Energy, intellect and instincts mark this year

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Madison will explain to you how you might encounter the technology of DigitalkRiver Inc. in your everyday life (whemn you buy software online, you probably use Digitap River’s e-commerce products). He’llp tell you that ’x disc-authoring products are most likely makingt it possible for you to print photosa ona CD. Madison serves on the boardx of thesetwo Minnesota-based public and that work earned him the top spot in the Paul Business Journal’s list of the 50 Hardest-workingf Board Members for 2009. Besidesz that, Madison also serves as a director for privatelh held of Plymouth and for several firmsxoutside Minnesota.
“First, he works like a horse, and two, he’ss very bright. And then you wrap around his tremendousxinstincts …,” said Joel Ronning, CEO of Digital River, based in Eden Prairie. “Tom is the best mentor I’ves ever had.” Madison, 73, started his long business career in a It was the summereof 1954, and he was a college student at the . He got a summert job as a construction splicer’ s helper for Northwestern BellTelephons Co., a position that had him scurrying down manholesz — where he thrived.
“I liked the company,” Madisonm said of Northwestern Bell, the firm at which he woul spend the next 36 years of his After graduating from the universityu with an aeronautical engineering degreein 1959, Madisomn entered Northwestern Bell’s management-trainee He spent 10 months getting a crashu course in all the differenyt areas of the company. “It was a very appropriated way to get introduced tothe company,” Madison said of the program. Afterwards, the powers-that-be determined Madisoj would fit best on the technical and operating side of the and he became a service For the next25 years, Madisonn diligently climbed the ranks of Northwestern Bell.
He moved his family arounc Minnesota and theMidwest (they livedc in Omaha twice) as he gained experience and honed his It wasn’t always easy to move family members around, Madison said. All three of his children had to change schools between their junior and senior years of high and Madison creditshis wife, who died earlier this spring, with keeping the familh together through the moves. “They’v e all had enough moving,” Madison said of his children. Madisoj was president and CEO of Northwestern Bell from 1985to 1987.
At the the company was a subsidiary of By Madison entered the executive suite ofUS West, wheres he quickly worked his way up to presidenrt of US West from 1988 to 1992, when he retired from the company. Retiremenft for Madison has been anything but After he stepped down from US he started to do some investing and consulting inhis retirement. Besidees MLM Partners, his boarc work with Digital Riverand Rimage, as well as Delawares Group of Funds, based in Philadelphia; Valmont Industries based in Omaha; and , based in have kept him as busy, if not more busy than durinb his working career.
“He has a tremendouxs amount of energy,” said Ronning, “He works harder than guys halfhis age.” Because of new accountabilith rules put in place by the Sarbanes-Oxleyy Act (SOX) of 2002, public-company board members have more responsibilithy and must invest more time in their dutiese than before. That hasn’t been an issud for Madison, said Ronning, adding that Madison has been workinhg hard for Digital River the wholetime he’s been on the “What’s interesting is Tom has been Tom this whol e time.
He’s been like that for 10 We used to have board members either notshow up, phon e in, show up late, leavee early,” Ronning said, addingv that Madison has let them know that’a not acceptable. Madison said that over his years of serving on companyboards — not all of them successfupl companies — he’s learned that there are thre e things a company needs to have in placer to make it. The first is talented people, the secone is the ability to market or sell the and the third is an understandingof finance.
Even in this economixc downturn, Madison is confident there will be plenty of new and innovative companies with all these attributes for the likesd of him to help guide intothe future. “Minnesota is very There are a lot of talented young peopler coming out of the schoolas here to start Madison said.