walking in joy

The Best Of Women Working Together

WORDS : AUBREY TYSON PHOTOGRAPHY : MIKE SMITH

HighRoad Partners is shining a light on what it means to be a strong company, that today, is an all-female team. The dedicated team at HighRoad offers insurance and HR solutions for individuals and businesses across the Fargo-Moorhead area. At the forefront of this team is Michelle Kommer.

Kommer has spent the last twenty years of her career serving in executive leadership roles in a variety of industries like financial services, energy, manufacturing and health insurance. More recently, Kommer served the State of North Dakota's labor and commerce commissioner.

“While I have held a number of different roles and titles in the past several decades, throughout every position I’ve held, whether in operations, legal or HR functions, I’ve always had a focus on business process improvement. During my time serving as North Dakota’s labor commissioner and then commerce commissioner, I have learned many invaluable lessons that I have carried with me into my role as owner of HighRoad Partners, most significantly, the importance of strong ‘people systems,’” says Kommer.

Working as a public servant, Kommer was inspired by the courage required of business owners to start, operate, maintain and grow a successful business. Kommer also attributes her time in commissioner roles to teaching her what it means to take the high road, not only in life but in the building of professional relationships. After completing her term as commerce commissioner, Kommer, with the support of her family, and in particular, her husband Toby Kommer (also a business owner), decided it was time for a new adventure.

In October of 2020, Kommer began working to grow HighRoad Partners alongside Tammy Halverson, owner of HighRoad’s predecessor organization, Arneson Ovsak, to add to its service offerings. Both Kommer and Halverson share the same fundamental beliefs about building client relationships and what it means to work with an empowered team of women.

“When Tammy and I met, I knew that our ideals and fundamental beliefs came together for a reason. We, along with our team at HighRoad, strongly believe in cultivating lasting relationships with our clients. Having an all-women team is unique and a delight; every day I get to see how healthy, supportive female relationships enhance the quality of the service we provide. I also believe that the unique leadership qualities of women are what makes us successful at our work. In addition to deep expertise, our business requires great listeners, compassion and patience to come up with the best possible solutions for our individual policyholders as well business clients,” says Kommer.

The HighRoad Partners team specializes in individual health policies, namely, Medicare supplemental policies which can be complex and intimidating for people reaching retirement, as well as employer group health insurance, and now, “in-sourced” HR services for businesses. By offering these perfectly matched groups of solutions, HighRoad Partners can help a client make what would otherwise be a stressful choice, and assist businesses with important but timeconsuming aspects of running a business, in order to create tailor-made services for clients.

Through the fostering of healthy and lasting relationships, the team with HighRoad works diligently to support their clients while cheering on one another as they build a business surrounded by joy, optimism for a better tomorrow, and the shared goal of success for their client.