Capital Region Business Journal

Education: Came to UW-Madison on academic and baseball scholarships. Played baseball four years from 1980 to 1983, co-captain in '83. Position: second base. Bachelor of Arts in history and journalism from UW-Madison.

Personal: Married 10 years to Laura Arbuckle, who runs a division in the Depart-ment of Administration. They have three children: Miles, 8; Isaac, 6; and Max, 4.

Professional history: Worked as a salesman at Procter & Gamble in Chicago. Joined Johnson & Johnson selling medical supplies before coming back to UW to get a law degree. Worked in the Milwaukee Brewers legal department from 1991 to 2004.

Nickname history: His birth name is not Pepi; it's Eugene. He fell off a table when he was less than a year old; his mother said he was full of pep. Pepi switched back to Eugene for a short time while working with Procter & Gamble, but he says the nickname helped him as a salesman. "They remembered 'Pepi' when they saw me coming in the door."

A. We're kind of the marketing arm for the state from an economical development standpoint. So our job is ... to go out and attract businesses to the state to try and increase economic activity in the state, to the state's economy, to create jobs. So our job, as I like to describe it, is to go out and open people's eyes about the things going on in the state of Wisconsin.

A. We're trying to get people that are in the expansion and relocation mode, as they consider their options to consider Wisconsin. As part of our marketing plan, we target different kinds of companies, different geographic areas, the kind of companies that fit in with kind of what are the real strengths in this state. (The things) that have been viewed as great areas of potential growth in this state. The biotech, life sciences, plastics, wood products, high-tech manufacturing, to name a few. Those are the clusters that we target to try to attract those businesses to the state and grow the good, well-paying jobs that the governor describes in instituting his "Grow Wisconsin" plan.

A. Chicago and Minneapolis have been two that we have targeted. But in addition, our marketing efforts include a greatly increased presence on the Web. We've totally revamped our Web site in the past six to eight months. A lot of the credit goes to my predecessor and to members of our board and our investors who realized the state was really behind the eight ball when it came to a Web presence. ... Because in other states, if you're a site-location guy, a lot of time, our research has shown, 80 to 85 percent of that initial search starts at someone's desk who just goes on the Web. Six to eight months ago, when you went to our (Web site) you got some information but it wasn't up to par.

One of the other things I think we really need to do is be a lot more aggressive. (We need to) be a lot more active in getting out to the industries, to the geographic areas that make sense to tell them about the things going on in Wisconsin. Because in some of the brief conversations that I've had with people in the industry, people that are in the corporate real estate area, they know a little bit about Wisconsin in some instances. But a lot don't. In fact, some have said, "You guys aren't really on our radar screen."

I think if people don't hear you and they don't see you, they don't think about you. As a marketing company for the state, our job is to get out and open people's eyes so they do know, so they do know about our resources. ... We're one of the leading states in the country in terms of job growth, certainly in terms of manufacturing job growth. The bottom line is we've got a great story to tell.

A. At a fundamental level, I really stress creating relationships at every level. In my short time here, I've already traveled 20,000 miles around the state in my car. ... Meeting people just on every level to heighten people's awareness about who we are and what we do inside the state. ... I've got to be able to generate their support because the way our budget works is I get X number of dollars appropriated through our budget. But I only get those dollars if I generate private-sector dollars to match them. ... It's going out and convincing businesses of the role we play and the importance of the role we play. ... There (are) states coming in to our state trying to recruit our businesses.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be in Oshkosh and Appleton all day. Two weeks ago, it was four days in Toronto. This morning, it was Joint Finance people, then meeting with the secretary of Revenue. So again, it's creating relationships. I'm lucky we've got a small staff, but it's a very good staff with a lot of experience. We have five people. They've been a tremendous help because I didn't really have a background in economic development coming in.

A. Well, it depends. But generally I can tell you the No. 1 thing (is) work force, work force, work force. We've got a reputation for our work force of how hard they work and how dedicated they are and how educated it is. But then you look at our quality of life, you look at our infrastructure, look at our university, our tech colleges. You start to think about all the assets that we have in place and you put those things in one basket and it makes for a pretty compelling story.

