Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Kate Stein

The percentage of minorities in leadership and supervisory positions is lower than the percentage of minorities in the region’s total population.

That’s according to a survey on the diversity of employees at Madison-area businesses.

Area business leadership is “still very heavily white,” said Paul Jadin, Madison Region Economic Partnership president, the corporate- and government-funded economic development agency that conducted the survey. “We all had our preconceived ideas of what our workforce and our boards would look like, and this pretty much confirmed that.”

The survey results, which MadREP first released in May, show that although white employees make up 85.5 percent of the population in the eight-county survey region, they hold 94.9 percent of management and supervisory positions and 96.5 percent of top-level leadership positions.

“That wasn’t at all unexpected,” Jadin said. “It’s what you observe on a day-to-day basis in terms of who you interact with and who are the key players.”

Local business leaders of color also said they were not surprised by the survey documents.

“We have a long way to go,” said Julia Arata-Fratta, a supervisor at Wegner CPAs and a former president of the Latino Chamber of Commerce. “You don’t see that many women and minorities sitting around the table on corporate boards.”

“The MadREP survey reveals what we already know,” Lisa Peyton-Caire, an assistant vice president at Summit Credit Union and the founder of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, wrote in an email to the State Journal. “We have the talent in our city, but attracting, engaging and developing that talent in our companies has been a challenge.”

Tim Gaillard, senior vice president and chief operating officer at UW Health and a member of the Madison Network of Black Professionals, said he thinks it’s possible to increase the number of minority business leaders in the area.

Companies, Gaillard said, should make efforts to recruit minority candidates online and through job fairs. They also should increase the visibility of their current minority employees, he said.

“When somebody goes on a website, it would be nice to see people of color,” Gaillard said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve had a very successful experience … I think it would be great to have more advertising to show people of color that companies are welcoming to them.”

Gaillard acknowledged it can sometimes be challenging for companies to find qualified minority candidates in the Madison area, where, according to the MadREP survey, 85.5 percent of residents are white.

“There’s not a lot of diversity,” Gaillard said. “You have a smaller pool (of minority candidates for leadership positions) to choose from.

“But,” he added, “if you conclude the overall system you serve would be better-served if there were more diversity, then the onus should be on you” to find ways to hire minority leaders.

Arata-Fratta said that in addition to recruiting qualified minority candidates, companies must work to retain minority employees once they hire them.

In companies where most employees are white, minority employees sometimes leave because they feel like “fish from another pond,” she said.

“It’s very hard,” she said. “You have to prove yourself, that you can do the job and you are not a quota.”

Arata-Fratta added that if most of a company’s leaders are white, minority employees may leave because they think staying at the company won’t advance their careers.

“We need to see opportunities to advance,” she said.

Addressing disparity
Although much could be done to increase minority leadership in the Madison area, several organizations already support current and future leaders of color.

The Latino Chamber of Commerce, the Black Chamber of Commerce, the Madison Network of Black Professionals and the statewide Hmong Chamber of Commerce, along with other minority-centered business organizations, offer networking opportunities, entrepreneurship guidance and professional development training.

To encourage minority students’ interest in pursuing business leadership roles, there are organizations like UW Health’s HOPE (Health Occupations and Professions Exploration) program, which introduces minority and low-income students to healthcare professionals and administrators, (including Gaillard, the executive sponsor of the program).

In MadREP’s Business & Education Collaborative, business leaders and educators discuss ways in which businesses and schools can together address regional workforce needs, including the need for more minority leadership.

And, two Madison-area organizations have partnered with MadREP to promote the development of business leaders of color.

United Way of Dane County is working with MadREP on a leadership development program called “BoardWalk Academy,” Jadin said.

The academy begins this month and is designed to “assist individuals who may not be typically asked to serve on a board or committee in developing leadership skills, building confidence, and making connections,” according to the United Way website.

In May, MadREP partnered with The Davis Group, a consulting firm that offers cultural competence training and other tools to help companies develop and retain minority employees.

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Judy Newman

Madison could soon be home to a major new project aimed at helping technology companies get started and grow … if a local serial entrepreneur has her way.

