Success Stories

In 1989, Mercy was a stand-alone hospital that served 89,000 patients per year and employed 589 individuals. Today, Mercy Health System is a vertically integrated health system with 64 facilities in two states and 24 communities throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

Mercy has received over 45 national recognitions since 1989. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program recently recognized Mercy Health System for its organizational excellence as a vertically integrated health system. Only six other hospitals or health care providers in the United States received a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

"We make bicycles for the world, and choose to make the Madison Region our global home base.

I think the biggest support we get from the region is the quality of life...Having a lot of really good and successful companies in the area is definitely one of the keys to our success."
--John Burke, President, Trek Bicycles

Craig Culver: How this "small-town, deep roots" boy grew up to run a business recently named Best Burger Chain in America in a nationwide survey by Restaurants & Institutions Magazine -- and why he wouldn't do it anywhere but the Madison Region.

Dr. Gabriela Cezar runs the Stem Cell Safety Sciences Lab in the Department of Animal Sciences of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where her lab focuses on birth defects and cancer.

Cezar earned her doctorate at UW-Madison in 2002. She conducted research as Scotland's Roslin Institute with the team that cloned "Dolly" the sheep. (Read the full story here.)

"I came from Brazil to make a difference and I came to the Madison Region because this is where biotechnology thrives.

I could work anywhere in the world, but this is where I want to face and solve the challenges of the future. This region strongly supports the biotech industry. We are a global leader."
--Dr. Gabriela Cezar, Assistant Professor, UW-Madison Department of Animal Sciences and CSO, Stemina

Quintessence Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company focused on development of novel protein-based therapeutics as anti-cancer agents, and Ralph Kauten is helping lead this company to the next level as its QBI-139 rapidly approaches the human clinical trial stage.

Says Kauten, Chairman and CEO of Quintessence,
"The Madison area is a great place to work and live...Members of the Quintessence staff have established their family and support structures here and enjoy living in a place with a thriving economy and interesting people."

Ralph Kauten has been a major player in four successful biotech companies since 1987 - all without leaving the place he's called home all along.

"Architect Terry Martin's company Artisan>Design:Build is a firm that provides architecture, general contracting and property development.

His goal was to create a business model that could reside in Monroe but have the capacity to reach out to a wide geographical area. 'We now have a client base from Chicago to Iowa City,' he said.

Martin sees no barriers to starting a business in Green County."

EMD Chemicals is committed to environmental stewardship. Their participation in MG&E's Green Power Tomorrow Program is helping them lead the way in regional sustainability.

Through this program, each year EMD's participation eliminates:
-1,460 tons of carbon dioxide
-7,500 pounds of nitrogen oxides
-16,000 pounds of sulfur oxides
-490 tons of coal

TomoTherapy, which launched an IPO in 2006 (NASDAQ: TTPY), remains headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, with European offices in Belgium and distribution throughout the world. The company owns multiple U.S. issued patents and has a number of patent applications pending, both in the U.S. and worldwide. The company also holds an exclusive license on more than 100 issued patents and pending applications globally.

"The original venture capitalists who wanted to fund the business actually said, 'Take the business to California, you can't possibly build something like this in Wisconsin.' But they didn't know that Wisconsin has a really strong medical device history. Madison is very good place for a company like TomoTherapy; it's got a strong base of skilled workers in the medical device field, the hardworking Midwestern work ethic, and I think we tend to have more loyal workers who aren't skipping around looking at the next best offer. There's really a lot to offer in terms of high end manufacturing here. I think the opposite could be said: why wouldn't you want to move a company like this to Wisconsin?"

--Dr. Thomas "Rock" Mackie, Co-Founder, TomoTherapy Inc.

"The Madison Region is a great environment to attract the type of talent we need to maintain our business. We can also use the resources of the UW to grow the young company expeditiously. ...

"From a personal standpoint, there are a number of factors that make this a good place; we really have quality education at all levels, from K-12 into higher education. It's easy to bring your family to this kind of environment and really know you're bringing to them area with top notch education all the way through. Housing is affordable... "