Age 31  |  President, Iowa Hospice

Three years after returning to his native Central Iowa, Rick Breuss holds not one but two important jobs. As president of Iowa Hospice, he draws a salary; as president of the board of the Iowa Hospice Foundation, his reward is serving the community.

“At Iowa Hospice,” he wrote, “I am responsible for leading and managing all aspects of a $28 million company. The mission is to bring love, joy and peace into the homes of those suffering from a life-limiting or terminal illness.”

The foundation is a nonprofit company that raises and donates money to charities and low-income families with terminally ill loved ones.

Breuss graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 2003 with a degree in business administration and went to work for Pella Windows and Doors in Carol Stream, Ill., as a sales representative. Another sales job followed in the Chicago area, and then Breuss spent 2 1/2 years with Portarius Inc. and VerteMed Technologies LLC in Chicago as a business development consultant and sales and operations manager.

He came home to be closer to family and to become the vice president of market development at Iowa Hospice in Johnston. In that position, he helped extend the organization’s reach into 90 Iowa counties from the previous level of 35 and open six new offices.

As president since 2010, Breuss has led a staff of more than 250. He received a master’s degree in business leadership this year from William Penn University, with an emphasis on servant leadership.

Breuss serves as a volunteer with several organizations. A sampling: He works at St. Joseph’s Emergency Shelter, where he prepares and serves a meal once a month; he’s the assistant district grand master of the Kappa Sigma fraternity; and he teaches a Junior Achievement class for first-graders at Webster Elementary School.

“The funny part about my time as a Junior Achievement volunteer teacher,” Breuss wrote, “is that every year I feel like my students teach me more about life than I do them regarding business.”

Breuss also is part of the Knights of Malta and volunteers with the ALS Association, the Angelman Syndrome Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and Ronald McDonald House Charities.