A. I used to be a salesman and I used to sell soap. And when I sold soap, I could sell my customer on the fact that you can buy this product for X and you sell it for Y, so what you're going to make is the difference between Y and X. In this case, it's different because I'm selling a concept. Internally, I'm selling a concept and that concept is, "Come on board, support our efforts to sell the state." Now the idea down the road is there's going to be a trickle down so the goods and services you provide in this state will grow by the increased number of people and jobs with disposable income. I think it's a concept that's well-recognized.

They certainly realize that there's a lot of competition out there again and we have to be aggressive in growing the state's economy. It's happening. If you look at where a lot of that growth is coming from, it's coming from the small and midsize companies.

A. Well, one is the perception right off the bat of a number of people that I've talked to on a national basis. One guy I talked to said, "Don't be offended, but when I think of Wisconsin, I think of cheese, beer and guys half-naked at Packer games." So there's certainly a perception that we have to battle here to start to educate people. I've heard it said that there's a real (negative) perception about the tax situation in our state.

A. What I like to do is put it in the context of everything else that we have. Let's look at the relatively low fees. You can look at a state that might have low taxes, but then you start to add in the fees and all of a sudden it's a lot more level playing field than you would have imagined. Once we start to throw in the tech colleges and the university and our Grow Wisconsin initiatives and our quality of life and all the other things we have to offer ... I think it tells a pretty compelling story.

It's all about creating rapport, creating a presence, obviously being truthful and bringing as much substance and fact as you can to the situation. It's not going to work for every company in every instance to be in Wiscon-sin, but I certainly know there are some that are the right fit and those are the ones we're trying to target.

A. In terms of what our mission is right now, no. How we go about doing that, I don't think it's changing. I just think it's knowing that we can do more and that we need more resources to do more.

A. Well, sometimes people spend more money because they need to. One of the other ways is just getting out there and creating the relationships on a fundamental basis. The relationships are so key, just knowing who you are, knowing who the players are. Our Web site is going to play a tremendous (part in that).

A. I'd like to think we've made some progress as opposed to triumphs. We've made some progress creating a heightened awareness about Forward around the state, creating additional credibility about who we are and what we do around the state. Beginning relationships with not only people inside the state but outside the state as well. Planting that seed. We've had some incremental successes in terms of things we were involved with where we played a role in helping a company come here.

A. I have to assume that I've made some and I just don't know it yet. I haven't had anything that's really come up and bit me yet. Maybe I've ... said some things that weren't really appropriate or maybe not the right thing to have said in a particular situation, but it's a learning process, so I'm just glad to have such a great staff and such a great product so I can learn as I go and then bring the things I think I do well to the table.

A. I've learned enough to know that if you don't know something, don't act as if you do. As a salesman I can tell you I made that mistake a couple times and learned that one pretty quickly. If you don't know, admit you don't know, find out and get back to them.

Coming in not having a background in economic development, I really made it a point to take advantage of the skills, background, experience and the relationships that my staff has.

A. Well, as you can imagine with three kids ages 8, 6 and 4, there isn't a lot of time for hobbies. So I like to read. Activities wise, I'm addicted to golf. I love to golf. In the winter, we love to ski. We're pretty excited because we got our two oldest guys up on skis now, so I think we're going to do the Colorado thing next spring.

With three young ones and my wife working at DOA (state Department of Administration), there's not a lot of time to get the guys down. I guess during the summer, spending time with the family is the first thing. My wife's from up north, Ashland, so during the winter, it's a beautiful part of the state. We go up there where she's from, the Bad River Indian Reservation, and just kick back and take it in. Outside the family, I would be at a golf course from sun up to sun down if I could. I just love to play.

A. No. My oldest just started Little League, so we're about to enter that whole realm. I'd like to, though. I'd like to go out and just take a little BP and throw the ball around a little bit. There are a couple of buddies that still play around town, so I might try to take a little practice with them sometime.

A. I'll never forget one night I took to dinner Hank, Gorman (Thomas), Larry Doby, Luis Tiant, Tony Oliva and Charlie Moore. And we're sitting in a restaurant in Milwaukee and I'm just a fly on the wall. And they're talking, "Remember that pitch I threw you?" and, "Yeah, the next one I hit it over the green monster."

A. I love it, love it. ... I know some people from my time in here in the past. I'm on the athletic board for the university. I'm on the W Club board. So I've still got a lot of involvement with some things up here. A lot of friends here.

Pepi Randolph

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