Business as Usual: Life's Work CEO Tim Parks

Transcription: 

So good afternoon, everyone. This is it, this might be Hump Day. But this is business as usual. And honestly, you really need to sit tight because we have an incredible person on the show who has deep roots in the tech community, but is now doing work that all of you should know about. And in a minute, I'm going to introduce them just want to set the stage really quickly, Jonathan Kersting is with us. And he's vice president of all things, media, and marketing for the tech Council and takes deep pride in telling lots of stories. So he will manage the chat, we put you on mute, this is not a time for you to sell your wares. This is our time to get immersed in our guest. And and I want to thank Huntington bank, because they've been our partners right from the beginning. But I also want to remind everyone that it's this community is far and wide. So while we think of technology in terms of business businesses that create solutions, and have intellectual property, there's also a wide community that is impacted by the success of the work that we all do. And you all do in terms of building the future. And this is one of those conversations that we're going to have today. Because we have someone today, his name is Tim Parks. If you don't know him, you need to know him, not just because that he was the founder and the first leader of the Pittsburgh Technology Council almost 38 years ago, he is someone who has been a champion for this region in every role that he has ever touched. And it is no surprise to me than in his work in lifeworks. It's no surprise, the transformation and the impact that he has on people's lives, who have different abilities have varying abilities. And he's going to talk about that. We're going to set the stage though, to bring him on. This is Timothy parks, I call him Tim, I know Timothy is proper, and he got dressed up for us today. So we need to make sure that we give him the Regal pneus that he deserves. But he is he is the person who was part of the vision of the tech Council. But that's not really why we're here today. But I wanted to give reverence to that because I feel very proud of hand that you know, sort of taking on the legacy and the vision because the work at the tech council actually still originates from the original bylaws from the original vision from the original mission. And that's to make sure that Southwestern Pennsylvania is an amazing place for technology and innovation to be built. And as a destination for that work. It has not changed. So it's pretty insane. You think about almost four decades, and this man guided the path. And I have the privilege of taking all that work and trying to make it relevant into today's world. So I just want to give thanks every time I'm around him, I'm really very humbled by that kind of legacy. So now we're going to bring the man on Timothy parks the man. And we first of all we want to know, Hey, how are you doing? How are you doing yourself and during this pandemic, and just tell us a little bit about your journey, not just what I just bragged about but tell us a little bit about your own professional journey.

Well, thank you.

Thank you very much, Audrey, I was going to say we could just end the show right there. You were very, very kind in your in your intro remarks. And it just as I have often shared with you and others at the tech Council, it is so gratifying to see what you have done in taking the tech council to that next level and doing everything you're doing with with a vibrant, robust tech industry that's really driving this this region's economy. So my hat is off to you. But again, thank you very much. I as you as you mentioned, I came to region actually working at the Carnegie Institute, but shortly thereafter, had the opportunity to have this wonderful entrepreneurial experience to launch something in the early 80s called the Pittsburgh high technology. And from there, you know, 12 and a half years later, we had quite a run. It was great timing. We worked hard. We were very entrepreneurial in our own way, which you know, gave us an affinity for the very business that businesses that we were trying to promote the the high tech startup community. At any rate, it was my honor to pass this this Leadership ultimately to you, and you now have the record, I think, for leading the tech Council for 13.

wear a tie, it does, okay.

