Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has named Patrick G. Ryan ’75, chair of the Board of Trustees and board chair of the St. Thomas School of Law Board of Governors, the 2017 Executive of the Year.
The award highlights the outstanding professional and personal accomplishments of Minnesota's business leaders who head the state's largest companies. Ryan joins an elite group of top executives, which have included Richard Davis of U.S. Bancorp and Mary Brainerd of HealthPartners.
Ryan is the third-generation president and CEO of Ryan Companies US Inc., a billion-dollar real estate company with 13 offices across the United States.
Ryan Companies continues to grow under Ryan's leadership. With then CFO Tim Gray, Ryan helped guide Ryan Companies through the recession to double its annual revenue and nearly triple its employee base over the past eight years. Recently, the company completed the $300 million Wells Fargo complex near U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis and developed plans for another office tower nearby across from The Commons park.
Ryan’s substantial community work includes serving as a board member of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and as trustee and past president of Children’s Cancer Research Fund. In the past he was president of Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School and a board member of Catholic Charities. Ryan is a founder of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, an inner-city college preparatory school for underresourced children. Ryan employs students from the school who earn their tuition through work at his company. He also is co-chair of the Spring Point Project, an initiative focused on finding a cure for diabetes. Ryan and his wife created SPP after their youngest daughter, now in her 20s, was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 9. The initiative has a research facility in New Richmond, Wisconsin.
Ryan also is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the World Presidents’ Organization, and past director of NAIOP, the National Association for Industrial and Office Properties.
The Business Journal will celebrate Ryan's contributions to his company, the community and Minnesota economy in a February publication and an awards ceremony to be announced soon.
