When Paul Jadin first joined the Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP) as president in 2012, Scott Walker was governor, there was no pandemic, of course, and MadREP was known as Thrive.
No stranger to politics, Jadin served as mayor (1995-2003) in his hometown of Green Bay before being appointed to former Gov. Scott Walker’s cabinet as Secretary of the Department of Commerce (now the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.). He’d later resign to take a position with Thrive, now MadREP, which serves as the eight-county region that includes the counties of Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock and Sauk...
“We started from scratch, really. The board and my predecessor understood that Thrive wasn’t going in the direction that they hoped. Market Street, a consulting firm in Atlanta developed a new strategy that remains our blueprint today. We’re in the second iteration now [Advance Now 2.0].”
“The name was changed to MadREP shortly after my arrival, and from the standpoint of economic competitiveness, human capital, diversity, leadership, marketing and entrepreneurship and innovation, I think we’ve built something very capable and very good.”
“Madison is so well situated to lead a recovery that within two years I don’t think you’ll see a difference between 2019 and 2023. In the meantime, many larger and medium-sized businesses will continue growing despite COVID, and some will even grow because of COVID.”