Natalie A. Kaddas

CEO, Kaddas Enterprises, Inc.

Natalie Kaddas’ path to becoming CEO of a rapidly-growing company has been anything but traditional. Her journey started in 1992 while she was a student of Salt Lake Community College’s Travel and Tourism program. She was on a field trip at a Marriott hotels reservation center when she decided, at the age of 18, she wanted to work there.

She married, became a mother and didn’t finish the program at SLCC. Years later, Kaddas returned to the college to take business classes – and over time she has come back to SLCC again and again. A self-described lifelong learner, she takes classes to keep her skills and knowledge on the cutting edge, even now that she’s CEO of Kaddas Enterprises Inc., a company her in-laws founded in 1966. Over the years, she has depended on SLCC for training in employment law, sales, electrical technology, accounting, custom-fit training, management and more. She is also a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, which is offered at SLCC’s Miller Campus. Kaddas now plans to sign up for a photography class at SLCC, so that she can take better photos while on family vacations.

Just last year, Kaddas moved her plastics manufacturing business into a new 50,000 square-foot facility she had hoped would last five years. At 50 employees, the company has already outgrown the space. Her company now produces more than 300 products used in the airline, public power utilities, public transportation, automotive and high-tech industries and are sold in 14 countries, with annual sales topping $5 million.