The cultural shift from Wall Street to Willy Street can make it difficult to recruit top-notch management talent for Madison companies, Shawn Guse, TomoTherapy’s vice president and general counsel told a gathering of entrepreneurs and investors on Tuesday.
UW-Madison is a lure for scientific talent, but “recruiting commercial talent into Madison is a challenge,” said David Snyder, Nimblegen’s vice president and chief financial officer.
All is well at Creekwood Assisted Living in Waunakee.
About two months of going without the Big Ten Network due to a customer service snafu by DISH Network has ended with DISH agreeing to provide BTN to the 20-resident facility for free.
Creekwood director Judy Goldade said she was told BTN will be available to Creekwood by the weekend, which is important with the University of Wisconsin football game against Minnesota on BTN at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Badger basketball games against Savannah State, Florida A&M and Colorado airing on BTN on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, respectively.
“The residents will be ecstatic,” Goldade said today.
Twenty-one companies that will pitch their stories to investors from at least three states Wednesday at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium in Madison’s Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center.
Computer-security analysts have long since learned to hate â??botnetsâ?: clusters of computers, infected with worms or Trojan-horse programs, that are taken over by outside users. After all, botnets can do plenty of awful things: They trawl for passwords and credit-card numbers, fire off spam, and propagate automatically.
But now Paul Barford, a computer scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says he may soon be able to stop botnets in their tracks.
Old Ogg Hall at UW-Madison, home to thousands of students for more than 40 years, is coming down.
But memories are surfacing, in part because of a Wisconsin Alumni Association blog that invites former residents to tell their stories. Dozens of alumni have posted on the site. Topics include: “The night someone dropped a boulder down the trash chute… ” and “The Fire. “
The special Monday at Der Rathskeller in the Memorial Union was a Sante Fe chicken sandwich.
A floor above, in Tripp Commons, the entrees were all business as budding entrepreneurs feasted on the ideas of those who have already taken the plunge into entrepreneurship.
Dave Gruenwald and his team have developed a one-of-a-kind boat. Now all they need is the cash to float it.
Luke Schrab looks over a Briggs & Stratton 26-horsepower riding lawn mower engine that had been put into a Vent-T Boats prototype. Allenton-based Ven-T Boats Inc. is one of 21 firms pitching for investments at a Madison symposium this week.
The Vent-T Boats prototype employs an air-cooled engine coupled with a propulsion system that uses a surface-breaking propeller.
It features a propeller tucked so high, the boat can operate in 12 inches of water. Its air-cooled Briggs & Stratton engine means there’s no water pump to overheat or winterizing to do.
LONDON, England (CNN) — It is a common way for business schools to secure their future: In exchange for a substantial bequest from a former student or other benefactor the school is re-named in their honor.
Big checks were written — but the Wisconsin School’s donors did not want a name change.
However, in a unique twist to this practice, the Wisconsin School of Business has just been given $85 million by a group of alumni on one condition — it keeps its name exactly the same.
When veterinarian Ken Nordlund visits a dairy farm, he checks cows for more than disease.
He measures how much room they have when they eat. He scrutinizes their milking schedules for rest time. He watches them lie down and stand up in their stalls. He tracks how often they move from pen to pen.
Wisconsin’s biotech executives are more bullish on their own companies than on the state’s overall biotech economy, according to a new quarterly survey from the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association and the state Department of Commerce.
More than 70 percent of the executives who responded to the inaugural Wisconsin BioIndustry Outlook survey rated the current condition of the state’s biotech and medical device industry as excellent or good, and they were almost evenly split on whether the state of the industry would get better or stay the same during the next 12 months.
Dear Editor: Talk about being two-faced! The UW will still let Charter advertise at the stadium, Kohl Center, etc., and yet what Charter is doing to the fans by not televising many of the games is terrible, but the UW really doesn’t care. The bottom line is money, and how sad.
