Peter Holt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter M. Holt

Peter M. Holt, a Peoria, Illinois native, lived in San Antonio, Texas as a child before moving to Corpus Christi, Texas. Today, the great-grandson of Benjamin Holt, who developed the first practical track-type tractor 100 years ago, is the chief executive officer of HOLT CAT, the largest Caterpillar dealership in the United States and chairman, chief executive officer, and owner of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, which is made up by the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars, the AHL's San Antonio Rampage, and the 3-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.

The Holt family’s history in San Antonio began in 1933, when Peter’s great uncle, William K. "Bill" Holt, moved to San Antonio to start a Caterpillar dealership. He had no heirs, so Bill invited B.D. Holt (Peter’s father) to get involved in the business. In 1961, B.D. Holt moved to Corpus Christi and started his own Caterpillar dealership. After high school in Corpus Christi, Peter Holt went into the U.S. Army, serving two years, including a one-year tour of duty as an infantryman in Vietnam. He ended his military duty as a Sergeant E5 with a Silver Star and three Bronze Stars for Valor and a Purple Heart for wounds received.

Upon returning to the United States, Holt went to California, working for an investment banking house and became involved in a bar and restaurant business. Holt rejoined his father in the Holt Companies in 1983 in Corpus Christi. As president and CEO, Holt implemented a strategy to diversify the company’s markets, taking it from one of the smallest Caterpillar dealerships to the largest one in the country today. In September 1987, Peter and his father purchased Holt Machinery Co., in San Antonio, reuniting the original Caterpillar dealership that Bill Holt started in 1933. Not one for formalities and pretense, he set up offices in a San Antonio corporate headquarters building made of metal corrugated siding and dubbed "The Barn."

Holt believes in leading by example through his values-based management philosophy, a management style that is based on the belief that a whole community will benefit from association with a company committed to managing by an ethical values process. Holt’s core value of commitment, sharing a mutual desire to succeed, leads to corporate responsibility in supporting community projects. That value was one of the primary factors in his decision in 1993 to invest in the Spurs; a desire to keep the team in San Antonio and operating successfully. He and his wife Julianna Hawn Holt are now the franchise’s principal owners.

And in the last several years, Holt has seen this "community project" succeed in extraordinary ways. In June 1999, Holt joined with hundreds of thousands of Spurs faithful in celebrating the team’s first NBA (and World) Championship. In order to keep the team in San Antonio, Holt led a successful effort to secure community support to build a new community arena. The SBC Center, the new home to the Spurs and the San Antonio Livestock Exposition, as well as hundreds of community events broke ground in August 2000 and opened with the 2002 season.

With a long commitment to community service, Holt served as Chairman of the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County. He is a member of the World Presidents’ Organization, and is a trustee of the Palmer Drug Abuse Program. Governor Rick Perry appointed Holt as a commissioner of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife. A strong supporter of international trade, Holt is a board member of Free Trade Alliance-San Antonio, as well as the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of St. Mary’s Hall, a private school in San Antonio, and is on the corporate board of Chase Bank-San Antonio.

Holt plans on staying in San Antonio, and active in the Caterpillar business, looking forward to the possibility of welcoming his children into the family business.

Peter Holt was inducted to the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 2004 and information in this article was obtained from a short biography listed on their website [1].

The family is currently living in Louisville, Ky.