2016 Business Person of the Year

The nominations were collected, the votes were tallied and the suspense is over: We’ve got the names of our 2016 Business Person of the Year winners.

A big thanks to our Minnesota State University Mankato College of Business panel of professors, who judged CEO Tom Ahern of Coughlan Companies our Business Person of the Year according to our nomination criteria, which includes business results, community involvement, personal character and leadership.

Even a quick scan of Tom’s business background makes it obvious why he deserves the award. Besides doubling Coughlan Companies’ revenue in the eight years he’s been its CEO, Ahern also led Capstone, Coughlan’s publishing company, into the digital era. The company’s personalized reading program, myON, is utilized by more than six million students.

Our first and second runners-up were Denny Dotson and Jean Bye, chairman and CEO of Dotson Iron Castings, respectively, and Jill Berdan, branch president at SouthPoint Federal Credit Union in Sleepy Eye.

These four Business Person of the Year winners each have great stories that should excite and inspire. Thank you to all our readers who created a diverse pool of nominees yet another year. We hope you enjoy this issue.

An veritas, an nihil,
Grace Webb