the next generation of health care retail

enhancing your health care mission with retail...

Mike Marolt Founder, President & CEO	Mike's more than twenty years in retail management have set the stage for this new venture. In his most recent position, Marolt was senior vice president of Retail Operations and Services for Best Buy Stores, leading a department of 430 people that supported the 600 store group. Prior to joining Best Buy in 1985, Marolt was with the J.C. Penny Company and Kmart Corporation. Early in 2003, Mike identified an opportunity to create a new retail category, having observed that the digital age, alive with information and education for consumers and patients, was being highly under-utilized. Recognized within Best Buy for his leadership strength, vision and operational excellence, Marolt was charged with the concept's development. Since that time, he has focused on blending the company's expertise in retailing and technology with insights gained from strategic partners who are innovative leaders in the health and wellness industry. A native of the Twin Cities, Mike grew up valuing time spent outdoors in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. His inherent respect for healthy, balanced living and his understanding of time-stressed schedules strengthens his passion for this new concept.
Kate Banse Chief Operating Officer	Kate Banse offers more than three decades of accomplishment laden experience in the retail industry, driving achievement of the highest priority sales growth, brand development, market share and operations efficiency goals. Beginning her career at Target Corporation, Kate developed an interest in the strength of branding, which parlayed into her working on key strategic initiatives that involved the development of clearance outlets, private label specialty stores, prototype changes and the creation of Super Targets. Kate's ever expanding portfolio of qualifications covering sales, operations and general management earned her the Vice President position for Target's then department store division, Marshall Field's. Before joining eq-life as the Chief Operating Officer she also spent 10 months at Ashley Furniture, the fastest growing manufacturer and retailer of trend-right, value-priced furniture as their Vice President of Sales. Kate is a certified Total Quality Facilitator and has served on numerous boards in various capacities over her extensive retail career.
Kari Ihle Store Design/Visual Merchandising Manager	Kari has always been passionate about design and creating the perfect spaces for her clients, whether they are company executives, school superintendents or home owners. Since graduating with a degree in design from Iowa State University, Kari has worked at two of Minneapolis largest architecture firms, where her vision was instrumental in creating new schools, healthcare facilities and Fortune 500 company offices. At Best Buy, Kari worked on the layout of new retail locations and developed a prototype for stand-alone Geek Squad concept stores. In 2005, Kari transitioned to her current position as Visual Merchandising/Store Design Manager for eq-life, where she designed the current concept, manages any and all outside architecture firms and maintains the overall layout of the stores. Kari has 7 years of professional experience and is a certified interior designer as well as a member of the American Society of Interior Designers. Projects include: UC Davis, M.I.N.D Institute; Warren Medical Office facility; Mayo Health System, Owatonna Clinic; Mercy Hospital, Iowa City; Mercy Walworth Sports Medicine Addition; Winona Health System; The Finley Hospital; Mary Greeley Medical Center; Healtheast, St. Paul; HCMC, Minneapolis; Centra Care Health System; Becketwood Long Term Care Facility; Net Perceptions; Medtronic World Headquarters.
Cheryl Olson Director of Merchandising	Cheryl is eq-life's Director of Merchandising. As a 20-year team member with the department store division of Target Corporation, Cheryl gained knowledge in merchandising, special events marketing, store management and operations. In her last merchant role at Marshall Field's, she successfully managed a seasonal business for 57 stores and was recognized with multiple awards including Outstanding Trend Merchandising, Best Merchandising Team, and World Class Performance. Cheryl also gained valuable experience in integrated direct marketing as a senior merchant for ShopNBC, Value Vision Media Inc. prior to joining eq-life in February 2006. Married to Nikola for the past two years, Cheryl is happy to report that her 16 year old cat is also in love with her husband. As a former fitness instructor, Cheryl has found a new passion in her yoga practice and continues to seek balance on and off the mat.
Jen Dagel Director of Human Resources	eq-life's Human Resource Director was an original member of eq-life launch team which formed over 4 years ago. Jennifer leverages over 15 years of retail experience. Previous to joining eq-life she worked in several different areas at Best Buy to include retail operations, payroll, loss prevention and the labor team. Previous to Best Buy, Jennifer worked at Mervyn's in Human Resources. Jennifer and Ken (husband of 10 years) added referee to their resumes as their daughter Kirsten (7) and their son Bryce (4) love to compete. They enjoy family trips to the cabin, swimming, boating, skiing and snowmobiling. She has been told by her parents that she spent the first 9 years of her life doing cartwheels everywhere.
