Milwaukee long has been considered by many in the tech industry to be a Wisconsin backwater to the shining city on the isthmus Madison.
But now Madison-based American Family Insurance, one of the biggest companies in the state, has declared Milwaukee the cool Wisconsin place for attracting millennial-age talent. The company’s plans to establish an office downtown represent both a significant boost for Milwaukee’s burgeoning startup and tech community and an influential new employer for Milwaukee-area college graduates.
A sizable percentage of that group “really wants an urban area” in which to live and work like Milwaukee, said Jim Buchheim, American Family’s vice president of communications.
“Urban areas provide a great variety of options for living, recreation, arts, et cetera,” Buchheim said. “While Madison has a lot to offer and has a great quality of life, it does not rise up to that level of being an urban attraction to this great percentage of younger workers.”
Read the full Milwaukee Business Journal article here.
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