The doorways of option are extensive open for the Oak Brook-dependent Chamberlain Team.
When the identify could possibly not ring a bell, possibilities are you face a person of the firm’s products and solutions just about every day. Chamberlain Group, less than the brand name names Chamberlain, LiftMaster Merlin and many others, is the nation’s prime producer of household and professional garage doorway openers. Its items are in an approximated 51 million U.S. homes.
Now with a new possession group and new CEO, the organization sees a potential as a result of clever technologies that moves its products further than their standard position.
“Our role in entry has changed from just opening and closing the doorway,” Jeff Meredith, who was appointed CEO in January, reported in a current interview with the Each day Herald. “Now we’re giving details and expertise around accessibility that presents you peace of intellect as you sit and function the relaxation of your working day in the place of work.”
Meredith’s ascension to the CEO function capped a momentous 4 months for Chamberlain Group that noticed The Duchossois Team, the company launched by the late Arlington Park chairman Richard Duchossois, promote its possession stake to the non-public-equity business Blackstone in a $5 billion offer.
When Meredith arrived at Chamberlain Team three decades in the past from the tech agency Lenovo to provide as president and main running officer, he remembers friends questioning his choice to work for “a garage door opener corporation.”
But he reported three factors played into the decision.
1 was assembly with Craig Duchossois, Richard’s son, and the Duchossois household.
“I appreciated his focus on extensive term. I have often been a much more visionary thinker, and you have to have an ownership construct that embraces this thought of extensive-time period strategic advancement,” he reported.

























The 2nd is the company’s powerful presence in the marketplace.
“If you think of the most significant appliance maker, Whirlpool, they have a existence in 40 million houses in the U.S.,” he said, noting Chamberlain’s existence in 51 million residences.
At last, he reported, “I enjoy a problem,” specially transforming a company with 40 decades of background.
Meredith, who life in Hinsdale and is married with 3 daughters, is no stranger to difficulties or tough operate.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he grew up in a family members of schoolteachers and studied civil engineering at Purdue University.
“Engineering university prepares you very nicely to be a more structured difficulty solver,” he explained.
Immediately after graduating, he did get the job done that bundled designing bridges in advance of returning to Purdue to get hold of his MBA. He worked for Worldwide Paper Co. and Lexmark, a producer of printers, right before shifting to Lenovo, the place his task concerned traveling involving the U.S. and Beijing. The experience proved priceless, he reported, primarily in appreciating the value of range.
During his time at Chamberlain Group, he explained he has found how technologies has transformed the company’s items. Present day intelligent garage doorway openers enable customers to open up and close them from function and have cameras with distant monitoring ability that feeds facts to the cloud that can be stored for up to 100 hrs. The firm’s myQ application allows end users to check their garages from a cellphone.
As Meredith noted this, he turned on his garage camera from his office environment and opened his garage door. He then obtained a notification on his telephone that he experienced just opened the door.
Due to the fact becoming a member of the firm, it has averaged about 10% expansion in income, with 7 million people connected to the myQ app, up from 1 million when he arrived.
“It truly is not me,” he reported. “I just believe that as a corporation it signifies we’ve remodeled. We place a camera in a garage doorway opener for the to start with time.”
In the long term, Chamberlain Team will be rolling out new merchandise that will supply far more security, such as a keypad that has online video surveillance capability comparable to a Ring doorbell. There are also likely purposes for everything from streets to parking garages and even special occasions.
Meredith said parting from Duchossois was a little bit bittersweet.
“They’re wonderful homeowners and just leading-shelf people. And so was it was rough when they 1st shared with me and our management group that they ended up likely to assess likely prospective buyers for our firm,” he claimed.
“But honestly, as I went as a result of the procedure and as I’ve started to function with the Blackstone leadership crew and the companions that are tied with our organization, it was the very best shift for our organization, since it truly does help us to expand at a speedier pace.” Meredith added.
Just one benefit, he said, is that Blackstone owns true estate across the place, which include warehouses, condominium properties and other multidwelling units.
“That’s where by we want to go. As a firm, that is where by we want to push into,” Meredith reported. “We nonetheless have to gain it. We still have to make sure that our option is effective. But it accelerates the speed of our capability to essentially press into new areas.”