Tyler Hulsebus never met a challenge he didn’t like. In fact, finding unique solutions to problems is his every day, not to mention a large part of what makes him tick. It also explains why he was chosen to wear one of the 2021 Pride of the Jerseys, a special edition of the long-standing Hormel Foods award. It is being used this year to recognize team members who made outstanding contributions as the company worked to “KEEP COVID OUT!”
“I passed along the Pride of the Jersey to Tyler Hulsebus for his outstanding leadership of our One Engineering Team this past year,” says Mark Coffey, group vice president of supply chain for Hormel Foods. “Tyler’s leadership, knowledge, work ethic and counsel this past year proved over and over again that ‘We Were Made for This’ as we fought COVID, put Safety First and delivered critical engineering projects to support the ongoing needs of the business.”
Tyler is vice president of engineering at Hormel Foods. He oversees all aspects of engineering for the company, including design, construction and commissioning of plant facilities and equipment, plant engineering and maintenance, industrial engineering and continuous improvement, as well as environmental engineering.
During the pandemic, that meant sourcing equipment that would allow production facilities to offer temperature monitoring to workers and getting masks for team members when they were “nowhere to be found.” For the latter, Tyler and his cohorts got creative and found a local quilting shop in Hayward, Minn. That led to contacting some of the store’s patrons, who began sewing masks for Hormel Foods.
In some cases, the solutions were much more technical. For example, “The automated hand-sanitizer dispensers you see everywhere don’t last in a food-production environment,” Tyler says. “So we opted for the mechanical type that you step on to activate, but when we couldn’t source them, we engineered our own devices and then quickly fabricated over 400 of them out of stainless steel for our plants.”
Tyler has been with Hormel Foods for nearly 30 years, having come to the company as an intern. Since then, he has had “a variety of roles.”
“Engineering is interesting, with so many different areas of focus,” Tyler says. “My career guided me toward more of the people side of the field, and I really love that part of it.”
Tyler was raised in Fremont, Neb. He received a mechanical engineering degree from Colorado State University and an MBA from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.
Other than engineering, he is all about family. Tyler’s wife, Christine, is a special education teacher in Austin, Minn. His daughter is beginning her senior year of high school; his son, his freshman year.
“We spend a lot of time together as a family,” Tyler says.
His longtime hobby is a definite nod to his engineering mindset. Tyler has been a self-described “homebrewer” since college. He especially loves the “equipment side” and builds his own. That spells fun for Tyler.
So is recognizing members of his team by sharing the Hormel Foods jersey honor with them.
“At the end of the day, I took receiving the jersey as recognition of my team and the incredible effort they brought forward to fight COVID,” he says. “There was so much we did together to ensure the safety of our team members.”
