Kim Bassett-Heitzmann’s highest hurdle in her quest to become Bassett Mechanical’s leader was to convince her new 
co-workers she wasn’t just a blood hire with the right name. Twelve years later, she cleared the bar — and kept going.

 “I had to prove that it wasn’t nepotism and just handed the reins,” Bassett-Heitzmann says of the 1996 day she walked into Bassett Mechanical as a sales staffer with no experience — not even at selling a Girl Scout cookie during her Barbie doll days.
As the third-generation heir apparent to the chief executive officer’s chair, she knew workers’ respect at this Kaukauna-based company had to be earned. So, the daughter of the then-current chief executive and great niece of the man who started the business in 1936 implemented her strategic plan to learn company operations from the ground up.

She worked everywhere. She started in sales, then project management, as an estimator and alongside the two unions of sheet metal and pipe fitter workers, sometimes up to her elbows in itchy insulation.

 “That was a way to learn the various aspects, the various strengths and weaknesses,” she says. “I had to earn the title and the role I have today.”

Tom Wiltzius, Bassett-Heitzmann’s executive coach, recommended the heavy-lifting plan. “Particularly in a family-owned business, you have to demonstrate that you have earned your way in,” he says. “She pursued that with enthusiasm. She was carrying pipe and listening to the language of the field.”

In December 2009, after serving as chief operations officer for approximately two years, she was elected president and chief executive officer by the company’s board.

Gender has nothing to do with being an effective corporate leader, Bassett-Heitzmann says. “Whether you’re a male or a female, there isn’t any differentiation.”

What differentiates this chief executive – with a penchant for the Lean principles pioneered by Toyota Motor Corporation – is her dedication to people at Bassett Mechanical and in the community.

In 2009, she was given the Athena Award by the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry for outstanding professional work and her contributions to community groups including Goodwill Industries, Harbor House Domestic Abuse Shelter and the Wisconsin Family Business Forum.

Vincent Gallucci, senior vice president of Menasha’s Affinity Health System and a Bassett board member, calls Bassett-Heitzmann a talented and terrific business leader. “Kim seeks the opinion of her executive team, the employees and most importantly the customer to help drive business decisions,” he says.

The company is at record employment (about 340) in an international market – building projects including deep-sea living quarters for divers in the Gulf of Mexico, solar hot water systems for area medical centers, and environmentally friendly refrigeration systems for companies such as Heinz.

But Bassett-Heitzmann’s professional life actually began in a hospital rehabilitation unit.

KIM THE KID
Bassett-Heitzmann was a normal kid. She had a Barbie doll, and played with LEGO pieces and Tinkertoys. She grew up in Appleton, the daughter of Bill Bassett, who purchased Bassett Mechanical from his uncle in 1974.

 “I didn’t realize how fortunate I was to be part of a family business and growing up with these people,” she says. Her role model is her father, who lives the values of caring and respecting people in the home and in the community.
Joining the family business meant one thing to her as a kid — becoming an engineer. “The last thing I wanted to do was be an engineer,” she says.

Her father never tried to force her into the business. “He always let me know that the business was there, but there was never any guilt or statement such as, ‘I am building this for you.’ I came in for reasons of my own.”

But it wasn’t a direct route.

She enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and landed in a communications disorder class that “sparked” her interest. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in speech pathology.

Her first job was at a rehabilitation unit at St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay. She worked with infants to geriatric patients dealing with head injuries, strokes and degenerative diseases.

She loved it, but realized after more than three years on the job, it wasn’t her life’s work. “I approached my dad and said I was looking to come into the family business,” she says.

Bassett-Heitzmann’s career epiphany led her back to the classroom. This time, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. She earned her master’s degree in construction management and headed for Bassett Mechanical.

LEAN, LISTEN, LEAD
In 2009, Bassett Mechanical was given the Wisconsin Family Business of the Year Award from Smith & Gesteland, Associated Bank and DeWitt Ross & Stevens SC. And, in 2007, Bassett Mechanical was named Manufacturer of the Year in the statewide program sponsored by Michael Best & Friedrich LLC; Virchow, Krause & Company LLP; and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

The company was cited for its history of high performance facilities, social responsibility and use of the Lean principles key to Bassett-Heitzmann’s leadership style.

 “It isn’t top down. It is the people who work here,” she says explaining that Lean principles seek input from all level workers concerning efficiencies and constant improvement in all areas.

It’s worked, she says.

 “One of the reasons we have done well is because of Lean principles. We’ve adapted to the changing markets,” she says. Declines in paper and other markets meant finding new ones in renewable energies. “Today, through our strategic planning, we are making the shift on a global scale. We are shipping equipment to places all over the world… The economy has forced that. It’s the new normal.”

She is proud of the company’s health and wellness employee programs, safety record, and its environmentally friendly operations and products. “We, as an organization, are about sustainability — and Lean is part of that sustainability.”

While Bassett Mechanical specializes in customized work for a variety of clients, the company’s growth could come from the green economy. The U.S. Department of Energy in January 2010 awarded Bassett Mechanical an advanced manufacturing tax credit of $943,500 to expand into the wind industry and carbon capture technologies.

Whatever the future holds, Bassett-Heitzmann is confident the company will thrive.

 “If you take care of your people and show them respect, they will enjoy coming to work every day,” she says, adding they in turn will take good care of the company, customers and vendors. “I love what I do every day.

 “I’m having a blast and looking forward to the next few decades.” 


Green before it was cool
Refrigeration service and commercial air conditioners were the first lines of work when Al Bassett opened Bassett Mechanical in 1936. His brother, Charlie Bassett, joined the company in 1945, and the company’s push to environmentally friendly ammonia refrigeration products began in the late 1940s.

Bill Bassett, the son of Charlie Bassett, took over the company in 1974. Under his leadership, the company grew from 32 workers to more than 300. Bill Bassett’s daughter, Kim Bassett-Heitzmann, serves as chief executive officer and president, making her the third generation to lead the now 75-year-old company.

Bassett Mechanical is unique in that it does not manufacture the same products repeatedly. Instead, the mechanical contractor specializes in customized work for a variety of clients in food processing, renewable energy, ships and yachts, paper, foundries and more.

The company’s adaptability to change with the markets is what will keep this family-owned business around and growing for a long time. The company’s long-standing green focus will also keep business booming.

As one employee put it: “Bassett was green, long before it was cool.”

Around the time of the Clean Air Act amendments in 1990, Bassett Mechanical starting promoting its use of the ammonia refrigeration to replace chlorofluorocarbons and chlorofluorohydrocarbons, also known as CC and CHFC refrigerants. Ammonia does not contribute to ozone depletion and is about 15 percent more energy efficient. 

And in January 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded Bassett Mechanical an advanced manufacturing tax credit of $943,500 to expand into the wind industry and carbon capture technologies.

Photos by Shanna Wolf

By Joanne Haas

Joanne M. Haas is a freelance reporter, writer and editor living in Madison, Wis.