Why I Believe In IAOM ... Troy Anderson, Ardent Mills

Troy Anderson

Vice President of Operations

Ardent Mills

Denver, CO

IAOM Member since 1991

“I was a Kansas State University milling science student and graduated in 1992, and through the university I became an associate member of IAOM in 1991.

There’s a significant partnership between Kansas State and IAOM, and for those of us who went through the milling science program, it was a natural connection to become involved with IAOM.

For me, it has carried on to be a long career experience.

“I currently serve on the Employee Relations Committee.

We focus primarily on the people side of our industry related to recruiting, retaining, and developing team members both in production and management roles, as well as the human resources and legal aspects of operating our respective businesses.

Over the past few years, we’ve worked with Tom Sargent at IAOM to create a careers website called www.grainmillingcareers.com, where we are doing our best to help with recruiting, since one of our biggest struggles in the industry is getting talent in the door and helping them understand that they can have a great career in milling.

With training and development, we want to help them be as successful as possible to make it a lifelong career.

“As far as benefits of membership, I’ll start with the networking side, because I have made relationships that have continued over the last 27 years.

Believe it or not, we can be fierce competitors 99% of the time, but if there’s a dire need that one of us has and we know one of our competitors can help, we won’t hesitate to reach out for help.

It’s just a great network both personally and professionally.

“On the more formal side, IAOM provides a lot of great education opportunities, starting with the Correspondence Course, which is updated to keep it relevant with all the changes in our industry.

There are lots of short courses around skills development, whether that’s technical milling, maintenance skills development, or even some leadership opportunities.

There are many different avenues in the education space.

“I absolutely recommend IAOM membership to people without hesitation.

In fact, our young folks who join our company, IAOM is one of the first things I talk to them about.”

From Milling Journal Fourth Quarter 2019