TEAM
Marlon Drake
President/CEO and Founder
Marlon Drake is a native of Birmingham, Alabama. He was educated in the Birmingham City school system and acquired higher education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
His extensive experience in the hospitality, parking and valet industry led him to co-found Parking Professionals.
Mr. Drake’s hospitality experience started in late 2003 as a part-time valet at The Wynfrey Hotel with AAA Parking. Very fond of his valet position, Marlon quickly achieved success, ultimately being promoted to supervisor in just a few short months. Success in this role would lead to him being promoted to Operations Manager (2005) at Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa overseeing the valet and transportation operations. Further advancement led Marlon to the Regional Manager role of Alabama and Georgia (2006-2013), where he oversaw several valet accounts in Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Shorter (all cities in Alabama) as well as ten accounts in Savannah, Ga. Marlon was fortunate to work with Renaissance Hotels, Sheraton Starwood Hotels, Hyatt Corporate hotels, Hyatt boutique hotels (Andaz), Marriott Signature hotels and Hilton corporate hotels. He also managed a public parking garage, two public surface lots and various special events throughout Alabama and Savannah .
In July of 2016, Mr. Drake shifted from the valet industry and joined a local Hotel as the Director of Guest Services and the PM MOD. After about a year in this capacity, it was his casual talks with Chris Anderson (Parking Professionals COO) citing their similar backgrounds, visions, and desires that eventually intensified and led to the birth of Parking Professionals.
Chris Anderson
COO and Co-founder
Chris Anderson serves as Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Parking Professionals. His first experience in customer service began at the age of fifteen in Birmingham malls -Brookwood and Galleria, where he sold shoes. After joining the Hospitality field in hotel industry as a bellman/valet at the age of eighteen, Chris discovered a passion for service.
Spending eight years at his hotel position, he was invited to join a Parking company at Ross Bridge as a supervisor, which allowed him an opportunity to grow within the industry. After spending a year as supervisor he was promoted to run his own property in Montgomery, Alabama where he excelled and was quickly promoted as a manager for two properties in Shorter, Alabama. Mr. Anderson’s next moves would relocate him to Memphis, Tennessee to oversee two hotel properties and a football stadiums parking, which was followed by an Operations Manager promotion over a hotel and convention center parking in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Having returned to Alabama with a wealth of knowledge and experience from employment at Renaissance Hotels, Marriott Corporate, an IHG affiliated hotel, stadium parking, and a Hilton corporate hotel, the idea for Parking Professionals was birthed during conversations with partner Marlon Drake.
Chris has stated that his service model will be to treat his employees with the utmost respect so that Parking Professional’s clients will in return experience the same level of professionalism and customer service.
