Montana Ambassadors Annual Meeting, 02/10, Helena

2005-02-10 12:00:00

Best Western Helena Great Northern Hotel

Contact: [email protected] 406-431-4066 http://www.montanaambassadors.com

The Montana Ambassadors will hear from three major speakers at their Annual Meeting in Helena, Feb. 10-11. Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Gary Stern will open the conference at Noon Feb. 10. Governor Brian Schweitzer speaks to the group that evening as part of the awards banquet. Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns will close the conference at the concluding luncheon Feb. 11.

The Montana Ambassadors is a volunteer, not-for-profit organization of leaders in business, education and the professions, with a common dedication to living and doing business in Montana and furthering the best interests of the state, serving at the pleasure of the Governor.

Stern has been President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis since 1985. He has an additional ten years of experience with the federal reserve system. Stern is also Vice Chair of the National Council on Economic Education and Past Chair of the Northwest Area Foundation. His talk at Noon on Thursday, Feb. 10 will be “Formalizing the Success of Past Policy.”

Brian Schweitzer was elected Governor of the State of Montana on November 2, 2004, being inaugurated as Montana’s 23rd Governor on January 3, 2005. His business and agricultural experience is broad and deep, including extensive farming and ranching experience in Montana, and successful agricultural business projects on five continents. Gov. Schweitzer will open the awards banquet at 6:00 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 10.

Dr. Sheila Stearns was appointed as Montana’s Commissioner of Higher Education June 17, 2003. She previously served as President of Wayne State College in Nebraska and Chancellor of UM – Western in Dillon. She also served at UM-Missoula and taught in Missoula public schools. A Montana Ambassador herself, she will speak on “Shared Leadership” at the concluding luncheon.

During the two-day event, Ambassadors and others will also honor and hear from their choices as Business of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year. The Montana Economic Revitalization & Development Institute (MERDI) based in Butte, has been selected as Business of the Year. For 30 years, MERDI and its subsidiary MSE, have been leading research and development, technology, and engineering efforts in Butte and Montana. Don Peoples will provide an overview of their work at 2:45 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 10. Three other honorees – Butch Ott of Billings as Ambassador Plenipotentiary, Pat Seiler as Ambassador of the Year, and Mary Moe as the Michael Malone Educator of the Year will be recognized at the awards banquet Thursday night.

The Ambassadors have selected Andrew Field of PrintingForLess.com based in Livingston as their Entrepreneur of the Year. PFL is the country’s largest online four-color commercial printer, based right here in Montana. Mr. Field will address the Ambassadors at 2 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 10.

Ambassadors will also hear updates on projects they are involved in, including “A World in Motion” and the Jason Project, for high school education, Leadership Montana, and support for the Montana Arts Council. A legislative panel is also scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Following the awards banquet Thursday evening, Ambassadors will hear from U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg the next morning, then a summary of Ambassadors activities over their 20th year. A special program will include announcement of a new chapter for the Ambassadors, the first out-of-state effort, to be based in Seattle.

The Directors of the Departments of Commerce, Labor, and the Office of Economic Development will present the Administration’s perspective in a panel at 10:45 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 11. They are respectively, Tony Preite, Keith Kelly, and Evan Barrett. Preite and Barrett are members of the Montana Ambassadors. A report on the Montana bio/life science cluster will wrap up the morning program, before Sheila Stearns closes the event at the Noon luncheon.

The meeting will also see the exchange of the gavel between 2004 President Emil Erhardt of Billings and 2005 President Elizabeth (Liz) Harris of Kalispell. Other officers and committee chairs will be announced, as well.

All events are held at the Best Western Helena Great Northern Hotel. For further information, contact the Montana Ambassadors at 406-431-4066, [email protected], http://www.montanaambassadors.com, or PO Box 1982, Helena 59624-1982.