Spreading purple pride at Purple Wave: Meet K-Staters on the job at the online equipment auction company
There’s a lot of purple to be found at Purple Wave — the color is included in the
company name, after all.
The online equipment auction company features purple in its logo; you can spot employees
wearing purple attire; and purple is splashed across the company’s social media.
However, you can also find another kind of purple at Purple Wave — “purple pride,”
from the K-Staters who work on staff.
Founded in Manhattan, Kansas, in 2000 by K-Staters Aaron McKee ’05 and Suzy McKee,
DVM ’97, ’01, Purple Wave connects buyers and sellers across the nation and even the
globe for construction, agriculture, fleet and government equipment. With over 150
online, no-reserve auctions per year, Purple Wave Auction is able to help sellers
manage inventory and gives buyers the opportunity to expand their businesses with
the right equipment.
“I absolutely love our team at Purple Wave; we have close to 400 employees now,” said
Suzy McKee. “We live by our core values and hire by our core values — Trust, Team,
Care and Passion — every day. I have such great happiness thinking about how many
families our auction company is now able to support with good jobs at a place where
people like to come to work. We have people who are problem solvers, innovative, interesting
and incredible to be around.”
We asked several of the Wildcats at Purple Wave to share more about how K-State shaped
them as students and why they love working at Purple Wave:
Suzy McKee, DVM ’97, ’01
Chief Operating Officer
Suzy McKee, DVM ’97, ’01 has many fond memories of her eight years at K-State — from
studying, to playing pitch, to visiting with her fellow students, many of whom became
lifelong friends and a few who now work at Purple Wave. She said the experiences and
activities she participated in during her time at K-State provided a foundation for
the work she now does through Purple Wave.
“I was in many clubs and traveled to learn about different farming operations and
food industry opportunities, which gives me great insight to our customers today,”
she said. “I was an ag ambassador for a year and went to farm shows and learned a
lot there. I was the vet school student senate representative one year and learned
about governance and how to work through some issues with a wide variety of differing
opinions and ways to look at the issues there.”
She met her husband, Aaron McKee ’05, during her second year of vet school. He wanted
to learn more about the auction business to help with his car sales company so he
attended the Missouri Auction School; it just so happened to coincide with Suzy’s
spring break so she went along with him.
“He was so excited about what he learned about auctions and what the future for auctions
could look like with the increasing uses and availability of the internet that he
just had to jump in,” Suzy said. “So, he started up Purple Wave Auction, rented a
building, hired a couple of people and started a weekly consignment auction that I
would help with as much as my schedule would allow.”
Suzy spent many days working shifts at a vet clinic and then reporting to Purple Wave
for her second job to manage the books or to assist with an auction. As Purple Wave
continued to grow, she joined the company full time in 2008.
“I love our customers and listening and learning about what they do,” Suzy said. “There's
no better feeling than knowing that we can partner with them to help them accomplish
their company goals, whether it be equipment inventory management by them either selling
with us or buying what they need for their jobs.”
Alex Neises ’16
IT Infrastructure and Operations Manager
Alex Neises ’16 says that growing up, he always knew he wanted to have a career involving
computers. However, it wasn't until he attended K-State that he realized he wanted
to be a programmer. He also credits the Staley School of Leadership for teaching him
the importance of servant leadership and how to address conflict from different vantage
points.
After graduating, he worked at a web design agency for a short time but found himself
longing to spend more time building software and watching it in action. He was visiting
with a former colleague about the challenges he was facing, and the former colleague
invited Neises to apply at Purple Wave.
“He expressed how it was rewarding to build software that you could see colleagues
utilizing to help make the company more successful,” Neises said.
Neises has now been with Purple Wave for nearly nine years, and he currently serves
in a supervisory role as the IT infrastructure and operations manager. His daily work
involves a variety of duties, ranging from ensuring auctions run smoothly, to handling
cybersecurity, providing day-to-day tech support, and investigating new technical
solutions for the company — just to name a few.
