Founded by Ohio native Bob Diener in 1971, Rodem has transitioned its family-owned business to the next generation of leaders, as it celebrates its 50th year in business. The four owners, Chris Diener, Jeff Diener, Susan Kerr, and Nancy Finke, are Bob’s children and they now serve on the board of directors while Brock Beach and Kevin Trauth, will co-lead the organization as the anchors of the Executive Leadership Team.
“Brock and Kevin are a strong team whose individual strengths in the business and processing industry really complement one another well,” said Diener. “We feel this transition strengthens the company, reinforcing professional management while maintaining the integrity of the family ownership that really built the foundation for our success.”
Rodem’s strength lies in its talented, dedicated workforce and partners who serve clients in the dairy, food, beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, and other high-purity essential industries across the Midwest and Southeast, providing equipment, parts, installation and engineering support to its clients. They serve as an extension of their clients’ team to increase process efficiency, decrease downtime, maximize yield, meet sustainability goals and consumer demand.
Beach and Trauth have been with Rodem for three and nine years, respectively. Beach will continue to serve as vice president of sales and marketing and Trauth as its vice president of engineering. In his role, Beach is responsible for driving sales and revenue and managing the strategic direction of the company. Trauth’s hands-on approach for managing Rodem’s engineering and installation team, as well as his decades of experience as a plant engineer provides thoughtful and strategic insight to help guide Rodem into the future. Chris Diener served as Rodem’s president before moving to the newly-created board role in 2018.
“Fifty years in business is a monster of a milestone, it’s significant in any industry, and we remain committed to honoring the legacy the Diener family established, while bringing positive, forward-thinking solutions to our clients,” said Beach.
“Our knowledge, experience, and dedicated team approach to solving our clients’ unique challenges is what sets Rodem apart from others in the industry,” added Trauth. “Our talented team members also go the extra mile to provide support any time of day.”
Since its founding, Rodem has helped its clients improve their sanitary processes, eliminate waste and downtime, and reduce costs by bringing innovative solutions to the forefront, from integrating the latest processing equipment technology, to trouble shooting tricky processing problems and supporting emergency repairs. Today, they follow their founder’s motto of “onward and upward,” as they pursue Rodem’s next chapter in the sanitary solutions field.
Rodem’s extensive list of products and offerings range from raw material storage to final packaging includes pumps, valves, instrumentation, heat transfer, cleaning and processing equipment, plant consumables, spare parts, process design, installation, service and more.
