Brooke Schommer receives the 2018 HDE Distinguished Alumni Award

Brooke is a native of Montevideo, MN.  She graduated from NDSU in 2002 with a BA in Apparel Textiles, Retail Merchandising with an Art minor.  Following graduation, Brooke began working at the Title Company in Fargo as a Post Closing Officer and Escrow Officer.  She loved the experience and gained knowledge about real estate that led her to relocate to the Twin Cities in 2004, to work in Corporate Relocation at SIRVA.  During her time there, she obtained her real estate license, relocation certification and managed moves for executives from Proctor and Gamble, Boeing, 3M, Potlatch, McKesson and many other companies.  She also built 3M’s global relocation program which entailed coordinating over 7 services for more than 300 relocating executives at one time.  In 2006, Brooke moved to General Electric where she was an Executive Stock Buyer.  She was selected from a team of 17 buyers to complete an expatriate assignment in Delhi, India.  Brooke spent 2 months preparing for her trip, creating course work and training curriculum, 2 months in India conducting the training and onboarding 10 employees, and a year continuing to manage the process. Following her return from India and successful implementation of the GENPACT team, Brooke accepted a role based out of GE’s Schaumburg, IL office as an auditor, while still being located in MN.  Brooke audited dealerships for companies that sell Polaris, Artic Cat, Ski-Doo, Bobcat, Yamaha and many other brands.  After a year in that role, Brooke was promoted and relocated to the Schaumburg office where she worked as an account manager for the Briggs and Stratton account. 

In 2012, Brooke relocated back to Minneapolis to work for Target Corporation in Indirect Procurement as an operations manager, leading teams in both the US and India.  A year later she was promoted to a Strategic Sourcing Lead and was responsible for the negotiation and strategy for over $600M per year in spend for categories including: salvage, regulatory and compliance programs, and store services for the entire Target chain.

Brooke also got involved in professional groups and created the NDSU Alumni forum at Target Corporation, which facilitated activities and networking opportunities for NDSU alumni at Target.  During this time, Brooke discovered that Target was not recruiting from NDSU other than for pharmacy, but with a high alumni rate moving to Minneapolis post-graduation, this did not make sense.  Brooke worked with HR at Target to change this decision and now is part of the recruiting schedule.  Brooke is also very passionate about students understanding the various opportunities they have after graduation, particularly in the retail space and has worked with NDSU to conduct tours and learning sessions for students to get a broad spectrum of options post-graduation.  While making connections with Target team members and NDSU, Brooke discovered an opportunity to assist NDSU even further by getting professors from NDSU on the Target symposium which brings faculty to the HQ campus and teaches them what skills they expect for various design and merchandising roles post-graduation, giving NDSU even more tools to develop students for successful careers. 

In October of 2017, Brooke accepted a role at Asurion in Nashville, TN as a Senior Strategic Sourcing Manager.  Brooke is responsible for strategy and negotiation of contracts for the marketing, finance, legal and HR departments.  Brooke leads teams in both the US and the Philippines and is looking forward to traveling there later in 2018.

In her free time, Brooke enjoys traveling, cycling, reading, cooking, photography and spending time with family and friends. She loves the foodie scene and enjoys discovering new restaurants.  Brooke also enjoys spending time with her sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece in Minot, where she attends the North Dakota State fair annually.  Brooke is grateful for the work she has been able to do with NDSU as it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of her career, and was given an opportunity to give back even more by being invited to serve on the HD&E Board of Visitors in 2014; she is still active on the board.