In opening bell ceremony, Minnesota CEOs take economy’s pulse

Minnesota CEOs crowded around the golden opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning, not on Wall Street but rather at Medtronic’s Fridley campus, celebrating the state’s business wins and warning how fast they could evaporate.

Executives from Minnesota’s 17 Fortune 500 companies used the ceremony to advocate for pro-business taxation and regulation policies.

“It doesn’t take long to see a state fall apart,” Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha, who emceed the event, said in an interview.

“Innovation is where the world’s going. The U.S. leads in innovation. Minnesota has a lot of it, and we need to keep investing in that whole ecosystem that drives that innovation or we’re gonna get left behind.”

The Minnesota Business Partnership, which Martha chairs, hosted the ceremony as part of a larger push to increase pro-business advocacy and visibility in Minnesota. Attendees dined on a breakfast of eggs, potatoes and bacon as CEOs shared their vision of the state’s economy.

General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening said Minnesota businesses are unique when challenges arise.

“We listen, and we adapt, and we participate,” he said. “We plant values, we build trust, we create shared stakes in the future. It’s why Minnesota’s headquarters economy continues to thrive.”

The Twin Cities leads all but two U.S. metro areas in Fortune 500 companies per capita, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Harmening said companies don’t just invest in office space when they choose Minnesota for their headquarters. They invest in neighborhoods, schools, parks and cultural institutions, he said.

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, who grew up in rural Minnesota, said the state’s well-rounded environment attracts strong talent and makes it hard for people to leave.

“This is a space where leaders lean in and want to be a part,” Barry said.

Martha said Minnesota can provide the spark for the creation of companies like Medtronic, which invented the first battery-powered pacemaker and used it at the University of Minnesota in the 1950s.

He said Inspire Medical Systems, which created a device to treat sleep apnea, used Minnesota talent to grow into a company worth billions. Its CEO previously worked for Medtronic.

“Talent’s a key piece,” Martha said. “But money matters, too.”

Kurt Zellers, CEO of the Minnesota Business Partnership, said current regulations can force businesses to take months longer to build facilities. He said Minnesota’s tax rate is an obstacle.

“We don’t have to be at the bottom of the corporate tax bracket, but, boy, we sure got to get out of the top five,” Zellers said.

U.S. Bancorp CEO Gunjan Kedia cautioned the crowd about taxes and regulatory processes, saying other headquarters economies have “drained” their large companies.

This occurred, she said, because “there comes a time when, if it is that difficult to open a new building or that difficult to start something new, you just say, ‘Maybe I go someplace where it doesn’t take years to unravel the regulatory approval process,’” she said.

Zellers said the business partnership has advocated for a research and development tax credit that can be the “difference between life and death” for startups in the state.

“Whether they survive, thrive, and then grow to a point where Medtronic or someone else wants to buy them,” he said.

Medtronic’s corporate headquarters relocated to Ireland for tax purposes more than a decade ago, while company executives continued to run the medtech giant out of Fridley. The move prompted concern that Medtronic could shift its Minnesota workforce.

Since then, Martha said, Medtronic instead beat its commitment to add 1,000 jobs in the state.

“I think we resoundingly proved the skeptics wrong,” he said. “Our company is bigger now, investing more in research and development here in the Twin Cities and globally over the last 10 years.”