I would hope John Wiley, Barry Alvarez and Vince Sweeney would consider the fans, but I am sure they won’t. They are just like our politicians. They really don’t care about their fans. It is all money.
Sally Dreher, Madison
Gov. Jim Doyle today named Jack L. Fischer, the CEO of a family-run Fox Valley real estate development firm, as the new state secretary of commerce.
Fischer succeeds Mary Burke, the former CEO of Trek Bicycles. He will begin his new job on Nov. 26; the appointment must be confirmed by the state Senate.
A split Democratic caucus failed to muster enough votes to pass major protections sought by consumer advocates in a controversial AT&T-backed cable deregulation bill.
The bill easily passed the state Senate 23-9 after five hours of debate Thursday.
For the first time in memory, no University of Wisconsin students, staff or faculty showed up at a trust funds investment forum conducted yearly by a Board of Regents committee.
The committee seeks comment on socially responsible issues such as protecting the environment or opposing discrimination, to help guide investment decisions.
“Two years ago, the room was full,” Tom Reinders, portfolio analyst for the investment funds, said at the unattended event Thursday.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley likes to describe the zeal with which the university ‘s faculty and staff send off research proposals each year like this: “It would be a stack of paper way higher than the Capitol. ”
The National Science Foundation has another measure.
According to new NSF figures, UW-Madison is the nation ‘s top public university for research expenditures, conducting more than $900 million worth of research last year.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Wednesday that UW-Madison and the state of Wisconsin violated the federal Clean Air Act by expelling excess emissions from Madisonâ??s Charter Street Heating Plant during major renovations from 2001-â??04.
After standing unused for years, the site of Josie’s Spaghetti House has been sold and is poised for redevelopment, but it’s still unclear what will end up on the well-trafficked corner.
Real estate developer Tom Degen bought five parcels of land, including the two sites where Josie’s sits (the parking lot and the restaurant at 906 Regent St.), for $2 million in June, according to public records. The three additional sites are homes on College Court, and are adjacent to the Josie’s properties.
Negotiators for the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics have reached tentative agreements with two unions.
Members of the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council and the Wisconsin Science Professionals are expected to vote on the agreements in late November or early December.
The hospital’s unit of the Professional Employees Council, which includes 60 information technology workers, will receive a 4 percent across-the-board increase effective in January 2008, another in January 2009 and another in 2010. Insurance rate increases were also limited.
There are many inaccuracies in Jason Smathersâ?? â??opinionâ? piece (â??Labor Scandal at Wisconsin Union?â?) published in The Badger Herald Nov. 7.
The Wisconsin Union denied two employeesâ?? accusations of mistreating illegal immigrant workers Wednesday.
A University of Wisconsin heating plant is in violation of the federal Clean Air Act, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The state is in violation of federal clean air laws for failing to install modern pollution controls on the coal-burning Charter Street power plant on the UW-Madison campus, U.S. District Court Judge John Shabaz ruled Wednesday in Madison.
In Madison, not a day goes by without someone â?? a student, an activist or a bystander â?? yelling his opinions, declarations or grievances from a makeshift soapbox.
Under threat of a lawsuit from its adjacent neighbor, the UW Hillel Foundation is moving forward with plans to triple the size of its student center at 611 Langdon St.
The Jewish student organization, which traces its Madison roots to the 1920s and is the second oldest operating Hillel in the world, wants to demolish its existing 12,000 square-foot building and replace it with a four-story, 40,000 square-foot facility.
Those plans have run into opposition, however, from the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based owners of the seven-story Campus Inn hotel next door at 601 Landgon St.
On the menu: butternut squash bisque, with root vegetable chips. Roasted beet and apple salad, with chevre and walnut vinaigrette. Toasted pumpkin-gorgonzola ravioli, with pipian pesto.
The diners were about 130 women business executives, who had gathered for leadership education and inspiration.
The setting was downtown Madison, at a place that has earned global acclaim but is relatively unknown locally.
