Michael Malatin started the first Hospital-based parking company in 1996. It became the nation’s largest specialized provider of contracted valet and parking services with over 320 hospitals in 34 states. He initiated service enhancements in patient satisfaction that led to Press, Ganey™ patient satisfaction scores that consistently exceeded the 95th percentile while parking over 20,000,000 cars annually. He developed operational guidelines and procedures to improve service delivery, training, accounting, talent selection, and management processes still used today as an industry benchmark. He sold the Company to ABM (NYSE: ABM) in 2007 and remained President of the 7,000 employee subsidiary until 2011.
For 5 years beginning 2013 and ending 2017, Michael founded and sold Pinnacle Automotive Hospitality Services. Pinnacle is the only company in the US that provides a sophisticated guest service approach to Porter and Support Services, developed strictly for Auto Dealerships.
Michael returned to the parking industry, creating Evolution Parking Systems in 2018. Michael has surrounded himself with a team of experts to fulfill the demands of the industry by providing the most professional approach in parking and hospitality management.
Michael Terry
Senior VP of People
As leader of the People Department, Mike oversees all human-resources functions including Talent Acquisition, Employee Relations, Talent Development, Compliance and Benefits.
Originally from Kentucky, Mike moved to Tampa Bay shortly after college and began his career in human resources soon after. While beginning his career in publishing he has worked in several other industries including mortgage banking, insurance, hospitality, and retail. Prior to joining Evolution Parking & Guest Services, he worked at Bankers Financial Corporation, a conglomerate of insurance-related businesses headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida where he served as the Vice President of Human Resources. In 2018, Mike helped to found a non-profit membership organization called RNG Tampa Bay with a mission to help bring best practices and collaboration to over 400 in-house recruiters throughout the Tampa Bay Area. He served as the Board Chairman for the first two years of the organization’s existence and has served on the Board every year since in varying capacities.
Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Kentucky and Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family.
Jeff Gatt
Chief Financial Officer
Jeff is a dynamic, strategically-focused, and entrepreneurially-minded professional with over 25 years of financial management and operational leadership experience. Jeff’s career consists primarily within senior executive positions in a broad range of industries that include technology, food service and manufacturing. Prior to his career in the private sector, Jeff spent 11+ years as a senior audit and tax advisor with one of the Midwest’s premier accounting firms.
Jeff brings a wealth of business acumen to Evolution after spending a large portion of his career developing and implementing strategic and tactical plans. He is constantly striving towards the development of strategic partnerships with the CEO, senior executive management and third party advisors.
During his career, Jeff has become an expert in the investigation, design, and coordination of projects and programs that boost efficiency and productivity while identifying new avenues of business for the company. He is also a flexible and adaptable start-up champion with proven skills in financial planning, analysis and modeling, organization change and development, decision making, conceptualization, risk management, problem solving, and team and performance management. He has been involved with mergers and acquisitions as well as fund raising initiatives involving banks, angel investors and private equity.
In 2021, the Tampa Bay Business Journal selected Jeff as a CFO of the Year Honoree. This is a testament to his strong leadership, tactical and strategic abilities.
Jeff prides himself on being a team-first guy. Many of the values he holds in great regard that he brings to work every day - honesty, pursuit of personal excellence, respect of others, loyalty, teamwork, humility, dedication, discipline, and leadership - were learned and nurtured during his high school and college years while participating on highly competitive and successful teams.
As such, Jeff loves to coach, teach and mentor. He is a passionate leader, is willing to multitask and work hands-on with the team and takes tremendous pride in leading, coaching and mentoring the staff to bring out their absolute best.
Jeff, originally from Michigan, graduated with honors from Hillsdale College with a B.S. in Accounting. He has been married to his wife Liz for the past 35 years, has two married adult sons and two amazing grandchildren. He loves to read, golf and spend as much time as possible spoiling his grandchildren.
Brooks Ellis
SVP of Operations
Brooks has dedicated nearly 30 years to perfecting the art of leading teams in delivering service excellence in hospitality. Having held senior leadership and advisory board roles in parking management operations and mobility technology firms, he has developed a uniquely holistic perspective on both the operations and mobility solutions segments of the industry.
