For Jarid Lundeen, new chair of the Minot Area Chamber EDC (MACEDC) board, it’s important to remain positive. “It’s my DNA, it’s the way I was built” says Lundeen “it’s so important to go into a situation with a positive, instead of a negative, attitude. It’s just a whole lot better if you lean towards the positive.”
Lundeen is very open in his approach. “I am really tired of the negative, look how much we have to celebrate in Minot. We should be celebrating our military and Minot Air Force Base and how well we have done” says Lundeen “and when I heard that we our challenged to get new industry because of our lack of water and natural gas resources; well here we are today just a few months away from turning on the water for NAWS and we are more than likely going to have a natural gas pipeline from Tioga to Minot within a year. We need to celebrate what we’ve accomplished, right?”
But there are more reasons to celebrate according to Lundeen. “Look at the Port of North Dakota. Brekka Kramer and her team brought it back and made it work. We went from 10 trains in 2022 to over 40 trains in 2025. That is certainly something to celebrate!”
And as Jarid looks into the future, he said there are other major fish frying. “I believe that we are very close to bringing American Iron to Minot. That would be a huge win. And look at the projects out at Minot Air Force Base. The Sentinel (Missile) will come to Minot Air Force Base…that’s another big win.”
But Jarid Lundeen knows that it not only takes positive works to bring success “it takes positive narrative. The past 10 years have been hard, but we’ve overcome a lot of difficulty. We’ve built a new high school, we’re progressing on flood protection, and I believe in the City of Minot administration that is doing a great job. The leadership has changed, and I am certainly impressed with (Mayor) Mark Jantzer and his team. But we need to get that message out, we need to tell our story, because it’s a great story. Minot is positioned for positive growth, probably better than any other city in the state of North Dakota…I believe that.”
Lundeen also believes in success breeding success. “Sales makes things easy to manage. Looking ahead, we are going to be heads and shoulders above the rest of the country.”
Jarid Lundeen is the first to rain down compliments on the current MACEDC Board of Directors and staff. “I have to keep the projects that we have already started moving forward. It’s important that we keep that positive energy going and growing.” One of the projects that Lundeen highlighted was Homeward Bound. “What other community has a project like Homeward Bound. It’s a great story to tell.”
During his recent speech at the MACEDC Annual Meeting, Jarid brought a Bully Stick to the podium. His well placed “bangs” on the floor and rousing “Bully” yells certainly kept the audience involved. By his own admission he was nervous about speaking in front of the large crowd. But no one in the audience would doubt the energy with which Jarid Lundeen spoke. “I am a mover. I like to get things done” said Lundeen. And so the 2026-2027 chapter of the Minot Area Chamber EDC has started to be written.
