Panelists include Tom Eggert, an adjunct professor at the UW-Madison School of Business; John Neis, managing director and founder of Venture Investors of Wisconsin; Mohan Warrior, chief executive of Araflight; and Toni Sikes, founder and chief executive of The Guild.
State officials have shelved a controversial plan to lease broadcast frequencies potentially worth up to $100 million to private telecommunications companies.
The state Educational Communications Board (ECB) announced on Friday that it was canceling a request for bids to lease the 33 educational broadband service frequencies owned by the state.
ECB officials said that while the bidding process was completely legal, they wanted to restart the process with more public input and full consideration by the ECB’s board of directors.
Young Wisconsin companies pulled in just a sliver of the reported $25.75 billion of venture investments made in U.S. companies in 2006.
Wisconsin companies raised $58.47 million of venture funding – about 5% more than in 2005 – in 12 deals last year, according to figures that will be released today by Ernst & Young LLP and Dow Jones VentureOne.
Editor’s note: As the director of technology programs for the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, Scott Converse is at the forefront of trends in information technology workforce development. In part one of this interview, he talks about the market need for courses that help IT professionals in their progression from technologist to manager or CIO. Look for part two next week.
It is the surest way to see the results of our labor. That’s why in this special issue we celebrate organizations, individuals, and one scientific breakthrough, all of which embody the very best of Madison business – its progressive and productive climate, and its thoughtful and visionary leadership.
In 2006, Gov. Jim Doyle helped authorize $50 million in state funding for the University of Wisconsin’s planned Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. This funding by our state taxpayers was in part to further jump-start Wisconsin’s still fledgling stem cell research and development initiative.
During this same period Doyle also funded a $5 million plan to recruit and retain stem cell companies. Some $3 million has gone into Dr. James Thomson’s two companies Cellular Dynamics Inc. and Stem Cell Products Inc.
Steps were also taken to waive the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s royalty fees for companies that conduct stem cell research in Wisconsin.
All of this funding, mind you, without establishing any terms whatsoever for obtaining any returns on the taxpayers’ investment…..
UW-Madison scientist and entrepreneur James Thomson believes it may be decades before stem cells produce treatments that cure diabetes, Parkinsons disease or help the paralyzed walk again.
But these basic building blocks of life are already changing how research is conducted in thousands of labs around the globe and may soon lead to the creation of new medical products, Thomson said during a Madison Magazine Best of Madison Business luncheon at the Monona Terrace Convention Center.
State officials have announced a new initiative that would reward innovative ideas tailored to the needs of specific Wisconsin companies.
Under the Wisconsin Idea-Link program, the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network – through funding from the state Department of Commerce – would provide competitive grants of up to $10,000 for evaluation and marketing costs for a maximum of 10 projects. Companies would provide additional prize money as incentive for entrepreneurs and others to develop solutions to specific challenges.
Debra Malewicki, WEN interim director, said Wisconsin Idea-Link is an attempt to draw large corporations into WEN activities.
Quoted: Willie Ney, director of the UW Multicultural Arts Initiative.
Is the state about to auction off surplus educational digital broadband frequencies – which could be worth millions to telecommunications companies – at bargain-basement prices?
That’s how some critics see a move by the state Educational Communications Board to seek bids from private firms on more than 30 educational broadband frequencies the state now holds.
Former Dane County Executive and UW Regent Jonathan Barry and his business partner, telecommunications consultant Ralph Evans, have filed a formal protest to the bidding process and are seeking to halt the deal.
Dear Editor:
….The students are a valuable and core part of our community, but they are no longer the only valuable part of the spectrum as far as life downtown. Those “glistening condominiums” are filled with people who have made an investment in Madison – an emotional investment as well as an economic one that strengthens our tax base.
….Capping the number of liquor licenses is not, as Austin King suggested in the Times, a return to Prohibition. It’s a matter of common sense that hundreds of other cities have already implemented.
