Burke later joined Trek Bicycle, her family’s growing company in Waterloo. She served as director of European operations for three years, living in three different countries and opening offices in five. Trek reports that its European sales soared during her tenure. She later served as director of forecasting and strategic planning for nearly a decade.

Free-market Republicans have oddly attacked Burke for outsourcing jobs at Trek. What she and her family’s company really have done is succeed in a highly competitive global marketplace. That’s something Wisconsin needs to do, too, given its huge potential for selling more products overseas, particularly in the bio-sciences.

Burke has shown strong leadership beyond her business accomplishments. As president of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, she hired a dynamic leader and oversaw plans and funding for a large community center. Her strong support for a Madison charter school forced the city’s liberal power structure to acknowledge it was failing far too many black and Latino students.

Burke has succeeded at too many things – school, business, community leadership and fundraising – to be ineffective as governor.