Dalida Bollig’s work experience ranges from the high stakes of helping develop Sweden’s executive business strategy and public diplomacy in foreign affairs to operating a quaint cafe in Mississippi.
Perhaps it was that range of experience that made her the Grand Junction Business Incubator Center’s choice for its new chief executive officer this past summer.
Maybe it was her understanding of the incubator’s role in helping local businesses grow and eventually thrive. It could have been her familiarity with the Western Slope because her husband, Brian, grew up in Gunnison and briefly attended then-Mesa State College in Grand Junction, so the couple has often visited the region for weddings, birthdays and family visits three to four times per year.
Any one of those reasons would have qualified Bollig for the position. All three being in her favor, however, made her the Business Incubator’s clear choice.
“We keep seeing things from outside of the box, not from how the community is working together. We see things being built, we see things moving, we see areas developing, and it’s so exciting,” Bollig said.
She expresses a huge passion for small businesses and said entrepreneurship is important to help people root to diversify the economy.
“We want to make sure that there are so many opportunities for young adults, for families, for young children who grow up here to find themselves wanting to stay, wanting to build a community here, wanting to contribute, and we want to make sure there’s enough wealth in the community that can support that diversification in the economy.”
“When this opportunity came up, I thought, ‘This is the best chance to be able to set my vision into motion and actually work with the business environment, the ethos, the collaborative partners we have in the community, and actually build these bridges and be able to see it happen,’ maybe more firsthand at the incubator because we actually see the businesses face-to-face and we meet with them and we have tenants here,” she continued.
“On a more strategic level, that’s more my background, where I can see how policies and strategies affect the business community firsthand.”
VÄSTERÅS
Bollig hails from the city of Västerås on the shore of Lake Mälaren in south-central Sweden. The Västerås municipal area features a population of a little more than 150,000 people — a similar figure to the Mesa County population.
She spent a “very long time” working for the Swedish government, working city-level, municipality-level, regional-level and finally high government-level jobs.
In her time with the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, she helped the ministry serve as a catalyst for Business Sweden.
“Business Sweden is an extended arm of the public diplomacy and executive strategy organization, together with embassies and missions abroad and cultural missions and all kinds of what we call the ‘fun part of economic development,’” Bollig said.
“Because you get to meet with a lot of people who are really excited about their project, you get to meet with people from abroad who have completely different ideas and visions.
“Sweden has a similar approach to the U.S. when it comes to the open market with openness to business. The difference is probably in taxes and the social programs, but generally speaking, openness to the market and business has made Sweden one of the forefront countries” in entrepreneurship in Europe or Scandinavia.
“LOVE HAPPENED”
Bollig originally met Brian while both were traveling in Israel. They became friends and their friendship only intensified while she was living in the Belgian capitol of Brussels.
Eventually, it became clear to both of them that this would be more than a friendship. They now have two sons together, Gabriel and Jacob — the latter of whom Bollig gave birth to on Oct. 27 of this year.
“(Brian) said, ‘Well, what do you think about getting together and seeing if our relationship would work out,’ and I said, ‘I’m not interested in moving. I’m happy with my life, I’m happy with my job,’ ” Bollig said.
“But then love happened.”
Brian served in the U.S. Army, so once Bollig decided to move to the United States with him, they found themselves hopping from place to place.
They moved to Hawaii, where Gabriel was born, in 2013. They lived near ‘Ewa Beach, not far from Brian’s Army base, on the island of Oahu.
Once the time came to leave Hawaii, they planned to move to Colorado’s Western Slope to be near Brian’s family, which has lived in the area since the 1870s.
However, they opted instead for Atlanta after visiting the city once and becoming enamored with it.
BRINGING SWEDEN TO THE SOUTH
Brian’s work in the military later took the couple to the college town of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, home to Southern Mississippi and William Carey universities.
Bollig decided this was the perfect time to introduce Swedish flair to the Deep South’s taste palate.
“I’ve had a few businesses before the cafe, back home in Sweden,” Bollig said. “When I made it to Mississippi, I was still working for the Swedish government at the time, so I decided, ‘This is the best time to take a break and introduce the South to something completely different,’ and I decided to open the first and only Swedish cafe in the South. It quickly became a hub for expats, Europeans and very curious Southerners … It was so fun.”
Her cafe was called Fika, named after the Swedish custom of enjoying a coffee and a treat with friends, family or colleagues. Swedes don’t simply see it as a standard coffee break, as Visit Sweden, the tourism arm of the Swedish government, describes fika on its website as being “as Swedish as ABBA.”
“It’s the concept that most Scandinavians live religiously by,” Bollig said. “Generally speaking, we have two fikas a day. You have one in the workplace and one after you’re done with work with your friends or family or extended family or colleagues, whoever you want. Sometimes, by yourself!”
A TRIO OF NEW LEADERS
Hattiesburg was the Bolligs’ final stop before finally moving to the Western Slope.
The Grand Junction Business Incubator Center is one of the three “legs of economic development” in the region, according to Bollig, along with the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce and the Grand Junction Economic Partnership (GJEP).
Bollig stepped into her new role in July, meaning that all three of those organizations have hired new leaders this year.
Curtis Englehart was hired as the new Economic Partnership executive director the same month Bollig was hired, and two months later, Candace Carnahan was chosen as the chamber’s new president and CEO.
“The exciting part is that we can set new strategies in place,” Bollig said. “Nothing wrong with the things that have been set in motion, but there’s something about new leaderships in place where you can start new paths, you can start new conversations and you can set things into motion that may have not been right in the past.
“I think the time is right right now,” she said. “We’re heading out of the pandemic into an inflated economy. We have some sort of recession, whether you think it’s here or coming, environment happening. Our business community will need all three of us the most.
“Being able to see that and collaborate and set the path for how economic development thrives in the Grand Valley is going to be the most exciting momentum we can create for Mesa County.”