Family Business Magazine honors 10 2025 Transformational Women in Family Business who are propelling their family enterprises into the future.
MEGANNE WECKER
CEO | Skyline Furniture | Chicago
Meganne Wecker, third-generation CEO of Skyline Furniture, has guided her family’s business through an era of change defined by design innovation, digital transformation and a commitment to empowering women across the company.
Her path into the family business was not a foregone conclusion, however. “I was never going to join it,” she recalls. “It was a very difficult business and, when I was growing up, my family never put any pressure on me.”
Instead, Wecker studied international business and Spanish in college, intent on building a career abroad. But her father was importing furniture from Mexico at the time, and he offered her an opportunity no consulting firm could match. “My dad said, ‘Do you want to come with me? We’ll go to Guadalajara next week and you’ll see it happening firsthand.’” The trip ultimately led to conversations about Meganne joining Skyline. “He told me, ‘Try it for two years and if you don’t like it, go back and get your MBA.”
Meganne officially joined Skyline in 2001 and her early years at the company were rooted in operations, imports and transactions. “We were a small company, so I did a little bit of everything,” she says. Over time, her responsibilities expanded from sourcing fabrics and designing showrooms to working with customers and sales. In 2014, she became president and chief creative officer. In 2024, she succeeded her father Ted as CEO after acquiring a majority stake in the business, making Skyline a female-owned company. Ted became CEO emeritus and Wecker’s husband, Trent Steed, transitioned from executive vice president to president.
As a leader, Wecker has made innovation her trademark. One of her boldest moves in the early 2000s was leaning into e-commerce when the channel was still an afterthought for many manufacturers. “It really ended up being kind of a game-changing decision for us to go in and follow that path,” she says.
Equally important was her push to elevate design. “The combination of the new channel of e-commerce and building out the design part of our business was really the winning mix — the art and the science coming together.”
That focus on design and digital innovation culminated in the launch of Cloth & Company in 2016, Skyline’s sister brand that uses digital printing to produce customizable furniture on demand. The venture reflects Wecker’s belief that consumers want both creativity and speed, and that manufacturers must adapt accordingly.
Her tenure has also marked a cultural shift at Skyline. “We, collectively, really spent a lot of effort to ensure that there was a bigger female presence across the company — both in management and in the factory.”
During Wecker’s time at Skyline, the business has also endured its fair share of challenges, including the Great Recession, the pandemic and, most recently, a devastating fire at its facility. Each crisis tested the company’s resilience but ultimately reinforced its greatest strength: people. “When you’re going through those times, the team is super important,” Wecker says. “Their strength and coming together as the family that we’ve become allows us to say, ‘All hands on deck, we’ve got to figure it out.’” Financial discipline has also been key. “We’ve stayed well-financed. We haven’t taken on any debt. So, having no loans out there has given us flexibility to withstand these more difficult periods.”
With two-and-a-half decades of experience in the family enterprise, Wecker is now being intentional about how she introduces the next generation to the business. “I’m not putting any pressure on my kids to work here. I want them to see it and experience it. I really am trying to teach my kids and the younger generations [in the company] that hard work takes time and it’s not an overnight thing. Sometimes the key is just showing up consistently.”