Relationships Matter

Colleen Stommes

Here at FS USA Colleen is referred to as any of the following: Bean, Beaner, Beanie, Coco Bean, or any other variation you can think of.  Beaner is our Customer Relations Manager, and also handles Purchasing & Logistics.  Colleen has an amazing work ethic and is always the first to the office in the mornings! Also, Colleen is an expert at packing light for travel, and finding a way to turn almost anything you say into a “your mom joke”. She is also one of the best at hassling our CFO, Jerry. Colleen loves to travel and is working on seeing all 50 states along with many other countries. Along with travel, she loves hiking, reading, and spending time with family & friends.

Fun Facts:

• Currently learning to speak German
• Loves spicy food! 
• Highly allergic to cats
• Survived growing up with 4 brothers & 3 sisters!

“I actually love my coworkers! Most people cannot say that about their jobs!”

-Colleen

Dan Gray

Dan is a new member to the Flexseals Team.  Primarily working via remote out of his Ohio office,  Dan helps drive the quality and operational systems for the Seal Team.

Dan brings over 10 years of industry experience and a background in Quality and Operations management.  Being a firm believer that company success is dependent on culture, Dan appreciates the Flexseals corporate vision and how each Seal Team member has each other’s back.   They took in a Brown’s fan, so they must be a pretty good group….

While not in Ohio, you can find Dan racking up Delta SkyMiles at one of his other home’s away from home in Minnesota or Georgia.   He is currently working on convincing “The Brass” that Flexseals could benefit from a strategically positioned location in the Caribbean.  

But when he is at home, he is most likely driving his wife Shannon crazy or being a bad example for their 14 year old son, Declan. 

Dan is an avid music fan. Being a string-based family, Dan plays guitar and Declan plays the viola…never together though….Dan isn’t good enough for that. 

Video Games, Poker, tattoos, and tailgating at the Brown’s games are Dan’s other favorite activities.

David Joseph

David lives life hard.  He is said to only have two speeds: sleeping and ‘full-throttle!”  Being on the receiving end of David’s “Vikings touchdown high five” has actually been known to accompany a trip to the ER.  He serves his FlexSeals family with the same type of passion.  David is involved in many departments at work, including leadership/people development, sales engineering, and estimating; but he excels at being the commissioner of the FlexSeals Fantasy Football League!

David married the love of his life, Melody shortly after graduation from Liberty University in 2014.  They reside in beautiful central Minnesota with their 2 dogs, 2 ducks, and one cat.  When he is not at the office or on the farm, you might find David trying out a new herbal concoction he created, hitting the gym, or spending time with family in the great outdoors.  He also takes a lot of sick days from September through November.  The ‘buck fever’ is nasty in Minnesota that time of year.

Doug Joseph

Our Director of Common Sense & Captain of Winning is Douglas Joseph, also referred to as Dougmore because some days Dougless just isn’t acceptable. As self-proclaimed, the worst loser on our team, Doug puts himself in a position to win by surrounding himself with great people, giving them the tools to do their jobs, and getting out of their way! With so many years of experience in the industry and a great team around him, Doug is able to lead this company where it ought to go.

“I love the people of FS/USA & the challenge of finding ways to win within our market space! It’s such an amazing blessing to be able to run together with such an amazing group of creative, humble, hard-working people! I love spending time with family, everything sports, hunting, playing outdoors & encouraging others. God blessed me with an amazing running mate (high school sweetheart, Jarae) & we have been fortunate to raise 3 amazing children! Life’s greatest accomplishments happen within the home!

I’m a blessed man! Faith, Family & Winning drive me!”

