T. Kevin McNicholas, President & CEO

After a decade of senior management in the concessions industry, Kevin formed K-M Concessions, Inc. (K-M) in 1971 to provide souvenirs and press box catering for the Denver Broncos football club and Denver Bears baseball club at Mile High Stadium. In 1973 K-M was awarded the visitor service operations contract at the Denver Zoo.

In response to demand from cultural attractions across the country, Kevin formed Service Systems Associates, Inc. (SSA) with Tim Brantley in 1998 to focus on visitor services in Zoos and Aquariums.

Kevin has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Benedictine College, and has been an Associate Member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) since 1979.

Mr. McNicholas currently serves as a member of the boards of the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Society, Arrupe Jesuit High School, and the Denver Fine Arts Foundation. Kevin was awarded the Daniel E. Ritchie “Colorado Ethics in Business Award” in 2000, and was inducted into the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame in 2007.

Timothy L. Brantley, Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer

With over 30 years of successful zoo and aquarium visitor services in his background, Tim (together with Kevin McNicholas) is the primary reason for the growth and success of Service Systems Associates. His drive and determination to be the very best each day, has built a team of professionals who has earned the respect of the cultural attraction industry.

After his collegiate football career at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado where he studied Business Administration, Tim joined Kevin McNicholas and K-M Concessions in November of 1977. From 1977 – 1988, Tim held several management positions at the Denver Zoo including Retail Manager, Food and Beverage Manager, Catering Manager and finally the General Manager of Visitor Services.

While achieving a reputation as leaders in the visitor service industry, Tim and Kevin formed Service Systems Associates in 1989. Tim, serving as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, continues to evolve and reinvent the development of his staff and related programs. His philosophy with business is simple: Be proud of everything you do and “always make your clients priorities your priorities!”

Tim has been an Associate Member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) since 1981. Mr. Brantley is active in many local communities across the country including his hometown of Franktown, Colorado where he enjoys volunteering at his daughter’s high school in Aurora, Colorado Regis Jesuit High School.

Executive Staff & Officers

Kim Black, Director of Retail Purchasing

Kim has 16 years of retail experience, and over 10 years of buying experience in the cultural attraction retail industry.

Kim earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Merchandising and Fashion Promotion at the University of Arizona.  Upon graduating in 1993, she worked for Mercantile Stores in its management training program.  In 1996, she joined the company as assistant retail manager at the Denver Zoo retail operation.  She quickly learned the zoo retail business and moved to the Los Angeles Zoo to become the Retail Buyer.  She demonstrated dramatic success at this location, increasing sales and per capita spending within her two year stay at this attraction.  In 2000, she returned to the Denver area as the buyer for Colorado’s Ocean Journey, as well as the Denver Zoo.  In recent years, Kim has become a regional buyer for the Company, and most recently the Director of Retail Purchasing, leading our national retail buying team.

Patrick Brown, Director of Retail Operations

Patrick has been a successful retail manager for nineteen years, with the last ten in multi-unit management.  Most recently, this experience included Brookstone, and William and Sonoma.

Over the years, his teams have responded to a management style that includes strong interpersonal relationships; a supportive role in helping units make appropriate decisions; a challenging but positive attitude to move business forward; humor; integrity and trust.  His emphasis is to coach managers to become “owners,” including (but not limited to) the quality of their teams, the effectiveness of their communication, the impact of their leadership and, ultimately, the strength of their results.  He has an excellent record of promoting managers to higher positions, including multi-unit management.  He has also implemented strong operations training at the field level that has led to consistently lowe asset-loss results, high operational audit scores, and bottom-line profitability.

Kevin Eldredge, Executive Vice President - Corporate Affairs

Kevin is responsible for providing Corporate support for the administrative functions at each operating unit, including Payroll, HR, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable.  Kevin joined the retail department of the company in 1979 and has held several operating management positions within the organization. He was promoted to Director of Corporate Affairs in 1994 and supervises the Corporate accounting staff in conjunction with the CFO.

David Goetz, Executive Vice President - Legal & Marketing

David is responsible for implementing Kevin and Tim’s strategic planning initiatives, including marketing, financial planning, and legal duties. He also provides leadership for the company’s quality control programs and contract compliance.

David joined the company seasonally in 1986 in the culinary division of Denver Zoo’s “Hungry Elephant Restaurant.” In subsequent years, Kevin McNicholas and Tim Brantley provided the training and mentoring necessary for David to move through the company’s entire operations management system, including food and beverage, catering, warehouse, and retail positions.

After earning a degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, David was named the first Marketing Director for SSA and was also given multi-unit responsibility for national catering sales staff. In addition to creating SSA’s marketing materials, development of new business through proposal writing, website management, company newsletters and employee profiles, David also serves as the company’s legal liaison and supervises our Contract Compliance department.

Ron Hall, Vice President of Procurement

Ron joined the SSA team in 2009 with the focus of streamlining procurement for the organization.  His passion and spotlight focuses on “change,” and the constant re-evaluation of the status quo.  Ron believes if you can be great and helpful for others, the luck and talent will come back to you ten-fold.

