Empowered to Exceed Expectations
Joe Phillip
I would like to recognize Joe Philipp for his continued dedication and outstanding efforts on the IKO Project. Joe has consistently taken the initiative in managing and organizing the equipment trailers, maintaining a clean and organized worksite, and proactively identifying and addressing safety and MSHA compliance issues. His commitment to operational excellence, site organization, and workplace safety has made a significant contribution to the success of the project and is greatly appreciated.
Alyssa Grimm
I’d like to recognize Alyssa for the outstanding job done with this year’s intern class. The caliber of the interns reflects the time and effort Alyssa put into vetting and selecting great candidates. Beyond bringing in talented individuals, Alyssa helped create an exceptional first impression of Keeley by ensuring the interns felt welcomed, supported, and engaged from day one. As discussed in the capstone, the quality of the intern class was exceptional, I hope all Business Units had the same experience and gain some great future leaders from this. Thank you, Alyssa, for helping set the stage for a successful and meaningful internship experience.
Duilio Plasencia
Discipline is shown through hard times, and Duilio has shown that through the way he continues to lead when things get difficult. Even with the pressure of taking on multiple projects, schedule changes, and challenges on the job, he continues to support the team and keep everyone moving in the right direction. That kind of leadership makes a difference, and I appreciate the example he sets for the Hutto, Texas team.
Samantha Ragon
I would like to recognize Samantha Ragon for the outstanding leadership, dedication, and effort that contributed to the successful planning and go live of CMiC Nexus 1. While this achievement was made possible through a strong team effort, Sam was instrumental in bringing that team together, coordinating activities across workstreams, keeping the project on track, and ensuring everyone had what they needed to execute successfully. Sam worked tirelessly throughout the planning process and weekend cutover, helping the team navigate challenges, stay aligned, and maintain focus on a successful outcome. Because of her preparation, leadership, and commitment, the company experienced minimal downtime and was able to get back into CMiC quickly on Monday morning. When a few minor blockers arose, Sam addressed them promptly, collaborated with the appropriate teams, and kept the implementation moving forward without losing momentum.This was a great team accomplishment, and Sam's leadership was instrumental to its success. Thank you, Sam, for your dedication, leadership, and outstanding work in helping make this go live a success.
Michael Brantley
As many of you may know, we are launching a new Keeley intranet site. This will be the new one-stop shop for most things Keeley while also implementing an artificial intelligence approach to how we find and access information. Michael Brantley has stepped in and owned every task assigned to him along the way. His work has helped us get our existing SharePoint content available for indexing so that we can begin Phase One of testing and work toward providing a better experience for everyone at Keeley. Michael has scheduled working sessions with engineers to troubleshoot roadblocks, proactively created service accounts to help prevent future outages, and provided ideas on how we can get the most out of Guru now and in the future. This process truly is the backbone of this rollout, and without Michael's work, we would not be going into our scheduled sessions with stakeholders with the confidence that we have. There is still a lot of work to do, but thank you, Michael, for everything you have done so far and for making this process easier for all of us.
Oscar Miranda
Great leader and mentor going above and beyond for the project. Working long hours and days while ensuring project success and delivery. Always keeping a positive attitude and strong work ethic.
Njeri Mwaura
I just wanted to take a moment to thank Njeri Mwaura for everything she did for me the day before I left for vacation. What started as a really stressful and unsettling situation quickly became much more manageable because of her help and support. She took the time to calm me down, ask the right questions, and make sure I was taken care of after I realized I had been the victim of a social engineering attack. I truly appreciate how patient and reassuring she was throughout the whole process. What meant the most to me was that she stayed after hours to reset my email and make sure I could successfully log in before I left for PTO. Njeri absolutely did not have to go above and beyond like that, but she did—and it made such a difference. Thank you for being so kind, thorough, and willing to help when I really needed it. I’m incredibly grateful for the way you took care of me that day. You’re a rockstar, Njeri!
