 EMIT Technologies, Inc. Chief Operating Officer Michelle Butler

If you come right down to it, Michelle Butler could order up a manufactured box, have it fabricated to any specification, deliver it to anywhere in the world –but hopes you wouldn’t just fall right into it.

Butler, 35, is Chief Operating Officer at EMIT Technologies, Inc. in Sheridan, a manufacturing company that, well, according to its website:

“We design, engineer, think critically, work our tails off and most importantly we build! With facilities in Sheridan, WY and Greeley, Colo., our Team produces a high mix of solutions leveraging our Material Processing, Fabrication, Coatings, and Mechanical/Electronics Assembly talents that carry to multiple industries. We build Catalytic Converters, Commercial Buildings, Engine Michelle Butler is Chief Operating Officer at EMIT Control Systems, Automotive Technologies, Inc. in Sheridan Accessories and so much more.

“And we’re just getting started.”

And that box metaphor?

“I got to where I am today through a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication,” Butler said. “And by looking and doing several different things in my career. I think it’s really important for today’s youth - you don’t have to fall into just any box. I certainly would not have fallen into this box 15 years ago, but if you put your mind to anything, you can go a long way - and you can do anything.

“It’s about thinking outside the box that really matters. Don’t fall into any trap - it’s your life, your career, and you get to decide where that takes you.” Politics and The Press

Growing Up Wyoming

Butler was born and raised in Gillette until she was 8; both her parents worked in the coal industry - her mother was the first female millwright ever in the Powder River Basin, and her father spent 25 years working for Arch Coal. The family then moved to their cattle ranch near Moorcroft, where she attended school. Involvement in school activities - she’s a big proponent of career and technical student organizations, especially FFA, FBLA, SkillsUSA, and Family and Career and Community Leaders of America - helped bring into focus what she ‘wanted to do with the rest of her life.’ “Those organizations, I mean, they are just so critical,” she said. “FFA, it absolutely made me who I am as a person today. Those organizations provide an opportunity to work on your critical thinking skills, public speaking skills, so many skills and things you can learn outside of the state-required curriculum, that I think can just contribute to a more well-rounded student.

“It wasn’t only about what I learned, and how I developed professionally and personally, but the connections that you make - I have very good friends and a very close network around the state that helped me get to where I am with those relationships I developed early on in 4H and especially in high school with my time in those extracurricular service organizations. It’s absolutely, absolutely critical to forge those relationships.”

Butler was one of the lucky ones - she knew in high school what she wanted to pursue post-graduation. A field trip to Washington, D.C. - through a program called Close Up - cemented that choice.

by Thom Gabrukiewicz, Wyoming Department of Education

“We spent a week in Washington, and that’s when Sen. (Craig) Thomas was there - and I was just fascinated with D.C., the energy and the power,” she said. “So I asked our tour guide, who worked for Senator Thomas, ‘How did you get to where you are?’

“He said, ‘Well, if you study political science’ - I’ve always been interested in government, I mean, I was active in student government in high school - ‘if you study political science in Wyoming, you can certainly become an intern out here.’

“From that moment on, since I was a junior in high school, I was set on that -and I only pursued going to the University of Wyoming. And, well, a year or two into studying for my political science degree, I thought, ‘What am I going to do with just a political science degree?’ I had taken several communications classes and I had a deep, deep background in public speaking through FFA, so I added communications - I was interested in the press and public relations, and the political side of things, so yeah that’s how that all happened.”

And as fate would have it, during her junior year at UW, she interned for Sen. Mike Enzi’s Washington, D.C. office. That led to her first post-college job in 2008 - working for Sen. John Barasso’s Sheridan district office.

“I worked in Sheridan for a bit, then I found myself across the state in Jackson in the financial services field - Wells Fargo Advisors - and then I started having a family (Butler has two daughters, Kamryn, 9, and Kennedy, 7) and figured I was too far from home, so I moved back to Gillette and started at Cloud Peak Energy doing public affairs and government relations and spent seven years there,” she said. “So through the tough times in the coal industry, I had the opportunity to join EMIT in the summer of 2019, since the CEO was looking for someone in public relations, and I had always wanted to get back to Sheridan, because I really love this community.”

