Thu, 04/12/2018 - 00:00

DETROIT LAKES, Minn. – Brian Halstensgaard, lead customer service technician for SJE, won the Employee Owner of the Year Award on April 12 at the annual meeting of the Minnesota/Dakotas ESOP Association chapter. This award honors a non-management employee owner who has taken the initiative to learn about the ESOP, helped educate and motivate their colleagues, and actively promoted an employee ownership culture. “It was a complete surprise, [I] did not see it coming,” Halstensgaard said. “I heard the ‘13 years of service with the company’ and thought to myself ‘that could be me,’ but I didn’t want to get a big head because there’s many other people that have been here for exactly 13 years.” Halstensgaard has been promoted 5 times during his time at SJE. He currently holds the position of Lead Customer Service Technician and has been an active contributor in SJE’s Employee Ownership Activity Committee (EOAC) for 6 years. His fellow committee members spoke to his enthusiasm and willingness to help as the reason he won. “Brian is always one of the first to volunteer to help with events and always does them with a smile,” Natasha Nodsle, Director of Human Resources and EOAC chair, said. Halstensgaard has been instrumental to many events at SJE, including running ESOP games, emceeing the Shareholder’s Banquet, hosting luncheons, and representing the company at ESOP Association events. He often dresses up for his role, including showing up as a flight attendant for an event themed “Our ESOP is Soaring to New Heights,” for which he coordinated a paper airplane contest. In 2015, Halstensgaard won the Charles R. Edmunson Scholarship, an award for non-management employees giving them the chance to attend motivational and educational programs promoting employee ownership. This allowed him to attend an employee owner retreat in Chicago in 2015. As a local chapter winner, Halstensgaard is now eligible for the Employee Owner of the Year Award at the national conference in May, which will be held in Washington, D.C. “I’m extremely excited for that, I’ve never been to Washington, DC., so it’s going to be an amazing experience regardless of any turnout,” Halstensgaard said. “I do like history and there’s a lot of history to take in, so it’s going to be great no matter what.”