Editor’s Letter

If this May/June issue generates only half the excitement of our March/April 20th anniversary blockbuster featuring Tailwind Group co-owner Kyle Smith, we will be more than pleased as punch. It would seem no other issue in our publishing history grabbed our readers’ attention like that issue.

With this issue, Connect Business Magazine marks 20 years in business. In the inaugural March 1994 issue, Publisher Jeff Irish said, “If we do our job well, the information contained within the pages of this magazine will strengthen your own local business connections and provide tangible benefits to your organization.”

Pinske owns Mankato-based AmeriCare Mobility Van, and has been president of the Minnesota R-80 Medical Transportation Coalition and the R-80 representative on the governor-sponsored Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Advisory Council. His employees transport people to and from medical-related appointments in 14 southern Minnesota counties.

Our November/December issue showcases independent, locally owned business owners successfully battling large chains and franchises. All of them have their winsome ways.

Some business owners, their business issues, and their personal lives don’t fit easily into stereotypes. They are square pegs forced into round holes, the perpetual outliers, and virtually indescribable—even after an extended, attempted description.

This offbeat issue features four ridiculously successful businesspeople doing a great deal of business outside our nine-county Connect Business Magazine reading area, even nationally and internationally. Yet they all chose our area for their home—or business home.

The businesspeople featured this issue each have more than four decades of solid experience in their respective industries.

Family Ties, Family Matters, All in the Family, Family Guy, The Addam’s Family—all these American TV shows became successful by featuring family relationships and dynamics.

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.