Tom Petters spoke at the luncheon held on February 13, 2008. Petters is the CEO and Chairman of Petters Group Worldwide. Tom Petters started a trading company in 1988 with little or no capital.

Under his 18 years of management and guidance, Petters Group Worldwide has grown from a one-man operation started in 1988 into an investment company that employs over 3,200 people around the world. Petters Group Worldwide is a privately held company with ownership or investments in a dynamic collection of 60 companies with active management in over 20. These companies create, develop and invest in companies that manufacture, procure and market consumer merchandise. Petters Group Worldwide has offices in North America, South America, Asia and Europe.

In 2002, he was a partner in acquiring and restarting Fingerhut, one of the largest catalog and direct mail companies in the country. The following year he acquired uBid.com, the second largest Internet auction site. In 2005, they became a public with Petters Group as a minority owner. Also in 2005, after 2 years of being a licensee of Polaroid for consumer electronics, Polaroid Corporation was purchased by Petters Group Worldwide. The Petters Consumer Brands division of Petters Group continues to build strong programs for other companies as a licensee for Sunbeam, Oster and Emerson. In October 2006 Petters Group and Whitebox Advisors purchased Sun Country Airlines, a low cost, low fare carrier based in St. Paul, MN.

Tom is a leading contributor to many charitable organizations. Tom serves on the board of trustees at the College of St. Benedict and Rollins College and is on the Business Advisory council and Board of Visitors for Miami University – Ohio. He was awarded Corporate Leader of the Year in 2001 by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and was presented with the Distinguished Humanitarian Award in 2003 by B'nai B'rith.

To his contemporaries, Thomas J. Petters is an innovative entrepreneur. But to the many charities and local universities he serves, Mr. Petters is a compassionate donor of resources and time; a man whose character, integrity and ethics make him a positive role model for all.

Tony Jacobson spoke at the September 6, 2007 luncheon. Tony Jacobson is the Founder and CEO of AllOver Media, a National Media Franchising Company. He is a pioneer in developing strategic alternative media products and concepts known as “non-traditional out-of-home media.”

Tony grew in Hibbing, MN and attended St. Cloud State University. At SCSU he and a friend created a start up company around a new media concept focused on placing ads in the restrooms of bars, nightclubs and restaurants called AJ Indoor advertising.

Starting with capital support from his hometown neighbors and friends as well as some former members of the Naegele Outdoor Billboard management team, AJ Indoor took off expanding to over 5,000 venues throughout 55 major cities across the country. In 2000, Tony and his business partner sold the company to NextMedia, a national multi media conglomerate.

In 2002, Tony took what he learned in building AJ Indoor started AllOver Media, a new and expanded concept specializing in indoor print, as well as digital indoor advertising. The company also combined indoor with outdoor media by placing ads on top of the gas pumps at thousands of gas stations, truck stops, and convenience stores nationwide.

The key strength of AOM is its expanding franchise network. It is this unique network that provides media buyers’ national scalability with the attention to detail from local operators on the execution side. With all the challenges being faced by conventional media today, Jacobson believes that All Over Media is the optimal solution for companies with strategic advertising needs.

Tony shared his exciting journey and lessons he learned in bootstrapping AJ indoor from a concept with little or no money, and developing it into a new national media company, then taking it to the next level through All Over Media.

Jill Blashack Strahan spoke at the May 16, 2007 luncheon held at the Kelly Inn.

Jill Blashack Strahan grew up on her family’s farm in rural Minnesota during the 1960s where she was inspired by her father’s work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit. After graduating from the Alexandria Technical College in 1979, Jill managed her father’s local restaurant and in 1989 opened her first entrepreneurial effort: a retail gift basket shop.

In 1994, Jill liquidated her retail business, but continued to sell gift baskets to corporate and direct mail clients. She then got an opportunity to promote these baskets in a holiday crafters’ home tour. On a whim, she set out samples of gourmet food items and experienced remarkable sales. When the same successful results occurred later, she realized the power of sampling – and the idea for Tastefully Simple was born.

In 1995, Tastefully Simple became the original taste-testing party company offering easy-to-prepare gourmet foods that cater to today’s hectic lifestyles. It wasn’t a simple start. Jill and her young family had no money to risk on such a venture. Determined, she managed to bootstrap the business with some personal savings, a silent partner’s investment, and a $20,000 small business administration loan.

Jill spent the fist year juggling the responsibilities of home, motherhood, and entrepreneur – managing business tasks by day and holding taste-testing parties by night. She operated out of a 1,200 sq. ft. shed with no running water, packing orders on a pool table.

Today, Tastefully Simple is a multiple award-winning $120 million company with over 300 employees and more than 22,000 independent consultants nationwide. Jill has won numerous awards for her achievements and unique philosophies of positivity and abundance.

Dr. Daniel Cohen spoke at the February 8, 2007 luncheon, held at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites.

In 1982, Dr. Cohen co-founded CNS, Inc., and served as its CEO until 2001 and then Chairman of the Board until it was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in 2006. CNS developed innovative technology to monitor brain function during high-risk surgeries and to diagnose sleep disorders. The company was best known for its consumer products, the Breathe Right nasal strip and FiberChoice chewable fiber supplement.

Dr. Cohen took Breathe Right from an idea with a limited budget and built it into a $566 million national success story that became a reality when Jerry Rice featured the product on Monday night football.

Dr. Cohen is one of Minnesota’s leading entrepreneurs and truly understands the anatomy of an entrepreneur and what makes them tick. He has often said that he is really an entrepreneur in a doctor’s body. He discussed his fascinating journey in building Breathe Right from a unique little strip into a national business success story and the challenge he had to overcome as an entrepreneur along the way.

Dr. Cohen co-founded BodySound Technologies, Inc., to study the healing effects of sound, music and vibration. He is the inventor of the BodySound system to be introduced in 2007, first as a home entertainment product. He is also the co-author of the book, “Claim Your Basic Rights, Create a Practical Partnership with Your Soul”, with Jennifer Palmquist published in 2006. The second book of this trilogy is due out spring 2007.

Robert Naegele Jr. spoke on September 21, 2006. Best known for establishing Rollerblade, Inc. and as Chairman of the Minnesota Wild, Mr. Naegele has an extensive history of entrepreneurial success.

After graduating from Dartmouth College with a BA in Sociology, Mr. Naegele spent 12 years in a publicly owned, family-operated outdoor advertising company. He later embarked in a redevelopment project in downtown Minneapolis called Laurel Village – a residential neighborhood consisting of 800 units of urban housing, convenience retail, and restaurants.

In 1985, Mr. Naegele and a partner purchase a small company called Ole’s Innovative Sports, which assembled and sold in-line roller skates to ice hockey players as a counter seasonal training product. The company was repositioned to become a sporting goods company and renamed Rollerblade, Inc. Mr. Naegele served as Chairman of Rollerblade, Inc. until 1995.

A long-time Minnesota hockey fan, Mr. Naegele is majority owner and chairman of Minnesota Sports and Entertainment (MSE), overseeing the strategy and success of the Minnesota Wild. He serves as a member of the NHL Board of Governors.

Mr. Naegele also serves a Chairman of Naegele Communications, Inc., and company that buys, sells, and operates businesses.

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