Speakers

Rotary members will gather for a service project: a backpack assembly for The Bridge for Youth. Backpacks will be filled with school supplies and then given to The Bridge for Youth for distribution.

Brian Herstig, Director of Development and Advancement & Jacquelyn Carpenter, Director of Business Development

The mission of Twin Cities R!SE is to transform lives through meaningful employment. Their vision is a community of empowered individuals, especially men of color, who achieve long term job success to support their families.

National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Minnesota State Director Mike Hickey is a lobbyist who has represented NFIB for many years and has worked with several different governors and their administrations. NFIB/Minnesota lobbies tenaciously at the capitol and is also active with the press. Hickey's work with NFIB includes the landmark workers' compensation reform of 1995 that may have reduced workers' compensation premiums for small business more dramatically than any other in the history of our country, with some businesses receiving net 75 percent premium reductions. Other recent work includes lobbying for the state's largest tax cut and a land rights case, banning amortization. NFIB is the only group that solely represents small business in Minnesota and does not need to juggle the interests of corporate America along with those of small business.

Amanda LaGrange is the CEO of Tech Dump and Tech Discounts, the linked e-waste recycling, refurbishing, and retail social enterprise that creates jobs for people with barriers to employment. Amanda helped to found Tech Dump as a board member in 2010 while she worked at General Mills in Corporate Finance. Grounded in her belief that business can be a solution for poverty and injustice, she joined the Tech Dump leadership team as the Director of Marketing in 2013 and created awareness that drove double digit annual growth and established Tech Dump as an award-winning top electronics recycler in Minnesota and a leader nationwide in its commitment to the environment and job creation. When she became CEO in 2015, Amanda operationalized a strategy to increase revenue that included portable cell-phone collection bins, the successful launch of the retail brand Tech Discounts and a second stand-alone location for store. Amanda has testified before the Minnesota Legislature on the Right to Repair and has been recognized by The Minneapolis - Saint Paul Business Journal as a Top 50 Women in Business and as a Titan of Tech. Amanda is an Indiana native who graduated from Indiana University.