Kathleen O’Leary retired at the end of October as chief executive officer and executive director of Wisconsin State Fair Park. She worked at the 200-acre venue for 24 years in various management roles. She was initially appointed interim CEO prior to the 2016 Wisconsin State Fair and in October 2016 became the first woman in the history of State Fair Park to serve as CEO and executive director. BizTimes reporter Alex Zank recently spoke with O’Leary about her time at State Fair Park, the COVID-19 pandemic and the future of the events business.
Why decide to retire now?
“It’s been a very colorful 24 years and certainly even more so the last five years as CEO of the Wisconsin State Fair Park. I just believe that a testament to leadership is that when you do choose to leave, however that departure looks, you have left it in a better place than you found it. And there is no question that is the case at Wisconsin State Fair Park.”
What’s the biggest challenge been in the past 18 months?
“Opening the gates with the labor shortage that we are all enduring and contending with. So, in order to open our gates, we really need upwards of 1,500-1,600 employees. That in and of itself — because it’s hard to get any employees, never mind that amount of employees for such a short window of time — we were successful in it, we were innovative in how we did it, and we also were innovative in what we had to do not only to get them to work but also retain them.
“There were a number of different innovative approaches to that and to contend with our labor shortage, one of them being adjusting our operating hours. The other (was) going cashless at the admission and parking gates. … That ability to have less people having to be involved was a really big decision that was made in a relatively short window of time.”
What does the future hold for State Fair Park and the events business?
“The future is bright on a number of levels. The event as a whole, the event from an agricultural showcase aspect of it, the event as the tradition and the memories that are made that transcend generations on an annual basis — that is bright, but not without several monumental challenges that will still continue into 2022 and perhaps the next few years following that. Our lives as we know it in the events business have changed. As event leaders, we need to be the ones that are innovative and looking at our models differently so we can continue to succeed.”
