There’s a lot of updating going on locally—and a lot of uncertainty. Major local firms have brought in new CEOs. Local media outlets are wondering what to do as news consumers head for the Internet and revenues decline. Retailers are trying to determine which direction (or directions) consumers are heading, and are updating their own looks.
Meanwhile, there’s the specter of potential recession, which is being summoned thanks to high levels of consumer debt—not to mention the subprime mortgage crisis, which could turn out to be this economic cycle’s version of the dot-com bust. And the state’s unemployment rate has been, remarkably, higher than the national percentage.
How local businesses will soldier on during this time of uncertainty and reinvention is what we’ll be watching in 2008. And the following top executives will be on the front lines.
Gregory Page
Chairman, CEO, and President, Cargill
Kendall Powell
CEO, General Mills
David Sternberg and Liz Picking
Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director,Director of Retail Leasing, Brookfield Properties
Lorna Nagler
CEO and President, Christopher & Banks
Julie Gilbert
Senior Vice President, Best Buy Company
Jim Dolan
Chairman, CEO, and President, Dolan Media Company
David Lebow
CEO, Internet Broadcasting Systems
Joel Kramer
Founder, MinnPost.com
Matt Entenza
Founder, Minnesota 2020
Lois Quam
Managing Director, Alternative Investments, Piper Jaffray CompaniesSimon Stevens
CEO, Ovations
Bill Hawkins
CEO, Medtronic
Nadim Yared
CEO and President, CVRx
Kyle Rolfing
CEO, RedBrick Health
Douglas Leatherdale
Chairman, Host Committee, Republican National Convention
Marianne Short
Managing Partner, Dorsey & Whitney
Zygi Wilf
Owner, Minnesota Vikings
