Features Region: Midwest

Looking to finance a car? Or maybe refinance one you already own? Given how expensive vehicles are, many consumers can’t just buy one outright. And many such consumers can be vexed by subjective credit ratings that preclude them from low interest rates even if their scores improve. Thus, says Gary Jeter, their best option would […]

Retirement seemed beckoning two years ago for Al Carlson, but the amiable grandfather has been reenergized since his college football coach introduced him to Charlie Nelson, the third-generation owner of KLN Family Brands in the western Minnesota community of Perham. Nelson wanted to grow the family’s confectionery and pet food business into a billion-dollar company […]

When tap water comes out murky or has a strange taste, people are often afraid of what’s in it. Some of the most dangerous contaminants can’t be seen, smelled or tasted, though. That’s why Culligan International products are certified for invisible toxins, such as lead and arsenic. “Fortunately, the U.S. has standards, but it is […]

For Brian Svestka, describing the process of building a road comes as naturally as slipping on a pair of well-fitting work gloves. First, there’s the demolition and removal of old highway, followed by grading and sloping, he says. Then it’s time to add the subbase of crushed stone before the road pavers finish the job. […]

He completed an internship with NASA the summer after his junior year of college. Within a month of graduating—the first in his family to do so—he landed as an engineer at Ford Motor Company. Three years later, at the age of 24, he was overseeing all exterior, interior and chassis warranty claims at the company’s […]

Reminded of the old saying that cleanliness is next to godliness, Michael Cadotte chuckles. While the thought hadn’t crossed his mind, it might well hold true. For in addition to being the vice president of safety and quality at one of North America’s commercial cleaning heavyweights for the past 25 years, Cadotte is a parochial […]

Rescar keeps American freight trains rolling; and Barry Anstandig keeps expenses from going off the rails. As senior vice president and chief financial officer for Rescar, he runs a lean financial engine for the privately held, Downers Grove, Illinois, company specializing in repair, maintenance and cleaning of railroad cars. That’s an essential service considering that […]

Bendable and foldable keypads. Wine aerators using motor driven magnet technology. Wearable electronics, sensors and devices. The internet of things (IoT) connects our world to physical objects. RSP Inc. has certainly come a long way in 55 years, especially when you consider that when it launched in 1964, the family company’s main output was real […]

The early part of 2019 brought an unforgiving winter to the Heartland, but Aaron Conaway knew it would lift. Always does, of course, and when you measure the 12 months in quarters, the next one is never far away. So for Conaway, president and co-owner of one of the nation’s largest  single facility producers of […]

President, with a capital “P.” It’s a role that countless professionals, and more than a few politicians, spend a lifetime trying to achieve, often at the expense of their health and happiness. Now that he’s earned the badge himself, Ron Ahlensdorf Jr., head of the Toledo-based Summit Valuation Solutions (SVS), has a dark secret to […]