Meet the Heartland judges

*Denotes returning judge

Cheri Beranek
President and CEO
Clearfield, Inc.
2023 national and regional award winner

Cheri Beranek is a founding member of the company and named CEO at the inception of Clearfield in 2008. Her extensive leadership experience and insightful management style combine to deliver outstanding corporate performance. Under her direction, Clearfield has recorded 14 years of profitability and has gained Forbes recognition as America's Best Small Company three times, the most recent in 2022, ranking 4th in Forbes Top 100 Small Cap Company listing. By singularly focusing on the fiber market, Beranek has guided Clearfield into a multi-national business with more than 400 employees and over 1,200 customers, as a leading provider of fiber protection, fiber management and fiber delivery solutions that enable rapid and cost-effective broadband deployment. Prior to Clearfield, Beranek held a variety of executive-level positions with emerging high-growth technology companies, including Americable, Transition Networks, Tricord Systems, and Digi International. She also has extensive non-profit experience including: the City of Fargo, the Metropolitan Planning Commission of Fargo/Moorhead, and North Dakota State University. In addition to being a published author and public speaker at industry events, Ms. Beranek has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including being named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2023 Heartland Award winner, induction into the Minnesota Business Hall of Fame in 2021, the 2016 Minnesota Technology Executive of the Year by Tech.MN, 2016 Female Executive of the Year in New York City by the International Stevie Awards, 2012 Women in Wireline from Fierce Telecom, Stevie Awards for Business in 2011 as a finalist for Best Executive for non-services businesses and the 2009 Turn-Around of the Year, as well as the Twin Cities Business Journal's Industry Leader Award in 2009 and Women to Watch award in 2004. Back to top

Kristen Denzer​
CEO & Founder​
Tierra Encantada​
2020 regional award winner

Kristen Denzer started Tierra Encantada with the sole purpose of creating a place she would send her own children. Kristen had experienced childcare at other centers, and she knew families wanted more. Tierra Encantada is the leader in Spanish immersion early education® and its unique offering includes an elevated culinary program providing fresh-cooked organic meals designed to expand young palates. Tierra has grown exponentially, first through corporate growth and then in 2019 launched franchising. Tierra Encantada has corporate and franchise locations across the country, and has aggressive growth plans to continue its national expansion. Kristen leads the company's senior management team, oversees strategic growth, and sets the vision for the company. She has led the company through year over year double-digit growth every single year since opening. Kristen has sustained this growth without accepting outside investment, and remains the sole shareholder. She has received numerous industry accolades for her business acumen and leadership, including Inc Magazine's "Top 100 Female Founders" and "10 Hottest Franchise Businesses in America", Financial Times "Fastest Growing Companies in the Americas", and the U.S. Small Business Administration's "Small Businessperson of the Year". Kristen is a serial entrepreneur and experienced speaker. Her entrepreneurial journey began with consulting, where she provided evaluation assistance to over twenty nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and tribal nations. Kristen's real estate development company currently has a portfolio of over 140,000 square feet of commercial space, and she also co-founded two other companies that she later sold - a dog daycare and an event rental company.  Back to top

Mary Grove
Managing Partner
Bread & Butter Ventures

Mary Grove is Managing Partner of Bread & Butter Ventures where she leads digital health and enterprise SaaS investing. She brings two decades of leadership experience in technology, early stage investing, and startup ecosystem growth. Mary began her career working on the Google IPO, and went on to lead new business development partnerships, negotiating early-stage product and technology deals worldwide. Mary then served as the founding director of Google for Startups, leading the company’s global efforts to support entrepreneurs in over 100 countries. After her 15-year career at Google, Mary worked as an investment partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund where she led dozens of investments in a range of sectors including healthcare, enterprise software, and fintech. She also built the fund’s portfolio support platform and built a network of over 150 mentors and partners to guide startup growth. She is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Silicon North Stars, a nonprofit that she and her husband Steve founded in 2013 to help young Minnesotans from underserved communities pursue careers in tech. Mary serves on the boards of The Minneapolis Foundation and the Bush Foundation where she also chairs the Investment Committee. She earned her BA and MA from Stanford University. Mary and her family moved from Silicon Valley to Minneapolis in 2018 and she loves cooking, hiking, and getting to know Minnesota through the eyes of her seven-year-old twins. Mary's bread and butter is helping organizations build teams and infrastructure to operate at scale, building partnerships, and home cooked Thai recipes.  Back to top

Christine Lantinen
President and Owner
Maud Borup, Inc.
Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022 Heartland award winner

In 2005, Christine Lantinen purchased Maud Borup and transformed the company from a business-to-consumer model to a leading wholesale candy, confections and food gift company, selling direct to specialty and mass retailers such as Target and Whole Foods. This year, the company produced over 17 million units and brought 150 products to market. It is one of the top five candy companies in Minnesota, employing over 300 team members. The company vision has remained constant: provide a high level of customer service to the retailers and wholesalers it serves through trend-forward product design and development, a lean supply chain and green manufacturing practices. In 2020, 0% landfill waste was implemented at its production facilities, which is one of 30 things it does as a company to reduce and reuse waste. 

Headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota, with three manufacturing facilities in Christine’s childhood hometown of Le Center, Minnesota, current hometown of Plymouth, Minnesota, and Delafield, Wisconsin, the company continues to expand in-house manufacturing, production and warehousing. Maud Borup is Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certified and certified to produce and pack gluten-free and organic products. This year the company became one of only 5,000 Certified B Corporations in the world (23 in Minnesota) using business as a force for good. Christine was recognized by Ernst & Young LLP as an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022 Heartland winner. She was awarded Minnesota’s 2019 Small Businessperson of the Year by the Small Business Administration, the 2020 Woman-Owned Manufacturer of the Year, and made the 2019 and 2022 Fast 50 Companies list by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. She is committed to having a healthy balance between running a family-owned business and being a wife and mother. She hopes one day her kids will continue the Maud Borup tradition. Back to top

Terry Matlack
Managing Director
VantEdge Partners LP
Entrepreneur Of The Year 2011 Heartland winner

Terry is a co-founder and Managing Director of VantEdge Partners. He currently serves on the board of directors of several VantEdge Partner portfolio companies including Enjet Aero, Kona Brewing Company of HI, Bluemont Group, and Luihn VantEdge Partners. Prior to founding VantEdge Partners, he was a board member and managing director of Tortoise Capital Advisors, an investment company he co-founded with partners in 2002. Tortoise Capital managed NYSE-listed closed-end funds, open-end funds, private funds and separate accounts for institutional and individual investors primarily focused on the energy sector. Prior to joining Tortoise Capital, he was a partner at Kansas City Equity Partners, a private equity firm based in Kansas City. From 1989 until 2001, Terry was involved as a board member and senior manager in the finance, operation and development of several companies in the telecommunications industry, including cable television, cellular telephone, landline telephone and the radio broadcast business. Upon sale of those companies, he was the President, and later CEO of Ameritel Pay Phone, Inc. (later named Evercom), a nationwide provider of telephone systems for correctional facilities. Terry graduated with a degree in business administration from Kansas State University and holds both a master's in business administration and a juris doctorate from the University of Kansas. He is a member of the American Bar Association and Kansas Bar Association and earned his CFA designation (currently inactive). He serves on the U.S. Bank Kansas City Regional Market Board, the Executive Council of Kansas State University's College of Business, and the board of Children's Mercy Hospital. He and his wife Cathy live in Leawood, Kansas and have three children and five grandchildren. Back to top

Paramita Sarkar
Vice President, Product Strategy,
Management and Analytics
Ameriprise Financial

Paramita Sarkar is Vice President, Product Strategy, Management and Analytics within the Advice and Wealth Management business at Ameriprise Financial. Her portfolio includes developing and executing product strategy, managing the insurance, annuities, and sustainable investing businesses, and running the performance reporting and product analytics teams at Ameriprise Financial. Paramita has been with Ameriprise Financial for over 15 years in a variety of roles leading complex businesses across wealth management focusing on strategy development, P&L management, risk management, advisor and client experience as well as product development and commercialization. In addition to her day-to-day job, she serves on many due diligence and investment committees at Ameriprise and actively participates as an advisory member across several roundtables and committees within the wealth management industry. She is a passionate advocate for inclusivity, financial literacy, team development, and empowerment and spends a lot of time on sponsoring and mentoring junior employees at the firm. Paramita holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University, India and an MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She holds FINRA Series 7 and 24 registrations. Paramita serves on the board of directors for International Institute of Minnesota which empowers refugees and immigrants through job training, educational programs, immigration assistance etc. and helps them achieve self-sufficiency and full membership in American life.  Back to top

Erin VanLanduit
Head of Corporate Ventures
Cargill

Erin VanLanduit is the Head of Corporate Ventures at Cargill, where she is responsible for building and managing a portfolio of strategic investments in growth-stage companies that align with Cargill's long-term growth objectives. Her decade and a half long corporate career at global CPG companies has spanned roles in Marketing/Brand Management, Global Innovation, Strategy, M&A Integration and Corporate Ventures. Organizations where she has previously worked include: Kraft Foods, Terlato Wines International, McCain Foods, SC Johnson and Tyson Ventures/Tyson Foods. Before her corporate career, she served 6 years active duty as a Field Artillery Officer in the US Army, encompassing two combat deployments to Iraq during Operations Iraqi Freedom I and III. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors, DIY home improvement projects, live music, snowboarding, and traveling the world with her husband and 3 young daughters.

Erin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in American Legal Studies, with a concentration in Nuclear Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business with concentrations in Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management, General Management and Managerial & Organizational Behavior. The highest award attained during her military service is the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom III. Back to top