Arnold Gacita is the President and Founder of Houston-based Petra Automotive Products, Inc., one of the fastest-growing chemical companies and a trusted brand throughout the United States and 44 countries. From an early age, Arnold, who emigrated to the U.S. from Cuba when he was seven months old, learned two important lessons: you shouldn’t take anything for granted, and you have to outwork everyone else. As a child, his grandfather, who left behind a successful grocery store and meat market in Cuba, told him, “No matter what position you have, do something; if you see a broom, pick it up and start sweeping.” He learned his work ethic from seeing his Father work 14-16 hour shifts as a painter for an oil tools company. An entrepreneur from an early age, Arnold worked in the streets after school and in the summers, selling a variety of products – from furniture his grandfather and uncle built to snow cones.

Arnold honed his entrepreneurial skills at Wynn’s, a performance polymers division of the publicly traded Illinois Tool Works, Inc. when he went to work for a local distributor and turned it into the #1 Wynn’s distributor in the U.S. After Arnold developed a groundbreaking sales method based on relationship-building and selling programs rather than just products, Wynn’s took notice, bringing him in-house and promoting him from business development manager to national sales manager to director of sales and marketing for the Americas Group of Wynn’s.