Who We Are
Founded originally as Keller Structures Inc. in 1960 by veteran builder Walter Keller, the “Keller” name has grown throughout the years to evolve into Keller, Inc.; an award winning single-source design/build firm headquartered in Kaukauna, WI, with offices in Madison, Milwaukee and Wausau. As a 100% employee owned company, Keller, Inc.’s employee-owners pride themselves on designing and building every project as if it were their own.
ESOP Culture
Walter Keller oversaw the company’s conversion from a family-owned business to an employee-owned enterprise through an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) in 1986. Throughout the years, the company slowly transitioned the ownership, and by 2005, Keller was 100% employee-owned.
Although Walter retired as Keller’s President in 1989, his original values of integrity, honesty and commitment to putting our customers first still inspires todays highly dedicated professional and field staff. Led today by President and CEO, Wayne Stellmacher, Keller is still following Walter’s founding principles to treat all employees, subcontractors and customers the way they would like to be treated, to do business with integrity and honesty and especially, “To build every building as if it were our own”.
With over 260 employee-owners, it’s not uncommon for someone to spend their entire career at Keller. In fact, some of our current employees have been with the company for 40+ years! Being employee-owned, we constantly celebrate the value that our employees bring to the greater team, as well as the commitment they’ve given to the team by dedicating most of their lives to our company.
The Keller Difference
When Keller originated, our focus was almost exclusively on large-scale agricultural structures, and it wasn’t until the 1980’s that Keller expanded their expertise into other industries when the commercial market began to take off. Keller now specializes in all types of commercial, industrial and agricultural buildings, and we remain true to our design/build process. Our design/build process allows us to accept full responsibility for the design and construction of every project. Design/Build means that our customers have a single point of contact with the expertise of our on-staff team of architects, interior designers, and project managers who are fully dedicated to their satisfaction — just one source for our customers to keep everything on track, on time and within budget. This process gives our customers more time to plan for opportunities and possibilities with no time spent worrying about the proper coordination of a separate architect and builder.
One measure of a construction company’s dedication is the strength of its job-site safety efforts. At Keller, we’ve made safety a top priority. Our efforts at accident prevention start at the highest levels of business management. The comprehensive set of safety guidelines we’ve developed train every Keller employee in practices and procedures that protect them from injury. These efforts have more than paid off. Keller is known throughout the industry for having one of the finest safety records in the state. Our commitment has especially captured the attention of our insurance providers. This has given us one of the best ratings a construction company can earn, which result in cost savings that we are able to pass on to the customer.
Mission: To provide design/build construction services to all of our clients in the following manner:
- To conduct our business with unyielding integrity and honesty.
- To complete every project as if we were building for ourselves.
- To treat all Clients, Co-Owners, Subcontractors, and Vendors the way we would want to be treated.
Founded: 1960
Number of employee – owners (all office locations + field staff): 265