Robert Kaiser is the owner and CEO of Gallagher-Kaiser, a billion-dollar company and global leader in the engineering, procurement and construction of industrial systems, as well as Universal Piping Industries. Together, the companies are uniquely equipped to provide customers with systems that utilize less energy and less waste. Gallagher-Kaiser has received global accolades like the prestigious General Motors Supplier of the Year award seven times.
Aside from running Gallagher-Kaiser, Kaiser has varied interests in the sporting world. In 1984, he began racing offshore powerboats competitively and became a national and world champion, a world speed record holder, and a member of the Offshore Powerboat Hall of Fame. He also owns a 50% stake in the Muskegon Lumberjacks, a tier 1 junior ice hockey team in the Eastern Conference of the U.S. Hockey League.
Kaiser, who is a 2017 recipient of the Haworth College of Business Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award, is proud to give back to his alma mater as well. In 2018, he made a gift that made a long-awaited dream of transforming the college’s sales lab a reality. The Robert S. Kaiser Sales, Negotiation, and Leadership Lab gives real-life experience to business students aspiring to become top-sales executives across industries. Additionally, he has made significant contributions to a number of meaningful local and national organizations, and in 2016, created the “Play With Purpose” charity hockey games to help stop distracted driving. Kaiser has been named one of Detroit’s top 500 most powerful business leaders by DBusiness Magazine three times.
As a student at WMU, Kaiser was affiliated with Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.