Two local businessmen are getting inducted into the JA Dubois County Business Hall of Fame.
Junior Achievement of Southwestern Indiana and Bingham Greenbaum Doll LLC announced this year’s laureates during a press conference on the Vincennes University Jasper Campus earlier this morning.
Chairman and CEO of MasterBrand Cabinets, Gilbert Verkamp, is the 2020 active laureate.
While under Verkamp’s leadership, Aristokraft/MasterBrand Cabinets Inc. went from being a small regional player to the most recognized cabinet company in North America.
Verkamp not only had the vision to make Aristokraft/MBCI a great company, but also had the drive to make it happen. While growing the company, Verkamp made sure all employees were cared for and provided opportunities for the community. Verkamp was very supportive of Junior Achievement during his tenure at the company. He directed the company to financially support Junior Achievement in Dubois county and supported employees who volunteered their time to JA during work hours.
He started working with Aristokraft/MasterBrand Cabinets Inc. in 1968 as an assistant to the President and founder, Stan Krempp. Verkamp became the President in the early 1980s when Aristokraft was about $20 million in annual sales.
While working at the cabinet company, he also served as President on the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association Board, the Indiana State Alumni Association Board, and served 26 years as Indiana Furniture Board as a board member, and as Chairman of the Board for 8 years. He’s also a founding board member of the Dubois County Community Foundation and served on the Jasper Country Club Estate Board and the Jasper Action Committee.
Verkamp is also a founding stockholder and board member at Freedom Bank. He is also a long-time member of the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Jasper, and currently lives in Jasper.
This year’s historical laureate is former CEO and President of Wabash Valley Produce, Jerry Seger.
Seger started “earning his keep” at ten years old by working at the family farm year-round. He went to school only eight months out of the year during this time, so he could help with crops full time during the summer.
This laid the groundwork for what is now known as one of the top five egg processing companies in the nation. The company produces more than 7 million eggs per day and is one of the nation’s fourth-largest turkey processors by volume (15 million turkeys annually.)
Seger returned to Dubois County after graduating from the Indiana University School of Business in 1947.
Seger joined his father at the Dubois Co-Op, and his interest in meat production continued to grow.
With little capital, he began raising fryers and boilers. He bought chicks from a hatchery and supplied feed while contracting with farmers for a fee to supply land, buildings, and labor.
He became interested in the egg production business after raising pullets to further utilize his feed mill capacity.
All of this transformed into today’s Wabash Valley Produce and Farbest Foods in Indiana, Brown Produce in Illinois and Ballas Egg Products in Ohio.
In total, these entities employ more than 2,000 people and contract with over 225 local family farms.
Seger’s business goal was to remain a family one.
This has come to pass over the years. Seven members of the second generation and five members of the third generation have entered the business.
He leaves a legacy of family and business in which he and his family have grown into an enterprise that supplies quality food products throughout the world.
The JA Dubois County Hall of Fame Honors members of the Dubois County Business Community who exhibit strong vision, innovation, inspiring leadership and who are visionaries within their respective industries.
Seger and Verkamp will be inducted into the JA Dubois County Business Hall of Fame during a breakfast at 7:30 am Eastern time on May 7th in The Huntingburg Event Center.