We'll consider it a tie. But at any rate, during the by then had a privilege of working on behalf of the entire region, with the Pittsburgh regional alliances, its first CEO, which now is being again, very, very well led by Mark Thomas. And so, you know, I've been engaged in the economic life of the region in a number of different ways. But where I am today, in many respects, I say, Well, I think I finally found my life's work. And I am playing off the name of the organization I now lead. But the reason I say that is that it has given us given me an opportunity to, to really impact individuals lives, I was actually recruited for life's work board some 25 years ago, and had an opportunity to learn about its great work and its mission, when it was then known as the vocational rehabilitation center. Long story short, after a number of things that I did, four years ago, I was given the opportunity to come into life's work, this nonprofit, human services organization, and lead it in an operating way. And so I joined the CEO four years ago, let me just sort of get to the bottom line, life's work is all about the work. It's about providing opportunities for individuals who have special challenges, special needs, who have some disabilities, that present barriers to them, enjoying what we all enjoy, which is the opportunity to have a meaningful job. And it may come as a surprise to some It was a shocking statistic, when I came back into the, into the work, that individuals with disabilities are three times more likely not to have a job. And those of us who do not have those special challenges. And yet 70 to 75% of those individuals really want a job. They want the kind of sense of purpose that comes with the dignity of having employment. So the work of this agency, which has been about 90 years now has been finding ways in which we can facilitate and support those individuals with disabilities getting engaged in the economic life of our region by having a job we do that in a number of ways. I'm almost tempted now look to our producer, executive of saying, could we tee up the video that I brought along because I think that we'll be able to get people really get a sense.

Absolutely. So don't, don't go away. Let's watch the overview of life works.

littleworth was founded by myself and my partner, Rob Randy back in 1992. We design import, manufacture and sell accessories, apparel, and now pet products for all the NFL teams for major league baseball, about 70 colleges and the National Hockey League and we just got into Major League Soccer too. We really feel like we can depend on life's work to get the project back when we need it on time. It was

like five or 10,000 pieces and they finished them. I gave them like seven days. They were back here in four days. So it was fantastic.

I would definitely recommend life's works to any company where you have consistent projects where you need that flexibility in your workforce. It's actually easier to outsource those projects to life's works than to bring in a temporary service train people all over again and have it done in house

dealing with lifeworks fishcake.

Its surplus handles all the surplus properties that are disposed of for the University of Pittsburgh a large part of that is E waste recovery, which is focusing on our sustainability efforts. I was fortunate enough to go to the gala last year. That's where I was introduced to Babs started a conversation. She invited me down to the warehouse. I got to tour. She came out here at a tour, we thought group staffing would be the best fit for pet surplus. D manufacturing his computers is a tedious and time consuming job and our clients do an amazing job at it. with having our clients here, it's given us more time to focus on our sustainability efforts. I think they love their job. They come in with a smile every day, job coaches join. And then on the phone, we got music playing at times. It's a, it's fun, we keep it fun, they bring a lot to the table. We're happy to have them. It's a great partnership,

Panera Bread, right, we're bakery cafe, neighborhood bakery cafe. You know, we want to make that impact on the community, right serve serve a nice product in a nice clean environment.

The Naira is a really great place for anybody to work, whether you're an associate, or a manager, we had someone come in and ask if we hire somebody with special needs disabilities, if we'd be willing to work with them,

run a worst addition a dining room area, you know, it's not just washing dishes, you know, he's out in the dining room is filling up the coffee's you know, he's wiping the tables, he's taking care of the floors, he's interacting with the customers. It's not an easy job, it's an experienced job that he's taken very passionately, and does it to a level that I want from every associate of mine.

I really like working with him. I know I can count on him. I know he's gonna show up works really hard. And I think it just creates overall with everybody managers, associates, district managers, anybody, it creates just a warm and friendly relationship between everybody. So I think that everybody has something to gain from it.

Why not take advantage of a company who is going to sit somebody in front of me, who wants to do the job and wants to do great work, right? We're looking at the toughest labor market. In the 19 years, I've been with Panera Bread. And to have those employees who want to come they show up on time, their hard work, and they're dedicated and make that impact. You know, that's that's the relationship that lifework offered. And we accepted wholeheartedly.

