
January 13, 2025
NEENAH – After nearly 50 years of leadership at Miron Construction Co., Inc., former President/CEO David G. “Dave” Voss, Jr. has transitioned to chairman of the board, as current COO/former Vice President Kippenhan transitioned to president/COO.
Per the company’s announcement, as chairman of the board, Dave will continue to support, guide and influence various areas of the business.
“Miron Construction has been my life’s work, and I am infinitely proud of what we’ve built,” he said. “I know the future is in good hands with the entire leadership group, as they have the vision, experience and heart to lead Miron toward ongoing success.”
Dave said he’s excited to “play a new role” in the future of the organization and in support of the Miron team.
“They have given me so much to be grateful for, and the evolution of my role will allow me the time and space to celebrate their ongoing commitment to building legacies,” he said.
Though the transitions became official as of Jan. 1, Kippenhan said the multi-year succession plan began more than two years ago and continues as several Miron leaders absorb Voss’s former duties.
However, one such duty – Dave’s unofficial role as “Miron Chief Cheerleader” – Kippenhan said, could only ever be fulfilled by Dave, who will continue to visit project sites and community organizations to share his deep gratitude and support.
“Dave has always been a great cheerleader to everyone at Miron and has pushed all of us to do things that we may never have conceived, and I’m personally grateful for that,” Kippenhan said. “Dave is also one of the most generous individuals I have met, and that has obviously influenced all of us at Miron and been ingrained in our culture.”
Family tradition
Kippenhan said his and Voss’s families have co-led Miron “for nearly 60 years.”
Per Miron’s website (miron-construction.com), Patrick G. Miron – Dave’s maternal grandfather – founded the company in 1918 as a local masonry shop.
A reorganization with additional family investors in the 1950s ultimately led to consolidated ownership by the Voss and Kippenhan families in the 1970s.
Dave originally co-led Miron with Kippenhan’s father, Greg, and Pat Voss, until 2003 when Kippenhan assumed co-ownership with Dave.
Kippenhan said though Miron has grown, he still thinks of it “as a small, family company – that has the ability to do construction projects of any magnitude and complexity.”
“I look forward to maintaining that family collaboration now and into the future,” he said.
Path to presidency
Even in light of familial ties, Kippenhan said working for Miron wasn’t always in his plans.
“When I first went to school (at Michigan Technological University), I did not intend on being in construction,” he said. “I actually went to school originally for mechanical engineering, and in my second year of schooling, all of a sudden it kind of clicked that this wasn’t what I wanted to do.”
At this point, Kippenhan said he “got the construction bug” and switched degrees, ultimately graduating from Michigan Tech with a civil engineering degree.
Still, he said, he had no intentions to apply his acquired skills at Miron, nor did his father – then co-leading the company – want him to.
“People laugh at this – my dad and I had an agreement that once I graduated, I wanted to actually live somewhere else, and he also thought it was very beneficial to work for a different contractor rather than come back,” Kippenhan said. “And very honestly, it was. It was awesome for me to get different experiences working for somebody else, getting a behind-the-scenes look at a different contractor.”
For several years, then, Kippenhan said he worked for a national contractor on the West Coast.
“Miron was a much smaller firm at the time,” he said, “and actually I had intended to work for the contractor (on the West Coast) for a much longer time.”
Eventually, Kippenhan said he returned to Wisconsin and was able to begin working at Miron’s first satellite office in Wausau as a project manager, handling projects in central and northern Wisconsin.
“After four years, I then moved back to the Fox Valley to continue project management duties for select clients,” he said. “I oversaw project management department activities, as well as began to become involved in some of the corporate side of the business. Eventually, I assumed ownership from my dad, Greg, and evolved into a multitude of additional duties over the years including involvement with business development, preconstruction activities and project management activities across the company.”
As the years of experience became decades, Kippenhan said he recognized the possibility of one day becoming president of the company.
“I could kind of see the roadmap of what was potentially out there,” he said. “But also, it wasn’t forced, as far as from my dad and from Dave. It was, ‘do you want this?’ and ‘prove yourself.’ It wasn’t just going to be handed to anybody, from that perspective.”
Kippenhan has now been with Miron for more than 30 years, though, he said “it does not feel like it has been that long.”
“In reality, I love the opportunity to be involved in the variety of the projects and the people that we interact with every day – so it really does not feel like ‘work’ most days,” he said.
As a self-described “methodical, strategic thinker,” Kippenhan said his time with the company and the enjoyment of the experience informed his measured decision to take on the new role.
He said the full leadership team has worked a great deal and for quite some time to ensure a smooth transition.
“The announcement came out (in late 2024), which surprised some people, but for the most part, this has been known – everyone within the company has known for the last two years of this plan and understands that we all have a job to do,” he said. “And the fun thing about it for me, at Miron, is I can roll up my sleeves – it doesn’t matter about titles and positions. (When) we have a problem, we’re going to solve it, and we all jump in the trenches to get it figured out. We want to continue that mentality going forward.”
