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Reston was founded by Bouweiri’s husband, William Bouweiri, in 1990. He had been working as a chauffeur for 2 years when he received a $5,000 tip from a passenger; he used that money to purchase Reston’s first vehicle. The couple also met in 1990 when Kristina sold him advertising; they started dating and four months later he asked her to quit her job and come work for him. By that time, the company had grown to five vehicles, including a bus. They married less than a year later, and together they worked to build Reston’s book of business.
For the first 5 years of their marriage, the Bouweiris worked seven days a week, often 15 or 16 hour days. At night, they would have calls forwarded to their home. The two co-managed the company equally: William handled the accounting, human resources, and fleet while Kristina was responsible for managing the sales, operations, and payroll. The days were long, but they didn’t care because they were excited to grow their business in all areas from retail work like weddings to government shuttle contract work. She fell in love with the industry not six months after joining; she knew this was what she was meant to do. “We were young and didn’t have any kids,” she says. “I loved it because for the first time, the harder I worked the more money I made.”
Their first children, fraternal twins, were born in 1996, following shortly by two more children in the next 3 years. The business was thriving, they had four healthy children, and the family was getting ready to build a home in the country. In 2000, William was looking to take a year off from Reston to manage the construction of their new home. At first Kristina was apprehensive because they had run the company together for 9 years, but she quickly realized that it was a good plan not only for the family, but for the business. With only one boss in the office, it became streamlined for the staff. “He was the founder, the risk taker, and the visionary,” she says, “but we were able to find managers to fill the other roles he was doing, and he became a stay-at-home dad.” William officially retired from Reston in May 2000.
“Reston still does retail work. Weddings and VIP trips comprise a solid percentage of its business.”
About 60 percent of Reston’s business is generated through corporate work and government contracts, with the remaining 40 percent split between charter, retail, and VIP clients. Reston “fell” into the governmental arena when the company was still young—back in 1992—when one of their business neighbors mentioned that his wife worked for a government agency. “He said that a government shuttle contract was coming up for bid and that he could pass along the paperwork if we were interested,” Bouweiri recalls. “He said that if we were awarded the contract that he wanted to come work for us as a driver. I said, ‘Sure,’ and we won. We were excited by what else was out there, especially with bus work.”
A Reston Motorcoach at the Lincoln Memorial
That ambition helped the company secure shuttle and contract work with universities, hospitals, and the government for years to come. Reston has fixed-route shuttle contracts with universities like George Mason and Marymount, and private schools like Sidwell Friends, which President Obama’s children attend. It handles the commencement for The George Washington University—nearly 20,000 people—which takes place on the National Mall. On the corporate side, Reston works with a lot of the area’s technology companies as well as giants like ExxonMobil and Marriott corporate. Its charter work has taken them to dozens of states in the contiguous United States.
Unlike other corporate-heavy companies, Reston still does retail work. Weddings and VIP trips comprise a solid percentage of its business, just like it did when the company was in its early years. Charter work is also very popular, especially wine tours. In the last decade or so, the Virginia wine country has rivaled that of “traditional” areas in Northern California. Bouweiri says that she has 20 buses in wine country every Saturday and Sunday.
Washington, D.C., is a unique area. Although the district is only 68 square miles, it is flanked by the rolling hills of Northern Virginia and the river-sliced marshlands of Maryland. The district faces the difficult challenge of constant traffic and construction—D.C.’s Beltway is infamous for its volume of vehicles. Packed into that tiny district is literally two centuries of the nation’s history, some of the world’s best science and technology museums, the Federal government’s infrastructure, dozens of monuments and historical sites, and, of course, the home of the President. Summer and spring, when the Japanese cherry trees are in full glory along the Potomac, are the district’s busiest seasons, but tourists flock to the area year-round. The suburbs of both Maryland and Virginia are home to numerous Fortune 500 companies, in addition to hundreds of organizations and agencies connected to the government.
“Retail work on the charter side has been increasing since late fall 2010, and the company is forecasting another banner year at around $18 million.”
