"Reid Tileston, MBA ’15, calls himself a “grit it done” kind of guy.
An endurance athlete – ultramarathons, an Ironman, mountaineering, open-water swims, competitive stair climbing – Tileston introduced the catchphrase as the slogan for the industrial services company he acquired in 2019, inspired by an employee who stayed late and went above and beyond to get a task done.
In May, Tileston sold Wisconsin-based Giddings Hawkins to Texas-based Liquid Environmental Solutions (LES), a national recycler of non-hazardous liquid waste. Giddings Hawkins, founded in 1987, will continue to operate under its name as LES expands its service footprint in Southeast Wisconsin.
The sale marked the first exit for a self-funded searcher from Chicago Booth, where Tileston remains active in Booth’s growing Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) community."