Business Person of the Year 2010
Pamela J. Year verbally chisels out one point crystal clear: Mankato-based MRCI WorkSource is a $46 million private nonprofit business. It has never been nor will ever be a government agency. MRCI WorkSource’s 335 paid staff members create innovative employment programs for more than four thousand people with disabilities.
Sleepy Eye: Railway Bar & Grill – Dan and Sue Helget had their open house for Railway Bar & Grill at 300 First Avenue North about a year ago.
New Ulm: The Splendid Nest – Kathleen Connell recently opened The Splendid Nest at 210 North Minnesota in the former Grand Hotel.
New Ulm: European Antiques – Aini Isaksson was born in Hosko, Finland, and early on with her parents moved to Sweden. In time, she owned a cleaning business there.
Business Person of the Year 2010 – Runner-Up
Jerry Dulas is much more comfortable moving dirt from the seat of an excavator cab than sitting at an office table answering a magazine writer’s questions. That’s why his daughter, Tanya Pierce, offered to buffer the experience by joining in the interview. It was Tanya who nominated her father for Connect Business Magazine Business Person of the Year 2010, somewhat to his dismay.
I’ve acquired the habit of patting myself down like a policeman frisking a robbery suspect. While the practice must appear peculiar to onlookers, I’m simply taking inventory; trying to ensure everything I need to function beyond the confines of my home or office is somewhere upon my person.
Before we start: Our many thanks go out to the seven Minnesota State University College of Business professors choosing our 2010 Business Person of the Year, Pamela J. Year of MRCI WorkSource. In her email to us on October 7 declaring the final vote results, Dr. Ann Kuzma of the MSU College of Business said, “Several of the faculty expressed that this year’s nominees were very impressive and that it was quite difficult to make a final selection.”
Business Person of the Year 2010 – Runner-Up
In roundabout fashion, sour has become deliciously sweet for Bryan Sweet. To begin, when he was only age four, his father and mother’s marriage soured down in Blue Earth. Then Dad decided to live much closer to Mankato and would not utter another word to Bryan the rest of his life. It was painful.
Waseca: Waseca Enews – Waseca Enews launched on August 11 webcasting print, video, and audio over its WasecaEnews.com website.
Garden City: Red Barn Retreats – Shelley and Marty Leenhouts began Red Barn Retreats on August 22 with a well-attended grand opening.
Mankato: Vanderberg Clean – You could almost say Joshua Vanderberg has cleaning supplies coursing through his veins.
If not for being shaped and sharpened by challenge after challenge, Brett and Dynette Niebuhr almost certainly wouldn’t have had the background or passion to start Wells-based B&D Metal Works—let alone grow and adapt it so well—to serve the metal working needs of Upper Midwest customers.
“Many businesses manufacture hardware, many produce software; we do both,” said Mark Gaalswyk, owner and CEO of Easy Automation, Inc. “Our business hits dead center on the line where those two meet.”