Reston’s second decade marked a new chapter for the company. Reston continued to hum right along until that fateful day in September 2001 when planes struck the World Trade Center in New York, a field in Pennsylvania, and, of course, the Pentagon. Flights were grounded, meetings and events were postponed indefinitely, and the nation was simply in shock. Bouweiri says that Reston had about $1 million in cancellations right after 9/11, something that nearly devastated the burgeoning company. “I knew that I didn’t want our company to fail, so I worked very, very hard to keep it afloat,” she says. Although Reston still had contract work with the government, retail and corporate were shaky for a long time.
More than just the country changed in 2001. In the months and years following, Bouweiri knew that she had to modify her strategy if she wanted to maintain the company’s momentum. Bouweiri—instead of her husband—was now the face of the company. She refocused her time, the majority of which was still spent in the office, and began to get more involved locally. She was invited to join the Loudoun County CEO Cabinet, an organization of area CEOs, presidents, and corporate leaders who work together to make the community stronger in education, business, and environment. “At the time I was still the vice president of Reston, even though I was doing the work of a CEO,” she says. She spoke with her husband about the opportunity—being CEO of a Loudoun County business was required to join—and they agreed it was a smart move. “The title wasn’t really important to me, but I found that after we changed it that it opened a lot of doors.” What followed were appointments to more boards, new opportunities, and the chance to become a certified woman-owned business. She was also recognized for the first time beyond her community for the philanthropy that she and the company had been doing since the ’90s—although she didn’t seek the attention for her charitable work, she found it led to even more opportunities.
Kristina and the management team.
“Kristina is an incredible networker,” says Tony Simon, Reston’s general manager and Bouweiri’s right hand man. “She knows what needs to be done and she understands that she can’t do everything herself. It’s really a lot of her efforts in the early years that have built Reston into what it is today.”
It’s hard to understate the reach that Bouweiri has had on her community. She’s been named as one of Washington’s 50 most powerful and influential women by the Washington Business Journal. In 2008, she founded Sterling Women, a networking organization for entrepreneurial-spirited women in Virginia—a format that has been emulated by other women’s groups. Limo Digest has honored her for her efforts in 2010. When she first got started with charity work in the ’90s, she initially approached the Make-A-Wish Foundation to donate cars to help transport children with life-threatening illnesses. She’s worked with The Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health to transport sick children and their families. She is a charter member and the current chairman of 100 Women Strong, a non-profit organization of area businesswomen who support programs that enrich the lives of those in Loudoun County. “If we utilize our fleet as a tool to give back to the community, we can do a lot more than just about any other business I know of,” she says. “I’ve done a lot of that and I’ve gotten a lot of prestige and recognition in my community just because when we’re not busy, we like to donate our vehicles to charity. It’s not only important as an individual, but for a company to be part of the community.”
Despite an extensive travel schedule and commitments outside of her business, Bouweiri made it a point to limit her engagements to one or two nights a week and rarely on weekends—and the majority of them were for local groups and charities. Her husband may have managed their kids’ active social schedule during the day, but staying close to home meant that she could still be there at night and on weekends to help them with homework or to attend their sporting events. “As working moms, we never feel like we’re at the right place at the right time,” she says. “My natural tendencies are to work; my mind is always going. But when I’m with my children, they get 150 percent of me.”
Before Bouweiri could feel comfortable spending so much time away from the office, she had to grow into the role of a public figurehead. Empowered by her new involvement with the CEO Cabinet, she took a public speaking class and branched out her efforts to other organizations. At the office, she assembled a team of managers who could act on her behalf and ensure the level of service and quality that the brand was known for. The team evolved over the years, but it now includes nine division heads led by Simon to direct the 50 office staff and 250 full- and part-time chauffeurs that the company employs. “Kristina is aware of what’s going on, but she empowers us to run the company the way she would,” he says. “She still hosts a weekly managers meeting and we keep in contact every day when she’s not in the office.”
“You can’t run a company this big and not have a good team,” says Bouweiri. Operating within three different districts (D.C., Va., and Md.) and dealing with their separate requirements is a special challenge for Reston. “The staff handles the day-to-day, most of them have been with us for a very long time, and I’m very proud of each and every one of them.”
