Employee Spotlight: Sue Smith

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: SUE SMITH

Nothing can stop Sue Smith from her work at CEI Crane & Rigging – not even retirement. After nearly 40 years of handling the company’s finances, she still makes time to check-in with the family business.

“My father started the business, so I was always pretty familiar with it. After I had worked at Ohio Power and had my first child, I decided to go to work in the family business,” said Smith.

Learning a lot through the business, she discovered how much she loves working with numbers as well as working with a tight-knit group of people, including her brother, CEI President Brian Selinsky.

Now retired, she spends most of her free time with family, especially her grandkids. “They can drive me a little nuts at times,” said Smith, “But I know the day is coming when they will be too busy to hang with Grandma and Grandpa, and I will miss the closeness.”

REMEMBERING NEIL SELINSKY 

Canton Erectors Family

Smith’s father and CEI founder, Neil Selinsky, passed away in 2018, but he’s still in the hearts of CEI employees. Smith said her father would be proud of the company’s growth and accomplishments over the last few years. “I know he would be amazed,” she said. “He started with just one crane. And he used to tell us how proud he was of our accomplishments in moving the company forward. I know it has grown much larger and become more successful than he imagined when he started it 55 years ago.”

Smith said that she and her brothers, Michael and Brian, learned a lot from their father’s hard work and dedication.

“My father was a very creative and entrepreneurial kind of guy, and he was willing to take chances,” she said. “When my brother and I were young, and a new baby just arrived, my mother and father mortgaged their home (which they had recently paid off). I remember when he first started, he didn’t even have a building to store his one crane. When something broke or needed repairs, he would be out in the cold or rain working on it. It was definitely a one-man operation (with the help of my mother taking the calls and doing the books). I didn’t appreciate at the time how hard they worked to get the business going. But I certainly appreciate it now.”

Learn more about the CEI family and the history of the family business.