Edward Zore recalls the day in 2003 very clearly. He was walking out of a meeting in the Milwaukee Club at 706 N. Jefferson St. downtown with then-newly elected Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and then-cabinet member Marc Marotta.
Zore, president and chief executive officer of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., had recently informed then-Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist that the company was going to expand in Milwaukee County, but it wouldn’t be happening in the city. Instead, NML wanted to build a new campus in Franklin at the site of the old 41 Twin Drive-In along South 27th Street.
NML had decided that it needed to have another location on a different power grid, to ensure it could continue operations if a power outage or some other type of disaster struck its downtown Milwaukee headquarters. The terrorist attacks of 2001 had solidified that belief, Zore said.
According to Zore, state bureaucrats were giving his company grief about the Franklin project. The Department of Transportation was complaining about more traffic moving across the county, and the Department of Natural Resources was putting up hurdles over wetland issues, Zore said.
"Here we are, and we asked for nothing … and we have to jump through hoops," Zore told Doyle. "They started to fix it. We’re in a much better place today."
Zore recalled the moment while speaking to Mike Gousha during an "On Issues With Mike Gousha" forum at Marquette University Monday.
Zore, who caused a mild uproar last year when he publicly said his company probably would not choose Milwaukee for its headquarters if it was relocating from somewhere else, is speaking in much more positive terms about the region today.
Zore said Monday that southeastern Wisconsin has become a much better place to do business.
"I think we’re in much better shape today than we were five years ago, 10 years ago," Zore said.
NML plans to open a second operations center at its Franklin campus later this year, moving another 1,000 jobs there.
"We’re happy here. We keep growing. There’s no better place for us right now," Zore said.
Gousha asked Zore about comments made by five other CEOs at a recent Public Policy Forum, where they complained about doing business in Milwaukee. Zore said he believed the CEOs meant well when they pointed out the region’s weaknesses.
However, he added, "I think we do talk more about our problems, because we have an inferiority complex. And we’ve got to get over it."
Zore said the region’s business tax climate was not an impediment for his company.
"When you put it all together, it’s not a disadvantage. From a company standpoint, taxes are not an issue for us to locate here," he said.
Much is often made about a lack leadership in southeastern Wisconsin. Zore may oversee "The Quiet Company," but he is pulling his share in the community. He’s the chairman of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, the co-chair of the Milwaukee 7 initiative, a co-chair of the successful University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee $100 million fund drive and a member of the United Way of Greater Milwaukee’s board of directors. Zore and his wife, Diane, also recently agreed to be general chairs of the Faith in our Future campaign for the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
Going forward, Zore said the region needs to maximize its advantages, such as its supply of fresh water and strong university system, and mitigate its weaknesses, such as problems at Milwaukee Public Schools.
Zore said he believed southeastern Wisconsin would benefit from the creation of a regional transit authority that could help move the workforce around to jobs. He said upgrades for the Milwaukee County Transit System and the creation of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line would bring economic benefits to the region.
"Kenosha is almost a suburb of Chicago," he said. "I’m very bullish on the future. We can’t live in the past. We’ve got to live in the future … Keep moving."
Steve Jagler is executive editor of Small Business Times.
