Venture Network working on merger
The Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Venture Network is working with the Wisconsin Innovation Network Foundation on a merger that would result in both organizations using the WIN Foundation name and operating as a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Technology Council.
The board of directors for the WVN, which was founded in the mid-1980s, voted Jan. 16 to pursue a merger with the WIN Foundation and to become a subsidiary of the Tech Council.
The merger would create a WIN-Madison chapter and a WIN-Milwaukee chapter, thus strengthening ties between the tech communities in both cities, directors of each group say.
Both organizations would use the WIN Foundation Web site. The WIN Foundation board of directors has also approved moving ahead with the talks, as has the 36-member Wisconsin Technology Council.
"If this merger is approved by WIN’s membership, it will help shorten the perceptual I-94 divide that separates Madison and Milwaukee," said Tom Still, who serves as president of WIN and the Tech Council. "Many common challenges and issues face technologists and tech-based businesses in Milwaukee and Madison. This is an opportunity to work together."
WVN President Greg Meier said the merger would help further the goal of Wisconsin’s tech-based organizations working together on projects such as the Tech Council’s Vision 2020 plan. "A more coordinated approach will improve the tech climate throughout Wisconsin," said Meier, an attorney with Michael Best and Friedrich’s Milwaukee office.
Meier, in a letter to WVN members, noted that the merger stems from discussions launched in November about how the organization could have a greater economic impact on southeastern Wisconsin. "One proposed strategy was to create stronger ties to statewide economic initiatives in the innovation and new-venture areas," he wrote. "That led us to discussions with the Wisconsin Technology County and the Wisconsin Innovation Network."
The WVN hosts a speakers’ series at its regular luncheons at the Milwaukee County War Memorial. It next meeting is Feb. 10, starting at 11:30 a.m. Registrations can be made online at www.w-v-n.org. The WIN Foundation, which was created in 1984, also has monthly speaker luncheons.
The WIN Foundation and the WVN have worked together in the past on Milwaukee venture conferences, which are typically held in the spring. Under the WIN Foundation bylaws, a majority of members must approve the merger once a new legal structure is proposed. That vote could take place as soon as the Feb. 25 WIN Foundation meeting, Still said.
