State Business Update: Manpower CEO says Milwaukee and Chicago need to become partners

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The head of Manpower Incorporated says both Milwaukee and Chicago will be left behind in the world economy if the two areas don’t start working together – and soon. Jeff Joerres told a conference at Marquette University yesterday that quote, “We have targets on our backs from many foreign countries, and they have a faster way of moving.” Manpower’s job placement firm is based in Milwaukee, but it does 70-percent of its business overseas. And Joerres said there’s a “sense of urgency” in getting Milwaukee and Chicago to advance their economic efforts together. He said the two metros have made no effort to start a dialogue and quote, “Both sides need to build relationships, lay groundwork, and learn from mistakes.” In March, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris said the Milwaukee-Chicago region was at a “tipping point” – and it urged closer ties with leaders across the state line. The organization said one of the biggest problems is Wisconsin’s efforts to get Illinois companies to move to the Badger State. But Gale Klappa of Milwaukee’s regional economic development group said it cuts both ways. And he cited the Miller Brewing Company’s move to Chicago in 2007 after a merger with Coors in their U-S operations.

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Wausau native Marissa Mayer made quite a buzz after being hired as Yahoo’s new CEO. The word got out yesterday that she’s pregnant – and she and her husband Zack Bogue are expecting a boy in October. The 37-year-old Mayer told Fortune magazine she disclosed her pregnancy to Yahoo’s board of directors before she got her final job offer. And she said Yahoo’s response reflected quote, “their evolved thinking.” Mayer also said she’ll work throughout her maternity leave, which she expects to be just a few weeks. Mayer was a vice-president at Google when she was hired Monday to turn around Yahoo, the Internet search engine and e-mail giant that has struggled in recent years. Eden King, who helped write a book on women succeeding in business, said female CEO’s are rare – much less one who’s pregnant. But King, a professor at George Mason, said it probably does not indicate a larger acceptance of mothers in the executive suite. King said Mayer represents a “sample size of one.” And while she hopes Mayer succeeds, King says most evidence shows substantial discrimination against pregnant women in business. MSNBC said the number of pregnancy discrimination claims has risen in the last decade by about 15-percent. A federal law against such discrimination took effect in 1978, but women’s groups are trying to make it stronger. Mayer graduated from Wausau West High School before becoming Google’s first female engineer.

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