The Novo Group, a recruiting service firm headquartered in Milwaukee, recently hired Jim Long as president and chief executive officer and Dave Galanis as the executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Both Long and Galanis previously led ATC Transportation, a transportation outsourcing company based in Oakbrook, Ill. Long was CEO of that company, which grew from $100 million in annual sales to $275 million under his leadership.
"I am excited to be joining Novo at this stage of its development," Long said. "I believe the Novo model can help so many companies as they look for effective and high value ways to recruit talent in a competitive recruiting marketplace."
"I believe the opportunity for Novo is significant as we expand from our current four cities into a full-service national organization," Galanis said. "I look forward to managing the day-to-day aspects of building Novo into a recruiting powerhouse and establishment of a unified and well supported national office network."
The Novo Group's Milwaukee office is located at 330 E. Kilbourn Ave. The company's other offices are in Chicago, Denver and Minneapolis. The firm provides executive and management searches, interim recruiting support, special recruiting projects, complete or partial recruiting outsourcing and consulting and training to improve recruiting results

Southeastern Wisconsin's border counties, Walworth County and Kenosha County, had the highest property value increases during the last year and during the last 10 years, according to a new report from the Public Policy Forum.
From 2006 to 2007, Walworth County's property values rose 10.5 percent, the highest increase in southeastern Wisconsin, and Kenosha County's values rose, 7.2 percent, the second-highest increase in the region.
Over the last 10 years, Walworth County led the region with a 121.4-percent property value increase and Kenosha County had a 109.3-percent increase, the second-highest in the region.
The growth and sprawl from the Chicago metro area is driving the property value increases in Walworth and Kenosha counties. From 2006-07, Chicago's metro area (which includes the Kenosha area) population growth ranked seventh out of 363 metro areas, according to the U.S. Census bureau. During the year, the Chicago area added 66,231 people, bringing its total population to nearly 9.5 million.
For the first time since 1992, Waukesha County had the lowest percentage property value increase of the southeastern Wisconsin counties. From 2006-07, the county had a property value increase of only 5.1 percent, down from the previous year's 8.9 percent growth.
Every county in southeastern Wisconsin had a lower property value increase than in the previous year, according to the report.
This was the second year in a row that Waukesha County had a lower property value growth rate than Milwaukee County. However, Milwaukee County went from having the second-highest property value growth in the region, 12.2 percent from 2005-06, to the second-lowest, 5.5 percent in 2006-07.
As a whole, southeastern Wisconsin had a 6.0 percent property value increase from 2006-07, lower than the state's 6.2 percent growth rate.

Oshkosh Corp. a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of specialty vehicles and vehicle bodies, announced today that it has opened an Asia Procurement Center in Shanghai, China, as part of its global growth strategy.
Oshkosh Corp. also has offices in Beijing and Hong Kong, which illustrates the company's outlook for continued strength in its expanding global business.
"Aggressive international growth leads our business strategy. Opening a procurement office in Shanghai allows us to support our global manufacturing efforts by leveraging a local supply of parts, which enhances our long term competitiveness and strengthens our leadership position in the markets we serve," said Robert Bohn, chairman and chief executive officer of the company. "Broadening our global footprint with local offices increases the scale of our operations, which is key to fueling our future growth."
The company currently has manufacturing facilities in 11 countries and additional service operations in 16 countries.

Marquette University's College of Engineering has named Mark Federle, Ph.D., the McShane Chair in Construction Engineering and Management.
Construction engineering and management is a new program in the Marquette Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The new program will officially begin this fall.
The position was funded by a $5 million gift from alumni Jim and Kelly McShane last year. Federle will join Marquette April 1 from The Weitz Company, a national construction company based in Iowa, where he has worked since 1999. In his most recent role at The Weitz Company, he served as chief information officer and vice president.
When Federle joins Marquette, he will return to his academic roots. From 1990 to 1999, he was a professor in civil construction and environmental engineering at Iowa State University.
"Mark's experience from both the academic and industry sides of construction engineering and management will fast-track our goal of preparing our students for the 21st century workforce," said Stan Jaskolski, Ph.D., opus dean of the College of Engineering. "His eagerness to engage industry partners will help grow this program and establish it as one of the best in the country."
"I am looking forward to working with faculty at Marquette and building the curriculum to offer a world-class program that will be considered to be among the best in the United States," Federle said. "Providing highly qualified graduates to one of the larger industries in the country, combined with the service and ethical orientation developed at Marquette, will certainly help elevate the profession of construction engineering and management.”

Some big decisions await the next members of the Rothschild Village Board, including a proposed $20 million ice arena and expo center. Read more in SBT's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com.

David Fantle says Milwaukee is on the verge of stardom on the big screen. Read more in today's Milwaukee Biz Blog.

The BizTimes Stock Index lost 1.72 points to close at 151.66 Thursday, and local stocks struggled to regain some lost ground in early morning trading today. The largest local gainers this morning were Bucyrus International Inc. (up $2.70 to $105.05) and Snap-on Inc. (up 77 cents to $49.14). The largest local decliners this morning were Kohl's Corp. (down $2.59 to $41.93) and Harley-Davidson Inc. (down 78 cents to $38.08). The BizTimes Stock Index was created by Small Business Times and is monitored by North Shore Bank. The index, which measures the stock values of publicly held companies based in southeastern Wisconsin, is updated daily and can be viewed at www.biztimes.com.