Neises said his favorite part of his job is knowing that there's always something
new to work on.
“Nothing about the job is repetitive or boring,” he said. “As we grow, the issues
we get to solve become more complex, which in turn becomes more rewarding to complete.
We have the freedom to explore creative solutions and see those solutions implemented
across a fast-growing company.”
Bridget Hess ’14
Trade Show and Marketing Coordinator
During her college experience, Bridget Hess ’14 started building connections in agriculture
and communications right away. She joined the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow
club, serving as a reporter and president while gaining writing experience and building
industry contacts.
Her father started working at Purple Wave, and as a student, she reached out to the
company and asked if they had any opportunities for her to learn more about marketing
and communications. She was hired for temporary part-time work, later served as an
intern, and was eventually hired full-time. She’s now been with the company for 13
years.
She is currently a member of the marketing department and helps coordinate the company’s
trade show involvement; manages association memberships; and also serves as a content
writer.
“It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “What I enjoy most about my job, I would say, is the
writing side of it, because I’m an ag communication major. They really have let me
expand that in my role here. That’s something I really love to do; having that opportunity
has been great. I also am very attention-to-detail oriented, so the trade show side
of things really keeps my brain going.”
She can’t wait to see how Purple Wave evolves into the future.
“Our growth over the last year and a half, two years, has been really exciting,” she
said. “I’m just excited to see where we keep expanding and how our company continues
to grow and help people with buying and selling equipment.”
Kylee Thaxton ’21
WebOps Digital Asset Associate
Kylee Thaxton ’21 graduated from K-State with a biology degree in the midst of the
COVID-19 pandemic, which brought challenges for both students and professors during
the pivot to online learning.
“That experience definitely fueled my drive to work harder and push myself to do better,
given the circumstances,” she said. “This has absolutely carried over into my professional
life. It has given me the confidence and ability to strive for more and put myself
out there. I loved my time at K-State and it really helped me grow as a person.”
Like Bridget Hess ’14, Thaxton has a family connection to Purple Wave — her sister
began working there during the COVID pandemic and served as part of a team that helped
tutor coworkers' children with their schoolwork.
“She always spoke so highly of Purple Wave and the supportive environment here,” Thaxton
said. “When I graduated from college, this was the first place I looked at for a full-time
job.”
Thaxton serves in the Listing Operations Department and takes submission emails from
the field and turns them into the listings with images that appear on the website.
“I enjoy the variety in my job, with each day bringing new tasks and opportunities
to learn, whether it's discovering new processes, assets, or meeting new team members,”
she said. “I’m excited to watch Purple Wave grow and see how far the company and myself
can go.”
John Schmidt ’84
Fleet Specialist
When John Schmidt ’84 was at K-State, he had an opportunity to serve as a student
manager in basketball for Jack Hartman, the legendary K-State men’s basketball coach.
“He treated me great, I got to be around the players,” Schmidt said. “The big thing
was, ‘Pay attention to detail — always have a plan.’”
He served as an educator for more than 30 years — both teaching and coaching — where
he was able to apply a number of the life lessons he learned from Coach Hartman. In
2019, he was offered a job at Purple Wave to help improve the building facilities
and yard, then transitioned to purchasing trucks for the company’s fleet. At the time
the company had about 30 trucks in the fleet; as the company has grown, that number
has climbed to more than 180.
“They’re great people; they take care of me,” Schmidt said of the company.
His favorite part of the job is interacting with the other employees, and he says
the culture at K-State is a lot like the culture at Purple Wave.
“I don’t mind getting up in the morning and going in, because there’s always people
to talk to. I like coming in because I know I’m going to be around great people, and
they all work together to get things done. I just like to be part of a family that
they have one goal in mind, and that’s to be the best that they can be.”
Purple Wave continues to hire more members to join its purple team as the company expands globally.
The power of purple is still going strong!