-Doug

Jerry ‘Scrooge’

Gudim

Scrooge, otherwise known as ‘Goods’ around the office, has been part of the LTI – FS/USA dynasty since 1998.  Having graduated as an electrical engineer, he found his true calling in rubber products when he joined the team in 1998 as an estimator.  He has now been tasked with the responsibility to make sure the bottom line is indeed black and not red but has been known to be caught napping if left alone in his office for too long.  He does, however, hold the company title of the “original prankster”.  When not at work, he enjoys time with his family, working outside around the house, and cheering on the Vikings. Along with his wife Karen, they are now officially ‘empty nesters’ after raising six kids and now enjoy spending time with their five grandchildren but still are actively searching for eligible men for their two daughters.  If interested, please contact Jerry at FS/USA.

Jordan Joseph

Legend has it that Jordan was born with a baseball bat in his hands and a wrestling singlet on. Although having success in those two arenas, Jordan, impressively at his age, can sing almost any 70’s and 80’s rock song ever made. Some of Jordan’s accomplishments include: greatly out kicking his coverage with his wife, reaching the top of the kitchen cupboard without a stepping stool, and he is almost able to quote the entire original How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie, on second thought, he quotes basically every movie he has ever watched. While Jordan claims to be even younger than a Millennial he still does spend most of his time out of the office. While doing so, you may find him getting swole in the CrossFit gym and eating an enormous amount of organic Kale as a post workout. After his Collegiate baseball career ended, you can also go to your average church league softball tournament and find an over competitive Jordan maxing out the home run limit.

Phil Gudim

Yes, he does have the same last name as our President… Nepotism lives on! At FlexSeals , it more than lives on… it flourishes! Even though Phil is a millennial, he learned hard work being dragged into the business at an early age. Incentivized with Pepsi and Peanut M&M’s, he and his brothers learned how to work by picking, cleaning, or gluing parts in the back warehouse! Maybe it was to teach him how to work or maybe just to get cheap labor.

Phil attended the University of Northwestern majoring in Bible and business. Upon graduation he had a brief stint as a toilet paper salesman, but that industry quickly wiped him out… Phil and his better half, Kelly, are young parents trying to teach their boys the “Skol” chant. The boys return the favor by teaching his parents how to survive on no sleep!

Of all the FS team members Phil plays a real sport… tennis. Once upon a time he had a serve like Andy Roddick but chose the more glamorous and lucrative career of rubber extruding. He now serves the FS team in sales and sales support.

Ray Hawley

Ray Hawley is the FlexSeals version of Cliff Clavin. He’s knows a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing! Truth be told, he’s our resident expert of all things. 

He loves engineering, design and solving challenges that are impossible to the mortal man. He once’s successfully unloaded a “double loaded” muzzle loader, keeping most of his digits! 

Ray loves spending time with his wife and daughter, going fast, blowing stuff up, and being creative …… but not sure in which order! 

 Ray is an amazing talent & our own “Rubber McGuyver!”

Julia Nagorski

Julia is VP of Operations for our Albertville, MN and Newnan, GA locations at FS USA.  AKA ‘Jules’ has been part of the group since 1997 (yes, since the 1900’s!).  She has worn out all hats in the office and still manages to care about each detail advocating overall company success and customer satisfaction.  She has been married to her high school sweetheart (Dan) for 17 years and blessed with one son (Silas).  She enjoys spending time instilling truth and all the good things with her family, as well as getting involved in her son’s hockey, baseball, football and school events.  As a family, they love to go ‘up north’ or travel outside of Minnesota any chance they get.

Micah Mol

If you saw Micah “Rain Man” do his job for one day you would understand his nick name as you would think he has most every part and location memorized in the rubber industry; because he does! Although, Micah has been involved in nearly every area of operations, he is known here as the GM of our Newnan, Georgia manufacturing plant. You wouldn’t be surprised that Micah had a lot of operations experience if you saw his “order of operations” when he eats. He only eats one thing at a time, going from his least favorite portion of the meal to his favorite. Micah takes pride in finding ways to fix things whether at work or at home. It says a lot about the man Micah is when he was asked what is one of his greatest life accomplishments; he responded “A wonderful family and a growing career.”

