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One frosty morning soon in Winnebago, Minn.—perhaps near the blazing-white welcome sign promoting the town’s annual celebration, Motofest—you might catch a local or two stretching a colorful vinyl banner above U.S. 169.
Perhaps it will say: Welcome to Winnebago. Home of Corn Plus. In 2005, first in the world to make ethanol production truly energy efficient.
A Menard’s employee seven years ago sold Glen Taylor a lawn mower.
An elderly man saw Glen Taylor purchasing flowers at Hilltop Florist.
A married couple saw him eating lunch at The Peddler.
A hunter saw him bringing a deer into Vernon Center Market.
On the surface it seems she should be. She is Vice President and General Counsel of Boston Scientific’s cardiovascular division, and as such works inside the pulsating heart of a $5.6 billion publicly traded corporation (NYSE: BSX). Boston Scientific has 16,000 employees worldwide—with a hearty 3,000 in Plymouth and Maple Grove, Minn., including Lance, helping manufacture, develop and market lifesaving medical devices.
Primarily, she serves as an in-house attorney. The medical device she personally helped launch in 2004, the complicated sounding TAXUS® Express2™ Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent System, has been offering genuine hope for millions of Americans with blocked heart arteries. Earlier this year, Boston Scientific announced the millionth sale and implantation of that particular stent, nearly doubling the corporation’s revenue.
“Mamma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get,” drawled Forrest Gump in the movie bearing his name. If so, life has been a box of chocolates for Orthopaedic & Fracture Clinic senior partner Dr. R. Wynn Kearney, Jr.
For one, not all his surgeries are alike. Some especially require his crystal-clear vision—like the wrist operation at right—to check detail. Others need his vise-like grip for handling an orthopedic saw. Wynn Kearney can perform any number of orthopedic surgeries.
Remember these educators. Fifty years from now their photos may appear in history books as distant reminders of a radical revolution, one proving for all-time that teachers, parents and students rather than state and federal bureaucracies can and should own public education.
Of course, it helps greatly that the generous hand of Microsoft’s Bill Gates has been assisting. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has granted these educators nearly $10 million since 2001 to replicate their EdVisions Cooperative education model throughout the United States. So far 23 public high schools have signed on and many more will follow. What this group has been doing can only be described as fomenting a radical revolution in public education—with the words “radical revolution” not a bit overstated.
Pull up your chair. It’s just you and Milt.
Only reluctantly does he tell of An Khe Pass.
It was the firefight of his life. Hold tight.
Huffing and puffing up endless white steps while carrying camera equipment under the Capitol dome shadow in St. Paul, higher and onward, Kris and I finally enter through double doors and hang a left toward the Governor’s Office. His receptionist tells us to relax, but can we? We’re nervously waiting for this person with the power to make or break Minnesota’s business climate, to make or break your business perhaps.
So this is the Governor’s Office.
Columnist George Will turns to Wade Hensel and asks about Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s recent job performance and Wade is so nervous his knees start knocking Morse code. Wade offers his opinion. He is front and center in bright-lights Nashville readying to address 6,000 peers in 2003 as Chairman of $20 billion in assets Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC), a private organization owned by 800 rural electric cooperatives. George Will, Wade’s keynote speaker, is nervous too yet later coolly delivers his spiel on world events, politics and those lovable Addison Street losers, the Chicago Cubs.
North Mankatoan Wade Hensel is acting precocious, again.
In the movie title The Passion of the Christ, the word “passion” refers to acute suffering, as in the spiritually opaque hours between Jesus’ last supper and his crucifixion. The Latin root for passion means “suffering.”
In business, “passion” has a different meaning, usually referring to a continual burning excitement a person feels toward a product, company or task, as in “I have a passion for my work.”
