Philanthropist Sheldon Lubar made headlines in the last few years for his outspoken views on reforming Milwaukee County government. Many of the changes at the board of supervisors level influenced by Lubar are going into effect - though their effects are yet to be measured.
Despite Lubar's public political stances, he never pursued elected office for himself - though he served in the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter.
But Lubar has never truly left Milwaukee, having grown up first in Sherman Park, and later Whitefish Bay before founding his private investment company, Lubar & Company.
Lubar's stamp is firmly affixed here, in places like the business school at UW-Milwaukee, which carries his name.
His main focus presently is increasing governance in the schools of Milwaukee and throughout the state. “That is the measure of the wealth of a nation – it isn’t GNP," says Lubar. "It will be, we’ll have high GNP – it is what is the level of education of the citizenry?”
