Beyond the Skyline

Elevating and expanding diversity, equality and inclusion (DE&I) efforts is gaining prominence for many organizations, including those in Minnesota’s Medical Alley.

Medical Alley companies are not only undertaking internal DE&I reflection and initiatives, but they’re also looking externally to help their communities achieve better equities in health. To ensure this DE&I work is successful and meaningful, Alexis Kochanski, of the Medical Alley Association, says employees at all levels must buy in to the work.

Kochanski is the association’s director of member engagement – working with members and learning about their DE&I efforts. The association has about 600 member organizations of all sizes, with the Medical Alley representing the highest concentration of medical technology workers in the nation.

This month, the association launched a slate of DE&I resources at medicalalley.org. Here, member organizations like 3M and Ecolab detail and discuss their DE&I efforts.

Prior to working with the Medical Alley Association, Kochanski worked in a legislative affairs position for the state of Minnesota and for an organization in Washington, D.C., that specialized in forestry. She holds a master’s degree in public health with an emphasis in public policy and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Minnesota. She speaks with reporter Kelly Busche.

The past few weeks have a whirlwind for Karla Henderson, Bloomington’s new director of community development.

Henderson joined the city in mid-March. Since that time, she has been getting acquainted with new colleagues in Minnesota’s fourth-largest city and finalizing her move from Michigan, where she had similar jobs in recent years.

Most recently, Henderson worked as a department director for the city of Highland Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. She previously spent five years with the city of Ann Arbor, and oversaw planning and facilities for the city of Detroit.

Henderson’s resume also includes officer-level positions for two area nonprofits, a job as director of capital development for Wayne County, Michigan, and managing director responsibilities for a consulting firm working with cities and nonprofit firms.

In the following interview, Henderson speaks with reporter Brian Johnson about her new role with the city and reflects on where the city has been and where it’s going in the post-pandemic world

Deb Hilmerson began her 30-year career in construction by setting precast concrete on the Mall of America parking ramps. Mortenson then recruited her to join in a safety role after funding additional education certification. During her career, she worked in numerous roles at several construction companies, learning to manage finances and operations, before setting out to establish her own company.

Prior Lake-based Hilmerson Safety is entering its 20th year of operations, and its work and innovation isn’t slowing down.

Hilmerson initially focused on Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance auditing, training, and inspections and acted as a safety coordinator for various companies. But about five years ago, the company pivoted away from these consultation services and focused solely on inventing products to sell to general contractors.

She created one of the company’s leading products, the Hilmerson Safety Rail System, after consulting with a number of the nation’s leading general contractors — who now use the safety product on projects of all types. In this interview Deb Hilmerson speaks with reporter Kelly Busche.

The CEO of Sunrise Banks, David Reiling, was recently named chair of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values — the world’s premier value-based banking organization. Reiling is succeeding Peter Blom, who founded the GABV and served as chair since its creation in 2009.

It’s made up of 66 financial intuitions across Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America, North America and Europe, the combination of which serves more than 70 million customers and holds more than $200 billion in combined assets under management.

In leading the GABV, Reiling plans to continue furthering the organization’s social and environmental impact, as well as sustain and recruit new members.

In this interview with reporter Kelly Busche, Reiling talks about how he sees an opportunity to grow value-based banking in the United States, especially with a new generation of bankers and non-bankers who are more socially conscious.

Like offensive linemen on a football team, roofers tend to go unnoticed until something bad happens.

“People only think about their roof if it’s leaking, right?” says Jason Stock, chief financial officer of Central Roofing, a longtime roofing contractor in Minneapolis. “Out of sight, out of mind. If water is staying out, it’s good. If it’s coming in, it’s the end of the world.”

Central Roofing has done its part to keep roofs from leaking for more than 90 years. The company started out as a “one-man shop” during the Great Depression and has since grown to serve clients across the country.

Local clients and projects include the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, the Hennepin County Medical Center, and the historic 1888 Masonic Temple in Minneapolis.

In the following interview with reporter Brian Johnson, Stock touches on the history of Central Roofing and the impact of COVID-19 on the roofing business as a whole, among other topics.

After a 42-year career — during which she founded one of the state’s first women-owned architecture firms and impacted some of the Twin Cities’ most notable buildings — Linda McCracken-Hunt has retired from her architecture career.

She started her career after graduating from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1978. She spent time at Cuningham Architects; Architectural Alliance, now Alliiance; and Ankeny Kell Architects, and then returned to the university where she was eventually appointed university architect.

