Sandy Borstad finds something enormously satisfying in helping manufacturers and their employees achieve their goals in a way that benefits all involved. It’s work she has done throughout her career, in varied settings and industries. “When you get to go to work every day and help companies and give people opportunities, life is pretty good,” she says.
Borstad joined Enterprise Minnesota in 2024 as a business growth consultant, bringing nearly three decades of experience in talent and leadership development. Her most recent position as the training and outreach manager at St. Cloud Technical & Community College gave Borstad ample opportunities to meet manufacturers’ training and workforce needs. Focused on customized training, Borstad served as a conduit that brought just the right resources to manufacturers to fill their training gaps.
“There are amazing manufacturers throughout the state,” Borstad says. “I loved working with each of them and getting to know their businesses and helping them find the skill development solutions they needed. And at the same time, I was helping individuals at the companies further their skills and their careers and their earning opportunities.”
Borstad raised her hand when an opportunity arose at Enterprise Minnesota to work more closely with manufacturers at the root of their leadership and training efforts. She was confident she could make an even bigger difference in manufacturers’ growth by more directly sharing her knowledge and experience with them.
Bob Kill, president and CEO of Enterprise Minnesota, appreciates Borstad’s rich real-world experience gleaned from working at several successful companies and in higher education. Her long tenure in human resources, leadership, and development fuels her co-workers’ confidence that Borstad can make a fast and lasting impact with manufacturers. When Enterprise Minnesota’s business developers realized how much insight and experience Borstad brings to the table, they quickly started looping her in on client interactions, Kill says.
“Sandy is approachable. She’s a good listener who asks good questions, and she brings that together with her real-world experience, positivity, and energy,” Kill says.
Focusing on talent and leadership development, Borstad uses Enterprise Minnesota’s Leadership Essentials series to help clients delve into their specific needs. For one client with ambitious growth goals, Borstad is helping create a training program. It involves mapping out skills development and creating repeatable and consistent instruction, with unified expectations.
By baking in clear expectations and the route to achieving established goals, manufacturers can more successfully hire, develop, and retain their employees. At the same time, employees build skills that enable them to take on greater responsibility, Borstad says. It’s that win-win she finds rewarding.
Though Borstad didn’t envision a career in training and development, it unfolded that way after starting her first post-college job. She worked for nine years at Creative Memories, a central Minnesota scrapbooking company. Borstad quickly moved into training and then instructional design, where she developed training programs for Creative Memories’ independent sales consultants. Before long she became a field development manager, responsible for the performance of the company’s central region of the United States.
Borstad had a similar evolution and tenure at the food company Tastefully Simple before joining Blattner Company, an engineering, procurement, and construction business focused on large-scale renewable energy projects. She headed up a team that created and delivered training and development programs for Blattner employees. In addition, Borstad created and led field leadership development programs to create a pipeline of emerging leaders for the company.
When Borstad joined St. Cloud Tech, she had amassed 25 years of inside knowledge of the corporate world and how to provide training that employees at all levels need to succeed. Borstad got steeped in the transportation and manufacturing sectors, building extensive understanding of their workforce challenges. She became adept at finding innovative and personalized ways to provide the region’s clients with just the right instructor or custom training approach to meet their needs.
Now at Enterprise Minnesota, Borstad works with veteran and emerging company leaders on ways to increase productivity, employee retention, and engagement. She finds it rewarding to dig into manufacturers’ challenges and land the wins that come from leadership development.
Borstad believes her strengths lie in using her creativity and resilience to discover solutions that solve manufacturers’ challenges.
“If you can name a problem, you can solve it. I like to help people use their creativity to come up with a solution,” Borstad says. “With our creativity and resilience, let’s see what we can do.”
Return to the Summer 2025 issue of Enterprise Minnesota® magazine.