Tim, that was great. That gives I think that really sets the stage for understanding the work that you do. So can you get Can you peel into some of the details? Like how many? How many people do you serve? What does it mean, for people who have this term disabilities, which I don't like to use that term? I like to just say it's different abilities. Right? And so can you can you talk about that, and then someone's, you know, question about, what what do they earn in some of the night? Well, me,

as we've touched, in the course of a year will touch as many as 14 or 1500 individuals lives now that's done in a variety of ways. And the video sort of captured three environments in which we have individuals with special needs or different abilities. With little Earth, we bring those projects over here to our own production facility, where we're doing, but assembly and kidding, and so forth. And then set and we do that on contract, we have many, many different contracts, some with high tech companies, like Mitsubishi Electric Power project, like Eaton Corporation, etc, we're doing on an outsourced basis projects within our own facility. So there's direct employment, you saw the example of pet, there, we're taking a group of our individuals of our clients to on site where they can work alongside of the pit staff. So they're in an integrated competitive environment, but they have the the support of a job coach that we send along, they're not quite ready to be placed individually. But they also don't need the supervision that we offer in our direct production facility. And finally, and many people might be familiar with this is placement of individuals in settings like, like the young man at Panera, and whether it's a big box retailer or restaurant, hospitality or any number, we would place anywhere from 100 to 150 individuals each year, and continue to give them support. So the idea is to have a continuum of what I call buckets of of environments in which we can match up an individual's comfort and and skill base. Now they get paid in many cases, right at the minimum wage, and they are also being supported on an ongoing basis by the Commonwealth and other agencies that that provide a baseline and support for individuals who do have a diagnosis or a set level of disability. So combine it all and they're making a good wage. And I think that's our other selling point is that we're doing good. I mean the self esteem that comes with individual clients that Work is probably worth it in and of itself. But in addition, they are now participating able to participate in the economic life of the region because they're getting a paycheck every Friday.

So what is the criteria? That is the criteria? What's the criteria for someone to be eligible to participate in the array of programs that you offer,

most of the individuals you saw, and that I described in the the areas that we're placing individuals are coming to us on a referral basis from the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. In other words, they pass through an assessment and a qualification saying you can now be a client of life's work. Now we have other programs, where you do not need to be referred directly by Oh, VR training skills, training programs, and other ways in which we can help individuals overcome barriers that are preventing them from being a, you know, a fully engaged employee. I could mention one last area, which is the way in which we have evolved our our program offerings, and that is in this this terrible area of opioid use disorders. We all know that it's a scourge on on our region, as well as the nation. We're dealing with individuals, this is not individuals that come through an OB er, but can be self referred, referred to us by treatment centers, where we're providing employment support, we're helping those individuals who have been in a recovery treatment program and are making their progress, we're helping them take that next step and find employment, which becomes a very, very critical Wow, in their full recovery. So it's again, applying our core competency, which is employment support. Today's case, I needed area of support.

So do any of the any of the people who come through and have had successful employment to any of them ever get hired by the companies?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Many of them do. In fact, our individual placement like the young man who's working at Panera, right, he's their employee he's hired.

That's great. We have,

as I mentioned earlier, I may have glossed over it, anywhere from 100 to 150. individuals were working and they're ready to work within an integrated competitive environment. They're getting jobs through the supports that were given. I mean, that's, that's kind of the the, you know, the golden, right wrong of success for those individuals that are ready for it.

And so how is the organization funded?

Well, we have three primary vehicles for for support. One is by virtue of the work we do for a little earth for a Mitsubishi Electric Power products, etc. Over 300 business relationships, we earn our support, as the businesses contract a contract with us to do these kinds of kitting and special assembly projects. That's one component. The second component, and probably the largest is what you would call fee for service, we're being reimbursed for the work that we do on an ongoing basis by entities like the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, who are providing us with, with support from private for providing the the support that we provide to these individuals. And then the final component, like every other nonprofit, we raise money, we have events, we have our annual fund where we get individual donations, and of course, we go to the philanthropic sources, Foundation, so three sources of funding, and we put it together and try to break even every year.

