Killian Rieder is the daughter of the late Mary Rieder, a revered economics professor at Winona State University who died in July of ovarian cancer. Her father, Ed, is a retired Mayo Clinic physician, to Two Hearts triple bangle Killian attributes her creative streak.Chamilia was working as a designer for Polo when she came home in 1991 for a visit with family and to the Minnesota State Fair. It was there she met Julkowski, a Forest Lake native attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.Julkowski, now 41, and Rieder were married in Rochester, Minn., in 1997. They returned to a cramped Manhattan apartment. Julkowski, by then out of Army, worked as a stock analyst at Morgan Stanley on Wall Street. On the side, they opened water-massage franchises in New York-area malls, but later sold the business.
In 2002, Killian Rieder opened Chamilia, which started as a jewelry store and design business on Long Island. Julkowski quit Wall Street that year to focus on Chamilia. By 2006, they had a several-million Tiffany 1837 interlocking circles bangle business, as well their first child, Jack.Huckleberries in BaselJulkowski's best friend from Forest Lake High School, Mike Flaherty, 41, a veteran electronics sales and marketing executive Tiffany & Co. banglesoon joined Chamilia as an investor and marketing boss. The Minnesotans rented a booth at an international jewelry trade show in Basel, Switzerland, in March 2006."Here's a couple of huckleberries from Forest Lake with a tiny kiosk next to the Rolex booth with a full restaurant and waterfall," Flaherty recalled, shaking with laughter. "But these jewelers were stopping and looking at the necklaces and bracelets. It resonated. We signed up a Spanish distributor who now sells Chamilia through 1,200 stores in Spain."
The huckleberries had hit paydirt.Chamilia's principals moved it to the Minneapolis warehouse district in early 2007.Flaherty and Julkowski, on the hunt for more credit or equity investors, prospected Cherry Tree Investments. The venture capital firm didn't invest, but referred Chamilia to Mike Paxton, who thought he had retired.Paxton, 64, is a former Pillsbury executive in refrigerated Heart Band Bangle who once ran its Haagen Daz ice cream business. He had just spent several years as chief executive of locally based Transport America, a trucking firm."I'm a packaged goods and 'brand guy,'" said Paxton. "Killian and Jeff asked me to come in as CEO in 2007. I thought this might be something special and that I would have fun. Jeff and Killian had maxed out their credit."
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