Border States Electric provides products and services to the construction, industrial and utility markets. Active employees own 100 percent of the company under the employee stock ownership plan. The employee-owned company has approximately 1,300 employees and 58 branch operations in 13 states.

Welsand majored in accounting at UW-Superior. He was an audit partner in the Minneapolis office of Grant Thornton, LLP. As an audit partner, he led client relationships for annual audits, due diligence and transactional engagements for private and public companies. He was also responsible for providing U.S. and international accounting expertise for a variety of assurance engagements while serving as the U.S. resident specialist for Grant Thornton UK LLP from 2005 to 2007.   

He is a Certified Public Accountant, and a member of the Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is a board member for Spare Key, a not-for-profit organization in Minneapolis, serving as treasurer and on the Program Review Committee. Welsand also serves on the executive committee as the treasurer for his local church.  

Welsand; his wife Chris, UW-Superior Class of '94; and daughter Sophia, live in Lino Lakes, Minn., and will relocate to the Fargo, N.D., area in the near future.