Tag Archives: award

2020 IPMI Chairman’s Award: Thomas Wunk, CAPP

Tom-WunkThomas Wunk, CAPP

VICE PRESIDENT, PARCS SOLUTIONS
T2 Systems

I was asked to provide a list of work accomplishments, but that stuff is not important. Rather, I chose to point out just a few events and people that I look back on and cherish when thinking about my career in the parking industry. There are many, many more that I can list and should write a book, but for the sake of brevity:

To Dennis Cunning, who asked me to look at a broken lane at the Pier 40 location one cold December morning. I opened up the gate and a rat as big as a small hippopotamus came out. He looked up at me and wanted to know how long I was going to be (the rat, not Dennis).

To Bob Harkins and his sons for showing all of us what it is to love this country. To Bobby Brown, who exemplified travel expense management when he opted to sleep in a ticket dispenser box one evening instead of getting a hotel room.

To Kevin Austin and his mathematical conundrum discovery, when he glared down at a platter of 100 buffalo wings, stood, and shouted to the gods “Holy cow – how many chickens did it take to get this many wings?”

To Barbara Chance, who taught me the proper way to hunt waterfowl with a 3 wood and a Titleist.

To Peter Schneck, who showed that time travel was indeed possible. One morning we left a hotel in Monchengladbach and drove to Dusseldorf in a highly spirited fashion, a distance of 32 kilometers, and we arrived six minutes before we left.

To John Tencer and Mike Block, who demonstrated what extraordinary accomplishments could be had with a small team of dedicated and motivated individuals.

To Jeff Sparrow, who taught me never, ever lend anyone your cell phone.

But most of all I am grateful beyond words for my wife and family, who overlooked my many foibles as a husband and father, the missed events and late nights, the impromptu travel and the burned barbeque. It has been special beyond anything I could have imagined.

2020 IPMI Chairman’s Award: John W. Nolan, CAPP

John_NolanJohn W. Nolan, CAPP

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION AND THE CAMPUS SERVICE CENTER Harvard University

My greatest joy in working as a managing director in the field of parking, transportation, and mobility has been the opportunity to greatly improve numerous organizations’ operations, enhance capital infrastructure outcomes, and provide multiple mobility programs that have improved the daily working lives of so many people.

I never could have accomplished as much as I have without the support and friendship of so many people within the IPMI family, the directors and managers who have supported me throughout the years, and certainly the trust placed in me and support given to me by Harvard, Georgetown, and MGH.

Before starting in this field 31 years ago, I realized how important education was in obtaining the knowledge, skillset and trust to move organizations forward in any field. My degrees in business and management from Merrimack College and Lesley University prepared me for this new field back then, however the education that would take me to the next level was being a graduate of the first CAPP class in 1994.

It was this educational foundation, association networking, vendor/consultant engagement, and strong work ethic that enabled me to be a solid leader and demonstrate a skill set that led to numerous engagements as owners’ representative or client executive for major capital garage and infrastructure projects and to serve as an operations and management consultant to many organizations.

I have always felt it was important to give something back to our industry that had helped me along the way and was honored to be selected to be a member of the IPI Board of Advisors, to be elected several times to the IPI Board of Directors and to serve as President of the New England Parking Council for over 10 years. However, my greatest joy has been to be a member and now Chairman of the William M. Voigt CAPP Golf scholarship outing, named after my mentor, that has enabled many individuals to achieve the goal of CAPP in order to advance their career as I did.

In closing let me say, I am very honored and grateful to receive this special recognition from the International Parking and Mobility Institute, but as I’ve indicated above, it’s because of a lot of help received from so many wonderful parking and mobility professionals, educators and family along the way. A big thank-you to all of them!

2020 IPMI Lifetime Achievement Award: Kim Jackson, CAPP

Kim JacksonKim Jackson, CAPP

DIRECTOR, PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION
Princeton University

My parking career started at Rutgers University in 1988, when I began working as the first assistant director for administration of the university’s parking department. I had an amazing mentor, Rita Molnar, the first woman president of IPMC (now IPMI), who got me involved in the association and taught me everything I know about the business. Here we are at a campus event.

