Denison CEO Pratt departs after 15 years with company

Denison Parking Inc. President and CEO Mark Pratt is leaving after 15 years in leadership at the Indianapolis-based company, a period during which he helped drive its growth into markets across the country.

Jeff Line, the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, will take over as president May 1.

The company and Pratt called his departure “amicable.” The Kentucky native plans to remain in the Indianapolis area and advise Denison when needed.

“Mark’s leadership was simply invaluable to both Denison and its clients,” said Perry Griffith, chairman of the board for Denison Parking and the man Pratt replaced as CEO, in a written statement.  “We experienced considerable growth in Indianapolis and beyond, and we became recognized throughout the industry as a leader in parking technology.”

Pratt declined to detail his future plans, but said in a statement that he looks “forward to new and exciting challenges.”

Denison, which has been in the parking business since the 1940s, is best known locally for its downtown parking garages. Denison has 55 locations in Indianapolis—making it the city’s biggest parking vendor—and operates in 11 cities nationwide.

The company has been owned by the Griffith family for several generations and got its name from the Denison Hotel—which stood on the corner of Pennsylvania and Ohio streets and which William C. Griffith purchased in the 1920s. He later partly razed the hotel to make room for one of the first paid parking facilities in the country.

Pratt joined Denison as president in 2002 and assumed the additional duties of CEO in 2012. 

A year before Pratt joined Denison, he and a business partner filed a patent for a communications device that would allow customers to communicate with a centralized command center. Pratt brought that technology to Denison, which installed it in its garages.

Line has been an executive with Denison Parking for 10 years. Prior to joining the firm, he was president of The Nyhart Co., an Indianapolis-based employee benefits firm.