The Shenehon Center for Real Estate at the Opus College of Business has created the Minnesota Real Estate Hall of Fame to recognize Minnesotans who have been innovators and successful leaders in the field of real estate.
“Creating the Minnesota Real Estate Hall of Fame gives the university the ability to honor, preserve and perpetuate the outstanding accomplishments of men and women in real estate,” said Herb Tousley, director of the Shenehon Center for Real Estate at St. Thomas.
Potential candidates must be nominated by members of St. Thomas’ real estate advisory board or by colleagues. A selection committee, composed of members of the UST Real Estate Advisory Board, reviews nominees’ credentials.
Inductees will be enshrined into the Minnesota Hall of Fame Oct. 27 in a reception in Schulze Hall Auditorium on the Minneapolis campus. Tony Downs, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., will be the featured speaker. The first inductees to the Hall of Fame are Tony Bernardi, Lloyd Engelsma, Gerald Rauenhorst, William Reiling, Jim Ryan and Sam Thorpe Sr.
“The basic criterion for acceptance into the Hall of Fame is that an inductee will have an outstanding business performance coupled with a high standard of ethics and sense of community, an integral part of St. Thomas’ mission,” said Tousley.
“The selection committee makes their decisions based on the nominees’ contributions to the business of real estate and to the community as a whole,” said Tousley. The committee gives weight to such accomplishments as starting or building a business to significantly greater achievements and leading major innovative projects. Among other factors considered, the committee assesses whether the nominee has displayed the highest level of ethics in his or her business dealings, industry recognitions and if the person has demonstrated a desire to improve his or her community.
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