Kiran Gill
PARS Environmental, a consulting firm, has moved from South Gold Drive.
In 2003 Kiran Gill, only a year out of New York University with a degree in environmental studies, bought the firm from her father with a combination of her own savings and a seed loan from her entrepreneur uncle, Harpal Singh. Almost immediately she saw the firm grow, until it was too large for its South Gold Drive offices.
Founded in 1984 by Lena and Ron Meck the firm was purchased in 1999 by Gill’s father, Harcharan, formerly the CEO of Envirogen, an environmental remediation company with offices on Quakerbridge Road. Harcharan Gill had the idea of rebuilding PARS with the handful of remaining employees. Kiran Gill started working for him during summers while she was in college and joined full time after graduation. She had a chance to work with both her father and the Mecks, who stayed on as consultants, learning all aspects of the business. Her mother, who ran a laboratory in Washington, D.C., has also been part of the family support system.
“For anybody that goes into business, it’s always nice to have people to bounce things off of who can understand where you’re coming from,” she says.
What captured Gill’s interest in the environmental field and revealed to her its potential as a career was a college project she did in Costa Rica on preserving its several ecosystems. She observed the different ways that people live in and develop the environment and realized how applicable those ideas were to New Jersey.
PARS Environmental has experienced considerable growth since Gill took over the Robbinsville firm. Without any additional financing, the firm grew from a 2005 revenue of $853,703 to $4,670,731 in 2008.
It also grew from a handful of leftover employees to more than 40 geologists, environmental scientists, engineers, and industry hygienists.
Gill’s father now serves as a consultant, but she is in charge of day-to-day operations. She says that is a good arrangement since as she is detail oriented, while her father, she says, is more of a “big picture” type.
Gill attributes the firm’s rapid growth to its use of technology and willingness to take on difficult clean-ups, including those where clients have already tried two, or three, or more approaches. “When you’re a small, growing firm, you can’t offer the same thing everyone else is offering,” she says.
Now that the firm is getting larger it has updated proprietary software developed earlier in its history for doing chemical inventories to help businesses and school districts comply with regulations, and diversified its client base. It includes government agencies, manufacturing companies, and major utilities.
“When you diversify, you open yourself to more opportunities in different areas,” she says. “You can offer more services because of the environmental issues clients are facing.”
PARS Environmental Incorporated/Princeton Nanotech, 500 Horizon Drive, Suite 540, Robbinsville 08691; 609-890-7277; fax, 609-890-9116. Kiran K. Gill, president. Home page: www.parsenviro.com.
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