The state is looking for a cleaner and more efficient power source than its coal-burning power plant in downtown Madison.
The state Department of Administration announced Thursday that it was launching a study to review the performance of the Capitol Heat and Power facility at 624 E. Main and look at alternatives. The aging facility is owned by the state and provides heating and cooling for state, city and county offices around the Capitol Square.
The Sierra Club, which in recent years has urged the state, Madison Gas & Electric and the University of Wisconsin-Madison to cease burning coal at its power plants, commended the state on its move.
Technical advancements in placing extended portions of the transmission lines underground has prompted the city of Madison to formally request the American Transmission Co. to consider burying portions of a power line proposed along the Beltline if the project’s need is demonstrated.
….”There’s nothing special about the Beltline that would warrant it … Undergrounding doesn’t work well as well from a technical viewpoint, it costs too much and it creates a precedent for it if we do it along the Beltline,” (ATC vice president Mark) Williamson said.
….”The Beltline is a huge, ugly highway … I drive it every day. It’s not a view worth saving,” he said.
State officials said Wednesday that they’ll evaluate the state’s power plant on Madison’s Near East Side for ways to produce steam and electricity more cleanly and efficiently, including upgrading the plant or building a new one.
The move comes a month after the announcement of an environmental lawsuit against the state for alleged violations at the plant.
A Madison biotechnology company has signed a multimillion-dollar agreement with the world’s largest pharmaceutical company.
Mirus Bio Corp., founded in 1996 by three UW-Madison researchers, has entered into a two-year deal with Pfizer to work on RNA interference – better known as gene silencing – using two delivery methods.
Dear Editor: After reading the Jan. 1 New York Times article on Madison, I think it can be safely said that whatever tradition of “progressive liberalism” upon which Madison built its reputation has been trumped by a culture of public alcoholism that is out of control.
Now that this culture, and its gross and violent consequences, has been revealed for all to see in the nation’s paper of record, it can no longer be hidden behind Madison’s myopic and nostalgic civic ego.
Dear Editor: In a recent column Doug Moe seemed to be making some points that seem odd to me. The first is that because something has been a problem for a long time, such as the overconsumption of alcohol downtown, it should therefore not be addressed.
….Addressing the problem of the overconcentration of bars downtown with their statistically related violence and police calls does not preclude addressing the problem of money-making house parties serving to underage patrons.
Gov. Jim Doyle spent much of his first term lowering expectations, and this newspaper frequently criticized the Democratic executive for the narrowness of his vision.
As Doyle begins his second term, however, he is raising expectations. And we celebrate him for that.
….He spoke of making Wisconsin a global leader in the search for cures and treatments for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, juvenile diabetes and other devastating diseases and conditions, promising that “we’ll invest in stem cell research that could one day bring cures – and save millions of lives around the world.”
Madison firefighters kept busy early this morning and at mid-morning, fighting two separate fires in two near-downtown buildings that forced the evacuation of residents but resulted in minor damage and only one injury.
The first fire was at the Palace Latin Club, 1401 University Ave., and is being investigated as possible arson after occupants of the building heard a small explosion at 2:11 a.m. today.
IF A front page New Year’s Day story in the New York Times is to be believed, it is not inherently bad for drunks to pee in an alley in downtown Madison.
It is only bad if a yuppie looking out his living room window can see them. He might be startled and spill his cappuccino.
The Times article, datelined Madison and written by Susan Saulny, was headlined: “This Remaking of Downtown Has Downside.”
As Gov. Jim Doyle sees it, Wisconsin stands on the verge of a golden age in which legions of well-educated, tech-savvy workers will find high-paying jobs in the emerging fields of health care, high-tech manufacturing, biotechnology and alternative energy.
Doyle says his mission – as he begins his second term as governor today – is to steer the state in that direction, preserving what he describes as a vibrant heritage of hard work and respect for longstanding values while keeping an eye toward future growth.
