At L&P, we are honored to work alongside many colleagues who have served in the military. Their dedication and service ensure we can enjoy the freedoms we have today. This month, we want to spotlight some of our amazing colleagues who are military service members and veterans.
First up, we’d like you to meet Deran Boman! Deran has been with us for 12 years and is currently a maintenance technician at our corporate headquarters. His main responsibilities include plumbing, electrical work, locksmithing, record keeping, and repairing doors and windows.
Deran is a sergeant and is serving his sixth year in the United States Army National Guard. In 2020, he was part of a Special Enforcement Detail (SED) riot control readiness in response to the wave of civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd. He also served as a security detail at GTMO (Guantanamo Bay).
“I wanted to become a part of something bigger that lets me serve this great country in a way that makes an impact,” said Deran. “The main values I developed in the military and apply to L&P are loyalty, integrity, and leadership.”
We are very grateful to Deran and all who have served!
At L&P, our employees around the world enrich our global mindset and inspire us every day with their leadership and initiative.
Today, we’d like to recognize Isabel Perez! Isabel is a geosynthetics and engineering professional who’s passionate about building sustainable communities and a champion for inclusion, diversity, and equity. We invited her to share about work, her recent accomplishments, and what’s ahead.
A Community Leader and Partner
Isabel began her career at Terrafix Geosynthetics, a Leggett & Platt company, in Canada five years ago as an Account Manager. She currently serves as a National Category Sales Manager for Subgrade Solutions and is a member of our Women’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) leadership team.
As a geosynthetics professional, she enjoys helping her customers and end users enjoy the benefits of sustainable, reliable, and cost-effective infrastructure.
“I contribute by being a community helper,” shared Isabel. “I love to see communities benefit from better infrastructure—whether that’s a road, school, parking lot, or other facility.”
Isabel is also passionate about increasing the visibility of women in industries like geosynthetics. She serves on the External Partnerships Committee within our Women’s ERG, which focuses on building networks and sponsoring partnerships that lift up women.
“Thanks to our Women’s ERG, I feel more connected and understand more about our business outside of Terrafix,” shared Isabel. “It has helped me understand how global we are and how important it is to align with organizations that help women become more visible in industries like geosynthetics.”
Outside of L&P, Isabel is involved in many professional societies that advance geosynthetics and promote diversity. She is an Executive Committee member for the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS), a founding member of Women in CGS, Vice Chair of the CGS’s Geosynthetics Division, a founding member of the International Geosynthetics Society’s (IGS) Diversity Task Force, and a member of Women in Transportation.
Advancing Opportunities in Global Geosynthetics
In late September, Isabel traveled to Rome, Italy, to participate in the IGS’s annual conference where attendees discuss best practices, regulations, and requirements related to the geosynthetics industry. During the conference, she gave a presentation on the IGS Diversity Task Force, which aims to create a welcoming space for members to advance their geosynthetics practice and improve access to and opportunities in the geosynthetics industry for everyone.
“If you look at the numbers in the geosynthetics industry, it’s clear that we’re missing voices of minority groups,” said Isabel. “We should care because our customers are global and focusing on how we can increase diversity will allow us to better understand them and increase our reach in the industry. My contribution is speaking up and doing what I can to help open doors.”
Next year in late April, Isabel will attend GeoAmericas 2024 in Toronto, Canada, and give a presentation on the topic of exploring solutions towards green infrastructure with reinforcement systems. Her presentation will cover an overview of geosynthetics and geogrids, as well as their benefits and best practices.
We are excited to see what’s next for Isabel and are proud of her for taking ownership and raising the bar!
During Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re inviting L&P employees to share about their everyday Leggett life and their heritage.
Angelica
We’d like you to meet Angelica Lemus! Angelica is an Inspector and has been at our Sponge Cushion branch for more than 23 years.
As an Inspector, Angelica determines if our carpet underlayment products are within quality limits by monitoring the appearance, thickness, and dimensions of the underlayment. She also records the thickness and weight measurements and submits samples for lab analysis.
“I enjoy my job very much. I like that I’m responsible for ensuring that our carpet underlayment is being produced at the highest level. I also enjoy working with my coworkers,” said Angelica.
“When it’s time to work, I arrive early each morning and sit in the breakroom. I like to take this time to mentally prepare for my day and ensure I have all my tools ready. After work, I go home and relax with my family. I enjoy cooking for them. I also like to spend time with my granddaughter, Genevieve.”
When sharing about her heritage, Angelica said, “To me, heritage is family, and I am proud of all of us.”
During Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re inviting L&P employees to share about their everyday Leggett life and their heritage.
Miguel
Meet Miguel Manriquez! Miguel is a Roll Packer and has been with L&P for five years.
“I am a proud Hispanic who works hard for his family. I enjoy working with my coworkers and upper management. L&P is like a second family to me,” said Miguel.
