by George Smith, Student Reporter
Who would you consider to be the face of a company?
For McDonald’s you might think, Ronald McDonald, or for Tesla, Elon Musk, Apple, Steve Jobs, even though the CEO has been Tim Cook since 2011, and Microsoft has Bill Gates. For the most part the “face” designated to a company is either the founder, highest-ranking executive member, or a cartoon character designed as a market strategy. But for small businesses with loyal employees, the face of the company can simply be the first person you see walking into the building every day.
That’s Alesi Streik the office manager for the 8th Circuit Engineering District of Oklahoma. With their headquarters located here in Alva, Streik is the first person seen as you walk into the main building. Making her the face of the company, so to speak.
She’s keen to give a smile and say hello while she stays doing her job as always, a lesson learned while working at Walmart after graduating from Alva High school. Streik also built up a rapport of kind greetings being a bartender at a few bars and restaurants before becoming the face of CED #8.
The road to success isn’t always laid out perfectly, and through the adversity that comes with life, it trims the hedges and plucks the weeds out of the garden to prosper and grow the best crop of individuals to lead a society.
Streik found her match while attending college at NWOSU. She had a job at Walmart, then she got pregnant and since, “being pregnant takes up a lot of your time,” Striek said, Walmart began to cut her hours and she was looking for a second job. Luckily for her, a new bar was opening up in Waynoka and she got a job there as a bartender. A second job meant that she didn’t have a lot of time for school and ended up dropping out of college. But it was for the better as a fellow associate from the CED office, Savannah Smith, came into the bar one night to view the local entertainment.
Streik and Smith became good friends and Smith decided that there was a position that she didn’t want to fill, but that Streik might be good at and got her an interview. Streik nailed it and began working immediately. Her positive attitude and dashing wits have enabled her to become a role model to her children and to others who walk into the CED office and say hello to the face of the company.