Select Genetics Promotions and Org Structure Updates

Since the announcement that AgForte and Valley of the Moon merged to form Select Genetics, Jihad Douglas, Rick Vanderspek and their operations teams have been working diligently towards sharing ideas, passing along knowledge and getting to know each other better. According to Rick Vanderspek:

The task is to develop strategies for the upcoming year and familiarize each team member with the talent that resides in the Aviagen Turkeys and Select Genetics companies. Wow, it’s exciting to see the bench strength we have – these people represent the finest in their respective fields. There is much work to be done. We must develop people; improve our infrastructure; plan for growth of the Aviagen brands; succession to bring new leaders along; while at the same time developing a unified culture across our diverse and geographically dispersed business.

We are pleased to announce some promotions and position changes that will help the group focus on the task ahead:

• Kevin Lynch, General Manager of North & East Operations. Kevin’s areas of responsibility include all Select Genetics Operations in Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina.  In addition, Kevin will have the hatchery and embryotic support team.
• Dwin Dunkin, General Manager of South-Central Operations. Dwin’s areas of responsibility include all Select Genetics Operations in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and eventually Indiana when the new hatchery is built. The hatchery and embryotic support team will report to Dwin when working at South-Central hatcheries.
• Ben Wileman, Director of Veterinary and Avian Science.  Ben will have all SEL Veterinarians reporting to him and overall responsibility to oversee our company diagnostic labs.  Each lab will report directly to the local Veterinary in charge. In addition Ben will be the liaison for nutrition, LSI R&D, and Epitopix.
• Troy Robinson, Logistics Manager.  Troy will lead Select Genetics centralized logistics and transportation, which includes direct reports in Missouri and Minnesota and dotted line responsibility for logistics and transportation in Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and North Carolina, and eventually Indiana.
• Corey Nelson, Manager of Administrative Services.  Corey is assuming additional responsibility to his Controller role, which includes the liaison between LSI and ATI, and he manages all Supply Chain functions. Proper planning and resolving customer issues related to operations must be flawlessly managed and requires optimum “supply chain management”.
• Sonia Valenciano, Human Resources Strategic Business Partner. Sonia is a dedicated partner with our operations teams in MO and IA, and leads our MO HR team.
• Susan Mathias, Human Resources Strategic Business Partner. Susan is a dedicated partner with our operations teams in VA and NC.

Congratulations to these employees and keep up the outstanding work!

Welcome to our Employee Update Select Genetics Employees!

Some of you may be new to this update thing. The Life-Science Innovations’ Human Resources team acts as a hub of information & connection in that every few weeks we send out a new blog post to all of our family of affiliates sharing recent updates, news, new hires and job openings to help keep you informed and in the know about the goings on. If you are interested in sharing something that has to do with employee recognition, company excellence, or just something exciting or fun going on in your department, please contact Mike Bregel.

Syntiron – Intern plays key role in developing human Vaccines

Molly Westfield, a Lab Technician intern from Syntiron was recently in a feature story on the Minnesota High Tech Association’s SciTechsperience. Check it out to learn more about how Syntiron is innovating in the human vaccine space and about the value of technical internships: https://scitechmn.org/scitech-intern-plays-key-role-in-developing-human-vaccines/

 

(Molly featured on the right, Lisa Herron-Olson, Syntiron’s Chief Operating Officer on left)

Epitopix Website Redesign

Epitopix, our vaccine technology company, recently launched their new Website! The website team included Jalaine Goeser, Matthew Fuchs, Scott Schultz, Justin Solbrack, Doug Burkhardt, Jim Sandstrom and Mike Bregel. This project has been an entire team effort jam packed with some healthy collaboration, a hive-mind of detail oriented teamwork and great displays of excellence. Click HERE or image below to check it out for yourself. Epitopix, LLC formed in 2002 to commercialize SRP® Technology and to discover new vaccine technologies that improve animal health and human food safety.

Willmar’s Destination Playground

The Willmar Destination Playground idea started back in the summer of 2016, when a group of community leaders thought of this project and started working on it. With the help of Playground by Leathers, an organization from Florida who is dedicated to help communities like ours to build their own playground, the idea took shape and the design process started. The playground was designed by children from the Willmar area, which includes an igloo, a turkey barn, a train, and castles with all kinds of fun surprises. It also has a wheelchair swing and is fully accessible. Spreading across 19,000 sq/ft on Robbins Island (between Foot and Willmar lakes), it is the biggest fully accessible playground in the Midwest, and in the top 5 across the nation. It was funded through donations from the general public and companies, and was entirely built by community volunteers. The Community Build took place between May 16 and 25, and whoever wanted to participate could join the fun. After the build was over, the last step that could only be done by professionals was the laying of the rubber ground, made out of tire shavings and a special bonding glue. The Grand Opening of the playground is set for June 24^th for Willmar Fest.