“At work, I do my daily exercises after clocking in. Then, I inspect the roll pack machine I will be working on throughout the night. Once everything is correct, I start rolling. When it’s time to go home, I clean my roll pack machine, organize the carts in my area if needed, and scan my production tags.”
Before and after work, Miguel prioritizes his family.
“I spend time with my family before work. After work, I take my kids to school and then rest.”
During Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re inviting L&P employees to share about their everyday Leggett life and their heritage.
We’d like to introduce you to Maria Medina Alberto! Maria is currently an 0FC Operator and has been with L&P for 20 years.
Maria
“I pray before work. When I arrive at work, I communicate with the prior shift’s team to get an understanding of how the machines are doing and discuss anything I need to take care of. Throughout the day, I help where needed but mainly perform my role, which is feeding strands of foam into a machine. Before it’s time to leave, I work with my team to clean the area and leave it in good condition for the next shift.”
When asked what she enjoys most about work, Maria shared that she enjoyslearning new things every day. When she’s not at work, she loves to spend time with her granddaughter.
“My granddaughter is my strength and motivation. After work, I spend time with her, and I feel like a child playing with her at the park.”
When sharing about her heritage, Maria said, “I am so proud to be Hispanic, and I feel blessed to be living in this country, even if it is not my country of origin. I love my first language, Spanish, and I feel proud to speak it.”
At L&P, our Information Technology (IT) professionals often work behind the scenes, enhancing our business systems and processes and providing around-the-clock support to keep us connected.
To celebrate our IT professionals, we’ve been introducing you to some of our amazing colleagues in IT. Today, we’d like you to meet April Ryberg and Dustin Sommer!
April
April Ryberg, Senior Director of IT Development
April has been with us for 20 years and values the connections she has made across L&P.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“I enjoy the relationships that I have made with my IT and business colleagues. I also enjoy improving IT and business processes and advancing our technologies.”
What inspired you to start a career in IT?
“When I was very young, I received a Timex Sinclair 1000 (a computer) that someone gave to my dad in the early 1980s. I was fascinated with writing BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) language programs. I would use my allowance to buy Compute! magazine and would copy the programs into the computer. Initially, I had no external tape drive to save anything, so I would enter the programs again and again, testing my own changes. My passion for development started there, leading me to high school courses and ultimately degrees in computer science from Kansas State University and Pittsburg State University in Kansas.”
Dustin
Dustin Sommer, Director of IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance
Dustin has been with us for 22 years and is a part of the Information Security team.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“I enjoy working with and helping people. Generally, the IT field consists of solving problems, and we are called to provide technology solutions to meet business objectives. It is satisfying when I solve an issue or help a person with a new idea or solution. That’s the reward of being an IT professional.”
What inspired you to start a career in IT?
“Like many others, I wasn’t sure what field I wanted to pursue when I started college. I liked math and felt that IT might be a field that would hang around for many years. So, I took my first computer class, and the rest is history. I’ve been blessed to have many opportunities along this journey and still have plenty of learning to do.
I’ve also been adjunct teaching since 2018 at Missouri Southern State University to prepare future IT professionals. This field is vast with opportunities, and I enjoy seeing the next generation start their journeys in IT.”
During Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re inviting L&P employees to share about their everyday Leggett life and their heritage.
Andres
We’d like you to meet Andres Hernandez! Andres is a Crater Operator and has been with L&P for 21 years.
“I enjoy my job because it is very fast-paced and it makes my nights of 10 or 12 hours go by quickly,” said Andres.
“The first thing I do after clocking in is my daily exercises. Then, I inspect my machine and area. After that, I am ready to start crating units all night. When it’s time to go home, my partner and I start scanning our production tags and cleaning for the other shift so they can work in a clean and safe environment.”
When he’s not at work, Andres focuses on family and resting:
“Before work, I spend my time with my family, and after work, I go home and rest. During the weekends, I take my family out or have a get-together at my house so I can have everyone there because my family is very important to me.”
When sharing about his heritage, Andres said, “I am very proud of my Hispanic heritage! I am a hard worker, a survivor, and all I want is to give my family and myself what my parents couldn’t give me. All we want is the American Dream!”
At L&P, our Information Technology (IT) professionals often work behind the scenes, enhancing our business systems and processes and providing around-the-clock support to keep us connected.
IT Professionals Day is September 19, and we want you to meet some of our amazing colleagues in IT!
Darren
Darren Jones, IT Support Supervisor
Darren has been with L&P for four and a half years, and his team manages all the physical IT-related needs of the branches. They primarily support our ECS (Elite Comfort Solutions) branches and assist others as needed.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“Sharing knowledge and working with my colleagues to resolve problems brings me joy. I also like socializing with our end users, because over time, you create relationships with them. Offering peace of mind to an end user by resolving their IT issues is a driving force.”
What inspired you to start a career in IT?
“In the late 1990s, I discovered a computer game called QUAKE and therein found a community of friends, many of whom were in IT. I learned to build my first computer, and through conversations with my QUAKE brethren, I realized that I found the career I wanted to pursue.”
