Hudson bakes a hole new management team. (W.H. Brady Co. owner Katherine Hudson)

Brady CEO fashions diversity in international 'doughnut hole gang'

W.H. Brady Co.'s "Doughnut Hole Gang" looks a lot different than the team of executives that ran Brady back in 1993.

The Doughnut Hole Gang - a moniker for the company's top management team - includes three women, one African-American and two foreign nationals, Five years ago, Brady's top executives were all white American men.

The outcome was neither by design nor by accident, said Katherine Hudson, who was named president and chief executive officer of the industrial identification products maker in December 1993.

Diversity for diversity's sake wasn't part of the plan. But Hudson - the only female chief executive of a public company in Wisconsin - saw a need to shake up Brady's conservative culture and pursue a global growth strategy. Assembling a diverse group of top executives was vital to those plans.

"The intent when we went in to reshape the management …