CHICAGO — Rowdy Brixey, founder and president of Brixey Engineering, Inc., received the Robert A. Fischer Distinguished Service Award during the American Society of Baking’s (ASB) annual meeting and 2023 BakingTech conference.

Created in 1999, the Fischer Award recognizes outstanding service and leadership by an individual to the society. It is awarded annually and presented during the ASB’s yearly BakingTech conference.

“No one in the American Society of Baking is as passionate about the wholesale baking industry as Rowdy Brixey,” said Kent Van Amburg, ASB’s outgoing executive director. “Rowdy was my first chairman in 2010. It is poetic that the last thing I will be doing prior to retiring and leaving ASB is giving the Robert A. Fischer Award to Rowdy. He has been a friend, an invaluable volunteer, a strong supporter, and when appropriate, he played the role of devil’s advocate.” 

Mr. Brixey is currently the chairman of the ASB Hall of Fame Evaluation Committee and the vice chairman of the ANZI Z50 Safety and Sanitation Committee.

A certified professional baker engineer with more than 40 years of industry experience, Mr. Brixey started as a bakery mechanic in 1981 at age 16 and advanced to vice president of engineering through his 28-year tenure at Interstate Brands Corp.

He then became vice president of manufacturing for George Weston Bakeries and later served as director of engineering and maintenance optimization, leading both maintenance and engineering for more than 55 plants, but also project engineering for two-thirds of the nation.

Mr. Brixey started his own firm in 2017.