By Donna Heiderstadt

What do having earned Certified Kitchen and Bath Designer (CKBD) status and having worked as a facilities/machinery engineer for an offshore oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico have in common? They’re both on the resume of Heath Fesenmeyer. The 28-year-old, who is the Engineering Manager for Longmont, CO-based Don’s Custom Cabinets & Countertops, took a three-year detour into the oil and gas industry after graduating with honors from the Colorado School of Mines. He then decided to return home to Longmont, committed to work for the full-service custom cabinetry company founded in 1981 by his father, Don Fesenmeyer.

By 2022, Heath, who manages the company’s day-to-day operations alongside his brother Haden (Thirty Under 30 Class of 2021), was CKBD-certified and laser-focused on applying his mechanical engineering expertise to alleviate fabrication bottlenecks. “I oversee our fabrication team and work closely with our programming department to maximize output through our CNC,” he explains. “Additionally, if challenges arise on jobsites I brainstorm with our installers to find the best path forward.”

Heath, who describes himself as “driven,” grew up working summers at the family business (his mom, Heidi, and sister, Haley, are also part of the team) and says he enjoys a good challenge. “My favorite part of my job is brainstorming approaches to unique applications,” he notes. “It’s incredible that after 43 years in business we are still faced with requests that we have never done before! It’s extremely satisfying to meet with a group of our team members and leverage each person’s skillsets to come up with a solution.”

The business structure also allows for work-life balance, Heath says. “Working with my family is incredible because we trust each other fully, allowing days off or vacations to be worry free.” Family life also played a huge role in his appreciation of good design. “Having the shop in my life as a child gave me the opportunity to build nearly anything I could imagine and try to absorb the expertise of my dad,” he says, noting that Don built him a childhood bed with massive baseball bats as posts. “I recognize the incredible mindset my parents allowed me to have — that I could build anything I could design and that I could learn the skills to execute it.”

Outside of work, Heath is passionate about pro football (notably the Kansas City Chiefs), fishing, and golf (so much so that he converted his garage to a golf simulation room with a 10-foot putting green). He also brews his own beer and loves spending time with his two chocolate Labs, Luna and Peggy. On his must-do list: Attending the Masters golf tournament, salmon fishing in Alaska, backpacking the Colorado Trail, and raising a family.