Written by: Brenden Nickels, Senior Office Assistant

After 39 years at Kraus-Anderson, KA Project Manager Doug Jaeger is hanging up his hard hat. Doug’s first official job at KA was for the KA Yard/Building Company mowing the lawn in 1977, but his beginnings started much before that. As a third-generation employee, Doug has been part of the KA family for a long time. While it is bittersweet that he is heading into retirement after so many years, he’s built an unforgettable legacy. And if you know Doug that legacy is filled with positivity, hard work, passion, and maybe a guitar solo here and there.  

Before he sails off into the sunset, we sat down with him to gain some insights on his long career and to talk about what he learned along the way.  

We always have to ask, why construction project management? What drew you to this field? 

The short answer, my dad. The long one: my dad was hired by Kraus-Anderson in 1956 and he started as a carpenter foreman at Methodist Hospital. He thought I’d be a good fit in the construction industry. Initially, I looked at UW-Stout for hotel and restaurant management. I wanted to own a bar and have live music (surprise, surprise). But, at that time, gas prices in 1985 were .75 cents a gallon, which was a lot at that time. No one was going to travel, but the construction industry was going to be taking off in the mid 80’s. It ended up being a great career choice for me because, in a way, hospitality ties in to the work we do: take care of people’s needs. I always say we take people’s dreams and make them their realities. 

You have quite the familial connection to KA, as a 3rd generation KA employee can you talk about what that means to you? What inspired you to follow in your father’s footsteps?  

I look at Kraus-Anderson as the major leagues, and right out of college, brought into the major leagues. So, why would I want to be a minor league star when I could be a major league contributor? I’ve known of KA’s reputation my whole life. I knew it was a great place to work that treated their people well. I also really enjoyed working with my and father. I always looked up to my dad, he was one of the hardest workers I know. But I was tested by some of the field employees, they all knew who my father was, so I had to take a little bit of light teasing at first. I was called the S.O.B. “Son of Boss,” and boy did they keep me on my toes! I wanted to be respected because of my hard work, not because of my last name. And eventually, I think they saw that I was here to be part of the team and that I was here to learn.  

By complete happenstance, I also met my wife, Kim, while working at KA. She worked in the Minneapolis South office in 1993 and had come here from California, meeting her changed my life, and the direction I wanted to go. So, KA will always be a reminder to me of the people I cherish most, my family.  

Rumor has it that you bleed KA red? Is that true?  

I always say that my heart belongs to my wife, but my butt belongs to KA. It’s passion. I have so much passion for my work and for my career at KA. When you love something it’s not really work. My firm philosophy is “TEAM: together everyone accomplishes more.” I’ve been fortunate over the years to be able to work alongside and learn from many, many talented people. And like I said before, KA has brought so many wonderful people into my life and allowed me to do so many cool things.  

I also have a lot of respect for the Engelsma family. I’ve known Bruce for many years and even though I called him “Dan” the first time I met him, I would call him a friend. He is the quiet, commanding type of leader. He doesn’t have to be the loudest in the room but when he says something it’s something that matters. Hisa Tanaka, a mentor, once told me, “The eagle is graceful bird and a powerful bird, but you don’t hear it making a lot of noise.” That is how I would describe Bruce’s, and Lloyd’s, leadership style and it’s a style that I personally, and many others, have been able to thrive and grow under.  

Rumor has it you even sold your house to keep a client happy. Can you verify this story?  

*laughs* ah yes, it’s true. We were working with a client in the residential real estate business and the people installing the carpet didn’t show up and it put us behind schedule and the client was not happy. So, to break the tension I mentioned that my wife and I were thinking about selling our house even though we weren’t, my wife was pregnant with our second child at the time… But the owner went from being upset to a concerned realtor, so thus we ended up selling our house. I don’t know if it was stupidity or brilliance, but it ended up working out well, we are still in that same house.  

Special Projects has been your bread and butter for the majority of your career. What have been some highlights for you?  

First, I don’t know what “special projects” means because I believe every project is special to that customer and we have to look at it that way. And second, all projects matter, no matter the size or scope. What I like most about working in this market sector is that it is fast paced. We are working on multiples jobs at once. We get to meet so many clients, see so many projects, work through different challenges and exercise so many different skill sets. We do all our own estimating, planning, drawing reviews and changes, managing the work and trades partners, etc. so we get to fine tune our technical and personal skills every day.  

Bob Janssen is now taking over of the group, and he has done what I’ve hoped to do back in 2010 in a matter of only a few years. He’s brought in seasoned professionals that enjoy the fast-paced nature of our work and empowered them to make their own decisions. He’s growing that group and imagining what they can do in so many creative ways.  

You’ve worked with many clients and have many established relationships that have brought KA repeat business. Are there any projects or clients that stand out to you? 

There are many interesting projects that I’ve worked on, I think I averaged throughout my career about 25/year, but your first project is the one that always sticks out. Camichael-Lynch was my first, and it was rehinging a big brass door. Our bid was for $375. And I’m happy to say, we made $25 profit, so, good for us! My first big job was at an Amoco station in New Hope.  And that got us into a partnership with Architect, North Star Engineering, where we ended up doing two other Amoco stations because they liked working with KA so much.  

