2026 Outstanding Directors: Steve Eastman

For board service to Fastenal (2015-present)

By Adam Platt

| October 07, 2026

Steve Eastman’s tenure on the Fastenal board has been bracketed by CEO changes. His first board meeting took place after CEO Leland Hein stepped down after less than a year in the job. This past summer, longtime CEO Dan Florness retired, succeeded by longtime company sales exec Jeffrey Watts.

“A board’s No. 1 job is to have the right CEO,” Eastman says. “Our current transition was planned for years, including backup plans. This organization values promoting within, and so it needs depth.”

Fastenal, the Winona-based industrial services and supply giant, has grown meteorically during Eastman’s period of service, from a $3.9 billion to a $8.2 billion company, and evolved from a somewhat insular business run by founders into a sophisticated multinational corporation that does business in 25 countries. (It plays in the same space as Grainger and MSC Industrial Supply.)

“The board was friends and insiders,” explains Florness. “We were very unstructured. Steve brought perspective from a centralized corporate environment. He helped us to get to that middle, brought discipline to our structure, our board meetings. We were becoming a global player, and he helped us develop a better board, skill set-wise.”

Eastman spent most of his career in a variety of executive roles at Target, including leading target.com, followed by 13 years as a division president at Polaris. He joined Fastenal’s board with little knowledge of its B2B industrial space.

The company was founded in 1967 by Bob Kierlin and four partners. Kierlin, who died in 2025, served Fastenal in some capacity until 2014. The company—which many remember for its signature supply vending machines on plant floors—evolved under Florness, closing many of its retail-type locations to build on-site presence at key client sites, which now account for 70 percent of revenue, says Florness.

Eastman was the prototypical unicorn pick, brought in for skills the rest of the board lacked. “Steve is a primary driver of board education, bringing perspectives on AI, shareholder activists, ESG,” says board colleague and chair Scott Satterlee. Eastman says it comes naturally, noting he draws energy from “constant learning.”

“Steve brought to our table his 30 years at Target,” notes Florness. “I can’t imagine a more different business than ours, which is exactly what we needed. We had an underdeveloped marketing operation.

Eastman describes himself as a “doer”; board service was always a sidelight. But he’s now practiced in “noses in, fingers out leadership. Our job is to bring great outside perspective, be engaged, curious. You occasionally have to check yourself, that tendency to want to get involved.”

Eastman is unstinting with his time. “Steve’s willingness to roll up his sleeves outside board meetings and understand solutions that fit Fastenal has been refreshing,” says Florness.

“I’d been in boardrooms on the management side for years,” notes Eastman. “I’ve seen a lot of variations on leadership. I have a sense of what good looks like.”

Fastenal, which went public in the 1980s, is the prototypical rural Minnesota success story: Dedicated and devoted to Winona, board members are expected to show up there for meetings (and site visits throughout the decentralized business) and understand the company’s culture. “It’s a family and community culture, very customer focused—that was Bob’s vision,” explains Satterlee.

“It’s the culture that Bob built that makes Fastenal work,” Eastman adds, “values of humility, learning, integrity, investing in people.”

Eastman also serves on the advisory board of Specialized, the northern California-based maker of specialty bicycles. It remains founder-run and privately held, and Eastman says that perspective informs his work in Winona. The lack of regulatory mandates creates a different board culture. “It’s made me a better public company board member,” Eastman says, “because we spend so much time brainstorming and critical thinking, it’s a more informal, collaborative environment.”

Eastman retired from Polaris at 2024’s end and today devotes his professional service to these two very different companies. “It’s very satisfying and humbling work,” Eastman says. “I’d recommend it to any late-career executive who wants to keep contributing.”