Dow Corning Executive-in-Residence Steve Petruska inspires success

Innovative business leader
enriched CMU students' lives

Steve Petruska, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Pulte Homes, wants to send a message to Central Michigan University business students: There is life - and success - after college.

Success is something Petruska knows something about.

Petruska, '81, this year's College of Business Administration Dow Corning Executive-in-Residence, has directed domestic homebuilding operations for Pulte Homes, putting him in 44 markets and 24 states. Pulte Homes is the nation's leading builder of active adult communities. Petruska currently oversees all centralized functions directly affecting field operations, including product development, sales and marketing, segmentation, active adult development, construction, purchasing, and customer service-related activities.

Petruska, who graduated from CMU with an undergraduate degree in accounting, joined Pulte Homes Inc. in 1984 as vice president of finance for the South Texas division. During his 20-year career, he has held numerous management positions. He also served as area president for Arizona and Nevada operations, which in 2002 delivered almost 6,000 homes valued at more than $1.4 billion, and he served as the president of the company's Las Vegas division and as president of the southwest region.

"To be a leader, you need to take things to the next plane," Petruska said.

On October 19, Petruska shared how he has done just that during a talk, Leadership: It's in Your Future, and during visits to classes and meetings with faculty and staff in a variety of roundtable discussions and informal sessions.

For Petruska, key leadership begins with following your internal compass, putting others before yourself, understanding that work is more than just a job, and realizing that titles are trivial.

"The College of Business Administration is pleased that someone of Steve Petruska's stature was able to spend time on campus and share his philosophies and successes with students," said Dan Vetter, interim dean of the college. "The program allows CMU to bring in high-level executives, and it gives CMU students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to learn more about the business environment and how to be successful."

Petruska feels Pulte Homes and CMU business graduates make a great fit.

"We recruit in all areas - sales, finance and accounting, management, and customer relations," Petruska said. "Students don't have to have a certain major to be recruited by Pulte. We teach them the trade first, and they learn at field level. What we look for is the business degree."

Dow Corning Executive-in-Residence Steve Petruska tells students they can expect to be recruited by businesses like Pulte Homes after they complete their business degrees.