Six CLA Alumni Recognized in the Twin Cities Business 100 List
Six CLA alumni were listed in the Twin Cities Business 100 list of people in Minnesota most "likely to make news and drive change in the year ahead" for 2026. Big congratulations to Matt Burgess, Scott Litman, Jamie Millard, Chris Pham, John Wall, and Patrick Weiland for this achievement! Read and learn more about each of their careers in Minnesota below.
Minneapolis-based Rise and Shine is one of the country’s fastest-growing ad agencies, and Matt Burgess is a key reason why.
TCB 100: Matt Burgess, Partner/chief creative officer of Rise and Shine and Partners
Birthing of Giants is a 28-year-old evolving curriculum Scott Litman and Dan Mallin are bringing to Minnesota. It is a training ground for owners and founders, visionaries with companies with $5 million to $250 million in revenue looking to grow to the next level.
Calling herself a “poster-child millennial,” Jamie Millard finds talented candidates to succeed people who’ve been leading some of Minnesota’s key nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.
TCB 100: Jamie Millard, Managing partner of Ballinger | Leafblad
Lawyer Chris Pham built relationships with sports agents, business managers, athletes, and entertainers when he co-owned The Exchange nightclub in Minneapolis. Now he’s co-chair of Fredrikson’s sports and entertainment group.
The Market at Malcolm Yards is the OG of the surviving local food halls and arguably the most successful. John successfully developed housing at Malcolm, but given market conditions, he says his next steps at Malcolm are a light show on the United Crushers grain elevators, a new parking lot, two new city parks, and an addition to The Grand Rounds Regional Trail system.
President Patrick Weiland came out of network news, and Zimmern gave him carte blanche to build the business, which now creates in the food and home spaces, as well as unscripted formats and documentaries for public affairs outlets like MSNBC and PBS.
