R. Joe Sullivan
Director, New Business Development
Peak Construction Corporation
Rosemont, Illinois
With more than 24 years of experience in the construction industry, R. Joseph Sullivan has become a leader at Rosemont, Illinois’ Peak Construction Corporation, helping the firm thrive in both good and challenging times.
Like most members of this Hall of Fame, though, Sullivan’s start in the commercial real estate business was a humble one. After graduating from Winona State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and participating in the 1990s telecommunications boom, where he started as a sales representative in 1996, he steadily earned promotions to positions of increasing responsibility until joining Peak Construction Corporation in 2000.
Sullivan has played an essential role at Peak, one that has grown exponentially throughout his career. His successful project completions, recruiting, training and mentoring of Peak team members have resulted in an upward professional trajectory, and he is currently the director of business development at Peak.
Sullivan regularly displays a passion and enthusiasm for design/build construction and real estate. His role includes maintaining many key customer relationships as well as cultivating new partnerships and relationships that have boosted Peak’s overall company growth. Sullivan has also strategically developed personal relationships with industry real estate and construction professionals that have resulted in trusted, long-term and collaborative partnerships.
It is this fundamental commitment to the pursuit of perfection that enables Sullivan to sell, on behalf of Peak, successful and award-winning projects every year.
“Relationships and hard work have been the components of my success,” Sullivan said. “I live by the work hard/play hard mantra. Long-term networking and real estate relationships have allowed me to thrive in the CRE industry.”
Sullivan has completed work throughout Chicagoland as well as in New Jersey, Ohio and Southeast Wisconsin. One of his most prestigious projects is Sunstar, a 302,000-square-foot build-to-suit manufacturing and distribution facility in Schaumburg, Illinois, that remains an iconic entry landmark into the village along the Interstate-90 corridor.
Sullivan’s superior work ethic and thorough grasp of pre-construction, design/build and field construction processes have been vital to his sales and business development achievements. He is actively involved in developing and maintaining relationships, and subsequent proposal generation, to win projects. In 2022, he helped Peak grow to a record-setting total annual sales revenue of $400 million.
Sullivan also works closely with Peak’s project engineers, managers and field personnel regarding the intricacies and challenges of commercial design and construction. He is instrumental in continuing to evaluate, improve and enhance Peak’s overall sales, including internal and external processes and technology systems that result in the highest value for the company’s clients.
Sullivan is married to his college sweetheart, Michelle, and has two grown, successful children. He has a passion for the outdoors and has organized multiple group fishing and waterfowl trips in addition to successfully spearing sturgeon through the ice on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin. He is an active annual sponsor of Ducks Unlimited and personally plants large food plots for native wildlife on the natural bluffs in Northwestern Illinois.
