Get to Know PowerPollen's Jason Kelsick

Jason Kelsick

Sr. Director Engineering & Operations?| 3 Years at PowerPollen

Iowa State University & Simpson College

MS Mechanical Engineering & BA in Mathematics

Hometown: Hillsboro, IA

How did you get into the industry/role you’re in today?

I've always wanted to be involved with creating, inventing and problem solving. Engineering was always my initial path and agriculture has always been a part of my life due to growing up in Iowa.

Share tips for success in your role.

Always be a learner and continue to grow as the challenges you have tomorrow will be different than today.

Top 5 Quotes:

1. Promise Maker = Promise Keeper

2. Make sure the juice is worth the squeeze

3. Listen to understand, not to respond

4. You can't always control your circumstances. However, you can always control your attitude, approach and response. Your options are to complain or to look ahead and figure out how to make the situation better.

5. I'm not superstitious, just a little 'sitious :)

Shoutout a tool you use on a daily basis to be successful

Excel spreadsheets are awesome tools.

What’s one goal you’ve reached recently and you’re very proud of?

We've successfully improved key aspects of collection and application at PowerPollen that have enabled our scaled efforts in 2023.

Give a sneak peek of an upcoming project you’re working on?

This spring/summer will have multiple engineering projects that will hopefully lead to big step changes in the way we collect, preserve and apply pollen.

What advice would you give yourself five years ago? What do you know now that you wish you knew back then?

Understand that you will always have challenges ahead of you that will be different or more than you’d expect. Don't get caught up in making the perfect decision. You will never have all of the information you need to know if it's the best decision. Make it and know it's the best decision based on what you know and have at that moment.