The President and CEO
Meg Post
Haviland Enterprises
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Meg Post is the first woman to serve as president of Haviland Enterprises, and also the youngest. Post, 36, joined Haviland in 2018 as vice president of finance and became CFO in 2020 in the throes of the pandemic. As of July 1, Post was also named the company’s CEO, taking over for retiring Mike Karasiewicz.
“The highlights have been watching our team adapt and succeed while faced with a difficult and changing business environment,” she says of her proudest memories of the job thus far. “Many aspects of the market have changed, from the expectations of our customers and employees, to supply chain challenges and internal changes to improve the business. I’ve seen our team work collaboratively to stay ahead of and adapt to those changes.”
The president role, she says, is very broad compared with the CFO position. What she loves most about its multiple facets, though, is getting to spend more time with people on the manufacturing floor, and hearing their feedback on what they’re seeing and what opportunities exist to improve.
Before joining Haviland, Post spent 11 years at Adamy Valuation, where she had gotten to know Haviland as a client when she did a valuation of its stock in a consulting role. In 2017, the company’s longtime CFO was leaving, and Haviland’s chief sales officer, Art Harre, approached her as a candidate to take his place.
Post was highly confident she could do the job well: “I knew the company and knew the team,” she says, “and understood more about the company and the culture than the typical new hire would.”
Born and raised in Michigan, Post is a mom to two boys, ages 7 and 5, who keep her busy with after-school activities and games. She says Haviland staff as well as its board of directors are very supportive of women in the workforce and the notion that personal lives and professional lives can coexist.
She says she has zero reservations about being young or being a female leader. “I may not look like the previous CEOs,” she says, “but I’m very confident in my ability to lead the company.”
Post says she also enjoys seeing Haviland, which has been 100% employee owned since 2012, share its success with its employee-owners. Looking ahead, she is excited by the growth — existing and potential — of Haviland. Being able to lead the company at this stage of its life is rewarding, she says, as is watching more leaders emerge in the industry.
“I haven’t seen a ton of female leaders in the industry, but there are some, and there’s a lot changing in the dynamics and expectations of leaders in general,” she says. “I think women are well equipped to lead in the marketplace today.”
