Close Up: Kurt Kaeser


How often do you multi-task?
All the time, it's the only way I get things done. Sometimes, I try not to but sometimes I can't help it. Never, I just can't do more than one thing at a time.

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Close Up: Kurt Kaeser
By: Staff
Issue: 2009jun

Kurt Kaeser, president and CEO of 115-year-old distributor company Kaeser & Blair, Inc. (UPIC: KAESER), grew up in the family business as grandson of one of the founders, Dutch Kaeser. Dutch and his partner, Bill Blair, purchased the company in 1923 and grew it through direct selling—an independent-dealer model that the company still uses today.

After attending Wittenberg University, Kurt joined the Batavia, Ohio-based company working side by side with hi father, Dick, who remains active in the company as chairman of the board. Kurt learned the business inside out by working in every department of the company. He assumed his current position in 1996.

How do you like to spend leisure time?
I enjoy being outdoors—both snow skiing and waterskiing with my family.

What’s a little-known fact about you?
When I was very young, I sold homegrown tomatoes at 15 cents a pound from a roadside table.

What person, living or dead, would you most like to meet and why?
I’d like to talk with two people—Dutch Kaeser and Bill Blair—to learn how they came together for Kaeser & Blair and came up with such a great business model that has served so many for so very long.

When did you know you wanted to wok in this industry?
I probably knew when I was 10 years ld and going to work with my father on Saturday mornings. I always got such a thrill out of finding treasures in the sample room.

What promotional product do you wish you had invented and why?
Stress relievers. They are such simple products with such a great variety of fun, clever twists.

If you had a motto, what would it be?
Dealer dedicated—devoted—and oriented.

What’s your dream vacation destination and have you been there?
We enjoy Northern Michigan in the summer for the fresh air, cool temperatures and clean waters. In the winter, we enjoy the snow skiing. We go there often, just not often enough.

Where do you get creative inspiration?
I get creative at home, at the end of the day. It’s calm, quite and gives me an opportunity to think.

If you had to choose a different career, what would it be?
I’d be a builder because I enjoy the sense of accomplishment in seeing a newly built, finished home.

How do you relive stress?
I work in the yard and garden.

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