Tom Koehn, Tom Mahoney and Wendy Wintersteen will be inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Sept. 7 at the Meadows Events and Conference Center. Their selection as the 2020 inductees was announced today.

The Iowa Business Hall of Fame, founded in 1975 by the Greater Des Moines Committee, honors the achievements of Iowans who have made outstanding contributions to Iowa’s business climate.

Koehn is the chairman of the board of the Waldinger Corp.. He began his career at Waldinger in 1975. He became chief financial officer in 1979, and purchased the company as part of a group of employees five years later. The company now has nearly 3,000 employees in 12 states. His son, Jon, became CEO in 2019. Koehn and his wife, Linda, have volunteered their time to many organizations in the Des Moines area. He has served on the boards of the Des Moines Art Center, Greater Des Moines Community Foundation Catalyst Circle, Des Moines Symphony, Junior Achievement of Central Iowa, Des Moines Metro YMCA, Des Moines Development Corp., Des Moines Redevelopment Corp., the Des Moines Embassy Club, Financial Executive Institute, Terrace Hill Foundation, the Greater Des Moines Committee and Iowa State University’s Construction Engineering Advisory Council. The Koehns received the AFP Pillar of Philanthropy Award in 2015, and in 2020 Waldinger received the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s Economic Impact Award.

Mahoney is the chairman of the board of ITA Group Holdings Inc., where he has worked since 1987. A 1981 graduate of the University of Iowa, he joined Continental Laboratories Inc. and served as director of marketing. Mahoney later served as vice president of marketing, executive vice president and president. He joined ITA Group Inc. as a national account manager, and in 1989 he became director of marketing. He was promoted to vice president the following year, and in 1992 expanded his role as vice president of sales and marketing. In 1998, he was named executive vice president of sales and marketing. In 2006, he was promoted to president and chief operating officer. He became president and CEO in 2009, and then chairman and CEO in 2011. Mahoney retired in 2019 but remains chairman of the board. He is involved in several organizations, including United Way of Central Iowa, Greater Des Moines Committee, Greater Des Moines Partnership Board (past chair and executive committee), Catch Des Moines, ChildServe, Delta Dental of Iowa, and the Diocese of Des Moines.

Wintersteen serves as Iowa State University’s president after serving as dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for 11 years. ISU’s new brand campaign, Innovate at Iowa State, shares Wintersteen’s vision of a university where innovation and entrepreneurship are part of every college’s curriculum. Central to that vision is the opening of the new 144,000-square-foot Student Innovation Center, which serves as the meeting hub (and laboratory/engineering space) for students, classes and clubs. Under her leadership, ISU is becoming nationally recognized for innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education. The Princeton Review ranked ISU No. 11 in the country for entrepreneurial studies out of 300 public and private universities. The U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship awarded Iowa State the 2021 Model Program Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education. Wintersteen serves on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s National Council for Expanding American Innovation and America’s Cultivation Corridor board.

Inductees to the Iowa Business Hall of Fame are selected on merit rather than endorsement, and the selection committee comprised past Hall of Fame inductees under the leadership of current co-chairs Kim Augspurger, president and owner of Saxton Inc., and Mike Tousley, executive vice president and general manager of the Weitz Co.