Pete Strange loves work. And people. And helping. Even better if it’s the kind of work that helps other people. He comes by that passion honestly – and early. As a six-year-old, he tagged along with his uncle to his grandfather’s construction company’s work sites.
“I was too young, too small, too weak, too untrained to actually do the work, but I could help,” said Strange. “They described me as their helper. It was my job to get the tools, get the material there, bring a cup of water, and it turned out, I learned a pretty good lesson for leading a company: if you help other people be more productive, it results in value.”
He’s had a lot of experience over the years, too. Born and raised in Erlanger, Strange was sent off to engineering school at the University of Cincinnati by his mother after high school graduation.
“I am living proof of the smartest thing that Emerson ever said,” said Strange. “‘Men are what their mothers make of them.’”
When it came time for a co-op, as the coordinator explained the various opportunities, one inclination from Strange sealed his fate.
“My career decision is the result of a single sentence,” said Strange. “I said, ‘Mister, I wouldn’t know anything about any of it – which one’s closest to Kentucky?’ and he sent me to Frank Messer and Sons Construction Company.”
Strange graduated college in 1972 and married his wife Ginger, a now-retired second-grade teacher, a week after graduation. They went on to raise three children and welcome eight grandchildren. And Strange remained with Messer for the duration of his career.
“I found people at Messer who cared about me when I wasn’t smart enough to care about myself, and it’s serving those great people that has been the joy of my career,” he said.
During the first half of his career with Messer, it was a family-owned company, helmed by its founder. The second half would be defined by Strange and a few colleagues leading the charge to purchase Messer in 1990 and transform it into an employee-owned organization, by way of an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. This structure leads to more jobs, improved wages and productivity and better retirement savings.
“It was about the things that frustrated us as employees,” said Strange. “We were frustrated that we couldn’t get our arms around the big plan – there was very little sharing of what the strategic decisions in the company were, and so we felt like we weren’t in a position to make informed decisions about our own future.”
Strange became the president, colleague Kathy Daly became CFO, Tom Keckeis became operations leader and Bernie Suer led sales. With that, Messer’s new leadership was established. While leading Messer, the company grew from approximately 200 employees to more than 800. He led the expansion of Messer outside of Cincinnati, dramatically expanding its revenue and reach; locations now include Tennessee, Kentucky, North and South Carolina and Indiana.
According to data compiled and released this year by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University, Messer is in the top 25 of all 335 Ohio ESOPs for individual plan value.
“One of the things that really helped Messer was when we stopped making our goal projects and started making our goal customers,” said Strange. “We came to what I think was the right conclusion that the fundamental purpose of the enterprise is not just building buildings. The fundamental purpose is to allow high performing, caring, committed human beings to trade what’s inside themselves for value.”
This mindset shift, along with an unexpected call from a nun, proved to be the conduit for Strange’s own foray into community engagement.
“I got a call – and this is a true story – from a wonderful lady named Sister Jean Patrice Harrington,” said Strange. “She started the conversation by saying, ‘Young man, I need an hour of your time.’ It was another opportunity to help…and the lesson we learned for the company is, community engagement is the shortest path to leadership.”
That call led to Strange joining his first board. He has since served as a volunteer, advocate and board member for organizations including the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, ArtsWave, the Minority Business Accelerator, the University of Cincinnati Foundation, Partners for a Competitive Workforce and Mount St. Joseph University’s Board of Trustees. In 2024, Strange received the Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s Jacob E. Davis Volunteer Leadership Award, which he donated to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
“My biggest learning is that trust is to human performance what water is to human health,” said Strange. “You get a lot of it every day, you might thrive, but if there’s no trust in an organization, it really doesn’t matter what’s written in the business plan.”