As states try to maintain thriving economies in the high-tech 21st century, two assets are essential: brains and money.
For that reason Wisconsin lawmakers should make it a priority in 2007 to improve the education level of the state’s work force and to increase the financing available for economic development.
Inviting Ward Connerly to speak to a special Wisconsin legislative committee studying affirmative action is like inviting the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan to address a hearing on race relations.
….The irony is the embarrassing Grothman and Connerly show is taking place at a time when the University of Wisconsin System has a serious problem with affirmative action. Namely, we don’t have nearly enough of it.
Some major corporations have stopped job recruitment on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus because executives say the lack of racial diversity on the campus does not properly prepare students to succeed in their companies after graduation.
Joe Boucher is not your average dark-suited, buttoned-down lawyer who works in a well-appointed, mahogany-laden, immaculate Downtown office overlooking the state Capitol.
Boucher is a sweater guy, friendly and informal. He is co-founder of a Madison law firm, Neider & Boucher, that employs 30 people, 14 of them attorneys, with offices at University Research Park on the West Side.
A UW-Madison program that has helped Wisconsin apple growers reduce pesticide use without sacrificing fruit quality has a new name and a broader mission.
The project recently received a $125,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to expand into more apple growing regions and to set up a similar program for Wisconsin berry growers. Therefore, the project that began in 2003 as the Eco-Apple project has been renamed the Eco-Fruit project.
The Downtown Madison Inc. Board (DMI) is not convinced that there is direct correlation between reducing the number of liquor licenses downtown and a safer downtown, DMI President Susan Schmitz said today.
This echoed both Business Improvement District (BID) executive director Mary Carbine’s and DMI Board member Rick Petri’s Dec. 13 comments at a BID-sponsored public hearing on the alcohol density plan that Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and alders Judy Olson and Mike Verveer introduced to the Madison City Council Nov. 29.
An oft-heard complaint about the University of Wisconsin-Madison, justified or otherwise, is that its academic and research fruit falls close to the tree. It has world-class scientists and well-developed mechanisms for turning their best ideas into products or services, but most of that commercialization takes place within a half-hour drive from campus.
At an unprecedented gathering in the main living room of the governor’s mansion, top state officials earlier this month courted an elite group of executives who control hundreds of millions of investment dollars.
The message: Help grow Wisconsin’s young, high-tech companies.
That’s why a grant announced recently by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to the University of Wisconsin-Madison is an important step in building a base for new business start-ups. The foundation, based in Kansas City, is giving UW-Madison $5 million over five years to encourage entrepreneurship, offer services to nascent companies and perhaps work on the economic problems in Milwaukee’s inner city. The school is one of nine nationwide receiving the funding.
A Norwegian stem cell company will open a Madison location, Gov. Jim Doyle announced today.
After conducting an extensive international search, CellCura Inc. chose Madison for its overall quality of life, access to world class stem cell scientists at UW-Madison, and its proximity to WiCell, according to a press release from Doyle’s office.
I MAY as well warn you right now that this story is about black fishnet stockings. There’s a red feather in it, too. What can I say? Readers contact John Nichols about presidential elections. They contact me about cocktail waitress attire.
In this instance, a reader called my attention to a story about female executives in the business section of Sunday’s New York Times. Featured prominently was Carol Bartz, one of the first female CEOs in the country. Now retired, Bartz in the 1990s (and until last year) ran a hugely successful Silicon Valley high-tech company called Autodesk.
What caught the eye of my correspondent was this sentence: “After working her way through college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison as a cocktail waitress (required uniform: red miniskirt, black fishnets and red feather in hair), Ms. Bartz graduated with a computer science degree in 1971.”
Investors have lots of money they want to put to use in growing companies but it’s apparently going to established businesses, not to entrepreneurs coming up with new ideas, a study finds.
The survey, by the Milwaukee-based Foley and Lardner law firm, with offices in Madison, shows that more than three-fourths of the investors questioned have raised money in the past two years, and nearly as many expect to raise another fund in the next year or two.
