Knife River Names Pladsen Vice President and Chief Excellence Officer

BISMARCK, N.D.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Knife River Corporation (NYSE: KNF) announced today that Glenn R. Pladsen has been named Vice President and Chief Excellence Officer, tasked with leading core elements of the company’s “Competitive EDGE” strategy for long-term, profitable growth. The position takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.

“EDGE” stands for EBITDA Margin Improvement, Discipline, Growth and Excellence. The “Excellence” pillar of EDGE helps support each of the other key initiatives. In his current role as vice president of support services, Pladsen has been directly involved in launching the company’s Process Improvement Teams (PIT Crews), the Knife River Training Center and other strategic programs aimed at building a strong team and delivering profitable results. His role is being expanded to help the company achieve industry-leading safety performance and excellence across its commercial and operational initiatives.

“We have seen significant early success with our PIT Crews and our training and development efforts, and we believe there are considerable opportunities to build on this momentum,” said Knife River President and CEO Brian Gray. “This is an exciting time at Knife River. We’re focused on continued growth and success. Glenn is well-respected across our organization and is highly skilled at developing and standardizing best practices for process improvements. There are multiple paths to achieving our strategic goals, and on each of those paths we are focused on excellence and continuous improvement.”

Pladsen joined Knife River in 2007. In addition to his previous role as vice president of support services, he has led the company’s capital budgeting, safety, environmental and information technology processes. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from North Dakota State University.

“We believe Glenn’s combination of deep institutional knowledge and his proven ability to help us innovate will allow us to more quickly and consistently target areas where we can improve our processes,” Gray said. “Whether it is commercial excellence, operational excellence or safety excellence, adding this position to our senior management team puts an emphasis on our drive and determination to reach our goals – for our team members and for our shareholders.”

About Knife River

Knife River Corporation, a member of the S&P MidCap 400 index, mines aggregates and markets crushed stone, sand, gravel and related construction materials, including ready-mix concrete, asphalt and other value-added products. It also distributes cement and asphalt oil. It performs integrated contracting services. For more information about Knife River, visit www.kniferiver.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

The information in this news release highlights the key growth strategies, projections and certain assumptions for the company and its subsidiaries. Many of these highlighted statements and other statements not historical in nature are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Although the company believes that its expectations are expressed in good faith and based on reasonable assumptions, there is no assurance the company’s projections or estimates for growth, shareholder value creation, long-term goals or other proposed strategies will be achieved. Please refer to assumptions contained in this news release, as well as the various important factors listed in Part I, Item 1A - Risk Factors in the company's 2023 Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Changes in such assumptions and factors could cause actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this news release are expressly qualified by such cautionary statements and by reference to the underlying assumptions. Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required by law, Knife River does not undertake to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.