Star Tribune 50 criteria as inclusive as possible

GUIDELINES

The Star Tribune tries as much as possible to reflect the operations that are run out of Minnesota, not just those with official headquarters here, in its list of top public companies.

Also, to keep the list robust, last year we changed the Star Tribune 100 to the Star Tribune 50 because of the declining number of public companies in Minnesota.

The last time the Star Tribune 100 had a full 100 public companies was in 2014. And the companies at the bottom of the list were micro-cap companies that had annual revenue less than $20 million and a market capitalization about or less than $10 million.

Last year, the 50th-ranked company, ANI Pharmaceuticals, had annual revenue of $128.6 million. ANI's revenue grew 37.5 percent to $176.8 million and it ranks 46th this year. This year, No. 50, IntriCon Corp., has annual revenue of $88.3 million.

We long ago decided to be inclusive in defining eligibility for our public companies. We kept Medtronic and Pentair when they moved official headquarters to Europe because their executive management teams are based here in Minnesota.

We have included the 3-D printing and additive manufacturing company Stratasys Ltd., which has claimed co-headquarters of Rehovot, Israel, and Eden Prairie since the merger of Stratasys Inc. and Israel-based Objet Ltd. in 2012. CEO Ilan Levin announced his resignation the end of May. We may still list Stratasys, depending on how the new CEO constructs the executive team.

New to the list this year is Winnebago Industries Inc. The base of the company's recreational vehicle manufacturing and its official headquarters remain in Forest City, Iowa, but CEO Mike Happe opened a management headquarters in Eden Prairie where executives oversee Winnebago's operations in five states.

Next year, Ceridian HCM Holdings (stock symbol CDAY) will be on the list after completing in April the largest initial public offering in Minnesota history. The company has significant Canadian operations and its chairman and CEO, David Ossip, spent enough of his time in Canada in 2017 to be named Canada's most admired CEO for transformational leadership by Waterstone Human Capital. Still, the official company headquarters is in Bloomington, so it will be counted.

PATRICK KENNEDY