Bill Svrluga

When Bill Svrluga’s friends and colleagues wanted to acknowledge his commitment to the community, they threw a party themed “The Tie That Binds,” a nod to Svrluga’s penchant for wearing bow ties to events. Svrluga laughs and admits people call him the “bow tie guy,” but others seem to consider him the “go-to” guy. “He chooses to work on tough issues that many others deem too difficult to handle,” says Steve Rothschild, a cofounder of Twin Cities Rise! with Svrluga and others.

As a former dean of students at Macalester and Carleton and a vice president of human resources for Yoplait USA–General Mills, Svrluga knows what it takes to grow a business, and while he helps his WJS Consulting clients such as General Mills, 3M, Target, and numerous other heavy-hitters do just that, it’s his decision to lend those skills to the nonprofit sector that has garnered accolades. “Life isn’t just about taking care of yourself and your family,” says Svrluga, “It is also about contributing to the well-being of the community.”

Svrluga cofounded the Greater Minneapolis Food Bank, now Second Harvest Heartland, nearly twenty-five years ago and has been tending to the needs of the community ever since. His interest in helping others, says Boston–born, Chicago–raised Svrluga, started at home, where his parents stressed showing concern for others who had less. But his interest in urban issues began in college, when he attended the historically black Johnson C. Smith University as an exchange student and saw injustice firsthand. “When you go into a restaurant and won’t be seated because you are with your African–American roommate,” says Svrluga, pausing, “that will change how you see things.”

Svrluga has taken the inner city under his wing over the years, serving as cochair of the Minneapolis Initiative Against Racism and chair of the Minneapolis Urban League, Sabathani Community Center, and the Jeremiah Program. He has spent more than 1,000 hours helping create Awali Place, an offshoot of Twin Cities Rise! that helps young men who have been released from jail turn their lives around. “That population in particular—the young men who come out of prison with no GED—end up in one of two places, either back in prison or dead,” he says. “So I thought, ‘What can we do?’ ”

For his part, Svrluga uses his skills as a consultant to help nonprofits get organized, set goals, and grow. “I have a passion for startups,” he says with a chuckle. “Yoplait was a startup, Twin Cities Rise!, Jeremiah, and Awali Place were startups—but it is some of the hardest work I’ve done in my life.”

For now, Svrluga’s focus is on the Jeremiah Program, which would like to take the model to other major cities in the next five years, and on growing Awali Place. But he expects to donate as much time as he can to causes he believes in. “The Jeremiah Program’s slogan says it best,” says Svrluga. “Seek the welfare of the city and find your own.”