Off-The-Cuff
Again, welcome to the fifteenth anniversary of southern Minnesota’s first and only locally owned business publication, Connect Business Magazine. Can it be fifteen?
Read MoreAgain, welcome to the fifteenth anniversary of southern Minnesota’s first and only locally owned business publication, Connect Business Magazine. Can it be fifteen?
Read MoreFormer Target VP and Trendmaster
In 1975, Mankato State senior Robyn Niichel looked like most other students walking across Stadium Road to their parked automobiles. Not much stood out. She hailed from small-town rural Minnesota—even attending a one-room schoolhouse for one year. Only a few years before had she begun controlling her stuttering.
Read MoreBusiness Person of the Year 2009
John Finke, our Business Person of the Year 2009 and president of Mankato-based, $155 million HickoryTech Corporation, also accents his conversations with a choice word. It’s “certainly,” an adverb, which means definitely, positively, undoubtedly or unquestionably.
Read MoreYou made it through Election 2008. You survived the senatorial recount—oh, is that another eighteen missing ballots under my desk?
Read MoreNew Ulm: Spinning Spool Quilt Shop – “I was sewing by hand with my grandmother and mother when I was little, making doll clothes, for instance,” said Val Besser, owner.
Blue Earth: Midwest Horse Digest – Rahn Greimann’s grandfather and mother owned horses, and his godparents owned a pony farm where children could ride for $1.
New Ulm: Sven and Ole’s Books – Sven—yes, there really is a Sven in New Ulm—came here in 2006 when New Ulm Medical Center hired his wife as an orthopedic surgeon.
Read MoreIn 1971, 22-year-old Dale Brenke had wrapped up his accounting training at Mankato Commercial College and was wiping windshields and pumping petrol part-time for Bernie’s One Stop service station on Front Street across from Hubbard Milling. The $1.10 an hour pay helped—somewhat. He was actively searching for a better job, but his search had been impeded by a pesky U.S. recession affecting Mankato.
Read MoreMankato: Brunton Architects – Brunton Architects, an architecture and interior design firm, opened in February 2008 in the Community Bank headquarters building in Mankato.
Mankato: RE/MAX – Patti Schuch opened a RE/MAX franchise a year ago at 1635 North Riverfront. Before getting there, she had quite the experience growing up.
Read MorePresident/CEO of Greater Mankato Growth
“Once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout,” says Jonathan Zierdt, a boyish grin spreading as smeared peanut butter and jelly all over his facial features. At one time, Zierdt was more than just a highly decorated Eagle Scout. Nearly fifteen years ago, he also oversaw about 1,500 Boy Scouts in dozens of Owatonna-area troops and packs and was this close to becoming a lifelong Scouting executive. With the Scouts, he began applying lessons learned.
Read MoreChris Wiener’s effortless, boyish smile never seems to fade, and neither does Lady and Champ’s enthusiasm for ear scratching, nor the autumn sunlight piercing the rear barn window to warm a deserted barn-wood chair. The idyllic setting could have been an inspiring Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover.
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