"Increasing Community Engagement Post George Floyd"

Cathy Paper is the founder of RockPaperStar, a boutique consulting firm that specializes in coaching, marketing and promotion for individuals, business owners or executives by offering creative ideas to improve process and performance.

This year, Cathy has worked with the Midtown Global Market and Lake Street businesses in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and the ensuing violence and destruction visited on our neighbors in that part of the metro.  This experience has given Cathy a special insight into what impacted business owners and residents need from community partners and volunteers, and she will share her insights with us.  In her business career, Cathy has coached executives and managers at Best Buy, Paramount Pictures, John Deere and Apple, as well as many Minnesota-based privately held companies and service firms. With energy and enthusiasm Cathy shares her networking savvy and marketing skills to guide leaders to define and reach goals for their teams and organizations. Her naturally competitive nature – Cathy runs, played rugby and was a Minnesota State Tennis Doubles Champion – is inspiring and contagious.

Cathy earned her BA at Williams College and holds a Master’s Degree in Organization Development from the University of St. Thomas. She is a national speaker, a columnist for the American City Business Journals, a Forbes Council Coach; a winner of the Minnesota Business Magazine’s “Real Power 50, and the National Association of Women Business Owners “Woman on the Way” award, given to a woman business owner who has demonstrated ahead-of-the-curve achievement for herself and her company.

Cathy was on the board of The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library. She has worked at William Blair & Company, Fallon McElligott and Best Buy. She and her husband live in St. Paul with their three children and two dogs.