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June 2, 2025
GREEN BAY – Now in its 20th year, Current Young Professionals (CYP) – a Greater Green Bay Chamber program – focuses on attracting and retaining young talent by “creating connections, delivering quality professional development and engaging with the community.”
Matt Rentmeester – vice president of talent and education for the chamber – said the program has evolved over the last two decades in response to what young professionals (YPs) seek.
What began as a means to attract, develop, engage and retain YPs, he said, has remained true to its roots while reflecting what they desire: a platform to feel inspired, challenged and empowered to drive meaningful change in Greater Green Bay.
It’s succeeding, Rentmeester said.
Today, he said the program has 1,557 individual members, as well as 62 employer members who provide membership as a benefit to their employees.
Rentmeester said he has had an interesting vantage point on CYP because he was involved in the program at its infancy and has since returned to the chamber in a leadership role to pay witness to how it has matured and benefited individuals, businesses and the community at large.
Current’s origins
Current, Rentmeester said, didn’t begin at the chamber.
Instead, he said it was created as the Young Professionals Network (YPN) through what was then known as the Employers Workforce Development Network – with several businesses coming together to address workforce issues, including talent attraction and retention.
Rentmeester said Jim Golembeski – the executive director of workforce development with the Bay Area Workforce Development Board at the time – was inspired by the research of Dr. Richard Florida – a prominent urban studies theorist known for his work on the creative class and its impact on cities and economic development.
“Golembeski wanted to consult Florida about roadblocks to attracting talent and what that required beyond, ‘How about I offer you a job,’” Rentmeester said.
At the time, Rentmeester said he worked for the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce to get its YP program – Pulse – off the ground, before Golembeski offered him the job to create Greater Green Bay’s YPN.
“It was great coming up here and seeing how the community embraced (the concept),” Rentmeester said.
Given the workforce development nature of the work, Rentmeester said YPN became part of the then-named Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce under the direction of then-President Paul Jadin.
He said Jadin and others in the business community – including representatives from Services Plus; Paul Linsmeyer (then-president of Bay Towel); Karmen Lemke (then-manager, community relations with Wisconsin Public Service); and other business leaders – came together to financially support YPN as a program of the chamber.
A coalition that included now-Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach as the first chairman, Rentmeester said, came together to spur program awareness and involvement.
That, he said, included deciding what to call YPN as they sensed the program needed a better title.
Joe Malcore – former director of Malcore Funeral Homes & Crematory and current director of business development with Breakthrough – said he came up with the idea for the CYP name.
“We were strategizing about how to make the group larger and engage more people, and part of that was branding,” he said. “I remember we all had to come to a meeting with ideas, and I came in with Current. I thought it symbolized Green Bay with the river and the idea of keeping up to date on what’s happening in the community.”
Malcore said the group voted on it and CYP was born.
Like many others in the group, he said he became engaged in CYP for the opportunity to engage with others.
A native of the area, Malcore said he sought networking opportunities with his peers.
“For me, it was about meeting a ton of new people in the community,” he said.
Today, Malcore said he works for a company with a long-standing employer membership in CYP because they recognize its value for young talent.
“We tend to hire a lot of young talent in the community for specific roles, such as client account managers,” he said. “CYP membership is more important than ever, because you need to know the pulse of good talent in the area and where to find them.”
Malcore said it used to be a matter of plugging in with graduating students from four-year educational institutions, but that has broadened significantly with more students attending technical colleges, participating in apprenticeships, etc.
“Having a finger on the pulse of work dynamics and what people are evaluating (for work), such as hybrid work, is important,” he said.
A CYP member’s perspective
Parker Wolf – learning and talent specialist with U.S. Venture Inc. – said she currently serves as the chair of CYP’s leadership team and is an example of how integral volunteers are to the CYP committees, which include the:
- Community engagement committee
- Development committee
- Connection committee
- Civic engagement committee
Wolf said the leadership team focuses on strategic and tactical planning and oversees all committees while serving as the voice of YPs, recruiting CYP members and acting as program ambassadors.
Becoming involved in CYP four years ago, Wolf said she has served in her leadership role for the past two years.
The impetus for joining, she said, was connections.
“I wanted to get to know other people in the community and find my place,” she said. “Current does a great job of that and introduces you to business leaders, nonprofit (leaders) and other like-minded people.”
Wolf said the leadership team “runs the show,” with all CYP events, which include the Leaders Luncheon in October, the Future 15 & Young Professional Awards in February/March and the recently held Current Week.
This year, Wolf said the week-long event culminated with a special event to celebrate CYP’s 20th anniversary and involved a variety of alumni sharing their CYP journeys.
In addition to its signature events, she said CYP hosts three to six CORE events per month, as well as monthly professional development workshops.
Whether it’s a signature event or one of the monthly events, Wolf said committee members “are the lifeblood of the program” – coming up with the ideas for the professional development, connection and engagement opportunities CYP delivers.
“Our pillars align with the three reasons people join Current – professional development, socialization/connection and engagement,” she said. “There is a little bit of something for everyone, and if you see something is missing, you can join a committee and help plan events.”
A native of Kohler, Wolf said she “stuck around” after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay because the area felt like home and she appreciates the opportunities CYP has provided her to give back – something she said resonates with a lot of YPs.
Reflecting on two decades of CYP
Brian Johnson – president/CEO of On Broadway, Inc. – had the longest tenure as CYP’s program manager from 2006-16.
When he joined the chamber, Johnson said CYP was only half his role – noting that it was only partway into his tenure as CYP manager that he was able to devote 100% of his time to the program.
Johnson said he joined CYP about a year and a half into its tenure, accepting the baton from Rentmeester.
Significant growth and change occurred during his nearly decade managing the program, he said, starting with an initial group of about 30 YPs and very few volunteers.
When he joined, Johnson said the program was focused on workforce development and how to attract and retain talent to benefit local employers.
And though that outgrowth remains true today, he said he witnessed an evolution by his 10th year in the program to include a significant focus on community development.
“It was really about creating a city or region that was attractive to YPs because if the community was attractive, the talent attraction and retention organically happen,” he said. “We were getting more at the heart of the matter, and that’s when we launched programs like YPAC (Young Professional Advisory Council) and then SOUP (Support of Urban Projects).”
Johnson said the council served in an advisory capacity to the Green Bay mayor and Brown County executive – offering a YP voice in community conversations.
He said that has since evolved to become a function of the leadership team.
SOUP, Johnson said, continues as a forum through which community members share their ideas to enhance quality of life alongside dinner (often soup) in hopes of securing a microgrant from funds collected at the forum.
“Ten years later, the microgranted projects from SOUP impact our community and make it better, which was the point,” he said. “We were trying to push a community development piece, showing how you make a community where YPs want to move, want to stay and want to be engaged.”
Legacy events – including Future 15 & Young Professional Awards, Leaders Luncheon and Current Week (originally YP Week) – Johnson said, have stood the test of time, but only because volunteers and CYP managers have determined those programs continue to have relevance.
“It’s important the program has evolved to be relevant to meet the needs of people today and hasn’t stayed stuck in time,” he said.
Rentmeester said he particularly appreciates the Future 15 & Young Professional Awards for the broad excitement the event and its associated coverage provide YPs who are making a difference in the community.
“The energy and excitement are that it’s not only recognized by the 400-500 people who attend the event, but far beyond it,” he said. “Future 15 is a seminal event and a great example of the energy behind Current.”
Johnson concurred and said he is proud of the impact the programming has on the community through the individuals involved in CYP.
“I used to chuckle, it’s going to be so cool for these members coming together to lead the community one day,” he said. “And today is that day. They’re out there, leading nonprofits, companies and organizations, connected through relationships they built in Current. I still see those relationships being put to work in our community today. Current helped to expedite that.”
In the beginning, Johnson said CYP’s social opportunities were often pointed to by others as “just a party,” and admits he used to downplay the social aspect because of that.
That is, he said, until he had a conversation with Nancy Ambrust, a then-executive at Schreiber Foods, on the topic.
“She said, ‘If people were coming together socially through the program, that’s a good thing,’” Johnson said. “That’s when I really embraced the social component of the program, recognizing that if people don’t make friends where they live and aren’t connected, the odds of keeping them there are significantly diminished.”
Case in point: Barbara Koldos
Johnson said Barbara Koldos – vice president of business development with New North, Inc. – is a great example of CYP in action.
Koldos moved to Green Bay from Phoenix, and Johnson said CYP’s mission at the time – to attract, engage, develop and retain – was instrumental to her becoming entrenched in the Greater Green Bay community.
“Someone like Barbara could easily have moved someplace else, but she built friendships here, just like a laundry list of others have,” Johnson said.
When she moved to Green Bay in 2010, Koldos said she got involved in CYP in an effort to find friends and like-minded YPs, leading to involvement in YPAC, including serving as its first chair and helping to create SOUP.
In the process, she said she realized both personal and professional benefits, remaining very close friends with people she met through CYP, for whom she has witnessed a trajectory in their careers.
“I made some of my best friends in CYP,” she said. “You can work on committees and task forces together, but you still need to let your hair down and get to know each other on a personal level, which is where the happy hours and social events came in. That’s how you build relationships.”
Koldos said the connections CYP continues to provide are more relevant than ever to professional development.
“No matter how much technology or AI is out there, it boils down to human connection, if you have a history with people and can get business done,” she said.
Koldos said she continues to lend a hand to CYP, emceeing the Future 15 & Young Professional Awards in 2022, recently serving on a CYP panel for a mastering the art of networking event and getting involved in the Leaders Luncheon as a leader.
“The alumni are now in prestigious roles and still participate in Current, which shows the caliber of people who are involved,” Wolf said. “These are our changemakers.”
From Koldos’ vantage point with the New North, she said she can appreciate the sense of belonging CYP provides that is fundamental to retaining talent in the New North.
“It used to be that companies went wherever and the (employees) would follow,” she said. “Now, it’s about where the people are going, and then the companies build where they are. We had a net gain of more than 6,000 people who moved here last year, people whose companies want to feel welcome. They ask, ‘What can they get involved in? How can we get our young leaders plugged in?’ So, programs like Current are super important for business attraction and retention of the workforce.”
CYP as a springboard
During his tenure, Johnson said CYP participated in a Global Impact Survey that gauged how CYP’s young professionals benchmarked against other organizations, including determining how participation in a program like CYP impacted YPs’ perception of the quality of life in the Greater Green Bay area.
Among the questions, he said, was whether YPs were more likely to stay in the area because they participated in CYP, and 23% said “yes.”
“As the program grew in scope and impact, we had the data that the program was having a positive impact,” he said. “By staying, Current had a positive impact because (YPs) were voting, volunteering for nonprofits, donating, showing up and providing leadership. That’s where the impact really came in. Current was the accelerant that made it happen faster than if it hadn’t existed.”
More recently, Rentmeester said CYP reports that 70% of members indicate CYP has made them feel more connected to Greater Green Bay.
In the process, Johnson said it has proven that bringing the former YPN into the chamber fold in 2005 was a smart business move.
“Current has proven its value not only to the community but also to the chamber as an operating program that can articulate a return on investment,” he said.
Rentmeester said the chamber’s ability to serve as a convener and have collective impact requires involvement by all its program participants, from CEOs to mid-level professionals to YPs.
CYP, he said, functions as a launching pad to a variety of other chamber involvement, as well as community involvement.
“I often say that the asset map of the chamber is the ‘spaghettification’ of the chamber because there are so many tentacles that spread out,” he said. “There are so many different opportunities and definitely a space for anyone in Current to land – whether that’s the talent task force, childcare task force, DEI task force or something else. It’s just a matter of, ‘What’s your next step to making some community change?’”
Laurie Radke, outgoing president/CEO of the chamber, said the chamber absolutely understands how important it is for local businesses to attract and retain talent – and the important role CYP plays in that 20 years after its inception.
“Our communities are a more vibrant place to live and work because of the contributions of the countless young professionals that have chosen to build their lives and careers here,” she said, “and that’s a credit to the strong network that exists through the Current Young Professionals program.”
Rentmeester said for him, witnessing the 20th anniversary of CYP up close and personal is a wonderful full-circle moment.
“It’s a little surreal,” he said. “It’s cool that something I had such a strong hand in with a lot of good volunteers has lasted. I never in my wildest dreams thought CYP would blossom into what it is today. It activates the community in a way that is really meaningful and makes a difference, activating 21-40-year-olds in a way that has a lasting impact.”
