For Immediate Release
Contact: Doug Bradley
(608) 263-0238
bradley@ocr.wisc.edu
Madison, WI – When Zoe Moore, innovation network manager for Vestas Global Research, was challenged with the task of forming a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where did she turn for help?
When David Ryder and his company, MillerCoors, wanted to donate fermentation equipment to the university, who did he trust to broker the initial contact?
And when UW-Madison MBA student Farhan Ahmad needed help getting his new business off the ground who did he ask?
The answer to all of these questions is the UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations (OCR) and its campus collaborators. To find out how OCR helped these individuals, and could help you and your business, read OCR’s 2008-09 Annual Report, available at http://www.ocr.wisc.edu/about/ocr_reports/.
Now in its sixth year, OCR continues to foster relationships between business and industry and UW-Madison. This year’s Annual Report highlights two of OCR’s more recent university-corporate partnerships.
In one, OCR played a pivotal role in connecting Vestas, the global leader in wind power production and technology, with UW-Madison’s College of Engineering. The collaboration will not only build a presence for Vestas in Madison, but it will also provide a platform for UW students to learn more about this growing technology.
In another, OCR facilitated a beneficial relationship between the university and another premier Wisconsin brand, MillerCoors. The brewing giant donated pilot-sized fermentation equipment to the university’s Bacteriology Department. The donation will develop the next generation of brewing masters, and it will also teach UW students about the science of fermentation.
OCR supports start up businesses, too. In the Annual Report you’ll learn more about how MERLIN Mentors, one of OCR’s entrepreneurial creations, helped Farhan Ahmad, new business owner, to move his start up company, ShopFiber, from an idea to a business.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin put it best when she said, “…while we want the university to continue as an economic engine for the state in and of itself, we will continue to reach out to the business community via the Office of Corporate Relations and our many schools and colleges to help create more and better-paying jobs in our knowledge-driven economy.”
For more, visit http://www.ocr.wisc.edu/ . To read the 2008-09 Annual Report go to http://www.ocr.wisc.edu/about/ocr_reports/
