Luis Cruz grew up in the construction trades in Philadelphia. His father, Luis M. Cruz, came to the United States from Cuba in 1959 and began doing concrete work. When Luis was a teenager, he worked for his father’s company renting dump trucks and heavy equipment to contractors.

“While other kids attended football games, I was going to work on the construction sites,” Luis said with a laugh. “My football was a wrench. My baseball was a pick. And my hockey stick was a shovel.”

At age 16, Luis began negotiating contracts for the company while working his way through Mastbaum Vocation Technical School in Philadelphia. He attended Community College of Philadelphia and Temple University, where he studied architecture construction and business.

His upbringing, hard work and knowledge of construction led Luis in the 1980s to create his own company. Cruz began as a subcontractor working on construction projects throughout the Delaware Valley.

In the early 1990s, the company grew in size and projects. After Hurricane Andrew devastated Homestead, Florida, the Federal Emergency Management Agency hired Cruz to help with the clean up and reconstruction. Luis spent a year-and-a-half in Florida working the recovery effort.

When he returned to Philadelphia, Luis and his employees began working on site work and the building of low-income residential housing in three Philadelphia and New Jersey neighborhoods. He also performed the site work for the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

In 2000, the University of Pennsylvania contracted with Cruz's firm to perform the excavation and concrete foundation for garages located on the campus of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Between 2002 and 2004, Cruz worked on the site excavation, footings, underground utilities and the building of the new parking lots for the new Lincoln Financial Field (Eagles Stadium).

Today Cruz employs between 12 and 20 skilled tradesmen all from the Philadelphia neighborhood where Luis grew up. Luis takes pride in creating jobs and giving back to his community, which made him the success that he is.

“These are home-grown guys. All of our guys are from this community,” Luis said.

Luis and his wife, Karen, have two young sons, Marcus and Zachary.