Advanced Turf Solutions’s employees know the turf industry is full of challenges, which require adaptable people to come up with great solutions. Our two employees featured in the February Employee Spotlight blog are not strangers to taking on challenges and coming up with great solutions. From joining an industry without any prior experience in it and thriving to joining a company just starting and being prosperous, they have what it takes to be successful in the industry and here at ATS. Let’s meet Tracy IIgenfritz and Jeff Olsen.
Tracy Ilgenfritz,
Employee of Agro-Logics Since 2010
Joined ATS January 2016
Tracy has been the Office Manager of the St. Louis warehouse since 2010, and I would say she is the glue that holds the branch together – she’s our rock star employee! She handles everything from customer service at the warehouse to helping sale representatives and even assisting operations by taking orders. She can even use a forklift. Remarkably, Tracy accomplishes all these tasks with ease and without having prior experience in the turf industry.
Tracy and her husband Erik have 2 sons, 3 grandchildren and a German Shephard puppy.
What do you like most about your job?
“Nothing is ever the same with my job. There are always new challenges and new things to learn, which keeps it interesting and fun. I recently undertook the challenge of learning a brand new system and I am happy to report I caught on quick. I, also, like my job because of the people I work with. My entire crew is great and I really enjoy and love working with them.”
What do you like to do for fun?
“I, and my entire family, enjoy collecting and shooting firearms as a hobby. My husband and kids are all veterans or current members of the US Army, and I have been around firearms for most of my life.”
What is one moment in your life you would like to have a picture of?
“I would love to have a picture of my boys and myself as I saw them for the first time after coming home from their tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Getting to hug them and see them walk across the green ramp at Fort Brag were the happiest moments of my life.”
What is something most people do not know about you?
“I am ambidextrous. I use both hands for everything, including work.”
What is your favorite toy?
“My new Toyota 4-Runner is my favorite toy. I can drive it anywhere with its fantastic four-wheel drive.”
Which film do you wish you were the main character in?
“I wish I was the main character in Ted. I think it would have been lots of fun to work on that movie and, of course, work with Mark Wahlberg.”
Jeff Olsen,
Agro-Logics Employee Since 2006
Joined ATS January 2016
Jeff has been in the turf industry since 1992. He worked as a greenskeeper at the St. Louis Country Club while getting a turf degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia (where he was a roommate with fellow ATS employee Scott Sand). After graduating in 1996, Jeff spent 10 years as a golf course superintendent, and then a few years as the owner of a small golf course management company. In 2006, he decided he wanted a new and different challenge, so he joined a very small start-up distributor working out of the owner’s home garage, Agro-Logics. He has enjoyed being a part of Agro-Logics and its success and growth the last 10 years. Jeff serves the golf and athletic field segments in the greater St. Louis area.
He is an avid Mizzou Tigers fan, as well as of NFL football. He is married with one daughter, who just celebrated her first birthday, plus additional babies – their dogs Midas and Tiny.
What do you like most about your job?
“I am not a routine-type person, therefore, what I like most about my job is every day is different: different people, different scenery, different challenges and different solutions. Different solutions brings me to the second thing I like most. I truly enjoy teaching and helping customers implement solutions to make their jobs easier and better.”
Who would you say has influenced your life the most? Why?
“My grandfather, affectionately referred to as “Pops.” He was a very witty and intelligent man. He had a photographic memory and could recall amazing details about the dozens of stories I would hear him tell over the years. He could talk to just about anybody at anytime. He was a successful businessman, yet also a great family man; family came first with him. Finally, he lived a very modest lifestyle, but was an extraordinarily giving person.”
When you are eighty, what is the thing you would most like to be able to say you achieved?
“I would like to say I achieved success on both a business and personal scale. Mostly on a personal scale, by providing comfortably for and supporting my family and being a good role model for my daughter.”
What is a saying/quote you like to use?
“Always treat people with respect whether you like them or not, never burn bridges, and you never know when the shoe will be on the other foot.”
What player (past or present) from your favorite sport would you like to meet?
“Tough question, my favorite player from my favorite sport is Bo Jackson, he is the greatest athlete of all time in my book. However, if I was to play a round of golf with a famous athlete, I would probably want it to be Kurt Warner. I have tremendous admiration for him and also ‘that boy was good!'”
Name one prized possession and why it is prized?
“My main prized possession now is definitely my 13-month-old daughter. Why, for obvious reasons!!!”
Denny Barron
ATS Sales Manager
