Loren Sjoquist
Loren Sjoquist (MBA 2017) has embraced opportunities to experience the cosmopolitan cultural diversity of Singapore, the honored traditions of Japan, the extraordinary business growth in China and the beauty of Australia. (His favorite may be India, from which his wife’s family emigrated in the 1960s).
Not bad for someone whose first international trip didn’t come until 2016, at 27 years of age, through the global business course in the Daniels College of Business Part-time Professional MBA (PMBA) program.
Sjoquist credits the success of his remarkable career trajectory, in part, to elements of his University of Denver tenure: the high caliber and thoughtfulness of the teaching, and a cohort-based learning style. As a part-time PMBA student, Sjoquist was able to immediately apply the things he learned to his everyday work.
“My professional readiness was absolutely amplified,” Sjoquist said. “Everything I hoped I’d get from an MBA program, I got that and more.”
Today, international business is Sjoquist’s calling card. He’s executive vice president of Global Sales at Rite-Hite, a third-gen, family-owned, private safety productivity company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with about $1.5 billion in revenue and over 3,000 employees.
Though Rite-Hite has been an international organization for decades, global business represents less than 10% of its total revenue mix, Sjoquist said. He’s currently designing org structure and commercial processes to help boost customer experience and enhance global scalability that will significantly deepen that reach.
It’s a career trajectory he never would have foreseen before he enrolled at Daniels.
Loren Sjoquist’s cohort traveled to South Africa and visited parliament, among other locations.
Cape Town: Professional Foundations for an International Career
All Daniels MBA students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in an international business environment, many of which are in emerging markets that might be considered “off the beaten path.” Experienced faculty with rich professional backgrounds are able to support students on the ground for a relevant, singular experience.
In South Africa with his Daniels PMBA cohort, Sjoquist saw the profound impact of his then-employer, Emerson Automation Solutions, investing in the long-term health and growth of the economy—and, more generally, the positive impact business has on a population through employment, providing purpose for individuals, and delivering critical services to a country.
“What resonated was the request of Africa for sustainable market investments and economic partnership over donations to help drive robust growth and independence,” Sjoquist said. “It amplified the role of business as being core to a country’s future and overall prosperity. We visited with a member of parliament of South Africa, local bankers and numerous business leaders that all validated this in their own way.”
Singapore: An International Assignment
Immediately after graduating from DU, Sjoquist was asked to serve as a strategic planner with the president of global sales at Emerson. Though based in his home state of Minnesota, Sjoquist was able to travel with the Automation Solutions executive team, meeting customers and commercial teams around the world.
He eventually earned a three-month assignment, based in Singapore, that pushed him outside his comfort zone and brought him to Japan, China, Australia and India. The Asia Pacific region attracted him due to its vibrance, growth potential, and dynamics of both mature and emerging markets across the territory.
“I led the development of a three-year growth plan of $4 billion in that world area,” Sjoquist said. “If the fire wasn’t already lit, that was a huge boost.”
That success led Sjoquist to fully relocate as an expatriate to Singapore for about three years, forming friendships, joining communities and getting to know the region and people far beyond typical tourist hotspots.
One of Sjoquist’s major accomplishments while in Singapore was to design, develop, and launch a certified Solutions Architect program in which the company built a six-month training program to establish more than 20 Solutions Architect professionals to help drive Software adoption and accelerate IT/OT capabilities around Digital Transformation.
Sjoquist’s time in South Africa was transformational.
Advice for International-Bound Students
Students may feel some nerves preparing for their first professional international experience. But nerves, Sjoquist maintains, are healthy. And curiosity and awareness of the benefits in gaining new perspectives are the perfect tonic.
“The MBA program makes it so easy to take that on as a team, with a very thoughtfully constructed travel program,” he said. “By the time it’s time to go, you’re fully consumed with excitement, anticipating the experiences to come.”
In Leadership at Rite-Hite Today
Currently, at Rite-Hite, Sjoquist is working on a large commercial transformation that focuses on delivering customer excellence via modernized structure and streamlined processes.
“The anticipated benefits of speed and vastly improved alignment across our sales and service teams will position us for future growth and differentiation,” he said.
While his work today is heavily focused on North America, he anticipates that the current efforts will create new opportunities for global growth, acquisition, and to ultimately fulfill a vision to drive operational excellence for facilities worldwide. Europe is a region of special focus, but he’s also ambitiously looking to Asia.
“With my many connections and experiences across Asia, I’m eager and hungry to get back out to that world area, and to foster meaningful partnerships that can take the brilliance of what we do here every day overseas,” Sjoquist said.
Celebrating Rite-Hite’s rich history and purpose-driven legacy while planning for the next generation’s prosperity is a point of pride and stewardship, he said. The company has an extreme advantage because many of its employees have tenures of 30-40 years, Sjoquist noted.
“It still feels like that same set of core, family-first values continue to drive us,” he said. “And I see a lot of arrows pointed directly back to that [DU] international trip as cementing the importance of what that means for people.”