Gregg Petersmeyer
Point of Light
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| Petersmeyer Photo by Katherine Lambert |
C. Gregg Petersmeyer learned about giving back from his parents. He observed in them and their contemporaries a tremendous empathy for their fellow citizens going through the shared hard times of the Depression and World War II. “Today,” he says, “we must revive that generation’s visceral understanding of the importance of helping one another.”
After graduating from HBS with his wife and classmate, Fitzie, Petersmeyer was working for General Atlantic Energy in Denver when tragedy struck in 1985. Fitzie succumbed to cancer, leaving Petersmeyer bereft and with three small children to raise. Family and friends, including George H.W. Bush, rallied to his side. Asked by Bush to chair his 1988 Colorado campaign, Petersmeyer was later tapped by President-elect Bush to head the new White House Office of National Service, which created the Points of Light Foundation. “Culture, more than politics or government, influences people’s behavior,” Petersmeyer declares. “So the President would publicly and relentlessly assert that ‘Any definition of a successful life must include serving others.’ Each day we told a story — a symbolic ‘point of light’ — about unsung Americans doing just that.”
In 1997, Petersmeyer helped found and, for several years, manage America’s Promise, the national youth-development organization. Currently, in addition to overseeing The Fitzie Foundation, whose education grants have helped scores of young women and girls, he is rolling out “Personal Pathways,” an intranet software tool designed to help workers within an organization create their own “communities of interest” in giving back. “It’s a communication platform to improve employee respect and trust, corporate culture, and community well-being,” Petersmeyer says.
— GE
