MILWAUKEE — With the new year comes new leadership at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC).
Dale Kooyenga succeeded Tim Sheehy on Jan. 1 in leading MMAC; the organization advocates for the area’s business community.
Kooyenga is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and previously served as a Republican legislator in both the State Assembly and Senate. Kooyegna said he has been kept very busy since taking over as head of MMAC.
During a recent conversation with Spectrum News 1, Kooyenga walked through Milwaukee’s 3rd Street Market Hall, located just outside MMAC’s headquarters in the Avenue development. Kooyenga said he has largely been able to stay focused on his work, avoiding the temptation of the nearby food hall and game area.
“I am fairly disciplined,” Kooyenga said, “The 85 board members and over 2,200 members [of MMAC] make sure I am working enough where I am not down here [the Market Hall], as much as I would like to be enjoying all the things there are to do.”
Kooyegna said in his time as MMAC President, and months leading up to the job, he has talked to over 300 CEOs in the Milwaukee region about their priorities and the challenges they face in the current business climate. He said job creation and making sure businesses have quality employees to hire was a recurring theme of those conversations.
“That is what it keeps coming back to,” said Kooyenga. “They want to create meaningful work and jobs, while at the same time creating an environment, a lifestyle, the talent here, to create meaningful relationships for our community.”
According to U.S. Census data, Milwaukee’s population has declined over the last decade, and the Milwaukee metro area has seen only modest growth. In order to have a robust workforce going into the next few decades, Kooyegna said there needs to be a focus on recruiting new residents to the area.
“We just need more people to move here, more people to stay here, and we need to have more of the folks who are here ready for the workforce,” said Kooyenga.
While Kooyenga said he has drawn on his experience serving in the state legislature, there are things he enjoys about being in a different type of role. Notably, he mentioned that he enjoys the flexibility of being able to find solutions to issues that do not need to be partisan.
“It is the process of identifying problems and coming to solutions that are oftentimes bipartisan. The important part of it is the policy of getting things done and everything that goes with that versus people having a political perspective,” said Kooyenga.
As he takes on the new role, Kooyegna said he is grateful for the work Tim Sheehy did as his predecessor. Sheehy served as MMAC President since 1992.