By Lindsey Oechsle
Many who have worked alongside Justin Kotzur in any capacity would agree that he is a friend to and vital component of the veterinary profession. He is a natural leader and tireless worker, with a kind heart and a radiating compassion for veterinary medicine. It is for these reasons and countless more that Justin Kotzur is the 2008 TVMA Industry Representative of the Year.
When I meet him at a bakery in Fredericksburg, he is intently focused on his laptop, seemingly undistracted while intermittently taking bites of a quick lunch. He hasn’t had a break all day, and I am certainly not his last appointment. I sense that Mr. Kotzur’s schedule on this day is not unlike that of yesterday or the weeks and months preceding. If he were tired, you would never know. I’m not sure if he ever in fact gets tired. I have decided that Justin Kotzur has superhuman powers.
He also has a sense of humor. I ask him to take me back through his personal history thus far, and he pauses for a moment. “I don’t remember too much about the day I was born,” he says to me, somewhat sarcastically as if apologizing for the lack of recollection. He may not remember his first introduction to the world, but he certainly recalls in great detail his first introduction to the world of industry representation.
It was on an icy February morning while working in a feedlot hospital in Farwell, Texas, that Kotzur crossed paths with a man in nice starched jeans and boots.
Kotzur laughs casually. “Here I was covered in cattle poop and freezing my heiny off riding that horse, and I asked him, ‘What do you do?’” He was a pharmaceutical rep. The visitor got to talking about the products. He worked for Syntex Animal Health Systems. Kotzur remembers asking the man, “How can someone get a job like that?”
In May of that year Kotzur’s phone rang, and on the other end was a job opening in South Texas as a livestock territory manager with Syntex. He consulted his wife, Jennifer, who is also from the San Antonio area, and she said, “Either you’re applying or I’m applying, but we’re leaving this cold forsaken place.”
So the Kotzurs moved back to LaVernia, and Justin worked as a territory manager for Syntex for about five years until the company was acquired by Fort Dodge Animal Health. He stayed on in the livestock division for a couple years, and they offered him a position as regional manager on the companion animal side covering Texas and Louisiana, which is where he is today.
This kind of work is not unfamiliar to Kotzur, a fourth generation farmer/rancher to grow up in La Vernia, where he lives now. Throughout high school, he was very involved in 4-H and FFA activities and focused on animal-related projects. He transferred to A&M after a year of animal science courses at Southwest Texas State.
“Being a small-town boy, I kept my eyes wide open to a lot of different options that were out there.”
Justin received an Animal Science degree from Texas A&M University in 1988. He considered following interests in embryo transfers, breeding cattle, meat judging, and feedlot management, and his wide range of experience in the field is just one testament to his success at Fort Dodge.
What does it mean to be a companion animal regional manager, you may ask? Justin manages companion animal, equine and livestock product sales in Texas and Louisiana. He oversees 15 territory representatives, mentors new regional managers nationwide, and plans new products and opportunities for growth. He is forward thinking in his efforts, and holds great love and respect for the veterinary profession.
“The veterinary industry needs a strong voice in the community to show value to the consumer for the care they receive,” he says. “So I am extremely proud to be part of a company [Fort Dodge Animal Health] and the TVMA which promote animal wellness and care to the public and the consumers of our products.”
Kotzur says that he became involved with TVMA when he raised his hand. He recognizes that any company can provide sponsorships, but that doesn’t give the industry any guidance or assistance.
“What I want to do is give to the organizations that represent the veterinary industry. That business is so valuable to us as a company and to me personally, that I need to give some of my time back to the industry.”
Kotzur believes one way he can give back to the profession is by connecting the public with the TVMA and veterinary medicine. With his broad perspective of the industry and professional contacts, he is able to bring some of those ideas and initiatives to the table to help TVMA become an organization that really prospers and educates the public about what the veterinary industry is and why it is so important.
Through his work with the Texas Veterinary Medical Foundation, he attempts to do just this. As a member of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Kotzur has been involved in public relations efforts of TVMA and TVMF, serving as a PR committee liaison for the Foundation. He understands that time is precious, yet he certainly recognizes the importance of committee work and association leadership.
