Getting to Know Kari Rihm

Rihm Kenworth is a family truck company owned by Kari Rihm. Kari has always liked working. She worked when she was in high school at music and theater. Kari took 17 years off from work and said it was difficult to get back to. One of her sayings is, “You don’t have to be dependable on someone else to find you a job -- you can create one.”

Kari has been a CEO for more than 11 years. Kari became the CEO after her husband, John, passed away. She did not have any experience leading a company and had to fight hard to learn along the way. It has been difficult being a female leader in a male dominated company. In recent years, many other women have been entering the trucking field, but they do not oversee the day-to-day operations of all companies and make decisions that will be sustainable and healthy for company growth as much as Kari does as CEO.

Covid affected everyone differently, it impacted Rihm a lot by forcing some locations to close early. It also isolated Kari from seeing her family, friends, and traveling. She also could not connect with her mother who she recently lost.

Some of her advice for people joining business is to never stop reaching out to people if you have questions, find a mentor, do not assume you know what you are doing, try to have a concept of networking, and show interest in what you do every day. From Kari’s view, skills required to lead a company are bravery, math skills, people management, curiosity, learning through struggles, and knowing that “failure is not fatal.”