Nick Wagner, who began his engineering career with MSA Professional Services as a co-op student 20 years ago, and later ran its Quad Cities office, has assumed his new role as the firm’s chief executive officer.
MSA is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, with offices in Bettendorf and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It announced on Monday, Jan. 6, that Mr. Wagner had transitioned into the CEO position effective Wednesday, Jan. 1. His appointment was first announced by the company in August.
Mr. Wagner, a licensed professional engineer (PE) and former Quad Citizen, succeeded former CEO Gil Hantzsch, PE. Mr. Hantzsch will serve in a strategic advisory capacity until his retirement in late 2025. The planned transition maintains MSA’s success in delivering top-tier client service and quality projects to communities across the country, MSA said in a news release.
“I am incredibly honored and enthusiastic to step into this role,” Mr. Wagner said in the release. “Gil and I have been working together to ensure a smooth transition of leadership and lay the groundwork for the next phase of MSA’s journey as a thriving employee-owned firm.”
“I’d like to thank Gil for his exceptional tenure of leadership and look forward to working with him in an advisory capacity in the coming months,” he added. “MSA has been the cornerstone of my professional career. I am steadfast in my loyalty to its success and committed to continuing the firm’s tradition of excellence in the years to come.”
Throughout his career, Mr. Wagner has demonstrated consistent success through strong client relationships and servant leadership. He has supported clients throughout the firm’s footprint and established strong professional relationships across the industry.
In a separate news release Tuesday, Jan. 7, MSA announced that Mr. Hantzsch assumed the role of chief strategy officer on Jan. 1 as part of the planned leadership transition. When he retires in late 2025, he will end a successful professional tenure at the firm that began in 1992 and resulted in an 11-year tenure as president and CEO.
100% employee owned
The 100% employee-owned, full-service multidisciplinary consulting firm serves clients from its 17 offices located across Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. That includes un Wisconsin – locations in Appleton, Baraboo, Beaver Dam, Kiel, Madison, Marshfield Mequon, Milwaukee and Rhinelander, Rice Lake. In Iowa it’s Bettendorf, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Dubuque; Champaign, Illinois. And in Minnesota, Duluth and St. Paul, Minnesota.
MSA partners with clients to help solve today’s complex and multi-faceted infrastructure challenges. It also specializes in the sustainable development of communities.
Mr. Wagner joined MSA as a co-op student in 2004 and was a summer intern in 2005. He was hired full time in 2006 and moved to MSA’s Dubuque, Iowa, office. There he was promoted to team leader in 2012.
In 2013, growth of the organization’s Quad Cities team led him to relocate to Bettendorf. His role was to guide growth and development initiatives in the greater eastern Iowa-western Illinois region.
Mr. Wagner was promoted to Illinois program manager in 2017. In 2018, he was appointed an ESOP trustee for MSA – an acting fiduciary and overseer of the company’s employee-owned S-Corporation trust.
He was elected to the company’s board of directors in 2019. In 2020, he was promoted to senior vice president of the buildings service line. There he guided the strategic growth and pursuits of the firm’s vertical infrastructure division from Kiel, Wisconsin.
Mr. Wagner holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. While there he was honored him with an Outstanding Alumni Award in 2021. He is a licensed PE in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. He also is a graduate of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Senior Executives Institute (Class of 2019) and a member of the ACEC Coalition of American Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (CAMEE).
