Brenda Jennissen

President/CEO and Co-Owner Felling Trailers Inc.

Last Reviewed: September 29, 2026

Executive Summary

Brenda Jennissen is President/CEO and co-owner of Felling Trailers, a full-line trailer manufacturer in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Her parents started it in 1974 as Sauk Centre Welding, a small welding shop; she grew up in the business, and with her sister bought it from their parents about a dozen years before its 2024 anniversary. Felling now builds commercial, construction, utility, OEM and government trailers from a complex of more than 400,000 square feet and ships across North America and abroad, and it remains family-owned. She is unusually visible in her own town as well as her industry: the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers gave her and her sister its 2023 Woman in Manufacturing award, and much of her time outside the company goes to the Sauk Centre Area Community Foundation and youth programmes.

Career Highlights

• President/CEO and co-owner of Felling Trailers, confirmed in company communications as recently as September 2026.
• Also co-owner, President and CEO of GPS Trailers and Larson Cable Trailers, as of NATM’s 2023 announcement.
• With her sister, purchased Felling from their parents roughly a dozen years before its 50th anniversary in 2024.
• Shared the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers’ 2023 Pam O’Toole Trusdale Woman in Manufacturing Award.
• Under her leadership, Felling received two University of St. Thomas family business awards and the Sauk Centre Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2018 Business of the Year.

Professional Journey

Jennissen was raised in the construction equipment business. Felling Trailers began on 1 November 1974, when her parents bought a small welding shop in Sauk Centre, in central Minnesota, and started building and repairing trailers used to move construction equipment. She studied in St. Paul, earning a degree in public relations and community health education, and then came back to Sauk Centre and to the family company.

She and her sister bought the business from their parents; speaking at the 2024 anniversary, Jennissen said they had done so “nearly a dozen years ago” and that they “knew we had an enormous responsibility to follow in their footsteps”. The two, with their spouses and the wider team, run it together, and the company is certified as a women’s business enterprise. NATM’s 2023 announcement describes her as co-owner, President and CEO not only of Felling but of two related trailer makers, GPS Trailers and Larson Cable Trailers.

Felling’s growth is visible in its footprint: the one-shop business now occupies a factory and office complex of more than 400,000 square feet and holds ISO 9001 certification. In August 2024 the Association of Equipment Manufacturers brought its Manufacturing Express tour to the plant to mark the company’s 50th year, with more than 200 employees present. The company’s more recent communications emphasise environmental investment, which it says it has pursued since NATM recognised it in 2018; in September 2026 Jennissen said each initiative had been chosen because it “makes Felling a safer, cleaner place to work and a better community member to Sauk Centre”. Felling also runs an annual Trailer for a Cause auction, in its 14th year in 2026, donating proceeds to a local charity.

Her community work runs alongside the business. She was the inaugural board chair of the Sauk Centre Area Community Foundation, which has helped bring Junior Achievement and robotics to local schools, establish a community garden and build a fitness challenge course, and NATM lists her as a mentor in the West Stearns CEO programme. The Chamber of Commerce named Felling its Business of the Year in 2018, and NATM reports that she was named Citizen of the Year in 2019.

Education

A 2021 Dairyland Peach profile reports that she earned a degree in public relations and community health education at a college in St. Paul, Minnesota; the institution is not named in the sources read.