Within a year Rita retired and I was promoted to director of parking and transportation—becoming the first person in the newly-created position—working in that capacity until 1994, when I left to become the director of technical services (DOTS) for IMPC, which later became IPI, which is now IPMI, answering members’ technical questions and planning seminar and conference meeting content. During my IMPC/IPI days I was promoted to director of professional development, assisting with the launch of IPI’s onsite frontline training, editing The Parking Professional magazine, IPI publications and conference management; then was named vice president of the association; and eventually became executive director of the association.

After 15 amazing years working for the association, it was time to return to the parking industry’s daily operations and to that end, I accepted a position at Princeton University as their first director of parking and transportation services. I became a member of the IPI Board of Directors in 2009, and was elected as Board Chair at the 2015 IPI Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

A class of 2000 CAPP graduate and a Past Chair on the IPI Board of Directors. I have been truly blessed to be the “first” many time in this industry, to have been touched by SO many in the industry, to have given back when possible—within 32 short years I have had the unique opportunity to go full circle.

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award- Marketing: Megan Smit

Megan SmitMegan Smit

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
PayByPhone

At heart, Megan Smit is a brand evangelist. As PayByPhone’s director of marketing and communications, she develops and maintains the North American marketing strategy to increase adoption, usage, and reactivation of users on a global scale. She has created a marketing presence from ground zero and is focused on growing PayByPhone’s monthly active users as the company’s coverage increases worldwide.

Smit challenges the status quo and forges long-term relationships with key partners, clients, prospects, and departments. When she joined PayByPhone, Smit created a full marketing department in a remarkably short amount of time. She used her experience and knowledge from building brands and experiences with global companies within Africa and Europe to scale a high-performance team with specific skill sets that include mobile growth, digital marketing, media and communications, operations, and strategic campaign management led by an aggressive growth strategy.

Smit introduced processes and agile frameworks that brought structure and scale to all projects and tasks that involved multiple departments, including product management and client management. This was new for the company and disrupted it in the best possible way. Most importantly, however, Smit achieved this while forging strong relationships with these stakeholders.

Her tireless efforts and expertise were recognized through four IPMI awards in two years that recognized innovative and creative campaigns.

Smit has presented on the industry on various stages around North America.

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award- Marketing: Melissa Maraj-Bubela

Melissa_Marja_BubelaMelissa Maraj-Bubela

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Texas A&M Transportation Service

The Texas A&M University Transportation Services Marketing and Communications unit is a powerhouse of creativity charged with safeguarding the public image, promoting services, and telling the university’s story. As manager of this unit, Melissa Maraj-Bubela leads the marketing and communications charge for one of the largest parking and transportations operations on any college campus in the country.

Maraj-Bubela joined the department in 2015. Since then, the department has garnered national and international recognition, including being awarded an IPMI Parking Matters Marketing & Communications Award for three consecutive years. She manages two websites and two mobile apps that target nearly 200,000 combined users each year. She also oversees seven social media platforms, leads branding and image campaigns, and maintains media relationships and media inquiries, community relations, and public engagement.

Throughout her time with the department, Maraj-Bubela has been at the forefront of the department’s most impactful initiatives, successfully spearheading the communications and media outreach for noteworthy campaigns such as the rollout of the largest bike-share program for a university and the implementation of the first U.S. Dutch-style unsignalized and glow-in-dark intersection installed on a university campus.

She has also led the implementation of the university’s Donations for Citations initiative and collaborated with the university’s Football Thursday gameday communications committee, which resulted in unprecedented social media engagement for the university, international media coverage, and university-wide recognition. Furthermore, she has participated in some of the university’s most notable events, providing communications support for events such as the 2017 Hurricane Harvey response and the George H.W. and Barbara Bush interments. ,