Kelt Studer graduates from the same program his father completed more than two decades ago, before Karl Studer became President of Electric Power at Quanta Services, the company that acquired NLC in 2018.
Northwest Lineman College (NLC), the country’s largest training organization for the power delivery industry, is marking another graduating class this year, and one story in it captures exactly what the program can lead to. Kelt Studer has completed NLC’s program and started his career in linework, following his father, Karl Studer, who went through the same training more than two decades ago and now serves as President of Electric Power at Quanta Services, the company that acquired NLC in 2018.
Karl traces his own start in the trade back to friends who introduced him to linework years ago. “Yes, they pay you to do a job, but the people and challenges make it fun,” he says. “How can one work and have so much fun at the same time?” He credits the foremen, linemen and superintendents who mentored him along the way. “Truth is, we are all mentors to each other,” he says. “All we need to do is listen.”
That mentorship, and the training he received at NLC, shaped a career that led Karl to co-found Probst Electric and Summit Line Construction. Quanta Services acquired both companies in 2013, and Karl went on to lead them as President and CEO of Quanta’s Probst Group before being named Regional Vice President and, later, President of Electric Power, a role in which he now oversees Quanta’s electrical operations across the United States, Canada and Australia.
Karl says the decision to follow him into the trade was entirely Kelt’s own. “A father knows when to push and when not to push,” he says. What he did tell his son directly became one of the guiding lines of the story: “You will never work a day in your life if you find a job that pays you to have fun. Work-life balance is not about how much time you are working or not; it is about how you do something you truly love doing.”
Kelt’s first job out of NLC is with Probst Electric, the company his father co-founded more than 15 years ago. “It is a full circle moment,” Karl says, “and I am thankful he is in good hands.”
Karl connects the story to a broader case for the trades, at a moment when, he says, demand for skilled workers has never been higher. “Trades are needed more now than ever,” he says, describing a path that pays workers while they train and rewards leadership built on time in the field rather than a degree. His advice to families weighing the trades against a four-year path: “Take the time to understand what the trades can offer you and your family.”
For Karl, the timing carries personal weight. “I have seen and now been a part of watching my family’s graduation into the trades, and I want to celebrate it,” he says. “It is something special, at a time in the country and industry that we need awareness for what the trades can offer to a career.”
The full video, “Generations: Karl and Kelt Studer,” produced by Quanta Services and NLC, is available at quantaservices.com/stories and was shared on Quanta’s LinkedIn page.
