Leaders of the
New Mobility
Revolution

Kome Ajise is the new executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments. He has three decades of experience in regional planning and transportation, most recently as the Director of Planning at SCAG. Prior to working at SCAG, Kome was the Chief Deputy Director at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), where he was responsible for internal operations, overseeing more than 18,000 employees and a budget in excess of $1.1 billion. Previously, he was Caltrans’ Deputy Director of Planning and Modal Programs and oversaw the Aeronautics, Mass Transportation, Rail, Transportation Planning, Local Assistance, and Research Innovation and System Information Divisions. Kome has a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography and Regional Planning from the University of Benin, Nigeria and a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from California State University, Fresno.Executive Director

Seleta Reynolds has over 17 years of transportation experience throughout the United States in both the public and private sectors. Prior to her current position, Seleta was a leader in the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Livable Streets section, coordinating streets projects citywide.

B.A. American History, Brown University.

Eric Garcetti is the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles. His “back to basics” agenda is focused on job creation and solving everyday problems for L.A. residents. Garcetti was elected four times by his peers to serve as President of the Los Angeles City Council from 2006 to 2012. From 2001 until taking office as Mayor, he served as the Councilmember representing the 13th District which includes Hollywood, Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Atwater Village — all of which were dramatically revitalized under Garcetti’s leadership. Garcetti was raised in the San Fernando Valley and earned his B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and the London School of Economics and taught at Occidental College and USC. A fourth generation Angeleno, he and his wife, Amy Elaine Wakeland, have a young daughter. He is a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy reserve and is an avid jazz pianist and photographer.

Peter Rawlinson serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Lucid. As CEO, Peter is responsible for all strategic and business aspects of the company. As CTO, he is responsible for the creation and delivery of all Lucid products. He brings over 30 years of automotive industry experience to bear in these roles. Prior to Lucid, Peter was Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla and Chief Engineer of the Model S, where he led the engineering of the Model S from a clean sheet to production readiness while building the engineering team. A graduate of Imperial College, University of London, Peter was formerly Head of Vehicle Engineering at Corus Automotive, Chief Engineer at Lotus Cars, and Principal Engineer at Jaguar Cars.

Beth Kigel serves as national practice consultant, intelligent transportation systems and vice president. She is based in HNTB’s Miami office. Kigel is a global thought-leader in new mobility and smart city ecosystems and is responsible for assisting transportation agencies, cities and regions in developing smart and connected infrastructure solutions. As a thought-leader in smart city solutions, Kigel delivers frequent public presentations to a variety of audiences ranging from the ITS World Congress, automated vehicle symposiums and Chambers of Commerce, to real estate and insurance organizations. Kigel is active on numerous appointed boards and industry associations, including ITS World Congress Board of Directors; Florida Polytechnic University Board of Trustees; University of Florida Transportation Institute External Board of Advisors; Freight Mobility Research Institute Advisory Board for Florida Atlantic University; Florida Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors; chair of the Autonomous Florida Program for the Florida Chamber of Commerce; Leadership Florida where she served as Chair, Board of Directors 2017-2018; the Florida Transportation Commission, appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, from 2012-2019; and more.

Bonny Simi is the president of JetBlue Technology Ventures, the venture capital arm of JetBlue Airways that invests in and partners with early-stage startups innovating in the travel, hospitality, and transportation industries. Bonny joined JetBlue in 2003 and has since held several leadership, operational, and financial roles with the airline. She serves as a director for Red Lion Hotel Corporation and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and is a board advisor to Joby Aviation, a portfolio company. Bonny was named in 2020 as one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Women of Influence and in 2019 as one of Business Insiders’ 100 people transforming the world of business. Bonny remains an active JetBlue pilot and is also a three-time Olympian in the sport of luge. She graduated from Stanford University with three degrees, including MS Management, MS Engineering and a BA in Communications.

Karen Vancluysen was appointed as Secretary General of the Polis network in September 2014, after having been the network’s Research Director for 8 years. Prior to joining Polis in 2004, Karen was network manager at EUROCITIES and project manager at Langzaam Verkeer, a Belgian centre for mobility management. Since 1998, Karen has been involved in European urban transport networking and policy activities and many EU research and innovation projects covering a wide range of urban mobility topics. Polis is the leading European network of cities and regions on urban transport innovation. For over 30 years already, members have been working together to develop sustainable and innovative urban mobility solutions for the city of today and tomorrow. The network also engages in debates around topical issues such as active travel, shared mobility services, MaaS, automated transport, electromobility and innovative governance approaches. Over the past months, Polis provided a range of dedicated services to its member cities and regions on how to deal with urban mobility during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.

Gary brings more than 30 years of experience delivering market leadership and rapid growth in the autonomous vehicle, energy, IOT, and enterprise high technology sectors. Before joining Wisk, Gary was the president and CEO of Liquid Robotics, an autonomous ocean robotics company that fundamentally changed the way the world accesses, collects and monitors ocean data. During his career, he has been recognized as an innovative, high-energy executive with a reputation for transforming startups into global businesses. Gary has served as CEO and executive vice president for numerous high-tech companies, including Silver Spring Networks, McData Corporation, Asempra, PGSoft and Novell/Volera. While leading Liquid Robotics, Asempra and PGSoft as President and CEO, he led the successful growth and subsequent sales of all three Silicon Valley start-up companies. Gary has served on a variety of industry councils for oceans and national security. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Deepa is the Chief Operating & Chief Product Officer at SafeBoda. SafeBoda provides a safe, more convenient, mobile-first transportation platform for Africa’s booming young population along with other on-demand services including Food deliveries, payments and financial services. Prior to working at SafeBoda, Deepa was based in London working in different tech-based roles at Accenture, a multinational professional services company and AppNexus, the world’s largest independent ad exchange platform.

David S. Kim became the third Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) on July 1, 2019 following his appointment by Governor Newsom in April 2019. In this role, David is responsible for oversight of 40,000 employees across eight departments, boards and commissions whose mission is to advance a safe, environmentally sustainable transportation system that maximizes mobility for all Californians. A longtime transportation leader with experience in the private sector as well as all three levels of government, David served as Vice President, Government Affairs for Hyundai Motor Company from 2017-2019. Prior to this assignment, David spent nearly eight years in senior level roles at the U.S. Department of Transportation. He served as Deputy Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the number two position in the agency. Additionally, he was FHWA’s Associate Administrator for Policy and Governmental Affairs and before that, spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Transportation. At the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, David led federal, state and local government affairs from 2004-2009 as Deputy Executive Officer for Federal Advocacy and Government Relations. Additionally, he served in the administration of Governor Gray Davis from 1999-2003 where he represented the State of California’s interests before Congress and the executive branch on transportation, water, energy and environmental priorities. From 1998 to 1999, David worked in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Congressional Affairs. He also spent three years as a Washington representative for the City of Los Angeles. For a decade, David served on the staff of numerous elected officials in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington. He spent five years working in various capacities with Xavier Becerra, during his time in both the California State Assembly and Congress. Kim began his public service career as a field representative and administrative assistant to State Senator David Roberti. A native of Davis, California, David earned a B.A. in Political Science from Occidental College and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California.