BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//jEvents 2.0 for Joomla//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:19700308T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:19701101T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:dad73eb88ae7465353a2e6225102e1cd180 CATEGORIES:NFDA Meetings SUMMARY:2021 Fastener Professional of the Year Virtual Celebration DESCRIPTION:
Jim Derry Aw arded NFDA’s 2021 Fastener Professional of the Year Award
Th e National Fastener Distributors Association is pleased to announce the 202 1 recipient of its Fastener Professional of the Year award is Jim Derry of Field (Machesney Park, Illinois).
The Fastener Professional of the Ye ar award was created by NFDA to honor individuals and companies that make a substantial positive impact on people’s lives. The inaugural award in 2017 was presented to Robbie Gilchrist of Capital Marketing (High Point, North Carolina). In 2018 Jim Ruetz of AIS (Franksville, Wisconsin) was honored, i n 2019 Kevin Queenin of Specialty Bolt & Screw (Agawam, Massachusetts) received the award, and in 2020 Don Nowak of Falcon Fastening Solutions (Ch arlotte, North Carolina) was honored.
In her nomination of Jim to rec eive this award, Melissa Patel of Field said, “When I joined the organizati on, I was 18 years old and didn’t have the slightest clue what I wanted for the trajectory for my career. Quite early on it was very evident how passi onate, results-oriented, and competitive Jim was. It was a tremendous examp le of what to aspire to be when I grew up!”
Jim and his brother Bill purchased Field Fastener in 1990. As president and CEO, Jim focuses on Fiel d’s long-term strategic plan and ensures that their partners love Field. He is dedicated to enhancing Field’s world-class culture that creates an envi ronment that allows their team members to thrive and that is a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Field’s culture has been recognized by Great Places to Work and Inc. Magazine as being one of the best small pl aces to work in America. The culture at Field is critical to the growth of the company, averaging 19% per year growth since 1990 and has been on I nc. Magazine’s fastest-growing private companies eight times in the pa st ten years.
The overall goal of Field’s 10-year strategic pla n is to improve lives, and Jim is committed to improving the lives of the F ield team members, their families, Field’s customers and suppliers, and the communities in which Field operates. Under Jim’s leadership in 2020, Field created the Do Good Team. This initiative allows their team members to vol unteer up to 40 hours per year focusing on charities of interest to them. T he focus of this benefit is to allow their team members to spend a signific ant amount of time volunteering in the communities they operate.
Jim along with Bill Derry founded The Derry Foundation, which supports educatio nal initiatives. The foundation provided funds toward the engineering build ing at Rock Valley College located in Rockford, Illinois. It also helps fun d Rock Valley’s scholarship program.
Jim is also a current board mem ber and past president of Carpenter’s Place, which provides the tools neces sary for rebuilding the lives of the homeless.
Jim served as a Board member and past president of NFDA. Field also is a member of the Mid-West F astener Association. Jim is involved in Vistage (a CEO peer group that focu ses on coaching and best practices) and STP21, which is a best-practices sh aring group of distributors from outside the industry.
He is a Six Si gma Black Belt and believes strongly in lean principles to drive efficiency , continuous improvement, and innovation. Jim has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Illinois.
Jim will receive his award at the Professional Fastener of the Year Virtual Celebration on September 10 at 2:00 PM EST.
Nominations for the next Fastener Professional of the Year award will open in January 2022.