Our role in South America

Oliver News
Written By Matt Schroeder
Hands examining harvested soybeans in a sunlit agricultural field.
 

Meet Ian Ely and Oliver’s role in South American agriculture

Black-and-white portrait of Ian Ely of Oliver Manufacturing

Ian Ely
Director of South American Operations

How Ian Ely became an employee at Oliver Manufacturing is quite an interesting journey.  It all started with a previous employer who was largely involved in the popcorn industry in Brazil. Ian’s position involved everything except packaging. During his time, he became wildly knowledgeable on how to clean & process seed over various types of machinery including gravity separators.

As his employer’s business began to grow and expand, they began looking for resources and machinery to help meet current expansions. And as you might expect, Oliver Manufacturing came into the picture. Ian then traveled to the United States to run sample tests on Oliver equipment, little did he know it would lead him down a 10-year career path. Ian spoke with much passion about his journey to becoming an Oliver employee, when visiting the Oliver factory for the first time he stated, “Oliver had the exact work environment that I wanted to have with my colleagues! Having a BBQ in a backyard and enjoying people’s company!”

With some hard work and growing pains Ian settled into the Oliver family quite perfectly. Ely’s title has evolved into Director of South American Operations and is based out of Bento Gonçalves, Brazil. 15% of overall sales at Oliver Manufacturing come from South America and we have continued to see an increase in business in the region. Ely stated, “Brazil is in a unique position for agricultural growth, we have the land and technology, now we need to focus on building and maintaining our resources and infrastructure.” According to the USDA he’s right, projected market trends are expected to grow by nearly 54% within the next six years.

A further look into Ely’s life: His educational background is in Engineering Agronomy and has an MBA of business management. Ian also speaks multiple languages including, Portuguese, Spanish, and English. In Ely’s spare time he enjoys racing and sipping some of Bento Gonçalve’s finest wine. 

Cheers (Felicidades),
Megan Burney

Matt Schroeder

Chief Creative Monkey Matt Schroeder is a self-described “full-stack marketer, educator, brand builder, strategist, change agent, and teller of dad jokes.” With nearly 30 years of experience, Matt brings warm charm and personal touch to his marketing accounts. Beyond delivering sage marketing guidance and interesting visual graphics, it’s his goal to build genuine relationships with his customers and create an open, honest forum to exchange ideas, explore opportunities, and candidly evaluate the progress of marketing campaigns.

Matt boasts degrees in Graphic Design (A.A.S.), Web Development (B.S.), owns a Master’s degree in Marketing & Public Relations from University of Denver, and a professional certificate in Digital Marketing from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

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