Alumnus Todd Thesing built a life he loved, then returned to recruit the next generation of Burns School graduates
Despite being born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Todd Thesing (BSBA 1994) has always dreamed of living in the mountains. After graduating from the Daniels College of Business’ Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management, the carpenter-turned-homebuilder built the life he wanted—literally.
Now the founding principal of Highline Partners—the Bozeman, Montana-based custom luxury home building company he co-founded in 2007—Thesing says he “didn’t ever feel at home” until he moved to the mountains.
After college, he worked and lived “the ski bum life” in Vail, Boulder and Evergreen. Then, a job brought him back to Denver, where he bought, fixed up and sold his first home. Living in Colorado was great, he said, but the traffic was not.
“I remember sitting in two hours of traffic on I-25, and I was just like, ‘This is not my future. I’m not doing this,’” he says.
Living closer to the mountains with easy access to skiing, climbing, kayaking and fishing clearly was in his future, though. He landed in Big Sky, Montana, in 2000.
“I drove around for about six weeks throughout Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana,” he says. “There was not a lot there, and so it was kind of, maybe if you build it, they will come.”
That gamble paid off big—but wasn’t without its challenges, notably the 2008 financial and housing crisis, which the new company ultimately weathered.
Thesing and his business partner, Rob McRae, started small with one custom home, and methodically grew Highline Partners. Its active portfolio now has six to eight projects at a time across Montana and Utah—typically complex, 10,000-to-20,000-square-foot homes valued at $10 million to $100 million.
“I think our best clients are people that have gone out into the world and been very successful in whatever industry or business they are in,” he says. “It’s been fascinating how much you learn from these incredibly dynamic people.”
Designing and building custom alpine vacation homes for ultra-high-net-worth clients “in the top 1% of the 1%” makes hiring the right people a crucial part of Highline’s success.
“The people that work on our teams get to see some of the coolest stuff that’s being built, and that can be fun, and it can be really creative,” he says.
When the partners had a hard time finding candidates with the right skill set who fit the company’s culture, Thesing looked back at Daniels, which had “been in the rearview mirror” since he graduated.
“I had a great college experience,” he says. “I was in the Alpine Club, I played lacrosse, I was in a fraternity—I had so much fun. I met some of my very best friends who I still talk to today. So, I was like, well, maybe we should check in and see what’s happening at DU. There’s gotta be a student or two like me in the [Real Estate and Construction Management] program.”
Reengaging with Daniels and the Burns School, Thesing met college leadership and ultimately hired a third-year undergraduate student for an internship and a graduate alumna for an assistant project manager role at Highline. He was particularly impressed by Burns graduates’ communication and critical-thinking skills, along with their practical understanding of economics, budgets and project schedules.
“Those are the kinds of things that make those students desirable to our firm,” he says, adding, “What’s special about Burns is that graduates receive a more business-centric education. We still have the engineering mindset represented with the site superintendents, but for the project managers, the business piece is a better fit for how we do things and how the business is organized.”
As Highline grows, Thesing plans to continue recruiting Burns students and alumni to fill future roles, creating opportunities for the next generation while strengthening the connection between Daniels and industry.
Those who join Highline become part of a family-first culture built around opportunity, community and a shared love of the mountain lifestyle.
Highline incorporates sustainability measures like geothermal heating and solar roofing wherever feasible, while reinvesting its marketing dollars in the communities where its employees live. Rather than traditional advertising, the company supports parks and trails, housing initiatives, youth sports and other organizations important to its team members.
Thesing says the company’s approach to hiring, community investment and sustainability reflects its values of creating opportunities for others while protecting the mountain lifestyle that brought him to Montana in the first place.
“It’s certainly about making money,” he says, “but it’s more about making money to afford a certain lifestyle.”
For Thesing, that still means backcountry skiing in winter, fly fishing in summer—and helping the next generation of Burns graduates build careers that support the lives they love.