The Reston headquarters is based in Sterling, Va., a location which it moved to in 2005. It also maintains a satellite location in Capitol Heights, Md., so it has a presence on both sides of the river. Rosetta Crutch, who joined Reston in 2007 as operations manager, leads the Maryland location. It houses about 60 vehicles at any given time with a staff of chauffeurs. Lawrence Warr, Maryland contracts supervisor, has been with the company for 7 years and manages all of the Maryland contract work.
At the headquarters, two of the most senior members of the management team are Margaret Day, dispatch manager, and Jim Grey, Virginia contracts manager, both of whom joined the company in 2003. Grey previously ran the Maryland location, but moved to Sterling to become the fleet manager. He now oversees all of the contract work in Virginia. Day, who Simon says “works 25/8 and always with a smile,” leads the dispatch department, including the charter drivers. Day was recently honored by President Obama for the work she does through her church.
Reston has full-time mechanics and does the majority of maintenance on site. Running buses means more paperwork, so Keith Johnson, safety and training manager and one of the newest members of the management team, ensures that the company is consistently in Department of Transportation (DOT) compliance. Together with Fleet Manager Mike Clayton, who has 25 years of experience servicing vehicles, they maintain the diverse fleet of 145. Simon notes that eFleet has helped them to manage all of the moving parts of the company.
At the money center of the company is Controller Olin Greene, who has been with Reston since 2007, and Melissa Beard, assistant controller, who manages payroll. Karen Ballard, who originally joined the company as executive assistant to Bouweiri, is the company’s human resource manager. Rounding out the team is Sales Manager Darcelle Jazaeri, who runs the call center.
Bouweiri relies on her management team to ensure that new hires also fit the company’s culture. Interviewees go through several phases of interviews, meeting with most or all of the department heads after getting the seal of approval from Simon and Ballard. “The limousine business is a different type of business,” says Bouweiri. “You have to be flexible, adaptable, think on your feet, be able to handle stress, and be passionate and excited about customer service.” Reston hires its chauffeurs as employees, which has been the case since the ’90s.
All of the departments are directed by Simon, who met Bouweiri through a mutual friend and hit it off right away. “We have the same mindset and ownership mentality,” he says. When he joined the company in 2006, he says that the transition was natural because he had worked in industries that had similar 24/7 models and required him to react quickly to a changing situation. Simon has to be a Jack of all trades to come up with solutions for new alternative fuel requirements or competition undercutting, to name just a few issues. One of Simon’s previous ventures was for a food delivery service, which meant that he had direct experience with logistics, marketing, finances, and hiring. He’s also an accountant by trade.
“It still feels like a family-run business, although we are a little more relaxed than before,” says Bouweiri. “They all work very hard to represent Reston and motivate each other."
“Reston ‘fell’ into the governmental arena when the company was still young—back
in 1992.”
Government work continues to be a mainstay for Reston, and because of it, buses, shuttles, and Van Terras make up the majority of its fleet with about 100 vehicles. “William really was a visionary when it came to buses,” says Bouweiri about her husband. “He knew that group work would become more important way back when he started the company, and he was right. Government contract, charter, and corporate work all keep our buses moving and is the reason why we have a bus-majority fleet.”
Perhaps one of the more interesting things about Reston’s fleet is that each vehicle receives a name. A customer booking a Town Car may be picked up by Katy or Britney, so named for current pop artists Katy Perry and Britney Spears. Its limos bear the names of Las Vegas casinos, while some of its buses are named for painters, such as Van Gogh and Picasso.
Reston is registered with the U.S. General Services Administration, or GSA, which works with government agencies for a variety of services and needs—in this case, transportation for government employees. Each government agency or entity requires slightly different security clearances, background checks, and vehicle specifications. Reston transports a bevy of government agencies and non-government organizations, including members of Congress, executives with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, numerous embassies, and the military. It is currently looking to do additional work with military bases.
With a large number of buses, why does Reston retain “limousine” as part of its name? “Our company is highly local and our customers know the brand,” says Simon. “It’s been the name for over 20 years and we don’t want to lose our identity. We’ve thought about rebranding and will probably do it, but it has to be done right. It’s a brand that’s well known.”
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