July 16, 2018

This paid piece is sponsored by SDN Communications.

With 14 years of experience in various positions at SDN Communications, Lenee McQueen can effectively help the company’s biggest and most demanding customers.

Her job involves getting to know their businesses and assisting them with information and bidding requests, changes in networking needs and project management challenges, including deadlines.

She lives on a ranch, so she might even be able to offer suggestions about bottle-feeding calves.

McQueen is a major accounts service coordinator at SDN. Some of SDN’s big customers include government agencies and businesses such as banks and health care institutions that have multiple locations.

Mary Pfaff recently joined McQueen as a major accounts service coordinator, so SDN now has two staff members readily available to assist customers with large and often complex businesses or institutional networks.

Pfaff and McQueen report to Melanie Sage, SDN’s commercial sales manager, and are part of an overall sales team led by Ryan Punt, vice president of sales.

Like Punt, Sage and SDN’s team of account executives, McQueen and Pfaff are on the front line of customer interaction.

“The main thing about this position is we really get to focus on our customers. We get to know them more closely, build a partnership with them and then support their needs,” McQueen said.

Pfaff joined SDN’s staff in May after more than a decade at LodgeNet Interactive Corp., which became Sonifi Solutions, and at DocuTap. She’s still getting comfortable at SDN but gained valuable experience for her new position through her previous jobs.

“I have quickly learned that Mary is detail-oriented,” Sage said. “She’s been a quick study learning the telecommunications industry and is always eager to take on more projects.”

Pfaff also has a fun personality and is a joy to have on the team, Sage said. Pfaff said jokingly but admiringly that she’s being trained to be Lenee 2.0.

“The people here are just incredible; everyone is willing to help,” Pfaff said. “From day one, I’ve just loved every day. My days go so quickly. There’s so much to learn. I feel so very fortunate to be working here.”

Pfaff grew up in Chester. She attended Dakota State University and finished college at the University of Sioux Falls. Much of her time away from work is spent following her 11-year-old son’s activities. She also has two daughters who are registered nurses.

Pfaff lives in Tea and works out of SDN headquarters in Sioux Falls.

McQueen works remotely from White Lake. It’s nearly equidistant from Pierre, where she assists clients, and SDN’s Sioux Falls headquarters, where she attends meetings.

McQueen was born and raised in Sioux Falls. But her family moved, and she graduated from high school in Lennox.

She raised her own family in Garretson. She worked there for the school district and Alliance Communications, which is an SDN member company. She moved back to Sioux Falls after her two children graduated from high school.

McQueen landed a job at SDN and worked in the Sioux Falls office for 11 years. When she got remarried, she moved to White Lake to be with her husband, Randy McQueen, who is a farmer and rancher there.

Away from work at SDN, McQueen loves spending time with her grandchildren and helps with farming and ranching chores. She especially enjoys feeding the calves.

“Lenee’s worked for SDN for a number of years and has a broad background in areas of SDN that most of the salespeople haven’t had exposure to,” Sage said. “Because of her vastly different roles through the years, she’s given our sales team some insight into how our internal systems work on the back end.”

As an experienced support staff member, McQueen also has valuable experience in SDN service offerings such as network monitoring and report customization, Sage said.

“Lenee is very thorough and organized, and she has been a wealth of knowledge to me and the sales team,” she said.

SDN is a premier regional provider of broadband connectivity and cybersecurity services to businesses. Get to know other members of SDN’s teams in the employee section of the SDN Communications website.