Meet the Team - Jarraff Industries

Leadership

Heidi Boyum

President

Heidi Boyum, President

Heidi was born and raised in Mankato, Minnesota. After high school, Heidi attended Mankato State to study business management and administration. Her career with Jarraff Industries, LLC. started very early in her life. Heidi’s first role with Jarraff was to pick parts from vendors in and out of state and deliver them to the proper shop location. In addition, she also completed administrative tasks, traveled to trade shows and attended customer meetings.

After some time spent at Jarraff Industries, Heidi wanted to make sure she was on the right career path, so she chose to spend some time away to gain other work experience. She worked for Northwest Airlines for nearly 10 years. Heidi found this to be very beneficial for her when she returned to Jarraff Industries in 1999 as the CFO. Heidi has been the sole owner of Jarraff Industries for the past 12 years and she is proud to be a certified WBENC business.

Jarraff Industries has grown into a great team over the years and she is proud that Jarraff has become a desired place to work in the community.

Steve VanRoekel

COO

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Steve VanRoekel, COO

Steve was born and raised on a farm in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University in 1983 with an Animal Science degree. Steve joined the multinational agribusiness firm Continental Grain Company as a salesman in 1983 and for the next 16 years held a variety of management positions in disciplines including sales, marketing, business development, research and development, and operations.

In 1999 Steve joined publicly traded Ridley Inc. as General Manager for its U.S. animal feed division, better known as Hubbard Feeds. Shortly after arriving Steve led the acquisition of Continental Grain Company’s animal feed business, effectively bridging his 33 years in the industry. In 2000 he was given added responsibility for the company’s U.K. based Cotswold swine genetics business (since divested) and in 2003 for its Canadian feed division, which was subsequently merged to form Masterfeeds, where he held the position of Vice Chairman of the Board. In 2004 he was named President and CEO of Ridley Inc. and in 2007 elected to the Ridley Inc. Board of Directors. In his 12 years as CEO and President of Ridley, Steve led a team that created more than $400 million in shareholder value culminating in the acquisition of Ridley by Alltech in June of 2015. After leading the transition to Alltech, Steve left Ridley in November of 2016 and joined Jarraff Industries as Chief Operating Officer in May of 2017.

Steve has been active in non-profit work including as Director and Board Chair of the Greater Mankato United Way, Director of Feeding Our Community Partners, among others; and has served as a Director and Chairman of the American Feed Manufacturer’s Association.

Meghan Strait

Director of Operations

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Meghan Solheid, Director of Operations

Born and raised in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Meghan grew up an avid outdoorsman and fisherman. She attended college at Iowa State University; graduating in 2007 with a degree in Industrial Engineering. Following graduation, Meghan started her career at Altec Industries in St. Joseph Missouri. Over her 8 years there, she held positions in manufacturing engineering, design for manufacturability and commodity management. During this time, she also received her MBA from Northwest Missouri State University.

In 2015, an opportunity at The Toro Company brought her back to Minnesota and in 2016 Meghan joined the Jarraff team as a Manufacturing Engineer. In 2017, she was promoted to Director of Operations and is currently responsible for Operations, Supply Chain and Product Support.

Jake Schmotter

Director of Engineering and R&D

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Jake Schmotter, Director of Engineering and R&D

Jake Schmotter grew up in the small town of Stillwater, Minnesota and graduated from University of Wisconsin – Stout with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation, he began his career with Polaris Industries. Being raised by a father that was a general contractor, working for him growing up until his college years, he was often found designing and building machine attachments, operating equipment or just figuring out solutions to problems as they arose, a natural problem solver, mechanically inclined with a hands-on, strategic approach.

In 2012 Jake had the opportunity to take on new challenges at Jarraff Industries, LLC. bringing engineering functions in-house and start developing the team. As things started out much of the time was spent on legacy designs, solving problems requiring immediate solutions and accelerated development plans. Throughout the next several years Jarraff expanded rapidly undergoing significant changes in equipment. Amongst the chaos, the team was able to develop and Patent an industry first, rotating saw head for the Mechanical Trimmers. Jarraff industries has a strong belief in product advancement through innovation and continues to expand the engineering group to support exactly that.

In his free time, Jake actively races Superbikes at a semi-pro level in the Central Roadracing Association where he volunteers, safely coaching new riders to become nationally recognized licensed roadracers. He also volunteers his time at local organization, supporting motorcycle awareness and improving riding skills for safety on the public roads. Occasionally he still finds time for local motocross races and enjoys watersport activities, snowmobiling and snowboarding. In his downtime you will typically find him never sitting still and likely building or fixing something of some sort, whether it be a attachment for the skidsteer, race bike part or just the furnace.

Tammy Thomas

Director of Finance

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Tammy Thomas, Director of Finance

Tammy was born and raised in the small town of New Prague, MN, where she currently resides with her two daughters. Tammy graduated from Minnesota State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a minor in Business Administration. Out of college Tammy worked as an auditor for a small accounting firm for a year and a half until she decided that the private sector was more appealing. From there Tammy went and worked for a steel manufacturing, USP Structural Connectors for nine years starting out as a Staff Accountant and working her way up to Controller while also managing a few different departments, such as, Accounting, Pricing and Customer Service.

In order to travel less and be closer to home, Tammy left USP in 2014 and moved on to a medical device manufacturing company called Electromed as their Controller. Tammy left Electromed in 2017 and joined Jarraff Industries as Director of Finance in July of 2017.

Mark Seely

Product Support Manager

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Mark Seely, Product Support Manager

Mark grew up in the small town of Cleveland, MN. He attended school in the same building from Kindergarten through graduation! He graduated from Mankato State University with a degree in Education. Following MSU, Mark was an assistant coach for the Gustavus Adolphus College gymnastics team along with owning a local youth gymnastics club.

Mark joined Katolight as a Corporate Accounts sales rep in power generation. When Katolight was acquired by MTU Detroit Diesel, Mark was promoted to Senior Manager of Product Support responsible for North and South America along with parts of Europe. He headed large data center power projects with numerous social media/tech companies and the New York Stock exchange. Mark stayed through another corporate acquisition by Rolls Royce Power Systems in the same capacity before joining Cummins Sales and Service as the General Manager of their corporate facility in White Bear Lake.

Mark joined Jarraff Industries in 2017 as Supply Chain Manager later transitioning to what he knows best, Product Support.

In his spare time, Mark likes to take family trips, watch his kids’ play football and volleyball, and lots of fishing.

Jeremiah Williams

Supply Chain Manager

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Jeremiah Williams, Supply Chain Manager

Jeramiah joined Jarraff in August of 2018 as the Supplier Chain Manager. His focus is to advance supply chain and inventory control processes and relationships while increasing the utilization of technology. Prior to joining Jarraff, Jeramiah held various positions including Director of Operations, Plant Controller, Senior Financial Analyst and ERP Business Manager across the fields of internet travel, diary, and printing & marketing.

Outside of work, Jeramiah has been a board member of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern Minnesota and spearheaded United Way fund raising. Jeramiah grew up in the Midwest studying Accounting and Political Science at the University of Sioux Falls and University of South Dakota.