Neela Mollgaard

Neela’s career has continually involved bringing people together to create change. She has been a leader and facilitator of organization and community innovation. She has experience working in corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors. Currently, she is leading statewide efforts to serve startups, small businesses, and organizations that support them. Neela joined state government to create and deploy Launch Minnesota, a statewide initiative to help grow the state’s innovation ecosystem. The initiative has successfully deployed over $6 million dollars to startups and created a network to connect and coordinate the startup ecosystem across the state.  Prior to joining state government, she was a founder of the nonprofit Red Wing Ignite, which supports entrepreneurs, businesses, and students to succeed in the 21st-century economy.  They created a model, that received national attention, developing an innovative ecosystem by forging partnerships with government, academic, corporate, and community partners.

“I feel blessed to live in such an amazing community. I feel strongly that together we can do anything and that alone, we can accomplish little.”