2007 Entrepreneurs Of The Year^®

Dan Rice
Company: Strategic Fundraising, Inc.
Headquarters: Oakdale
Founded: 1991
Employees: More than 500
Web Site: www.strategicfundraising.com
Revenues: Undisclosed

Background: Working as an aide at the Minnesota Legislature after graduating from college, Rice sought a way to better support the political and social aims of groups he believed in. In 1991, with just $4,000 that he had raised from friends, Rice founded Strategic Fundraising, Inc., with the goal of raising money for political and nonprofit clients. Unlike some telefundraising firms that use open phone lists, Rice’s business has invested in statistical models that predict which contacts are most likely to yield donations, and creates phone lists based on the resulting data. Strategic Fundraising, where Rice is chief fundraising officer, now has four call centers in three states.

In His Own Words: “We’ve built a team of people who are extremely results oriented and who take pride in knowing that this organization provides the clients with a level of results and performance that is very difficult for them to find elsewhere.”

 

Gordon Ommen
Company: U.S. BioEnergy
Headquarters: Inver Grove Heights
Founded: 2004
Employees: 325
Web Site: www.usbioenergy.net
Revenues, 2006: $20.4 million

Background: With a background in the ethanol industry, Ommen was president and CEO of Fishback Financial Corporation, a multi-bank holding company, when he founded private equity firm Capitaline Advisors in 2002. At Capitaline, he began investing in renewable energy and ethanol projects. Then in 2004, he teamed up with Ron Fagen of ethanol-plant construction company Fagen, Inc., to found U.S. BioEnergy. Ommen is president and CEO of the company, which currently operates four ethanol plants, producing a total of 300 million gallons of ethanol per year. U.S. BioEnergy is one of the largest ethanol producers in the country.

In His Own Words: “We really like being a part of the solution around the energy-dependence issue, around the impact on our environment, lessening that impact, and on the positive things we do economically for rural America.”

Melanie Nelson
Company: Learning Zone Express
Headquarters: Owatonna
Founded: 1997 (as Low-Fat Express)
Employees: 10
Web Site: www.learningzonexpress.com
Revenues, 2006: $2.4 million

Background: Nelson taught home economics at both the junior- and senior-high school levels. She had cofounded online sewing-kit retailer Pineapple Express before founding what became Learning Zone Express. A producer of posters, videos, games, and books that encourage healthy eating and exercise, Learning Zone Express has schools as its market and has shown solid growth and profitability for each of the past 10 years. Despite major setbacks, including a fire and a flood, the company’s gross sales have increased 72 percent over the past two years as Nelson, the company’s president and CEO, expands her business to an adult audience in the corporate market.

In Her Own Words: “Not all of us have the same opportunities, so when kids are encouraged to make healthy choices, to learn new life skills, and be the best they can be, that’s what our company is about.”