I was PM in 1986 on the Twins Press Box renovation and it was my first time meeting legend Carol Sende who was a carpenter at the time, also pregnant and walking around with her tool belt. But I got to meet and work with the Twins staff, and this was the season (1987) they made it to the World Series for the first time and they asked me to come watch batting practice, which was pretty cool.  

I was at Supervalu in 1986, and we’ve worked on multiple projects with them over the decades. But in 2020, I was a project manager on a job for them that I was originally project manager on in 1989. So, we did a little renovation, so it was pretty cool to pull those old 1989 plans out.  

I have many special clients. I’ve been invited to their homes for dinner, weddings, and vacations. There was even a time my daughter had car trouble in Denver, and I called up my client who lived there and he came and rescued her. It’s stories like that and relationships like those that have made my career so rewarding.  

When you think about the contribution you and KA Special Projects have made over your tenure here, what are you especially proud of? 

I think that I have instilled in my team that all projects matter. To honor every client and every project with the care it deserves, no matter the size. I can proudly walk away saying I was fair to all the trade partners and honest with all the owners I had the privilege of working with.  

We have a really good pipeline of trades and carpenters, and not just in the special projects group, but it’s part of KA’s culture with self-perform to develop our field laborers into positions where they can grow. And that’s something that I am really proud to be a part of: developing the workforce and giving trades and field personnel the opportunity to grow into leadership positions if they want to. Recognizing their work and showing them we are proud of what they do.   

Earlier you had mentioned you thought you’d pursue a job in hospitality, are you happy you ended up where you did?  

Absolutely. In a way I feel like I still ended up working in hospitality. I still got to serve clients and heck, I have my guitar next to my desk so I still ended up bringing music into career.   

People work in places, they live in places, and somebody has to build that. We take people’s dreams, and we make them realities. This career path allows you to meet so many great people and there is also a huge sense of accomplishment. Buildings are a tangible deliverable, and I can drive around the greater Twin Cities, and even beyond, and point to many buildings that have my fingerprint on them.  

 

Who were some of your mentors throughout your career and what did they teach you? 

Obviously, my dad. Erling was a great mentor. I’m the third of four boys, and I was fortunate that he was able to coach me in all my athletics when I grew up. So, I learned how to manage people by watching him manage us little kids running around, and then, working for him, because he was my boss when I was a field laborer. I have three brothers: Tom, Dave, and Rick, for various reasons, they’ve mentored me, whether they’ve realized it or not. So, growing up with three brothers, you’ve kind of just learned different things.  

Professionally, Harlan Opheim was the first one because his office was near mine. And every morning he’d walk in with a cup of coffee and a cigarette, and he’d say, “Kid, let’s go have a cigarette and a cup of coffee and talk about it.” (This is back when you could smoke in the office.) So would we do that. And then, at the end of the day, Len Colson would walk into my office, (his office was right next to mine), He’d throw his feet on my desk and say “Okay, what did you screw up today?” And we’d talk about issues that I had on the job or subs that were difficult and they’d help me through that. 

If you had a time machine and could go back to tell your younger self one thing, what would it be? 

Have a positive attitude. A positive attitude goes a long, long way. And you don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. That’s another thing, my father taught me years ago, “Yes, you’re the estimator. Yes, you’re the project manager. But never go to the field personnel and say ‘this is how it should be done.’ You should say, ‘this is how I thought it should go, what do you think?’” Because they may have a totally different way to get to the end result that might save money, might save hours (which is money). And so, I’ve always abided by that philosophy. I share with my field superintendent, “here are the hours I figured for doing this particular task, what do you think? Because I was thinking we do this, this, and this,” and they may say, “oh no no no, we’ll come from the top and do this.” It’s about being a good communicator and having an open dialogue with your team vs. being the dictator on the job. If you’re the dictator, that’s never good, that’s not how you earn respect or even get things done efficiently. My dad also used to say, “You have two ears and one mouth for a reason. So, spend more time listening than you do talking.”  

And lastly, just do a good job and take pride in your work. Be proud of what you do and what others on your team are doing.  

Any big plans in your retirement?  

Enjoying time with my family of course. But I am on the board of directors with The Learning Jet, which is a non-profit organization that works to get youths interested in aviation careers. As someone who loves to travel, I have a personal incentive to bring new people into the industry as they are seeing a downward trend for aviation careers. We find that a lot of the time kids don’t know about the vast career opportunities in aviation. We do talk about piloting, but it goes far beyond that. From being a first responder to a technician to air traffic control, we cover all the options you may find in the industry.    

What’s unique about The Learning Jet is we uses a real plane as the classroom. It’s functioning, can’t fly, but the engines work and part of the craft are exposed so we can look at the electrical and mechanical components. We use it to stage different airline scenarios and we even host groups for people who have never flown or have a fear of flying to let them get acquainted with what it’s like being on a plane.