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Oles working in finance, business gain media attention

By Kari VanDerVeen
November 28, 2011

Gretchen Morgenson '76

St. Olaf alumni working in the financial world have been called a lot of things lately, from the "most powerful people in finance" to "hardest-working CEOs" to "Minnesotans you should know."

Worth magazine named Gretchen Morgenson '76 to its list of the 100 Most Powerful People in Finance.

The publication notes that Morgenson, assistant business and financial editor and a columnist at the New York Times, "may be the foremost investigative chronicler of the financial crisis and its fallout." Worth calls her reporting a "must-read" for Wall Streeters — especially those working at Goldman Sachs, "about which she is brutal," and in the offices of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Larry Stranghoener '76

Morgenson's classmate, Larry Stranghoener '76, also made news, receiving a CFO of the Year award from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. The paper notes that Stranghoener, the executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Mosaic Co., has played a key role in turning the company into "the global crop-nutrition powerhouse it is today." He also topped the paper's separate list of Minnesota's Hardest-Working CFOs. Stranghoener is the vice chair of the St. Olaf Board of Regents.

And a number of Oles — including Lars Leafblad '99, a principal with KeyStone Search;  Andrew Eklund '90, founder and CEO of Ciceron; B. Kristine Johnson '73, president of Affinity Capital Management; and Gary Smaby '71, a principal with Square One Ventures — made Twin Cities Business magazine's list of 200 Minnesotans You Should Know.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.