2025 Impact Awards: Alan Mueller

ALAN MUELLER

Board chair, Volm Companies

Hometown: Idaho Falls, Idaho

In the spring of 1978, musical groups including The Police and Van Halen released their debut albums, while Grease topped movie box offices. And Alan Mueller began a career with Volm Companies, a fresh produce and frozen food packager founded in Wisconsin in 1954, that has spanned nearly half a century.

In his first years with the business, Mueller’s responsibilities included truck driving and warehouse duties, along with direct sales to the potato and onion industries. He would go on to handle responsibilities including establishing a division serving retail clothing stores, sales to the cranberry industry and sales of agrichemicals to the vegetable canning industry.

Mueller has also overseen a division for the contract application of soil fumigation, the machine division, a national sales and marketing campaign, and machine manufacturing in the Netherlands. In addition, he has served as a president of the associate division of the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association and as a board/ committee member of the associate division of the national Produce Marketing Association.

Mueller’s lengthy and diverse career began after marrying his wife, Deborah.

“Her father, Gerald Volm, started lobbying me to come to work at Volm Companies, which he had founded,” Mueller said. “Since I grew up on a corn and beef farm in South Dakota, I was interested in the opportunity to work in and with the farming industry.”

Mueller names both his and Deborah’s parents as inspirations because of their business sense, work ethic and strong faith.

“I enjoy the partnering relationships that I’ve been able to make with a lot of very good friends throughout my 46 years with Volm Companies,” Mueller said. “I have worked in many different roles and have had the opportunity to participate in establishing and growing successful new business divisions.”