Vice president of marketing and growth strategy at Guaranty Commercial Title, Inc.

Despite the frigid weather, Valerie Doleman wants people to turn their attention to golf. Indoor mini-golf, that is.

Doleman serves on the executive committee of the Downtown Network -- a committee of the Minneapolis Downtown Council -- which will hold its annual "Skyway Open" miniature-golf tournament in the downtown skyways on Feb. 22-24. The event benefits the Boys and Girls Club of the Twin Cities and is expected to draw more than 1,000 golfers. Local architects, designers and construction companies are creating 19 distinctive golf holes.

Doleman is receiving the Award of Excellence from the Downtown Network for organizing sponsorships and marketing the event. Doleman, a real estate marketing and communications expert, also created a strategic marketing plan for the Downtown Network.

Doleman has worked at Minneapolis-based Guaranty Commercial Title Inc. since 2011. It's Minnesota's only certified woman-owned commercial title company. She also has held positions at GDCRE, Hempel Properties, Real Estate Communications Group and Griffin Cos. and is active in Minnesota Commercial Real Estate Women (MNCREW) and the National Crew Network (CREW).

Q You left Estee Lauder Cos. to work in commercial real estate marketing/communications. Why?

A To move ahead at Estee Lauder, I would have had to either move to New York or go in-store and I didn't want to do either ... I answered a classified ad at Griffin and really liked the company.

Q What are your current responsibilities at Guaranty?

A All of the marketing and communications ... I work closely with Wendy Ethen [Guaranty's owner] and Cindy Nosan [account advisor]. I also do some business development myself. And I'm the captain of the strategic plan making sure that everybody's checking in, we're advancing and can continue to sustain this growth and profitability.

Q So Guaranty is growing?

A The company is doing really well. When I started, there were seven people; now we're up to 12.

Q And all of the employees are women?

A Yes. Wendy is not opposed [to hiring men]. When she sees talent she hires them, and it just happens to be all women.

Q Why volunteer at the Downtown Network, MNCREW and CREW?

A Wendy encourages us to get involved and support the community ... It's also productive networking.

Liz Wolf is a freelance writer in Eagan. She can be reached at wolfliz99@aol.com.