Gov. Jim Doyle and other state officials welcomed Internet giant Google into its new office in Madison Wednesday.
James Laudon, who will be running the Madison office, said the quality of life in the area, the deep pool of talented and creative professionals in the state and the state’s strong commitment to education — including the University of Wisconsin — were among the top reasons why Google chose to locate in Madison.
“It is very obvious why Google opened up this office in Madison; it’s because of its proximity to the University of Wisconsin,” Doyle said. “It demonstrates how important the university is to the long-term economic health of this state.”
Google has been in Madison for more than a year, building their team and putting together their permanent office. Laudon said Google looks forward to being an active participant in the Madison community.
Doyle said the office is a tremendous edition to the state and is a perfect fit for Madison. He added continuing to attract companies like Google in this difficult economic time would provide jobs for highly educated people and is a top priority for the state.
Ryan Murray, spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said it is hard to tell how much the Google office will help the economy, but anytime an employer comes in and hires people, it is a good thing.
Doyle praised Google’s commitment to energy efficiency, and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, agreed.
“The engineering that you are doing here is not only contributing to our wealth of knowledge but to our pressing energy needs as we strive toward lessoning our carbon footprint in the world,” Baldwin said.
According to Baldwin, if all data centers operated at the same energy efficiency as Google, it would save enough energy to provide electricity to Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. combined.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz spoke about the development of the East Rail Corridor, which is the area surrounding the Google office. He said city officials hope to expand that area to include commuter rail, a central park, the UW research park and others in the next five to 10 years.
“We’re excited about the potential for this part of the city, and Google is exactly the kind of business that we are looking to attract here,” Cieslewicz said. “It’s exactly this kind of high technology and this connection to the university that we are looking to promote here.”
UW Chancellor Biddy Martin expanded on the collaborations between Google and the University of Wisconsin. UW Libraries is one of the top university contributors to the Google Book Project, which is focused on the digitalization of books and public domain materials.
“It is a perfect match,” Martin said. “The love of imagination, of exploration, of knowledge and fun make this a wonderful match.”
Martin also praised the high level of interest in entrepreneurship from UW students, especially the interest in high-technology entrepreneurship.
