8 Women To Be Honored In Minn. Women Business Owners Hall Of Fame

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – It's the most prestigious awards recognition for Minnesota's female entrepreneurs – the Minnesota Women Business Owners Hall of Fame.

Jill Johnson was inducted in to the Minnesota Women Business Owners Hall of Fame a few years ago.

"When we look at the 150 year history of Minnesota women in business," Johnson, President of Johnson Consulting Services, said. "They have been transcendent. They've overcome business obstacles."

According to Johnson, this year's eight inductees helped generate a combined $350 million in revenue in a single year. The companies they helped establish have been rated among the "Top Places to Work" and, at their peak, had over 2,600 employees.

When it came time to sell the family's plastics manufacturing company Maureen Steinwell, one of this year's inductees, persuaded her father she was the perfect buyer.

"At the time my father said, 'What's a girl going to do with a manufacturing company?'" Steinwell said. "I said, 'The same thing a boy does.'"

Steinwell's father started the company in 1965, but she took over the business 20 years later and has been running the company for the last 30 years.

"The reason I got into injection molding was I really observed that my passion was in helping people," Steinwell said.

Steinwell raised her children and managed to get her Ph.D. in organizational management all while running the family company.

"What we have to do is be driven. Be very independent and be driven by what's inside of us," Steinwell said.

Another one of the eight inductees in this year's class is Esperanza Guerrero-Anderson, who came to the U.S. in 1978 as a refugee from Nicaragua.

"I found a job at U.S. Bank and I got a job as an international lending officer," Guerrero-Anderson said.

Now, she runs her own consulting firm.

She climbed the corporate ladder quickly, citing just one small obstacle.

"Probably that I am short, that might not be what everyone expects," Guerrero-Anderson said.

But while she may be short, her career accomplishments certainly aren't.

She's served on numerous boards and became a CEO of Metropolitan Economic Development Association in the mid 80s, and now runs her own company.

She offered up this advice to those looking to go out on their own.

"Follow your dreams. The earlier you try it is easier," Guerrero-Anderson said.

The 2015 Minnesota Women Business Owners inductees include Angie Bastian: Angie's Artisan Treats, LLC; Dorothy Staugaard Dalquist: Nordic Ware; Pamela Smith Garrett: Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center, Esperanza Guerrero-Anderson: Guerrero-Anderson, Inc.; Maureen Steinwall: Steinwall, Inc.; Kathleen Zurek: Diversified Adjustment Service, Inc.

Posthumous inductees include Leeann Chin: Leeann Chin Chinese Cuisine; Marie O'Brien Slawik: Har-Mar, Incorporated.

The induction ceremony will be held from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, April 9 at the Minnesota Women Business Owners Hall Of Fame, located on the Wayzata Cargill campus.