McCracken-Hunt left the university to join Studio Five Architects, a firm that she co-owned with her husband, Tom Hunt.

Her most recent employer, JLG Architects, called her a “pioneer” of women-owned architect firms.

With Studio Five, she led teams that worked on the university’s Recreation and Wellness Center expansion, Phillips Community Center and Aquatics Center project, and U.S. Bank Stadium construction.

She also provided owner representation services to the Regions Hospital expansion, Elmer L. Andersen Human Services Building and Penfield Apartment projects.

JLG Architects acquired Studio Five in 2016, and McCracken-Hunt joined as a principal architect. Here, her projects included Frogtown Community Center and the Eau Claire City Hall.

Throughout her career, she also served in several positions with the American Institute of Architects and received membership to its College of Fellows in 2009. The award is considered one of the highest honors in the profession.

Out of all the projects that McCracken-Hunt has impacted, community centers are her favorite, as she told reporter Kelly Busche in this episode of Beyond the Skyline.

It may come as a surprise to some that the market for buying and selling businesses has remained strong. Are you thinking about making a change in 2021? In this special episode of Beyond the Skyline, our experts will discuss considerations for selling or buying in the current economic climate. You'll learn what to look for and what to expect in the process, including legal considerations, valuation, financing options, how to handle the proceeds from a sale and much more.

More information about the panelists featured in this podcast can be found below:

• Lisa Holter Ankel, Avisen Legal

• John Thwing, The SBA Guy, 21st Century Bank

• R. Don Keysser, managing principal, Hannover Ltd.

• Young Bebus, president, VR Business Brokers

• Brian Larson, Morgan Stanley

Our wide-ranging conversation took place, via Zoom, on February 25.

Golden Valley-based Mortenson has long played an active role in a renewable energy sector that’s been around — as the company points out — a lot longer than some people might think.

For proof, look no further than Mortenson’s own experience. Just last fall, Mortenson celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Wind Energy Group, which was launched in the mid-1990s with a “single wind turbine project in Iowa,” as the company has noted.

Mortenson’s wind portfolio has since grown to encompass 200 projects with 30,000 megawatts of energy. This year, Mortenson expects to work on projects in Minnesota and more than a dozen other states.

Tim Maag, a 40-year Mortenson veteran, is the vice president and general manager of the company’s Wind Energy Group. Maag leads strategies around business growth and oversees preconstruction and construction of wind power facilities, according to his bio.

Maag is an active board member of the American Wind Energy Association and a past member of the Society of American Military Engineers. He previously managed the company’s Federal Contracting Group.

In the following interview with reporter Brian Johnson, Maag talks about the past, present and future of Mortenson’s Wind Energy Group, the outlook for the wind sector writ large, and the PR hit that wind took following the deadly severe weather crisis in Texas, which left millions without power.

Amy Fredregill brings ample experience to her new role as senior director of sustainability at WSB, a Twin Cities-based provider of engineering, planning, environmental and construction services.

Most recently, she was managing director of the Sustainable Growth Coalition, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that works with public, private and nonprofit clients on everything from clean air and water initiatives to sustainable landscaping.

As a go-to expert on sustainability and resiliency, Fredregill has supported the Minnesota Association of Cooperatives, Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System Inc., and Xcel Energy initiatives, and has testified before the Legislature on clean energy and climate issues.

In the following interview, Fredregill talks with reporter Brian Johnson about her duties with WSB, her previous work with public and private sector clients, and what communities are looking for on the sustainability front.

After spending nearly two decades working in Twin Cities real estate, Josh Budish has launched his own industrial real estate company.

Budish founded Endeavor Development at the start of this year, and he serves as principal. Endeavor is solely focused on industrial properties in the Twin Cities market — a market that’s healthy and ripe for growth, thanks to limited supply and pent-up demand for this type of property, says Budish.

Endeavor’s narrow focus on this market will be an asset to the new company, which has a team of three and several projects already lined up.

Throughout his career, Budish has managed the development of more than $300 million in real estate, as well as the management of more than $500 million, the investment of more than $500 million and the leasing of more than $1 billion in real estate on behalf of institutional investors.

Budish was previously vice president of leasing and development for Duke Realty and was responsible for the leasing, development and performance of Duke’s 5.1 million-square foot industrial portfolio. Budish speaks with reporter Kelly Busche about his career and his latest endeavor.