John Menard, Jr.

The oldest of eight siblings in a Catholic family with German, French-Canadian, and Norwegian roots, His father, John Menard Sr., was a university professor while his mother, Rosemary, was a grade school teacher. Menard attended Eau Claire Regis High School. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire with a degree in business and a minor in psychology. After graduating, he passed up working for IBM to continue his own small farm construction business.

Menard began his career constructing pole buildings with friends from college. He made his home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Menard has six children, and married his third wife, Faiha Obaid, in 2008.

In 1997, Menard was caught using his own pickup truck to haul plastic bags filled with chromium and arsenic-laden wood ash to his home for disposal with his household trash. Menard pleaded no contest to felony and misdemeanor charges involving records violations, unlawful transportation, and improper disposal of hazardous waste. Menard and his company were fined $1.7 million for 21 violations.

In 2013 the IRS ordered Menard to pay $6 million in back taxes after he allegedly mischaracterized $20 million as salary, not dividends, deducting it as a business expense. In a separate case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court forced Menard to pay $1.6 million to a former legal counsel to compensate for gender discrimination and gross underpayment. In 2002, Menard paid more than $216 million tax for his $559 million income.

In April 2020, Menard was among several businessmen named to the economic advisory group established by President Donald Trump.

In January 2008, Menard gave $15 million to support Eau Claire's Luther Midelfort Hospital. The donation was used for a new emergency services department and to help the hospital educate and train health professionals. In 2015, Menard donated $10 million to support the Eau Claire Area YMCA. The gift helped replace the five-court LE Phillips Tennis Center that opened in 1972 to become an eight-court indoor tennis center known as the John and Fay Menard YMCA Tennis Center. In 2019, The Menard family donated $5 million to the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. In addition to supporting the center's research, engagement, and student enrichment, the donation also supports an endowed lecture and an annual national conference.

A supporter of conservative causes, Menard has donated to the political groups of the Koch brothers.