Howard Puterman '86Enterprise

Vice President/General Manager of Nevada

Howard Puterman started his career in South Florida in September 1986 only three weeks after graduating from IUP. Little did he know renting cars at Enterprise would be his career; he moved up quickly through the ranks with his aggressive sales numbers as well as his willingness to work hard to get ahead. From there, his performance in fleet growth and profitability accelerated in South Florida, which gave him the opportunity for promotion to a group rental manager in Sacramento, California. When he got to Sacramento, the group was doing below par in most of the business measurements, and within two years he was able to put Sacramento on the map with both growth and profits. Howard's next promotion took him to San Diego as a regional vice president. His goal was to make RVP by his 10th year, and he made it in only eight.

As an RVP, Howard was very successful in his first five years. He won a President's Award for producing top results in all the areas of business, doubled the fleet and profits of the region, as well as developed many employees to excel and take on larger roles within the company. This performance helped to get him promoted to the group vice president in Southern California, which required relocation to Anaheim for a couple more years. As a group vice president, he supervised six regions and RVPs, which consisted of at least 250 rental branches. By achieving this role, Howard was the first vice president in Southern California promoted to this position when starting in a different group. Historically, promotions generally came from within that group, and he was the one that opened the door for opportunities for many more people outside the Southern California Group.

This new role groomed him for his next role, which would be vice president/general manager of Nevada. When he got to Nevada, operations only included car rental, car sales, and fleet leasing. The car rental fleet consisted of approximately 5,000 cars. After 15 years and the acquisition of the Alamo and National brands in 2007, Howard now manages over 20,000 rental cars in addition to overseeing car sales and fleet leasing. His additional operations now include truck rental, in which he manages a fleet of 700+ large box trucks as well as an Uber branch. His performance has won several awards, which include the Chairman Award given to the group with the best performance during a fiscal year, along with a Jack Taylor Founding Values Award, which is given to the groups that truly live the company's founding values. The group has won the Chairman's Award two years in a row and is currently on track to win its third.

Howard and his wife, Kate, have two children, Anthony and Nicole.

Inducted spring 2017