History
Urban Investors, formerly known as Urban Adventures, was founded by Peter Heegaard in 1997 to give bankers hands-on opportunities to learn about investing in urban neighborhoods. Since its inception nearly 500 financial professionals have completed the program, and many now hold executive positions in Minnesota’s powerful financial industry. Urban Investor graduates have joined non-profit boards, changed referral practices, and have transformed lending practice to
bolster challenged neighborhoods. The program spotlights successful practices that have been implemented in neighborhoods like Phillips and Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis, and Frogtown and the West Side in St. Paul.
Purpose
- Educate bankers to elevate investment practices in the urban core.
- Define economic development in the urban core of the metropolitan area.
- Establish benchmarks to help measure changes in the economic and social health of the urban core.
- Apply business skills to develop financial measures that show the cost of urban issues.
- Grow recognition of the gain in economic value from strengthening families, neighborhoods, education systems and employment systems that result in living wage jobs.
Founder: Peter Heegaard 
In 1996 Peter Heegaard retired from a 36 year career in banking, and founded Urban Adventures in 1997. The name was changed to Urban Investors when the program moved into Augsburg University in 2019. From 1980 to 1986 Heegaard headed the Trust Investment Group of Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis. Heegaard was founder and managing principal of Lowry Hill, an investment subsidiary of Wells Fargo. He was a founding member of the Allina Health Phillips Eye Institute’s Early Youth Eyecare (E.Y.E.) initiative, and served on the boards of the Minneapolis Foundation and the Charles K. Blandin Foundation. In 2010, Heegaard was awarded an honorary degree from Augsburg University.
Director: Michael Christenson 
Mike Christenson serves as program director for the Urban Investors program at Augsburg University. Mike has led workforce development at Hennepin County and Minneapolis College, served as director of the Minneapolis Department of Community Planning and Economic Development and the Allina Foundation. Before that, he was a partner with the Popham Haik Law Firm and served as the chief executive of Metro Transit, where he led an effort to turn around a historic decline in ridership.
Mike has been president of the Citizens League, helped found the Phillips Partnership and the Day One Project, and joined with law students to form the Minnesota Justice Foundation. He has helped lead fundraising efforts for St. Barnabas Housing, St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Aeon, and Project for Pride in Living.