Ted is a life long resident of Brookfield, Wisconsin and attended Elmbrook Public Schools. While attending Brookfield East High School Ted played baseball and was on the varsity football and track teams before graduating in 1979. At young age, Ted learned the importance of public service from his father, who served on the board of the family’s church, and worked tirelessly for the community. As a State Senator and former member of the Elmbrook School Board, Ted is working hard to follow his father’s lead.

Prior to graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983 with a major in political science, Ted was exposed to another form of community service, elective politics. As an aide for Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, Ted spent long hours along side the Congressman attending countless town meetings and public events, learning what it takes to be a dedicated public servant.

Kanavas Family In 1990, then Governor Tommy G. Thompson appointed Ted to the Department of Administration to take on the task of redistricting Wisconsin’s political boundaries. Working closely with Governor Thompson and former Department of Administration Secretary James Klauser, Ted learned the importance of governing: considering the interests of all of the people, not just political friends.

In 1999, Ted was elected to the Elmbrook School Board and served a three-year term. He was as Chairman of the Finance and Operations, and Technology committees until April 2002. Ted is proud of his accomplishments on the school board: rebuilding two schools; major upgrades to curriculum; an overhaul of technology to bring classrooms and buildings up to standards; and, the adoption of an At-Risk Program.

Prior to his election to the Senate, Ted spent 12 years in the software industry and continues to work in the field as a senior enterprise executive with a Brookfield-based software company HarrisData, where he earned salesman of the year honors three times. He has gained valuable insight into how manufacturers grow their businesses and manage their enterprises. In the 1990s, Ted and two friends from California co-founded Premier Software Technologies, which was sold to Active Software.

Ted was first elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in a July 2001 special election, and was re-elected in November 2002.

Based upon his extensive experiences in the business world, Ted believes that Wisconsin needs to make a commitment to reduce taxes and state spending and create a plan for Wisconsin’s future growth and economic development. Since he joined the Legislature, Ted has worked hard to make these goals a reality.

In 2002, he was instrumental in establishing the Joint Legislative Council Committee on Public and Private Broadband, which assessed Wisconsin’s broadband access around the state and developed a plan for connecting Wisconsin’s communities. Ted believes that an essential part of growing Wisconsin’s economy is ensuring that all of Wisconsin has access to broadband services to help grow our innovation economy. It is his goal to make sure Wisconsin is one of the top-ten states in the nation in terms of broadband deployment.

In 2003, while serving as a member of the powerful Joint Committee on Finance, Senator Kanavas was appointed as the Co-Chairman of the Senate SSenator Kanavas' swearing inelect Committee on Job Creation. As a Co-Chairman of that committee, Ted held a series of informational hearings to gather testimony from business leaders, venture capital firms, intellectual property experts and university officials. The result of the committee’s hard work and Ted’s strong, real world business background was passage of a series of bills that provided much needed regulatory relief, improved Wisconsin’s infrastructure and increased capital investment. One of the bills specifically encouraged more investment in start-up Wisconsin technology companies and has produced the kind of high-end, high-paying jobs Wisconsin desperately needs. The bill, now know as 2003 Wisconsin Act 255 is being looked at by other states as a model piece of legislation. Largely because of the efforts of Senator Kanavas, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce called the 2003-3004 legislative session was one of “the most pro-business sessions in modern state history.”

Ted now proudly serves as Chairman of the Committee on Job Creation, Economic Development and Consumer Affairs. He is continuing his pursuit of sound economic policy through creation of the “Invest Wisconsin” package. Invest Wisconsin contains a number of bills, many of them authored by Senator Kanavas including; broadband deployment legislation, elimination of the capital gains tax, venture capital investment, an innovation tax credit for businesses, and product liability reform. Passage of many of the proposals in the Invest Wisconsin package has been one of the true success stories of this legislative session. Along with the set of aggressive bills in Invest Wisconsin package, Ted also authored the Senate property tax freeze, a bill to eliminate the “Death Tax”, several election reform proposals.

Throughout his time in the Senate Ted has championed reforms to encourage investment and eliminate burdensome regulations placed upon Wisconsin companies thereby stifling our state’s economic growth. Ted believes that Wisconsin needs to change the way it regulates business in order to ensure that companies are able to grow and create high-paying jobs.

In addition to chairing the Economic Development Committee, during the current 2005-2006 Legislative Session Ted also serves on the Committee on Labor and Elections Process Reform and the Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security, and Military Affairs, Small Business and Government Reform. He is also a member of the board of the Wisconsin Technology Council.

Ted is very happily married to his wife Mary. They live in Brookfield with their three wonderful children; Kelly, Nick, and Kate.