Teams from Nova-Tech and LSI join in on the community build and volunteered their skills that involved cutting wood, building sections of the castles and igloo, painting, organizing the building area… It was an excellent opportunity for those individuals to give back to the community, helping create that new gathering place for children (and adults, let’s be real, who doesn’t want to jump on the trampoline, or use that awesome corkscrew slide?) and have some great bonding time with coworkers!

PS Word on the street is that we represented our family of companies well. Kathy Schwantes, co-chairman of the playground steering committee told Pam Schlagel, our LSI executive administrative assistant, “I was told by one of our captains that the team you had here previously was outstanding! Please pass on our appreciation.  I believe they were a group of accountants.”

PPS A special Thank You to Manon Claux, Customer Service French Rep at NTE, for writing this blurb; Manon “Mo” organized the NTE playground volunteering and is on the committee for the playground. Thank you for your service to the community!

3 Nova-Tech Leaders complete Dale Carnegie Course in Willmar

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two year by trying to get other people interested in you.”  This quote from renowned writer and lecturer Dale Carnegie captures much of the essence of Carnegie’s philosophy on life, a man who truly transformed generations with his training courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

Carnegie wrote Lincoln the Unknown in 1932, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living in 1948, and the ever popular How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936.  These books remain powerful self-improvement resources even in today’s modern digital world.

Every year, about this time of year, a gentleman named Rick Cole comes to the Willmar area to offer the Dale Carnegie course, a four day program spread out over a period of 4 weeks.  This year the program ran from April 25^th through May 16^th of this year, and was hosted at the Willmar Airport.

13 participants made up this year’s class, including 3 from our own Nova-Tech Engineering. The participants included Dave Dykshoorn, Product Owner in the Business Systems area, Jacob Rooney, Product Owner over the development of Shrimp processing technology, and Troy Miller, Supervisor in the Manufacturing Assembly area.

Dykshoorn, Rooney, and Miller all stepped up in the interested of improving leadership at Nova-Tech, and to make themselves better leaders and team members for the company.

Topics covered, studied, and given to challenge the three included using honest and sincere appreciation, dealing with emotion in the workplace, how to persuade and inspire others, how to work with challenging people, focusing on long-term outcomes, leading an intentional life, and the power of coaching and mentoring,  just to name a few.

The trio each achieve high awards for their presentations during class times, and Jacob Rooney won the “Highest Award for Achievement”, an honor given to the most accomplished student in the class.  Please congratulate these three at your next opportunity.

NTE Citizenship: Congrats Dave!

Dave Dykshoorn, Business Systems Product Owner at NTE (one of the guys you just read about) officially became a US Citizen! Check out his story below eh?

I was born and raised in Abbotsford, BC, Canada, a city of about 200,000.  My grandfather was born in Alberta which makes me a 3rd generation Canadian on my dad’s side.  My mom’s parents were both immigrants from the Netherlands.  My first adventure to the US was to go to College at Dordt in Sioux Center, Iowa.  As a CRC boy there were really 2 choices, Dordt and Calvin.  Anyway during my years in college I met Tim Starkenburg (LSI IT) and became good friends with him. 

Fast forward about 15 years he asked me to be in his wedding party and he was living in Willmar.  I was honored.  Well I met my wife in that wedding party, the problem was we lived oh 2500 miles apart and in different countries… Click here to read the rest of the story.

PALS Promotion: Penney Blankenship

Congratulations Penney on your recent promotion from Buyer I to Buyer II; this accomplishment was well earned! Penney has a strong purchasing history and growing agriculture experience that makes her a great fit to fill this company need. We look forward to your continuing contributions Penney. Great work!

Penney’s top 5 Strengths are Adaptability, Harmony, Includer, Empathy and Developer.

Tornado damage effecting Jennie-O

The Barron/Chetek area in Wisconsin was hit with some nasty tornado’s back in May. One turkey farm was severely damaged. One truck driver from Jennie-O lost his life. About 40 trailer homes where lost and many employees lost their homes.

