Meet Our Leadership Team

Chris Bame - Chairman

With over 35 years of experience in the lubricants, fuels and chemicals industry, Chris Bame met his wife and partner Marna while working in Chris’s father’s business Gopher Oil Company 31 years ago. Chris was educated in engineering at Texas A&M University and business at the University of MN Carlson School of Management. Together, Chris and Marna have helped create organizations that manufacture lubricants, chemicals, fuels and process recyclables, as well as deliver those products and services around the globe.

The Lube-Tech companies’ employ over 500 people and families as well as a third generation of Bames.

Chris is involved with and sits on the boards of several non-profit organizations supporting children with disabilities, at risk youth, the elderly, addiction recovery, many other community causes, Children’s Cancer research and international faith-based mission work.

Chris and Marna live in small town Minnesota on a lake. They are surrounded by the families of their four children with twelve grandchildren and numerous Labrador retrievers. The Bames are avid travelers, outdoor enthusiasts, enjoy boating, snowmobiling, motorcycling, hunting, fishing, and partying on the lake. They believe in the values of “family first” and instill those values into everything they do.

Eric Jackson - CEO

Eric Jackson is an experienced executive with a background in public and private ownership environments including complete business operating responsibility, with demonstrable achievement in aggressive sales and profit growth. Specialty expertise in leading board of advisors, developing strategic direction and executing related business plans, building talented teams, integrating acquisitions, and implementing continuous innovation systems.

Jackson has been with Lubrication Technologies, Inc. since 2004 and currently holds CEO of Lubrication Technologies. Prior to Lube-Tech, Eric held positions as President of the ConAgra Foods Phoenix Packaging Division, Staff Auditor at Ernst & Young, and Owner of Jackson’s Super Valu.  

Currently, he is serving on boards for Lubrication Technologies and E.A. Sween, and was a founding member of Social Venture Partners (SVP).

In 1988, Eric received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business-Accounting, English, Computer from Concordia College.

Eric and his wife Kim have been married for 30 years and live in Excelsior. They have two adult children, Rachel and Matt. In his time outside Lube-Tech, he enjoys playing pickleball, golfing, skiing, boating and hanging out with friends and family.

Brenda Donato – COO / GM of Reliable Plus

Brenda is responsible for leading Lube-Tech's Vehicle Wash Solutions division, Reliable Plus. As General Manager of Reliable Plus, she is responsible for establishing direction, building the leadership team, developing and implementing strategic plans.

Brenda has over 20 years’ experience in finance, joining Lube-Tech in 2009. Prior to her current role(s), Brenda held various other leadership roles in finance. During her time with Lube-Tech, she has been integral in the success of numerous acquisitions while continuing to support the business, build strong teams and drive change.

Brenda is a member of Lube-Tech’s Senior Leadership Team, Lube-Tech’s Board, and is Lube-Tech’s first female officer. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Bethel University and is a member of Vistage International Organization.

Brenda currently lives in Chaska, MN with her husband Joe. They have two wonderful children, Ashley and Dominic. In her free time, she enjoys reading, boating, fishing, riding her Peloton, and hanging out with family and friends.

Katie Hines - Chief Growth Officer

Katie joined Lube-Tech in 2017 as the Director of Channel Marketing for the Custom Branded Solutions division. She joined the leadership team in 2018 after taking on an expanded role, and now leads the enterprise marketing function as Lube-Tech’s Chief Growth Officer, supporting all of Lube-Tech’s internal branding and communications efforts, divisional marketing, and all external and partner marketing.

Prior to Lube-Tech, she spent 12 years at G&K Services in a variety of marketing and general management roles with her last role being the General Manager of G&K’s $40M US direct sale division.

She earned a double degree in Marketing and Financial Management in 2005 from the University of St. Thomas and completed her MBA in 2011 at the Carlson School of Management.

She loves working at Lube-Tech because of how much they care for their people and because it’s somewhere she is truly making a long-lasting difference in the lives of her teammates, community and with our partners.

In her free time, she enjoys being outside, boating and trips to her cabin with her husband Kenny and son Dylan.

Dan Slade - GM of Distribution Solutions

Dan grew up in Northern Wisconsin (Solon Springs) on a 40-acre hobby farm. He went to the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. In 1988, secured a route sales position with G&K Services where he spent the next 29 years.

Dan was promoted and relocated in the Midwest four times landing in St. Cloud, MN as Sales Manager and ultimately General Manager in 1998. In 2002, he led four Upper Midwest production companies as Group General Manager exceeding expectations in growth, profit, customer retention and employee satisfaction. From 2002-2008, as the Group General Manager of Acquisition Integration, based in Eden Prairie, MN, Dan led and was responsible for all aspects of G&K’s Acquisition Region. In addition to focusing on delivering the synergies modeled for each of the businesses, he successfully transformed 12 newly acquired businesses to G&K’s processes and culture.

Amid the great recession (2008-2013), the CEO, focused G&K Services to “right-size” the business and get back to basics. During this five-year period, Dan effectively led U.S. and Canadian Operations, Fleet, Engineering and M&A (emphasizing divestitures of underperforming segments and businesses). In 2013, he was asked to be the Leader of M&A and Business Development. In 2015, he was promoted to be the Leader of Strategic Business Initiatives developing game-changing strategies intended to take G&K’s operations to the next level. 

Prior to joining Lube-Tech, Dan was Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Healthcare Linen Services Group from 2017 – 2019.  He built the sales team, launched the company Website, Vision, Mission, and Core Values.

Dan currently lives in St Cloud, MN with his wife (Jill) of 33 years. They have three wonderful children. In his free time, he likes to hunt, fish, golf, run and hang out with family and friends.

Shane Steffensen - COO / GM of Private Label

Shane Steffensen joined Lube-Tech in December 2015 as Chief Financial Officer. After building a strong finance team, Shane transitioned into his current role as COO and GM, leading Lube-Tech’s private label business.

He brings expertise in leading high performing teams, Finance, M&A, Treasury, and Risk Management with industry experience in manufacturing, business services, logistics and distribution.

Prior to joining Lube-Tech, Shane spent 17 years at G&K Services. Throughout his tenure at G&K, Shane held several leadership roles within the Finance organization culminating with his final role as Senior Director, Integrated Risk Management. G&K Services was the fourth largest work apparel and facility services company in the United States and the largest in Canada. The Company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange with revenues of over $900 million with approximately 8,000 employees.

Steffensen has previously served on non-profit boards for The Arc Greater Twin Cities and Boy Scouts of America.

In 1994, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Northern State University.

Kelly Olson - CFO

Kelly joined Lube-Tech in December 2021 as the CFO.  In this role, Kelly leads our Finance and IT teams.

She’s a strategic and dynamic leader with experience in both public and private ownership environments. She started her career in public accounting after graduating from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management with a degree in accounting.  She had a long tenure at Deluxe corporation where she oversaw the reporting, financial planning & analysis, and controllership functions. She was also part of Deluxe’s acquisition team and helped complete 20-30 acquisitions per year. More recently, Kelly has been CFO for three organizations, Cambria, H2I Group, and Taylor Corporation where she also gained direct experience leading IT and Treasury.

Kelly lives in North Oaks with her husband (Greg), two children, and two dogs Rocco and Milo.  When not shuttling their kids to football, hockey, baseball, golf, soccer, or dance, they enjoy spending time on their boat, weekend trips to Brainerd or hitting the ski slopes in the winter. Kelly & her husband are also small business owners, co-owning two resorts in the Brainerd Lakes area. They enjoy watching MN sports teams, live music and entertaining family and friends together.