Premier Partners
Most young Minnesotans simply don’t aspire to having a career caring for dairy animals 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year for years. Jerry Van Oort lived that hard life early on. It would teach him nearly everything necessary for later business success, including the art of surviving change and adversity, of which he would have plenty.
Despite declaring himself “shade blind,” Mike Mason, the 71-year-old founder and owner of Sleepy Eye Stained Glass, has spent the last 30 years working with architects, interior designers and individual customers on churches, commercial buildings and private homes.
The 1982-93 feel-good sitcom Cheers with know-it-all Cliff, athlete Sam, psychiatrist Frasier and perfectionist Diane was set in a Boston neighborhood bar “where everybody knows your name.” The bar patrons gathered as family.
If 54-year-old Anne Makepeace of New Ulm were to choose a song to describe her life, The Beatles’ 1967 chart buster Getting Better with the oft-repeated positive line “it’s getting better all the time” surely would be one possibility.
Emily Baumann-Flitter recruited Melissa Volk to be a Mary Kay beauty consultant in 2009.
In early 2010, Tom Hamberg began Ameradon Services, which offers radon testing and mitigation services.
When Jessica Frein was 15, her father starting a business in Iowa wanted tax advice from a lawyer he could trust.
I used to pop out of bed ready to grab the tiger by the tail. I don’t do much popping anymore. Year after year, I increasingly came to rely on my clock radio to raise me from the depths of sleep, that is, until the plug was pulled on my favorite morning program.
Can you believe spring is almost here? The Editor has doubts and probably won’t believe spring has sprung until late May or the first mosquito, whichever comes first. That snow pile buttressing our home probably won’t melt until July 4.
We issued a call for nominations in September and the first week of October sent off the nominee list along with supporting information to our panel of judges, who were Minnesota State business faculty. For the fifth straight year, they did a superb job choosing.
Business Person of the Year 2011 – Runner Up
Imagine 63-year-old Warren P. Smith right now as a household appliance plugged into a home electrical outlet. His talkative mouth whirrs like a Sunbeam Blender set on “puree” and his leg and arm appendages gyrate with nervous energy not unlike a Maytag clothes washer on spin cycle.