We generally do not use the update for soliciting purposes, but Jennie-O Turkey Store passed this on to share with our employees should anyone care to contribute and we thought we should include this since it is in our industry and we have a special relationship with JOTS. Jennie-O has a disaster relief plan, but as you can imagine, it is not big enough for this large disaster. If anyone feels prompted to help our poultry neighbors, donations can be made to the Southwest Initiative Foundation for the Jennie-O Turkey Store CARE Fund or to the local Red Cross to help with community relief efforts.

https://www.givemn.org/project/Jots-Care-Fund

Donations can also be mailed 15 3rd Avenue NW, Hutchinson, MN 55350

 

Years of Service:

Congratulations Albert

Albert Rios, (Farm Worker for Select Genetics in MO) celebrates 15 years with the company. Congrats Albert!

Congratulations Inovencio

Inocencio Rodriguez Monzon, (Farm Worker for Select Genetics in MO) celebrated 5 years with the company this year. Congrats Inovencio! Pictured with Supervisor Aaron Yount.

Congratulations Jose

Jose Gonzales, (Farm Worker at Select Genetics in MO) celebrated 5 years with the company this year. Congrats Jose!

Congratulations Josephine

Josephine Garcia, (Farm Worker at Select Genetics in MO) celebrated 15 years with the company this year. Congrats Josephine!

Congratulations Kim

Kim Skare, (Office Administration at Select Genetics Industrial Park Hatchery) celebrated 25 years with the company this year. Congrats Kim! Pictured with Supervisor Neil Miller.

Congratulations Luis

Luis Toletino, (Farm Worker at Select Genetics in MO) celebrated 5 years with the company this year. Congrats Luis! Pictured with Supervisor Alejandro Ortega.

Congratulations Rick

Rick Ritchie, (Farm Manager at Select Genetics in MO) celebrated 10 years with the company this year. Congrats Rick! Pictured with Supervisor Robert Kingrey.

Congratulations Valerie

Valerie Herrera, (Farm Worker at Select Genetics in MO) celebrated 15 years with the company this year. Congrats Valerie!

Congratulations Victoria

Victoria Valdez, (Farm Worker at Select Genetics in MO) celebrated 15 years with the company this year. Congrats Victoria!

Congratulations Virgilio

Virgilio Mejia Mendez, (Semen Driver for Select Genetics in MO) celebrated 15 years with the company in April. Congrats Virgilio! Pictured with Supervisor Aaron Yount.

New Babies

Congratulations Andrew Fischer (Repair Technician at Nova-Tech Engineering) and wife Kasey on the birth of their son Henry Ronald Fischer. Born: May 14th, weighed: 8 lbs 5 oz. 19 1/2 inches long.

 

 

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Tech Tips & Tricks

Brought to you from the Life-Science Innovations IT department.

No tip this week, but we will still leave you with an IT meme to hold you over.

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Recruiting Corner

We have several updates on the status of our current opportunities, so please check them out!  I hope everyone is having a great start to the summer!  THANK YOU for your employee referrals!

I might sound like a broken record I cannot stress this repeat message enough:

Our Online Employment Listings are Updated Weekly!

You do not have to wait for the next update to come out to find out the positions and opportunities we have available across all of our affiliate companies. Just hop online and check out http://life-scienceinnovations.com/employment.  Each position will include a summary of the opportunity, and describe the experience and qualifications we’re ideally looking for in an applicant.  If you or someone you know is interested, please send us an email note with attached resume AND a short cover letter or a note to share with us WHY you have interest and believe you are a fit!

 

WE ACCEPT AND APPRECIATE YOUR REFERRALS!   TO REFER AND RECEIVE CREDIT FOR YOUR REFERRAL:

1. Send a direct email message to the Recruiter listed on the job posting, with your referral’s cover letter and resume attached.

OR

2.  Send your referral to the website to apply online at http://life-scienceinnovations.com/employment/  **Please make sure they include your name in the ‘How did you hear about this opportunity?’ question in the online form, or in their attached cover letter and resume.

Successful referrals are eligible for a referral bonus, depending upon the position and affiliate, so please contact me directly if you have any questions about the referral program!

Have a great week!

– Michelle Falling, MN Affiliates Recruiting Specialist

Openings

Current status of all organizational openings.

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Welcome New Employees

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Employee Count

As of 06/13/17 we have 1837 employees

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Human Resources

The Human Resources/Employee Services Team specializes in benefits and payroll, compliance and policy, employee relations, legal compliance, and company & employee overall well-being. We are located on the first floor of Life-Science Innovations on the MinnWest campus at 1800 Technology Drive. We look forward to working with you!

Please message us via email at employee.services@life-scienceinnovations.com or give us a call at

320.222.9515 or 888.320.9750 extension 2515