Duane Mueller

Chief Executive Officer
Cissell Mueller Construction, Inc.

Location: St. Peters, MO
Founded: 1992
Industry: Construction

When Duane Mueller was young, his dad taught him that you cannot get promoted unless you train your replacement. This philosophy has stayed with him throughout his career and now as the CEO of Cissell Mueller Construction Inc., a design/build commercial general contracting company.

“You have to excel at your current position and make it easy to be promoted,” said Mueller. “That’s why we hire for talent and are willing to train people for almost everything else they need to be successful in a role.”

Mueller believes that if you have smart, motivated people, they can fill nearly every role imaginable. With a highly-qualified team, Cissell Mueller has become a leader in the industry by self-performing carpentry, demolition and cleanup and excavation work. “We provide professional construction management, pre-construction and engineering services that save our clients time and money, and we seek to be a partner, not just during the project phase, but long after the project is complete,” said Mueller.

Cissell Mueller is also committed to moving the community forward by focusing on industries such as student housing, nursing homes, banks, retail chains, churches, manufacturing facilities and medical facilities. Mueller wasn’t always interested in the construction business, though. “I really wanted to be a farmer; however, at the time I was graduating high school, most farmers were going bankrupt,” Mueller said. “So, instead, I worked my way through college as a commercial carpenter.”

Mueller learned that if you work hard, others will take note, mentor and teach you. That’s why he has positioned his company to focus on mentoring staff while adopting technology to better serve his clients.

Mueller has also branched into energy by co-founding NGFS Energy Infrastructure, which focuses on the construction of natural gas fueling stations and retrofitting maintenance service facilities for the transportation industry.

Mueller attributes the company’s success to the strong relationships with his tradesmen, carpenters, laborers and operators. “We have learned from them, and we see that these relationships and the story behind the person matter,” he said. “We can teach each other something new and continue learning together.”

What Mueller is most proud of is the reputation that his companies have built, and the differences made in his family and his employees’ families. “We have built a successful enterprise and it appears that we will be able to pass it on to the next generation who have their own ideas and vision of success,” said Mueller.

For his continued success as a leader, Mueller has been named a Titan.