Employee Spotlight – TAIRA SHELTON

Sixteen years ago, Taira Shelton was looking for a job and an opportunity to start a new chapter in her life. Her dad (John Buckles) and her uncle (Pete Buckles) worked for PESCO and knew there was an opening for an invoicing clerk. She applied for the position and she was hired.

In addition to learning her invoicing job, Taira wanted to learn about other areas.  “We have a complicated software program at PESCO, and I learned it through some trial and error.”  She worked closely with shipping and receiving, helping to facilitate shipping equipment to customers.

For many years, Taira benefitted from discovering all she could. She enjoyed the work and she learned more about the company and its customers. However, when a position in the accounts payable department opened, Taira decided it was time to learn more about PESCO from another perspective.

 “This account payable position has been good for my career path,” Taira said.  “I have developed relationships with PESCO’s customers and have a good network with them that I can establish myself as a solid professional. I’ve made friends and bonded with vendors across the country, which is something I least expected.”

Taira’s determination to excel in whatever position she is assigned has not gone unnoticed by PESCO’s leadership team.

“Taira has grown and developed her base of knowledge,” PESCO’s Chief Financial Officer, Linda Rodgers, said. “It is awesome to watch her develop new skills and take on new challenges and to succeed. Everybody she interacts with enjoys her.”

Taira hopes to continue to grow and learn with the company, and to be a respected leader like her supervisor Linda.

“Leadership is being on a level with employees and showing them how to be the best they can be,” she said. “Leaders have to get down and dirty and work alongside their employees. Linda has done an excellent job as a leader. She challenges you to look for new ways of doing things and think outside the box. Her example of a leader is to trust and have integrity, and that example makes us all grow.”

While Taira loves her job at PESCO, there is one “position” she loves more than anything:  being a mother.

“I always wanted to be a mother,” she said.  Taira is a mom to Isabelle, age 16, and Madison, age 5. 

“These girls give me a purpose to wake up every day and to be the best person I can be.”

Her family is a priority for most of the spare time Taira has. “I play with children, and we love to camp and explore the outdoors,” she said of her family and that spare time. Taira wants to show her girls that hard work and determination can get you any where you want to be.

PESCO’s leadership team, its focus on family and its commitment to helping employees reach their full potential is an important part of the company’s success, and one of the many reasons Taira said she loves working with and for the Rhodes family. “PESCO is a Christian based, family-oriented company,” Taira Shelton said, “which is what I like best about working here.”