Face Behind the Fertilizer: Mike Hammons

The importance of relationship building has been a consistent theme throughout Mike’s career journey, beginning in 2011 when he joined Koch Fertilizer in Enid, Oklahoma as an environmental technician. As his first job in a plant setting and in the fertilizer industry, he admittedly “didn’t know much about anything,” so his first order of business was to build connections and learn from the people around him.

His hunger for knowledge and ability to quickly connect with people caught the attention of Mike Kleis, the plant manager at the time. With a reputation for getting straight to the point, Kleis told Mike’s supervisor in mid-2013 he intended to make Mike an operations shift supervisor. There was just one thing — Mike didn’t have any operations experience.

Humility leads the way

It was the definition of a stretch role, and one with a steep learning curve. So, from then until he transitioned roles at the start of 2014, Mike’s mission was to prepare himself as much as possible for the opportunity ahead.

“I tried to learn everything I could, but it didn’t even scratch the surface of what I needed to know as a supervisor,” Mike said. “I had zero operating experience. Every person on shift — even brand-new employees — knew more about the plant than I did.”

At that time, the pervading culture at the plant was that the supervisor would typically be the most knowledgeable person on shift. But the leadership paradigm was changing, and Mike was right in the middle of it. The role of supervisor was becoming less about having every answer, and more about supporting the team in a way that sets them up for success.

More than anything else in Mike’s career, being in this position taught him how to ask good questions, actively listen and focus on building relationships and trust rather than technical expertise alone. It also grounded him in understanding how products are made at the plant and what frontline teams deal with daily, sparking a passion for operations and supporting frontline employees that have remained with Mike throughout his career.

“It was definitely a humbling lesson, but what I learned about the importance of relationships and the camaraderie that comes with a tight-knit team was invaluable,” Mike said. “It’s not just about me and what I can do; it’s about the team being successful and how I fit into the team.”

More roles, more relationships

The two years Mike spent as shift supervisor were pivotal in shaping his leadership style and ended up changing the trajectory of his career. As his journey continued, he applied the learnings from this experience across multiple roles at the Enid plant. Between 2015 and 2022, he spent time as environmental, health & safety leader; reliability center supervisor; and superintendent for the upgrades units.

With each new role, Mike continued to build connections and foster an environment focused on achieving collective success. As a fan of team sports, he likened it to America’s pastime:

“I’m a baseball guy, so I’m big on every position on the team has a job to do, but somebody else on the field should always be backing you up,” Mike said. “Success isn’t determined by who has the ball — it’s determined by how well we support one another.”

This role’s for you

Near the end of 2022, a new opportunity came Mike’s way. It was a role his coworkers told him was built just for him — and the hiring manager agreed. The position was operations capability transformation leader, and it involved developing solutions to improve frontline capabilities while helping teams adopt new tools and technologies. This role wasn’t only for Enid, though; it was across seven Koch facilities in North America.

On January 1, 2023, Mike started as operations capability transformation leader. According to him, this role took the importance of strong relationships to the next level. Not many people embrace change right away, but Mike’s authentic approach and ability to connect with people on a personal level helped him get to the source of opportunities and identify potential solutions, ultimately driving fleetwide transformation with less friction.

Mike counts his unconventional path to operations as something that also heavily contributed to helping him add value to the company in this role. Since he didn’t learn the plants the way most operators learn them, his outside perspective gave him a unique lens to view opportunities through.

“When somebody says, ‘You have to do it this way,’ I’m the first one to say, ‘Well, maybe we don’t,’” Mike said. “Then together we go identify and execute the best solutions for the most important issues.”

Back to where it began

After three years — and a lot of traveling — in the transformation role, Mike’s next move took him back to Enid and reconnected him to his passion for supporting frontline teams. On April 1, 2026, he took over the operations leader position in Enid from longtime employee Roger Morris, who transitioned to an operations subject matter expert role.

“Roger Morris is an icon in Enid and everything a fertilizer ops leader should be,” Mike said. “I can never fill his shoes, but I’m excited for the challenge and the opportunity to bring my experience to the role.”

As the next chapter of his career begins, Mike thinks back to the bet Mike Kleis made on him a dozen years ago by moving him outside his comfort zone and into the shift supervisor role. He’s had many mentors over the years and believes there’s something to learn from everyone, but he considers Kleis to be the most influential person in his career.

Mike points to Kleis’s ability to rally an organization and create an environment to empower people as a quality he greatly admires, and something that’s had a strong influence on his perspective around leading.

“I owe a lot to Mike Kleis,” Mike said. “He had a huge amount of faith in me to take on these roles I was absolutely not prepared for, but he trusted I could go and do them. He sees what people are good at and tells them exactly what they need to hear to help them grow.”

Reflecting on the relationships he’s built over the years and the experiences that have played a part in his growth, Mike had this thought to offer for what it means to be a good leader:

“Leadership is more than just the knowledge you have,” Mike said. “It’s how you interact with people, build rapport and trust, and go and get results together.

“We have such good people at Koch that as a supervisor, a big part of your job is to set them in a direction, get out of their way and then run ahead and remove roadblocks so they can be successful,” he continued.

With this mindset leading the way, Mike is ready to continue creating value — one relationship at a time.

Missed the last Face Behind the Fertilizer? Read it here.