Rigid Industries LED Lighting Honored with President’s “E” Award

Seth Anderson, CFO of Rigid Industries accepted the award.

Rigid Industries LED Lighting was honored with the Presidents “E” Award by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in Washington D.C. for significant contributions to increase the U.S. exports. Rigid Industries is committed to providing top-notch, innovative quality technologies, exporting and increasing job growth in America.

Jason Christiansen, CEO of Rigid Industries, said, “It is a great honor to be a recipient of the 2015 President’s “E” Award and to see the commitment to our company by our customers around the world. We’re committed to US jobs and are proud to have every department from customer service, production, warranty, QC to engineering all together here in Arizona. We are always trying to push the envelope on new technologies with innovation and quality being our core principles.”

What started in the garage of an off-road and powersports enthusiast in Mesa, Arizona 10 years ago has since skyrocketed into a multi-million dollar corporation spanning three buildings, 250 employees, 9 vertical market industries and sales in 45 different countries around the world. In addition to direct employees, Rigid has grown employment at its vendor partners businesses across America by 805 jobs currently. The light bars and compact LED lights have found their place in a plethora of applications across industries such as: agriculture, construction, emergency response, industrial, marine, military, mining, and off-road and powersports.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker remarked, “When President Kennedy signed the executive order reviving the E Awards in 1961, he stated, “more exports will mean a stronger America…and greater assurance of a free world.”

The collective effort between the private sector and this administration has yielded tremendous results: 2014 was another record year for exports – totaling $2.35 trillion; the 45 honorees also contributed over $2 billion in export revenue last year; and most importantly, exports support 11.7 million private sector jobs – an all-time high.

With Rigid Industries’ advancements in the last 10 years and the proven efficiencies of the Light-emitting diodes (LED) the company grew over 1500% two years running and doubling employed personnel year-after-year. Rigid Industries sells lighting products to 45 countries and offers marketing literature in multiple different languages, and has 90 different languages offered on their website, Dealer Portal and Blog to provide a local voice to a global brand name. Rigid believes that this high level of commitment to global brand-building are important factors in growing its foreign market sales over the past three years.

The Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame recently named Marilyn Stemp and Steve Piehl to its board of directors.

Stemp is a pioneering figure in the motorcycle industry, founding IronWorks Magazine with her late husband, Dennis, and becoming the first female editor of a nationally circulated, mainstream motorcycle magazine. She also revived their trade magazine, Iron Trader News; edits the monthly Kiwi Indian News; contributes to several powersports media outlets; and is the founding editor of Sturgis Rider Daily. Stemp is a noted editor and writer of several motorcycle-focused books. Her consistent support for charitable efforts in the industry include the annual Biker Belles Celebration, Las Vegas BikeFest and as campaign chair for the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum’s development plan in 2014. She co-founded the Flying Piston charity events taking place in Daytona and Sturgis each year and is a National Ambassador for All Kids Bike. Stemp was inducted into both the Las Vegas Motorcycle Hall of Fame and the Sturgis Museum's Hall of Fame in 2018, and in 2022 she was recognized as one of the Top 100 Women in Powersports by DealerNews.