Board of Directors
Chairman
Lief has been a career entrepreneur, technologist and futurist. He has founded and grown several companies. In 2004 he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Kiosk & Self-Service industry association and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. Mr. Larson was named #8 on Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 10 American Entrepreneurs Under 30" list and was a back-to-back semi-finalist for the Minnesota Cup in 2005 & 2006. In 2010 his efforts with Workface resulted in the company receiving the Social Business Innovation award and the OnDemand 100 award. Besides his founding role with Workface, Lief served two consecutive terms on the Minneapolis Workforce Council, he was an advisor to the Minnesota Workforce Council under the term of Governor Tim Pawlenty, and he served on Minnesota Governors Workforce Development Council under Governor Mark Dayton.
Member
James is a co-founder of the Arthur Ventures Growth Fund and Managing Director of Arthur Ventures LLC. Prior to co-founding Arthur Ventures James was President of Advenio Partners LLC, a small private equity firm that invested in turnaround projects as well as regional seed and early-stage investments. James worked at the North Dakota Trade Office (NDTO), where his work with the NDTO team North Dakota’s annual exports rose 225 percent to more than $2 billion, the fastest export growth among all 50 states for 2007. Prior to his work at the North Dakota Trade Office James spent three years working for Governor John Hoeven advising the Governor and the Legislature on youth policy and international trade. James currently serves on the board of directors at Arthur Companies Inc., a diversified agri-business, AltraVax Inc., and as a board observer on Intelligent InSites Inc. and and board member of Workface Inc.