Baltimore, Md. – Unless you’ve been living in a television-free cave the past 10 years or so, you’ve heard of Under Armour, the sports apparel company that markets its high-performance gear through its often-raw â??Protect this house!â? commercials. What you don’t know about Under Armour is that it was launched by a guy who was then a student athlete at the University of Maryland in College Park.
The story of how former Terrapin football player Kevin Plank built Under Armour from an idea in 1995 to a company that will exceed $500 million in net revenue this year is instructive to young entrepreneurs everywhere.
It’s also a real-life example as the UW-Madison begins to work more with student entrepreneurs on its own campus, as well as other communities across Wisconsin, with the help of a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
I ASKED the woman who took my DirecTV order Friday if they have been getting a lot of calls from Wisconsin.
She actually laughed. “Wisconsin and Michigan,” she said. “We are being bombarded.”
Yeah, I caved. I’m still not really sure how I feel about it, but I did it. I know how my 16-year-old son feels about it, which is most of why I did it. The installers are coming Wednesday.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley and Athletic Director Barry Alvarez weighed in on the Big Ten Network controversy Friday, urging Badger fans to complain to Charter Communications and Time Warner or switch to a satellite provider.
Charter, the state’s biggest cable company, is refusing to carry the Big Ten Network. That means today’s football game between the Badgers and No. 1 Ohio State won’t be available in many homes.
Jay Wilson is one of the most popular broadcasters of all time in Madison, a product of his talent, charm and omnipresence while serving more than a quarter-century in the sports department of the local ABC affiliate.
And yet, when he innocently (and probably sheepishly) answered a question from the audience about his current source of employment at a recent event he emceed, Wilson was greeted with a chorus of playful (we hope) boos.
Wilson, you see, has been doing some play-by-play for the Big Ten Network. And these days, you might as well tell people you work for the IRS or Halliburton.
Doug Welshinger was sitting at home last Saturday flipping through his TV channels when he stumbled upon the Wisconsin-Indiana football game.
“I was thinking I was watching ESPN, and I just suddenly noticed that this was the Big Ten Network,” said Welshinger, who owns the Grumpy Troll Brewpub in Mount Horeb. “So I called down to the (Grumpy Troll) and our assistant manager said someone already came in and told us we had it and we had a small crowd watching.”
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of telecommunications Barry Orton
Drinkers in Madison have a new best friend in Bender Defenders, a service that will drive you home in your own car when you have had too much to drink.
Bender Defenders, modeled after a similar business in London, hit the streets on folding motor scooters on Sept. 8. Rather than taking a cab home and retrieving their car in the morning, customers call Bender Defenders, and a driver arrives wearing a tuxedo T-shirt and riding a folding motorbike. The driver then collapses the scooter and puts it into the customer’s trunk or back seat before driving them home.
Once the customer is home, the driver will get back on his motorbike and ride to the next destination.
While the University of Wisconsin doesn’t quite rival Ohio State in athletic department spending, it’s among the top half of the Big Ten.
All NCAA schools are now required to report their financial information to the U.S. Department of Education. Each school has its own internal formula for calculating its athletic department budget, however. That can include additional monies from campus support or other funding sources.
UW officials report the 2006-2007 Athletic Department budget at $82.6 million.
Gov. Jim Doyle today announced the creation of a $40 million endowment to help fund his Wisconsin Covenant plan, which will guarantee financial aid for college-bound high school students.
During an event in Milwaukee, Doyle said the program will begin with a contribution from the Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corp., which he said will be used to challenge other businesses to contribute to the covenant program and provide grants to students.
Doyle also announced the creation of a new Wisconsin Covenant Foundation, a private, nonprofit and tax-exempt charity that will raise and distribute money for the program.
With many of its local subscribers already angry because it has been unable to reach deals to carry the Big Ten Network or NFL Network, Charter Communications this week sent letters to them announcing cable TV price increases that take effect Dec. 1.