Kelley Eggert Manager of Finance	Kelley Eggert, CPA, is eq-life's Manager of Finance. Kelley joined eq-life in April 2006 after a four and a half year career in public accounting where her duties ranged from working as a staff auditor for local municipality and not-for profit entities, an in-charge auditor for commercial industry clients, analysis and research for litigation support projects and preparing business tax returns. Previous to working in public accounting, Kelley worked in the private industry for seven years as an accountant for a large insurance company. Kelley enjoys spending time with her husband Tony, daughter Casey and Macy the kitty cat. They share a log home which she and her husband general contracted in beautiful Stillwater, Minnesota. In Kelley's free time, she loves attending daughter Casey's activities, exploring art shows in search of unique pieces of pottery, spending time with family at the family cabin on Lake Vermillion and practicing yoga.
Dave Micko Director of Technology	Trained as a journalist and librarian, Dave started playing with technology while getting his graduate degree in library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, right at the time that the first web browsers were being released. Getting an early start with the Internet and web, he deployed these technologies for companies like Illinois Power, Fingerhut and Conseco, where he was Vice President of E-Commerce. He then moved to Best Buy, where he worked with a wide variety of technology as an IS executive for 7 years, focusing primarily on innovation and the deployment of advanced retail technologies and businesses. He left Best Buy in 2006 to start his own consulting business. Eq-life uses his company's services to support their cutting edge retail technology infrastructure and to help discover and evaluate new health and wellness technologies.
Gene Klun Account Executive	Gene is a native Minnesotan who started his career in consumer products in high school working at mall department stores. He joined Coca Cola as a route sales representative and merchandiser while attending college at the University of Minnesota at Duluth from 1979-1985. In 1985, he began a new career at Frito Lay, Inc. There, Gene progressed into Area Management and ran the largest district in Charlotte, North Carolina. Anheuser-Busch had an aggressive brand, Eagle Snacks, who recruited the best Frito Lay employees in the market to fill growing branch manager needs across the country which brought him back to Minnesota in 1990. There, Gene moved into retail store operations, merchandising, IT, and human resources for an employee-owned local convenience store chain until 2006. A mid-life career change brought him into the healthcare field as Director of Operations for a Northern Minnesota locally-owned retail pharmacy chain that had also branched out into long term care pharmacy service. An opportunity to work with hospital healthcare retail development surfaced and now Gene is an Account Executive at eq-life, LLC serving Alegent Health Systems in Omaha, Nebraska. There, he project managed the build-out and opening of Alegent's first sleep retail store. With more sleep retail stores on the horizon, Gene also works closely with Fairview Pharmacy Services to manage and implement change in Alegent's outpatient retail pharmacy initiative. Other areas he is involved with at Alegent are: eCommerce, Maternity-Child specialty product offerings, convenience care clinic development, and helping the marketing department forge their new path into retail marketing within a hospital system.
Jenn David Account Executive	Jenn has been in the world of retail for 17 years and has seen the business from all sides. With a degree in Management from Michigan State University, she began her career by being part of the kick off of the largest retail complex in North America...opening Macy's in the Mall of America. Her next step brought her to Pier 1 Imports, where over a period of 7 years, she was a Regional Visual Manager overseeing the marketing and visual operations of 44 stores. During that time, she did more relays, remodels and new store openings than she can even remember! She was the first in the company to get promoted from a visual position into a Regional Director position and was responsible for the performance and operations of 17 stores accounting for $25 million in sales. In 2001, Jenn was recruited by Department 56 to assist in the development and launch of a seasonal store concept. This was the beginning of Jenn's passion for developing concepts from A-Z. From the operations, to human resources, to communications and training to marketing and brandi...Jenn helped establish all the best practices and operating guidelines and principles which allowed the company to open 30 seasonal stores in 2 years. Her 6-year career at Department 56 coined her with the unofficial title of "jack of all trades". Jenn enjoys working out and last fall developed a love for running and hopes to hit her first 5k this spring. A fan of gardening, cooking, reading and decorating...she's never bored. Her dream is to write a novel someday...a cumulative summary of her dating stories!
Riana Aulet Accounts Payable