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att Majka wanted to be a sports broad- caster in college. He even got a n inter nship a nd put together a reel to send out to radio a nd T V st ations. "Fig ured out, I actua lly k ind of stunk at it actua lly," Majka said, laughing. "I'm like, ' Well, maybe I need to do something else.'" In the old days, newspapers had want ads and he found one for a company that would eventually become Rollerblade. It was a company based in the Twin Cities and at the time was an offseason hockey training tool—inline skates. Majka k new the product because he worked at a spor ting goods store in college and used to sell them. Majka applied, landed the job as a sa lesper- son for the Midwest territor y and a year later Bob Naegele invested sub- stantia lly in the company. Majka would go on to work 15 years for Naegele in sa les and marketing. They formed a relationship, which came in handy when Naegele sold Rollerblade and decided to bring the NHL back to Minnesota as the origi- na l ow ner of the ex pansion Wild. Fast-for ward 25 years, and Majka has not only worked for the Wild since their inception, he's in his fif th year as president of the team. "I grew up like any Minnesota k id, I loved hockey. I loved hockey, still love it," Majka said. "Followed the Nor th Stars religiously, and so I was a Minnesota k id through and through that way. But if someone had told me, even in college, as I was star ting to think about what could I or would I do w ith my career that I'd end up being president of the NHL hockey team in Minnesota, I would've been like, " Well, no, are you cra z y? ' "As much as this has been a dream come true, I could never have envisioned how I would have gotten from there to here. When I talk to younger people about career planning and aspirations, I find that younger people these days are way more focused than I was when I was their age. I give them a ton of credit for that. But I also always want to just suggest to them to be open to left turns in your life or unexpected developments because it 's not a ll bad. This happened M by Michael Russo Russo's Rants Photos / Bruce Kluckhohn/Minnesota Wild N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M 29 P R E S E N T E D B Y MAKING HIS MARK "Successful businesses operate absolutely the same way as successful sports teams, in that they play as a team and they win together. They lose together." – MATT MAJKA One-on-one with Wild President Matt Majka