Words from
the CEO

A vision for the next 5 years.

Welcome, Friends,

In March 2020, when our board of directors gathered to approve and set into motion a transformational five-year plan for making Meda the go-to resource for BIPOC entrepreneurs, we could not have known what would lie ahead for us leading up to Meda’s fiftieth year. Quite simply, we would not have guessed that gathering for Meda’s Annual Meeting in 2021, both in person and virtually, would be an accomplishment in itself.

At the beginning of this past year, we certainly had no way of knowing that a global pandemic would inflict deep hardships on the entrepreneurs we serve, calling for Meda’s services more urgently than ever. We did not see forward to the deep grieving and emphatic calls for racial and economic equity that our community would lead and experience in response to the tragic murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

What Meda has, and what Meda has always had, is an understanding of and a deep belief in our collective capacity as a catalyst for change in our community, our state, and now, throughout our country.

In this past year we saw that together, our consulting team could pivot to providing services virtually, making emergency support available to more than 400 clients, and deploying $23.1 million to nearly 1,300 Minnesota businesses. In 2020, Medaled the way in deploying DEED Small BusinessRelief Loans and other supports that proved instrumental to our state’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

We saw that together, the collective power of our supporters could help make capital accessible to BIPOC entrepreneurs, with investments bringingMeda’s loan fund to nearly $40 million in Meda’s fiftieth year.

We saw that together, Meda’s clients would demonstrate unparalleled innovation, grit, and savvy as they recovered from the economic impact of a global pandemic and civil unrest and retooled for growth and for meeting spent-up demand in a post-pandemic economy.

Together, we can. That is a powerful statement, the theme of our annual meeting this year.

Together, we can celebrate our past, and today’s annual meeting program brings us together to do just that, as we celebrate fifty years serving our community, building generational wealth, and working toward a more equitable society and economy. Today, fifty years later, we acknowledge the foresight of Meda’s founders who saw investing in BIPOC entrepreneurship as one of the most effective ways of building the equitable society and economy we seek.

Together, we can look to the future and recognize that there is so much more work to be done. We can trust in one another enough to look each other in the eye and say: This is not enough. And we can promise that we won’t stop here. Together, we can meet this moment and create a more just and equitable society and economy for all.

On behalf of Meda’s board of directors and staff, we thank you for joining us in celebrating Meda’s mission and work over the past fifty years, and we look forward to continuing this important work with you.

Together,

Alfredo V. Martel and Barbara Butts Williams