A look at the people behind the numbers in area business:

A look at the people behind the numbers in area business:

Title: Director of public and regulatory affairs Age: 39

Daron Van Helden, who observed Pawn America's growth as Burnsville Chamber of Commerce president, has joined the company as director of public and regulatory affairs.

Now Van Helden is supporting Pawn America's strategic growth plans by working with elected officials and staff in communities where it has locations and assisting in future acquisitions and expansion.

Van Helden gained first-hand experience with the Burnsville-based company during his 10 years as president of the chamber's board of directors.

He got to know Pawn America CEO and owner Brad Rixmann and found that they attend the same church and have other things in common.

"Burnsville dealt with the second-hand retail issue a couple of years ago from a local community regulatory perspective and I gained a fair amount of insight into that segment of the marketplace from [Pawn America's] perspective and from several dozen second-hand retailers in this community," Van Helden said. "It was an interesting balancing act to see what made the most sense from a public policy perspective, from a public safety perspective and from a point of view that tries to reduce the regulatory burden on any business."

Pawn America, founded in 1991, has 24 locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota and North Dakota. The company opened its largest store, at more than 32,500 square feet, in August in Inver Grove Heights.

Q How will your chamber experience help you in your new role?

A "Predominantly by having an understanding of working with local government and state government and having an appreciation of both sides of the table, the regulator and the regulated.

Q What appealed to you about this opportunity?

A Having run a smaller suburban local chamber, you oftentimes advocate on behalf of businesses on issues that are important to them and help them fight those battles. That has always been exciting to me, to be a part of that, to see progress made.

A Second-hand retailing in a formalized setting is clearly expanding. You can look at a couple of the main online opportunities and think about some of the challenges on that side versus having a fixed retail presence like Pawn America. You can go into a Pawn America store and sell your goods. It's not always on the pawn side of the business. You can look at TV and the reality shows that focus on the pawn industry. ... It really has expanded and I do believe this company is in position to ride that wave going forward.