For 25 years, Madison Magazine has recognized extraordinary business leaders and their contributions to greater Madison’s economic vitality and nationally recognized livability. These four leaders have demonstrated their commitment to helping Madison grow and have the success stories to prove it. Join us for the 25th Anniversary Business Lunch on Friday, Feb. 27.
Renee Moe
President and CEO at United Way of Dane County
Boldness is necessary to achieve the “next thing,” says United Way president and CEO Renee Moe, who started at the nonprofit as an intern in 1998. “Especially in this day and age with so many changes, leaders are inventing the future every day,” she says. While her work involves daily problem-solving to help individuals and families move from crisis and poverty into self-sufficiency and well-being — whether they need access to housing, food, health care or employment — Moe always has a big-picture, future-focused outlook. United Way of Dane County works toward its goal of community wellbeing in strategic ways. “I get to be a part of the hard conversations that actually make lives better for people, and that is so inspiring and so motivating,” Moe says.
Her Advice: “By aligning your values and being courageous with what needs to get done, that’s when you see things really swing forward.”
Aaron Olver
Managing director at University Research Park
According to Aaron Olver, University Research Park is an embodiment of the Wisconsin Idea. The nonprofit supports the University of Wisconsin–Madison by creating places where science and technology can flourish. It acts like a real estate company — developing land, roads and infrastructure — with a social and economic mission. “The primary mission is to create the best neighborhood in Madison for science and technology companies,” Olver says. He sees both real estate and entrepreneurship as ways to increase economic prosperity, and his work at University Research Park, which he’s led for the last 11 years, involves both. “What gets me out of bed every day is trying to make Wisconsin as strong as it can be, and Madison as strong as it can be,” he says. “Economic prosperity is the foundation on which a great community gets built.”
His Advice: “Accept where you are. Be grateful or grieve accordingly. Then focus all your energy on the levers you can actually control.”
Ruben L. Anthony Jr.
President and CEO at Urban League of Greater Madison
Ruben L. Anthony Jr. says he’s often working on something risky. “Either I’m going to have a lot of success or I’m going to end up getting fired at the end of the day,” says Anthony, who has been the Urban League of Greater Madison’s visionary leader for longer than a decade. One of his biggest success stories: bringing to life the Black Business Hub, a center that opened in 2024 that supports Black and BIPOC entrepreneurs and business owners. Located just steps from the Urban League on South Park Street, the Hub acts as an economic accelerator that provides space, grants, training and other opportunities to minority-owned businesses. It’s clear during a walk around the Hub that Anthony is proud of what he’s helped create — and just how active and vibrant the work is that’s being done within the center’s walls. He’s quick to chat up the business owners in the barbershop, the podcasting studio, the prep kitchen, the beauty school, the coffee shop, the conference rooms and the individual cubicles. “We focus on creating needs-driven opportunities,” Anthony says. “So when people ask, ‘How are our programs and activities so full?’ They’re so full because we listen — we listen and we learn.”
His Advice: “Talk less, listen more. Listen, especially, to the people who are in the trenches doing the work — the folks who are on the front line. They know way better than we know.”
Ellie Westman Chin
President and CEO at Destination Madison
Ellie Westman Chin has had some great leaders to look up to in her career. They taught her that leadership can come from anywhere in a room, and if it’s a good idea, you can make it happen. Challenges? You can get over them. Do you need more people to accomplish a goal? You can bring them to the table. Westman Chin was part of committees that helped build a downtown football stadium and usher in an NHL expansion in Nashville; she worked at a marketing event agency in New York City and for convention and visitors bureaus in Atlanta, Georgia, Franklin, Tennessee and Nashville, Tennessee; and for the last five years she’s helmed Destination Madison with the same energetic, growth-focused mindset. Under her leadership, the destination marketing organization has created a bridge between sales and marketing on one end and advocacy, public affairs and development on the other. Her work has cemented Destination Madison’s place at planning and decision-making tables in Madison. Westman Chin led her team out of a pandemic dip, exceeding pre-COVID tourism impact statistics, and she still sees so much more potential in Madison. “We have nothing but growth ahead of us,” she says.
Her Advice: “It’s really important for me to stay true to who I am and bring that to the office every day, because I think that allows the team to be true to who they are as well.”
Andrea Behling is the former editor-in-chief of Madison Magazine.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY MADISON MAGAZINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
