What’s on my desk – Jeff Niesen

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Jeff Niesen went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for engineering, but realized before he graduated that he was more interested in general construction than the specialized field in which he earned his degree.

“The construction side is the physical manifest of all that designing and engineering,” he said. “It’s incredibly rewarding.”

Upon realizing his shifting interests as a college undergraduate interning at Neenah-based McMahon Inc., Niesen approached the engineering firm’s then-owner, Bob McMahon, for advice. McMahon told him to call Oscar Boldt at The Boldt Co., Appleton, who agreed to give Niesen a shot as an intern during his last year of college.

Upon graduation in 1981, Niesen started working full time at Boldt as a field engineer. Now serving as vice president for construction management, Niesen has also worked as a project engineer and director of corporate training in his 30 years at the firm.

1. As vice president for construction management, Niesen juggles work on multiple projects at once. The role finds him shuffling between meetings with customers and designers, and meetings at job sites, where construction boots and a hard hat are required, he said.

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2. Although his father was in banking, Niesen said it was his dad’s “willingness to work with his hands” on projects around the house that inspired Niesen to get into construction. When Niesen graduated from college and went to work for Boldt full time, his father gave him a bronze hard hat with the name of the first project that Niesen worked on, Methodist Hospitals of Memphis. The memento is a reminder of his late father and Niesen’s own early work in the industry, he said.

3. Boldt was an early adopter of lean construction methodology, Niesen said, and he is a “champion of the process.” He stays on top of the latest books on the subject and even teaches a course on lean construction at UW-Madison. The lean practice is about “understanding value and eliminating wasteful steps in getting there,” he said. Although trying to teach students how the “real world works” can be a challenge, Niesen said, he appreciates how open his students are to learning about the process.

4. Niesen spent the first 10 years of his career with Boldt working in Memphis, Tenn., where he met his wife of 32 years, Amy. The couple, who now live in Middleton, have three children; ages 15, 17 and 20.

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5. Project renderings are as much a part of Niesen’s job as his boots and hard hat, he said. A major project he has worked on of late is the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research on the UW campus, a three-phase project that ultimately will consist of three towers. Construction is just starting on the project’s second tower, he said.

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