As Micah was originally from Minnesota, he understands, along with all of us here at our Minnesota division, what the heartbreak of being a Vikings fan is like.

“I have been a diehard Vikings fan as long as I can remember and that continued on when I moved from MN to GA. Being a dedicated fan, I accepted a bet with our maintenance manager on a divisional playoff game that the loser would need to wear a dress to work. This was a game that the Vikings were well favored and there was no way they could loss, but they did. I did wear a dress to work the next week and not only suffered the embarrassment at work, but someone took pictures and sent it to some of our key suppliers. Lesson learned…never bet on the Vikings!”

Becca Stolarczyk

Becca, or Beccs as we call her, is one of our amazing Customer Relations Specialists. She graduated from NDSU with a degree in Communications. Beccs is full of life and brings laughter and joy everywhere she goes. She is married to her best friend, Jason, and they have beautiful 1 year old twins: Evelyn and Harrison. Becca is a huge Star Wars nerd, but claims her son Harrison is not named after Harrison Ford! She came to work at FS/USA when she was asked to do so by our Director of Profits, Jerry Gudim. Although Jerry asked her to work here, he likes to keep her on her toes… “Jerry asked me to join the FlexSeals team, however, he is constantly firing me. It happens at least once a week. I keep showing up and getting paid… so I think he’s fake firing me??”

Becca loves to fish, go for walks/hikes with the family, and watch football. “I was born into a family of Vikings fans!”

You can also find Becca coaching lacrosse or crocheting (although she knows it’s an old lady hobby).

“I truly enjoy coming to work each day!  I’ve never had “a case of the Mondays” at FlexSeals. I get to work with the best of the best!!”

Quinten Berres

Quinten, also known as Q, is our Yoda of estimating. Legend says he can whip up even the toughest quotes faster than you can say “here, quote this.” Another fact, this one is not based on legend, is that Q could pretty much whoop up on anyone given the fact that he’s a 3-time Minnesota wrestling state champion! Although it may not seem like it, Quinten isn’t just a testosterone filled ball of muscle. He also is a first-generation college graduate in his family graduating from St. Cloud State University majoring in marketing.

If you see Q out of the office, you will find him doing bicep curls, bow hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, or really anything in the great outdoors. We think most of Quinten’s paycheck goes to him purchasing more arrows because he has a hard time not Robin Hooding most shots he takes when taking practice shots for bow hunting.

What is something you love about FlexSeals? “We are a team, but we are also like family.”

-Quinten

BRiquelle Joseph

Briquelle married into the Joseph family, and thus, the FS USA family, back in 2017 when she wed the most attactive man in the world (who had nothing to do with writing this bio). She has always helped out where ever and whenever needed, and now works as the only female in the Kimball office, and naturally, she runs the show.

When not in the office, Briquelle can be found whipping out some old gymnastics moves on the trampoline to teach to her two year old “copy/paste” version of herself. She also enjoys cultivating her green thumb in the garden, soaking up the sun on the lake, making her own sourdough bread, and serving her immediate family and church family.

Briquelle is a huge believer in the foundational values of FS USA: Faith, Family & Freedom- and these values parallel to their family values as well!

Kevin Kostelnik

Bryan Edwards

Born in Wyoming, Bryan secretly thinks he is a cowboy. He endeavors to bring the values of the old west to the rubber industry:  Hard work, loyalty, and friendship.  Maintaining and building relationships is paramount!

Although he is proud of the rubber team he has been part of since 1992, the team member he is most proud of is his much better half, Ellen, who has stayed by his side for over 30 years for some unknown reason.

Not cool enough to have a nickname, Bryan has spent most of this time avoiding any form of exercise while working in the midst of health fanatics. The main reason he has stayed in the industry for 30 years is the draw of the smell of inexpensive rubber.  One benefit of this long tenure is he has “ a lot of dirt on people and knows where the bones are buried….”.