NeoClone Biotechnology International LLC is a poster child for what can happen when the state gives incentives to investors in young, emerging companies. The firm was founded in 1999 based on technology developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Dear Editor: While considering free tuition for all University of Wisconsin students is unrealistic for the simple fact that it raises taxes in a state whose residents, if not the politicians, know that it is already on the high end on the tax scale. We can accomplish the objective, which is to keep students in Wisconsin after graduation, with a much better and actually workable solution.
Dear Editor: The Capital Times correctly lauds Judge Sarah O’Brien’s decision upholding a contract to sell a property that will be the National Primate Research Exhibition Hall, a permanent protest against animal research conducted by the university in two adjacent buildings.
Open-enrollment executive education programs at the UW-Madison School of Business have been rated best in the world for the second straight year by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Wisconsin scored 4.3 on a 5-point scale, with three schools tied for second at 4.2 – IESE School of Business in Barcelona, Spain; Washington University in St. Louis (Olin); and York University (Schulich).
The rankings came from an international survey of more than 200 senior executives who attended executive education programs.
City and county lawyers are considering making a request to the state Public Service Commission to order American Transmission Co. to pay for an independent study looking at future power needs in the county.
A top official at ATC, however, said that the company would not be willing to pay for another independent study since it already spent $200,000 for a study completed two years ago.
But a PSC official said another study could be ordered if a compelling need for it were found.
Dear Editor: The problem with passing a resolution on alcohol license density as weak as this one is that people will think the issue has been solved and it really hasn’t.
Both academic research and personal experience demonstrate that the concentration of alcohol outlets in the downtown area leads to increased criminal activity, property damage and a reduced quality of life for downtown residents.
The start of a third stem-cell company in Madison shows, yet again, how UW-Madison’s dynamic research is spurring business and economic growth.
It also is leading to better health for Wisconsin citizens.
A former top executive at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patenting arm and a high-profile university researcher are forming the state’s third embryonic stem cell company.
….During a break in the action of last Saturday’s (12/2) game between the Badgers and Florida International at the Kohl Center, the UW took the time to thank Top Promotions, Inc., of Middleton for outfitting the visitors with game jerseys.
But inquiring minds wanted to know: Who supplied FIU with the shoes?
Probably the last place some Badger backers might expect: The Shoe Box. Yes, that Shoe Box – the Black Earth store where the NCAA said UW athletes were receiving impermissible discounts and lines of credit from 1993 to 2000.
MILWAUKEE – The median family income in Madison is $64,264 a year compared to $35,765 in Milwaukee, according to a report by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.
The group said Monday that the difference has grown to about 80 percent after being less than 10 percent about 15 years ago.
….Madison has some “built-in advantages,” such as the major research center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and that it is the state capital, said Ryan Parsons, a research associate for the alliance.
Parson said, “One of the reasons Madison has such an edge over Milwaukee is having people who can fill high-tech science research jobs. A lot of that work force is missing from a city like Milwaukee.”
The former head of UW- Madison’s stem-cell patenting arm has teamed up with a stem-cell scientist on campus to launch a company using stem cells to develop tests for diseases.
A state commission might recommend a huge incentive for University of Wisconsin students to stay in the state after they graduate: four years of free tuition at any UW System school.
MILWAUKEE (AP) – A commission is considering recommending free tuition for all students in the University of Wisconsin System who agree to live and work in the state for 10 years after earning a bachelor’s degree.
The commission which was created to upgrade UW’s two-year college campuses is scheduled to meet Tuesday in Madison to discuss that idea along with other changes primarily geared toward improving the two-year campuses.
Q: What is the financial education center at UW-Madison that you’re helping to develop?
A: We’re still working on the mission of it, but it’s very much in concept form. It’s research and outreach. It’s yet another avenue to get consumer education into people’s hands and to help people with the behavior change of that. We all know that working out is really good for us, but actually getting to the gym is the next leap and there’s a disconnect in the same way with financial services. We all know we would be better off in the future by saving money but doing it is a whole other aspect.
