Lisa Renee Conn - Llink Technologies - 2025 Manufacturing Woman of the Year
This article appeared in the December 2025 issue of MiMfg Magazine. Read the full issue and find past issues online.
Llink Technologies General Manager Lisa Renee Conn has made a significant impact on the business, the industry and on the lives of team members — professionally, personally and even emotionally.
Her innovations pertaining to re-manufacturing headlights have led to a patent and numerous awards that have elevated the Brown City company as a leader in the industry.
She also focuses on building talent pipelines and fostering a strong, family oriented internal culture. She is a trail-blazer for women in the industry, inspires team members to “challenge” themselves and maintains a positive perspective, despite her own personal struggles.
Conn has been recognized as a 2025 Manufacturing Woman of the Year for her ability to leverage hands-on manufacturing experience and strategic vision to drive meaningful transformation for the industry and people who work in it.
Groundbreaking Achievement
Conn started her manufacturing career in 1992 at a large tier 1 automotive company. Despite having a business degree, opportunities were limited in the area, so she began on the shop floor. After being promoted to QS-9000 Management Representative, she immersed herself in every facet of manufacturing, taking on leadership roles wherever needed and earning recognition as a strategic change agent within the organization. Conn started at Llink Technologies, an engineering, assembly and program management business that focuses on automotive trim and lighting remanufacturing in 2000 as Quality Manager. She was promoted to Sales and Operations Cost Analyst in 2002 and to General Manager in 2006, where she has continued to implement operational improvements and develop Llink’s workforce.
In this role, Conn spearheaded the research, development and launch of the world’s first circular supply chain in automotive lighting — a groundbreaking achievement that includes a patented process for remanufacturing headlights. The five-year endeavor earned her place on the co-patent and positioned Llink as a global sustainability pioneer.
The innovation was named “Top Remanufactured Automotive Lighting Assembly Solution 2025” by AutoTech Outlook. Llink also won two phases of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Re-X Before Recycling Prize, as well as a Circular Economy Grant through the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
Internal Culture and Industry Growth
Along with spearheading innovative manufacturing solutions, Conn has made it her mission to advocate for underrepresented talent, according to Business Operations Manager Chelsea Jensen. Jensen, who nominated Conn for MMA’s award, notes that 50 percent of Llink’s employees are women.
Conn says her advice to women who are interested in manufacturing careers is to remain determined and not back down.
“Any roadblock that’s in your way, if you work hard enough, you can move it or you can go around it,” she says. “If you fail, it’s not a chance to quit; it’s an opportunity to learn.”
Conn is known for encouraging all team members by saying, “I challenge you to…” — a phrase that reflects her leadership style and commitment to pushing boundaries, Jensen adds.
“Lisa has this incredible ability to take a problem and immediately break it down into its simplest form and really identify what we are trying to accomplish,” she says.
As a champion for professional growth, Conn has secured more than $100,000 in state grants for employee and management training in leadership skills, design experiments, engineering, robotics and more. She also founded Llink’s “Cool Idea” program, allowing anyone on the shop floor to submit an idea for a safety, quality or efficiency improvement and then receive financial compensation for the idea.
“If it results in any kind of savings for the company, they also get paid a portion of that savings,” Jensen explains, “so it’s about really letting them know that their voice matters just as much as anyone else’s here.”
Quality Manager Debbie Kesteloot adds that Conn also is dedicated to supporting the community at large through food banks, school events, holiday gift programs and many other initiatives.
“Anybody that has an issue — whether it’s the person individually out there on the floor or a family member — she’s the first one to say, ‘Hey, let’s do a fundraiser. Let’s get something going to help this family out,’” Kesteloot says.
Life Lessons
All of this — Conn’s motivational spirit, compassion, award-winning innovations, mentorship and dedication to the community — come despite the fact that she has had to battle stage-four cancer, twice.
“Lisa is just the strongest person I’ve ever met,” Kesteloot says. “She’s so positive. With every struggle that she’s had, we seem more upset about it than she does. She just is such a positive influence to everybody out here.”
Even while going through chemotherapy and radiation treatments, she never turned away from the team or the company.
“She never took her finger off the pulse, and she somehow leveraged it and made it an opportunity to give us the space to show how we’ve grown under her mentorship,” Jensen says. “She made it an opportunity for us to all step up and support her without ever backing away. She was fighting her own incredible fight, and her resiliency and dedication is one of the most inspiring things that I’ve ever witnessed.”
Conn’s sustainability leadership, community engagement, advocacy for women in the industry, talent development initiatives and remarkable strength and compassion epitomize what it means to be a Manufacturing Woman of the Year.
The Manufacturing Woman of the Year award is part of the annual Manufacturing Excellence Awards which celebrates the leaders and products that are pushing the industry forward. Learn more about the awards program and gala.
The 2025 Manufacturing Woman of the Year award was sponsored by Clark Hill. Visit online: clarkhill.com.