40th Anniversary Book 10.5x13.5 FINAL

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

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.”

“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

Lea+Elliott Miami staff

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