UW-Madison students were assigned to write profiles of businesses on State Street, Downtown Madison’s unique cultural and shopping zone where 80 percent of businesses are locally owned. The stores and restaurants the students chose – ranging from a chocolatier to an import store to a landmark watering hole reflect State Street’s claim as the place Madisonians go to shop, dine and play.
In an effort to retain and attract quality staff members, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents voted Thursday to ask for domestic partner benefits for university faculty members.
Funny bugs in the basement? Messy fungus growing on your favorite tree? Perhaps you want help starting a new business, a nonprofit organization, or a new farmers’ market in your town. Maybe you want advice on being the best child care provider you can be.
Every year, the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension helps more than 300,000 people with a wide range of needs, knitting together community life and building the state’s economy.
ST. FRANCIS – No one predicted that a strange, wedge-shaped chunk of yellow foam would someday symbolize a state and its way of life.
That includes Ralph Bruno, the 45-year-old guy who invented the Cheesehead, which is in its 20th year of production.
Ruth Olson, a folklorist at the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, is quoted.
If and when the allure of the Cheesehead vanishes, what will be the next pop culture symbol for Wisconsin?
The UW’s Ruth Olson posed that question to her Folklore 540 class and says she got the same response over and over: Sconnie.”
The idea came off the slang word for Wisconsin but has grown to represent all things that pertain to a Badger lifestyle, such as eating cheese curds or driving a John Deere tractor,” says Amy Peterson, responding via e-mail to her teacher’s query.
Much of the rhetoric surrounding the gay marriage ban last month claimed that its passage would eliminate the possibility of UW-Madison ever offering its employees domestic partner benefits. In meetings beginning Thursday, the UW Board of Regents may try to skirt the amendment and offer those benefits anyway in its unclassified pay plan.
The University of Wisconsin System already has a school of public health. It is in Madison.
For that reason, the UW Board of Regents should reject a proposal to begin a years-long, multi- million-dollar effort to build a school of public health in Milwaukee.
With New York officials voting Tuesday to become the first major city in the nation to ban the use of artery-clogging artificial trans fat in restaurants, can Madison be far behind?
Despite the city’s reputation in the business community for interventionism, the answer may be “No way.”
(Dr. Pat Remington, director of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, is quoted.)
Optimism about the local economy is high: More Dane County business leaders think business will be strong in the coming year than a year ago. More than eight of every 10 of the companies surveyed said they expect their performance to improve in 2007, according to a survey prepared by the UW-Madison School of Business’ A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research and sponsored by First Business Bank and the UW-Madison School of Business.
While most Wisconsinites are proud to reside in the Badger State, one University of Wisconsin faculty member has been looking to leave since this fall.
UW-Madison�s Faculty Senate passed a resolution Monday afternoon supporting domestic partner benefits for state employees, though it recognized the difficulty of working against obstacles like the statewide vote to ban same-sex marriages.
The Sierra Club will sue the state and the UW-Madison over allegations that several coal power plants in Madison violate the 1976 Clean Air Act.
The lawsuit targets the university�s Charter Street Power Plant and the Wisconsin�s state Capitol Heat and Power Plant.
The state of Wisconsin ââ?¬â? and the University of Wisconsin in particular ââ?¬â? could face litigation for violating the federal Clean Air Act.
A sprinkling of snow was enough to bring out an avalanche of skiers for the 43rd annual Wisconsin Hoofers Ski and Snowboard Resale at the Memorial Union on Saturday and Sunday.
The event featured more than 6,800 pieces of discounted cross-country, downhill and snowboarding equipment and accessories from area vendors, as well as used gear from the general public.
For a second straight year, fresh powder enhanced the enthusiasm of area skiers, and sales were unusually high, topping $250,000.
