Still growing

WTC leader focuses on economic advancement

Tom Still knows forward-thinking ideas represent only a part of the creation of a “knowledge economy” in Wisconsin.

The state needs skilled employees in the mix to turn those ideas into reality. That’s why, as president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, Still works to foster and encourage entrepreneurs in the state’s science and technology sectors.

“The 21st century economy really demands that you have knowledge-based workers,” said Still. “Wisconsin probably has access to a lot of investment capital, but we have to have the right people, the right managers, the right entrepreneurs.”

Still, 54, joined the WTC five years ago after a 24-year stint as a reporter and associate editor at the Wisconsin State Journal.

“I did everything there from local government and business reporting to politics and editorial writing,” he said.

Writing had long been in his blood. He studied journalism and history at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and, after he graduated in 1974, pursued a law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but he never completed the program.

He did, however, keep building on his journalism career despite a near detour in 1998 when Republican Congressman Scott Klug planned to vacate his position.

“There were some folks who very graciously pushed me to run,” Still said. “I came very close to doing so. I think I would have won.”

But the image of such a dramatically different lifestyle held him back.

“At the time, I wasn’t so sure … about whether I wanted the day in and day out of [political life],” he said.

Still wasn’t seeking a new career when he chose to leave the Wisconsin State Journal.

“I wasn’t looking to change,” he said. “It was still tough to leave a profession I had put so much into.”

But he did it anyway and joined the WTC with a strong knowledge of the state’s economy.

“I spent a lot of time really charting the growth of the Wisconsin economy and got involved with the Wisconsin Economic Summit,” he said. “[The WTC] was looking for someone who understood communications and the political world and how aspects of our community work together.”

The Wisconsin Technology Council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan board that advises the governor and state Legislature on science and technology issues. It aids entrepreneurs through the Wisconsin Innovation Network as well as through economic development programs such as the Wisconsin Angel Network, which, through investments, helps fund start-up businesses. The latter, formed in 2005, now has 24 members representing 250 investors, Still said.

But even more than generating money, the WTC strives to secure human capital.

“In order to compete in a global economy, you have to have the right work force,” Still said.

He said he is proud of the progress and attention the WTC has brought to the state. He points to several key entrepreneurial success stories, including the recent public offering (about $229 million in stock) of Madison-based TomoTherapy, a manufacturer of high-end radiation therapy machines. The company, which started with a few professors and an idea, now has close to 600 employees.

“That’s a good idea of the kinds of things that are happening in Wisconsin,” Still said.

Taking solid ideas and turning them into viable and profit-making companies is the true core of entrepreneurship, Still said.

“It’s less about risk … than it is about making sure you have the right plan, the right team, sized up the market and know that you have a product the market needs,” he said. “If those things are in place, it’s less about risk and more about opportunity.”

— Sharon Verbeten