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Ryan Gellert, Patagonia’s C.E.O., Has a Mission: ‘Save Our Home Planet’
An unofficial qualification to become chief executive of Patagonia seems to be an interest in extreme sports, a strong meditation practice or both. The previous C.E.O. practiced Tibetan Buddhism. The one before that was a ski bum who liked to meditate. Yvon Chouinard, the company’s eccentric founder, was a mountain-climbing Zen Buddhist. So when Ryan Gellert was named C.E.O. of Patagonia in September 2020, his pedigree was hardly surprising. Mr. Gellert is an avid mountaineer and skier who has spent his career at outdoor retailers, including Black Diamond. Though he is not a Buddhist, he has a decades-long track record of social and environmental activism, making him well suited to…
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You can save a small business this Christmas
Author Carol Roth reacts to the death of ‘small business hero’ Virgil Abloh on ‘Making Money.’ The holiday season is always a critical time for many small business owners, but this year, by voting with your wallet, you can make an even bigger impact. According to the recent American Express Shop Small Impact survey, 78{3e92bdb61ecc35f2999ee2a63f1e687c788772421b16b0136989bbb6b4e89b73} of small business respondents said that, “holiday sales will impact their ability to keep their doors open in 2022.” That’s an awful lot of entrepreneurs depending on the outcome of the holidays for their survival. BIDEN TOUTS DECLINING UNEMPLOYMENT RATE, DESPITE HUGE JOBS MISS IN NOVEMBER Small businesses have borne the brunt of the government’s…
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Minnesotans had to get creative to save their small businesses
Colleen O’Connor was surrounded by a mess of her own making, just the way she liked it. Across the tables of her St. Paul art studio were small frames, cups of paintbrushes and mini plastic pots filled with acrylic paint she mixed herself. She moved into the space in October 2019, thinking it would be a good place to host classes and expand a business she’d been running from her attic. “The intention of the studio was to up my game a little bit and to prove to myself and others that I was an artist,” O’Connor said. Six months later, her hopes and ideas changed. The worst public health…