The Principle Partnering Group (The PPG) is lead by a team of dedicated individuals with decades of combined knowledge and experience in developing, training and growing small businesses. The team’s Community Equity, derived from its historical involvement, allows The PPG access to community and business decision-makers for the benefit of its clients.

Darryl L. King
Co-founder

Co-founded by Mr. King and Ms. Karen Becerra, The PPG, LLC is a premiere management consulting firm with an unsurpassed track record in helping companies of all sizes establish, manage, and maintain successful business-to-business collaborations. The firm offers objective solutions, effective project management, and strategic support services across all business segments. A true entrepreneur, Mr. King owned and operated several national franchises including KFC and Popeye's Restaurants. As Board Chairman of the Houston Area Urban League, Mr. King challenged Houston's economic development initiatives to include opportunities for securing business contracts—not just jobs with Minute Maid Park, The Toyota Center, The Convention Center Hotel for the city's minority communities.

Staffed with an impressive team of multi-certified professionals, the Company was founded on Mr. King's commitment to adhering to developing "Historically Under-utilized Businesses." The value proposition that The PPG Team offers to its diverse client base is decades of experience in business development, program management, project administration, community outreach, executive search staffing and public relations. "The entire team shares my passion for small business advocacy," says Darryl.

As Houston Area Urban League Board Chairman, King created the "30% MINORITY PARTICIPATION" effort that challenged referendum based venues to adopt an aggressive minority participation program to encourage minority voter turnout in the referendum process. He wrote and helped negotiate the agreements that established benchmarks for SB/DBE participation for Minute Maid Park and the Toyota Center Arena projects.

Recently honored by the Houston Area Association for Bilingual Education (HAABE) for his outstanding contributions to the community, Mr. King is still considered a community activist. King recently created the "Larry Marshall Living Legend Award," and holds current and past board positions and/or memberships with numerous professional, political, non-profit and faith-based organizations including the Greater Houston Visitors and Conventions Bureau, Greater Houston Partnership, and the Houston Arts Alliance. Mr. King served as a Board Member of the Houston Super Bowl XXXVIII Host Committee, the Houston 2012 Olympic Committee, the Greater Houston Area Hotel and Motel Association, the Texas State Restaurant Association, and the Houston Restaurant Association. Mr. King was appointed to the Coastal Water Authority by then Governor George W. Bush and served for eleven years. He is also Founding Chairman of the Intercontinental Airport Merchants Association and a Senior Fellow of the prestigious American Leadership Forum. King also directed the purchase of the Federal Reserve Bank Building during his term as Board Chairman at the Houston Area Urban League.

Learn more about Darryl King

Karen C. Becerra
Co-founder

A dedicated community activist, a champion for small business, and sought-after business consultant, Ms. Becerra's entrepreneurial career spans over twenty-five years of evaluating and developing programs designed to drive small and disadvantaged business initiatives. Moving between City Hall and boardrooms with ease, Ms. Becerra is called upon equally to perform due-diligence assignments for the private sector and for non-profit/community based organizations. "I meet business initiatives that originate from private enterprise with as much vigor as the non-profit ones. If they work, the real benefit to the community is economic development and job creation," says Ms. Becerra.

Equally, as important to Karen as economic development is promoting educational development and keeping families intact. Ms. Becerra is board chair for the Mayor White's Hispanic Advisory Board on Economic Community Development and The Tejano Center for Community Concerns (TCCC). Karen is dedicated to TCCC‟ s core mission of offering, "…varied programs that create 'whole' families by helping them help themselves with wellness initiatives, enabling them to become homeowners, and providing them with educational opportunities." A true public servant, Karen serves on several boards including the Houston/Galveston Area Council, Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Houston Small Business Development Corporation. In 2006, Ms. Becerra was honored during Hispanic Heritage month, with a humanitarian award for her contributions to the Hispanic Community.

Karen is Co-Founder and COO of The Principle Partnering Group, LLC, a management-consulting firm. She is most excited about the firm's focus on fostering economic and community development, which is Karen's passion. The firm was recently named Program Advisor to the leading contractor for Phase II of the METRO's Lite Rail project where Karen is developing and executing several programs that will drive SB/DBE contract participation to the project.

Learn more about Karen Becerra

Chris Wade
Sr. Consultant/Director
People Source Division

A 30-year business professional with 15 years heading up his own management consulting firm, Wade and Associates, Mr. Wade's seasoned complement to The Principle Partnering Group, LLC is a major asset. As a Senior Consultant, his proven leadership reflects the level of excellence and expertise commanded by The PPG team for its clients.

Recruited by The PPG, LLC to head up and establish its executive recruiting and staffing division, client companies under his management include KBR, CH2M Hill, Marathon Oil, DataCert, Inc., The Houston Port Authority, and LJA Engineering. He also monitors budget and financials for The Firm.

