They are innovators and achievers, leaders and role models. Each has built businesses from scratch or expanded a small operation into a company that helped shape its industry.
This year’s inductees into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame join an elite group of individuals who rank among the most accomplished Minnesota business leaders of all time.
Each is an individual of enterprise. Each has been an agent of change and altered the business landscape for the better. Each, however, has become distinguished in his own way. Here are the members of the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame’s class of 2010:
Michael Berman
A former product manager at a no-revenue company, SciMed Life Systems, he drove the development of successful med-tech products. As SciMed’s president, he directed revenue growth from $300 million to $1.5 billion within five years. Since 2000, he has cofounded two business incubators and cofounded or joined the boards of 14 medical device companies.
James Dolan
In 18 years, he amassed a portfolio of 64 legal journals and business newspapers in 21 U.S. markets; executed a successful public stock offering in a hostile market; created a provider of mortgage-default processing and document-review services; and built the Dolan Company into an enterprise with $300 million in revenue.
David Frauenshuh
He’s the nation’s largest private developer of medical facilities and a manager of 4 million square feet of commercial real estate space—even after selling 1.5 million square feet in 2008. In recent years, his development projects have generated $300 million to $1 billion per year.
Richard Knowlton
A former meat cutter, he became CEO of the company now called Hormel Foods Corporation, where he embraced new food-processing technologies, assessed changing consumer tastes, and transformed the company from a traditional meatpacker into an international seller of branded packaged food products.
John Lindahl
Arguably Minnesota’s largest and most influential investor. As managing general partner of Norwest Equity Partners, which has $4.6 billion in capital under management and a current fund of $1.2 billion, he has financed the Buca di Beppo restaurant chain, Life Time Fitness, and dozens of other companies.
Jay Novak
In addition to serving as editor and publisher of Twin Cities Business, his diverse 34-year career comprises corporate communications, government service, and investment banking.
Click the links below to read each of their stories.
Michael Berman
Michael Berman has invested time and money into 14 companies, nine of which were founded in Minnesota.
James Dolan
James Dolan's $300 million company, The Dolan Company, is capable of changing with the opportunities that arise.
David Frauenshuh
David Frauenshuh has become the largest privately held developer of medical facilities in the country, and his financial transparency has helped build a real estate empire.
Richard Knowlton
Richard Knowlton is famous for his transformative leadership of Hormel Foods Corporation, as well as his steady rise through the company's ranks.
John Lindahl
John Lindahl left a 16-year career at a major bank to become the driving force behind Norwest Equity Partners.
Jay Novak
Novak is considered one of the business-publication industry's most influential gray eminences, but there's more to his business story.
