629 S. Minnesota Ave.
Suite 201
Sioux Falls, SD 57104
P.O. Box 2282
Sioux Falls, SD 57101
ph 605.978.2804
email
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John Hemmingstad, Small Business Development Center. John Hemmingstad, State Director of the South Dakota Small Business Development Center has over 13 years of private industry experience in Fortune 500 companies. Most recently he spent 10 years with Gateway Computers where he was a Vice President of Supply Chain Management. While at Gateway, John held various positions in managing strategic alliances and in Business Development working on mergers, acquisitions and investments. Previous to his extensive corporate management experience at Gateway, he worked at Kimberly-Clark in South Carolina for three years as a cost analyst supporting the Infant Care HUGGIES brand product line. Additionally, John is a veteran of the US Army having served seven years including tours in Germany and the Persian Gulf.
John has a MBA from the University of South Dakota and received his BBA in finance from the University of Iowa. |
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Marcia Hendrickson, Enterprise Institute. Marcia is the Executive Director of the Enterprise Institute which has been helping entrepreneurs, innovators and researchers develop their businesses since 2001. Marcia has been actively promoting the value of intellectual property, entrepreneurship, angel investing and angel networks in South Dakota. She has also been involved in developing entrepreneurship educational programs. Marcia serves on the Board of Directors of the Value Added Finance Authority and the advisory boards of the Center for Innovation, Prairie Gold Venture Partners, Genesis of Innovation and the South Dakota Technology Business Center. She also serves on the governing boards of the Sioux Empire United Way and the Sioux Empire Fair Board. She is a graduate of South Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology, and she also is a Certified Public Accountant. |
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Jael Kampfe, Bar K Management. Jael Kampfe is a fourth generation Montanan rancher, with a diverse background in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors. A graduate of Yale University, Jael served as editor and project manager in developing a textbook on the Lakota Language, the first full-length college curriculum written by a Native speaker. With support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, South Dakota Humanities, and Echoing Green Foundation, a national organization that supports social entrepreneurs, the textbook was published by the University of Utah Press.
Knowing that less than 1/20th of one percent of private funding supports Native causes, Jael and a group of other non-profit native and non-native leaders started Four Times Foundation, a non-profit that provided seed capital for reservation-based Indians to start businesses. In five years, Four Times Foundation became one of the top ten best privately funded non-profits operating in Indian Country. The businesses that the Foundation helped had a track record of success that surpassed the national average, despite being located in some of the poorest counties in the United States. At the time, Four Times Foundation was the only national effort addressing the need for access to equity capital in Indian Country. Jael was also board President of Adelante Foundation, a micro loan fund supporting the poorest of the poor in the La Ceiba region of Honduras. Jael left Four Times Foundation after five years to work for the Lazy EL Ranch as the first female manager of her one hundred year old family business. Jael has since started her own company, Bar K Management and now leases the 12,000 acre ranch. Bar K includes a 2,300 head yearling angus operation, a guest ranch, and a hunting and fishing operation. Through Bar K Management Jael also does executive coaching, non-profit board development, strategic planning, fund raising, and organizational and program development.
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Liz Larkin. Liz works as an independent consultant specializing in economic and community development. Strengths include: entrepreneurial organization, project development and management, including site selection, business planning and equity drives. Current projects include identifying communities' housing and commercial development potential, identifying future renewable fuel sites based upon market opportunities, potential partnerships, infrastructure, incentive programs, etc. and project management and consulting for Eagle Creek Software Services company during rapid growth opportunities.
Liz's experience comes from years of work in community and economic development. Her career in economic and community development began with the South Dakota's Housing Development Authority (SDHDA) were she underwrote multi-family housing projects and created a single family lease purchase program. Liz is familiar with numerous federal and local programs available to communities/individuals interested in economic development. Liz earned certification in Housing Development Finance Professional and an Economic Development Professional certification from the National Development Council (NDC), while working for South Dakota's Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED). |
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Mary Mathews, Northeast Entrepreneur Fund. Mary Mathews is the founding president of the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund, a business development organization serving emerging and small businesses in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.
