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Elevator World Magazine's June 2019 "People Issue"

We are pleased to announce that Walter Guderian, the founder and Chairman of Delta Elevator, is featured in Elevator World Magazine's June 2019 ”The People Issue“.

The honour is a fitting tribute to a true icon of the Canadian elevating devices industry!

Walter Guderian

Title: Chairman of the Board, Delta Elevator Co. Ltd.

Years in Industry: 62

Based: Kitchener, Canada

Walter Guderian and his family emigrated from Germany to Canada when he was a teenager. Here, he quickly found work as an elevator mechanic at Otis, where he worked 10 years while learning about the Ontario elevator industry. Guderian started Delta Elevator Co. Ltd. in May 1967 as a one-man maintenance business he ran from his home. After moving to ever larger facilities in Kitchener, the company as grown into a full-service organization with five branch offices and more than 220 employees, including field staff, engineers and production workers.

Guderian served as president for more than 37 years and guided Delta through many challenges: growing the customer base, hiring and developing employees and investing in infrastructure. He gained the maintenance contracts for two local universities in Waterloo that became the foundation of long-term relationships the company continues to this day. Though he retired in 2004, he still serves as Chairman of the Board and helps guide company strategy.

In the late 1980's, Guderian decided to develop his own elevator and control systems, so he hired mechanical and electrical engineering staff members to develop Delta's first elevating devices. This helped the company to become one of the few domestic suppliers of fully integrated elevator systems with the release of the DMPC in 1999.

Guderian was a founding member of the Canadian Elevator Contractors Association (CECA) in 1975. He served on the CECA Board of Directors as Central Region chair and has been the organization's vice president and president. He is now an honorary member of CECA and still attends its meetings and conferences.

Nominator Elizabeth Peters said of Guderian, "From the beginning, Walter established the values the company still works with today: integrity, service and quality."