Tammy Miller

Tammy Miller knows exactly what she wants out of life. And she’s discovered her secret to making it happen. “Much of my career success has been driven by three key leadership strengths,” shared Tammy, the CEO of Border States Electric, a billion dollar distributor of electrical products headquartered in Fargo, “vision and strategy; communication; accountability.”

Tammy is confident that putting these ideals into action through the years is what propelled her to the top spot at Border States Electric.

But beyond her professional aspirations, it is clear these qualities permeate her personal life as well. Tammy has used her leadership skills and her abundant energy to establish loyal relationships with not only her colleagues at Border States, but her husband, alma mater, and several community organizations in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

“I really like to use my talents and my financial resources to help make our community a better place,” Tammy said. “To make the greatest impact, my husband and I have decided to focus on three organizations; the YWCA, United Way and MSUM, from where we both graduated.”

“MSUM had a very positive impact on both our lives and provided the foundation for our careers,” said Tammy’s husband, Craig Palmer. “It is important to us that MSUM continue to provide that foundation for future generations.”

It’s clear that the way Tammy commands her professional and personal lives is linked. The skills she’s learned throughout her career have helped excel her philanthropic goals, and her community service has influenced her management style and team-building abilities. And Tammy started cultivating her ‘leadership strengths’ long before taking over the helm of Border States in 2006.

Vision & Strategy

It was during high school that Tammy began to envision the life she wanted and strategize how she was going to achieve it. One of just 42 students at the time at Lakota High School, in Lakota, North Dakota, Tammy took the opportunity to participate in as many activities as she could.

“Sports, drama, music... I was involved in many school activities,” she remembered. “It was a real confidence builder at a young age and instilled a lot of values that I have today.”

Tammy said she learned the art of giving back from her parents, Ralph and Gen Miller, while growing up near Brocket, ND. The family didn’t have a lot of money, but Tammy remembers her mom and dad actively volunteering their time in the community and at church.

“Giving back is part of my DNA,” she said. “It’s how I was raised. My parents taught me that giving of your time and talent is equally, if not more, important than writing a check.”

If you walk through the campus at

Minnesota State University - Moorhead, you might notice some of Tammy’s efforts. An MSUM Center for Business Auditorium is named in honor of Tammy and her husband. She was also behind the school’s Major Gifts Initiative to fund scholarships and a new wellness center.

“We made a substantial contribution to the business school and devoted a lot of time fundraising for the wellness center,” she said. “Philanthropy is significant part of our lives.”

Tammy continued her education at MSUM where she studied accounting and upon graduating, landed a job as a Certified Public Accountant at Charles Bailly, now Eide Bailly, in Fargo. During her nearly nine-year tenure at the company, Tammy moved up the accounting ranks but decided she didn’t want to be in public accounting her entire career.

Public accounting provided a great foundation for a running a business she recalled thinking at the time and wanted to put her experience to use in a corporate environment. Once she made up her mind to pursue a new career path, Tammy quickly found an opportunity with Border States and it turned out to be a bigger opportunity than she ever envisioned.

Border States Electric is a 100 percent employee- owned company that provides products to the construction, industrial and utility industries. Tammy was familiar with the company because they were a client of hers at Charles Bailly. Border States was looking for someone to eventually fill the shoes of its Chief Financial Officer who was due to retire in a couple of years.

Tammy joined Border States as the accounting manager in 1991, was appointed treasurer a year later, and in the ensuing years has held a variety of positions while working her way up the corporate ladder. She and her husband relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, in 2003 after she assumed general management responsibilities for the Southwest region. She was later named president and CEO, in 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Since taking over the helm, Tammy has made it her personal mission to not only grow the company and increase its stature in the electrical distribution marketplace but to promote Border State’s corporate culture and values by using another one of her tremendous leadership strengths.

Communication

“This year Border States will generate sales of approximately $1.2 billion. We’re the 7th largest electrical wholesaler in the country, with 1,400 employees and 58 branch locations in 13 states,” Tammy rattled off, the information coming swiftly, confidently and proudly from her lips.

The company has always been a growing and profitable company but both were accelerated when Tammy became CEO in 2006. Tammy and her team set forth a plan to be a $1 billion sales organization in five years – the goal was to more than double sales and the stock value by 2011.

To help accomplish these goals Tammy made communication at the employeeowned company a priority; after all, every single employee had a stake in the company.

“Since I became CEO, we have had concise and consistent communication of our objectives,” she stated. “We practice open book management and every month I make a video for all of our employees. We find that informed employees make better decisions for our customers and themselves. And since our employee-owners all share in the financial success of our company they greatly appreciate knowing how our company is doing. I think our employees really appreciate our consistent, open and honest communication.”

