Business Person of the Year

Wisconsin benefits from Tangen’s talents

By Jennifer Pfaff

Einar Tangen President of I-MCF and E-TECH Consulting, both in Milwaukee

Nancy O’Keefe sits back in her metal chair, a cup of coffee steaming on the table before her and watches the Saturday morning traffic humming on a nearby street in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.

Her eyes search the café’s surroundings, and she notes that what she is seeing is the vision of one man: former Historic Third Ward Association President Einar Tangen.

“If he wasn’t here, we wouldn’t have the Riverwalk, the parking structure, the [Milwaukee] Public Market,” she said. “He lived in so many different places; when he moved here, he dubbed us ‘Little SoHo,’ and that’s how he saw us.”

As the association’s current president, O’Keefe is well aware that the Third Ward, just south of Interstate 94 on the eastern end of Milwaukee, saw its share of troubles. The once-thriving neighborhood was virtually barricaded from the rest of the city when the freeway was built in the 1970s.

When Tangen first claimed leadership of the group, the Third Ward’s residential population was stuck at a stagnant 150 people. About 30 merchants were doing business.

Today, about 800 people live in the apartments and condominiums that sprouted up in the area, and more than 100 merchants are operating in the area.

“We wouldn’t be here today without Einar,” O’Keefe said. “He came up with these ideas … I’m amazed how he came up with some of this stuff. If he believed in something, it happened.”

Tangen’s persistence, combined with his dual position as association president and chairman of the Third Ward Business Improvement District, led him to work with politicians, developers, residents and anyone else who could help restore the Third Ward to a place where people could live, work and play.

He fought for a tax incremental financing district to fund the creation of a parking structure that would solve parking problems plaguing local businesses, and he was instrumental in guiding the Third Ward’s portion of the Milwaukee Riverwalk to completion.

But his drive was never limited to one passion. Tangen is an attorney, he owned a restaurant, and, most recently, he started forging trade relationships with China.

“He’s working with the Chinese government and businesses in Wisconsin to foster activities that will benefit business in Wisconsin and to educate Chinese businesses about opportunities to locate here and create jobs here,” said Michael Morgan, Wisconsin Department of Revenue secretary.

Morgan and Tangen met when Tangen served as an intern for Morgan when he was an assistant district attorney. They later practiced law together for a time.

Tangen is chairman of the Wisconsin International Trade Council and president of I-MCF. He is working with China’s Great Wall Asset Management Corp. on restructuring its approach to China’s half trillion-dollar bad debt market.

“Having someone in China who understands deeper business models can only help businesses here,” Morgan said. “Ultimately, the people of Wisconsin will benefit from having him there.

“What you find in Einar is the ability to convert an idea to fruition by looking at it from a 5,000-foot perspective. Once the vision has evolved into a specific project, he rolls up his sleeves and dives into the details.”

It’s because Tangen is working to move Wisconsin forward by working both within and outside the state that Wisconsin Builder named him Business Person of the Year.