Brian Cornell, Chairman and CEO at Target Corporation, has become one of the most influential business leaders in America by guiding Target through the chaotic waters of online and brick and mortar retailing. His insights have been shaped by global work experiences and CEO roles in both CPG and the retail Industry. His values and tireless work ethic stem from his childhood growing up in Queens, New York, and his college experience at UCLA.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: The entire Breakfast Broadcast Audience
Donation: $2,500 to Feeding America
Executive Summary
The Breakfast Broadcast
Troy Simonson is the former CEO of Twin Cities Orthopedics (TCO) and current CEO of Revo Health. Troy joined TCO in 2004 and was named its first CEO in 2013. Under his guidance, TCO has experienced massive success, welcoming new physicians and locations across the Twin Cities metro and western Wisconsin, establishing strategic partnerships, and leading joint ventures with local organizations.
Decades of managing through constant change has taught Troy the importance of a strong culture. He credits TCO’s service-driven culture as the single most important reason for the company’s sustained growth and success. In fact, he welcomes many new employees on their first day at the company and challenges them to ‘Be The Difference.’
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: The entire Breakfast Broadcast Audience
Donation: $1,750 to The Salvation Army
Executive Summary
The Breakfast Broadcast
Returning as a 3-time Good Leadership Breakfast speaker, Kevin Warren is excited to be speaking to our Young Leaders on how they can carve a better path forward during these unprecedented times.
Currently, Kevin serves as the sixth Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference and the first African American Commissioner to lead an Autonomy Five conference. Warren most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League where he worked since 2005. He was the highest-ranking African American executive working on the business side for a team in the NFL and was the first African American COO in NFL history. Prior to joining the NFL, he worked for the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig and holds a degree from Notre Dame Law School.
Throughout his career in sports and law, Kevin has seen the importance of helping our Young Leaders see the path towards a brighter future, and he believes that the Good Leadership Breakfast is one of the best ways to do that.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: The entire Breakfast Broadcast Audience
Donation: $2,560 to Southern Poverty Law Center
Listen to the Podcast
The Breakfast Broadcast
During unprecedented times, people look to their leaders to provide reassurance and inspiration. As President and CEO of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFMN), Gloria Perez seeks to deliver that level of leadership optimism to WFMN employees, stakeholders, grant recipients and those they serve.
Perez, who began this role in February, is a nationally recognized expert in helping women and girls achieve sustainable self-sufficiency and success. Her philosophy around leadership optimism stems from having a deep well of personal and professional experience handling adversity – and helping others achieve the same. “Good leaders inspire optimism in others,” she says.
Perez can readily see the intrinsic good in others, and even during tough times. Case in point: she regularly notes signs of goodness amid the global pandemic. “We have witnessed countless acts of kindness, reminding us that we are all in this together,” she says. “It is those many kindnesses – neighbors helping neighbors, people donating supplies to health care workers, people singing to one another in their neighborhoods – that make me optimistic that we will weather this crisis, together.”
Perez brings that same spirit of vibrant optimism to WFMN’s efforts to increase opportunities for women and girls in Minnesota – despite a world of uncertainty. “Unprecedented times are an ‘opportunity’ to really prioritize the important things, and our belief that working together can solve any problem,” she says.
As the first and largest statewide women’s foundation in the country, WFMN drives innovative solutions through grant-making, research and public policy to create a world of opportunity, safety and leadership for Minnesota women and girls. In 2019, WFMN invested more than $2.54 million in grants to multiple community-based organizations in Minnesota and impacted the lives of 437,000+ Minnesotans.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: The entire Breakfast Broadcast Audience
Donation: $5,000 to Feeding America
The Executive Summary
Many people think that success in sports, as with success in business, “defines” a person for life. John Thomas, who initially rose to fame as a star basketball player with the Minnesota Golden Gophers and later as a first-round NBA draft pick, would beg to differ.
“I’m a person who happened to play basketball,” says Thomas, who doesn’t define himself as a former basketball player, but rather as a leader openly sharing and applying his life lessons to benefit others. As Vice President of Basketball Development for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, Thomas is responsible for managing and growing the organization’s Basketball Academy, connecting current NBA and WNBA players to the community and developing an NBA/WNBA alumni program.
Within each of these roles, Thomas imbues the work that he relishes – helping children and young adults reach their potential, especially off-court – with the years of successes and setbacks he’s experienced. For every perceived height Thomas has ever achieved, like helping the Gophers reach the 1997 NCAA Final Four, he’s endured corresponding tough times, such as being bounced across seven different NBA teams in 5 years, or exiting the NBA with initially little business, personal finance, or life skills knowledge.