Tammy is quick to point out that she alone is not responsible for the dramatic growth and success at Border States. She credits hard-working managers, devoted employees, forward-thinking initiatives, and a corporate culture that people—employees and customers, alike—believe in.

“A big part of our mission today is developing our people and systems to be sustainable,” Tammy explained. “We have put in a lot of structure to succession planning, employee development, innovation and enhancing service excellence. We want to make sure we can deliver highquality customer services consistently throughout our branches. We want to get better as we grow bigger.”

As CEO, Tammy gets plenty of opportunities to promote Border State’s products and the electrical wholesaling industry. She logs roughly 150-thousand frequent flyer miles each year on Delta alone, that’s not including several other airlines she travels. And she said that no two weeks are ever alike.

“Take last week. I was in Fargo on Monday. Sacramento on Tuesday. Back to Fargo on Wednesday. Milwaukee on Thursday and Friday and I flew to our other home in Arizona for the weekend,” she said.

At times, it’s an exhausting life. She works out religiously (even on the road) and eats well. “I always have instant oatmeal, Cliff bars, peanuts, raisins, and Starbucks Via instant coffee in my rollerbag briefcase. My colleagues believe it is my work briefcase but it’s more like a lunch box,” she said chuckling. “People sometimes think being on the road is glamorous. And it can be, but frequently you will find me sitting in my hotel room eating instant oatmeal with raisins that I made using hot water from the in-room coffee pot!”

Nonetheless, Tammy knows how hard she has worked to get where she is and doesn’t take for granted a single chance to share Border State’s mission.

Accountability

There is a story that Tammy rarely shares with people. She was attending her first trade show in the mid-1990s with Border States’ CEO at the time. They bumped into the head honcho of another electrical distributor from the South. “He came up to us and said to my boss, ‘Aren’t you lucky you get to bring your secretary to this meeting?’” Tammy said. “And my boss, without a second thought, said to him, ‘This is Tammy Miller. She’s our Vice President of Finance and she’s the smartest person at our company.’”

That career support and the charge of being one of the few women CEOs in electrical distribution in the United States is not something Tammy takes lightly. In general, Tammy said there are few women in the industry but that’s not necessarily due to old-school gender stereotyping like she experienced at that trade show.

“This is not a sexy industry and women don’t think about coming to this industry,” she stated. “But I’ve used my position as a platform and worked really hard to improve awareness about our industry.”

Tammy was the first and only woman to serve as Board Chair of the National

Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), completing her run in 2008 during NAED’s 100th anniversary. She also helped establish Women in Industry, a group within NAED that is devoted to engaging women in the electrical industry.

“The group started out as a luncheon with a speaker,” she explained. “Now it’s expanded to a stand-alone conference every year with more than 100 women attending.”

However, she doesn’t let being a woman define her management style. Tammy said she is not an emotional person, something commonly—and often unfairly— associated with women leaders. She said she bases her decisions on facts and on metrics, but makes sure to clearly define her expectations. “I know I am demanding and hold people accountable but I also think

I’m very fair,” she said.

There is no one who holds Tammy Miller more accountable than Tammy Miller, though. She has high standards for herself, professionally and personally. One of her continuing goals is to maintain and grow the philanthropic efforts she’s established with her husband, Craig.

In addition to the couple’s donations and fundraising efforts at MSUM, Tammy led the 2010 United Way campaign (“I was the campaign chair and we raised $5 million for the first time,” Tammy said) and they continue to give substantial donations to the YWCA Cass Clay each year.

“Tammy and I have a strong desire to give back to the community and to try to make a difference,” said Craig. “We have a good life and are pleased that we can share some of our success. We focus our efforts on organizations that can assist individuals and families who are committed to improving their current situation.”

Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. Tammy has received the YWCA Women of the Year in Business Award and was recognized as one of the most influential women in FargoMoorhead.

Tammy said she couldn’t have accomplished all that she has without Craig. “My husband is a big part of my success,” she said. “We have a good partnership.”

Craig is equally enamored with his wife. “We stay committed to each other and to the goals we have set for ourselves,” he said. “At the end of every day, whether we are together or not, we talk about the events of the day and try to stay involved with each other lives.”

Their devotion clearly shows. Whether it’s through shared causes, or by Craig’s willingness to travel with Tammy, they are a true team.

You might think that with all Tammy has accomplished, she could be swayed into contentedness. But for a woman who is CEO of her own life, there is always something more to do.

“Tammy would be great at doing fundraising for a non-profit or she might have a career in politics,” Craig said. “She would make a positive impact in a system that could use people with her values and skills.”

Well, one thing is for sure. Tammy knows exactly what she wants. And what Tammy wants, she achieves. [AWM]