Meet our new CEO, Dave Minning!

Speaker: Dave Minning, CEO

Dave Minning: It didn't take me long during the interview process to realize that there was something very special about Northwoods. Obviously, that doesn't come as a surprise to anyone listening to this at Northwoods currently, because I truly believe you all feel what that means. But for someone coming in from the outside with, you know, the prior companies that I was with, I was just blown away at how acutely aware I was that this had the potential to be just a great place for me to hopefully end my career. I don't want to sound too pollyanna about this, but I do believe that fate kind of brought me here. My collective experiences with the companies that, you know, I built my career around, my personal situation being originally from Ohio and the desire to come back here, after being on the east coast for 12 years, everything just felt right. And although I, I don't come from

Dave Minning: The highlight of my first week has clearly been my one-on-one and small group get-to-know sessions. I've probably had, I don't know, maybe 10-12 of them scheduled this first week and every one of them have been just authentic, and I get to know people at a personal level, reviewing their teams and having really candid conversations about what gives them joy working here, what are some of their pain points, and just getting a full assessment. And these are going to continue, you know, as the weeks go on, just getting a real full assessment of the pulse of the organization. I was fortunate to, you know, during the, I'll call it the courting process with Northwoods and various meetings I've had with Gary coming into the office, I got to know the leadership team pretty well in that, in that period. I really want to make a point of getting down to the organization eventually meeting with everybody, either one-on-one or in small group sessions in my first 90 days. It has been so enriching because, it just reinforces and underscores the passion that everyone has.

Dave Minning: What I'm looking forward to the most as CEO is really figuring out how to do more good for more people. In other words, living the purpose of Northwoods and translating that into business growth. And ultimately, you know, whether we determine that we can be a $60 million, or a $90 million, or half a billion dollar company, figuring that out is going to be very, very fun. And part of the conversations I'm having with people is, you know, what are your thoughts on where we should go? I've had some very poignant questions asked to me, you know, should we be a product company or should we be a services company? That's a great question. I don't know the answer yet, but the most fun I've ever had in any organization is figuring out, where are those avenues of growth? And that's what I'm looking forward to. And ultimately, when a company grows and has a culture like we do, we become the most desired employer in the region and we should be aspiring to be the number one place to work in all of Ohio. And, you know, I like to think big, I like to get things done, and have some fun while doing it. And I think Northwoods gives me the opportunity to be able to do that, unlike every other role I've been in, because of the great work that Gary and the teams, and all of you have done throughout the years to get the company to the point it is today where we can actually use this platform, again, to do more good and just see things really, really explode over the next few years. That's it.