Brooks has experience leading locations across the nation supporting staff numbered in the thousands, and a developed penchant for incremental improvement overseeing more than 50 projects annually over the past 10 years. Projects varying in scope and facet from in-house compliance to nationwide operational improvement programs and multiple large scale PARCS equipment installs. He has accumulated a wealth of vital experience in successfully executing objectives across multiple disciplines.
Make no mistake about it though, Brooks’ passion for service excellence is imparted into each of these aforementioned roles and has been recognized across the industry including in his appointment to create content for, and to lead training of, the valet ambassador certificate training program for the National Parking Association (NPA).
The principles of servant leadership are core to Brooks’ success, as evidenced by the many roles within various industry associations as a trainer, speaker, peer mentor and committee chair around the country. Additionally, Brooks has earned multiple awards and certificates during his tenure in the industry, including the Certified Parking Professional (CPP) certification from the NPA, the Paradigm award from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA), being recognition as one of the NPA’s 40 under 40 inaugural class, and a long list of performance awards earned through the organizations he’s led.
Connor Gray
Regional Director, Atlanta, GA
Connor Gray has been in the valet and commercial parking business for 14 years. Connor believes in leading his team by doing and strongly believes in building a culture of associates performing at high level in a luxury guest service environment. Connors parking experience is diverse, as he has personally opened 8 properties to include hotels, large commercial properties, country clubs, and restaurants.
In Connors current role, he will be focused on developing his team, expanding the Evolution footprint and keeping strong client relationships. In Connors spare time you can find him racing with the organization WERA in the A Superbike and A Superstock class. He has entered 15 races with 13 first place podiums and 2 second place. His favorite thing however is being a father to his 6 year old daughter.
Syed Abbas
Regional Director, Northeast
Syed Abbas is a diversified leader with a strong work ethic and a demonstrated history of working in the consumer services industry related to parking and mobility. He has strong professional skills in negotiation, team building, mentoring, organizational strategy development and implementation, operations management, financial modeling, sales, and customer service.
Syed has over 10 years of parking and transportation management experience with an aim to develop solutions to improve the bottom-line through innovation and efficiency while enhancing service to customers and clients. He has experience in operations at hotels, office complexes, hospitals, mixed-use facilities, commercial operations.
Syed studied Business Administration from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA.
Jack Kane
VP of Business Development & Client Solutions
His passion for working with people led him to the hospitality industry, where he now works closely with asset managers and service-oriented leadership teams. In his current role, Jack utilizes his analytical background to deliver profit-maximizing strategies for Evolution’s new and existing partners.
He previously graduated from the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business as a varsity letterman, with a BBA in Accounting.
Julia Toole
Accounting Manager
Julia joined the team in June 2020 and brings more than 20 years of accounting and leadership experience to her role. She has worked with small businesses, start-ups, and public companies in different industries.
She was born and raised in the Tampa Bay area and enjoys competing on the field and in the show ring with her Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs.
Sharron Bauer
Learning and Development Manager
As our Learning and Development Manager, Sharron oversees and maintains all learning programs to include the Evolution Academy, Guest Service, Safety, Operations and Quality Assurance. She also facilitates the Crescendo Excellence in Leadership Programs and collaborates with operations teams to identify opportunities to enhance organizational effectiveness.
Sharron is a Learning and Development professional with over 15 years’ experience in Adult Learning, Sales and Marketing within the Hospitality, Food & Beverage, Non-profit and Business to Business industries. She most recently worked at Coca Cola Beverages Florida where her responsibilities included Learning Management System (LMS) Administrator, leadership facilitator and e-learning designer. Prior to working with Coke Florida, Sharron was the Adult Learning Manager with Girl Scouts where she managed the LMS and all training design and implementation for 6500 learners within the west central Florida region.
Tony Nazario
HR Generalist
Tony is an accomplished leader, arriving to us with 7 years of experience in HR. Tony most recently worked as a HR Director and Business Office Manager with Innovation Healthcare Services where his duties included strategic planning, payroll, talent acquisition, staffing, and CMS billing. Tony served 12 years in the Army Reserve as a HR Specialist and Motor Vehicle Operator where he obtained his CDL Class A license. Tony earned a BS in Biology at Saint Leo University and is current studying to earn his SHRM-CP certification in HR.