The Melrose Twin Cities Principled Leadership Award was established in 2021 to honor Ken Melrose, namesake of the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership and fervent champion of ethics and servant leadership as well as promote an aspirational vision of responsible and responsive leadership in practice.

The 2023 awardee, George Lee, is the founder of Jobs Foundation, REPOWERED, and CEO Snap Agency. His genuine care for people is at the cores of his character. Poverty alleviation, vocational skills development, promotion of sustainable industry, elimination of discrimination, urban waste management, hazardous waste reduction, and climate change mitigation are just a few of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals achieved here in Twin Cities as a result of Lee's unwavering dedication to create social enterprises focused on BOTH providing comprehensive job training for individuals facing barriers to employment AND responsible electronic waste recycling.

Listen and learn more about Lee and his service to the common good.

Thanks for listening to Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson. 

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

Is Your Work Worth It? : A conversation with Chad Sokol is the third of three episodes of Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson featuring interviewees whose stories appear in my new book with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, Is Your Work Worth It? Because don’t we all, at some point, wonder whether what we get out of our work is worth what we give to it? 

Sokol has held some of the best executive positions we can imagine, as the head buyer of wine, beer, and now candy at Costco, the U.S.-based warehouse club retail chain. But on his career journey, he has also operated a drill press machine and herded carts in the parking lot. Did I mention he also performs music and is a published poet? Listen on for his take on what makes his work worth it. 

Thanks for listening to Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

Is Your Work Worth It? : A conversation with Kristine Enea, JD, is the second of three episodes of Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson featuring interviewees whose stories appear in my new book with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, Is Your Work Worth It? Because don’t we all, at some point, wonder whether what we get out of our work is worth what we give to it? 

Enea has had many careers: in law, big tech, writing a book, politics, and real estate, among others. Now 58 years old, she is a student again, preparing for her next career: as a medical doctor. Listen on for her take on what makes her work worth it. 

Thanks for listening to Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

Is Your Work Worth It? : A conversation with Dennis Curley is the first of three episodes of Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson featuring interviewees whose stories appear in my new book with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, Is Your Work Worth It? Because don’t we all, at some point, wonder whether what we get out of our work is worth what we give to it? 

Dennis Curley has sung “Sweet Caroline” at least 1,000 times. That helps to explain why he says, “You can’t base your perception of who you are on what you do.” Listen to what makes Dennis’ work as a music performer worth it. 

Thanks for listening to Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.  

In part four of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with John Sullivan, who recently retired from a long and distinguished career as a corporate lawyer but who remains active in volunteer engagement with organizations such as the Minneapolis Foundation and the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Sullivan shares his story about following his interests rather than a pre-set plan in his search for a career for the common good. He says, “I doubt that my legal work will be remembered for long, but I believe that I have helped local nonprofits become more effective and I have created significant change for the lives of LGBTQ+ people and my hope is that those changes will inspire additional changes by future leaders.” 

This series is co-sponsored by the following enterprises at the University of St. Thomas: 

• The Center for the Common Good 
• The Alumni, Career & Corporate Engagement Center 
• The Selim Center for Lifelong Learning  

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.  

In part three of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with Lindsey Hickey, CEO of Simek’s, who shares her story about thriving in the chaos of balancing a family while leading a second-generation family business in her search for a career for the common good.  

This series is co-sponsored by the following enterprises at the University of St. Thomas: 

• The Center for the Common Good 
• The Alumni, Career & Corporate Engagement Center 
• The Selim Center for Lifelong Learning  

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.  

In part two of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with recent University of St. Thomas graduate, Katrina Anderson, a park ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains, who shares her story about changing her major, her expectations and her zip code in her search for a career for the common good. She is still figuring out the path to that waterfall but has discovered along the way that she’s allowed to enjoy the view along the journey. 

This series is co-sponsored by the following enterprises at the University of St. Thomas: 

• The Center for the Common Good 
• The Alumni, Career & Corporate Engagement Center 
• The Selim Center for Lifelong Learning  

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.  

In part one of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with recent University of St. Thomas graduate, Cesar Osvaldo Mendez Portillo, a self-described “banker by accident” who shares his story about the importance of building relationships in his search for a career for the common good.  

This series is co-sponsored by the following enterprises at the University of St. Thomas: 

• The Center for the Common Good 
• The Alumni, Career & Corporate Engagement Center 
• The Selim Center for Lifelong Learning  

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

In this episode, Michaelson moderates a discussion with each of the 2022 Principled Leadership Fellows from the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership.

So, how is it that apples, K-Pop and building trust are discussed on the same podcast episode? Listen to learn more from each Fellow as they share their unique research agendas and the connections to leadership and business practice. 

2022 Fellows
Chad Brinsfield, Ph.D, Associate Professor Management. Topic: What hinders manager voice endorsement: The role of voice type, manager dominance tendency, and manager perceived status threat.

Ameeta Jaiswal-Dale, Ph.D, Professor of Finance. Topic: Challenges and potential for community value creation through sustainable food entrepreneurship.

Shinwon Noh, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Entrpreneurship. Topic: Rise of Cultural Industries from Emerging Markets: Case of K-Pop 2. 

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.

In this episode, Michaelson moderates a panel discussion titled: Family business: How to create meaningful work for the family, employees and betterment of the community, as part of the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship Family Business Center breakfast series. 

Panelists include three family business leaders who approach meaningful work in a variety of ways, but always with a goal of making the world around them better: Vikas Narula, founder of Keyhubs and Neighborhood Forest; Kris Kowalski Christiansen, CEO of Kowalski’s Markets; and, Traci Tapani, Co-President of Wyoming Machine. 

Michaelson and panelists explore several topics: How we’ve arrived at the new “purpose economy” or the “passion economy" in an era in which we expect our work to make the world and our lives better and, how family businesses can balance the worthy purpose of supporting family goals and individual passions with business needs and social impact.

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.