Neal Zygarlicke ’11, ’12 is on a mission. As chief executive officer of the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce, Zygarlicke helped launch a campaign to attract young professionals to the La Crosse community. He’s also working to keep graduating college students from moving away.

“The amenities we have are pretty incredible when you think about how small of an area we are,” Zygarlicke said of the La Crosse community.

La Crosse’s thriving downtown district, rich cultural life, small-town friendliness, great schools, health care systems, and numerous high-quality employers might be matched by other cities, but when you add in the scenic beauty and outdoor recreation opportunities, Zygarlicke said, La Crosse is hard to beat.

“It’s tough to find anywhere else with our outdoor recreation infrastructure, and it’s so accessible,” Zygarlicke said. “It is very realistic to finish your workday at the office, go home, and get on the river for a nice evening of boating or fishing or kayaking within 20 minutes. You just can’t do that in many other places.”

Zygarlicke was tapped to lead the Chamber in November 2020 and within a year launched the talent attraction campaign, called Thrive in the Heart of the Driftless Region.

A native of Marshfield, Zygarlicke was attracted to Viterbo in part for the chance to play college basketball, but more so because of the university’s four-plus-one business program, which would get him from college orientation to MBA in five years. It helped that he was familiar with La Crosse because of an older brother studying at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

While he knew he wanted to earn business degrees, Zygarlicke was uncertain what industry or position he was destined for. When he graduated with his MBA, he applied for jobs far and wide, both geographically and in terms of types of positions and employers.

There was no organized effort to keep La Crosse college graduates in town back then, but Viterbo had something just as powerful: connections. Faculty members connect with employers, and because of the small Viterbo class sizes they also get to know students’ abilities and inclinations well.

Zygarlicke is still in La Crosse because of a conversation at a Viterbo campus water fountain with then-business school faculty member (and Viterbo alum) Tom Knothe ’86. With Zygarlicke’s graduation looming, Knothe inquired about his job prospects and let him know about an opening at First Supply, a venerable La Crosse company.

Viterbo connections came into play after Zygarlicke followed up on Knothe’s advice and applied for the job. First Supply Chief Financial Officer Todd Restel was a member of the same church as Viterbo Athletic Director Barry Fried, and one day at church Restel asked Fried about Zygarlicke. Fried had known Zygarlicke as a basketball player as well as an assistant coach and had nothing but good things to say about him.

Zygarlicke calls that “the power of you never know who is going to say nice things about you.”

Not only did Zygarlicke’s years at First Supply provide valuable business insights instrumental in his preparation for leading the Chamber, it also began his association with Habitat for Humanity. He started as a First Supply’s representative on the Habitat board and remained after he started at the Chamber. He’s currently the board’s vice president.

At 33, Zygarlicke is one of the youngest people to ever lead La Crosse’s Chamber of Commerce. He was wavering about whether to pursue the post, but his wife, fellow Viterbo grad Whitney Hegseth ’14, saw it as a perfect opportunity to put the leadership skills he learned at Viterbo and First Supply to good use. So he jumped at the chance.

“It just aligned with what I wanted to do. I want La Crosse to be a good and strong place to live,” Zygarlicke said. “And it's impossible to overstate how important Whitney's encouragement, support, and community involvement have been to me pursuing and thriving in this new role. She is a constant inspiration.”

The grounding in servant leadership he got at Viterbo played a major role in preparing him for the Chamber job, and Zygarlicke said he sees plenty of evidence that the La Crosse business community has a good grounding in it, too.

“Overall, the La Crosse business community has done a wonderful job of embracing servant leadership and incorporating it into their practices,” he said. “I do think that is a distinguishing trait of the La Crosse community.”

Zygarlicke noted the Chamber is making an effort to help keep graduates of Viterbo and La Crosse’s other two higher education institutions around as they start their careers. Part of that involves connecting the Chamber’s young professionals group with students “so they can see that people not much older than them are succeeding and thriving in La Crosse,” he said.

It also involves strengthening the connections between the colleges and businesses to open opportunities for students to get practical experience and open pathways to careers.

An emeritus member of the Viterbo Alumni Association board after serving six years as an active board member, Zygarlicke now is a member of the Viterbo Board of Advisors. He said he has been impressed with what he has seen so far of President Rick Trietley’s leadership.

“Rick Trietley has a good vision and ideas for the university,” Zygarlicke said. “Higher education is changing, and it’s just good to see the university being forward thinking.”