Co-founder & CEO of Askov Finlayson, Co-owner of North First Hospitality and Co-founder & Board President of The Great Northern
Thursday, November 15, 2018
7:30 - 8:30 am
Blake Campus (Hopkins), Bovey Chapel

Eric Dayton '99 is co-founder and CEO of Askov Finlayson, an outdoor clothing company inspired by year-round exploration. He graduated from Williams College with a degree in English and later received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was a member of Arctic Transect 2004, a six-month, 2,000-mile dogsled expedition led by legendary polar explorer Will Steger.

Dayton and his brother co-founded Askov Finlayson in 2011. In keeping with its mission to Keep The North Cold, the company measures its own carbon footprint and gives back 110 percent of its annual climate cost to support leading-edge climate change solutions. Askov Finlayson has committed $1 million over the next five years to fund some of the world's most innovative climate action organizations.

Dayton and his brother also own North First Hospitality, which includes The Bachelor Farmer, named one of Bon Appetit's top ten new restaurants, and Marvel Bar, a three-time James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bar Program in America.

Dayton is the co-founder and board president of The Great Northern, an annual 10-day winter festival that celebrates Minnesota's signature season. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and their two sons.

In his Breakfast at Blake presentation, "Identity & Entrepreneurship in the North," Dayton talked about how, over the last five years, the North has grown from a knit hat into a movement built around adventure, creativity and the embrace of our cold winters, and shared his vision for the North and his commitment to making it a movement for good.