President, West Virginia Potato Chip Company
By Kristen Uppercue
Growing up, Mary Anne Ketelsen helped care for her bedridden grandmother, a task that sparked a desire in her to help people. She looked first to the medical field and graduated from WVU Parkersburg with an associate degree in applied science.
She worked for seven years at American Cyanamid in St. Mary’s, WV, as one of its first female lab technicians and later as a shift leader in its quality control laboratory. She then landed a job at Union Carbide in Marietta, Ohio, as a lab technician, where she played a key role in the company’s first inventory and helped implement the first barcode system used on a finished product.
Sensing she had a knack for business, Ketelsen enrolled at Glenville State College, where she earned a degree in business management before spending 10 years as the second-generation general manager of Welch Oil & Gas Company, the family business.
Her career path came full circle when she retired in 2014, negotiating the sale of the company. However, with business in her blood, she stepped into her current position as majority owner of the West Virginia Potato Chip Company—formerly Mister Bee Potato Chip Company—in 2015. In this position, she committed to maintaining and preserving the integrity of a company that many West Virginians remember fondly, expanding from 15 to 47 employees and becoming certified as a kosher, Good Manufacturing Practices and woman-owned small business.
“Since 2015, I have made significant investments and worked hard to continue the very special West Virginia brand that most identify with childhood memories,” she says. “Keeping a tradition that means so much to so many and meeting the needs of the next generation of Mister Bee consumers has been a joy and a challenge.”
Ketelsen’s mother, Mickey, who served as principal owner of Welch Oil & Gas and had a long history of philanthropic endeavors, was a major source of inspiration and a great role model for her daughter.
“The 10 years I worked with Mickey Welch as not just my parent but as my direct supervisor were amazing, and I valued learning and seeing the business world through her lens as an early pioneer for all women in business,” says Ketelsen. “My mother has since passed away, but I continue to make philanthropic contributions to many of the organizations she was a passionate supporter of.”
These organizations include YWCA Charleston, Habitat for Humanity and the Boys & Girls Club.
She is also passionate about giving back to her hometown of Parkersburg. She is an avid supporter of SW Resources, a business where every dollar made is invested back into the lives of people with disabilities. The West Virginia Potato Chip Company currently employees two people supported by this organization. Ketelsen has also helped WVU Parkersburg fund Riverhawk Farm, where potatoes are produced at least once per year for Mister Bee, and she aids the Parkersburg High School Athletics Department and VFW Post 1212. In 2018, she and her mother started the Hunger Fund at the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation, where she continues to give to the food pantry and started serving on the board this year.
Another passion she shared with her mother, Ketelsen is driven to help those who serve in the military. One of her favorite organizations to contribute to is the United Service Organizations (USO) to support active-duty service members and military families. Last year, the West Virginia Potato Chip Company designed a special chip bag to salute military personnel and veterans and donated 10% of proceeds to the USO, which Ketelsen and her husband personally matched.
“The Welch family continues to make a commitment to help where we can for our fellow West Virginians, be it combatting childhood hunger, supporting education, supporting military families or helping as we see fit in situations like natural disasters,” she says.
Ketelsen is passionate about West Virginia and supporting and representing the people who live and work here.
“This is home, and although I have had opportunities to live and work elsewhere, the greatest people in my life are in West Virginia,” she says. “I work every day to make Mister Bee a national brand proudly manufactured here.”
1975 Graduated from WVU Parkersburg
1975 Started work at American Cyanamid
1983 Started work at Union Carbide
1986 Started work at Amoco Oil Corporation
1988 Promoted to distribution supervisor for Amoco Oil Corporation
1988 Graduated from Glenville State College
1992 Started work at Solvay Advanced Polymers
2004 Named general manager of Welch Oil & Gas
2014 Sold Welch Oil & Gas
2015 Became majority owner of WV Potato Chip Company
2018 Started Hunger Fund at PACF