Liz Eversoll – whose company SOLOMO Technology won the $100,000 Rise of the Rest competition last October – wants to start a super-sized tech accelerator and co-working space patterned after Capital Factory, a similar program in Austin, Texas.

“We are in the planning stage to determine if we will bring Capital Factory to Madison,” Eversoll said. “We are evaluating the market, community support and entrepreneurial activity level to help make our decision.”

Eversoll envisions as many as 50 startups in the accelerator and 200 people sharing the co-working space. That’s much bigger than any of the current business booster programs in Madison.

The Madworks seed accelerator, started in summer 2014, offers 10 weeks of mentoring to eight to 10 young companies at a time. Gener8tor, in Madison and Milwaukee, started in 2012, works with five companies at a time, in 12-week sessions. This summer, gener8tor added a shorter program for very-early-stage companies.

Of the city’s co-working spaces, 100state is the largest: it claims more than 200 members, executive director Gregory St. Fort said.

While some of the other accelerators are open to a wide range of young businesses, Eversoll’s focus is on tech companies, from the early concept stage to as far along as raising their first outside funds from investors.

“Companies from all over would be welcome. We want this facility and accelerator to be a draw and a reason companies start or move to Madison,” she said.

Eversoll said she has her eye on a building on West Washington Avenue. She and Patrick Vogt, chairman of SOLOMO’s board, will be partners in the project.

One big difference from the other accelerator programs is that this one would have no end date; companies can stay until they outgrow the program or the space, she said.

Why affiliate with Austin’s Capital Factory? “We think Madison has so many synergies with Austin and needs additional resources and programs to help foster the ecosystem,” Eversoll said.

Capital Factory’s executive director Joshua Baer was recently in Madison, speaking at the Forward Festival. He is out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

To give you an idea of the scope of the Austin program, here’s what its website touts: “Capital Factory’s mission is to be Austin’s center of gravity for entrepreneurs. Last year, 32,000 entrepreneurs, programmers and designers gathered day and night for meetups, classes and co-working.”

Saying the program is a place to hone skills, create a product, find a co-founder and connect with investors, Capital Factory urges people: “Quit your job and become an entrepreneur.”

Gener8tor co-founder Joe Kirgues is open to the idea of another tech accelerator in Madison. “We welcome any and all additional resources for Madison entrepreneurs and wish Liz well. We hope to collaborate with Capital Factory on opportunities to make Madison a more vibrant community for entrepreneurs,” he said.

Just the notion that the Austin program is considering a Madison outlet is a feather in the community’s cap, said Paul Jadin, president of the Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP).

“The fact that Capital Factory leaders recognized Madison as a location with the density of entrepreneurial talent and companies to warrant such a space speaks volumes about our rise as a start-up community and the reputation we are building,” Jadin said.

He said the eight-county south-central Wisconsin region that MadREP represents plays host to other business accelerators as well, such as Madcelerator in Fitchburg and the Whitewater University Technology Park.

Jadin said MadREP “will do what we can to assist” with Eversoll’s effort.

Read the full article.

Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Judy Newman

Wisconsin’s bioscience industry includes more than 1,600 companies that provide jobs for nearly 36,000 people and pay a salary well above that of the average employee in the state, a new study shows.

Bioscience workers, on average, make $73,241 — more than $30,000 above the average pay of Wisconsin private sector employees, according to the 2015 Wisconsin Bioscience Economic Development Report, released Wednesday.

The report, by the Ernst and Young consultant firm, is based on 2013 statistics. It is being presented to the Bioscience Summit, a daylong conference for the biotechnology industry being held at Monona Terrace on Wednesday.

It says in addition to the 36,000 jobs within bioscience statewide, the industry is an indirect factor in nearly 70,000 other jobs in Wisconsin, creating a total economic impact of $27 billion.

The study is meant to let the state know how important its bioscience industry is to the economy, said Lisa Johnson, CEO of BioForward, the organization representing the industry.

“We are celebrating the strength we do have in this state and how we need to collaborate in the future as the lines become blurred between the various sectors such as health IT, diagnostics, medical devices, therapeutics, and even agbio,” Johnson said. “For Wisconsin to compete globally, we all must be aligned and have a shared vision.”

