Month: January 2010

Cover Story

Pamela J. Year

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.

Read More
Hot Startz!

Railway Bar & Grill, The Splendid Nest, European Antiques

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.

Read More
Feature Story

Jerry Dulas

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.

Read More
Off-The-Cuff

Off-The-Cuff

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.”

Read More
Feature Story

Bryan Sweet

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.

Read More