Disarmingly gracious and soft-spoken, Dave Neiman of Arrow Ace Hardware since 1985 has shepherded—purposefully under the media radar—the astounding transformation of a solitary St. Peter hardware store into a vibrant, money-making, ten-store group effectively competing against big-box stores.
Read More
She’s the same “you-go-girl” that sold squash in 1971 alongside U.S. 169 in Vernon Center. Cindy Rae was only nine then. Her marketing metamorphosis in time would become her family’s Pumpkinland, an agriculture-entertainment theme park that included the bizarre spectacle of goats walking on boards high in the sky, a soothing tractor ride, skits and desserts, and a 90-foot catapult launching pumpkins 500 feet into the Blue Earth River.
Read MoreThere once was a little boy named Bryan, who lived with his family on a hilltop overlooking ordinary Deep Valley. Bryan enjoyed art best and boldly dreamed of drawing pictures to turn beloved Deep Valley beautiful.
Bryan got older. Bryan’s dad, a mechanic, could fix anything Bryan brought home, even a dented Radio Flyer wagon. Bryan’s mother worked at the Big Factory. His brother traveled across the ocean to a scary place called Vietnam.
In high school, Bryan’s teacher said he could be somebody and a spunky girl said it, too. After Bryan finished college, he came home to Deep Valley and married the spunky girl. Later, he started a company that drew pictures and turned beloved Deep Valley beautiful.
Read MoreThe post-game television interview we all have witnessed: Famous football quarterback after tossing a key touchdown strike giving credit to his teammates for an emotional victory in The Big Game. Yet that made-for-TV, locker-room speech sometimes seems canned, even obligatory, as if spreading the love around had more to do with the player maintaining an image than a true appreciation of his teammates’ contributions.
With genuineness pressing around every syllable, Jeff Thom, founder and co-owner of $20 million-plus and 55-employee All American Foods, gave due credit in this Business Person of the Year 2008 interview to a number of people for his success.
Read MoreFaster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Also able to cut to the chase faster than a diamond through frosted glass.
No she isn’t Superman, or even Superwoman, but Sarah Person (say Peer-son) does have a superabundance of supernatural energy. Owner of 13-employee Exclusively Diamonds, 45-year-old Person has methodically transformed her swank retail business—founded by her mother in 1979—from Mankato’s best-kept secret into a roaring retail machine.
Read MoreOne day, Minnesota author Garrison Keillor might write St. Clair native Mike Drummer into one of his folksy, best-selling novels. Baseball cap covering his head, summer open-toe sandals and winter flannel, a love affair with growling earth-moving equipment, one of ten children, his dad serenading the milk cows with polka music – 45-year-old Drummer at times seems more from Lake Wobegon than a Greater Mankato land developer and small business owner.
It took him every bit of six years to finish a teaching degree because he had to pay his own bill. By his own admission, he grew up “damn poor.” While attending Minnesota State University, he milked the family cows, cared for the neighbors’ hogs, coached high school basketball, and in the spring worked for landscaping and garden center businesses. After beginning a small business with wife Julie in 1991, Drummer earned extra money as a substitute teacher, basketball coach, and Tires Plus employee.
Read MorePhotojournalist Flip Schulke caught the eye of America more than any person ever calling southern Minnesota home. Through his curious camera, he captured the drum beat of a generation by bringing to life legends like Muhammad Ali, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jacques Cousteau, Fidel Castro, and eight U.S. presidents, scores of astronauts, sports heroes, and politicians. He photographed the Berlin Wall over a thirty-five year period and for better than a decade was the world’s leading expert on underwater photography. He was one of the first photographers inside the Texas School Book Depository after President Kennedy’s assassination.
Working as a self-employed, freelance magazine photojournalist, his work included choice assignments from the mid-1950s to 1980s for Life, Ebony, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Time, National Geographic, and Look. His University of Texas archives contain more than 600,000 negatives, slides and prints.
Read MoreConsider: Art Olsen was the fifth child of the county courthouse custodian in Estherville, Iowa.
He was the president of Advertising Unlimited in Sleepy Eye, an R.L. Polk division in Detroit, R.L. Polk itself in Detroit, and Norwood Promotional Products in Austin, Texas. These businesses ranged in size from $60 million to $450 million in revenue. Since 2003, he has been president and co-founder of New Ulm-based start-up Beacon Promotions Inc. His most recent company custom prints and supplies promotional products to 4,500 distributors—and is growing rapidly.
Read MoreJerry wore a happy face. But inside he was crying.
Through his company BAMCO, Inc., he owned and operated McDonald’s franchises in Northfield, Faribault, and three in Mankato. He had every reason to be hilariously happy, including his selling of Happy Meals, and having been with McDonald’s since 1958—billions and billions of sandwiches before Ray Kroc dreamed up two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. Having been in on the ground floor of the greatest restaurant success story of all time, Jerry was so steeped in the happy ways of McDonald’s that he and it were as one.
Read More