With provocative names like “Major Flirt” and “Miss Behaved,” skimpy costumes for girls are becoming the norm in the aisles of Halloween stores.
These two costumes — an army major in a short camouflage dress, and a convict in a striped dress with jeweled pink handcuffs — are among many Halloween outfits available to girls as young as age 4.
Quoted: UW-Madison sociology professor Myra Marx Ferree
Dear Editor: I am a native of Madison and have been intimately involved with Halloween the last few years as executive director of Downtown Madison Inc. I am proud to say that the changes that have taken place with Halloween on State Street really worked to turn the event around.
There’s nothing like Wisconsin sports to unite even political rivals.
A Democratic state senator and Republican state representative from the Green Bay area are teaming up to find a solution to the blackouts on Packer and Badger games being experienced by sports fans across the state.
“There is no reason that all Wisconsin fans should not be able to see the Wisconsin-Ohio State game or the Packers-Cowboys game in November,” Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, said in a news release.
A legislative proposal to solve the stalemate between the state’s two biggest cable companies and the NFL Network and Big Ten Network is nothing more than political grandstanding, said a UW-Madison professor of telecommunications who follows cable issues closely.
“The state can’t force its way into a negotiation between two private companies,” said Professor Barry Orton, who advises many communities in their dealings with cable companies. “This bill would have zero impact. It’s just a chance for legislators to look like they care about their constituents.”
….The Big Ten Network wants to be on Charter’s expanded basic service while the cable company wants the Big Ten Network on a sports tier. Who’s right? Who knows?
What I do know is that there is no good guy in this particular dispute. The Big Ten Network is a naked money grab by the conference schools, which have already shown themselves to be utterly shameless in finding ingenious new ways to bilk lifelong season ticket holders. Charter is not the good guy, either, because it is a cable company and as sure as a bird flies or a fish swims, the cable company is not the good guy. But cheers to the Big Ten Network for — almost — making Charter appear sympathetic.
With this weekend’s University of Wisconsin football game only televised on the Big Ten Network, it’s safe to say many Madison residents are pretty upset.
“It’s hard to find any words to say about it that aren’t expletives,” Justin Hoelscher said.
It’s not the first time a Badgers game has been on the new cable channel that is not offered through Charter Communications, but more people are taking notice due to the magnitude of this match-up.
Wealthy alumni often put their names on buildings at their alma mater. It’s a bedrock principle of college fund raising.
But a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni are doing something that hasn’t been done before at a major university: They are contributing $85 million to buy the naming rights to the School of Business and retain its current name for 20 years. It will remain the “Wisconsin School of Business.”
Gary Gorman never intended to start a company focused on historic preservation development.
During law school, Gorman got a job at the old state Commissioner of Securities office reviewing offering memoranda for real estate deals.
So when he joined a law firm after graduating, he ended up representing developers and syndicators who were raising capital from investors to do their deals.
After pressure from a University of Wisconsin student group urging the university to end its ties with Adidas, UW officials decided to keep its athletic apparel contract with Adidas Friday.
The University of Wisconsinâ??s School of Business announced an $85 million gift to the school Saturday, the largest single donation in the universityâ??s history.
Christie Penn, campus relations chair for Associated Students of Madison, is among those who says that Freakfest went great. She was leaving the annual Halloween party on State Street just before bar time, stopping at Ian’s Pizza before heading home.
ASM collaborated with the city of Madison’s Central Business Improvement District (BID) board and Frank Productions to manage the Isthmus stage at Peace Park, which hosted a costume contest and the winner of an ASM-sponsored battle of the bands contest.
A representative from Adidas visited UW-Madison to address the controversy surrounding the universityâ??s contract with the company Friday at a Labor Licensing Policy Committee meeting.
If the No. 1 team in the country falls in Columbus, and almost nobody in Madison can see it, did it really happen?
