Direct Supply quietly grows in Milwaukee

Northwestern Mutual is likely Milwaukee’s largest “Quiet Company,” but Direct Supply Inc. has quietly grown into a multimillion-dollar business on Milwaukee’s northwest side and plans to expand next year. Direct Supply founder and CEO Bob Hillis, in a rare public discussion of his business, gave a thumbnail history of the company and its successes Tuesday at a luncheon during the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference at The Pfister hotel in downtown Milwaukee. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/8)