Premier Partners
The Canopy group was named the 2018 Agency of the Year by the Minnesota Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers Association, and for good reason. In recent years, The Canopy Group has quadrupled in size. Six years ago they had two carriers with a million dollars of premium per year. Today, they have over a million dollars of premium per year with more than 10 carriers.
For Nathan Stolt, being a successful entrepreneur means knowing how to use mistakes to identify your strengths. It means asking questions of those that came before you. And it means offering a helping hand to others. “We’ve been fortunate because we get to meet a lot of other small businesses of all types,” says Stolt. “We get to interact with so many different types so we can start introducing them to each other which is fantastic to see.”
Twenty three years ago, Kathy Sanger was a new college graduate working as an evening admissions representative at Rasmussen College. Today, she leads the campus in Mankato that now serves more than 700 students. She has filled a variety of roles in her tenure at Rasmussen including Admissions Manager, Director of Admissions and Director of Campus Operations.
New Ulm-based Big Ideas Hopes to Bridge the Gap The Big Ideas initiative in New Ulm actually started as a
When writing this issue, a theme quickly popped out at me: all of our featured characters know the value of good, old fashioned hard work. They all came to learn that at a very young age. Our cover story, Wu Lin, epitomizes what it means to have a dream and do what it takes to make it come true.
For James Hebl, medicine and a positive patient experience are not only professional pursuits, but are very personal as well. “When I was a sophomore in high school, my youngest brother was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus at age 5. I saw the impact diabetes had on not only my brother – but the entire family. The pediatrician caring for my brother was so kind, patient and knowledgeable when describing the condition and what we needed to do as a family. This life event, in addition to my passion for pharmacology and the biologic sciences, played a major role in my decision to enter medicine,” he reflects.
During the 2018 season, the renovated Franklin Rogers Park in Mankato has made nearly as many headlines as the final scores of Moondogs games. The team has been playing over .500 baseball, but the ballpark is hitting a homerun with each home game played. Lost somewhere in the box scores is the fact that new ownership took over the Northwoods League team in the off-season, giving the 19-year-old collegiate summer baseball team something it has never had before: local ownership.
Business no longer takes place in a monolinguistic world. “The United States is sorely behind all other countries when it comes to linguistic advancement,” explains Tessa Donato, founder of Mankato-based LinguaOne. “Approximately 60-75% of the world’s population speaks, at least, two languages. Throughout Europe, it is not uncommon for people to know four to six languages.”
Emily Green has a Bachelor’s of Science in History. Kim Ruby has a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology. So it makes sense then, that the two friends would open up a unique art shop in the heart of Old Town Mankato. “Neither of us have any training in art or ceramics,” says Emily smiling. “But Kim is from Southern California and they have these type of studios everywhere out there.”
