Dealmakers Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Bill George is an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, where he has been a Professor of Management Practice and Senior Fellow teaching leadership since 2004. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic. He joined Medtronic in 1989 as president and chief operating officer, was chief executive officer from 1991-2001, and board chair from 1996-2002. Earlier in his career, he was a senior executive with Honeywell and Litton Industries and served in the U.S. Department of Defense.

Bill is the author of: Emerging Leader Edition of True North, Discover Your True North and The Discover Your True North Fieldbook, Authentic Leadership, True North, Finding Your True North, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis and True North Groups.

He has served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, Novartis, Target,and the Mayo Clinic. He is a life director of the Guthrie Theater, and is an executive committee and board member of YMCA of the North. He has served on the board ofWorld Economic Forum USA, and board chair for Allina Health System, Abbott-Northwestern Hospital, United Way of the Greater Twin Cities, and Advamed.

In 2014, the Franklin Institute awarded him the Bower Award for Business Leadership and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2012. He was named one of the "Top 25 Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years" by PBS; "Executive of the Year-2001" by the Academy of Management; and "Director of the Year-2001-02" by the National Association of Corporate Directors.  Bill is a frequent contributor to CNBC, Fortune Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal and makes frequent appearances on television and radio.

He received his BSIE with high honors from Georgia Tech, his MBA with high distinction from Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar, and honorary PhDs from Georgia Tech, Mayo Medical School, University of St. Thomas, Augsburg College and Bryant University.  During 2002-03 he was professor at IMD International and Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland, and executive-in-residence at Yale School of Management. 

Bill George is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, and is the former Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic. He is the author of: The Emerging Leader Edition of True North, Discover Your True North and The Discover Your True North Fieldbook, Authentic Leadership, True North, Finding Your True North, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis and True North Groups. Bill has previously served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, Mayo Clinic, ExxonMobil, Target, Novartis and The World Economic Forum USA. In 2014 the Franklin Institute presented Bill with the Bower Award for Business Leadership. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2012 and was named one of "Top 25 Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years" by PBS. Mr. George received his BSIE with high honors from Georgia Tech, his MBA with high distinction from Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar. He has received honorary PhDs from Georgia Tech, Mayo Medical School, University of St. Thomas, Augsburg College, and Bryant University.

Jack Helms has a long record in corporate finance and law, spanning more than 35 years. He practiced law and was a member of Fredrikson & Byron from 1978 to 1986, focusing in partnerships, tax, syndications and mergers and acquisitions.

In 1987, he joined Goldsmith Agio, a newly formed boutique, sell-side M&A advisory firm. The firm was subsequently renamed Goldsmith Agio Helms (GAH) and Helms served as President, Managing Partner and CEO from 1991 into 2007. Based in Minneapolis, the firm grew to approximately 150 employees, and opened offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, as well as established joint venture partnerships throughout Europe. GAH was acquired by Lazard in 2007 and renamed Lazard Middle Market (LMM). Following the merger, Helms served as Chairman of LMM through early 2012, when he transitioned to the role of Senior Advisor.

In addition to his management functions at GAH and LMM, he has advised clients in initiating and completing a wide range of mergers, acquisitions, sales, divestitures, financings and recapitalizations, including complex cross-border sales and international joint ventures. Helms has broad industry experience in the business services, consumer, healthcare, industrial products/manufacturing, natural resources/environment, and transportation categories, and has served on boards of directors of a number of public and private companies.

Helms has also been an active investor in privately held businesses. In the last 15 years, his investments include non-control equity positions in more than 40 privately-held businesses and more than 60 private equity and mezzanine funds. To continue and expand his direct investing in privately held businesses, in 2012 Helms formed Helms Capital, LLC, a private merchant bank.

In 2015, several former Lazard colleagues joined with Helms to form Pathfinder Companies. Pathfinder currently has 6 platform company investments with management responsibility and manages a multi-family office fund for investing in middle market private equity funds. In Summer 2021, Helms’ son Joe Helms (formerly with the Goldner Hawn Johnson and Morrison private equity firm) joined the Pathfinder team in a leadership position.

Helms is a former member of the National Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Board of Directors and served as Chair of ACG Intergrowth 2011. Investment Dealers’ Digest (IDD) named Helms its “2007 Middle-Market Banker of the Year.”

Helms is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School [1978] magna cum laude and the Order of the Coif. He is also a graduate of Iowa State University [1975] with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Administration, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a member of the Minnesota Society of CPAs.

