Keeley Culture Spotlight: Dream Builders 4 Equity

On Thursday, February 29, Keeley Companies hosted Dream Builders 4 Equity (DB4E)  for a day of listening, learning, and fun. KeeleyOne and #KeeleyCares partnered on this impactful day during Black History Month and our annual Culture Week.

Over 20 high school students from across St. Louis joined us at our St. Louis headquarters to hear from Keeley’ns on their personal career paths, have an interactive Q&A session with Keeley Companies CEO, Rusty Keeley, and hear from leadership about Keeley Companies and our world-class culture. To end the day, the group got a tour of CITYPARK and had the opportunity to ask questions about the MLS team, the team’s impact on St. Louis, and the CITYPARK construction process.

We are grateful to the Keeley’ns that took time to speak to these students and share their passions and stories of career growth:

·Ryan Bensinger serves as the Preconstruction Director for Keeley Construction. With 14 years of experience, Ryan discussed his career growth from Pre-Apprentice to Project Manager to Preconstruction Director and everything in between. Ryan also shared his favorite part about working in construction – collaborating, providing innovative solutions, and developing those around him.

·LaQuita Campbell began her construction career at Keeley Construction two and a half years ago. In those two and a half years, she has been promoted from Assistant Account Manager to Account Manager in our Paving Group. LaQuita works closely with her team and enjoys getting involved in Keeley’s culture, especially KeeleyLife.

·Rob Grzyb proudly serves as Keeley Construction’s Director of Field Operations. Rob started his construction career as a carpenter 24 years ago and worked his way up to his current role. One of Rob’s proudest accomplishments has been working on Marlowe, a true Power of One project that was also named as a Keystone Finalist and catapulted Rob into his latest promotion.

·Jessica Kruse is dedicated to the Keeley culture and helps run our Learning and Development pillar, KeeleyU. Jessica began her career at Keeley as a Learning & Development Coordinator, growing into her current role as Senior Learning Specialist. Jessica is truly dedicated to our people, most recently helping establish a construction-specific Spanish speaking course for Keeley’ns.

·Germain Kirkwood works within Keeley’s IT department, helping Keeley’ns across the nation every single day. He began his Keeley career as an IT Support Technician I, growing to a Software Administrator, and most recently being promoted to Junior Systems Analyst. Germain is grateful for being challenged to learn something new, growing his career and his team.

We are proud to partner with Dream Builders 4 Equity and support their groundbreaking vision. DB4E is actively tackling the vacant home epidemic in St. Louis by employing local minority youth and contractors to do large scale community-led development projects – putting money and equity back in the pockets of people within the community while creating workforce development and scaling minority-owned contracting businesses. Click here to learn more!