MINNEAPOLIS, May 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NMDPSM, a global nonprofit leader in cell therapy, announced today that the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal named CEO Amy Ronneberg to its 2024 list of Most Admired CEOs, an honor designated annually to 10 chief executives in the Twin Cities. The Journal will celebrate these leaders’ organizational and business acumen as well as community and industry achievements at a ceremony in late September.
“I’m humbled and honored to be recognized among this stellar class of 2024 honorees,” Ronneberg said. “It’s a privilege to serve our many stakeholders and elevate our national and international impact by advancing cell therapy research, delivering superior service and expanding equitable access to transplant for patients in need.”
In the ten years Ronneberg has led NMDP – as Chief Financial Officer in 2013 to becoming the organization’s first female CEO in 2020 – her stewardship of the organization continues to be unparalleled and enduring. A relentless driver of excellence, she remains focused on the people NMDP serves, whether patients, registry members, donors, financial supporters or providers, and especially the over 1,500 employees and thousands of volunteers who support the mission. Remarkably, her “patients first, employees always” credo in part stems from an unlikely beginning: At the outset of her tenure, Ronneberg found herself at once CFO and patient – newly battling, then surviving, breast cancer.
A financial and operational force, Ronneberg’s earlier achievements set a high bar for organizational impact. Initially, she drove revenue by 25% over three years, the largest in NMDP history, achieving strategic goals a full year earlier than planned. Ronneberg created a new business model that reduced costs by $50 million and eliminated debt by $70 million; built the for-profit subsidiary NMDP BioTherapiesSM, growing it by 200% in revenue annually; and developed the international strategy that created NMDP Mexico, all while significantly expanding revenue-generating product and service offerings.
Her exceptional business acumen as well as passion for patients and people made her the ideal CEO candidate to steer the organization through myriad challenges in a global pandemic. Taking the helm in March 2020, Ronneberg drove the organization to accelerate its impact, ensuring NMDP delivered stem or cord blood cells to every transplant patient; grew foundation donations 14% annually to drive patient assistance grants; and increased donor recruitment 17% year-over-year.
In addition, she led a team who also won Congressional approval to reauthorize the TRANSPLANT Act that funds the NMDP Registry and critical, public stem cell research infrastructure that enables NMDP, academic and industry bodies to discover new ways to find cures and save lives from blood cancers and disorders, especially for underserved, ethnically diverse patients.
Ronneberg embodies NMDP’s vision to create a world where every patient can receive their life-saving cell therapy, impacting over 26,000 lives since becoming CEO. She also finds time to join the legion of NMDP volunteer couriers, transporting blood stem cells across the globe to patients in need. These leadership behaviors and values are reflected in employees, who helped secure NMDP’s position in the top three best places to work in the Twin Cities, three years running.
Ronneberg also brings her significant contributions to bear, currently serving on the boards of Allina Health, Medical Alley Association and on the Finance Committee for the World Marrow Donor Association, among other past roles.
About the Most Admired CEOs Recognition
Each year, the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal selects 10 individuals dedicated to ensuring Minnesota’s economy and communities remain strong and vibrant. These CEOs lead workforces – large and small – and have an outsized impact on our state through their professional accomplishments, industry involvement and community work.
About NMDPSM
At NMDPSM, we believe each of us holds the key to curing blood cancers and disorders. As a global nonprofit leader in cell therapy, NMDP creates essential connections between researchers and supporters to inspire action and accelerate innovation to find life-saving cures. With the help of blood stem cell donors from the world’s most diverse registry and our extensive network of transplant partners, physicians and caregivers, we’re expanding access to treatment so that every patient can receive their life-saving cell therapy. NMDP. Find cures. Save lives. Learn more at nmdp.org.
A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on this link.
Contact:
Jess Ayers
media@nmdp.org
