UW-Madison announces new Office of Corporate Relations

UW–Madison is launching a new initiative “to better serve the increasingly complex needs of the business community and help build a stronger Wisconsin economy in the 21st century,” according to Chancellor John D. Wiley.

Wiley announced May 1 the formation of a new Office of Corporate Relations under the leadership of Charles Hoslet as managing director. Hoslet, who has been senior special assistant to the chancellor for state-government relations for six years, will continue to report directly to Wiley. The new office will become effective July 1.

Management of the state-relations function will remain in the Office of the Chancellor, under the direction of Casey Nagy, executive assistant to the chancellor, Wiley says.

Wiley says the new structure will save the university approximately $240,000 annually, which will be realized primarily through the elimination of four positions in the office of University-Industry Relations (UIR), which is being phased out as part of the new initiative.

Creation of the office “as a new front door to the university” was recommended by the Chancellor’s Task Force on University-Business Relations. The task force was first convened in July 2002 to advise Wiley on ways for UW–Madison to better meet the needs of businesses that look to the university for help in solving their problems and challenges. The group was composed of university leaders and senior executives from the Wisconsin business sector. (See accompanying fact sheet and statements from two members of the task force.)

“As we listened to business leaders around the state, the one consistent theme was the need for a very visible office that they could go to for assistance,” says Mark Bugher, director of University Research Park and chair of the task force. “We think an Office of Corporate Relations, linked directly to the Office of the Chancellor, will provide the type of visibility and outreach that Wisconsin businesses want and need.”

“The task force has served up a well-researched report and set of recommendations, consistent with the forward-thinking nature of this university and our mission of service to all those who look to us for research and knowledge,” Wiley says.

“Our goal is to better serve the increasingly complex needs of the business community and help build a stronger Wisconsin economy in the 21st century,” he adds. “The fact that we have been able to make this happen in a way that makes full use of our available resources and expertise on this campus, with a significant savings in taxpayer dollars, demonstrates our commitment to finding new and better ways to do business.”

Among its recommendations was the dismantling of UIR, which was created in 1963 as part of the university’s Graduate School. The task force concluded that UIR had ceased to be effective as the university’s “front door” to the business community and was “based on an organizational framework that has not adapted to meet the changing campus and business needs.”

One of the positions being phased out in the new structure is that of UIR director, which has been filled since 1994 by Steven C. Price.

“UIR, under the dedicated leadership of Steve Price, has done everything we originally asked of it, and has done it well,” Wiley says. “As the task force itself concluded, however, the UIR model was no longer the best or most efficient way to manage our relationships with the business community.”

Wiley adds that the functions UIR has provided in the past, such as equity review checks, managing intellectual property and running its grant programs will continue to be performed by the Graduate School or by the individual schools and colleges.

Hoslet, who holds a law degree from UW–Madison and an undergraduate degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, has served in the Office of the Chancellor since 1997 as director of state government relations.

Wiley says he selected Hoslet to lead the new initiative “because of his insights into effective relationship management and his commitment to building better and new bridges between the university and the business community.”

Hoslet, who worked closely with the Chancellor’s Task Force on University-Business Relations, says his top priority is to reach out to those in the business community of Wisconsin and learn more about their needs.

“We will then determine more specifically how we at UW–Madison, at times in conjunction with other UW campuses around the state, can help meet those needs,” Hoslet says. “Doing so is important to the future of the state, and frankly to the future of the university as well. It’s an exciting challenge, and I’m looking forward to getting started.”

The report of the Chancellor’s Task Force on University-Business Relations is available online.