Parking Origin Stories is a series about the personal journeys of passionate parking professionals. In this installment, we profile Sarah Blouch, CEO of CampusParc. A version of this story first appeared in the August 2024 edition of Parking Today magazine.
Today’s Story: Sarah Blouch, Chief Executive Officer @ CampusParc
“Let’s just say typing has never been my strong suit.”
Sarah Blouch‘s parking career launched when she was nineteen years old in 1980.
She was engaged to be married, and her future mother-in-law introduced her to the “parking ladies across the hall” at the credit union of Oklahoma University.
She started out as a senior clerk, spending her days “hunting and pecking” to type up contractor passes (“I was an awful typist and totally freaking out”, recalls Sarah).
But with perseverance, she climbed the ladder to Chief Clerk and then Director in 1990. As Director, she was afforded many opportunities to solve problems and talk to people as the department integrated transportation into its mix.
“I’m someone with thick skin who will do whatever needs to get done,” Sarah says. “And I find it easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. People were handing me stuff and I was handling it. That was the biggest factor in my career growth early on.”
“I find it easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. People were handing me stuff and I was handling it. That was the biggest factor in my career growth early on.”
– Sarah Blouch, CEO @ CampusParc
“We were raising awareness of the things that no one thinks about.”
In 1995, Sarah accepted a position with The Ohio State University as the Executive Director of Transportation & Parking Services.
In this role, she was confronted with the gargantuan task of integrating parking, transportation, traffic management, and fleet and repair operations under one umbrella.
The transportation network at OSU included buses, motorpool, and leased cars, so it was an arduous project, but one that made a lot of intuitive sense to Sarah.
“All of these modalities go hand in hand,” Sarah says. “We made a really great team taking on all of the stuff no one else wanted to do but needed to happen in order to bring parking and transportation together.”
“Stuff that no one else wanted to do” included things like working with contractors to ensure that fences popping up in parking lots for their construction projects wouldn’t obstruct transportation flows through campus.
“I was walking across campus and I got penned in by some fences,” Sarah recalls. “None of the construction vendors talked to one another, so the web of fencing was just nonsense. I realized, hey, wait a minute, they don’t need this fence or that fence to park their contractors, so I sat down with the construction companies and mapped it out and started enforcing those regulations.”
Sarah and her team would invite themselves to meetings in other departments and help them mitigate potential problems by bringing in a 365-degree, holistic view.
“Other departments weren’t always paying attention to the global piece,” says Sarah, “so I focused on raising awareness of the invisible details that get in the way and on pulling in the right people to solve problems.”
“I focused on raising awareness of the invisible details that get in the way and on pulling in the right people to solve problems.”
– Sarah Blouch, CEO @ CampusParc
“A university is a group that you need to watch closely.”
When asked about how universities compare in terms of parking needs and considerations from other sectors, Sarah likens them to municipalities.
Sarah explains: “But the big difference is that in a city, everyone is coming and going. The customer base is anonymous. In the university, it’s not. You have students and faculty and staff who tend to stay.”
In general, university leaders are under a lot of pressure to do many different things and have a large swath of stakeholders they’re worried about, including high-level donors and state legislature.
“Change is scary,” Sarah says, “and with so many leadership shifts, it can be hard to see what could be different. Everyone has their own agendas and expectations, but the general consensus is that parking should be a non-event, smooth and quiet.”
In addition to OSU’s robust athletics program (five hundred events take place there every year!), there are also arena and stadium shows with parking requirements.
Sarah explains: “On any given night, there are competing parking needs. When there are multiple events plus a lack of transparency, the facility gets overwhelmed. A big part of my job is reaching out and setting expectations.”
Her process for “super-connecting” starts with pulling in the key staff from other departments and determining what level of detail they need based on their position.
It’s the boots on the ground folks, who Sarah calls the “movers and shakers”, that play the most critical role in pushing for positive change.
“There are so many logistical choices that need to be made to keep a campus transportation ecosystem running smoothly,” says Sarah. “Architects know how to build buildings, but they don’t know how to think about transportation, which makes sense. That’s what we’re here for.”
From buses to vehicle flow to signage to street crossings, Sarah’s team makes a difference in the whole journey and ensures an easy in-and-out for students, guests, faculty, event attendees, and staff.
“There are so many logistical choices that need to be made to keep a campus transportation ecosystem running smoothly… That’s what we’re here for.”
– Sarah Blouch, CEO @ CampusParc
“You have to know what you don’t know.”
Sarah’s current role as CEO of CampusParc requires a cool head in a crisis and the mental agility to see how all of the pieces fit together.
Her biggest piece of advice to up-and-coming leaders is to “know your limits” and “never hesitate to seek out the expertise of others” as needed.
“When I interviewed at OSU,” Sarah recalls, “I was meeting with an on-site engineer. One of the requirements for the job was actually civil engineering experience. So when the engineer asked me about how much I knew, I just responded with ‘I know enough to hire one!’. You have to know what you don’t know!”
In her own words, her recognition is “knowing that everyone’s happy with what’s going on”. She’s a people-first who solves problems, and is happiest doing so in collaboration with others who share the same goal.
“I’m optimistic about making changes.”
Sarah is approaching the future of parking with a “wouldn’t it be cool if…?” mentality.
She’s energized by all of the technology and the ease that it brings.
“I like to think about this idea of an ‘Amazon for parking’”, says Sarah. “You know, an easy button for buying a daily pass. We’re getting there. But it takes blending a lot of different technologies, and there are still too many companies out there who want to be everything for everybody.”
In addition to eliminating this “be all, end all” mindset, Sarah sees the need for companies to work together to build out architecture for the integrations and data-meshing needed to provide a better customer experience.
“We need to work together to make our consumer solutions equally easy for the very savvy 12 year-old and my 83 year-old mom to use,” says Sarah.
Universities have their own complexities, but present unique opportunities, too. Sarah speaks to how energizing and effective it is to use the bright people around her, and the amazing outcomes she’s seen by letting students take charge.
“Grassroots support goes a really long way on a campus,” Sarah says. “If you get local people to support you, magic happens. It’s a lot of hard work to educate people who don’t necessarily care how the sausage is made, but it’s rewarding to see them invest in and rally for good.”
Want to learn more about Sarah’s parking journey? Connect with her on LinkedIn! And if you have a parking story of your own to tell, contact Sarah Becherer, VP of Marketing at Ocra, at sarah@getocra.com.