This explains in part why Thomas seeks to ensure that the professional players he regularly sees, the businesspeople who comprise his work team, and the youth he instructs, all come away with a better understanding of their personal capabilities. Like knowing “what does your brand look like externally to others?” or realizing that “leadership starts with awareness and the ability to understand people.” The more you understand and appreciate others, he believes, the better you will be as a leader – and as a person.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: The entire Breakfast Broadcast Audience
Donation: $3,000 to Meals on Wheels America
Listen to the Podcast
Using Resiliency to Find Purpose
The Executive Summary
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: Colleen Dockendorf of Ryan Companies
Donation: $5,496 to Second Harvest Heartland
Listen to the Podcast
The Secret is Discovering Why You Exist
The Executive Summary
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Richard Davis is a good friend of the Good Leadership movement. His leadership has been featured in both the What Really Works, and How Goodness Pays books by Paul Batz. Leveraging his historic success as CEO of U.S. Bank, he is now the CEO of Make-A-Wish America – a national charity whose work grants wishes to make life better for kids with critical illnesses. Richard is the perfect speaker to help celebrate the 10th year of the Good Leadership Breakfast.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: Helen Ng of Make-a-Wish MN
Donation: $6,900 to Make-A-Wish Minnesota
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Nicole LaVoi, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the area of social and behavioral sciences in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota and the Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Through her multidisciplinary research she answers critical questions that can make a difference in the lives of sport stakeholders.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: Mary Foster Murray of Great Southern Bank
Donation: $3,228 to the Be The Match
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Julie Kae leads Qlik towards global sustainability and empowering nonprofits to effectively serve our planet and vulnerable populations. This includes leading sustainability reporting best practices internally and externally and managing strategic partnerships with the United Nations, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, Private Sector Roundtable and other organizations. Qlik has received numerous awards for corporate responsibility under her leadership.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: Dan Balach of Jimmy John’s
Donation: $4,850 to the FOCUS MN
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Alvin Abraham is the founding dean of the Dougherty Family College at the University of St. Thomas, a two-year college as part of the university’s mission to advance the common good, which welcomed its inaugural class of students in August 2017. He also serves on The Collective’s National Advisory Board at Teach For America, the board of directors at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Teach For America Twin Cities, and Great MN Schools.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $4,846 to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Information technology is changing the way patients, consumers, providers and insurers access healthcare. Phil McKoy is a self-proclaimed “St. Paul kid” whose curiosity and people skills lifted him to the CIO of one of America’s most celebrated healthcare companies.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $5,618 to the Center for Victims of Torture
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Monte Nuckols is the IT leader for the global SAP, Ariba and QAD ERP program for Adient, the global manufacturing leader in automotive seating. Monte recovered from an early life heart attack by working on his Seven Fs.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $3,450 to Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Megan Remark knows health care is personal. And she has committed her career to improving care for patients and assuring health care workers have the energy and resilience to thrive in their work. She has been a leader at HealthPartners for 23 years and has been the President and CEO of Regions Hospital since 2015.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $4,186 to Lifeworks
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Stedman Graham is chairman and CEO of S. Graham & Associates. His Identity message is grounded in the fact that the key to success is self-leadership capability. His Identity Leadership programs, driven by his Nine-Step Success Process™, are based on the philosophy that individuals hold the power to their educational, career and personal success or failure.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $6,493 to Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Greg’s mission at work is to make diversity and inclusion a business imperative. In order to do this, he focuses on workplace culture, customer loyalty, supplier diversity, and community outreach. His personal brand tag line is “Let’s do better.”
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $5,784 to Genesys Works
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Joseph had a humble start, working at a car dealership in Iowa. He worked his way up to a bank CEO and was sworn in as the Comptroller of the Currency for the United States in November 2017.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $4,162 to Dress for Success
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Pahoua is the Executive Director of the Citizens League, a non-profit think tank based in St. Paul. She is the first in her family to go to college, to complete grad school, and the first female to hold the role of Executive Director.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Lindsey is a former Make A Wish Child, receiving a Dream Vacation to Disney World with her family in 2001. Since then, she has been recognized for years of involvement with Make A Wish and volunteerism at Children’s Hospitals around the US, and is enjoying a leadership career in Program Management at Medtronic and being a wife and mother of two.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $5,400 to the Autism Society of Minnesota
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Amanda K. Brinkman has been the Chief Brand & Communications Officer at Deluxe Corp, and a relentless champion in America’s quest to help small businesses thrive. She’s won almost every business community award bestowed by the Twin Cities business press, but her most rewarding honors come through her involvement with Small Business Revolution – a movement created to shine a spotlight on the vital impact that small businesses have on our economy, our communities, and our daily lives. Amanda is not only an on-camera talent, but also as the creator of the Small Business Revolution – Main Street TV series.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $5,330 split between The American Cancer Society and Make-A-Wish MN
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Erik Gabrielson and Moira Petit are the second husband and wife speaker team at the Good Leadership Breakfast, they are partners together in the human potential coaching, research, and consulting firm Activ8. A dramatic and heroic healthcare journey centered around their one and only son, resulted in a real-life story about how encouragement, accountability, and good teamwork not only saved their son’s life, but gave them all a life where goodness pays.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $4,514 to Patrick Schoonover Heart Foundation
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Paul is best known to the Good Leadership Breakfast as the very first sponsor of the breakfast when he was the Chief Marketing Officer at Cargill. At the March breakfast, he will unveil the research that is providing the content for the book, How Goodness Pays, that he and Paul Batz are currently co-authoring.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $5,170 to Children’s Hospital (Children’s Minnesota Foundation)
Listen to the Podcast
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Jurriaan Kamp is one of the few contemporary thinkers who might actually be able to solve the world’s biggest problems. He’s the 2018 kick-off speaker, by way of Santa Barbra, California, on his way to his home in the Netherlands where in 1995 he launched the “solutions journalism” global magazine Ode. He and his wife De Puy moved their family to the US in the early 2000s where they renamed the magazine The Intelligent Optimist. He’s a prolific author, and a rare talent who can frame mind-twisting big problems into simple solutions that are easy to embrace. His book: The Intelligent Optimist’s Guide to Life: How to Find Health and Success in a World That’s a Better Place Than You Think has had a big impact on the Goodness Pays point of view.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $4,938 to Playworks
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Future: How design thinking can shape your work and your life.
