Todd Kelsey never considered being a chief executive officer until he was in his 40s. He joined Plexus Corp. in 1994 as a 29-year-old electrical engineer, and it was a struggle moving from technical roles into management.
“I challenged myself to step out of my comfort zone and be open-minded to new opportunities, and that has been a trait that has continued to progress my career forward,” he said. Kelsey now serves as the president and chief executive officer.
Plexus Corp. partners with leading aerospace/defense, health care/life sciences, and industrial companies to design, manufacture, and service some of the world’s most transformative products, including advanced surgical systems, diagnostic instruments, healthcare imaging equipment, or battlefield communications for warfighters.
Although Kelsey has been with Plexus for 30 years, when he became chief executive officer in 2016, the company was significantly smaller and had lost its way in foundational areas such as customer centricity. His primary focus was centered around finding a way to accelerate growth and enhance the culture, which included launching a new vision, building trust and addressing retention issues.
He also prioritized increasing growth, with revenue growth from $2.5 billion to $4.2 billion – and focused on the quality of the deliverables. Kelsey launched a global program – Quality Begins with Me – igniting a cultural empowerment movement across the organization.
“I was passionate about putting our people at the center of our strategy,” said Kelsey. “This continues to be our platform that drives clear actions that enhance our culture across 20,000 global team members to ensure they feel valued, motivated and fulfilled.”
Kelsey has served on several university boards, including UW-Madison’s dean’s industrial advisory board of the College of Engineering and the board of the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He currently serves on Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce boards and Steelcase Inc., a publicly traded company.
In 2020, Kelsey was named a distinguished achievement alumni from the UW-Madison College of Engineering. Under his leadership, Plexus Corp. has been recognized as a large business of the year by the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce and received the manufacturer of the year award for global collaboration and local precision presented by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.
According to Kelsey, inspiring others is essential to successful leadership. “I see it as my role to inspire a positive culture – a culture built upon doing the right thing for our team members, customers and communities,” he said. “This is an undertaking that will never be complete – there are always ways to further inspire each of those audiences, and this absolutely keeps me coming back each day.”