Category: Business/Technology

A longtime minority construction company in Madison is going out of business. But the result is likely to be more projects, and bigger ones, for the owner and his crews.

Brian A. Mitchell Construction, 403 Troy Drive, is selling its ironworking tools and will close this summer when the company’s last job is completed. Mitchell is a UW-Madison graduate of civil engineering.

Madison’s new economic development plan should be required reading for city officials.
It provides good recommendations and strategies for improving Madison ‘s economy, most of which are already underway but need follow-through.

The plan promotes job creation and growth. It emphasizes strong public-private partnerships. It seeks skilled, business-savvy leaders and employees to be effective champions for the city and region.

The company ‘s Wisconsin projects include the $12 million Institute for Influenza Viral Research under construction on the UW-Madison campus and a Kettle Foods manufacturing plant, completed last August in Beloit.

The list of who’s who in the movement for social justice continues at the YWCA of Madison, which announced today the five honorees of its 2008 Women of Distinction awards.

….The YWCA will honor the award recipients at its 34th annual Women of Distinction luncheon May 29 at the Concourse Hotel, 1 W. Dayton St.

Among the honorees is Cheryl Rosen Weston, CEO of Douglas Stewart Co. and a University of Wisconsin Law School professor. She’s also an attorney with Cullen, Weston, Pines & Bach and is a longtime board member and former president of Jewish Social Services of Madison. She is an alumna of the Law School.

After a year without a key leader in place, North Milwaukee State Bank has hired a chief executive who wants to help the bank get more deeply involved in small-business lending and urban economic development.

In Erbert Johnson, who spent the past decade in Cleveland working in public finance and banking, North Milwaukee also found a local guy who has returned to the community wanting to do some good. Johnson majored in aacounting at UW-Madison.

If the University of Wisconsin business school ever writes a case study about itself, the lesson may be that some things are more valuable unsold.

Condé Nast Portfolio reports that the school persuaded alumni to donate $85 million in exchange for a promise that it would not sell its name for the next 20 years.

Sometimes, a bird in the hand isn’t worth anywhere near two in the bush. In September, the University of Washington School of Business struck a $50 million deal with a family foundation to rebrand itself the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, honoring its largest donor. But as precious a commodity as a school’s name may be, it could prove far more valuable unsold.

In October, the University of Wisconsin School of Business announced that about a dozen alumni had donated a total of $85 million to keep it from selling its name for the next 20 years. In the months since, the value of the school’s name has already appreciated by about $2 million, according to the calculations of Dean Mike Knetter. It took Knetter two years of smooth talking to convince alumni that cash donations remained even more valuable without naming rights.

Three statewide organizations with far-reaching constituencies have mounted strategic initiatives that see Wisconsin’s economic challenges in clear terms and then raise the bar on where the state should be headed.

They are the University of Wisconsin System, Competitive Wisconsin and a new entity called Wisconsin Way.

Beginning in March, UW-Madison will offer electronic ID scanners and free training to select downtown bars and liquor stores in an effort to crack down on underage drinking and the use of fake IDs.

Madison, Wis. – Greater Madison biotechnology executives should stop worrying too much about raising capital and focus on mastering a new biotech business model, according to life science venture investor G. Steven Burrill.

Burrill, founder of Burrill & Co. in San Francisco, is considered a pioneer in the world of biotechnology investing. The Madison native returned to his alma mater Thursday to deliver a lecture in the Microbial Science Building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

University officials said high profile 2008 presidential campaign stops at UW-Madison this week have been successful, but required much behind-the-scenes preparation.

Four years after the University of Wisconsin initially conceived renovating Union South, the university announced Thursday it has finally hired the architects for the project.

DICK ZILLMAN doesn’t like winter, which is odd when you consider the role played in his considerable success by the two snowiest winters in Madison history.

This winter — later this month — Zillman will receive the Madison Advertising Federation’s Silver Medal Award for career achievement. It’s a fitting tribute to one of Madison’s more creative and enduring advertising minds.

It was another brutal winter that helped put him on the map.

A popular Intel computer chip that is at the heart of millions of computers infringes on patented technology invented at UW-Madison, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation claims in a lawsuit against the microprocessor giant.

Madison and Marcus Corp. are discussing a much-desired Downtown hotel — perhaps the largest in the city — to serve Monona Terrace and other needs.

Marcus, which opened the 14-story, 236-room Hilton Madison at 9 E. Wilson St. adjacent to Monona Terrace in early 2001, has first option to build across the street on a parking lot behind the landmark Madison Municipal Building or the adjacent Government East parking ramp site.