Gary Tharaldson

GARY THARALDSON is the Founder, owner and President of Tharaldson
Enterprises, Inc. He graduated from Valley City State University
with degrees in Business Administration and Physical Education.
He attended graduate school at North Dakota State University in
Fargo and eventually became a schoolteacher in Leonard, North
Dakota. He left teaching and in 1969 entered the insurance
business. He quickly became a leading general agent with several
of the insurance companies he represented, and within a few years
he had built a sales force of over 100 agents. He continued in
insurance until 1989, at which time providing service for his
existing policy-holders became his only insurance-related
activity. He entered the motel business in 1982 with the purchase
of the Valley City, North Dakota Super 8 and the Devils Lake,
North Dakota Super 8. Later that year, Tharaldson Enterprises,
Inc., began building motel properties and selling or operating
them. Today his motel holdings total over 340 properties that
provide quality hospitality in 20 states. In 1999, Tharaldson
Motels, Inc., became one of the largest Employee Stock Ownership
Plan (ESOP) companies in America, when he and his family members
sold the holding company to the Tharaldson employees.