PEOPLE OF POET
People of POET: Megan Bierschenk Shepherds Customers, Interns (and Sheep) Shell Rock’s Grain Merchandising Manager strives to succeed By Susanne Retka Schill When recruiting interns to spend their summers working with her in the grain merchandising department at POET Bioprocessing – Shell Rock, Megan Bierschenk looks for students who are a lot like she was in school. She looks for students who know what they want to do after college, who are leaders in clubs, passionate about working in the agricultural sector, and who are outspoken and professional. Majoring in ag business and agronomy at Iowa State University, Bierschenk’s junior internship was in seed sales — a job that would keep her close to the farm after graduation. But the job opportunity she thought she had lined up disappeared when the seed company changed ownership. A family friend, Nathan Underwood (now Regional Marketing Manager at POET), knew her situation and said he had an opportunity for her in grain merchandising. “I said I don’t know anything about merchandising, and he said that’s fine. You know customers; you can relate to people. I can teach you the rest.” Nine years later, she’s become the face of the facility to the farmers supplying corn and has developed a customer outreach program that has grown the percentage of farmer-direct deliveries. “When I started, we probably saw 40 percent farmer-direct deliveries, and now it’s around 80 percent,” she says.
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