Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Advocate Aurora Health are planning to create a new tech-focused community organization, according to several sources familiar with the effort.
Guy Kawasaki gave the keynote address at the second Milwaukee Tech Hub Summit in October.
Each company is planning to contribute $2 million to launch the nonprofit, which is a spinoff of the corporations’ Milwaukee Tech Hub efforts over the past few years, sources said.
James Hischke, senior director of tech advancement and outreach at Northwestern Mutual, would serve as interim executive director of the new organization, sources said. Mike Rodgers, vice president of commercial innovation at Advocate Aurora Health, has been involved in the strategic planning, sources said.
The website mketech.org, which details the region’s tech ecosystem and the Milwaukee Tech Hub initiative, was created in July. And Northwestern Mutual has now hosted two annual Milwaukee Tech Hub Summit events to garner support from other corporations for attracting tech talent to the region.
This new, separate organization is an effort to drive support from the wider community, as well, sources said. Its goals are to rapidly ramp up the number of tech jobs in the Milwaukee region, partly by attracting new startup companies to locate here. And it will host events previously put on by Northwestern Mutual and Aurora, such as the Fall Experiment. Read the full story here.
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