Pete Milosavlevski

Growing up in the Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights, Michigan, Pete Milosavlevski loved cars and trucks, and he owned a couple of quick Camaros and Mustangs before growing career and family responsibilities “evolved” him into loving trucks.

- Gary Witzenburg

“I wanted to get an old Jeep but never pulled the trigger on that,” he says. Instead, he has owned Dodge and Ram pickups for more than 15 years, and now proudly pilots a 2020 Gladiator Rubicon.

He joined Chrysler in 1997 soon after graduating from Oakland University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, then earned a master’s degree in engineering management there through a Chrysler Institute of Engineering rotational co-op-type program. “The Viper was one thing I was hoping to work on,” he says, “and the other was Jeep. Most engineers want to work on these very capable products, so it took a while to get to Jeep.” He worked on product quality, then vehicle development on the 2009 Ram 1500. “From that point,” he adds, “my passion for trucks really took off.”

Milosavlevski moved back to cars on the 2013 Dodge Dart before leading the 2016 Ram ProMaster/ProMaster City program. Then in 2016, his dream came true: he was named chief engineer for this 2020 Jeep Gladiator. Given his passion for capability development, he enjoys “working through problems to ensure customer expectations.” And leading Gladiator from concept to launch, proving pre-production Gladiators through tests that included tough off-road challenges and even the Rubicon Trail, “has been the highlight of my career.” We sat down with Milosavlevski at the Gladiator media launch in Sacramento after we test-drove on freeways and twisty two-lanes and through an extremely aggressive off-road course.

Truck Trend: Why wait so long to do this product, which seems like a no-brainer?