Steve Pankow

Steve Pankow is the third son (and child) of Charlie and Doris Pankow and the only one of their four children to pursue a career in construction. He followed his father’s footsteps into the industry independently of his father’s company. Nonetheless, he is “highly respectful and proud” of the achievements of both his father and the Pankow firm.

In 1976 he graduated from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, with a degree in construction engineering.

Like his older brothers, “Chip” (Charles J. Pankow III) and Rick, Steve Pankow worked on Pankow construction sites during his summers between university semesters. (Indeed, he began doing so at the end of his high school days.) The projects were located in all three regions in which Pankow primarily did business: Hawaii, Southern California, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

For some two decades, he was project manager for Commerce Construction Company, based in City of Industry, California. For another ten years, he worked as regional manager, vice president, and senior vice president of Panattoni Construction, a Sacramento, California-based corporation.

As he explains in his interview, Steve Pankow never worked for Pankow. His father believed that it would be better for his son’s career if he first gained experience elsewhere. Moreover, based on his father’s experience at South Bend, Indiana-based Sollitt Construction Company, Charlie Pankow believed that nepotism ultimately sapped the morale and productivity of firms. He told his son that he would not receive credit for what he did, no matter what he accomplished, were he to work for him. Charlie Pankow never told his son that he could not work for him, but that he preferred that he came in through the front door, rather than the back door, so to speak, after working elsewhere for a decade or more. Ultimately, Steve Pankow chose to pursue his career independently of his father’s company.