“The shortest path to happiness can be found by giving,” said Kevin W. Leary. He speaks from experience. The chairman of VPNE Parking Solutions, in Boston, supports a variety of health care and educational programs in Boston and Providence by donating 10 to 18 percent of his company’s annual net income. “Successful businesspeople who have the capacity to give, should give, and we feel sorry for the ones who don’t because it feels great,” Leary said.
After 25 years in investment banking Leary decided to go in another direction. In 1990 he founded VPNE Parking Solutions (formerly known as Valet Parking New England). “The concept of offering valet parking services to health care facilities has existed in California for a long time and I saw a great need for it here,” Leary said.
To learn how to offer the best possible service, Leary and his staff attended an intense customer-care program at the Disney Institute in Florida. The in-depth training program demonstrated to Leary how customer care can build or destroy a brand. Before long he took on The Lahey Clinic, in Burlington, Mass., as his first client. The market welcomed the service and soon his client list included The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital.
Rhode Island clients include Women & Infant’s Hospital and the Boys and Girls Club of Providence.
Today, VPNE has 450 employees and more than 40 clients. “Our employees are equipped with umbrellas and rain gear and when they work at a hotel they wear the same uniform as the rest of the hotel employees,” said Marika Beaton, vice president of VPNE business development and communications.
VPNE maintains a fleet of loaner automobiles in case of a fender bender occurring during parking. The loaner is delivered to the owner of the damaged car at his home, and the repair is completely taken care of.
However, making parking more convenient for patients and businesspeople is only part of what Leary focuses on. Together with his son, Kevin J. Leary, company president, VPNE in involved in a host of charitable endeavors. The Learys encourage employees to do the same.
A few of the organizations that depend on VPNE’s generosity are the Nativity Prep School in Jamaica Plain, a school that helps children from low-income, and often single-parent homes to excel in education; Girls Radio of Boston, a group of high school girls who founded their own female-run radio station that deals with derogatory lyrics of popular songs; and Boston Health Care for the Homeless, a service that treats homeless people sometimes on the street.
In fact, Kevin W. Leary was recently recognized by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino for the work he’s done to transform the Mallory Building, a former Boston morgue, into an outpatient health care facility for Boston’s homeless.
Leary is also known for getting his friends in the medical profession involved in his philanthropic pursuits and said it isn’t uncommon to find medical professionals treating homeless people all over the city at all times of day and night.
His commitment to charity is unusual, said Claire Costello, Bank of America’s philanthropic management national practice executive.
“A small- to mid-sized business with the inclination to give 10-plus percent of its annual revenue to charity, particularly in these economic times, is extraordinary,” Costello said.
Charity begins at home and VPNE also strives to take care of its employees. The company assists immigrants with learning how to speak English, and also offers tuition reimbursement.
And, while many companies are cutting back on benefits, VPNE recently boosted its employee dental and health plans. “We don’t necessarily expect our employees to stay with us forever, but I like to think we help them get to the next level in their lives,” Leary said. •
