#44 Kurt Kaeser & Liza Sachs

Kaeser & Blair (asi/238600)

2021 Rank: #31 and N/A 

Kurt Kaeser – CEO

Industry Experience: 39 years

Previous Appearances on Power 50: 16

Liza Sachs – Director of Sales & Vendor Relations

Industry Experience: 26 years

Previous Appearances on Power 50: 0

Kaeser (the third-generation leader of the 128-year-old Top 40 distributor) made some key hires this year, including industry veteran Liza Sachs, who has experience with both Top 40 distributors and sup­pliers. In her new role, Sachs has been the catalyst for strategic changes with K&B’s sales team and supplier partners. According to Sachs, K&B experienced strong organic sales growth in 2022. “And we made quite a few internal changes and investments for our future,” she says. “We’ve aligned our internal operations to more of a team format to help us with workflow and communications. Since we had some long-time employees retire, we worked diligently on documentation of our Knowledge Management system. These priorities have set a new standard for our team and will continue to help as we create the future growth of K&B.” 

Meanwhile, Kaeser continues to plant the seeds for the future; his sons Brad and Mitch took on executive roles within the firm and “are learning from the ground up,” says Sachs, “to ensure they have the baseline to run the company for generations to come.” Though lower influence ratings in this year’s industry survey contributed to a 13-spot drop for Kaeser on this year’s Power 50, Kaeser and Sachs have the firm positioned for success after a 3% increase in sales in 2021 and the continued rebound of traditional promo items and overall expanding busi­ness within its network. Plus, their focus on providing a family atmosphere has once again landed the company on Counselor’s Best Places to Work list.