Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
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Health Service Innovations in St. Paul captured the Outstanding Employers Award for the smallest of five categories, five to 49 employees, at the Minnesota Work-Life Champions Awards luncheon in January.
The firm was lauded for allowing 12 of its 16 employees to telecommute with company-provided resources; for considering hours worked “second to outcomes” achieved; and for using an unusual corporate structure, “the butterfly.”
“I was a corporate guy,” said Tim Meyer, CEO of the health facilities management and consulting firm, and wanted to create a company with a model exactly like the work-life champion awards were designed to honor.
Healthia Consulting won in the next larger category, with 50-249 employees, for its efforts to limit the amount of time employees spend away from home while traveling for business.
“You cannot NOT have a culture,” said keynote speaker Chuck Feltz, president and chief operating officer of Lifetouch National School Studios Inc. “A strong, focused purposeful culture is not optional equipment. It’s one of the key elements that drives true improvement.”
The awards spotlight efforts by Minnesota businesses statewide that support work-life balance.
Try to make it to: Nominations for the Minnesota Work-Life Champions Awards open in August, sponsored by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures: 651.962.4120; ma**@********al.org; www.worklifechampions.org
Ruth Hayden will headline the 2007 Joint Dinner of Women’s Professional Associations on March 8. She’s the St. Paul financial consultant, educator and author, and will speak on: Living and Giving: The Financial Stages of a Woman’s Life.
Landing Hayden was a coup for the Women’s Foundation, which is the beneficiary of the annual event’s proceeds. Erin Ceynar, assistant director of development, called Hayden to discuss speaker ideas, and was surprised to learn that Hayden would agree to speak for less than her normal fee, because she believes in the mission of the event.
The Joint Dinner brings together professional women “to network, learn more about each other’s careers, and celebrate women professionals in the work force,” says the flyer.
Anne Andreasen was at the marketing meeting about the dinner, in January at Dorsey & Whitney’s law offices in Minneapolis. Andreasen was representing Minnesota Business & Professional Women, one of the sponsors of the Joint Dinner. She owns A&A Insurance Services, and says she spends a lot of time these days counseling companies NOT to put in place Health Savings Accounts.
For many professional services firms, especially, she believes, the partners might think nothing of spending $2,000 of household money on health expenses, but lesser-paid staff people could find such an amount catastrophic.
Try to make it to: The Joint Dinner is March 8, 5 p.m., at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Golden Valley: 612.338.3205; www.mwlawyers.org
After seven years of painstaking fundraising, Myron Johnson unveiled his Ballet of the Dolls’ holiday show at the refurbished Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis. It played to 90 percent capacity.
Patrons braved a gorgeous snowfall on New Year’s Eve for the dance show “Naughty Nutcracker,” with characters posing as Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, Elton John and of course Ken and Barbie.
They jammed into the rough and small lobby, but were able to spread out in the expansive theater space. After the show they filed through a long and narrow hallway for a dance party.
Johnson has been leading the charge to renovate the Ritz for years, as a permanent home for his ballet company, and a performing arts venue for the community. The Ritz was a movie theater in the mid-1920s.
The capital campaign was for $2.5 million, with a lead gift of $500,000 from the McKnight Foundation, and $719,000 from the city of Minneapolis, the MCDA, and the Sheridan Neighborhood Organization.
Try to make it to: The Ritz Theater has a full schedule of shows, and the Ritz Theater Foundation continues to raise money: 612.623.7660; www.ritztheaterfoundation.org.
