Editors’ Note

Steve Maritz represents the fourth generation of his family to lead Maritz. He began his career with Maritz in 1983 and became President and Chief Operating Officer in 1997. One year later, he succeeded his father, Bill Maritz, as Chief Executive Officer and was appointed Chairman of the Board after his father’s death in 2001. Maritz serves on the boards of the John M. Olin School of Business, the Variety Club, The Laclede Group, and Wetland’s American Trust. He also is a member of the John Burroughs School Board of Trustees, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Board of Trustees, the St. Louis Convention & Visitor’s Commission, past Chairman of the Civic Progress Community Life Committee, and past General Chairman of Fair Saint Louis. Maritz served as the Greater St. Louis United Way campaign chairman in 2006 and Co-Chairman of the 2009 American Heart Association Heart Walk. Maritz graduated with a bachelor’s degree in organizational psychology from Princeton University.

Company Brief

St. Louis-based Maritz (www.maritz.com) is a sales and marketing services business that helps companies achieve their full potential through understanding, enabling, and motivating employees, channel partners, and customers. Maritz offers market and customer research, communications, incentive initiatives, rewards and recognition, effective meeting, event and incentive management services, and customer loyalty programs.

How is Maritz positioned coming out of the recession?

The recession was a lot worse than we thought, but we were able to get lean in a hurry and focus on the core of what we do and what our customers value. So we were able to come through that period in pretty good shape, and we’re now picking up a lot of share and business is quite good.

How critical is the focus on corporate responsibility to the culture of your company?

We have always believed that a great company should be a contributing member of the community in which we live and work.

Our business at Maritz focuses on people and helping the people who work for and with our clients reach their full potential. We’ve chosen to focus our community giving on educational programs that demonstrate a commitment to human potential. We’re trying to be generous with not only our money but with the time and talent of our employees in helping community-based organizations, who have oftentimes found talent to be more valuable than any check we might write.

How strong is the Missouri market and has the public/private partnership been effective?

The business community in Missouri, particularly in St. Louis, is pretty tight. A great example is the United Way effort in this city, which is the result of strong leadership at the United Way but also the support of the corporate entities here.

There are a lot of companies that have grown and thrived here including Express Scripts, Scottrade, Enterprise, and Edward Jones. So we’ve got biotech, financial advisory, technology, and health care businesses. We also have prestigious universities such as Washington University, Saint Louis University and Webster University, among others. All of these assets enable us to have a workforce that is well-educated, hardworking, and loyal.•