Finding Success at EMIT

“There’s never a typical day here for me,” Butler said, laughing. “I still have a public presence for the company that never did go away, and then I’m still heavily focused on human resources and accounting and finance, so yeah, it’s a lot. But that’s a good thing, I wouldn’t change that one bit.”

Through 2019, as the oil and gas industry struggled, so did EMIT - and that helped speed up the company’s transformation from a manufacturing company strictly centered on oil and gas to a manufacturing company that finds its work coming from several sectors. The company, Butler said, is now 75 percent non-energy focused - but will never completely drift away from its energy roots.

“We want to grow, we want to continue to diversify, we want to become the premiere manufacturing company in the world,” she said. “With hard work comes opportunity, I think.”

In the fall of 2019, Butler said, she had the opportunity to take over the human resources for the company, then stepped into accounting and finance - “Through continued initiative I guess, and interest and curiosity in growing with the company” - and was named chief operating officer in November of 2020.

Giving Back to the Community

EMIT began in a garage on Main Street in Sheridan, the creation of Casey and Sue Osborn, in 2000. For several years, EMIT Technologies was spread out across Sheridan, until the opportunity to buy the old K-Mart building - a 93,000-square-foot retail space

and some 6.7 acres of surrounding land - and rehab it into a world-class manufacturing campus worthy of a Seattle tech startup, or something in California’s Silicon Valley, came to pass. The building has a barbershop, basketball court, auditorium, coffee shop - and no actual offices or cubicles, but several “collaborative spaces” where teammates can gather and work together in the most meaningful of ways. Oh, and the building has but one entrance - where everyone from the CEO to the manufacturing team can walk through together.

“If you have expectations of recruiting high-level talent, the work environment has to match those expectations,” Casey Osborn told The Sheridan Press in 2021. “We want to be as good as a company as possible, and that comes down to every choice made.”

The company now employs some 130 people, with 100 working at EMIT worldwide headquarters in Sheridan, and another 25 working at its state-of-theart steel fabrication facility in Greeley, Colo., while a few of its teammates work remotely.

And through all of the adversity, EMIT has found itself being able to give back to the communities it serves.

“We want to be a place where our employees can come and work and feel like they are doing something greater than themselves,” Butler said. “We have a very unique culture here, we want our employees to feel like they are part of something great - and we want to give back to our community and our state. We give back to the community a percentage of our profits, and we pride ourselves on those relationships and the impact those contributions can make on a community.”

To that end, Butler serves on the board for the Wyoming Business Alliance, as well as several nonprofit organizations in Sheridan. Giving back, she said, creates an organization that everyone feels empowered.

“I want an organization that everyone wants to come work at,” she said. “It’s something that, collectively, we can all say we are really proud of. At the end of the day, what we can provide to our customers, our employees and our communities - that’s what really matters for me.”

The last word

Butler said she loves nothing more than to mentor young people, giving them an internship or career start at EMIT, or just by listening to their concerns, as they transition from high school to being college, career or military ready.

She always tells them to keep an open mind, and to think in grand terms.

“I would say, it’s always best to explore all your career opportunities,” Butler said. “A four-year degree is not necessary for everyone, and there are plenty of opportunities to start a career right out of high school, get some experience and grow within an organization like EMIT. Don’t pigeonhole yourself into believing that you have to follow one direction over another, but really explore all paths that are out there and where your passions lie.

“Where do you want to spend your career? Where do you want to go in life? Don’t feel like you’re ever trapped - be open to things that move you.” 

Through 2019, as the oil and gas industry struggled, so did EMIT - and that helped speed up the company’s transformation from a manufacturing company strictly centered on oil and gas to a manufacturing company that finds its work coming from several sectors. The company, Michelle Butler said, is now 75 percent non-energy focused - but will never completely drift away from its energy roots.