Please join all of us in giving a warm welcome to Trent Koppes, who was recently hired as the Environmental, Health and Safety Specialist for Gage Brothers.

Trent will perform safety orientations/training, coordinate employee health screenings and testing (hearing, respirator fit testing, etc.) and ensure Gage Brothers’ compliance with OSHA 1910 General Industry requirements .He will also maintain company safety campaigns and programs and serve the lead role in the administration of the return to work and transitional duty programs.



Trent lives in Parker, S.D., with his wife, Tiffany. Trent & Tiffany are the proud parents of six-month old identical twin girls (Addison and Carly), who take up most of their free time. They also have two dogs— an 11-year old beagle and a 9-year-old German Shephard/collie mix from the Humane Society.

Welcome to Gage Brothers, Trent!

Q. Where did you grow up? Tell us about your hometown.

A. I grew up in Eldora, a small one stoplight town in central Iowa. My family had a hog farm before we moved to town. I spent most nights and weekends in high school cruising the loop.

Q. How did you get into this line of work?

A. I went to community college and earned a Pre-Engineering Associate of Arts degree and decided that more engineering wasn’t for me. I then went to Iowa State and found the classes for the Occupational Safety degree very interesting. Safety is Safety and there are different challenges in every industry and nowadays most companies are very concerned with the safety side of things.

Q. What attracted you to the environmental, health and safety position with Gage Brothers?

A. I was interested in working both in Sioux Falls and in a new industry. I also like the Lean and 5S aspects of manufacturing and what that can do for not only the production, but how much it helps safety.

Q. What are you looking forward to the most with your new job at Gage Brothers?

A. Learning about the processes and getting to know the people, helping with Lean and 5S and working with employees to make their jobs safe.

Q. What is your dream vacation spot?

A. Australia

Q. What was your favorite subject in school?

A. Probably physics or accounting.

Q. What are your hobbies?

A. I enjoy playing softball and baseball and shooting my bow. I like to hunt when I can, but lately I have been spending a lot of time with our six-month old twin girls!

Q. What is your favorite movie?

A. Top Gun or Tommy Boy. It’s a toss-up; I could probably quote the majority of the lines from either movie.

Q. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever eaten?

A. Tamales or Chile Relleno.