MINNEAPOLIS (July 1, 2002) - Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairman and chief executive officer of Carlson Companies, Inc., has been inducted into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame.

Irwin Jacobs, Harvey Mackay, Mahendra Nath and Glen Taylor also received the honor, announced in the July issue Twin Cities Business Monthly.

“Leaders, achievers, role models, sources of inspiration, and agents of change” is how the publication describes the new inductees. “Marilyn Carlson Nelson might have faced the biggest management challenge. The others built companies nearly from scratch. She replaced a legend at the helm of a global behemoth - and with graciously expressed firmness, promptly made plans to expand.”

Nelson and the other inductees join a group of 15 other notable Minnesota business legends in the Hall of Fame including Carlson Companies Founder Curtis Carlson, as well as Ralph Burnet, Jeno Paulucci, Carl Pohlad, and Wheelock Whitney.

This honor follows Nelson`s appointment by President George W. Bush earlier this year to chair the National Women`s Business Council. The council serves as an independent source of advice and counsel to the President, Congress, the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Interagency Committee of Women`s Business.

Nelson also serves on the World Economic Forum`s Board of Governors for Travel and Tourism and the Singapore Tourism Board. She was 2000 National Chair of the Travel Industry Association of America, a delegate to the White House Conference on Tourism and board member of the U.S.A.`s National Tourism Organization.

The new inductees will be honored at a gala Minnesota Business Hall of Fame dinner on July 18 at the Radisson South Hotel in Bloomington. 

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