Jerry has a Montana heart, having been born and raised in the state and being descended from his grandfather who homesteaded there over 100 years ago. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurial leaders and organizations succeed in making their vision become their reality. He believes deeply that small and medium-sized businesses are absolutely vital to creating opportunity for real people and the lifeblood of economic health of the communities in which they live and work, particularly in more rural areas. He’s learned a lot over the years, much of it in a “seat of the pants” mode that is common in entrepreneurial businesses. Jerry has plenty of “stars and scars” to show from those years and brings those insights to his current work.
In his current role as a Certified EOS Implementer, Jerry has “come home”, literally and figuratively. After graduating from Montana State University – Bozeman with a Mechanical Engineering degree, his professional life took him out of the state for 30+ years, much of it in Minnesota. He served in a range of roles in engineering, management, and senior leadership at both a large (3M) and small (Windings, Inc.) company. During his 16 years at Windings, he led the company through substantial growth (from $7MM to $27MM), a major transition to 100% employee ownership, and a key transition from a 25+ year owner/leader to the next generation executive. For the last 8 years of his tenure at Windings, Jerry served the Employee Owners as their CEO. Lots of changes, transitions, and learning.
Jerry implemented EOS at his company with the help of an EOS Implementer and saw firsthand how the system worked, how it benefited him as the leader, his leadership team, and the company as a whole. Jerry’s Personal Why is “TO invest in authentic relationships with people SO THAT they find their true source of satisfaction”. This is a perfect fit for Jerry’s role as an EOS Implementer where he feels blessed to work with some of most inspiring leaders and Leadership Teams in his area to help them get what they really want from their business. Jerry gets energy from seeing thing really click for Leadership Teams as they get crystal clear on where they want to take the business and get everyone in their organization 100% on the same page with the plan to get there. It makes his day when he hears Leadership Teams say things like “We could never have done this a year ago before we started using EOS” or “This is the best thing I’ve ever done for my business” or “I feel so much more prepared to move forward now that we’re using EOS”.
Jerry has been married to the same wonderful woman for 35+ years. They have successfully launched three children and now live near a trailhead just north of Missoula, MT. He is a regular runner, having completed several marathons, but now limits it to half marathon distance or shorter, ideally on a trail through the woods. He enjoys hiking, open spaces, and mountains, with Glacier National Park a favorite destination. Jerry spends most of this time in western Montana, but has a few great clients in southern Minnesota as well.
