Envision Minnesota

ANDERSON, Wendell Richard, a Senator from Minnesota; born in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minn., February 1, 1933; educated in the public schools of St. Paul; graduated, University of Minnesota 1954 and University of Minnesota Law School 1960; admitted to the Minnesota bar in 1960 and commenced practice in St. Paul; represented the United States in 1956 Olympic Games (hockey) at Cortina, Italy; served in the United States Army 1956-1957; member, Minnesota house of representatives 1959-1963; member, Minnesota senate 1963-1971; governor of Minnesota from 1971 until his resignation in 1976; member of the Democratic National Committee’s Executive Committee 1974-1975; Democratic National Convention Platform Committee chairman 1975; appointed on December 30, 1976, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Walter F. Mondale for the term ending January 3, 1979, and served from December 30, 1976, until his resignation December 29, 1978; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1978; is a resident of Wayzata, Minn.

Wendell Anderson
Former Governor

Reverend Bob Battle

The youngest of ten children, Reverend Battle was born and raised during a critical and revolutionary era in our American history. An era that fostered a climate of intense racial segregation, social injustice & persecution. Despite the social ills throughout the deep south, in Grenada, Mississippi Pastor Nathanial & Bessie Battle successfully created an environment of love, fairness, and discipline, as well as a strong spiritual belief in God within all ten of their children. The racial backdrop of the fight for social justice throughout the deep south, coupled with the strong principles of moral character taught by his parents, laid the foundation upon which Reverend Battle would dedicate his life. Although the foundation was laid, it was not until the racially motivated, wrongful death of a young fourteen-year-old boy, Emmit Till, in Mississippi, that provided the catalyst for a life dedicated to service and the struggle for human equality among all men. Read more (pdf format)

Mary Brainerd
Health Partners CEO

Career
Mary Brainerd has been a leader in health care since 1984. Prior to joining Health Partners in 1992, she served in senior level marketing and management positions with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Blue Plus, and as a marketing instructor in the graduate program at Metropolitan State University. She serves on the boards of several organizations including Regions Hospital, Minnesota Council of Health Plans, Metropolitan State University Foundation, Guthrie Theater, Possis Medical Inc., Minnesota Life and the Minnesota Business Partnership. Mary is a member of the Minnesota Women's Economic Roundtable and has served as a mentor in the Mentiuum Minnesota 100 mentoring program.

Attorney Mike Ciresi

Experience

Trial practice focuses in the areas of product liability, intellectual property, business and commercial litigation.

Has acted as counsel for corporations, individuals, and governmental entities throughout his career.

Has taught and lectured nationally and internationally to various professional and business groups.

Has been instrumental in the growth and diversity of the firm's practice.

Outside Experience

Candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota (2000)

David Foster
Retired Steelworkers Union Leader

David Foster was the Director of United Steelworkers (USW), District #11, a 13 state region from 1990-2006. He currently directs the Strategic Alliance between the USW and the Sierra Club.

District #11 has a diverse membership of 43,000, comprised of iron ore and other mineral miners, steel, aluminum, tire, oil and gas workers, as well as health care employees. His responsibilities included serving on the union’s International Executive Board and negotiating with many of the country’s largest steel, iron ore and aluminum companies.

He chaired the USW’s International Executive Board Task Force on the Environment. In 2004, he was awarded the Jane Lehman Bagley Award from the Tides Foundation for his work building labor/environmental coalitions in the United States.

He also teaches classes on unions and globalization at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and on advocacy and political leadership in Duluth.

He has a BA from Reed College in Portland, OR.

As a founding partner of Ankeny Kell, Duane has developed a firm that is committed to client collaboration, project team commitment, design originality, and exceeding client expectations. For more than 30 years he has guided clients through the public project design and construction process. He is experienced in all phases of the architectural practice and engages both client and architectural project team members to create quality buildings that reflect the unique goals and vision of each client.

Duane Kell
Ankeny Kell Architects

Tim Penny, senior fellow, co-directs the Humphrey Institute Policy Forum. He represented Southeastern Minnesota's First Congressional District from 1982 through 1994. He served on the U.S. House agriculture and veterans affairs committees and the Select Committee on Hunger, heading the foreign agriculture and hunger subcommittee. While in Congress, Penny founded and co-chaired the Democratic Budget Group and drafted deficit-cutting initiatives.

Tim Penny
Former Representative

Tad Piper

Addison (Tad) Piper is vice chairman of Piper Jaffray Companies. After joining the company in 1969, Piper served as assistant syndicate manager, director of securities trading and director of sales and marketing. He served as chief executive officer from 1983 to 2000 and as chairman from 1988 to 2003. Since 1998, Piper also has had responsibility for the firm's venture and private capital fund activities. He became vice chairman at the time of the Piper Jaffray spin-off from U.S. Bancorp on Dec. 31, 2003.

Piper's civic activities include serving as director of Allina Health System, Minnesota Business Partnership, Minnesota Public Radio and St. Martin's Church Foundation and as regent of St. Olaf College. Piper is the former chair of Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Minnesota Communications Group, former vice-chair of the Minneapolis Downtown Council and Board of Governors of the Securities Industry Association, former chair of the NYSE Regional Firms Advisory Group Committee, former director of Greenspring Corporation, and former trustee of Woodhill Country Club, Guthrie Theater, Washburn Child Guidance Center and the Stanford University Business School Trust. Piper recently served as senior warden at St. Martins By-the-Lake Church.

Piper received a bachelor's degree in economics from Williams College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University.

CEO David Saggau
Great River Energy

On May 12, 2005, the Great River Energy board of directors unanimously voted David Saggau as its new chief executive officer (CEO). Since 1999, Saggau has led Great River Energy’s legal division and was the organization’s chief legal officer. Before joining Great River Energy, he worked in the electrical industry for 10 years in positions with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and New England Electric Systems in Massachusetts. In a July 12, 2005, Great River Energy resource plan filing with the Public Utilities Commission, Saggau said, “ We are pleased that our studies show that meeting the state’s 10 percent renewable energy objective reduces our overall power supply costs.” Under David's leadership, Great River Energy is ahead of schedule for Minnesota’s renewable energy objective with 5 percent today, and may meet the objective as early as 2010, five years before the state’s target.

Vin Weber

Vin Weber, a partner at the influential Washington consulting firm Clark & Weinstock, is a former Minnesota Republican Congressman, banker, and head of the National Endowment for Democracy. A so-called “superlobbyist,” Weber is a prominent inside-the-beltway player who has long supported right-wing initiatives, including the campaigns of the Project for the New American Century. He co-founded—with Jeane Kirkpatrick, William Bennett, and Jack Kemp— Empower America, a rightist policy outfit “devoted to ensuring that government actions foster growth, economic well-being, freedom, and individual responsibility.” And he was a senior fellow at the Bradley-funded Progress and Freedom Foundation. Weber is also associated with the Aspen Institute, where he has served as co-director of the domestic policy project, and Humphrey Institute, a policy institute based at the University of Minnesota.