In December, our President / CEO Dan Kazmierczak announced that he will be retiring after 50 years of service to Binkelman. The company will remain in family hands, though.
Dan’s son Brian and daughter Rebecca will assume ownership in 2024. Get to know our new owners below.
Rebecca Conrad
Rebecca has been with Binkelman for 25 years. After graduating with a Business degree from Miami University, she moved to Chicago where she worked with the consulting firms Price Waterhouse and Hewitt Associates.
Since joining our team in 1999, she’s learned the business by working in different departments, including customer service and then as an Account Manager. While she always had a hand in marketing and event planning, she took on the Marketing Director role full time in 2018.
Rebecca has volunteered with many organizations. She served as a board member for the Anthony Wayne YMCA and assisted with fundraising for many youth sports teams. She was the first and – to date – the only female president of the Toledo Country Club, which was established in 1897. She currently sits on the board of The First Tee of Lake Erie.
“I’m very excited about working with my brother Brian to continue building on our parents’ legacy,” said Rebecca. “They grew a company with the highest reputation in our industry and I’m proud to help carry that forward.”
Brian Kazmierczak
After earning his degree in Computer Science from DePaul University, Brian served as a Systems Support Specialist for Boldt Metronics International near Chicago.
He worked at Binkelman for a few years on IT systems and programming custom software. He then founded Rubber Tree Systems as a side project, eventually growing the company to include more than 1,200 distributors. Brian sold the successful company after 17 years at the helm. Rubber Tree still serves the fast-paced tech industry.
“During my time at Rubber Tree, I worked closely with hundreds of distributors across the country,” said Brian. “I saw a lot of great businesses and observed the cultures of companies with five employees and those with thousands of team members. I think the culture at Binkelman stacks up against the best of them.”
Brian added that “this is an exciting point in our company’s timeline. I want to congratulate my dad on 50 years at Binkelman. What a fantastic achievement! I was lucky enough while growing up to watch both my mom and dad develop all aspects of the business, from finance, customer service, supplier relationships and employee engagement. A lot of what they taught me helped me build my own company. It’s nice that I’m now bringing that knowledge back to Binkelman. I’m looking forward to this new chapter in my career, as well as continuing to deliver quality products, services and support to our valued customers.”