Great Northern Promotes Jeff Michels to President of Packaging and Instore

Great Northern Corp., Appleton, Wisconsin, promoted Jeff Michels, packaging business unit manager, to president of packaging and in-store. It has also strategically realigned four of its business units into two groups.

Previously each a separate business unit, packaging and instore are now grouped together, as are laminations and rollguard. Michels moved into the newly-created role after 14 years as the packaging business unit manager and 21 years overall at Great Northern.

Michels will have direct responsibility for corrugated plants in the Twin Cities as well as Racine and Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, along with his current leadership of the Appleton plant.

“With 21 years at Great Northern, Jeff was a natural choice to lead the streamlined organizational structure of Packaging and Instore,” Great Northern CEO John Davis said in a media release. “He’s shown great leadership skills in his previous roles, and we’re excited to see how he can even better serve our employees and customers in this position.” 

Michels started his career at Great Northern in 1998 as director of product development. Throughout his years at Great Northern, he advanced to hold the roles of vice president of operations and senior vice president/packaging business unit manager.

Prior to Great Northern, Michels worked at Consolidated Papers as an account manager and marketing manager and at Menasha Corp. – Hartford as a management trainee and account manager. Michels holds a marketing degree from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from the University of Montana.

Send your company's latest personnel appointments to Charlie Menchaca at [email protected].