Hemisphere GPS Board appoints former area resident Rick Heiniger as president, CEO
Posted by sabethaherald on Wednesday, January 2, 2013 ? Leave a Comment?
Rick Heiniger stands at the helm of Eliana while underway, navigating the Inside Passage enroute to Glacier Bay, Alaska. Photo courtesy or Rick Heiniger
On Sept. 5, 2012, The Board of Directors of Hemisphere GPS Inc. announced that Rick Heiniger, formerly of the Bern and Fairview areas, would resign his position as Vice Chairman of the Board to accept the appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.
Heiniger was appointed to lead the thrust to a more profitable, focused, streamlined and market-driven innovation company.
?In November, soon after my appointment was announced, Hemisphere GPS, which is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, announced a company restructuring that includes moving the headquarters to Hiawatha,? Heiniger said. ?This will result in quite a few immediate jobs for the area, plus we anticipate continued growth. Hemisphere GPS does business worldwide and specializes in many facets of precision agriculture, including positioning, automatic steering, machine automation and cloud based data services.?
With 30 years in senior leadership positions, Heiniger is a high-caliber executive whose strategic, technical and operational skills are complemented by his proven track-record of leadership with successful agricultural technology companies, Hemisphere GPS Chairman Michael Lang said.
?Rick knows the business, the industry and the Company well,? Lang said. ?Rick and our Board are aligned on a clear path forward. We are encouraged that under Rick?s leadership, Hemisphere GPS can return to profitability and provide increased shareholder value.?
?I believe Hemisphere GPS can return to profitability by focusing on three priorities: our core agricultural business, streamlining and simplifying our business, and market-driven innovation for our customers,? Heiniger said. ?We intend to leverage our industry-leading technology and service capabilities to provide our customers with best-in-class solutions, building on the valuable Hemisphere GPS platform. I look forward to working with Hemisphere GPS? strong leadership team and talented employees.?
?The agricultural industry is entering a period of exceptional opportunity,? Heiniger said of the restructuring mandate. ?We?re in the early stages of transformational adoption of high definition production practices. We are a data-driven society, and agriculture is no different. Agronomic specialized data-management and cloud information services, combined with a new generation of connected devices and machines, will not only enable emerging technologies, but will simplify existing workflows and deliver productivity gains for the industry.?
Hemisphere is perfectly positioned to provide advanced technology services to agricultural customers, Heiniger noted.
?To that end, we have launched a new corporate strategy, building on our world-class positioning, guidance and steering solutions to provide seamless integration with cloud computing and information services,? he said. ?This integration will break the barriers that have long challenged the mainstream adoption of precision agriculture. We will be wholly focused on the essential core technologies while at the same time assisting the industry in its adoption.?
Upon high school graduation in 1971, Heiniger attended Kansas State University, where he earned his bachelor of science degree in agricultural technologies management, with a minor in agronomy.
?To this day I haven?t changed my vocational devotion to agriculture,? he said. ?The journey from then until now is a long one of many twists and turns. But to make sense of what is going on now, I should explain that in 2000 we started a division called Outback Guidance focused entirely on precise positioning and driving guidance in the field. Soon, guidance gave way to automated steering, which then led to more machine automation.?
Heiniger, 59, has deep roots in the agricultural industry, both in production services and machinery. Under his leadership, Hemisphere GPS successfully completed the integration of the Outback Guidance?, Satloc and DEL NORTE acquisitions, making Hemisphere GPS a world leader in agricultural positioning guidance and steering. He has been an active board member of Hemisphere GPS since 2005.
?In 2005, I founded Hemisphere GPS by combining Hiawatha-based Outback Guidance with three other entities, Satloc, Precision Products and Del Norte,? Heiniger said. ?Once established, I retired in order to allow professional management to take the reins. Then for six years, my wife Debbie and I pursued a life at sea aboard our boat, Eliana. I wrote a widely followed blog during those years named ?Eliana?s Journal,? which is found at www.eliana76.com.?
?While our life on the water was incredible, I found it impossible to resist returning to the industry I have been a part of for so many years,? Heiniger added. ?When the call came to return, it didn?t take much persuasion, and I started work at the present company headquarters in Calgary. Debbie and I will be moving back to the area soon as the transition happens.?
Heiniger replaced outgoing CEO Steven Koles, who resigned his position from the Board of Directors.
Heiniger is the inventor or co-inventor of more than 20 patents, all leading to greater precision in agriculture. He is a past President of the North American-wide Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association, and is the founder and principal of Bestway Inc., a leading specialty agricultural equipment manufacturer and marketer in the U.S.
Heiniger grew up about six miles south of Bern. The year he was a junior in high school, the family moved from Bern to Fairview, and he graduated from Powhattan in 1971.
?There were five kids in our family. Howard was the oldest, 18 months ahead of me. Then me, my sister Becky, Cliff and the youngest was Lisa,? Heiniger said. ?My father, Wayne Heiniger, and grandfather William were huge inspirations. None of us had to look far to learn the work ethic, because most families around us were the same way. I loved the crops, livestock, dairy and everything else about the farm.?
Heiniger is a Charter Board Director of the GO Project, a not-for-profit organization that is a global orphan ministry that provides holistic care for 3,500 vulnerable children in 13 countries.
Story by Patty Locher, staff writer for The Sabetha Herald
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