Corporate Officers
Richard E. Kaeser, Chairman and Owner
Dick started in the business in 1946 outside selling in the Cincinnati Area. Joined his father at Kaeser & Blair in 1954 and has been with the company ever since - working full time for over 50 years. He became President of Kaeser & Blair in 1966.
Current position is Chairman of the Board and the Company Mentor. Never letting the company forget its foundations of integrity, responsibility, and reliability. Nor the total dedication and devotion to the Dealer family.
On 1/12/2005 Dick was awarded as a Honorary Life Member of PPAI in "recognition for contributions to the Promotional Products Industry" - a rare and highly distinguished industry award.
Kurt R. Kaeser, Owner/President & CEO
Kurt started at Kaeser & Blair after attending Wittenberg University in 1983. Worked every function of the business before becoming President of the company in 1996. Totally Dealer dedicated, devoted, and oriented.
Current position is President and CEO and is responsible for all functions of the company. Kurt is the third generation to hold this position. Kurt learned well from his Father and Grandfather and works every day to preserve the Kaeser & Blair traditions that are responsible for the longevity and success of the award winning company. Integrity, responsibility and reliability.
Christy Kaeser, Owner/Director, Special Projects
Christy currently is responsible for special projects of Kaeser & Blair. She's part of the management team dedicated to providing great service and support to our valued family of independent dealers. Christy continues the core values needed to insure continued prosperity. She's dedicated and devoted to dealer success.
Robert Lewellen, Chief Operations Officer
Bob joined K&B in 1996 as Vice President of Sales. After almost 30 years working for our competitors Bob put his talents and knowledge to work for K&B. A “field” veteran Bob started selling specialty advertising as in independent contractor. Later he became Vice President of Sales for competitor JII Sales Promotions and immediately before joining K&B was the Eastern Regional Manager for The Vernon Company. Obviously Bob’s sales skills are based on real-world experiences. He shared this knowledge with K&B Dealers through the Kaeser Traveling University as its first “Professor” and still provides profitable insight to Dealers every day.
Today, Bob is involved in the administrative side of the business overseeing the daily operations of the company assuring first class dealer service and timely order processing. In addition he works closely with the division managers in recruiting, training and development of the KTU Seminars. Bob keeps his hand in the sales side of the business by helping dealers with specific sales projects such as corporate programs
Scott Graber, Chief Financial Officer
Since 1992, when Scott joined K&B as Comptroller, he has never stopped developing and improving the accounting systems we follow. Today, largely due to the "state of the art" distribution system he designed, K&B handles business much more efficiently than even our toughest competitors.
After Scott earned a degree in marketing from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, he became interested in accounting so he returned to Miami to earn an accounting degree as well! Armed with "dual degrees" Scott has an innate ability to look beyond the "numbers" and recognize opportunities wherever they exist. He manages the day to day financial operations of K&B and is an integral part of the management team of the company. Scott also is K&B computer system analyst and has kept our system truly on the cutting edge of technology for more than a decade.
Gregg Emmer, Chief Marketing Officer
Gregg came to K&B in 1991 as National Sales Director. He immediately instituted our ongoing Dealer education program and produced the first sales seminar (which became the annual Kaeser Convention) that same year. In 1994, in conjunction with K&B's 100th anniversary Gregg created the Century Club for our top producers. He started in the specialty industry with a NJ distributor in 1969. By 1971, Gregg was in Ohio and worked the next 7 years on the supplier side of this industry. In 1978, he started a specialty distributorship in conjunction with a graphic communications company. Just prior to joining K&B, Gregg was a district manager with competitor Brown & Bigelow.
Today Gregg is responsible for the marketing that supports Kaeser & Blair dealers tremendous success, The Best Buys catalog, the Windjammer, specials and other information on Kaeser Central (our Dealer-only website).