That’s the potential scenario Saturday when the Big Ten Network televises the football showdown between the University of Wisconsin and top-ranked and undefeated Ohio State at 11 a.m. UW is 21st in the BCS rankings.
BTN is available on satellite TV services DirecTV and DISH Network, but not Madison area cable provider Charter Communications, making the game a virtual blackout in the Madison area and forcing Charter customers to find a friend or a bar with satellite TV in order to see the game.
The Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison has received an $85 million gift from a small group of alumni to keep its name just as it is for the next 20 years.
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — The Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison received $85 million from a group of alumni to ensure that the school will retain its name for at least 20 years.
The gift, including $5 million donated today at a football game, is the first of its kind among universities to preserve a name and not change it after a sizable donation, said the school.
MADISON, Wis. â?? A group of alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison are donating $85 million so the Wisconsin School of Business doesnâ??t change its name.
Not for at least 20 years.
The gift, the largest in UW-Madisonâ??s history, was announced Saturday morning. School leaders say itâ??s a unique take on naming, which typically involves a single donor or entity and a stipulation that the name change will be permanent.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced today that he used his veto pen to let local governments raise property taxes by 3.86 percent this year instead of the 2 percent limit agreed to by lawmakers in the new two-year budget deal.
In a ceremony at UW-Madison, Doyle signed the budget and announced vetoes.
Dear Editor: Thank you for the recent article exploring the economic impact of the Halloween Freakfest event.
The article mentioned a downtown Madison market analysis study by the UW-Extension suggesting that Halloween does not bring in as much revenue for downtown businesses as do other events. However, the article reported that the data came only from downtown bars. Rather, the data came from a comprehensive survey of retail, service, restaurant and entertainment businesses — from clothing boutiques to shoe stores, gift shops, galleries, cafes, restaurants, banks, salons, pharmacies, specialty food shops, and arts and entertainment organizations.
The Library Mall will lose a favorite spot for Thai cuisine on Friday when the SukhoThai food cart closes its window and rolls away.
Fans of the restaurant’s curries and pad Thai could get their fix at the food cart after the Regent Street restaurant closed in April, but as of Friday, the cart is shutting down for good.
A battle is brewing along Old University Avenue, where one of Madison’s leading real estate families is pushing the envelope on tall buildings in an established neighborhood.
The Mullins Development Group is pursuing a high-rise apartment complex at Campus Drive and Highland Avenue, across from the Best Western Inntowner hotel. It would be aimed at professionals, students and staff at the nearby hospitals, potentially including a future transit station for trains or buses.
Electric companies all across the U.S. are scrapping plans for new coal-fired power plants — but not in Wisconsin where coal remains king.
At least 16 coal-fired power plant proposals nationwide have been ditched in recent months and another three dozen are facing delays as utilities face growing concerns over global climate change coupled with soaring construction costs.
Five Madison area people have been named Rising Stars by the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association.
Students and energy policy leaders from around the country listened Thursday night as Chancellor John Wiley kicked off the Roosevelt Energy conference, which will address issues about energy conservation and efficiency until Saturday, Oct. 20.
University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley greeted energy industry representatives Thursday at a preliminary dinner for an energy conservation conference this weekend, saying technologies from UW will contribute to the field.
Popular images of â??green-builtâ? homes often come in two distinct shapes: do-it-yourself rustic cottages made of straw bales, or million-dollar â??eco-mansionsâ? with state-of-the-art technologies that only the wealthy can afford. Middle-income families have traditionally had fewer options when it comes to living â??green.â?
For Kelly Meuer, the owner of State Street Brats, Halloween in downtown Madison is a fun night because he enjoys seeing all the creative costumes. But for business, the party — now dubbed Freakfest — is no bonanza.
….All in all, he concludes, “economically it’s a good night, but it is not an exceptional night by any means.”
That’s largely the same conclusion reached by those studying the annual party, which had its first peaceful ending last year after four consecutive parties ended with disorder, police action and pepperspray.
