Penguins CEO Morehouse Art Rooney Award winner

When David Morehouse left politics to move back to his home city of Pittsburgh in 2004, he figured he would stay for about a year.

He was just coming off working on John Kerry’s presidential campaign and had been hired as a consultant on the Penguins’ new arena project.

More than 12 years later, Morehouse is still here and has helped build more than just an arena.

Now the Penguins president and CEO, Morehouse has been selected as the recipient this year of the Art Rooney Award, given for his leadership and contributions to the Greater Pittsburgh area.

“For a street kid that grew up in Beechview to be even mentioned in the same sentence as Art Rooney is unbelievable and very humbling,” Morehouse said Tuesday.

“What I forgot in the 10 or 12 years I was gone, I was reintroduced to and I fell back in love with the city, and the best part of the city is its people.”

Morehouse was named president of the Penguins in 2007, and added CEO to his title in 2010. During Morehouse’s tenure, the team has gone from a relocation risk to one of the most successful franchises in the NHL, both on and off the ice.

When Morehouse joined the Penguins from the political world, he brought with him an outside-the-box approach. He did, though see a similarity, with how politicians interact with voters and how sports teams can connect with their fans.

That view meshed well with the philosophy of Penguins owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, who Morehouse credits immensely for the team’s success over the past decade.

“We’re fortunate enough to have an ownership group that told us to treat our fans like they’re partners, because they’re stakeholders,” Morehouse said. “They invest more than money. They’re not just customers, they invest time, they invest their heart and soul into these sports teams.”

That philosophy has been at the heart of the Penguins’ concerted effort to find new ways to connect with their fans over the past few years, particularly as the fan base begins to skew younger and more technologically savvy.

Morehouse said a strong business side of the franchise is “interconnected” with success on the ice. The Penguins certainly have had plenty of the latter, making the playoffs every year since 2007 and winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 and 2016.

Morehouse called having his name engraved on hockey’s ultimate prize “a high honor,” but his proudest moment came two years before than, when Lemieux announced that the Penguins had reached a deal to stay in Pittsburgh.

Morehouse credits Lemieux, Burkle and Sidney Crosby as playing instrumental roles in that process, too, but ultimately, that’s what made anything that came afterwards possible.

“I think that’s the biggest thing, just being able to keep them here, build an arena that the city could be proud of,” Morehouse said. “And generate the kinds of revenue that allow us to compete with big markets by being able to afford two of the best players in the game, being able to be competitive and win two Stanley Cups.”

Morehouse also wanted to make clear that a good amount of that credit goes to Burkle and Lemieux..

“They’ve never said no,” Morehouse said. “It’s amazing when I think about it and when I talk to other CEOs and presidents of other teams. When it comes to winning, anything we’ve asked for.”