Russ Kathrein
Russ began his LBM career at a young age when he and his brother purchased and rebuilt their father’s lumber business. Russ has held leadership positions with 84 Lumber and former Builders First Source companies. Most recently, Russ was the CEO of a large independent LBM dealer where he oversaw a dozen locations across Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. While leading these companies, Russ gained experience in sales, management, purchasing, and operations. In addition, he gained a thorough understanding of the LBM dealer’s perspective.
Russ joined the Do it Best team in 2020 as a Business Development Manager, bringing more than 30 years of experience in the LBM industry. Assuming the role of Vice President of Lumber and Building Materials in 2021, Russ ensures the LBM team is positioned to support member growth by partnering with our dealers to provide the buying programs and services needed for our success.
Russ served on the board of the National Lumber and Building Materials Dealers Association (NLBMDA) and currently writes a leadership column for LBM Journal.
Latest Articles
Leadership
Providing structure to your expectations
How do you hold an employee accountable in their job performance if you are basing your evaluation on subjective or vague criteria?
Leadership
How extremes can affect your leadership
Many important decisions get derailed because we have a customer or employee who we know will not like the outcome of the decision, so we refuse to go forward.
Leadership
The power of building your networks
Human beings are by their nature social animals, yet often when it comes to leadership, we view the task as a solitary endeavor that we have to just endure on our own.
Leadership
The powers of your own purpose
Clearly defining your purpose will set you up for success, as well as happiness. Not having a personal purpose might mean you are spending a lot of time doing things other than your job.
Leadership
Giving everyone a voice
How many people in your organization are not given a chance to have their voice heard?
Leadership
Culture eats strategy
Company culture, like a society’s culture, is what drives behavior and serves as a directive for all major decisions. If nurtured and focused on the right things, it can create a company that rarely fails.
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Leadership
Time to operate differently
One upside to the pandemic lockdown was that, as businesspeople, we very quickly had to start trying out some new things and lean on technology that we may otherwise have been reluctant to embrace.
Leadership
Don’t overlook the obvious
How often do we look at our business from the data that we know and make a judgment, when it is the data that we don’t know that may change our minds?
Leadership
Plotting a course in treacherous waters
It has been said that a rising tide raises all ships, regardless of their condition or the skill of the crew. The same can be said in business.
Leadership
Getting ahead of a crisis
While we don’t know everything we will do in the future, we likely have a good idea of past actions that we'd rather not repeat.
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