More on Miron
As Miron has grown, so has the range and complexity of the company’s projects, Kippenhan said.
“We do a lot of maintenance projects in mills and industry that can be $1,000, up to projects that are a couple hundred million dollars alone,” he said. “We always have different capabilities, but also (for) a lot of the clients that we work for and develop that relationship with, we started doing $1,000 jobs, and it turns into $10,000 jobs, and then eventually you’ll have a capital expansion for $10 million. Those relationships were built on small projects to eventually delve into really large projects.”
Kippenhan said treating each project with equal importance, regardless of scope, has been vital to Miron’s growth.
“The $1,000 job that you’re doing to replace a door or something like that – to that particular project manager, or to that facilities manager, it’s just as important as a capital outlay,” he said.
Another aspect that’s helped the company, as well as the broader construction industry, to prosper, Kippenhan said, is diligent effort to maximize safety.
“Our industry is full of potential hazards, and to think years ago it was just accepted that accidents and injuries would occur,” he said. “That perspective changed within the industry along with a majority of clients – that it was no longer acceptable, and with proper training and planning many of these risks could be completely removed.”
Kippenhan said in his time at Miron he’s also seen the company and the industry improve construction scheduling.
“Thirty years ago, many construction sites did not continue through winter weather, which then extended project durations,” he said. “Over the years, the industry has learned how to schedule and build around the inclement weather impacts, as well as incorporate more prefabrication into the construction process, to allow projects to be efficient and allow for reduced building durations.”
Beyond safety and scheduling, Kippenhan said Miron’s increased investments in its craftspeople and equipment, as well as taking even greater care of clients, have led to projects spanning “all over the Midwest and country, which has provided us flexibility and stability.”
In conjunction with this growth, he said, Miron has expanded beyond its Neenah headquarters (1471 McMahon Drive) to a total of five satellite offices in Wisconsin, one in Marquette, Michigan, and another in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Of course, the progression has not been without its lessons, Kippenhan said, nor its humility.
“We were a smaller firm – and regarded by that (judgment) – and then to take on some of these larger projects, I think it took us a long time to overcome that perception that we could handle larger projects accordingly,” he said. “We tell people that when we grew the business, we were growing too fast at certain times. So, we’re not afraid to admit when we made mistakes, how we fix them and how we get better for it all the time.”
Though Kippenhan said he understands the growth of Miron’s range of clientele and projects often gets the spotlight, he said to him, it’s the growth of its people that’s the real story.
“We have assembled a truly special group that understands it takes all of us to be successful, and we appreciate everyone’s hard work and dedication each and every day,” Kippenhan said. “That said, as everyone at Miron will tell you, I will continue to push all of us to be better every day as we look forward to the future with the entire team.”
Looking ahead
Among the challenges he anticipates Miron facing in the future, Kippenhan said, is the determination of which projects to take on, particularly those outside of the region.
Though he said Miron has worked in 27 different states, the company’s evolution from regional to national contractor must consider its capabilities to support clientele accordingly.
Regarding building materials, resources and costs, Kippenhan said the entire industry was taught “a lot of life lessons” by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Staffing has also presented another contemporary challenge, he said, albeit one Miron’s worked to preemptively overcome.
“(For) the hiring side of things, we put in place intern programs and apprenticeship programs,” he said. “We’ve seen the writing on the wall that our industry as a whole has been getting older (in its) workforce, so we started many years ago trying to further develop (those programs), knowing that is a key component of having a great staff.”
All considered, Kippenhan said he sees a bright future for Miron.
“We do anticipate 2025 and the next few years to be quite busy based on what we have under contract, as well as what we continue to pursue both in the region and throughout the country where our clients have taken us,” he said. “We do have a plan for structured growth over the next few years, so we continue to expend a significant amount of time in training and mentoring in order to support all levels throughout the company.”
Kippenhan said he considers the work to be a privilege, finding it rewarding “to see clients’ dreams come to life,” while also affording the opportunity to give back to communities via the Miron Volunteer Program (MVP) and supporting organizations like United Way, Boys & Girls Clubs, the YMCA and many more.
He said his tenure with Miron is all the more special because of his familial connection.
“My grandfather was in the business, my dad was in the business and I have a son right now that’s a project manager – so he’s potentially coming into the business at some point, too,” he said. “One of (Miron’s) core values is ‘building legacies,’ and I guess I look at this (transition) as kind of a stepping stone, building a legacy from the Miron perspective, but also from a family perspective. It’s pretty cool.”
It’s an honor, Kippenhan said, to build upon the “incredible legacy that Dave has crafted.”
“His vision, leadership and unwavering commitment have shaped Miron into what it is today,” Kippenhan said. “I am especially thankful that Dave will continue to play an integral role in our organization. His guidance and expertise are vital as we navigate this next chapter together.”