MSSE Alum Donald Monk Named CTO at Hormel Foods

Master’s of Science in Software Engineering (MSSE) alumnus Donald Monk was recently named the Chief Technology Officer at Hormel Foods in Austin, Minnesota. Monk graduated from the MSSE program in 2005, and has over 35 years of technology leadership experience working for major consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies including General Mills, Cargill, and now Hormel. As CTO, he will oversee the company’s enterprise technology, digital, and data strategy. 

The Department of Computer Science & Engineering sat down with Monk to discuss his career, future goals with Hormel, and insights from his time as an MSSE student.

Congrats on your new role! Can you tell me a bit more about your career journey? What led you to the CPG world?

During my time as an undergraduate, I had an internship with IBM. The academics were great, but back when I was in school, you would graduate without experience in the actual domain. I interned with IBM for two years and that made all the difference in the world. I spent a lot of time engaging with different projects and had the opportunity to succeed and fail and hit the ground running. 

Heading into graduation, I started doing interviews at a lot of different companies and my favorite one was General Mills. It looked like the company had a clear purpose and vision that was noble, and it also prioritized rotating recent college graduates into different jobs so that you could learn more about different roles. It seemed like a great opportunity to learn a lot and get a better idea of what I want to do with my career. I did my rotations and applied for various internal positions in different domains. One day I woke up and had been there for 12 years!

In a way, I stumbled into CPG. I fell in love with it because I could go into a store and see the results of the work I was doing, which was really cool. Every industry has its challenges and different ways of seeing the final product, but I found the CPG world to be fulfilling.

What are you most looking forward to with this new position? Do you have specific goals for Hormel?

My top goal is to determine what an Information Technology (IT) organization has to be for the company to succeed. Having great IT does not always help the overall goals of the company. I want to figure out what this IT organization needs to look like for Hormel to thrive. The functional excellence of an IT organization, a finance organization, or a supply chain organization does not necessarily provide business excellence. I want to provide business excellence with IT.

How has your time at the University of Minnesota impacted your work? How has your time in the MSSE program shaped your career?

I started the MSSE program in 2003. I am a constant learner and wanted to go back to school and get a master’s degree. After a few years of working, I missed school and the academic environment. It’s all about learning and developing yourself. I also felt that the software engineering program would offer some great insights I could apply in my job.

The MSSE program gave me great networking opportunities with companies across the Twin Cities that I wouldn’t have necessarily connected with on my own. I got to see dramatically different business models, different ways IT was run, and different ways people thought about the technology process. I made a lot of great friends in my classes and learned so much from their viewpoints. 

The course work was awesome, because it was tied to what was currently happening in the industry and emphasized real business value. The classes were easy to apply right back at work and I often applied them in real time as I went through the program. Going through a program like this was motivating. I experienced significant personal and professional growth.

After the MSSE program, I continued to work at General Mills and applied my learnings to how we think about, vet, and implement technology. I did my master’s project on an architectural review board, which was essential in how we were operating technology at General Mills at the time. In 2005, the pace of technology and adoption was accelerating, so the program helped me build something to harness those opportunities and maximize value for the organization. I’m not sure if I would have gotten there without the classes. It pushed me to look for a problem to solve, and I have continued to use those learnings throughout my career. I think the knowledge I gained helped me advance my career and move into my leadership roles.

What advice would you give to students interested in software engineering?

In today’s world, you need to make artificial intelligence (AI) your best friend. It is literally the most exciting time to be in IT. You can get more and more productive as this technology continues to evolve on a weekly basis. When I was learning the ropes of this field, I was learning from trial and error and books. Now I can accelerate everything I need to learn and do it more efficiently. I’m a fan of integrating AI into everything you do, whether it is work, education, or even your personal life. 

Secondly, when you get into the workplace, spend the time to find out how your business operates. Whether it is a financial institution, a CPG company, or a technology company, you need to understand how the business sells, makes, and moves. Once you do that, you start to understand how you can add value. I think it also makes the work more fulfilling.

I also think it is super important to understand and invest in the community you live in. In today’s world, the skillset you have as a software engineer can apply really well to volunteering in the community, whether it is volunteering to help teach STEM classes or helping organize a local food shelter. That helps make you a much more holistic software engineer and person.

What advice would you give to students interested in pursuing a master’s degree?

You can definitely go back to school at any time. I’m glad I waited until I had more industry experience so I could directly apply my learning on the job. There are a lot of ongoing debates right now about the value of education with the growing impact of AI, but I think AI is going to be integrated into education and not replace it. Education might change, just like any business changes, but I don’t see it as a bad or scary thing. I think this is a great opportunity to make education even more fulfilling. 

I would also tell people that careers aren’t linear. You can make a plan and find out it is not exactly what you want to do. There are jobs that will be available five or 10 years from now that we don’t even have a concept for yet. I think that there can be a lot of pressure to figure out what you want to do with your life. I’ve done so many different jobs that I never envisioned that I would have, and they have been fulfilling and made me more of a leader. Embrace the full journey. Know the things you love, develop skills around that, and then see where it takes you.