STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) — What started as a project in a garage has grown into a multinational entity that opened a $32 million global headquarters in Stevens Point on Tuesday.
Skyward started in Stevens Point 36 years ago and will continue in Stevens Point thanks to their new headquarters that employs 400 people now, with room for 500 more.
Chairman of the Board and founder of Skyward, Jim King, hopes that the new facility isn’t the only measures for growth in Wisconsin for the software company…
“We have a product that’s just unbelievable. It’s not only the best product you can buy, it’s the most affordable product, and what I said about the UW wasting millions, if they would open their eyes and come look at our product, we could save them millions and obviously that would be a big feather in our cap,” said King.
Skyward provides financial and student management software for hundreds of schools across the globe, but it wasn’t that long ago that they were looking at moving from Wisconsin completely. King said that fast acting legislators were able to change the school system’s policies on using a single service provider statewide and keep Skyward around for the long haul.
King said, “We were able to draw the attention of enough people, enough friends, that said, ‘hey, this is not right, this is not American.’ They made enough noise where enough of the senators and representatives decided no, you don’t have to create a monopoly. You can have an open system.”
Governor Scott Walker praised Skyward for its humble beginnings and its dedication to creating more jobs for the state where it all began.
“When you look at companies like Skyward, not only starting out 36 years ago in Jim and Jean’s house, now having an incredible house for their employees, but the fact that they can continue to grow and with more than 400 employees here, they eventually want to get to 900 before 2025,” said Walker.
“I think it’s a testament to Jim and Jean and their team here really making a focus about saying, ‘give us a chance, give us an opportunity,’ and that’s exactly what happened. Making sure that school districts all across the state could really have the local control and the local option not just to have [software] done through the state Department of Public Construction, but have it done at the local school district level.”
The company aims to expand to another new building near the headquarters that is set to break ground in 2024.