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Barry Adams

State and local officials announced Wednesday that Dollar General will build a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in Janesville that by 2019 would employ 552 people.

While the jobs will pay less — $15 an hour — than what had been offered at the now-idle General Motors Assembly plant, the news, coupled with an aggressive building schedule, was welcomed by economic development leaders in Rock County and at the state level who say the project will have an impact not only within the city but the region.

“Dollar General will put the equivalent of nearly 1 percent of Janesville’s population to work,” said Mark Freitag, Janesville’s city manager. “While many businesses have recently chosen to call Janesville home, the scale of the Dollar General project will give a strong boost to the growth of our local economy. This is a great example of collaboration between the private sector and state, county and city government.”

The Janesville City Council on Monday will consider two tax increment financing development agreements and a Transportation Economic Assistance grant application for the facility, which would be built on 124 acres in the city’s Highway 11 Business Park at Innovation Drive and Beloit Avenue.

The packages, valued at $11.5 million, include $4.2 million in land costs, $3.9 million paid out over 10 years based on a guaranteed value of $40 million to the building and $1.3 million paid out over 10 years providing Dollar General creates $25 million in personal property value in the facility, said Gale Price, director of the city’s economic development office.

“An employer like this with this level of pay really helps right the ship for people who are under employed or holding two jobs,” Price said. “This is the kind of wage that people will be willing to move to the community for, and that’s a big deal from an economic development standpoint.”

Dollar General intends to break ground on the $75 million facility in October with occupancy by the end of 2016. The center is scheduled to be fully operational by July 2017 and by 2019 support up to 552 full-time jobs. The facility will support Dollar General’s retail sales distribution network in the Midwest and include an onsite truck maintenance facility and dispatch center.

Dollar General operates 12,198 stores in 43 states, including 122 stores in Wisconsin that employ more than 900 people, according to the company.

Todd Vasos, chief executive officer of Dollar General, said his company considered two other Midwest locations, but the Janesville site offered a quick construction turnaround and is near major transportation lines like Interstate 39-90, and highways 11, 26 and 51.

“Janesville offers an ideal location to service the growing needs of our business in the Upper Midwest,” Vasos said in a statement. “Janesville provides a great location, a strong business environment and a great workforce to draw from to fill the 552 jobs that are anticipated to be created by this new distribution center.”

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. is providing $5.5 million of potential tax credits to the company through 2019. The contract with WEDC requires Dollar General to create 552 new positions with an average starting wage of $15.57 per hour and make a capital investment of $75 million in the Janesville facility, according to details released by the WEDC.

The project is a partnership between Dollar General, Alliant Energy/Wisconsin Power and Light, the Janesville Economic Development Office, the Rock County Development Alliance, WEDC and the state Department of Transportation.

“This project provides a visible example of how strategic alignment, collaboration and positioning generate positive outcomes,” said James Otterstein, economic development manager with the Rock County Development Alliance.

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Excerpted from Watertown Daily Times
By Hannah Becker

Fisher Barton has added a third center in Watertown continuing an over four-decade commitment to the city.

For almost 10 months, Fisher Barton has been renovating its facility at 201 Frederick St. for its new state of the arts technology center to focus on innovation and process development.

“This is a multimillion dollar renovation, it’s truly a lot of money and it’s here to stay,” Igor Zelenovskiy, president of the Fisher Barton Technology Center, said. “Our commitment’s to grow Fisher Barton and our commitment to Watertown.”

As a critical component for the company, the center will continue to provide innovation and quality to its costumers and is expected to help grow it’s business and bring more people into Watertown.

“The expertise of what we have here is so unique,” Zelenovskiy said. “You name the product, we work on it. We want this to grow and continue to grow and have more and more output.”

By furthering their economic development and up keeping of structures within the city, Fisher Barton is taking part of the many positives currently going on in Watertown.

“I probably have at least two visitors a week from our costumers coming to Watertown to see us,” Zelonvskiy said. “We have about 12 people right now working here and a third are new hires. We’re creating new jobs, and as we’re continuing to grow we’re going to create more and more jobs.”

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