Lac Courte Oreilles member launched Greystar in 1993

Ojibwe woman promotes growth as head of electronics firm

by Peter Passi

Duluth, Minnesota (AP)

Mary Moldenhauer typically keeps a low profile. She has to, considering the classified nature of some of the contracts she handles.

But her business accomplishments have thrust Moldenhauer into the public spotlight. The 57-year-old member of the La Court Oreilles Band of Ojibwe was recently named Minnesota’s “Minority Small Business Person of the Year” by the U.S. Small Business Administration. She’s the first Duluthian ever to earn the statewide honor.

The components Moldenhauer and her team quietly manufacture at Greystar Electronics Inc. in Duluth go into tanks, jets, ships and Cirrus airplanes. The company is in the running to supply parts for the F-22, the newest fighter jet in development for the U.S. Air Force.

Moldenhauer launched Greystar 13 years ago with a staff of two. Today the company employs 18 people, but that number fluctuates with work and sometimes swells to 28 during busy times.

“One of the things that impressed us about Greystar is that it has been such a steady performer,” said Randy Czaia, assistant district director for the Small Business Administration’s Minnesota District Office. “Mary has continually grown her company’s revenues and profits.”

Moldenhauer knows her way around the electronics business. She got her start in the industry in 1967 as an assembler working for Litton Industries of Duluth. She went on to work in a management capacity at Fond Du Lac Technologies before striking out on her own.

Because of her deep industry roots, Moldenhauer was able to scrape together enough private investment to launch her business.

“I was fortunate to have people in the community who believed in me and in electronic manufacturing,” she said, noting that lenders wanted nothing to do with her initially.

Moldenhauer doesn’t chalk her early difficulties up to prejudice against American Indians. She observed that her mother was an Indian and her father was a Swede, “so I don’t look really Native American.”

Rather, Moldenhauer said her sex was probably more of an issue.

“Probably my biggest obstacle was being a single woman raising three kids by herself,” she said. But Moldenhauer never lost sight of her goal to build a successful business from the ground up.

“When you have a dream, you stick with it,” she said.

That sense of determination makes Moldenhauer an excellent role model for young people, says Al Chepelnik, a life management teacher at Duluth’s Lincoln Park Middle School. Chepelnik said Moldenhauer has graciously opened her business to school tours and helped him get electronics components for student lab projects.

Chepelnik hopes Moldenhauer will serve as an inspiration for his students, noting “We have a lot of Native American kids at Lincoln Park, so it has been especially nice to have her as an example of what a person can accomplish.”

Information from: Duluth News Tribune

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