Todd Jourgensen, rental and sales manager for Severson Supply & Rental Co., has a straightforward philosophy about business:

Make everybody happy.

His success in that regard was why Craig Chamber of Commerce officials selected him as the 2009 businessperson of the year, said Bryce Jacobson, Daily Press publisher and former Chamber board president.

On Wednesday afternoon, Jourgensen reflected on the night before, when he accepted the award in front of about 140 local residents assembled for the State of the County address at the Holiday Inn of Craig.

“I was just kind of amazed,” he said. “I was not expecting that at all.”

Jourgensen wasn’t always a manager.

He spent his first five years with Severson as a traveling salesman, and that experience helped shape his perspective on how to run a business.

“I’ve always considered it has to be a good situation for everybody,” he said. “The customer has to win, and we have to win.”

Being involved

Annie MacGregor and Laurie Ogden said they were caught offguard when Chamber Executive Director Christina Currie announced they had won Chamber ambassadors of the year.

They were proud of the honor, they said, but they’re most proud of where the Chamber Ambassadors find themselves as a group at the start of 2009.

“I think we’ve gotten more involved with the community, with community events, and we’ve taken on a lot more,” said Ogden, Ambassadors secretary and systems administrator with Moffat Insurance Agency.

She joined the Ambassadors three years ago, hoping to become a bigger part of the community, and the group has given her that chance, Ogden said.

MacGregor said she sees Ambassadors as her chance to get in “on the ground floor” to help put community events together.

The organization was the fastest way for to become involved, she added. However, MacGregor said she would have liked to see Ogden honored alone.

“We had voted on naming Laurie, but I guess there was another vote,” MacGregor said with a laugh. “I was kind of shocked. I really feel like Laurie has done a tremendous job with the Ambassadors, way more than she was ever supposed to.”