business

Ten years ago, Salah Tarraf, CEO of Tarraf Construction, typified the kind of aspiring minority entrepreneur that the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA) aims to help.

Today, the hard-working, humble Tarraf exemplifies the successful business owners that the Minneapolis-based nonprofit expects its clients to become: role models who build lasting companies, mentors to other aspiring entrepreneurs and employers of minority workers.

A 2009 graduate of MEDA's three-year Pacesetter consulting and leadership development program, Tarraf now is taking part in its Construction Partnering program, teaming with Veit Construction and McGough Construction. MEDA often sends younger entrepreneurs to Tarraf for advice on starting businesses.

For his achievements, Tarraf will be named MEDA's 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year on Wednesday at the organization's annual recognition luncheon, which also will mark the 40th anniversary of MEDA's founding in 1971.

Tarraf will join other past winners on MEDA's board of directors, serving alongside executives from a who's-who of the state's largest corporations, including Tarraf's frequent client Medtronic Inc.

"MEDA has been very good to me," said Tarraf, 64, who was born in the west African country of Senegal to a Lebanese father and Colombian mother. He came to the United States in 1968 to go to college. "I hope that I can keep giving back. I pray that we can be an example to the community."

Tarraf founded his construction company in 2001, after a decade of other entrepreneurial ventures. He had previously held senior positions with Xerox in Canada and AIG in west Africa before returning to this country to work for American Express in the Twin Cities. He has a bachelor's degree from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he met his wife, and an MBA in international business from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Tarraf Construction, with 30 employees, had revenue of $12 million in 2010. Projects include building a child-care center at Medtronic's new campus and, now, a new manufacturing and clean-room space at a recent Medtronic acquisition, ATS Medical.

"Those two [projects] show the progression, as [the company's] capabilities increased we were able to give them bigger challenges that they were able to meet," said Jim Driessen, Medtronic's senior director of global facility operations. "We're very pleased with the partnership."

Along with honoring Tarraf, MEDA also will recognize 14 companies that have supported it financially since its inception as its Corporations of the Year.

MEDA also will take note of its own accomplishments over the years: Helping to launch more than 460 businesses, serving more than 18,000 clients and securing more than $100 million in financing for minority-owned businesses.

Disparities remain

In 2010, the minority business community in the Twin Cities metro area employed more than 7,000 people, 54 percent of them minorities, and reported revenue of $1.2 billion, according to MEDA. However, MEDA sees plenty of unfinished business ahead.

"When you look at the disparities that we have in our communities, that fall along racial lines, MEDA is still an important resource and our mission continues to be very relevant," said Yvonne Cheung Ho,  MEDA's president and CEO. "We wish MEDA was 10 or 20 times larger so we could make even more of an impact."

Cheung Ho and Minneapolis attorney John Stout, a MEDA  board member known as its "founding father," both pointed to recent headlines that underscore the disparities:

•Minnesota's black and white employment gap was the worst in the country, according to figures released in March by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state's 2010 black unemployment of 22 percent was 3.4 times the white rate of 6.4 percent. Another analysis, of 2009 data, similarly found that the Twin Cities had the biggest gap in black and white unemployment of the 18 largest metro areas nationally.

•Minneapolis ranked near the bottom of a recent Forbes study of the best cities for minority entrepreneurs, placing 49th out of the country's 52 largest metro areas.

"I can say I'm very pleased with how MEDA has evolved," said Stout, an officer and shareholder with the Fredrickson & Byron law firm who began working with business and community leaders in 1969 to form what would become MEDA. "I can also look forward and say, 'Boy, do we have a lot of work to do.' We have some disparities here that are extremely significant and not at all the way this community would think of itself. We need the business community to come forward again and recognize and address these disparities."

Supporting creation and growth of minority-owned businesses is critical in addressing such economic gaps because minority-owned companies tend to hire a greater percentage of minority employees, Stout said.

"This isn't something government can fix because it's about jobs in businesses,'' Stout said. "The government can help by creating the right environment for job development. The bottom line is, good jobs in the world of business."

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury. His e-mail address is todd_nelson@mac.com.