Dave Kievet

Dave Kievet got his professional start as a construction laborer, hauling garbage cans full of lath and plaster down three flights of stairs and emptying them in a dumpster. He has made a steady, successful climb in the construction industry since then, rising to president of The Boldt Company today.

“My career is proof that if you keep focused and disciplined, you can accomplish your goals,” he said.

The Boldt Company is a construction management and contracting firm focused on design, development, construction and facilities management.

Kievet started working for the company in 1990 as a field engineer on a large pulp and paper project in Central Wisconsin. That one-project assignment had no guarantees for further employment, but Kievet did enough to gain additional opportunities with the company. Those opportunities grew into larger assignments as he proved himself along the way. He rose through the ranks of the company to general manager of the company’s Wisconsin River Valley office.

Kievet found efficiencies that created faster project delivery times and lower costs for customers while boosting profitability for the company. When the pulp and paper industry declined in 2004, Kievet shifted focus to healthcare. He introduced the integrated project delivery method that is now known throughout the industry. In 2018, Kievet was promoted to chief operations officer and in 2020 he was named president. In his current role, Kievet continues to set the vision for the company to “build great buildings through building great relationships,” the company said.

Kievet established The Boldt Company’s offices in San Francisco and Sacramento. The operation has grown in revenue from zero to over $200 million annually and competes head-to-head with the largest construction firms in the nation.

“What I aspire to do is to create the best construction company in the industry,” Kievet said. “The way that I will do that is to create a company that will provide our employees the best environment to help them create their best lives. To help them to achieve, and exceed, their goals and desires. Done properly, I believe that we will continue to remain a market leader.”

Kievet is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering and has earned his pilot’s license. He is also a member of the Construction Industry Round Table (CIRT), the United Way campaign committee and Rotary Club.

“(Kievet’s) overall vision for his future is very simple, to set his organization on the track that will allow them to continue to thrive,” his team said, “and then to be able to step away at a point where the leadership is so well distributed that no one will recognize that he had left.”