We would like to recognize in Kuster Ltd. in our current Member Spotlight. Since 1980 Kuster Ltd. has been developing educational products, content and programs for a variety of organizations and businesses as well as a marketing communications company and custom publishing company called DynaMinds. (www.dynamindspublishing.com).
Kuster Ltd. is represented on the board by Joanne Kuster. Joanne and her husband Chuck created the “A.G.G.I.E.” board game, a really, really fun lesson on the profits and perils of farming. AGGIE games quickly spread to every state and 13 countries, as teachers, bankers and families ordered to learn how to buy and sell commodities. Meanwhile, Joanne wrote her first children’s book and subsequently sold it to a Fortune 500 firm that distributed more than 500,000 copies. Who knew? Those initial products led to myriad creations developed for businesses and organizations across the U.S. and Canada – Stock Market Pie: Grandma Helps Emily Make a Million, an investing journal, and Entrepreneur Extraordinaire: Grandpa Helps Emily Build a Business.
The “Money Godmother” is a Jump$tart superstar. Joanne attended her first JumpStart meeting sometime in 2000 and has since served in several capacities. While president in 2006, she connected with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and convinced them Iowa was poised to handle Money Smart Week. She has since helped the program grow across the state. Her passion for financial education has led Joanne to create several children’s books and games on money, investing, and entrepreneurship, including the popular “Wants and Needs” game and the “Balloony Game”. She is an author of such books as Stock Market Pie: Grandma Helps Emily Make a Million, an investing journal, and Entrepreneur Extraordinaire: Grandpa Helps Emily Build a Business. She is a dynamic orator, speaking to audiences of college students, teachers, parents and other mentors who want ideas on how to better manage money and help others do the same.
Joanne also works as chair for Money Smart Week Iowa, an economic outreach program from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and is involved with the Iowa JumpStart Coalition. Check www.moneysmartweek.org/iowa and www.WomenandMoneyConference.com. She continues to help other entrepreneurs get started, and often speaks on entrepreneurship, saving and investing, and leaving a family legacy. She is a founding member of the Iowa Enterprise Network and Center for Financial Success, and has been recognized as SBA’s Midwest Home-Based Business Advocate of the Year.
For more information, visit her website at http://moneygodmother.com/.
Iowa Jump$tart Coalition 