Since 1989, NEF has helped start, stabilize or expand more than 1,000 businesses; helped create or retain more than 2,500 jobs; provided $7.5 million in loans to more than 350 businesses; and served 9,000 people through its training, consulting and lending programs. More than 85% of business owners who receive assistance from NEF are still in business two years later. From offices in Virginia, Grand Rapids, Duluth and Superior, NEF serves 11 counties covering a 30,000-square-mile area.
Under Mary's leadership, the Greenstone Group, a new 10-year initiative led by NEF, seeks to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship and strengthen entrepreneurs through professional coaching, peer support and coordinated services. Working with business, education and economic development partners, the Greenstone Group expects to build the region's economy by targeting support and resources toward 500 entrepreneurs in the region who are committed to growing their businesses. |
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Elsie Meeks, First Nations Oweesta Corporation. Elsie Meeks, an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, is the president and CEO of First Nations Oweesta Corporation (Oweesta), an affiliate of First Nations Development Institute. Oweesta provides investment capital, technical assistance and training to help start Native community development financial institutions and asset building programs. Oweesta spearheads the Native Financial Education Coalition, and Elsie serves as chairperson.
Elsie has over 20 years experience working to promote Native community economic development. Prior to her leadership and work at Oweesta, Elsie was active for 15 years in the development and management of The Lakota Fund, a small business and microenterprise development loan fund on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Elsie recently completed a three-year term on the Federal Reserve Board's Consumer Advisory Council. She serves as chairperson of The Lakota Fund and sits on the boards of CFED, Northwest Area Foundation, Council on Foundations, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Partnership for Housing. She served for many years on the board of Opportunity Finance Network. She is also an International Advisory Council member of Native Nations Institute and sits on the Board of Governors for the Honoring Nations Program of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. She completed a six-year term on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and was the first Native American to serve on the Commission. |
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Linda Salmonson, East River Power Cooperative. Linda is currently the Economic Development Manager at East River Electric Power Cooperative. Since 1996 she also has been an administrator of Rural Electric Economic Development, Inc. a non-profit loan fund comprised of twenty-one rural electric cooperative members. Linda directed an entrepreneurship program for five years that provided assistance and workshops for beginning business owners. She serves as a director of the National Association of Development Organizations, and as past president of the National Rural Economic Developer's Association. Linda also serves on the Board of the Dakota Horizons Girl Scouts. |
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Gerald Sherman, Indian Land Capital Company. Gerald Sherman is the Founding Executive Director and Board Chair of the Lakota Fund. In 1989, he went to Bangladesh to study under Mohammed Yunnus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and to learn more about micro-credit. The Lakota Fund was the first micro-credit organization established in Indian Country and one of the first five in the United States. In 1989, he was a founding board member of AEO. Gerald went on to open a Norwest bank branch on the Lower Brule Reservation in 1994. In 1995, Gerald established the Community Development Office for First Interstate BancSystem, a large regional bank based out of Montana. The establishment of this office increased the banks services to lower income communities particularly to tribal communities. In 1996, he was the Chairman of the Fair Lending Committee of the Montana Bankers Association. Under Gerald's leadership the committee developed the first Uniform Commercial Codes for tribes, an effort that has provided national leadership for tribal efforts at economic development. In 1999, Gerald joined Four Times Foundation, the only national organization providing equity capital to reservation based Indian entrepreneurs. He developed and implemented the fellowship program on 5 reservations in 4 different states. He is currently the founding President of Indian Land Capital Company, a national loan fund providing capital to tribes trying to buy back Indian Lands. Since 1985, Gerald has been providing national leadership to the field of micro-credit, finance and economic development particularly as it relates to Indian Country. |
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Dakota Rising is administered by SD Rural Enterprise in partnership with:
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East River Electric Power Cooperative and the REED Fund |
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Enterprise Institute |
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Governor's Office of Economic Development |
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Small Business Development Centers |
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SDSU Cooperative Extension |
Dakota Rising is sponsored by:
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Avera Health |
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Christiansen Land and Cattle, Ltd. |
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Citi Foundation |
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Dacotah Bank |
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East River Electric Power Cooperative and the REED Fund |
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First Interstate BancSystem |
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Home Federal Bank |
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Individual members of the SD Rural Enterprise Board of Directors |
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Northwest Area Foundation |
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SD Governor’s Office of Economic Development |
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South Dakota Community Foundation |
Program developed through the generous support of the Northwest Area Foundation and Citi Foundation. |
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