Dan Pettit was born and raised in the small town of Winona, Minnesota. He received his bachelor’s degree in finance from Winona State University and an MBA from Pepperdine University. He served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam era and was discharged in 1980.
Mr. Pettit began his career in finance in the manufacturing industry, rising to group controller in charge of turning around financially troubled divisions for a large U.S. electronics company. In 1995, he became CFO of a small startup in California, Uniphase, taking the company public and later becoming President of European operations for JDS Uniphase. By his retirement in 2000, he had grown the company from $35 million to $125 billion.
In 2003, Mr. Pettit and a partner bought a team in the Champ Car/Indy league, which they ran for five years. Proud father of three daughters, Mr. Pettit and his wife, Kelly, live in Las Vegas, spending a portion of winters in Hawaii and summers on their boat in Victoria.