The following individuals provide guidance to the Northland Foundation staff and Board of Trustees in regard to business lending decisions.
William M. Arezzo
Senior VP - Private Banking Manager
National Bank of Commerce
Michael Colclough
Market President, Duluth/Superior
BMO Harris Bank
Dean Fries
Vice President
National Bank of Commerce
Brian Murphy
Chief Lending Officer
North Shore Bank of Commerce
Heather Rand
Economic Developer
State of Minnesota
Tom VanHale
Retired
Curt Walczak
Consultant
UMD Center for Economic Development
Term Ended 6/30/14
Pam Sarvala
External Affairs Manager
Minnesota Energy Resources Corporation
Steve Utech
Senior VP/Senior Loan Officer
Republic Bank
If timing is everything, IHS Development (doing business as IHS Door) probably wouldn’t be here to tell their tale. Owner Keith Richmond leveraged his decades of wood products industry experience to launch his own interior door manufacturing company with high hopes in the spring of 2008. The Superior, Wisconsin-based business opened just months before the Great Recession cut the housing and construction sectors off at the knees.
“The Northland Foundation financing allowed us to clean up our balance sheet and access critically needed cash.”
– Keith Richmond, President
of IHS Door
As one might predict, the first few years of IHS’ sales did not equal projections and cash flow was stretched to the maximum. A Royalty Loan from the Northland Foundation gave the company breathing room to continue production, cover receivables, expand its marketing efforts, and simply hang in there until the economy started to turn around.
Today IHS is up from 5 employees to 15, the company is gaining market share nationally, and overall numbers are 50% higher than one year ago. This past July, Richmond was able to pay off his Northland Foundation loan just two years in. Maybe timing is on his side after all.
During the past fiscal year, lending provided by the Northland Foundation’s Business Finance Program helped to support the creation and retention of 373 jobs with an average remuneration of $36,798 per year.
Total Loans: |
|
26 |
Dollar total: |
$3,684,919 |
|
Jobs created/maintained: |
373 |
|
Dollars Leveraged: |
$13,478,731 |