From within Kwame Building Group, the employees can already feel the cultural shift taking place, said Joshua Randall, 38, president of the St. Louis-based minority-owned construction management firm with offices in eight states.
Last week, Kwame announced its transition into an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), allocating 49 percent of the previously family-owned business to its 60 employees.
At the same time, Kwame also promoted Randall to president, from his previous role as vice president of business development. Randall said that he and Tony Thompson, founder and CEO of Kwame, started talking about the transition into his leadership and the ESOP about a year ago.
“It’s been Tony’s vision as long as I’ve been at the company to transition into an ESOP as a means of giving employees the opportunity to continue to benefit from the organization,” Randall said.
Randall joined Kwame as a sales engineer in 2004 and has been instrumental in the firm’s record growth over the past seven years, despite the downturn in construction and the economy. When Randall looks back at his time with Kwame, he said one thing that stands out is the opportunity Thompson gave him to lead.
“When I started with Kwame, I was 30 years old, and Tony gave me enough rope to either hang myself or build a bridge,” he said. “That is his leadership style. I am appreciative of the opportunity that he has given me and the trust that he has in my leadership.”
Thompson has become the chairman of the board and will remain CEO. As president, Randall will be in charge of running the organization’s day-to-day operations. Thompson, who founded Kwame Building Group in 1991, refers to his new role as “chief visionary.”
“Through the ESOP and the top management changes, we are bringing strength to the core of our organization,” said Thompson. “We also have established a high-powered, top-tier Board of Directors to guide us. Together we will bring renewed energy and excitement about our future to Kwame Building Group.”
Since the company’s founding, Thompson said he has focused on solid ethics, integrity, and proven corporate systems and practices. Kwame is also a diversity role model in an industry that often struggles to meet minority and women participation goals, Thompson said. Three-fourths of the overall KWAME staff and 83 percent of the leadership team, from executives to first-level managers, are minority and women.
Nearly 40 Kwame employees have worked towards advanced degrees through the company’s generous tuition reimbursement program, and Kwame has contributed more than $1 million in scholarships and endowments to universities across the country.
“We provide leadership opportunities to many who traditionally have not had those opportunities in the architecture, engineering, construction industries,” Thompson said.
Randall said several other companies within the architectural and engineering industries have adopted employee-ownership plans. However, he does not know of any other minority-owned firm in the field that has made that transition, he said.
“It’s interesting to look out over the landscape of minority-owned businesses. You could count on two hands the minority-owned businesses that have made transitions from the founding generation to the next generation,” Randall said.
“We are positioning the company for longevity and continued growth. We just celebrated 20 years. Tony’s vision is to use this transition to position Kwame for the next 20 years.”
Kwame plans to expand both in domestic markets and internationally, Randall said. Kwame is based in St. Louis with offices in Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Seattle.
Pulaski Bank is financing the ESOP. Pulaski Bank president Tom Reeves gave Kwame their first line of credit in 1992, when he was with Mark Twain Bank.
In 2005 Randall was promoted to director of business development and to vice president in 2006. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in electrical engineering. Randall began his career at Hewlett-Packard where he exceeded his sales goal by 150 percent. He later joined LuxN Inc., a fiber optic startup where he secured a multi-million-dollar contract with Time Warner.
At Kwame, Randall secured numerous multi-million dollar contracts with clients across the country, including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport, the Port Authority of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, St. Louis Community College, Harris-Stowe State University, St. Louis Public Schools and others.
“It will important that we are all counting the pennies to make sure that the decisions made are in the best interest of the organization as a whole,” Randall said, “and we continue to bring other talented individuals into the organization.”
