Episode 34 - Lessons from a Business Legend with Brien Slawik

People and Places and How We Use Spaces

Marie Slawik was a woman before her time.
During the 1950's, a time when men dominated the business sector, Marie and her husband, Harold, founded and owned one of the largest Ford dealerships in the Midwest - Midway Ford in St. Paul., along with an auto-parts store, leasing and car title-loan businesses in an early vertical integration model. They were also growing their real estate business, Har-Mar, Inc.
By the early 1960's they had broken ground in Roseville on a new, climate-controlled shopping mall – only the second in Minnesota – to be named after a mashup of their first names: HarMar Mall.

When Harold died suddenly in 1962, the business of managing Har-Mar, Inc. and its eight businesses fell entirely on Marie. She picked up the pieces and powered through...something she had to learn at an early age. Not only did she take on the entire business, but her dynamic persona secured a spot as the first woman-member at the men's-only Minnesota Club.

On today’s podcast, Marie and Harold’s grandson, Brien Slawik, the family’s third generation President and CEO of Har-Mar, Inc., shares what it was like growing up in the family business and assuming it from his father, how his grandmother paved the way for his business and life mentality, and how being grateful is a simple mindset, but a big one.

Har-Mar, Inc. | Slawik Property Advisors
Brien Slawik's LinkedIn
Marie's Hall of Fame Induction