“I think the biggest frustration for all committee involvement is that all these veterinarians, just like everyone else, have jobs and careers. To join a committee is easy, but to do something in the committee is the hard part because that takes free time which no one has much of anymore. It’s fairly easy to throw $1000 toward something and say, ‘I support this’ but it’s harder to give your time and effort. That’s what we need more of—not just members, but active members. That includes other industry organizations as well. There are a lot of manufacturers, distributors, and others that are all a part of this industry, and if we don’t make it succeed, we all lose.”
Traveling to meet all the different veterinarians from all across the state and getting to know them in their unique part of the world is Justin’s favorite aspect of his job. From the small one-room vet clinic to the huge multi-million dollar facility, he is amazed by how many differences there are in the world of veterinary practice. He enjoys discovering how their minds operate and what’s important to them—what moves them, and what motivates them in veterinary medicine.
One trend that Justin has definitely noticed is a transition in the veterinary professional. He sees more and more vets becoming ‘employees’ rather than ‘owners.’ Though he’s not saying this is a good or bad thing, it is a noticeable transition. What the profession must do is figure out how to best make this transition work.
He wonders about the growth of corporate practices and the implementation of corporate medicine. The possible economic impact is good, but by creating these huge corporate entities, will the profession lose that personal customer service that veterinarians have always been known for? He sees this as a large future challenge, and he is proactively working to make individual clinics the best they can be.
“The most important thing that I do is giving the clinics that I visit more tools to advance their careers and their jobs. We’re always trying to improve their education and ideas that they can share, and I’ll share the successes that I learned at one clinic with another clinic, to try to make all of them better. When I leave each clinic that I visit, I hope I have helped them become better than before I got there. That’s my goal. That’s what I want to achieve.”
Justin’s work requires a good amount of travel, and he estimates that he is away from home an average of three nights each week. A peaceful look comes over his face as he speaks of home. He and Jennifer have three girls. Joslyn is a freshman at A&M and is extremely active in the animal science department, Jordyn is the middle child who most recently would like to be a dentist, and Jaelyn, the youngest, wants to be a vet when she grows up. The girls have always been very involved in 4-H and FFA activities.
This is another area that Kotzur believes more veterinarians could be involved. Veterinary medicine is a large part of 4-H and FFA programs, and he believes those programs hold the future stewards of the veterinary profession.
“When they start out in third grade, wanting to be a veterinarian, like my daughter, we should feed that, because that’s how we’re going to get more vets. It’s tough to get into vet school, so the earlier you can get them guided in the right direction and understanding that grades are important and that you need to have experience, then they have something to shoot for.”
Goals are obviously important to Kotzur, who believes that goals, encouragement, and hard work are the recipe for success. “You’ve always got to have a goal. Mine is to see my kids grow up to be successful in anything that they want to do. That’s my number one goal, and everything I do is for them.”
I believe Justin Kotzur’s leadership and determination is best summarized by his own personal philosophy, which comes from a General George S. Patton quote. It reads: “A man must know his destiny. If he does not recognize it, then he is lost. By this I mean, once, twice, or at the very most, three times, fate will reach out and tap a man on the shoulder. If he has the imagination, he will turn around and fate will point out to him what fork in the road he should take, if he has the guts, he will take it.”
I ask Justin to give me one quote that he would offer as a statement to all veterinarians. What he says is wonderful. It is an Oscar Wilde quote.
“The world is divided into two classes: those who believe the incredible, and those that do the improbable. And my question to veterinarians is: Which one are you?”
My question to Justin was the same.
“I would be one that does the improbable,” he says with unmistakable assurance. “You set a road block in front of me, I’ll get around it, or above it, or through it.”
The Texas Veterinary Medical Association Industry Representative of the Year Award recognizes outstanding performance among those individuals who work in veterinary-related business and industry and who have significant interaction with veterinary practice owners and other individuals within veterinary medicine. This is the first year that such an award in this category has been given.
