There’s little that Karen Such hasn’t done at PPS Parking & Transportation Inc. over the past 30 years.
She started as office manager in 1983, three years after Stephen Paliska founded Santa Ana-based PPS. She became revenue manager two years later and controller in 1990. Then came a promotion to director of performance management in 2000, and she became senior vice president of operations in 2006.
Growth
Such’s career trajectory has been like the company’s steady growth.
PPS started out providing parking services, with a Marriott hotel in Irvine as its first account.
It now offers a range of transportation services—from limo service to medical transportation, with high-end hotels, resorts, shopping malls, restaurants and hospitals on its client roster.
Privately held PPS doesn’t provide financial data. The company employs between 180 and 250 workers, depending on the season.
Such was among five businesswomen honored at the Business Journal’s 19th annual Women in Business Awards luncheon on June 4 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine (see related stories, pages 1, 4, 8 and 10).
“When we first started, between Stephen and myself, we wore a lot of hats,” Such said. “It was a great time for us in the industry. It was the right time and the right place. That had a lot to do with our growth. We became predominant in the [parking-management] space in Orange County quickly. We then expanded to Los Angeles, Northern California and Arizona. We did that in the first 10 years, [and] we achieved triple-digit expansion.”
Business grew, but so did competition, with companies such as Downey-based Parking Company of America in the mix.
That led PPS to branch into various transportation services.
“We’ve had the transportation part for about 15 years,” Such said. “That has helped us even through the toughest times. There have been many competitors over the years, but … where we are today is primarily through the diversification. [The addition of] services is what provided us the edge.”
PPS’ parking-management services—including valet parking and self-parking lots—still make up the bulk of the company’s business. Consulting for existing clients accounts for about 10% of revenue, and transportation services chip in with 30% to 35%.
PPS has a fleet of at least 50 sports utility vehicles, nine charter buses and a dozen vehicles that are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Such estimated PPS makes an average of 400 transfers a day.
PPS’ primary clients are the South Coast Plaza mall in Costa Mesa, the Westin South Coast Plaza and Mastro’s Restaurants LLC, among others.
“We cater to VIPs and executives, and we do all the baseball teams that come to play the Angels,” Such said. “We take care of all the transportation, like from hotels to the stadium. That’s fun. Our drivers get to know them. Sometimes they ask for the same driver.”
The latest service launched by PPS is its nonemergency medical unit, which began rides earlier this month, wrapping up the first day with 186 transfers.
“Our first client for that is a large hospital in Los Angeles County,” Such said. “We’re transporting patients from home to their doctors’ appointments and back home. We do on-campus transportation, too, for those [who are] mobile but ill. We’ll also do employee transportation up there and for senior centers.”
Transportation services ultimately are a “trust” relationship, Such said.
She’s also big on trust when it comes to helping children through StandUp for Kids, an Atlanta-based organization that supports homeless children. Such became familiar with the organization in 2001 and learned that there was no Orange County chapter. She then set out to build one.
Serving
“I got a lot of colleagues, friends, part of the leadership team and … in three months, everything was in place,” Such said. “We had a lot of surprises. We started looking at Santa Ana and Garden Grove. The first three kids we found were in Lake Forest by a dumpster. I got so many organizations involved. … We got schools involved to get these kids in schools. It was more a matter of getting their trust.”
Such also has been volunteering with the Vince Ferragamo Foundation for the past 23 years. She’s been in charge of the organization’s Celebrity Golf Classic silent auctions for nearly 20 years. The auctions raise between $60,000 and $100,000 in net donations each year that are used for the Special Olympics and other charities for children.
