We are meeting with Edina Noon Rotary on THursday, Oct 15th, 12:15 p.m. at Edina Country Club
Today's speaker will be our own District Governor, Leif Hagen. Leif grew up in Stevens Point and graduated from St. Olaf College in 1988 with a BA in German and French. His early career included teaching languages in Zug, Switzerland, and high school English in Gero, Japan. In 1992, he entered the financial services field as a financial planner with Lutheran Brotherhood, later joining LPL Financial in 2002. He now owns Achievement Financial in Eagan, Minnesota, offering financial planning and Medicare supplemental insurance services.
Leif has held multiple leadership roles within Rotary, including two terms as President of the Eagan Rotary Club and serving as the two-year charter president of the MN Pride Rotary Club. His Rotary involvement includes leading a GSE team to Bangalore, India, hosting GSE visitors from Finland and Brazil, serving as District Conference co-chair, Assistant Governor for Area 2, and currently serving on the District Foundation grant committee. He is a Paul Harris Society member, a Major Donor, and has attended Rotary International conventions in Birmingham, New Orleans, Bangkok, and Hamburg..
Leif lives in Eagan with his partner, Valdir Oliveira, and has three daughters — Kajsa, Svea, and Britta. He enjoys foreign languages, international travel, collecting art and attending art shows.
Justin is responsible for growth strategies at Stairway Partners, a boutique Institutional Investment firm based in Edina, MN. Justin also lectures on entrepreneurship, finance and strategy at Luther College. Before joining Stairway Partners, Justin was Chief Operating Officer of a Minnespolis consumer products company where he led finance, operations, and commercial growth, building the business through organic growth and acquisition before its sale. Earlier in his career, Justin held operating and strategy roles in healthcare and consulting. Justin has over 20 years of operating and transaction experience as a founder, owner and senior executive, holds a BA from the Evergreen State College, and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Justin's grandfather, Lee Heutmaker, was a longtime Rotarian and active member of the Edina and Twin Cities community. He drew energy from the people around him and from giving back through civic organizations like Rotary. Lee often spoke warmly of his years in the club, and he cherished both the work and the friendships he made there. Justin is drawn to Rotary's commitment to service and to the way the organization pairs local involvement with global stewardship. Joining would give him a meaningful connection to his community and a way to carry forward his grandfather's legacy.
Justin's sponsor is Eli Johnson.
For information about Rotary membership, contact Nate Park.
Sydney Nguyen is looking for an internship opportunity. Sydney attended Camp Enterprise while in high school. She is now a freshman Business Fellow at Elon University planning on majoring in Accounting and Economics. Sydney has previous experience in interning as a strategy analyst for a Minnesota-based company last March. She evaluated the company's LinkedIn engagement metrics against three key industry competitors and researched LinkedIn's algorithm. Sydney's previous work in leadership and advising fueled my desire to learn more about consulting. Other than academics, she enjoys running and learning languages! (Currently Chinese). If you would like to learn more about Sydney, you can check out her LinkedIn page. If you'd like to contact Sydney, send an email to Paul Nelson.
Stephanie Schmidt is newly retired and is excited to include Rotary service in her life. Stephanie spent her career in technology, digital transformation led her using Agile project management as a guide. Throughout her career, Stephanie has been trusted to lead organizations' most complex, high-visibility technology initiatives. She has partnered with executive leadership to transform strategy into execution, bringing structure to ambiguous situations and delivering business-critical programs with minimal oversight. Her key experiences include enterprise AI initiatives, digital transformation, Workday implementations, cloud migrations, M&A integrations, Agile transformation, and PMO leadership. She is a skilled collaborator.
Stephanie's classification is Community Volunteer. Her sponsor is Michael Birdman.
Ben Swanson was inducted into Edina Morningside Rotary on Tuesday, September 29th. Ben is a Manager on the Advisory team with Abdo, working out of the Edina office. Ben works with businesses and their owners to solve problems that may arise around staffing changes in the finance department by providing outsourced accounting and controllership services. Ben has working knowledge in QuickBooks, can assist with financial statement preparation and putting together report packages.
Ben's classification is Business Finance Solutions. His sponsor is Brandon Vitale.
For information about Rotary membership, contact EMRC Membership Director Nathon Park.
EDINA MORNINGSIDE ROTARY CLUB AT MNUFC MINNESOTA LOONS GAME AGAINST KANSAS CITY Wednesday, October 28th. Game time 7:30 p.m., PreGame Social 5:30 p.m.
This is for your family, your friends, Rotary members and new member prospects. Click here to register.Tell us who's coming by October 14th at 10:00 p.m.
Help us get the word out about how fantastic Edina Morningside Rotary is!
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