Business Notes for May 19, 2024

The Gazette’s Business Notes is a compendium of the week’s promotions, new hires, certifications, added business lines and business events, among other items, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and the rest of the Corridor.

Information and photos can be submitted to Business Notes by email to businessnotes@thegazette.com, or on our site at thegazette.com/businessnotes.

New hires

The Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau has named Marnie Schultz as the membership and tourism director.

Design Engineers has hired Taylor Steffen as employee success coordinator in its Cedar Rapids office.

Bob Downer, Tim Krumm, Sean Wandro and Craig Willis have joined the Shuttleworth & Ingersoll law firm and will be based in the firm’s Coralville office. Together, they represent more than 150 years of experience practicing law in Iowa, according to Brian Bergstrom, president of Shuttleworth & Ingersoll. The firm, established in 1854, has more than 60 attorneys with offices in Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Waterloo, Nashua and Grundy Center.

Certifications

At Strategic Financial Solutions, Bert McClintock, Steven Bragg and Jordan Kuehner recently received their certifications for long-term care, and Toni Stone recently received her designation as a certified plan fiduciary advisor.

Other news

ESOP Company of the Year: Rayser Holdings, a Cedar Rapids-based employee-owned holding company, has been named the 2024 National Employee Owned Company of the Year by the ESOP Association. The award was presented May 9 in Washington, D.C. Michelle Jensen is president and CEO of the company. Folience, the parent company of The Gazette, won the award in 2022.

His Hands Free Clinic: Alex Trunnell is the new executive director at His Hands Free Clinic in southeast Cedar Rapids. He succeeds Dawn Brouwers, who remains on staff to publicize the clinic. Trunnell formerly held management positions at TrueNorth and HNN Risk and served on the Foundation 2 Crisis Services board.

Iowa City leadership applications: The Greater Iowa City Community Leadership Program has opened applications for the 2024-25 training. Twenty-four participants will be chosen for the monthly sessions running from August through June. The application deadline is June 21. More information and the application are at https://greateriowacity.com/community-leadership-program.

Collins airborne radio: Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, has delivered the first networked communications airborne radio to a European nation. The Polish Ministry of Defense will equip its C-130H Hercules fleet with Collins’ TruNet AR-1500 new software-defined radio, the company announced last week.

Small business of the week: U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, last week named Dutchland Foods of Lyon County as her small business of the week. Wayne and Jennie Van Wyhe founded Dutchland Foods in Lester, a small city in northwest Iowa, in 1992 with their son, Pete, and his wife, Susan. They made pastries in a former bank building, converting the vault to a walk-in cooler. The company now operates in two locations. The elder Van Wyhes have died, with the fourth generation now involved with the family-owned business, which distributes its baked good throughout the United States and will soon begin distribution in the United Kingdom. Ernst, the ranking member on the Senate’s Small Business Committee, is naming one exceptional small business of the week in each of Iowa’s counties during this congressional session.