Neither Bob Sternhell nor Bill Petty were interested in residential construction until the slow pace of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina found them joining forces to elevate more homes around New Orleans than all other contractors combined. Petty, president of the local division of Walton Construction Co., Kansas City, Mo., earlier this year formed Walton Mitigation Services, a wholly owned Walton subsidiary. He then joined with with Sternhell, CEO of Solutient Inc., a local information-technology firm, to form a risk-mitigation program-management joint venture. WMS and Solutient now have landed $182 million of the $1.4 billion of risk-mitigation grants offered to Louisiana homeowners since 2005, about two-thirds of which has yet to be awarded.
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