Do you wonder what you’ll end up doing after graduation? If you’re lucky, you could start a successful business like brothers John and Gus Kontopuls, owners of Elite Show Services Inc.
Gus, 36, president and co-owner of Elite, attended San Diego State University from 1981 to 1983. John, 32, chief operating officer and co-owner of Elite, graduated from SDSU in 1988.
Elite is an event-staffing company that recently won a three-year agreement with the San Diego Padres to administer security for all the baseball games at Qualcomm Stadium.
Also, last week Elite won the bid to provide all security services to SDSU events such as concerts and basketball games.
The Kontopuls brothers were born in San Diego.
“We were destined to be Aztecs,” John said.
As a student, John was president of Tau Kappa Epsilon and was the founding president of the Order of Omega Honor Society for fraternity and sorority members. He was also vice president of the Interfraternity Council.
John said he was on campus the other day and felt proud when he saw a poster on a sorority house congratulating two members for making Omega.
John was also an account executive for Associated Students, which he credits for his sales experience. He worked for SDSU Public Safety as a part-time security guard and worked concerts at SDSU for bands such as The Cure, Oingo Boingo and The Police.
“I got a lot out of the college experience,” John said. “The activities I was involved in helped nurture my skills in business.”
Gus was involved in Delta Chi as a student. He has been elected to the advisory committee for the Republic of South Africa Cape Town 2004 and was recently the executive loan programmer with companies in South Africa to train them how to handle concerts.
He had one and a half weeks to prepare the South African companies for their Metallica concert.
“I spent two weeks expressing security concerns,” he said.
About 16 years ago, Gus worked as a security guard in high school. He saw a void in the market place that could be filled by focusing on customer service and later decided to start a business that stresses public relations and communications.
“The Elite employees are friendly and take pride in customer service,” John said.
Gus has been in the business for 18 years and John for 15 years.
In 1984, the brothers worked five venues during the Olympics in Los Angeles including basketball, baseball, handball, field hockey and soccer at the Rose Bowl.
The Padres are Elite’s biggest client. The company also serves eight hotels, street fairs, conventions and trade shows in San Diego. About 300 employees work for Elite. Fifty percent are students, with a majority from SDSU.
John said, “I like working with people and working with the employees and patrons, not just behind a desk. Not everyone has the opportunity to be out in the public realm.”
Elite focuses on communication skills with its employees, who are ticket-takers, ushers, security, ticket sellers and parking attendants.
Ken Medel, a Padres fan, said, “I think Elite employees are exceptionally polite, and I have seen them take care of dangerous situations in a professional manner.”