Ron has over 25 years in Hospitality, Healthcare and Procurement / Distribution.  His focus on being customer oriented while achieving company goals through organization management has led him to be respected by many inside the Food and Healthcare industry.

While achieving his goals, his passion includes speaking engagements on “Spend Management” and “Team Organization” at venues such as the National Restaurant Association and State Dietetics events.  Ron has also spent the last nine years working as a Volunteer in his community with the Give Back Cincinnati organization.  He has led the largest Thanksgiving meal in the Midwest for six of those years, feeding 4,000 under served people on Thanksgiving Day.  He has also been a Team Lead for the Paint Town event, in which a group of 1,200 volunteers paint the exteriors of over 50 needy family homes in one day.

Ron has an Associate Degree from the Midwest Culinary Institute in Chef Technology, Bachelor Degree from Thomas More College in Business, and an MBA from Franklin University wtih a focus in Finance.

Kevin Jones, Executive Vice President - Culinary Operations

Kevin has over 30 years in the hospitality industry with the majority of those years in cultural attraction guest services. Beginning as a college intern at the Denver Zoo and advancing through virtually every position within K-M Concessions Inc. and Service Systems Associates, he has broad experience in the unique environment of cultural attractions.

In addition to Kevin’s attraction experience he was the President and General Manager for East Arapahoe Concessions, a corporation that partnered with Wembly International at their tracks in Colorado and Rhode Island, and as a small business owner Kevin owned and operated a casual dining restaurant in Louisville, Colorado which he sold when he rejoined the SSA team.

Eric Loyall, Executive Vice President - Strategic Operations & Business Development

Eric leads SSA’s sales team, while providing key support to the Operations and Marketing departments through strategic planning.

Before joining SSA, Eric served as District Manager with national visitor service provider, Sodexo.  His District included 12 zoos, museums and parks, and was the largest in the Sodexo leisure division.  Eric was also a key player on the sales team that accounted for several zoo, aquarium, and museum visitor service acquisitions.  One of his key strengths has also been to recruit, train, and develop culinary personnel across a broad spectrum of cultural and entertainment attractions.

Eric earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Administration at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst MA.

Sean K. McNicholas, Corporate Vice President - Strategic & Sales

 Sean helps coordinate Sales and Business Development tasks for the company.  As a strategist, he helps implement future growth initiatives.  Sean began his concessions career bussing tables, working snack carts, and assisting in special events at the Denver Zoo.

The Denver native is involved in numerous charity organizations and founded young professional groups for Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis, Boys Hope Girls Hope and Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado.  In recognition for his work in the community, he was recently awarded the Young Philanthropist Award by the Rocky Mountain MS Society.  He is also actively involved with Kempe Foundation and Mount Saint Vincent home.

McNicholas received his undergraduate degree from Drury College, and earned two Masters degrees, his MBA and Masters of Science from the University of Denver Daniels School of Business.  He spent three years as a project manager for Accenture prior to joining Service Systems Associates.

Mark Schroeder, Chief Financial Officer

Mark oversees all financial aspects of the company.  He maintains a business relationship between the company and our bankers, keeping them apprised of our operations and our financial needs.  Mark also acts as our liaison with the financial officers at our partner attractions, as well as our insurance providers.

Mark started full time with the company in 1982, although he worked various operations within K-M Concessions on a part-time basis prior to this.

Brad Smithling, Executive Vice President - Retail Operations

Brad provides leadership for our entire retail team within SSA. This includes providing direction on buying, visual merchandising, best practices training, and customer service training.

With more than 25 years of successful retail experience, Brad has served in several positions with notable companies such as The Gap, Store of Knowledge, and prior to joining SSA, he was the Vice President of Store Operations for Event Network, a retail operator within Zoos, Aquariums, Museums, and Science Center attractions.

He has had many achievements that include exceeding company sales records, however what he is most proud of is the development of training programs for his employees. “The more we teach our people the better we and our client become.” With Brad’s experience of multi-managing in major cultural attractions, he has a strong insight on what our guests and clients want and recognizes new opportunities to continue to exceed their expectations.

Laurel Wright, Regional Buyer & Operations Manager

Laurel implements operational directives and reviews financial information as directed by our Executive V.P.’s.  Laurel provides support and guidance for our Retail Operations Managers as it relates to policy, procedure, and visual merchandising standards.

Laurel joined the company in 1996 as the Retail Buyer / Manager at the Denver Zoo.  Prior to this, Laurel worked for several large department stores, including Dayton Hudson, Mervyns, and Shopko.  She was previously the Director of Retail Operations for Elitch Gardens Amusement Park during the construction of their new downtown Denver location.

Laurel has a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Fashion Merchandising and Clothing, Textiles and Design from the University of Wisconsin - Stout.  She has experience in all aspects of retail including buying, human resource management, customer service, merchandise, and visual presentation.  During her career, Laurel has overseen construction of small specialty environments, as well as several multi-million dollar department stores.