In recessionary times, the director of the University Research Park in Madison is bullish on Wisconsin.
Mark Bugher, from Eau Claire, is a former top adviser to Gov. Tommy Thompson who has been running the research park for nearly a decade.
Bugher tells a WisBusiness.com correspondent in a recent interview that he can’t think of a better place to be in Wisconsin than the research park if you’re interested in economic development and job creation.
In the words of Bugher that’s because … “we have all of these young, highly educated people who are chasing their dreams and trying to create companies that are going to really help mankind in the future. They are not just producing widgets for profits’ sake … but they’re producing drugs and therapies … that are going to help people overcome some of the most deadly diseases in society.”
While there was a period of flat growth around the time of the dot-com bust, Bugher expects rapid growth in years to come. The research park’s residents are often involved in health care research — an industry that has exploded nationally and in the park.
Things are going so well in this life sciences area that Bugher is working on a two-pronged expansion that will bring thousands of new jobs to the state.
One part of the expansion involves an additional high-tech park on the far west side of the capital city and the other is a downtown location that would be more suited for computer scientists, engineers, medical device and student entrepreneurs who don’t need all the infrastructure in the current park on the near west side of Madison.