Joe is the President and Chief Creative Officer at Little & Company. His passion for design started as an eight-year old who created promotional posters for his family’s restaurant. Today, he is an expert in design thinking and one of the most respected leaders in the design community.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $5,590 to the Minneapolis Urban League
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Fun: How making your work playful and joyful is good for you and your business.
Darin is the Founder and CEO of Irish Titan, a digital agency focused on ecommerce, complex websites and digital strategy. Creating a culture of fun at work is critical to attracting and retaining top talent and clients that want to change the world.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $4,460 to Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Friends: How a strong support system helps you be a better leader.
Liwanag is the CEO of CaringBridge, the most widely used global nonprofit social network dedicated to helping family and friends communicate with and support loved ones during a health journey. Her work makes the health journey easier by using technology to help friends amplifying the love, hope, and compassion in the world.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $4,328 to Rotary Foundation/Honduras WASH project.
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Fitness: How to re-energize your personal and professional life.
Chris is a national health and fitness guru who is building an online fitness coaching and consulting business that touches 2 million people a month. Her message is positive, energizing, and encouraging – just what every good leader needs.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $3,820 to Feed My Starving Children
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Nathan helps youth and adults develop healthy, values-based money habits through Share, Save, Spend. He supports overall well-being by teaching youth about money, helping to decrease materialism, and increase self-esteem.
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner:
Donation: $4,346 split between The Hill Museum and The Jeremiah Program
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Alex is a master of the blended life. She’s the communications director at Fallon, the founder and owner of Strong Like Mama (a blog and clothing line) and also a mother. She uses her business to create positive messages of strength for women and mothers.
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Carrie Howard from United Nations
Donation: $4,234 to The American Red Cross
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Dr. Aleshka Santina and Dr. Amanda Haeg of Cadence Chiropractic
Donation: $4,934 to The Gunnar Project
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Susan Adams Loyd of Better Business Bureau of MN and ND
Donation: $6,320 to the YouthLink
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: George Klauser from Altair, a division of Lutheran Social Service
Donation: $4,804 to the Homeless Youth Program at Lutheran Social Service MN
Breakfast Highlights
Not Available
Speaker Segment
Not Available
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Kathi Tunheim from Gustavus Adolphus College
Donation: $3,094 split between the Gustavus Mentoring Program and the Gustavus Women In Leadership Program
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Goodwill
Winner: J Allen from Master’s Alliance
Donation: $6,256 (includes a bonus donation of $2,000 from Master’s Alliance) to Urban Ventures
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Corey Martin, Founder of Bounce Back Project
Donation: $4,626 to Bounce Back Project
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Joe Kaufman, VP, Private Banker at Bremer Bank
Donation: $5,300 to Puppies Behind Bars
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Katie French, Administrative Fellow, Regions Hospital
Donation: $5,540 to Regions Hospital Foundation
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Russell St. John, Former CMO Entrust Datacard
Donation: $5,882 to SWMEC
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
A familiar face to many from her days behind the anchor desk at WCCO-TV, Colleen Needles Steward is focused on the hunt for excellence in television. Colleen founded Tremendous! Entertainment so she could tell longer stories and provide unprecedented access to fascinating places and people around the world.
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Matthew Obermeyer from ADO Products
Donation: $5,112 to Treehouse
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Kurt Nelson from The Lantern Group
Donation: $6,108 to the City of Lake Rotary Foundation
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Crystal Walsh from Medica
Donation: $4,340 to Carolyn’s Comforts
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Sarah Molnau of TechStar IT Solutions
Donation: $4,210 donated to the Southern Valley Alliance for Battered Women.
Breakfast Highlights
Speaker Segment
Bucket of Good Will
Winner: Mark Kelley
Donation: $2,972 donated to the Children’s Cancer Research Fund.