Minnesota Icons 2025: Dianne Holte, Holte Contracting Inc.

Dianne Holte, president and chief executive officer of Holte Contracting Inc., built a successful construction company from the ground up, transforming an administrative assistant position into ownership of a firm specializing in environmental contracting and infrastructure projects.

Holte began her career counseling chemically dependent juveniles before taking an administrative assistant position with an environmental contracting firm. Within a decade, she was running her own underground tank removal company.

Holte credited a good part of her success to the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program, which connects minority- and women-owned companies with sole-sourced, negotiated government contracts. She graduated from the program after eight years with a portfolio of tank removal, site remediation, excavation, shoreline erosion, flood control and marine contracting work.

Her company completed projects primarily with federal agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the 934th Airlift Wing. Projects included flood control levees in Breckenridge and excavation work for Mortenson Construction at Union Depot in St. Paul.

Holte expanded into vertical general contracting through a mentor-protégé agreement with Graham Construction Services. The $11.1 million Army Training Readiness Center in Arden Hills, a joint venture with Graham, marked her largest project. That year represented her best on record, with revenue doubling from the previous year, which itself had doubled from 2008.

Throughout her career, Holte served in leadership roles advocating for women-owned businesses. She served as past president and vice president of the Association of Women Contractors, sat on the legislative committee for the Association of General Contractors of Minnesota, and participated in the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s DBE and Workforce Collaborative to improve the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.

Holte lobbied legislators to implement an SBA women’s procurement program to set aside competitive federal projects for bidding among women-owned contractors. She later served on the Board of Directors for the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota and remained an active member of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce.

After more than 20 years in the construction industry, Holte closed the business and retired.