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Sense of community molds arc of Zeineddine’s career at Midwest Maintenance
4• JULY 2, 2021 • Midlands Business Journal
by Dwain Hebda
In the 14 years since Wissam “Sam” Zeineddine first joined Midwest Maintenance Co., he’s spent countless hours advancing the inclusive culture of the company in many ways. And given his upbringing, it’s not hard to understand why.
“I grew up in Lebanon,” he said. “We have had a lot of conflicts here and there, wars sometimes, so people in those situations would care a lot for one another. And you would do things beyond the normal family-related; you would go out of your way to help others. I grew up in that feeling, that sense of living for others.
Zeineddine first came to the United States in 2006, as a graduate of Lebanese University. He joined Midwest Maintenance in 2007 and worked there while earning an associate degree and MBA from Bellevue University. Returning to the Middle East in 2011, he worked in Dubai and Kuwait until he relocated his family back to the U.S. in 2017.
Rejoining Midwest Maintenance, where he is now business management director,
he’s the engine behind one of the company’s fastest-growing business segments, MEPS. “Midwest Essential Personnel Solution, or MEPS, is like a staffing agency within the company,” he said. “This came about to supplement our existing work force. “We provide janitorial labor on a contract basis and sometimes employees are not able to show up for whatever reason. So, the idea was to create a supplement to that and from that point on, we started exploring the idea of providing temporary labor where it is needed not only for us, but for others as 2020 well. We then expanded it as its own separate business entity because the structure had to be different, the personnel had to be different, the sales approach had to be different. It’s grown exponentially, really quickly.” Zeineddine has been equally successful in developing people into leaders as he is turning ideas into successful business units. “I joined the leadership team [at Midwest] to bring out the leadership within each employee,” he said. “I created metrics for a person to follow on a weekly basis to have a scorecard to see their progress and feel recognized and appreciated for what they’ve accomplished. It helped us bring everybody
Proud Sponsors of the 2020 40 Under 40:
Business Management Director Wissam Zeineddine aims to give industry workers
opportunities. (Photo by Monica Sempek) together and we meet regularly to bring everybody on the same page.”
Having a sense of empathy is critical to leading this developmental process; again, something Zeineddine draws from his unique upbringing and multicultural background.
“The way I was brought up helped me become very open to diversity,” he said. “This has helped me tremendously with the work setting when it comes to ethical behavior and treating people right and being just. It has also helped me in the teaching I have done both in the Middle East and here at Metro Community College in Omaha with all the different students coming from different backgrounds.” Now working toward his doctorate, Zeineddine is again connecting the dots between his native culture and the American workplace. “The dissertation topic I am working on is presenting Muslim veiled women and how they have the cover on in the work setting,” he said. “The hypothesis is how they are being welcomed, looking at their treatment and the contribution that they provide. So, just trying to bring to light some of the difficulties for that group and bring some additional emphasis that their treatment should be fair.”
