Tony Jacobson of All Over Media and Jennifer Smith of Burnsville-based Innovative Office Solutions are among winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Award Upper Midwest, sponsored by accounting firm EY.
"EY has been recognizing leading entrepreneurs for over three decades," said Joe McCarney, Entrepreneur Of The Year program director for the Upper Midwest. "The class of winners in 2017 represent new ways of thinking, disruptive business models and overall dynamism that make this country a great place to do business."
Other winners include: Joel Conner of Bellisio Foods, which Connor sold last year for more than $1 billion to a Thailand-based concern; Ben Gray, Jeff Gray and Scott Gray, Creative Apparel Concepts; Zachary Quinn, Love Your Melon; Kari Rihm, Rihm Family Companies; Chris Homeister, The Tile Shop; and Gwen Stanley and Michael Zenk, veterans of the former Riverside Bank, who started Bloomington-based Venture Bank about 15 years ago.
The winners were selected by an independent panel made up of previous award winners, CEOs, investors and regional business leaders.They were announced at a gala Thursday night in Minneapolis.
Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National program. Those award winners will be named at the entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in Palm Springs, California on Nov. 18.