Okay, and then you also just relocated, you want to just tell people about what you did, because people you're very business savvy, so you actually pulled a really nice move in terms of a sale and a way for new innovation.

Yes, some people may have been familiar with our what I call our sort of iconic flagship headquarter facilities, which was located in Uptown directly across the street from what was once known as the Palumbo center. But if you recall that that building was 130,000 square feet, which had served as our headquarters for 50 years. We built it back in 1970. And over the years as we grew and morphed and changed, it was our facility but we gotten to the point where it was a bit of a, an albatross around our necks because we didn't need 130,000 square feet with the changes of technology and the way in which we did a lot of our work outside of our facility. So we looked to put that building on the market convert a very large physical asset into something a little more liquid called money in a reserve fund. And fortunately for us, we found a ready buyer, and that was Duquesne University. Duquesne had its own ambitious plans, which has now manifested themselves in the sense that they have purchased that site, and they will locate the new osteopathic medical school on that site. Now for us, it meant that we could then move to a right size facility, which we did on the south side. And we are now here having moved in late summer, we now have a 30,000 square foot built to our specification facility. And as I say, I think that this transformational transaction was a win win, win win four wins, it was a win for life's work. This is a win for Duquesne because it fits very, very well with their their needs. For the medical school. It's a win for the Uptown neighborhood, which is now becoming its own new hub of activity with the Mercy Hospital. Right, DMC vision, hospital expansion. And now the medical school,

quite frankly,

it's a win for the region, because there's now going to be producing right new osteopathic doctors for which this region could serve very well. So that is that is our real estate deal. I often say quite frankly, we got out of the real estate business we needed to get out of real estate, we are in the human services business, or in the employment support network now focus our attention on

well. So in all the places that you showed us, what about tech companies? And I think some of my eye, I'm not seeing all the questions, but what about the tech companies? How can life's works? people, the people that come through your organization, how can that you know you partner and vice versa with the tech community?

Right? Well, we we've had long standing relationships with some of the sort of the mainstays of particularly in advanced manufacturing, right, one of our biggest relationships and one that we value very highly is with Mitsubishi Electric Power products. We put made other in assemble special conduit more than on site here. We also though send small groups work alongside their their staff, right there in warrendale. We have a relationship with Eaton Corporation, electrical manufacturer, where again, we do assembly projects that they find is more, these are all projects, by the way that are economically advantageous to our business partners. We're not looking for, right we're looking for in our in our clients, who are doing this work, pride themselves and being able to do things in a quick turnaround, we have a relationship with, with a kennametal type of company, it's called Dre, Bo America, a German company that has operations in the California Technology Park down down in Westmoreland County. So the way we depending obviously, we probably are not going to do a lot for software companies. But there are certain kinds of aspects of some biotech companies. Now, as I may have mentioned, we're putting together COVID testing kits under the auspices of UPMC. We're working in a facility that they've dedicated to that in warrendale. And our folks are coming going up, they're working alongside their staff to put together COVID testing kits. So you know, there there are, there are probably very few manufacturing operations that we couldn't find a bit of a niche where we could provide some, some value added service. And again, as I said, we've had long, long relationships with now over 300 partners throughout business partners throughout the region.

Well, what are you but what do you want to say that the tech community in terms of what your asks Are, I mean, you've said a couple of them clearly, you know, there are so many people who come through your organization through referrals and And the like, that have an array of skills. Right. So what do you want to say in your?