Scott is an entrepreneur in search of new ways technology can advance the mission of knowledge workers from sales, marketing and research & insights. From the early days of the Internet and the first websites, to business portals of the dot com era to the latest generation of artificial intelligence — Scott has a long history of building businesses that help Fortune 1000 marketers and the agencies that serve them, take advantage of cutting-edge digital transformation.

Dan Mallin is a force in technology-based entrepreneurship, creating transformative tools that serve the needs of Fortune 1000. Working with business partner Scott Litman, he’s repeatedly broken new ground in digital transformation. Together, the two have grown and sold four businesses and built forward-thinking tech platforms that are still in use day-to-day by some of the world’s largest brands.

Brian McGrane is a global executive with proven leadership, financial and operating acumen built over 30 years in investment and wealth management, insurance and banking. As CFO of all operating segments and head of group M&A, he was a key contributor to industry-leading shareholder value growth at Ameriprise Financial. Brian has also served as a board director for many leading organizations.

John “Ozzie” Nelson Jr. is Chairman and CEO of NELSON Worldwide, an award-winning design, architecture, branding, and consulting services organization operating across the country and globe. Under Ozzie’s leadership, the firm expanded from a one-office, traditional design firm with a single core competency to its current state of more than 22 locations, 10 different practice areas, and multiple fully integrated service lines Since Ozzie became CEO of NELSON in 2003, the firm has executed more than 45 merger/acquisitions, taking NELSON from the rank of #37 in the industry to multiple “Top 10” rankings with growth of more than 500 percent. Among the innovative clients Ozzie has worked with include Amazon, Bank of America, Simon Property Group, Google, Cisco, and Brookfield Properties.

His innovative approach to the design business has put Ozzie in high demand as a speaker for organizations including Design Colloquium, InterPlan, University of St. Thomas, CoreNet, the AEC convention, NeoCon, and the annual conference for the Internal Society of Facilities Executives. In 2019, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal honored Ozzie as one of its Most Admired CEOs. Ozzie has chaired a number of not-for-profit organizations including the Visitation School (Mendota Heights, Minn.) and Students Today Leaders Forever and most recently the University of St. Thomas’s advisory board for its college of arts and sciences. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Committee of 70 and the Mpls Downtown Council and is the Chair of healthcare startup Kinetic Care Group.

Brian is currently the Chief Manager of PCM Companies, LLC (“PCM”).  PCM is a holding company that controls five platform business that were acquired at various times beginning in 2008.

Prior to forming PCM in 2008, Brian was President of Private Capital Management, a MN based registered investment advisor with approximately one billion under management, including a large portfolio of privately held companies. Brian was also Senior Vice President of Northland Investment Holdings and the managing partner of Northland Business Capital, LLP, a private equity and subordinated debt fund controlled by The Northland Company (“TNC”).

Prior to joining TNC in 1994, Brian accumulated fourteen years of banking experience, including the origination and administration of leveraged senior and subordinated debt financing at Norwest Corporation. Brian received his undergraduate degree from Mankato State University and his Masters in Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas. 

Pamela York is an investor, serial entrepreneur, and inventor with extensive success from launch to exit in technology-based companies. Currently she is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Capita3, a venture capital group investing in early startups innovating in health.

Over her career Pam’s been involved in 100+ deals with over 15 startup company exits to date, and served on numerous boards, including EmpowerU, NAMUH, and Collider. She’s been a mentor or advisor for United Healthcare Techstars, Revolution, and Medical Alley and is currently a venture fellow for MATTER Health.

Previously Pam pioneered three technology platforms that went on to successful commercialization and co-founded two VC-backed startups that each had exits, one with a highly successful IPO. She also led the University of Iowa’s technology commercialization foundation, where she oversaw a portfolio of 1000 technologies concentrated in life sciences, built a startup pipeline from scratch, and oversaw the launch of 30+ companies that attracted hundreds of millions in venture capital financing and numerous exits to date. 

Additionally, Pam has 20 years of experience in transformational leadership development. She’s featured on TED talks for a novel leadership accelerator for founders and innovators, known as Capita3 Leader Launch. To date Pam has led 38 cohorts through Leader Launch with 400+ participants. The US SBA, Mayo Clinic Office of Entrepreneurship, MN-SBIR and others are sponsors of this work. Previously, Pam was adjunct faculty teaching the National Science Foundation I-Corps^TM lean startup programs to faculty and graduate students and taught lean startup principles to Saudi Arabian women leaders. She has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois and completed a private equity financing program at Wharton.