Lending excellence to his leadership profile are his years of experience in the executive recruitment. As co-founder of a national firm focused on identification and recruitment of diversity candidates for middle and upper management level positions, Wade learned of the wealth of very qualified people of color, who would not have found available positions matching their qualifications without his intervention. It is by providence that he became involved in minority recruitment. This gives Mr. Wade the keen awareness he employs in recruitment collaborations between minority talent and big business.

Wade believes his business acumen gained from years in the corporate sector is a definite asset to The PPG, LLC organization—he was a Human Resources Manager for the Bell Companies for many years. Reflecting on his mission he said, “I like to think I've made use of the skills I've learned over the years in helping companies make strategic decisions about how they do business. One of the key things we offer our clients is openness and responsiveness to something the client has initiated. We do the research, which helps us to not only expand our services to the client, but also effectively respond to them by giving them more than what they were looking for. That kind of service is a real differentiator for our company.”

Always aware about community-oriented issues, Wade is proud of his collaboration between himself, The PPG's Co-Founder, Darryl King, and the North Houston Frontiers Club, where they raise much-needed funds for minority and African American males entering college. He is a past president of this organization. Mr. Wade is active in his church, Greenspoint Baptist, where he served as former Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Lolalisa Decarlo King
Senior Project Manager

A high energy executive, Ms. King, with an MBA in Finance, brings a lifetime of exceptional experience in business planning, marketing, human resources, cash management, and financial reporting from a variety of industries. Ms. King is licensed in architecture with the National Council of Architectural Registration Board (NCARB) record, in several states-- North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, and Florida. She immediately identifies and defines the needs within an organization's operational structure and offers strategies and best practices for developing and monitoring budgets, schedules, staffing, systems, and procedures that optimize the organization's operational efficiency.

Effective financial analysis has greatly contributed to Ms. King's project management and organizational leadership expertise. She earned her MBA in Finance and Investment Banking from the University of Wisconsin. She is originally from Baton Rouge and completed her Bachelor of Architecture Degree at Southern University.

A synergistic fit at its finest; Ms. King joins The PPG, LLC Team after leading Florida operations as a Vice President for the Atlanta-based Turner Associates, Architects, and Planners. Turner Associates (TA) is an award-winning architectural firm whose transportation design-build projects round out a significant portion of the firm's project portfolio. In Ms. King's Florida region, the firm is responsible for the design and construction of ten new stations for the Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority. Together with its joint venture partners, TA provided all required architectural and engineering services to Atlanta's Metropolitan Rapid Transit Authority (MTA).

Ms. King led and owned an architectural firm for more than eleven years in her previous North Carolina base where she also served as spokesperson and community liaison for the Minority Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) program in North Carolina. "Building several companies and divisions fueled my passion for helping small business gain access to transparent opportunities for equitable participation."

Ms. King's leadership experience and work ethic are evident in the communities where she's lived and worked-- Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit organization whose signature events benefit charities and educational institutions in Central Florida, named her "Rookie Volunteer of the Year" for her contributions to the group's 2008 community-based initiatives. Ms. King has served as Board Member of the Orlando Permitting and Advisory and Board Chair to Orlando Tech. She is a former President of AIA Piedmont, a YWCA Board Member, an adjunct University Professor and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Lolalisa is looking forward to contributing to the quality of life for Houstonians—she serves as a Money Map Coach for the internationally recognized Crown Financial Ministries.

Otis Johnson
Project Manager

Mr. Johnson brings over thirty years of project management experience to The Principle Partnering Group, LLC (The PPG). Mr. Johnson brings particular expertise in the areas of business process re-engineering, customer satisfaction, quality assurance, and IT management. He has held high-level managerial/engineering positions for several global computer companies including, IBM, Wang Laboratories, and Siemens-Nixdorf InformationSysteme A.G., Europe's largest computer company in the early 1990's.

A Senior Business/Financial Consultant with Battle and Associates, LLC for the past fifteen years, Mr. Johnson has provided project management services to the banking industry, government, and non-profit business segments. His client list includes The World Bank where he successfully transitioned the financial institution's entire Africa region from its obsolete MS DOS operating system to a fully integrated MS Windows environment, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Patent and Trade Office, the DC Lottery and Charitable Games. Immediately after The PPG, LLC was named Program Advisor to Parsons Transportation Group (PTG), lead contractor to METRO's Lite Rail Expansion Project, Mr. Johnson integrated quickly into the client's environment developing strategies that successfully met METRO Solutions Small and Disadvantaged (SBE/DBE) contract participation goals. Mr. Johnson strengthened relationships with Phase I participants and assisted PTG in developing a SBE/DBE Plan for Phase II that is designed to meet SBE/DBE Program Goals with continued success.

Mr. Johnson is a graduate of Lake Forest College with a B.S. Degree in Physics. He shares his passion for design and implementation with the communities where he lives and works. During his tenure in Africa, Otis helped launch a non-profit effort in Ghana that supplies educational materials in schools and hospitals. He has mentored at-risk youth children in Washington DC area high schools. Mr. Johnson also volunteers as a computer instructor and is currently participating in the "Real Men Read" mentoring program, sponsored by Houston Independent School District.