The Jade Standard opens with a community kickoff that sets the tone for a day built around opportunity and action. The Minnesota Commissioner of Employment and Economic Development delivers a keynote address on the economic landscape and what it means for small business owners across the state. A dynamic panel follows, bringing those ideas down to the ground level with real-world insight and community perspective. The day closes with an unscripted fireside chat between AREAA Twin Cities leadership and a featured industry voice — a moment to reflect, reconnect, and leave with one decisive move forward.

Sia Her

Sia Her was appointed executive director of the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans ("the Council") in early 2013. The Council, a non-partisan, non-cabinet executive branch state agency, advises Minnesota’s Legislature and the Governor on legislative and administrative policies and practices that will have an impact on the Asian Pacific Minnesotan community (Minn. Stat. § 15.0145). As executive director, Sia manages all operations and projects of the Council, and develops and implements strategic, well-informed decisions that ensure that the Council delivers on its statutory duties.

During her tenure as executive director, Sia has played a leading role in the passage of unprecedented legislation on the issue of gender-based violence in the Asian Pacific Minnesotan community. As a result, Sia has been recognized for her work and leadership, including an award at the 14th Annual Humphrey School of Public Affair’s Public Leadership Awards Dinner in recognition of her “work to strengthen and build a more inclusive community across socioeconomic, gender, and generational lines.”

Sia holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Macalester College.

Matt Varilek

Matt Varilek became the DEED Commissioner on June 20, 2023. Since late 2016, he served as President of the Little Falls-based Initiative Foundation, which supports economic and community development in the 14 counties and two sovereign tribal nations of Central Minnesota. Previously, he was Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), regional administrator for U.S. SBA Region VIII, and a candidate for Congress in South Dakota. He also served as an Economic Development Director and Speechwriter for the offices of U.S. Senators Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson, and Director of Policy and Research for Natsource LLC, an energy brokerage based in New York. Commissioner Varilek earned a B.A. from Carleton College, a M.Phil. in Economic Development from the University of Glasgow, and a M.Phil. in Environment and Development from the University of Cambridge. He lives in rural Benton County near Rice with his wife and three children.

Long Doan

Long Doan's story begins far from Minnesota. Fleeing Vietnam as a teenager and surviving a refugee camp with less than even odds of making it out alive, he arrived in the United States with nothing but resolve. He learned English while juggling three jobs and attending the University of Minnesota, and never stopped building from there.

In 2009, Long founded Realty Group, quickly becoming one of Minnesota's top-producing agents and closing over 1,000 transactions in his first four years. Today he leads a thriving brokerage with more than 500 agents and has been recognized by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal as one of the most admired CEOs in the Twin Cities. He flipped the traditional real estate model upside down — creating an agent-first, systems-driven business where agents operate like CEOs.

A nationally recognized speaker, coach, and community leader, Long brings to the closing fireside a perspective forged by real adversity and real results — exactly the energy The Jade Standard is built around.

Jud Murchie, Phd

Wells Fargo, AREAA Platinum Sponsor

Dr. Jud Murchie leads research strategy and manages strategic initiatives for the Wells Fargo’s Diverse Segments, Representation, and Inclusion (DSRI) External Engagements team. Jud serves as a strategy, execution, and communications partner for strategic initiatives across the enterprise, with particular focus on driving capital to historically marginalized and underserved communities. He also manages relationships with think tank, academic, and non-profit partners to deliver research insights for Wells Fargo business-line leaders and to build pathways for increasing diversity in research and scholarship careers. Jud joined Wells Fargo Home Lending’s Housing Policy and Homeownership Growth team in 2017, immediately after receiving a PhD (Public Policy) from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Jud’s research expertise is urban and housing policy, housing discrimination, micro finance, and state and local public finance. Prior to Syracuse, Jud earned an MA in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he examined the use of tax incentives and other strategies for economic and community development. Preceding graduate work, Jud spent nearly a decade as a strategy consultant to global banks and their corporate clients, designing strategies to align corporate treasury/working capital needs with bank-delivered products, process improvements, and technology solutions.

Tasha Soundara

AREAA Immediate Past President & Policy Chair

A Lao Minnesotan and lifelong Twin Cities resident, Tasha Soundara has built her career around a simple conviction: that professional, innovative, and knowledgeable service can open doors for her community. A University of Minnesota Economics graduate, she began at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage before earning her real estate license and building a distinguished career spanning over 25 years. Littlelaosontheprairie

Sound Home Group

Tasha founded Sound Home Group and has served on the boards of Minneapolis Area REALTORS®, the Women's Council of REALTORS®, and AREAA. As the 2025 President of AREAA Twin Cities, she brings both credibility and community commitment to everything she leads — including The Jade Standard.

Sarah Shin Thorp

AREAA President

Born in South Korea and raised in South Minneapolis, Sarah Shin Thorp is an activist with a deep love for community and a career built at the crossroads of real estate and opportunity. Growing up with a mother who had a natural eye for design and a father with a background in building and land development, Sarah came to understand early the value of real estate and the possibilities that come from vision, grit, and resilience.

As a Realtor®, Sarah champions first-time buyers, small business tenants, and operators — believing that wealth building, entrepreneurship, and homeownership are not separate pursuits but one unified path forward. That conviction shapes everything she does, from the clients she serves to the community she leads. As President of AREAA Twin Cities and the tiger mom behind The Jade Standard, Sarah and the inimitable Board of Directors are bringing together the people, resources, and conversations that make sustainable growth possible for Minnesota's AANHPI and immigrant communities on June 4th.