Our Leadership
Steve Maritz
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
"Achievement is a big part of my personal view of fun. I like to win."
That attitude fits Steve Maritz perfectly, since he is the leader of a company that helps clients achieve success through motivating their companies to greater performance levels. "We run sales and marketing programs that focus on the people side. Sales and marketing strategies are executed through people. You win through people."
As Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Maritz Inc., Steve Maritz represents the fourth generation of his family to lead the company.
Steve began his career with Maritz in 1983 as an account executive, calling on AT&T. As he rose through the sales ranks, Steve moved to Detroit to support the company’s automotive clients. He went on to run the sales and marketing organization of Maritz before becoming President and Chief Operating Officer in 1997. One year later, Steve succeeded his father, Bill Maritz, as Chief Executive Officer and was appointed Chairman of the Board after his father’s death in 2001.
Steve is active in the community, serving on the boards of the John M. Olin School of Business, the Variety Club, Laclede Gas, and the Greater St. Louis Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He also is board chairman for the Fair Saint Louis Foundation, a member of the John Burroughs School Board of Trustees, chairman of the Civic Progress Community Life Committee and past general chairman of Fair Saint Louis. Steve recently served as the 2006 Greater St. Louis United Way chairman.
Steve graduated with a bachelor’s degree in organizational psychology from Princeton University. And while he is both competitive and ambitious, Steve tempers these traits with generosity and common sense, guiding Maritz with a steady, protective hand.
"I expect everyone to play to their strengths. If you took everybody's weaknesses and brought them all up to average, you'd have mediocrity. What you really want to do is work on strengths and then work on teamwork, because business is a team sport."
What are his leadership principles?
- Be yourself and play to your strengths.
- Choose a positive attitude. The attitude you have is a choice that you make.
- Face reality. You need a combination of realism and optimism to thrive.
- Take personal responsibility. When faced with a problem, you need to ask 'What am I going to do about it?'
- Seek perspective. The answer is often clear if you ask the right question.
Maritz stays ahead of the curve by keeping up with what is happening in the field of performance. "I want to be open to the best thinking out there," Steve says. For example, he's been taking a look at neuroscientific research and its application to the solutions offered by his company. "What I found is that nearly all of our current practices are supported by these findings of how our brains work," says Maritz. "Now I want to integrate more of that science into practical applications for our clients to help them win."
