Sartell residents win ‘Under’ awards

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

(Editors’ note: Information and photos for the following story were provided via stories about the award-winners as published in the St. Cloud Times.)

Three Sartell individuals – one a businessman, the other a young student and another whose hometown was Sartell – will be honored in the 11th annual “Under 20” and “Under 40” award categories for 2016 by Times Media starting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24 at the Paramount Center for the Arts in downtown St. Cloud.

Tickets for the awards banquet are $12 and can be purchased at http://bit.ly/2htwHay.

The Sartell award recipients are Bryan Burns, president and chief executive officer of DeZURIK, the valve-production plant in the city; and Josh Maricle-Roberts, 17, a student at Apollo High School.

Another recipient, Kate Hanson of Granite City Real Estate, now lives in Annandale but hails from Sartell.

Burns and Hanson are two of the five award recipients in the “5 Under 40” category; Maricle-Roberts is one of two in the “2 Under 20” category. The other honoree in the “Under 20” category is Marisa Gaetz of St. Joseph, a St. John’s Prep School graduate now studying math at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The four other honorees in the “Under 40” category are Emily Coborn, vice president of fresh merchandising with Coborn’s grocery stores; Ryan Gerads, attorney and shareholder with the firm of Gray Plant Mooty; and Hudda Ibrahim, instructor of diversity and social justice, and advisor for foreign-born students at St. Cloud Technical & Community College and owner of Filsan Consultant LLC.

The “Under” awards are given annually to those who consistently demonstrate innovation, leadership and community service. Each year, the awards are sponsored by (St. Cloud) Times Media with support from Falcon National Bank, HealthPartners Central Minnesota and the Initiative Foundation.

Maricle-Roberts

Now a senior at Apollo High School, Josh Maricle-Roberts is active in 4-H, choir, theater, Nordic skiing, Knowledge Bowl and National Honor Society.

He is also a table-waiter at Kay’s Kitchen in St. Joseph, a city in which he and his family used to live.

One of Maricle-Roberts’ favorite volunteer jobs is shelving books a the Waite Park branch of the Great River Regional Library System.

Maricle-Roberts plans to enroll in Concordia College, Moorhead, and hopes to become a teacher and/or researcher, especially in one of his prime passions, history.

Among Maricle-Roberts’ hobbies are playing strategic board games such as Axis and Allies.

Burns

Hailing from the hometown of Kokomo, Ind., Bryan Burns worked for the Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y. and at the Brunswick Corp. in Knoxville, Tenn.

Then, one day many years ago, he moved to Sartell after receiving a request for his expertise from Crestliner (boat company) in Little Falls. Later, he was asked to help with the production line at DeZURIK, the long-time valve manufacturer in Sartell. He accepted. Six years later, in 2013, he assumed leadership of the company. Burns is credited with expanding DeZURIK’s international market with new market lines and with many innovations in customer-service quality. When asked about his most important influences, he mentioned Larry Korf and Al Kremers, both former CEOs of DeZURIK and Rick Bauerly, operator of Granite Equity of St. Cloud.

Burns holds a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s of business administration from Duke University, Durham, N.D.

Burns, 39, is a member of the St. Cloud Area Family YMCA Board, a member of the Community Schools Planning Initiative for the Sartell-St. Stephen School District and does some teaching at Anderson Center.

Burns and his wife, Hilary, have three children: Addison, 11; Caitlyn, 9; and Alex, 6.

Hanson

Kate Hanson, who grew up in Sartell, earned a bachelor’s degree in real estate from St. Cloud State University.

As vice president of commercial brokerage for Granite City Real Estate, Hanson has become an expert at facilitating business development throughout central Minnesota.

Hanson is former vice chair of the St. Cloud Downtown Council and a board member of the Minnesota Commercial Association of Real Estate/Realtors. She is also a volunteer for Grey Face Rescue and Retirement, a foster-based care program for aging dogs in central Minnesota. She enjoys volunteering for her son’s Cub Scout group and works with the Annandale Elementary School.

Hanson’s fiancé is Jesse Nelson. She has two children – Carter, 9; and Reese, 5.