Outstanding Alumni - 2005
Robin Mechelke
Bemidji State University Graduate 1980
Mr. Mechelke is a 1980 graduate of Bemidji State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and has continued to be an on-going guest lecturer in many classes for several departments at BSU. He began his career at Cargill, Inc. where he worked from 1980 to 1994. Mr. Mechelke became IT Manager in the Resin Products Division where he was responsible for daily management of staff, both operations and Development. During this time he was also Programming Manager-Corporate IT responsible for negotiating outside IT programming contracts and managed a staff of 15 analyst programmers working on projects for a number of divisions within Cargill. From 1994 to 2001, Mr. Mechelke was the Vice President of Information Technology and a member of the executive management team at McWhorter Technologies, Inc. (now part of Hexion Specialty Chemicals) in Carpentersville, IL. During that time he was involved in over fifteen mergers and acquisitions and was responsible for IT operations for 15 facilities in North American and Europe. In 2001 Mr. Mechelke founded MCH Technology, Inc., which provides management and information technology leadership for small to mid-sized organizations in west-metro Minneapolis and greater Minnesota. As President of MCH he is active in the surrounding communities with support for the Orono Discovery Center and its programs such as ECFE and the Fifty-Fifty Youth Center. He also has served for the last three years as Vice President of the West Hennepin Chamber of Commerce. He currently is President of the BSU Foundation Board and has served on the BSU Industrial Technology Advisory Board. Mr. Mechelke has been a longtime contributor to many BSU programs and scholarships. He currently resides in Maple Plain, MN with his wife Diane.