- Engage Leaders: Wolters Kluwer – Helping Shape Tomorrow Through Technology, Compliance
- Grow Business: Sherburne County Broadband Survey
- Expand Talent: May is Mental Health Awareness Month
- Shape Tomorrow:
- Creating Pathways and Building Community – Annual Conference for Empowering Community Foundations
- Light at the End of the Tunnel – St. Cloud Times Opinion Article
- Insights and Inspirations: Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. “We Are More Than”: Collective Learning Circle hosted by NAPAWF St. Cloud Chapter
Engage Leaders: Wolters Kluwer – Helping Shape Tomorrow through Technology, Compliance
Wolters Kluwer has been part of the fabric of the local business community for many years, having acquired St. Cloud-based Bankers Systems in 1999. Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions, based in Minnesota, is a growing, thriving business that helps banks and other financial services firms manage their risk and regulatory compliance obligations.
These capabilities were put to the test when COVID hit. Steve Meirink, Executive Vice President and General Manager, recalls his team’s focused effort in responding to the challenge, providing uninterrupted client service as the pandemic entered lockdown stage. “Essentially, over a weekend, we went to 95 percent work-from-home in a completely seamless manner—adaptability perhaps due to our experience in dealing with Minnesota winters!”
Wolters Kluwer’s St. Cloud team worked tirelessly to deliver critical customer support. Key was the team’s success in speedily updating its proprietary TSoftPlus technology for lenders to facilitate SBA loans through the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses hit by COVID. Over the course of the past year, Wolters Kluwer’s combined team efforts have helped save approximately 10 million U.S. workers’ jobs.
Increasing market demand for and recognition of the benefits of digital transactions were clear long before COVID. Wolters Kluwer innovated to address this need, developing an online application capability for consumer loans. In late 2020, Wolters Kluwer further strengthened its online solutions for lenders through the acquisition of eOriginal, a leader in digital lending. The acquisition combined both organizations’ highly complementary offerings and extended Wolters Kluwer’s leading position in U.S. mortgage/loan document generation and analytics into the fast-growing digital loan closing and storage adjacencies.
When asked in a recent Star Tribune profile how Wolters Kluwer helps meet growing demand for digital banking services, Meirink was resolute: “Our role is to help banks, credit unions and other lenders expedite a digitized and contactless transaction with their customers, typically small business or consumers. It’s mission-critical for lending transactions to be contactless, remote and easy. Our role is not only to make that process happen, but to make sure it’s done in a compliant manner.”
“Our customers operate in highly regulated industries and face a variety of challenges, including managing the tremendous complexity, scope and volume of rules across an ever-evolving regulatory landscape,” adds Meirink. “Emerging technologies such as those that are digitizing banking transactions are altering the business landscape and lenders’ strategies as to how and where to invest their resources. These factors present a significant growth opportunity for Wolters Kluwer’s wide array of expert solutions, technology innovations and domain expertise.”
Of 1,200 Compliance Solutions employees, about 700 are based in Minnesota, and the business is on pace for further growth in 2021. “Minnesota is a great place and market for an information services company such as Wolters Kluwer to thrive,” says Meirink. “We want to continue to be known as a trusted advisor and employer of choice in this space. Our team lives out our purpose-driven values by enabling professionals to make an impact of significance when it matters most.”
To learn more, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en.
Steve Meirink
Executive Vice President and General Manager
Wolters Kluwer
Grow Business
Sherburne County Broadband Survey
Access to reliable high-speed Internet remains a top priority for Sherburne County as well as an elevated priority at GSDC. To that point, Sherburne County will be conducting an assessment of the current state of broadband internet from businesses and residents located in Sherburne County. The Broadband Survey which is open through the end of May will guide planning efforts regarding the future of broadband in the County.
The surveys are designed to measure the broadband speeds that residents and businesses receive and to collect feedback from residents and business owners about what they would like to see in the future.
The residential survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XRRTCGD
The business survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XRFS5HQ
Questions regarding the survey can be directed to Dan Weber, Sherburne County Assistant County Administrator, at dan.weber@co.sherburne.mn.us
Expand Talent
May is Mental Health Awareness Month
Awareness of your employee’s health is an employee retention tool. Your concern tells your employees you care about them, their families, and their personal wellbeing.
- 1 in 4 people will develop a mental illness in their lifetime.
- Virtually everyone has been impacted in some way through the pandemic
- More workdays are lost due to stress, depression and anxiety than any other illness.
Mental Health impacts your workplace through lost production, employee morale, turn over and more.
What can you do as an employer?
- Offer support opportunities to your employees – adapting to fit your organization.
- Provide a welcoming/open environment for your employees to feel comfortable. Foster an environment that everyone feels understood and supported.
- Provide resources/support for your employees to learn more and to secure the assistance they need.
- Implement a Make it OK campaign or initiative at your place of work
Join us for a FREE hour- long presentation to better understand mental health stigma, how do reduce it, what to say and what not to say, and how to find resources for support. Register for these free sessions at: www.healthpartners.com/about/classes-events/ search for Make It OK, Greater St. Cloud to register.
Mental Illness is Real – Let’s start talking
Shape Tomorrow
Creating Pathways and Building Community – Annual Conference for Empowering Community Foundations
Join Community Giving during their annual conference for community foundations. The conference runs from May 17 – May 20 but participants are invited to join in when they are able. Click to register and see a schedule of virtual events.
Light at the End of the Tunnel – St. Cloud Times Opinion Article
With a change in mask mandates and increased vaccination rates, this St. Cloud Times article is one many of us have been waiting for – a light at the end of this pandemic tunnel. No matter where your feelings lie about the end of the mask mandate, the article says it best, “Let’s not draw battle lines or boycotts, let’s not disparage individuals who find their own timelines for wearing or not wearing a mask, going out in public or not, trying to keep their distance, or not. … exercise some grace with one another’s choices, whether they are bold or cautious. There’s no downside.”
Insights and Inspirations
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. “We Are More Than”: Collective Learning Circle hosted by NAPAWF St. Cloud Chapter
Join the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum St. Cloud Chapter for a “three-minute lecture” open mic night for all Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women in Minnesota. This event will be on Saturday, May 22nd, from 3-4pm.
AAPI Minnesotan women will be sharing their knowledge (for three minutes!) on any topic, whether it’s about family/community, their traditions/heritage, skills they have, stories they want to share, a particular subject they have expertise in, etc.
In the wake of the Atlanta spa shootings, we want people to know that “we are more than [insert label]” and, although society may tell us otherwise, the knowledge we hold / want to share with others is valuable. Women are oftentimes the creators, holders, and connectors of knowledge in our communities. We are more than our ties to kin or our work; we are more than objects of desire or people that serve for the comfort of others; and we refused to be a model minority. We intend for this space to be a collective learning circle, where we all learn from one another.
Sign-Up for the event HERE.
Contact Our Staff Team
Patti Gartland, President
pgartland@greaterstcloud.com | 320-260-2442
Leslie Dingmann, Business Development Director
ldingmann@greaterstcloud.com | 320-493-9003
Gail Cruikshank, Talent Director
gcruikshank@greaterstcloud.com | 320-260-6775
Amelia Barkley, Communications & Program Specialist
abarkley@greaterstcloud.com | 320-292-9296