Business & brands / Sports
Peter Karmanos Jr.
born 1943 · software entrepreneur, hockey owner
Detroit-born son of Greek immigrant restaurant owners who co-founded the software giant Compuware, built amateur hockey in Detroit and owned the Carolina Hurricanes.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 83- Detroit years
- 1943–
- Field
- Business & brands, Sports
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Karmanos was born in Detroit in 1943 to Greek immigrants who ran a restaurant. He went to Henry Ford High School and Cass Technical High School and earned his degree at Wayne State University. With partners Thomas Thewes and Allen Cutting he co-founded Compuware in 1973, growing it into a major software company based in metro Detroit, and led it as chief executive until 2011; in 2003 the company moved its headquarters into a new tower at Campus Martius in downtown Detroit, an early landmark of the city's revival. A lifelong hockey fan, he founded the Detroit Compuware amateur hockey program in the late 1970s, ran the Plymouth Whalers junior team and in 1994 bought the Hartford Whalers, moving them to Raleigh as the Carolina Hurricanes, who won the 2006 Stanley Cup. Detroit's Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute bears the name of his first wife, who died of breast cancer in 1989.
Highlights
- Co-founded Compuware in 1973; CEO until 2011
- Founded Detroit Compuware amateur hockey
- Owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, 2006 Stanley Cup champions
- Hockey Hall of Fame (2015) and US Hockey Hall of Fame (2013)
- Karmanos Cancer Institute named for his late wife Barbara Ann
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial · 1990s–
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
Detroit cancer center in Midtown named for Karmanos's first wife.
Worked here · 2003–2011
One Campus Martius (former Compuware headquarters)
Downtown office tower built as Compuware's headquarters, opened in 2003.
Studied here · 1950s
Cass Technical High School
Detroit's selective technical high school, one of the schools Karmanos attended.