Evers appoints investor to UW regents board

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers appointed a Milwaukee investor who has given tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates to the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents on Monday.

John Miller will replace Jose Delgado, who died of a stroke last month at age 74. Miller will serve out the rest of Delgado’s term, which expires in May. Evers said he will then reappoint him to the board.

Miller contributed at least $172,000 to state Democratic and liberal-leaning candidates and committees over the last decade, including $33,000 to Evers since 2017 and $20,000 to state Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

Miller’s appointments are subject to approval by the Republican-controlled state Senate. Adam Gibbs, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

Miller graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2006 and became president and CEO of Miller-St. Nazianz, a farm equipment business, in 2008.

He founded Arenberg Holdings LLC in Milwaukee in 2015, investing in early stage Midwestern companies.

According to an obituary from Becker Ritter Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Brookfield, Delgado was attending a workshop in Texas when he suffered a massive stroke during the night. He died a week later, on Jan. 24, in an Austin hospital.

Delgado immigrated from Cuba to the United States in 1961, when he was 14 years old. He earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and founded the American Transmission Company in 1999. He served as the company’s CEO until he retired in 2010, according to the obituary. Former Gov. Scott Walker appointed him as a regent in 2014.