What I would say is? I think that, again, Eva DeMarco and little Earth captain? Well, as I've heard, certainly going back 35 years ago with the tech Council, as you know, all too well, talent, hard, working, dedicated, diligent, reliable employees is something that transcends, quite frankly, any industry vertical. And it's certainly something that's a high of high interest to the tech community. And what I think you'll find what many of our partners find is that our individuals, again, it has to match up with with the needed job, but are the most reliable, diligent individuals, they will find they can be counted on. And quite frankly, we've heard this from many of the business partners that we have from grave Oda, Mitsubishi to pit saw a bit of it, expressed it in it, our team, our clients that come into those positions, bring a joy, they bring a they are just happy to be now part of the fabric of an operation. And they don't mind getting a paycheck, they bet you that is I highly as any one of us. So I guess what I'm saying is that, look, take a look at us, you never know how creative, we can be in finding a match or for that business. So it doesn't stop with, you know, with the nature of the business be we've worked with a lot of different companies where you might not think there could be a fit.

Well, we've put your website out there, people know how to get in touch with you, you can look up Tim parks on LinkedIn, and you can go to the website. I know Lexi put it out there. But I think with the move of automation, that there's going to be much more opportunities, there already is a huge demand for robotics, technicians, even at every stage, sort of like little chunks. Jonathan and I have even talked about getting like the basic certification in robotics technical work. And I would imagine that that will be something that will be open in you know, in the future, in terms of Jim winner has asked question, I don't want to lose sight of that. And Jim is the CIO at Sheetz. So Jonathan, you want to grab that

really good to see Jim on the call today, as well. So he wants to know, um, do your clients who are consumers and users of tech have unmet needs that the tech providers could consider as product enhancements?

Well, that's a great question. And and we're looking into that increasingly, as to what kinds of I'll call them tech assist products, that could that could be brought into either our production facility or increasingly as we begin, as everyone knows the term pivot to virtual services, a virtual delivery, of services of coaching, and so forth. So we're probably going to be open to, I'll call it user friendly tech, that that some of the technology companies might be able to work with us in adapting so that we can extend our reach is a gem is with sheets. Yes, I have to do this. And Jim, forgive me. But one of the most exciting new relationships we have is with Colin, who recently, you know, acquired, the CO goes in the area, we've got little teams that are going and providing cleaning services and inventory services for focus. So now I'm going to challenge sheets at how to take take

connect to with Jim, permission, I can connect the two of you. That's really what you want to do.

Yeah, because who would have thought, okay, we're going to start working with Coco's, but it's been a very, it's a very exciting new relationship. So that's great and help bring that up when

Jim was no I think, yes. So Jim just said it's okay. I will when we finish, I will connect the both of you, you both, you will both like each other. And if there are other people who would like to get stay connected, and get connected to the work that Tim has done, I hope that you have found not just inspiration, but some practicality here. And I think that's what Tim brings to this. So his work has starting the tech council being actively involved later on in economic development, himself getting involved in business development for a massive law firm. He you know, and him doing community involvement. He is really the essence of what It means to be civic minded. But he also has a huge amount of practicality in terms of business. So I see IQ Inc would also like to connect. Hi, Barbara, I know Bob Barker is on there. So everyone else, you know, please reach out, they are a 501 c three, you can always give gifts to them. And any way that you can support them, either, you know, through hiring people from contract work through monetary gifts. He welcomes them all. And he is, you know, it's just a pleasure. First of all, it's a huge pleasure to have a conversation on this kind of topic that matters to the entire region. It's no BS. I'm thrilled to know you and to support the work that you've done, because you have done a tremendous amount for what was called the high tech community. It's now called tech. But I guess everyone was Hi, back then. I don't know. Maybe I'll go there. Yeah, we won't go there. Well, Adrienne, thank

you the direction you never know. Thank you so much. You've been you've been very, very kind. But it's right, as they say right back at you right back to you. You're doing a wonderful job for the region as well. And thank you honor and an honor to be part of this. So

thank you. You're the best. So thank you, everyone. life's work. What wpa.org go there. And so great. Thank you, Tim. I'm giving you a virtual kiss. Be well. Okay. Stay safe. Have a nice Thanksgiving, Tim. Thank you.

Thank you, Audrey. Thanks, Jonathan. Brian, and Taylor. Bye Bye now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai