The administration of Gov. Tony Evers has hired a consultant to advise it on the flat-panel display industry — the sector in which Foxconn Technology Group’s Wisconsin factory will operate.

The state Department of Administration has contracted with Display Supply Chain Consultants LLC, Bob O’Brien, the firm’s president and co-founder, said Wednesday.

The firm is formally based in Austin, Texas, but O’Brien, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been the person working with Wisconsin.

A former executive with Corning Inc., a leading manufacturer of the ultra-thin glass used in displays, O’Brien is among a relatively small number of people in the U.S. with extensive knowledge of the display industry, which is concentrated in Asia.

He said Evers’ administration reached out to his firm and signed a consulting contract with it three or four weeks ago.

“The main part of the work is essentially informing the Department of Administration people I’m working with about aspects of the flat panel display industry, educating them,” O’Brien said.

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He said that so far he had answered inquiries from state officials, and offered other advice.

“They’ve asked me to prepare a list of questions that they can ask to Foxconn that would help to sort of clarify the project, and I’ve worked on that as well,” O’Brien said.

He said he was unaware of the state contracting with a firm such as his before signing the incentives contract with Foxconn in 2017 but said his company sold a report to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. last summer.

“We called it a tutorial on the flat panel display industry,” O’Brien said. “It had a whole bunch of information that essentially helps people understand, without a background in the industry … how a flat panel is made, what are the various processes involved, some of the supplies involved.”

He said his understanding was that WEDC wanted the information “to consider a strategy to pursue suppliers for investment in the state.”

Another industry consultant, Paul Semenza of Santa Clara, California, said it was a good idea for Wisconsin to hire outside expertise, particularly considering the large incentives Foxconn stands to receive.

The state’s contract provides the company with up to $3 billion in tax credits. Foxconn must hit job-creation and investment targets before receiving payments.

“These are big amounts of money,” Semenza said. “To spend a small amount to make sure you’re not making a big mistake is just prudent.”

O’Brien would not say how much his company is being paid. Representatives of the Department of Administration did not respond to an inquiry about the hiring of O’Brien’s company.

Foxconn has awarded contracts for the initial construction work on a nearly 1 million-square-foot “Generation 6” display factory in Mount Pleasant.

The company’s contract with the state calls for a much larger and more expensive “Generation 10” plant, but Foxconn stepped back from those plans, citing changing market conditions.

Earlier this year, a top Foxconn executive signaled to reporters in Asia that the company might not do any manufacturing in Wisconsin at all, but rather would concentrate on research here. The firm quickly reversed course, however, after President Donald Trump, who has championed the Foxconn project and the manufacturing jobs it promises, telephoned Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou.

Contact Rick Romell at (414) 224-2130 or rick.romell@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RickRomell