Allina Hospitals & Clinics announces new board members

MINNEAPOLIS 06/16/2009--Allina Hospitals & Clinics is pleased to announce the appointment of Nate Garvis, Hugh Nierengarten, and Mark Sheffert to three-year terms on the Allina Board of Directors.

Nate Garvis is vice president of Government Affairs and Senior Public Affairs Officer at Target. He is responsible for the corporation’s civic education and advocacy efforts in addition to Target’s political, legislative and regulatory agenda globally. Garvis also consults internally on a variety of business issues that have a public component and require engagement strategies.

Garvis is the past chairman of the Washington D.C. based Public Affairs Council as well as past chairman of the Foundation for Public Affairs. He serves on a number of other boards throughout the nation including the non-partisan Citizens League civic think tank. Garvis is a former policy fellow at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Policy at the University of Minnesota and currently serves on the board of the Institute’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance.

For the past two years, he has served on the executive committee of the board of the Boston College International Center for Corporate Citizenship. Garvis also serves as the chairman of the board for Rational Energy, an alternative fuels company.

In 2004 Garvis was honored as the first ever corporate public affairs recipient of the Hubert H. Humphrey Public Leadership Award. In 2008, Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine named him one of the “100 Most Influential Minnesotans”.

Garvis has a B.A. in History from the University of Minnesota and a J.D. from the University of Oregon.

Hugh Nierengarten is a shareholder with Nierengarten & Hippert, Ltd. Attorneys at Law located in New Ulm, Minn. His areas of practice are municipal, real estate, business, financial and family law. He has been the city attorney for New Ulm, Minn. since 1979 and the city attorney for Courtland, Minn. since 1983.

In addition, Nierengarten is affiliated with a number of professional associations including: National Institute of Municipal Law Officers; Minnesota State Bar Association; Minnesota City Attorneys Association; Ninth Judicial District Bar Association, and Brown County Bar Association.

He is active in his community, previously serving as director of Heritagefest, Inc., Leo H. Hoffman Center, the Peacepipe Girl Scout Council and United Prairie Bank-New Ulm. He serves on the boards of organizations such as Housing Alternatives Development Company Ridgeway and New Ulm Medical Center, and is a member of the Rotary Club of New Ulm. Nierengarten has also volunteered for the Senior Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and the Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Service.

Nierengarten graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in Political Science and earned a J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law.

Mark Sheffert is the founder, chairman and CEO of Manchester Companies, Inc., a national financial advisory and corporate renewal firm. Prior to founding Manchester Companies, Sheffert was president of First Bank System, which is now US Bancorp.

For his service on public company boards of directors, he has been named one of Minnesota’s five Outstanding Directors of the Year by the National Association of Corporate Directors. He has served on more than 40 boards during his career in a broad range of industries including, healthcare, airlines, financial services, manufacturing and technology. He currently serves as chairman of the board for two public companies, Health Fitness Corporation and BNC Bancorp, and as a board member for PCI Construction.

Sheffert’s firm has received more Turnaround of the Year Awards from the Turnaround Management Association, in recognition of successful financial restructurings and turnarounds than any other firm in the country.

Sheffert is a columnist who writes monthly on topics of leadership, ethics and corporate governance for Twin Cities Business. His articles also appear in various national and regional business and corporate governance media. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Association for Corporate Growth, Turnaround Management Association and American Bankruptcy Institute.

He received his Master’s Degree in Management from The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and completed the Minnesota Executive Program at the University of Minnesota.

About Allina Hospitals & Clinics

Allina Hospitals & Clinics is a not-for-profit system of hospitals, clinics and other health care services, providing care throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Allina owns and operates 11 hospitals, more than 90 clinics, and health care services, including home care, hospice and palliative care, oxygen and medical equipment, pharmacies and emergency medical transportation. More about Allina and the latest health information can be found online at www.allina.com.

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