From ag to optics, Montana is home to myriad small businesses engaged daily in international trade. Why do they do it? How do they do it? How are they managing in the new normal? We’ll visit briefly with them in a one hour webinar from 2 to 3 PM on Thursday, May 7th. Join us. Learn about your neighbors and learn more about the global trading community to which we are all connected.
This session is brought to you for free in partnership with our sponsors Bannockburn Global Forex, MT Department of Commerce, Montana Bioscience Cluster Initiative, and the Montana World Affairs Council.
Click here to register for our Montana Faces of World Trade webinar on Eventbrite.
Our session will feature:
Michelle Erickson-Jones, Owner, BigSkyFarmHer
Michelle is a 4th generation farmer from Broadview Mt. She is also an advocate for trade in agriculture, free trade, and the importance of trade agreements in rural America. Michelle is the VP of Virtual for the Organization of Women in Trade, past president of the Montana Grain Growers Association, and a spokesperson for Farmers for Free Trade. Michelle maintains a blog and social media presence that is largely utilized for advocating for effective farm and trade policy. She can be found on any platform under BigSkyFarmHer. Michelle has previously testified in front of the International Trade Commission on the impacts of Section 301 Tariffs as well as in front of the House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Trade. Prior to returning to agriculture her career was in transportation and operations for UPS and Amazon.com. She has a dual MBA in Operations Management and Mediation/Dispute Resolution.
Michael FitzGerald, Founder/CEO, Submittable
Michael FitzGerald is the co-founder and CEO of Submittable a submission management platform used by over 10,000 clients including CBS, AT&T, Nike, Hallmark, Harvard, and MIT for promoting, accepting, and reviewing incoming content, applications, RFPs and other digital submissions. Submittable is a YC alumni and has received funding from True Ventures, Next Frontier Capital, and Flywheel Ventures.
Jeff Pease, Chief Business Development Officer, Rocky Mountain Bio
Born in Idaho, raised in Logan, Utah, Jeff Pease joined Rocky Mountain Biologicals in January, 2014 as Director of Operations. Jeff comes to us from Thermo Fisher Scientific where he spent 12 years in multiple roles from, Engineering Manager, General Manager in New Zealand of their Australasia Serum Business and the past 5 years as their Global Serum Procurement Manager. Prior to Jeff’s time in Biopharmaceuticals he spent time as Plant Manager at Silicone Plastics, an Injection Molding Company and Designer and Project Manager for Campbell Scientific, a Global Leader in robust remote data recording equipment.
Dianna Kegel, Shipping Manager, TowHaul
Two days after graduating from Montana State University College of Business, Dianna began her career at TowHaul with a willingness to learn and try new things. Within a week of starting, she was asked to assist in getting a piece of equipment cleared from customs in Chile. Montana State did not have a class on customs clearance, but with the help of a knowledgeable person, Carey Hester, at the State of Montana Department of Commerce a new chapter at TowHaul had begun. Many years, 25 countries, hundreds of TowHaul trailers, and thousands of part sales later, Dianna has the experience to share the TowHaul story with others. As a member of the District Export Counsel of Montana, she is and is happy to share the lessons learned with other small businesses who want to take their company international. A fifth Generation Montanan is excited to see what the next phase of Montana business will look like for the next generations entering the business world.
Adam Stern, Senior Scientist/VP Sales & Marketing, Resonon, Inc.
Adam is an experienced scientist with a demonstrated history of business success. Skilled in optical engineering, materials science, computational modeling, sales and marketing, business development, and international commerce, he also excels at building relationships and working with people in diverse industries and locations. His experience includes eleven years at Resonon, three years at Seagate Technologies, and three years as a postdoctoral research fellow at Tulane University and the Colorado School of Mines. Adam received his Bachelors of Science from UC Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. in Physics from MSU-Bozeman.