November 8, 1945 – May 2, 2011
Very few people are held with higher esteem in the area of apartment industry education, training and career development than Tony Pusateri. Tony served as President of the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas in 1986-1987, President of the National Apartment Association in 1992 and served on both the NAA and NAA Education Institute boards and committees for many years. He was also an IREM Faculty member, instructing internationally. The hallmark of Tony’s year as president of NAA was the establishment of the NAA/NMHC Joint Legislative Program, a partnership that is now in its 19th year.
While serving on NAA’s Strategic Planning Committee in 2004, Tony passionately advocated that NAA must focus on apartment career promotion to create a pipeline of new, skilled talent and enhance employee retention through training that is facilitated by highly-trained instructors both online and in the classroom.
Tony not only promoted the creation of NAAEI but thanks to his support, NAAEI received the very generous investment of $1,000,000 from his employer at that time, Equity Residential. That investment was instrumental in NAAEI’s ability to raise an additional $4+ million dollars to fund apartment career promotion programs, update and accredit designation programs, develop online programs and utilize technology to overcome administrative issues.
As a NAAEI Board member and Apartment Career Committee Chair, Tony developed the NAAEI Advanced Instructor Training Program and initiated partnerships with Job Corps, DECA, SkillsUSA, Jobs for America’s Graduates and community colleges. In 2006, very appropriately, Tony was the first recipient of the NAAEI Apartment Career & Education (ACE) Award. In 2008, Tony received the NAA Hall of Fame Award.
During Tony’s incredible career in the apartment industry, he touched the lives of thousands of people including apartment managers, leasing consultants, maintenance technicians, supplier partners, association members and industry executives. Tony enhanced the professionalism of the apartment industry by passionately pursuing his dreams, which have resulted in the NAA/NMHC Joint Legislative partnership, NAA Education Institute and the recognition of Equity Residential as a world-class training organization by Training Magazine.
As important as Tony’s leadership in the apartment industry has been, he always made it clear that his number one priority was his family. NAA and NAAEI thank the Pusateri family for sharing Tony with the apartment industry for the past 25 years.