Elevator World, the premier elevator industry publication, has announced the winners of its People of the Year industry recognition awards. Hill Hiker, Inc. Founder and CEO, William “Bill” MacLachlan, is proud to be named one of 2024 People of the Year award winners.
ORONO, Minn., June 14, 2024 – In a lifelong career achievement, Hill Hiker, Inc.’s founder, owner and CEO William “Bill” MacLachlan is honored to be recognized as one of Elevator Worlds 2024 People of the Year. Bill was nominated by his coworkers and family who submitted Bill’s unique and inspiring story of hard work and innovation in the industry. The normally talkative and outgoing business leader was speechless when he learned of his recognition while scrolling through the June edition of Elevator World at his home.
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THE PEOPLE ISSUE 2024
This, the seventh edition of The People Issue, features 17 outstanding vertical-transportation (VT) industry professionals. Paring down the list of nominees was challenging, but we think we ended up with a diverse representation of people. There’s a retired nonagenarian from Massachusetts who now celebrates the retirements of the grandchildren of those he worked alongside during a 70-plus-year career, as well as a young woman from California who unexpectedly joined the family VT business only seven years ago. In that short time, she has grown and expanded her father’s company, hitting new records and launching new products as a certified woman-owned small business. She came from a career in event planning, and others came from outside the VT industry, as well, from careers in graphic design and steel, and a stint in law school, to name a few. Others have been in VT pretty much their whole professional lives, following in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents. Our 2024 People are independent company branch managers, multinational corporation CEOs, operations directors and those who work behind the scenes as mechanics or financial officers. Some have unexpected backgrounds: Two NYC-area gentlemen have roots in rock-and-roll and classical guitar — playing in a rock band and at NYC’s Carnegie Hall, respectively, before they devoted themselves to VT. These are problem-solvers, innovators and visionaries who exude professional excellence and, even post-retirement, are always willing to pick up the phone and answer a question. Determined and driven, they thrive on challenges and seeing iconic projects through to fruition. This year’s honorees have roots in the U.K., Switzerland and Spain, as well as throughout North America, including British Columbia and Montreal, Canada; and, in the U.S., Georgia, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina. Please join us in congratulating this year’s People Issue honorees. We are already looking forward to next year!
William “Bill” MacLachlan
Hill Hiker, Inc.
The stars and circumstances aligned for William “Bill” MacLachlan to take a “leap of faith” and launch Hill Hiker, Inc., a company that has earned a reputation as the go-to manufacturer of custom, high-end inclined elevators, on Valentine’s Day 1997. If you ask him why he does what he does, the answer is, “to feed my family.” A fun-loving, outspoken man whose family means everything to him, MacLachlan grew up spending summers living and working at his grandparents” farm in Wisconsin, where he gained an appreciation for machinery and equipment, later going on to a career in sales of everything from farm insurance, inground pools and, eventually, inclined elevators. A mobility company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, hired MacLachlan to lead its newly established inclined elevator division, and he had great ideas about how to make the product more robust and, most importantly, safer. When those ideas were rejected, MacLachlan left that employer, moving on to positions selling manufacturing equipment — a passion for inclined elevators always in the back of his mind. So, with a US$5,000 investment from his father, Jim MacLachlan, and the support of his father-in-law and wife, Laurel, he started Hill Hiker. Father-in-law Noel Davis was an engineering expert — a graduate of MIT and holder of many patents — and he was instrumental in formulating the now multi-award-winning Hill Hiker® inclined elevator system.
MacLachlan’s father, meanwhile, lent his marketing and business expertise to the nascent company. MacLachlan’s philosophy is to “do it right and keep it simple,” one that has helped result in Hill Hiker installing nearly 600 systems and developing many innovations over the past 27 years. Hill Hiker was the recipient of ELEVATOR WORLD’s first-ever Project of the Year award in the Inclined Elevators category in 1998, and has received many PoY awards since. “From Alaska to New Zealand, and Nova Scotia to the U.A.E., Bill has dotted the world with his elevators. He has, indeed, fed his family,” according to his nomination form. — submitted with love by his family
Source:
Elevator World, LLC. “The People Issue 2024.” Elevator World, June 2024, pp. 49 & 54.
