B.C. event planner handles behind the scenes tasks at MEDA conventions
Ann-Michele Ewert works hard to be low-profile.
Not that the gregarious event planner is unhappy to chat.
It’s just that Ewert, who has helped organize MEDA’s annual Business as A Calling convention for 20 years, measures success by how well she can blend in. “If you do your job well, people don’t notice,” she says.
Numbers and Tasks
The number of women farmers has tripled since the 1970s. Now, according to the US Department of Agriculture, women make up just under one third of all farmers. More than a third of farm ground is owned by women and 62.7 million acres are farmed by women principal operators, according to the last US Census of Agriculture.
Manitoba farm boy beats the odds to
become a professional race car driver
As Published in The Marketplace magazine
David Richert finds it easy to connect his racing career with his Christian faith.
Given the odds against him succeeding in professional auto racing, he has no other explanation for the past 16 years.
David Richert is passionate about racing as a calling
“Racing and God intersected with each other, in the sense that God used racing as a tool for me to have an opportunity to experience him for myself, and how he operates in the world around me,” Richert told an audience who attended a workshop about his life story at MEDA’s annual Business as a Calling convention.
As a child who grew up collecting eggs on his family’s farm south of Winnipeg, Man., he had no interest in motorized vehicles. When he finally discovered racing at the age of 20, he was told that he was both too old and too tall to be a race car driver.
Turnaround expert applies business lessons
to succeeding in life
As Published in The Marketplace magazine
For all his business adventures, Greg Brenneman thinks of personal relationships when asked about his biggest regret.
“In life, my biggest failure was probably not doubling down on my faith (earlier),” Brenneman told MEDA’s annual convention in Indianapolis.
Greg Brenneman signs copies of his best-selling book
Brenneman, executive chair of private equity firm CCMP Capital, is a leading business turnaround expert. He has served in senior roles at prominent US businesses, including Burger King, PWC Consulting and Continental Airlines.
A Hesston, Kan. native, he wrote the best-selling book, Right Away & All At Once: Five Steps to Transform Your Business and Enrich Your Life.
Female agri-food entrepreneurs share tales from the trenches
As Published in The Marketplace magazine
Female entrepreneurs are making great strides in raising living standards for farmers around the world, but still face challenges getting financing and other resources to expand.
Indiana businessman adapts to make his trailer firm
more efficient after losing a business
As Published in The Marketplace magazine
Eleven years ago, Steve Brenneman had two thriving businesses.
After starting Aluminum Trailer Company in 1999, he bought a small door manufacturing firm in Napanee, Ind.
Steve Brenneman adopted lean production methods to help his trailer manufacturing firm grow
Souderton restaurant builds relationships
As Published in The Marketplace magazine
By Eileen R. Kinch
Souderton, PA — When Pam and Andy Brunner went into the restaurant business 17 years ago, they did so for a simple reason: they wanted to work for themselves.
Young Kansas entrepreneurs share stories of
lessons learned in building their businesses.
As Published in The Marketplace magazine
By Susan Miller
Yoder, Kan. — Many youths get their first entrepreneurial experience by mowing lawns. However Shane Iwashige, now in his early 30s, has reversed the pattern. After working on several unrelated small businesses — cutting firewood, raising dogs and running a small farm — he started investing in real estate and offering home services to people in the Hutchinson, Kan. area.
Shane IwashigeIn July 2018 he added lawn mowing, edging and landscaping services to the collection of small companies he founded under The Rock Group. Since late summer and autumn rains kept unirrigated lawns green until after the first snowfall in mid-October, Iwashige spent many work hours mowing grass on the 170 properties he manages.
As published in The Marketplace Magazine Jan-Feb 2019
Using business to bring about societal change in North America is a complex issue that requires collaboration and tenacity, a conference for students and young professionals was told.
“I don’t know about you, but the people I work with don’t want change, said Roxann Allen Kioko, of Eastern Mennonite University’s business and leadership programs. “People usually hate change.”
Elkhart woodworker turns discarded trees
into high-end furnishings
As published in The Marketplace Magazine Nov-Dec. 2018
Elkhart, IND — Discovering the potential of wood has been a lifelong interest for Matt Thomas.
He did woodworking with his father, Steve, a tri-vocational pastor who also works as an arborist and co-ordinator of Mennonite Men during his childhood. He also volunteered at a friend’s sawmill, growing to love milling wood in the process. 
Matt Thomas and his dog Myla with logs outside the Elko Hardwoods workshop
Miller Poultry named supplier of the year by Whole Foods
As published in The Marketplace Magazine Nov-Dec. 2018
GOSHEN, IND — Miller Poultry has enjoyed remarkable growth in recent years. Its focus on quality and animal welfare has been honored by Whole Foods, its largest customer.
But the Orland, Ind.-based poultry processor is quick to stress that it is a small niche player in a massive US market for what has become American’s favorite meat.
Family produce stand grows to
four Sarasota area supermarkets
As published in The Marketplace Magazine Nov-Dec. 2018
By JB Miller
Nine members of the Detwiler family work in the supermarket. Eight are pictured here.
PALMETTO, FL — Anticipating the opening of the newest Detwiler’s Farm Market in July, the Detwiler family wondered, “Will anyone come?”
There was no need to worry. Cars jammed the parking lot and nearly 5,000 shoppers visited that first day. With the opening of their fourth store, Detwiler’s is on its way to meet a company goal of serving nearly three million customers over the next year.
Goshen College students run a coffee shop for course credit
As published in The Marketplace Magazine Nov-Dec. 2018
Melissa Ma pours a drink for a Java Junction customer
GOSHEN, IND — Michelle Horning likes to see students apply their business studies to the real world of business.
So much so that she has students operate a coffee shop on the Goshen College campus, for course credit, in a class called Java Junction management.
“Reading a book about business is completely different than running a business,” says Horning, who is an accounting professor and chair of Goshen College’s business department.
University student wins MEDA 5K pitch competition with system to help visually impaired people
As Published in The Marketplace Jan-Feb 2019
Hillary Scanlon doesn’t want vision loss to prevent people from sustainably disposing their waste.
Scanlon, a 23-year-old Wilfrid Laurier University student, has a personal stake in the issue.
To passersby, Everence Financial’s main office, a few blocks out of Goshen’s downtown core, looks like many other modern commercial buildings.
Only the sign listing the businesses working under the Everence corporate umbrella gives any hint of the complexity of an organization that includes a trust company, the Praxis mutual funds firm, and the Everence Federal Credit Union.
Skills developed over 25 years in banking help Ken Hochstetler lead Everence
Goshen, IND — Ken Hochstetler’s office at Everence’s corporate headquarters isn’t adorned with the trophies, diplomas and awards you might expect in the workspace of a man who heads a $3 billion company.
The only framed mementos that reflect his journey are a print he received after serving nine years on MEDA’s board, and a smaller certificate that dates back four-and-a-half decades.