mankato

Cover Story

Curt Fisher

Forget nine, Curt Fisher has nine hundred lives.

He has badly wrecked a BSA motorcycle, lost altitude and crashed a power parachute onto a Blue Earth County park pavilion, navigated the dangerously rocky Blue Earth River perhaps hundreds of times on a jet ski, sailed across the rough Atlantic Ocean in a sailboat, and barely survived his antique steam engine flipping over before a North Mankato parade. And we’re just getting started.

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Feature Story

Norsoft

This could be Greater Mankato’s most breathtaking and peaceful panorama of the Minnesota River Valley. Soothing classical music from Bach and Beethoven to Berlioz on KGAC-FM glides around workstations and faintly filters through hallways. Twelve employees—and the only sounds they create are whispers and feather-light keystrokes.

Shhh.

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Cover Story

Jennifer Pfeffer

Our present-day world seems to have more change than a Vegas casino. President Obama and Rep. Pelosi press for paradigm-shifting change, Eyjafjallakökull coughs up clouds of it, Detroit’s mayor agonizes over change, nuclear Ahmadinejad desires more, Osama bin Laden fights for it, globalization causes it, Wall Street experiences chaos in it, and Apple enables it.

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Hot Startz!

Renew Skin & Laser Center, Jessica Barnett Chiropractic, The Friendly Confines Cheese Shoppe

Fairmont: Renew Skin & Laser Center – “I’m from Michigan, and we moved here in 1990, when (my husband) Cory and I moved here for his orthopedic practice,” said 49-year-old Rene Welchlin in a telephone interview.

Mankato: Jessica Barnett Chiropractic & Acupuncture Clinic – “I was born and raised in Mankato, and went to Loyola High School,” said 29-year-old Jessica Barnett in a Connect Business Magazine telephone interview.

Le Sueur: The Friendly Confines Cheese Shoppe – Kirk Litynski grew up in St. Peter as a classmate of Jon Davis, part of the Davis family owning Davisco Foods International. This last August, Davis hired his long-time friend to launch and manage The Friendly Confines Cheese Shoppe at 719 North Main

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Cover Story

Brad Buscher

54-year-old Buscher nurtures and cherishes businesses. In fact, a person could call him a “business connoisseur.” He searches the world over for just the right companies to pluck from the vine—a weighty 28 at last count, including several that have pressed out new industries and been positioned for exponential growth.

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Hot Startz!

Critical Fuel Technology, Mankato Clinic Infusion Center, North Central International

Madison Lake: Critical Fuel Technoly – When leaving in 2008 as vice president of manufacturing, Terry Treanor had 14 years in at Winland Electronics in Mankato.

Mankato: Mankato Clinic Infusion Center – On April 20, 2009, Mankato Clinic’s Oncology, Hematology, and Infusion Center opened in the lower level of Mankato Clinic at 1230 Main Street in Mankato.

New Ulm: North Central International – At one time, Tom and Dave Fox were the sole owners of Fox Brothers of Sanborn, retailing and servicing medium and heavy trucks in Sanborn, Minnesota.

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Cover Story

Pamela J. Year

Business Person of the Year 2010

Pamela J. Year verbally chisels out one point crystal clear: Mankato-based MRCI WorkSource is a $46 million private nonprofit business. It has never been nor will ever be a government agency. MRCI WorkSource’s 335 paid staff members create innovative employment programs for more than four thousand people with disabilities.

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Cover Story

Kent & Kim Schwickert

Brothers help third-generation, 300-employee, Mankato family business expand into national entity.

Lewis and Clark, Simon and Garfunkel, Brooks and Dunn, Procter and Gamble, Currier and Ives, Gilbert and Sullivan. Each male duo noted above has at least one attribute shared with the others: each developed (or has developed) synergies from their partnership to accomplish much more than each person could have individually.

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