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FACE TIME PHOTOGRAPH BY SCOT T EHLERS/IMAGE STUDIOS, FOR INSIGHT Walter S. Rugland Walter S. Rugland is probably best known as the retired COO of AAL, seeing the company through its merger with Lutheran Brotherhood, forming Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. He leads the Board of Directors for ThedaCare, and is chairman of the nonprofit Fox Cities Exhibition Center, Inc. He spoke with Associate Editor Nikki Kallio about why he decided to lead the effort to build a new exhibition center in Appleton. www. insightonbusiness.com MY DAD (WALTER L. RUGLAND) was a community leader who did a lot of work behind the scenes. He always sought out partnerships that could make things happen – the most significant being the Community Foundation (for the Fox Valley Region), but there were others that he worked on in partnership with some other people in the city. And my wife's father (Gordon Bubolz) obviously did a lot of things in the community. He was more of an all-systems go – he went out and plowed his way through and did stuff. When I was working on a project at AAL in 1998, it morphed into my on the Fox Cities Exhibition Center retiring from a consulting firm and coming to AAL as the chief operating officer. Because my dad had been president (of AAL, now Thrivent), I knew a lot of history. I was a connection, really, with a historical view. Ten years ago I retired, and in 2008 the mayor asked me to be on a committee (to study the feasibility of an exposition center). We hired a consultant and he did a major report. Nothing happened, which is what the risk is all the time. And then Mayor (Tim) Hanna created a community coalition, asked me to be chairman and gave me six months to come back with a report. June 2012 • INSIGHT | 15 [continued] » U PFR O N T