A more than 30-year veteran of the telecommunications industry has been hired as executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Springfield.
Larry Peterson, who most recently served as regional vice president of operations for Mediacom's Missouri and Kentucky region, started with Habitat for Humanity Oct. 8. Peterson succeeds Linda Stewart, who retired from the position after about a year.
Peterson, who was laid off by Mediacom when the company went private early last year, said he had been performing consulting work while searching for a new position.
"It is tough out there. It's not like it used to be," Peterson said. "As I was looking, this position came up.
"The whole philosophy of the organization and the mission of doing God's work to help is something I hadn't really put my heart into. I did a little soul searching and threw my hat in the ring, and after a pretty good gauntlet of interviews and meetings, the board decided to give me a crack at it."
A graduate of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Peterson previously worked for Time Warner Cable as a division vice president of marketing, sales and public affairs in Kansas, Nebraska, Georgia and North Carolina. Moving to the nonprofit sector after years working with corporations is a significant change, Peterson said.
"Nobody has a bad thing to say about Habitat. Having been in the cable industry for as long as I was, that's kind of a nice change," he said.
"It is certainly where you have to accept a certain level of austerity," he added. "With any job, you have to make sure that you're keeping a good close eye on expenses and the budget."
Peterson is charged with leading about 40 part- and full-time workers at Habitat, as well as a volunteer base of more than 1,000 people. The local Habitat chapter is gearing up for its annual Tool Belts & Bow Ties fundraising event, scheduled Nov. 16. Last year, the organization, which helps to build or rehabilitate homes in Greene County, raised more than $35,000 though the event, according to Habitat's
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