Page 11 - 40th Anniversary Book 10.5x13.5 FINAL

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After arriving in Hawaii without a job,
Steve was hired by Chuck Elms and Bill
Leder, though he knew nothing about
automated transit or APMs. Undaunted,
Steve put his leadership skills to work:
skills he’d honed during seven years at
Hewlett-Packard.
When he started with Lea+Elliott, he
was working in Honolulu on two projects
that were supposed to last for decades,
but the financing fell through for both of
them. This brought home the importance
of always bringing in work to keep the
company going. So, when an opening in
business development became available,
he went after it.
Steve relishes the opportunity to get
to know the clients and respond to their
needs, whether by traveling to meet with
them and listening to their concerns, or
by managing staff with fellow regional
directors to ensure that the right people
are available to address those concerns.
“I miss the technical aspects of
working on a project,” he says, “but that’s
not what I should be doing: my role is to
open the door for other people to walk
through.”
Another piece of our corporate ethos that
clients openly appreciate is our integrity. We
don’t make empty promises. We maintain
a balance between the expectations of the
client, the needs of the supplier, and the good
of the company—all for the benefit of the
passengers and the industry. Our role is the
planning of a transit or people mover system
and verifying that all the requirements are
in the specifications to ensure that nothing
slips through the cracks. That means being
empathetic to the supplier, while ensuring
that the clients get what they paid for: a safe,
reliable system.
Regional Director
Steve Perliss, P.E. | West Region
Lea+Elliott Miami staff
“The key to our success has always been our
dedicated personnel. Our employee longevity
and loyalty is the highest in the industry. We
talk about our corporate culture—it’s really the
corporate culture that has been the very basis
of our success.”
David Casselman | Principal