Nathan Thiel began his position as the Administrator of the Village of Pleasant Prairie on April 30, 2018. The Village conducted a search that took nearly a year to fill the administrator position. A broad, national search for candidates was conducted and candidates were subsequently interviewed by a panel of Village staff members. Once three candidates were identified the Village Board conducted interviews. Nathan also interviewed an additional time with the Board and with other stakeholders prior to receiving an offer. Nathan has a Master of Public Administration degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University and holds a Bachelor of Arts Communications from Brigham Young University in Idaho.
Nathan Thiel has diverse experience in a wide range of municipal government operations, city programs and services as well as public policy. Prior to coming to the Village, Nathan served as the City Administrator of Mauston, Wisconsin for seven years. While managing operations for Mauston he coordinated strategic planning and capital improvement plans, and served as the city’s primary economic development coordinator. This experience has given him an understanding of Tax Incremental Financing Districts and retail development which will serve him well in Pleasant Prairie since it is experiencing significant growth. Some of the key projects that he oversaw in Mauston were; securing $3M in grant funding to revitalize the downtown, address storm water issues and renovate the park system; improvement to the zoning code; new municipal programs in rental inspections, municipal court, and urban forestry; union negotiations; performance evaluation system and manual, and organizations charts; and the facilitation of a $10M tax incremental district finance and improvement plan.
Before working as an administrator, Nathan worked in a Budget Department and in Public Works at two other suburban municipalities outside of the state of Wisconsin. He has significant experience with budgeting and financial management from these roles. He also streamlined processes, worked with risk management, secured grants, re-designed a Village website and dealt with customer complaints and provided resolution. He gained skills in marketing and communications while working at a real estate firm where he streamlined nine marketing systems. Understanding how the operations in a variety of department’s functions will help him to provide guidance and oversight to staff working in these areas.
Nathan takes pride in being a consensus builder that has experience in developing extensive intergovernmental cooperation and sees value in developing community partnerships. Nathan stated that “It is my desire is to be an active and positive member of a team and community and continually offer viable, progressive solutions. It would be an honor to be a public servant for the Village of Pleasant Prairie.”