Josh Ridler
I would like to recognize Josh Ridler for truly demonstrating what it means to be Empowered to Exceed Expectations. After I was involved in a vehicle accident while leaving work, I called 911 and then reached out to him. Without hesitation, he came to the scene. From the moment he arrived, he was calm, composed, and reassuring during an extremely stressful situation. He immediately stepped in and took care of the things I was not in a good head space to manage myself. He contacted our Risk Officer, documented the scene by taking pictures, gathered the necessary information from the other party involved, and made sure the important details were documented. Once everything at the scene was taken care of, he made sure I got back to where I needed to go safely. What makes his actions even more meaningful is that he was on his way to a Business Development dinner. Helping me was not his responsibility, yet he put his own plans aside and stayed until he knew the situation was handled and I was taken care of. To me, this is exactly what Empowered to Exceed Expectations looks like. He didn't wait to be asked what needed to be done. He recognized what was needed, took ownership, and acted. During a moment when I was overwhelmed and unable to think through everything that needed to happen, his calm leadership made an incredible difference. I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL that he chose to show up when I needed help, and I believe his actions deserve to be recognized as an exceptional example of going above and beyond.
Stacey Kamps
Stacey Kamps served as the quarterback of the overall Paragon acquisition. From managing adjustments during the final days to ensuring our legal reviews were completed, she kept the team and process on track throughout the deal. Closing an acquisition like this requires countless hours, strong leadership and incredible attention to detail—and Stacey brought all three. Very impressive work!
Josh Ridler and Anna Hershberger
Anna Hershberger was in a car accident leaving our Corporate HQs in STL on Monday evening (8/17/26) and after a receiving a call from her, Josh Ridler jumped in to help, left the office to go be with her and assist. The other participant in the accident was a non-licensed driver in a non-registered vehicle, and the driver was belligerent and inaccurately accusatory in nature. As part of our culture, we support one another in the good and the bad ..... regardless of time of day or in a professional or personal category. Josh dropped everything to go help out as best he could and knew how.
Michael Gentry and Mark Deeton
While performing a site audit at project Dynamo. Mike Gentry and Mark Deeton observed barricades without tags attached. They stopped work in the area, quickly addressed the situation, and ensured this requirement was met with the proper information notated on the tag. In the same area they addressed spark containment and grounding near work with the crew members.
Michael Brantley, Matthew Senechal, Matt Burnette, and Matt Shari
Without these four individuals, I wouldn't have had such a successful return from vacation. They worked very hard to keep up with all the hardware requests that dramatically increased while I was gone. Thank you so much for all your help and for making a huge difference!
Stephanie Keller, April Lopinot, and Morgan Calvert
April Lopinot, Stephanie Keller and Morgan Calvert did an outstanding job supporting our new employees and partners immediately following the Paragon acquisition. April and Stephanie demonstrated exceptional leadership, organization and planning to onboard the entire team, establish benefits and union requirements, and coordinate with the seller so every employee was paid accurately and on time during the first week after closing. For employees going through a major transition, receiving that first paycheck without disruption was incredibly important. At the same time, Stephanie and Morgan worked with our bank to make the first payments to Paragon’s suppliers and partners on the Tuesday immediately following closing. Their care, urgency and execution gave our new employees and partners confidence that they were in good hands from day one. I am extremely appreciative of the leadership and teamwork it took to make this happen!
Callaghan Stamer, Thomas Emory, Matt Shari, and Jeff Britsch
A huge thank you to Callaghan Stamer, Thomas Emory, Matt Shari, Jeff Britsch, and the Eagle Mountain team for their outstanding work delivering the latest Time Tracking enhancements. The team coordinated across multiple groups to validate complex union pay and time-tracking rules, work through employee badging dependencies, and complete real-world testing that could not be replicated in a traditional test environment. They also completed site configuration, established the job, crew, and face code structures needed for rollout, and coordinated training, deployment planning, and implementation activities to position Eagle Mountain for success. This team demonstrated Discipline through the persistence and attention to detail required to thoroughly validate complex rules, Respect by listening to the needs of the field and incorporating real-world feedback, and Empowerment by taking ownership across teams and driving the work through implementation. Their efforts improved the consistency and accuracy of labor time capture, streamlined field operations, and created a scalable foundation for future Time Tracking deployments.
