Annual Awards Results

The drawn out moniker of “Connect Business Magazine/KEYC-TV Business Person of the Year” won’t fit on the back of your bowling shirt, but does quite nicely framed and hanging in the company foyer for clients and potential employees to oo and ah. Just ask Wayne Kahler of Kahler Automation in Fairmont. He gets this year’s nota bene.

We called for nominations in our September 2012 issue and Minnesota State University College of Business professors then voted Kahler best overall in four judged categories: personal character, business results, community involvement, and leadership. He appears smiling on our cover as our tenth annual “Business Person of the Year.” Kahler Automation, his 23-year-old west-end Fairmont high-tech business, has doubled in size the last few years and begun doing business worldwide, including South Africa and Argentina.

Our other award winners are River Hills Mall Senior General Manager Paul Wilke, who finished second, and Brian Fowler, owner of Quality 1 Hr. Foto and SPX Sports and Design, who claimed show in this year’s horse race. Fowler’s “Quality 1 Hr. Foto” also wins our all-time award for being the most difficult name to copy edit.

Sursum ad summum,

Daniel J. Vance
Editor