North Gwinnett News

Not many people turn their childhood passion into a profession, but Jarrod Steck has done exactly that. Steck grew up on a farm in Ohio, where he spent many hours using machinery to make farm work easier. One of his fondest memories is the annual day he was allowed to miss school to attend the farm show with his family and see the latest equipment innovations.

Fast forward several decades, and Steck has built a career helping people across the globe accomplish more with compact machinery, like the equipment that fascinated him as a child.

As Vice President of Material Handling at Doosan Bobcat North America, Steck oversees operations across the continent from the company’s Buford location, which includes a recently renovated 200,000-square-foot office and warehouse. Serving as the company’s material handling “nerve center for North America,” as Steck calls it, the Buford location houses 180 employees in diverse roles, including sales, service, marketing, product management, parts fulfillment, and lightweight engineering. While the company’s material handling products are manufactured near its global headquarters in South Korea, North American orders are often shipped to the Buford facility for customer-specific modifications.

In addition to his work with dealers and customers in North America, Steck collaborates closely with the global team. “I serve as the conduit between our global operations and the team here in North America,” he says. “We’re a global company with a hometown feel. We pride ourselves on being reliable and acting with integrity as we serve our customers.”

Doosan Bobcat is well-known for inventing the skid-steer loader—compact equipment with a bucket attached to the front—which revolutionized the compact equipment industry 65 years ago. “Just as some people use the brand name Kleenex to refer to tissues, people often use our brand name to refer to skid-steer loaders. But we’re much more than that machine now. We’re a global company with multiple product lines and different customer bases, and we continue to innovate in the electric machinery space,” says Steck.

Today, Doosan Bobcat designs manufactures markets and distributes compact equipment for various industries such as construction landscaping agriculture grounds maintenance utility and mining The company produces forklifts loaders mowers tractors excavators and more “Whether you’re a homeowner managing a few acres or a contractor working on major industrial projects we have equipment that can empower you to accomplish more ” Steck adds

Steck is relatively new to Georgia having relocated here just a year ago and Doosan Bobcat is a newer member of Gwinnett Chamber However Steck is already seeing benefits of being part of this group of business leaders “Within Doosan Bobcat we have strong sense of community know relationships matter ” he says “We face many same challenges other businesses helpful connect other leaders Gwinnett Chamber Sharing ideas working together makes us all stronger ”

Eager deepen involvement local business community Steck looks forward meeting more leaders Gwinnett exploring how Doosan Bobcat can support other businesses area “We’re excited be here build lasting relationships within community ” he says