About the event:
“Challenges & Opportunities Facing Wisconsin Businesses”
What can state and local governments do to support business creation and retention?
The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) and the UW-Madison College of Letters & Science are pleased to host a panel discussion with leaders from government and industry as we take on crucial issues facing Wisconsin businesses.
The panel will be moderated by Kim Ruhl, CROWE co-director and Curt and Sue Culver Professor of Economics at UW-Madison.
Monday, October 16
5:30-6:30pm
Grainger Hall – Plenary Room
975 University Ave.
Madison, WI
Free event. Seating is first-come/first-served.
Peter Barca was appointed as Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue by Governor Tony Evers in January 2019.
Secretary Barca, a lifelong citizen of Kenosha and Somers, served in the state legislature as the representative from the 64th Assembly District from 1985 until 1993, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He returned to the state legislature in 2009 and served until January 2019. During this time, he spent seven years as the Assembly Minority Leader where he passed a wide range of bills and worked to improve and strengthen the legislative process. This included working with the Assembly Speaker to develop an MOU and to create productive bipartisan taskforces.
Following his time in Congress, Secretary Barca served for nearly five years as the Midwest Regional Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration during the Clinton Administration. He was also appointed to lead the National Regulatory Fairness Program, an initiative aimed at making regulatory enforcement more small business friendly. Secretary Barca later spent nearly a decade as vice president and then president of Aurora Associates International, an international project management company that conducted international development projects in more than 25 countries. Prior to that he had served as CEO of a non-profit organization focused on employment and training, housing, and rehabilitation services.
Secretary Barca began his career as the Director of the Friendship Camp, a camp for children with disabilities, as a teacher, and later as a team leader for students with special needs. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, received his master’s in public administration and educational administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and attended graduate school at Harvard University.
Secretary Barca and his wife have a son who is a graduate of Fordham University and a daughter who is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kurt R. Bauer became the fifth head of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) in 2011. Founded in 1911, WMC is the combined Wisconsin State Chamber of Commerce, Wisconsin Manufacturers’ Association and the Wisconsin Safety Council. WMC represents 3,800 employers of all sizes and from every sector of the economy, and is referred to as “the state’s most powerful business and manufacturing group” by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
WMC became the first organization to win both State Chamber of the Year (2020), presented by the National Association of State Chambers, and the Council of State Manufacturers Associations Leadership Award (2023).
Bauer has served on multiple state, regional and national committees, councils and boards and is currently a member of the National Association of State Chambers Board and a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100 and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs Committee.
Bauer is a Wisconsin native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rob was born in Milwaukee, grew up in Brookfield and is a graduate of Brookfield East High School where he met his wife Patti. He earned a history degree from UW-Whitewater and pursued a career in business with a Fortune 500 company. He then owned a logistics firm in Milwaukee, which provided national trucking and warehousing services for key Wisconsin industries.
He now owns two industrial coatings firms that serve Wisconsin’s manufacturing industry, employing over 75 people.
Rob served as a Waukesha County supervisor from 2005-2012. In 2012, he was elected to the State Assembly where he served for eight years representing the 13th District. He was elected to represent the 5th District in the State Senate in November 2022 and chairs the Senate Committee on Universities and Revenue. He also serves on the Senate Committees on Insurance and Small Business and Transportation and Local Government.
Rob and Patti have four grown children and two daughters-in-law. They reside in Brookfield and enjoy spending time together with family, serving in their church, and are active with various community organizations.
Jon Willis is a vice president and senior economist in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He leads the policy and survey teams and serves as a monetary policy adviser.
Willis’s research focuses on labor market dynamics over the business cycle and the relationship between the price-setting behavior of firms and inflation dynamics. His work has been published in journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and the International Economic Review.
Before he joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in 2020, Willis served as vice president and senior research and policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He joined the Kansas City Fed in 2000. He also served as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 and 2005.
Willis has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Grinnell College and a doctoral degree in economics from Boston University.