban areas, shopping centers often are the primary hub community residents rely on for buying their daily necessities and fulfilling various needs, from getting haircuts to attending yoga classes. As the CEO of AmCap Incorporated, a private equity real estate firm, Jake Bisenius is proud of the positive impact his retail center developments have made on many communities across the United States.

“With our shopping centers, we focus on creating clean, safe and appealing retail environments so that when people go to their local grocery store or nearby yoga studio, they have a great experience,” he says. “In addition to creating jobs with our shopping centers, we like to organize events such as live music performances and sidewalk sales that bring the community together.”

After working in engineering sales roles for Trane and McQuay International (now Daikin Applied Americas), Bisenius earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and shifted his career into private equity commercial real estate. In 2005, he joined AmCap Incorporated as president and chief investment officer. He has handled more than $2 billion worth of real estate transactions during his career and is currently managing more than $1 billion in real estate. In May 2026, he fully bought out his partner and took over AmCap Incorporated as CEO, bringing in a new institutional partner that committed $260 million of equity to the firm. The company is rebranding as ACX.

Looking back, he says his engineering education at UW-Madison provided a strong foundation for his success. “My engineering education trained me to think in a more methodical manner. It’s a great discipline for learning how to organize your thinking to effectively tackle problems,” he says. “My MBA program at Harvard seemed relatively easy in comparison to the academic challenge of my undergrad mechanical engineering program at UW-Madison.”

What advice would you give to today’s students?

Learn all you can and network a lot. Strong connections with your peers can lead to great career opportunities. Also, make sure you do some extracurriculars. I was a cheerleader for two years at UW-Madison and that was a lot of fun.

What do you enjoy about your career?

I enjoy touring our shopping centers and meeting with investors. I like coming up with creative solutions and adding to our retail centers by getting variances to add additional square feet. This can allow us to build apartment complexes or add things like EV charging stations or drive-through coffee shops that enhance people’s daily lives.

Which do you like best?

Fun on the Terrace or fun on Lake Mendota?
Lake Mendota. I like sailing on the lake.

Sweet Caroline or Jump Around?
Jump Around.

State Street or the Lakeshore Path?
Lakeshore Path.

Favorite Babcock ice cream flavor?
Butter pecan.

Favorite campus event?
Butch’s Bologna Bash used to be pretty fun, but I don’t know if they do that anymore. It was a running event like Crazylegs. Also, football game days were a lot of fun.

Fondest campus memory?
When I first got to campus, going to the Lakeshore dorms and swimming in the lake at night.

Favorite campus lunch spot from when you were a student?
La Bamba for the burritos as big as your head