Amy Preator

Amy Preator brings a variety of experience to SDN Communications.

She joined SDN in December 2011 after stints in human resources with a mining company, a private university and a food business.

At SDN she is responsible for managing benefits and compensation for 115 employees, maintaining consistency in policies and procedures, and overseeing staff recruitment, hiring, development, and training.

She was born in Winner and raised in Rapid City. She earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Sioux Falls and an MBA at the University of Wyoming.

Preator started working at the Jacobs Ranch Coal Company in northeastern Wyoming in 1997, initially as a college intern. Ultimately, she worked for mining companies in human resources and accounting for three years. She spent about two years at Jacobs Ranch and a year with its sister company, Antelope Coal.

“To better understand the job descriptions and duties, I went out and worked in each of the positions in the coal mine,” she says. “It was fascinating.”

Preator returned to Sioux Falls and worked from 2000 to 2005 as vice president of human resources and administration at USF. She became director of human resources at Orion Food Systems in Sioux Falls in 2005 and stayed there until 2011.

She and her husband, Fred, have two school-aged daughters and two Bernese Mountain Dogs.

In addition to watching their daughters’ activities, Preator enjoys exercise, water sports, traveling and reading. She volunteers for a week every summer to serve as a youth director at a church camp in the Black Hills.