Markus Green is our 2026 Employee-Owner of the Year

Employee ownership is one of the main pillars of the culture that has kept us going through our 55+ year journey as a company. Cisco-Eagle doesn’t just hire employees; we are employee-owners. We annually recognize one team member as our Employee-Owner of the Year, someone who particularly demonstrated what ownership can do for a team and a company.

For 2025-2026, that winner is Markus Green.

Selection process enables peer-driven recognition

To select our winner, ask our employee-owners to nominate a colleague. That includes a substantive description of why the nominee should receive the final award. Then, our ESOP Advisory Committee, a group of employee-owners from all levels of the company selects a winner. The committee discusses each nomination, noting any standout contributions from each nominee during that particular year.

We encourage those considering nominating someone to tell us how the nominee reflected our ESOP values, particularly:

• Involvement in internal committees and teams (though this is not a requirement)
• Demonstrated willingness to go beyond their normal job duties
• Exceedingly good character traits
• Understanding of our ESOP and a willingness to promote ownership culture with their fellow employee-owners

Our 2025-2026 winner

Markus has worked in our Safety Automation Group since 2013, taking the reins as manager in 2024. This group provides our AisleCop and AisleAlert forklift-pedestrian safety systems. No one understands these systems and their impact on safety better than Markus.

Above: Markus explains the AisleCop system in our Shoptalk employee-owner video series

His knowledge of these systems and the necessary components is invaluable. Our sales teams know they can count on him to get on a call with a customer to help solve their problems and thoroughly explain how our systems work.

But it’s not just a job to Markus. He also believes in safety wholeheartedly. In our June 2024 Employee Spotlight, Markus says, “Employees need to feel safe to be productive and maintain confidence in their workplace. Investing in safety is ultimately an investment in the well-being and efficiency of your operations.”

A year of challenges and trials

Markus took the reins of our Safety Automation Group just in time for that team to launch AisleCop Gen5. This meant coordinating with many other groups within Cisco-Eagle, making sure our sales and systems teams were ready to implement these new products.

All of this would have been challenging under the best of circumstances, but Markus also dealt with the unexpected death of one of his team members late last year. He had to make sure active projects didn’t languish due to a lack of manpower, which he accomplished partly by putting in many of the extra hours himself. But he also supported his team in their shock and grief; they knew they were cared for and appreciated after this unexpected loss.

Markus met these challenges with the steady presence he is best known for, a behind-the-scenes consistency and stability that makes an impression on customers both internal and external.

What earned the nomination

In multiple submissions, his fellow-employee owners had plenty of good things to say about Markus:

• “I cannot speak highly enough of Markus; he is, without question, our safety champion. He brings a level of proactive care and diligence that goes far beyond his daily duties, making him a deserving candidate for Employee [Owner] of the Year.”
• “Markus is overloaded in work, yet he always finds time to hop on a call to trouble shoot customer needs. He refuses to get caught up in ‘whose job’ it is but instead jumps right in to complete the tasks at hand.”
• “His willingness to actively engage in the work, coupled with his responsiveness even outside of regular hours, is truly commendable. His dedication and hard work make him a deserving candidate for Employee [Owner] of the Year.”
• “He lives our culture of integrity and he holds himself to the highest standard of excellence. He puts Cisco-Eagle first. Markus is kind to everyone he encounters at Cisco-Eagle.”
• “He is such a valuable resource when he can participate in a call or a site visit. He is an expert in all things Safety Products. He is calm in the face of any Aisle Cop crisis that we are facing and is always working on a resolution to any problem that comes up.”

We couldn’t say it better ourselves. Congratulations, Markus!

About employee-ownership at Cisco-Eagle

Cisco-Eagle became employee-owned through an ESOP in 2000. Our stockholders are the people who work here. When we serve customers, we do so not simply as employees, but as owners who have a long-term stake in the results of what we do day to day. We believe the results are “exceptional service by employee owners.”

Jessica Haring