Karl Bollingberg honored with Grand Forks EDC's Klaus Thiessen Impact Award

Joshua Irvine, Grand Forks Herald
3 min read
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Mar. 26—GRAND FORKS — Longtime Alerus Financial Corporation banker and Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation board member Karl Bollingberg was honored Tuesday with the EDC's Klaus Thiessen Impact Award.

Bollingberg was presented with the award at the start of the EDC's annual meeting, a showcase of Grand Forks' business community and its economic movers and shakers. Roughly 275 people attended the event, held in an Alerus Center ballroom with the theme "Our Time is Now."

EDC President Keith Lund told the Herald that Bollingberg was chosen for his longevity and years promoting Grand Forks' business community as a banker and community leader.

"He can really speak to what it's like to do business in Grand Forks and he's such a strong representative of the community," Lund told the Herald. "Suffice to say, the board felt it was appropriate to recognize him."

Bollingberg spent more than three decades at Alerus Financial, beginning in 1987. Early in his career, he has recounted, he and several bankers flew to Baraboo, Wisconsin, to visit two entrepreneurs who wanted to start a fiberglass airplane company.

Bollingberg said he was skeptical of the operation, and that company, which became Cirrus Aircraft, ended up setting up shop in Duluth. (Cirrus established a manufacturing plant in Grand Forks a few years later.)

"The best part of that whole story is they said they were going to change aviation in the United States, and that's exactly what they did," Bollingberg said while on stage after receiving the Thiessen award. "This is two guys in a remote hangar in Wisconsin with a vision, and they took that vision and made it happen."

Bollingberg is the longest-serving board member in the EDC's history, serving two nine-year terms before retiring in 2022. He's still a member of the boards for the Bank of North Dakota and the Grand Forks Regional Airport Authority.

Tuesday afternoon's event also served to highlight several major milestones in Grand Forks' economic development, like the groundbreaking on the Career Impact Academy, plans for a hypersonic ballistic missile testing site at the Grand Sky aviation park, and the expansion of the Space Development Agency to Grand Forks Air Force Base.

Lund noted that the EDC works with a number of primary sector businesses. Over the past 10 years, those businesses have seen a 21% increase in the number of people they employ, a 39% increase in average salary and a 67% increase in payroll.

Those companies paid $573 million across their payrolls, and spent another $375 million on goods and services.

"One thing that has become abundantly clear over the last several years is that companies are recognizing that the Grand Forks region is a great place to invest," Lund said.

EDC Board President John Oncken highlighted the intersection of new technology with established economic drivers like farming, calling Grand Forks "the most technologically-advanced ag region in the country."

"I'm ready for technology," Oncken said. "You're going to see autonomy, we're going to see different spaces grow and develop, and we're the most savvy region in the country to grow and do that."

The evening doubled as a showcase of several recently-established local businesses, particularly Bifrost Manufacturing and Real Good Cookies. It also highlighted the support EDC has provided to local businesses through programs like InternGF.

Cryptocurrency companies were another notable presence, with Sundog Mining co-founder Aaron Hall speaking alongside Bifrost CEO Killian Erickson (Hall is Bifrost's chief financial officer) and Core Scientific executive Carol Haines sitting down with Lund and Northrop Grumman site director Mike Fridolfs.

Core Scientific, which operates a data center in Grand Forks, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. Haines said the company has become stronger as a result of the bankruptcy organization and hinted at plans to grow in Grand Forks.

"It feels like our time is now as a company, and we're looking forward to expanding here," Haines said.

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