Mario
Mario Sever, IT Director for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa)
Mario has been with us for 19 years and enjoys working with our teams across the globe.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to work with L&P partners and team members around the world. I enjoy helping them by supporting their businesses with IT tools.”
What inspired you to start a career in IT?
“When I was in primary school, my father bought me a Commodore 64 (a computer), which influenced me the most in choosing IT. I started with fun things like gaming, and after a few months, I began programing in BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) language programs. Finally, I went to university for IT and started a career.”
At L&P, our Information Technology (IT) professionals often work behind the scenes, enhancing our business systems and processes and providing around-the-clock support to keep us connected.
IT Professionals Day is September 19, and we want you to meet some of our amazing colleagues in IT!
Jason
Jason Tyler, Principal Security Architect
Jason has been with us for 23 years and enjoys working with the many dedicated and talented people at L&P.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“While I enjoy the technical aspects and challenges of security architecture, what truly sets Leggett apart is its culture and willingness to continuously improve. My role serves as a catalyst to bring many people together to create a secure environment for the company to grow while enabling business processes to function.”
What inspired you to start a career in IT?
“At nine years old, I fell in love with DOS 3.2 (an operating system). Ted, my mentor and friend, took my DOS manual and put a line through all the commands that were deemed too dangerous to run, so naturally, I ran a few of them and formatted a few system disks as a result. Making mistakes and learning from them have taught me many valuable lessons and inspired me to continue to expand my IT knowledge.
In high school, I had opportunities to work with high-end Silicon Graphics Indy and Octane machines and run a Bulletin Board System (BBS) at home. At this point, IT was in my blood. I applied for my first job at McDonald’s and was turned down (guess I wasn’t qualified), so I applied at RadioShack and they hired me! The rest is a technical blur, as I’ve worked on thousands of machines and networks.”
Julie
Julie Storm, IT Support Analyst III
Julie has been with us for 17 years and is currently Tier 2 Support, which is where IT-related issues go if support beyond what our Service Desk can provide is needed.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“Working with a wide variety of people from all over the world is the best part of my job! I get to form long-lasting friendships with the kind of people that you know would always be there to pick you up when you fall (right after they stop laughing at you). These relationships are so important to my job because they help me discover that a problem is forming before it gets too large.
The people in the branches and in sales really help make money for L&P, so keeping those people running is how I contribute.”
What inspired you to start a career in IT?
“I was working at a large tech company, and during the morning production meetings, it became very obvious to me how much impact IT support, whether good or bad, can have on the day-to-day ability of a company to earn money. Also, I was told that I have the face for phone support. That probably was not the compliment I took it to be.”
At L&P, our Information Technology (IT) professionals often work behind the scenes, enhancing our business systems and processes and providing around-the-clock support to keep us connected.
IT Professionals Day is September 19, and we want you to meet some of our amazing colleagues in IT!
Bilal
Bilal Bhatti, IT Project Manager
Bilal has been with us for two months, so his journey at L&P is just beginning.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“I enjoy collaboration and continuous learning. Collaboration is important because a project’s success depends on effective teamwork and communication. I also enjoy the continuous learning opportunities, as many projects involve cutting-edge technologies and methodologies. We have the opportunity to stay up to date with the latest trends and technologies, which can be intellectually stimulating.”
What inspired you to start a career in IT?
“Being a problem solver was my inspiration. I love being around technologies and finding creative solutions to use and improve them. This eventually led me to obtain my Bachelor of Science Degree in IT – Networking & Telecommunications 12 years ago from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.”
Mark
Mark Taylor, Sr. Global Network Manager
Mark has been with us for a year and served in the U.S. Army and National Guard for 30 years. His team is responsible for “keeping the lights on,” which means ensuring that cables, circuits, and permissions allow for secure and reliable network access to the applications that help L&P make products and move them around.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
“The best thing at L&P is the people. I really like driving down our time to repair with a team of dedicated engineers and working with many of our vendors to implement best practices, monitor, and troubleshoot. Every day, there’s a new problem, challenge, or project, and that’s why I love IT.”
What inspired you to start a career in IT?
“The constant change and improvement in IT capabilities keeps me excited about work each day.
Fresh out of college, I had two careers — one as a civilian and one as an officer in the National Guard. As a civilian, I started working at Hewlett Packard as an Environmental Health and Safety professional and quickly realized I was actually good at this Unix (an operating system) stuff. I was always writing programs and creating web forms for safety issue reporting. Then, I got a chance to be full-time with the Army and chose IT management as my secondary skill.
One of my favorite times was when I served as a Brigade S-6 (a Signal Officer). I was responsible for the communications systems across a Heavy Armored Cavalry Brigade and was given an opportunity to run the base’s data center. The IT knowledge I gained helped me remain employed as I transitioned back to being a civilian.”
