Posted: 8/1/07
Stacy resident takes home major award
 Carlson Companies CEO Marilyn Carlson Nelson, left, president and CEO of Carlson Marketing Jim Schroer, with Golden Rose Award Winner, Director of Decision Sciences Teri Kaslow. |
By Anne Thom
Former Secretary of State Hodding Carter said, "There are only two bequests one can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings."
Mel and Jeanne Aslakson of Stacy, and some fine local education professionals have succeeded in doing that for Teri Kaslow also of Stacy.
Kaslow, daughter of the Aslakson's, is a 1985 graduate of North Branch High School. She was awarded the Order of the Golden Rose by her employer Carlson Companies in February this year.
The Order of the Golden Rose honors Carlson employees "..who by translating the Carlson Strategy into meaningful and measurable actions, contributed in extraordinary ways to the company's success in the previous year." For her efforts, Kaslow was nominated by employees of her department and selected to receive the award by Carlson Marketing's Executive Leadership Committee. She was honored during a company Oscars night held at the Guthrie Theater and presented with a Boehm Studios golden porcelain rose.
Minneapolis-based Carlson Companies employs 170,000 people world wide, 3000 alone in the marketing division where Kaslow is Director of Decision Sciences for the Peppers & Rogers Group which provides consulting services that support credit card consumer loyalty programs, airline frequent flyer programs, retail frequent buyer programs and sales recognition programs.
Kaslow also teaches advanced business and statistics in the University of St. Thomas MBA program. Prior to her employment with Carlson Companies, Kaslow held similar jobs with Fair Isaac, Target Corporation and Fingerhut.
Among examples cited in an internal memo shared with the Post Review were Kaslow's accomplishments of "fostering and environment for great people to do great work in a great place," "building an excellent world-class, and sustainable team, "contributing in very significant ways to building the external reputation" of the company and creating and modeling a culture among the team to delight customers every day."
Kaslow makes use of her mathematical and statistical abilities, but most exceptional are her people skills. The Pepper & Rogers group focuses on helping their clients grow and retain customer relationships.
Her colleagues attribute these terrific outcomes to Kaslow's "unfailingly positive" attitude and leadership ability. Kaslow attributes her accomplishments to other sources. First her parents, dad Mel is a CPA who trained her from elementary school to work on complex mathematical and analytical problems that mom Jeanne encouraged. Second her teachers in the North Branch School system, including Mr. Ahlm, Ms. Coleman, Mr. Ness, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Walker, "and many others."
Kaslow said, "Many years go by before they probably hear the thank yous due to them for all of their hard efforts in impacting careers and personal satisfaction."
Kaslow is proud to be from Stacy. "It's a wonderful community. People support one another," she said. Kaslow feels she has one foot planted in the best of both worlds and said she doesn't mind the 120-mile a day commute to be able to do work that she loves and to come home to a place that really is a great place to live and play.
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